A kind of little cars may take the place of today's big ones many years later. If everyone drives such cars in the future, there will be less pollution in the air. There will also be more space for parking in cities, and the streets will be less crowded.
      The little cars of the future will cost less. Driving will be safer, too, since these little cars can go only 65 kilometers an hour. The cars of the future will be fine for going around a city, but they will not be useful for a long way. Little cars will go 450 kilometers before they need to stop for more gasoline (汽油). If big cars are still used with the small ones, two kinds of roads will be needed in the future. Some roads will be needed for the big, faster cars and other roads will be needed for the small, slower ones.

Hurricanes(飓风) are storms. They can cause terrible waves, wind and rain. They happen in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean most of the time.

Category(类别)

·Scientists divide(划分) them into five categories according to the wind speed.

·A Category 5 hurricane can destroy(摧毁) all the buildings.

Characteristic(特征)

·Hurricane Season usually comes on June 1^st and ends on November 30^th in the Atlantic Ocean, from May 15^th to November 30^th in the Pacific Ocean.

Danger

·It can cause flood when a hurricane comes with heavy rain.

·A hurricane has an eye. The eye means the center of a hurricane. After the eye passes, the wind and rain comes again.

Safety advice

·Stay inside during the Hurricane, or you'll be injured.

    A recent study found people's lives are made shorter in North China. It is showed the life expectancy(平均寿命) had been cut down by 5.5 years there. Researchers（研究者）think that the heavy air pollution in China should be to blame(承担责任). It's really the truth. Our government has already done something. However, it doesn't seem to work so well.

    “Air pollution in China is doing harm to people's health. The harm is much more serious than we can imagine,” said Chen Yuyu of Beijing University, one of researchers of this study.

    Dirty air brings serious problems in North China. In January this year, the air pollution was worse than that in other places. That was caused by rising temperature and waste gas（气体）from coal heating（燃煤）.

    Chinese government should strongly fight with air pollution. They should think of more proper ways to deal with the problem. People should be encouraged to take buses, ride bicycles or walk, instead of driving cars. The factories that pollute heavily should be closed.

    “We need to improve our environment, although it might be expensive. Protecting our environment means protecting ourselves,” Li Hongbin, another researcher of the study said.

    The weather has always been much talked about in our daily life. But bad weather is sometimes hard to stop, no matter who he is-rich or poor, young or old-in every part of the world. Maybe that is why there are so many expressions about the weather, especially about rain

    Sometimes, when you need rain, you do not get any. Other times, you get rain when you don't want it. Take a football game for example. A sudden heavy rain can stop a wonderful game, making the players and the 20, 000 persons watching the game run for cover. If the game can't go on, people who have bought the tickets are given "rain checks". These are special tickets that will let them watch a later game for free.

    "Rain checks" now means a second chance at something. Often, a rain check has nothing to do with rain.

    Shops may give you a "rain check" when they sell something all out-a TV set, for example at a special low price. After all the TV sets are gone, the shop gives rain checks to those who wanted to buy one. The rain check lets a person have another chance to buy the TV set later, at the same low price, after the shop receives some more from the factory

    "Rain check" is also used in our daily life. It's a way of accepting invitation, but for a later time. You may ask for a "rain check if you are asked to a friend, s house for dinner, but can't be there. You say, "T would love to join you for dinner, but I'm busy. Could I have a rain check?" You are asking, in other words, if you could join your friend for dinner at another time.

    Do you know Singles Day (November 11) in China? Many people, even your parents, go to bed late that night. They were shopping online to get big savings (省钱). Well, the US has something like it called Black Friday.

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving. It is on November 27 this year. It is one of the biggest shopping days in the US. People want to start shopping for Christmas gifts, so they go shopping on this day to save money.

It's called Black Friday because shops used to record (记录) sales with black ink (墨水). So when there was a lot of black ink on a page, the shop sold a lot.

On Black Friday, people go shopping at actual stores (实体店). It is different from Singles Day. People stand in line (排队) for hours. Sometimes they fight over things because there are only a few left. TVs, computers and video game systems are some of people's favourite things to buy.

Zhou Dao's grandfather has a hearing problem. During a family party last year, Zhou Dao noticed something. His grandfather sat quietly by himself. The old man was unable to join the talks.

Zhou Dao was sad about this. "Grandpa always reads subtitles (字幕) to watch TV," he thought. "Why can't we put words on our talks?" Then, Zhou Dao began working on that idea. He spent about half a year developing a kind of smart glasses. These smart glasses help users "read" spoken words.

The glasses are connected to a smartphone. There is a microphone on the glasses. It records audio (录制音频) and sends it to the phone. A piece of software turns the audio into words. People can see the words on the glasses.

This allows users with hearing problems to understand others during the talks well. Now Zhou Dao's grandfather can wear the glasses and speak to someone else face to face or over the phone.

Zhou Dao was happy to help his grandfather. Slowly, more and more people in need can wear this kind of glasses.