It's March, 2050. Frank and Mary Smith wake up in their comfortable house in the morning and turn on the bedroom computer to get the latest news. They get used to reading The Times over the years. The only difference is that they changed to electronic newspapers many years ago.

    After breakfast, as they watch the screen, Mary orders the household robot to make coffee for them. Frank is a computer engineer, working for several companies. He goes into the study to take part in a video conference with his partners around the world.

    Mary takes a quick look at the shopping channels at home before beginning the video call to talk to her assistant. She also has a job and she is doing medical researches.

    Frank and Mary have one daughter, Louise, who also has her own work station at home. She goes to school only one day a week, mainly to play with other students. Louise is studying Chinese at present. Chinese has become an important language in the world.

    According to the family doctor, Louise will live to at least 130 years old. Her wish is to work for a few decades(十年)and then spend her time on music and painting.

    Gary and Gavin were twin brothers who worked in a store owned by their father. After the father had passed away, they took over the store. Everything went well until the day a twenty-dollar bill disappeared. Gary had left the bill on the cash register (收银台). But when he returned, the money was gone.

    Gary then asked his brother Gavin, "Did you see that twenty-dollar bill on the cash register?' Gavin said that he had not. But Gary did not let it go and kept asking. "Twenty-dollar bills can't walk away by themselves! Surely you must have seen it." "I said I didn't see it!" Gavin replied with anger.

    The quarrel divided the young men and they could no longer work together. Later, a wall was built in the center of the store. For twenty years, hostility (敌意) never ended.

    One day, a strange man came to the store. He walked in and asked Gary, "How long have you been here?" Gary replied that he'd been there all his life. "Then you are the person I'm looking for," the man said. "Twenty years ago, I was totally broke and hungry. I entered this store from the back door and saw a twenty-dollar bill on the cash register. And I took it. All these years I haven't been able to forget that. I had to come back and apologize for that.

    The stranger felt shocked when seeing tears well up in the eyes of the middle-aged man in front of him. "Would you please go next door and tell the same story to the man in the store?" Gary asked. Then something surprised the stranger even more--after hearing his story, the two middle-aged men hugged each other and cried together in the front of the wall of the store.

    After twenty years, the wall that separated them finally came down.

Beijing is the capital of China. It is a very 1 city. Lots of people live and work there. It usually takes them a long2to get to work.

My friend Zhang Yu works in a company (公司) in Beijing. The company is3from his home. He goes to work either by bus 4 by subway. When he gets up early, he5the bus to work. His home is next to the first stop of the No. 456 bus. It is easy for him to get a seat (座位)6 the bus. But he spends (花费) two hours getting to the7. When he doesn't get up early, he takes the subway. It takes8 about one hour to go to work by subway. But there are too9people on it. Sometimes Zhang Yu can't even(甚至)10!

It is Zhang Yu's dream to buy a house near his company. Can his dream come true?

Mr. Green has a fruit shop in the town. He is friendly to the people, so people like to buy fruit in his shop. 

One day, Mr. Green brings some grapes home for his grandson Steven because he knows his grandson likes eating grapes best. He puts these grapes in the kitchen. After lunch, he goes back to his shop. That afternoon Steven comes back from school. He looks around for something to eat and finds the fruit. "Great!I am so lucky today!Grapes are the best things in the world!"

Mr. Green gets home after he closed his shop in the evening. When he sees Steven, he asks, "Do you have the grapes?" His grandson answers, "Yes. And I eat all of them. "

"Do you wash them?"

"Oh, I forget. I am too hungry. What should I do?"

A few minutes later, Mr. Green finds that Steven is drinking water. 

"Are you thirsty? Why are you drinking so much water?" asks Mr. Green. 

Steven says, "I want to wash the grapes in my stomach(胃) with the water. "

Luke Hayes-Alexander, 32 years old, looks like a typical eighteen-year-old boy. He speaks slowly and is quite shy. However, when he talks about food, he is different! "My life is about food shopping, preparing food and serving." Luke was the executive chef(行政主厨)of Luke's Gastronomy in Kingston, Canada, started by his parents in 1993. When he was a kid, he liked reading cookbooks. Soon, he started helping his father with cooking in the kitchen. At the age of fourteen, Luke left school and decided to learn more about food. Then, at the age of sixteen, he became the chef and started changing the small family restaurant into a center of creative dishes.

Luke cares about his ingredients(原料)a lot:  they all come from local(当地的): arms and he chooses them carefully. Everything in the restaurant is home-made. Even the wine in his restaurant is from his own vineyard(葡萄园)."I enjoy cooking. I hope every ingredient in my dishes is beautiful and fresh and that the customers will enjoy the taste of my food, "he said.

Luke is happy in Toronto. He has many plans and is already working on a new cookbook. And then he would also like to go to Europe in the future to find out more about cooking and talk with some famous cooks. What words does Luke have for other teenagers interested in cooking?" Have fun, get dirty, listen to some good music and cook!"

If you like sun and heat, summer may be the best time to visit Italy(意大利). During summer time in Italy, you can enjoy lots of bright sunshine, visit one of its many beaches,join in a summer festival, go to outdoor concerts and plays, and have more hours of daylight for adventures.

Summer is the hot tourist season in Italy. The rich cultures and food make it a famous place for people to spend their holidays. However, keep in mind that Italian cities can be very hot in summer and summer temperatures (气温) in Italy, especially in the south, can rise above 37.78 for days in a row. The weather is generally dry but central and northern Italy can be humid and afternoon thunderstorms(雷雨) are usual. To run away from the hot weather, visitors can go to the beaches or mountains —be sure to check Italy Travel Weather before you begin packing for your trip.