Computer technology is still developing rapidly. The computer of the future will continue to increase in value and performance while decreasing in cost. It will become smaller, but faster and more powerful.

    It is possible to make some guesses about what the future of the computer will look like, based upon the types of technologies that are being developed now. A lot of progress has already been made in some of these new technologies, but some are still in their earliest stages and may not be ready for use for years. Two of the most interesting areas of computing that are currently being developed are quantum computing (量子计算) and nanotechnology (纳米技术).

    Quantum computing is one possibility for the future of the computer that could make computers run far faster than even the quickest computers do today. Quantum computers could be able to do what modern supercomputers are unable to do by using transistors that are able to take on many states at the same time.

    Nanotechnology could also change the face of computing, by creating computers that could be very powerful, though they are tiny in size. These computers could be incorporated (并入) into everyday objects, including electrical appliances (电器), clothes and even the human body. We will be able to use computers in new and unimaginable ways. They will become a part of our lives rather than simply being a box that is used only for specific purposes, such as work.

    Quantum computing and nanotechnology will be able to play new roles, which will make us live greener lives, as well as enjoy better health and happier lives.

    The Chinese invented paper in 105 A. D. They mixed the bark of a tree and rags (破布) with water, put a screen into the mixture, and lifted out a thin piece of wet paper. They dried the paper in the sun.

    The Chinese kept their secret of how to make paper until a war with Muslims in the ninth century. The art of papermaking soon spread throughout the Muslim world.

    The Mayan Indians in Central America and Pacific Islanders also discovered how to make paper, but their knowledge never spread to the rest of the world.

    For centuries, all paper was made by hand. Rags were the main material. Then a French scientist discovered that people could make paper from wood, too. Finally, in the eighteenth century. a Frenchman invented a machine to make paper from wood.

    Mr. Lang worked in a factory. As a driver, he was busy but he was paid much. His wife was an able woman and did all the housework. When he came back, she took good care of him and he never did anything at home. So he had enough time when he had a holiday. A few friends of his liked gambling(赌博) and he learned it soon. So he was interested in it and hardly forgot anything except gambling. He lost all his money and later he began to sell the television, watches and so on. His wife told him not to do it but he didn't listen to her. She had to tell the police. He and his friends were punished for it. And he was hardly sent away. After he came out of lockup(拘留所), he hated her very much and the woman had to leave him.

    It was New Year's Day. Mr. Lang didn't go to work. He felt lonely and wanted to gamble again. He called his friends and they came soon. But they were afraid that the police would come. He told his five-year-old son to go to find out if there were the policemen outside. They waited for a long time and didn't think the police would come and began to gamble. Suddenly a few policemen opened the door and came in.

    "I saw there weren't any policemen outside, daddy," said the boy, "so I went to the crossing and asked some to come."

    There was a man playing the piano in a bar. He was a good piano player and always performed in this bar. People came in just to hear him play. But one night, a customer told him that he didn't want to hear him just play the piano any more. He wanted him to sing a song.

    The man said, "I don't sing." But the customer was persistent(执着的). He told the bar manager, "I'm tired of listening to the piano. I want that man to sing!" The manager shouted across the room, "If you want to get paid, sing a song. Our customers are asking you to sing！" So he did. He sang a song. A piano player who had never sung in public did so for the first time. And everyone was surprised by his song Mona Lisa. He got lots of applause(掌声) that night.

    He had such a talent for singing, but he just had been sitting on his talent for the past years! If without such a chance, he may have lived the rest of his life as a no­name piano player in a no­name bar. However, now he has become one of the best­known singers in America.

    You, too, have skills and abilities. Maybe your "talent" is not as great as the singer above, but it may be better than you think! And with effort, most skills can be improved. So, in your life, you should be brave enough to try doing different things and find out what talents you really have!

    A new mom from Michigan headed for the airport Thursday, nervous about flying alone with her -month-old. When her daughter started crying even before take-off her fears for the flight — to surprise her husband, a US Army soldier at Fort Rucker Alabama — seemed acceptable.

    The couple seated next to her reacted just as Rebekka Garvison had feared, looking visibly unhappy about sitting next to a fussy(难以取悦的)baby. Ms. Garvison moved to a new seat, hoping it would help. When the baby's cries continued, the woman sitting next to her asked if she could try.

    Garvison later described in a grateful Facebook post how the woman, Nyfesha Miller, had the magic touch with her baby. "As soon as she had her, Rylee was looking out the window and stopped crying," Garvison recalled. "When we got in the air she fell right asleep and slept in her lap the whole flight until we got to our gate? Garvison told The Huffington Post she has been in touch with Ms. Miller almost daily since the flight.

    Garvison's post has been shared more than 84,000 times, and received hundreds of warm comments. "Years ago, the same kind of thing happened to me," wrote one mother. "It was a seven-hour flight and I had my ten-month-old little boy with me. A nun （修女）was sitting beside me and she walked him up and down the passage when he got fussy. It was such a relief for me and is something I will never forget."

    Not everyone has had happy experiences with baby air travelers. One airline is considering opening a "baby class" for airplanes with flight attendant nannies（保姆）, reported The Christian Science Monitor's Meredith Hamilton. For now, parents can hope to be seated beside someone like Ms. Miller on their next flight. "Nyfesha Miller, you will never understand how happy this act of kindness has made my family." wrote Garvison.

    I start every summer with the best of intentions: to attack one big book from the past, a classic that I was supposed to have read when young and ambitious. Often the pairings of books and settings have been purely accidental: "Moby Dick" on a three-day cross-country train trip: "The Magic Mountain" in a New England beachside cottage with no locks on the doors, no telephones or televisions in the rooms, and little to do beyond row on the salt pond. Attempting "The Man Without Qualities" on a return to Hawaii, my native state, however, was less fruitful: I made it through one and a quarter volumes (册), then decided that I'd got the point and went swimming instead.

    But this summer I find myself at a loss. I'm not quite interested in Balzac, say, or "Tristram Shandy." There's always War and Peace, which I've covered some distance several times, only to get bogged down in the "War" part, set it aside for a while, and realize that I have to start over from the beginning again, having forgotten everyone's name and social rank. How appealing to simply fall back on a favorite-once more into "The Waves" or "Justine," which feels almost like cheating, too exciting and too much fun to properly belong in serious literature.

    And then there's Stendhal's "The Red and the Black," which happens to be the name of my favorite cocktail (鸡尾酒) of the summer, created by Michael Cecconi at Savoy and BackForty. It is easy to drink, and knocking back three or four seems like such a delightful idea. Cecconi's theory: "I take whatever's fresh at the green market and turn it into liquid." The result is a pure shot of afternoon in the park, making one feel cheerful and peaceful all at once, lying on uncut grass with eyes shut, sun beating through the lids...