Mason has seen the future—and it's fun. Mason likes thinking about how machines can make our life easier by doing the work we hate, such as cleaning. He shows a floor cleaning machine that's built into the wall. It can clean up the floor.

    When it comes to the kitchen, Bruce, an expert at Whirlpool, is sure that in a few years, robots will be doing most of the boring work, freeing us to relax. "More than just fun, future kitchens will be environmentally friendly," he says. A new system will be built in the house which can recycle energy lost from your kitchen to make the whole home warm.

    "The fridge will be the centre of the home," says Daniel, a market expert. The fridge will have a touch screen (触摸屏幕) where you can watch TV, surf the Internet, check your emails, keep a shopping list and order vegetables. "Your fridge is the first place you go to in the morning and the last place at night," says Daniel.

    "I wonder why a 1.9-metre man and 1.6-metre woman have to cook meals on counters (柜台) of the same height," Jane Langmuir, an expert of cooking machines, says. "But times have changed. We have made a new counter where you can press a button and it moves to whatever height you want."

    Ted Selker has made the dish maker which lets you make dishes and bowls out of plastics at home. After each meal, the dishes are changed straight back into plastics.

    Have you ever thought about what our food will be in the future?

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    More land will be used for building new towns and houses for all the people. Then there will be less room for cows and sheep, so meat will be more expensive. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Instead, people will eat more fruit and vegetables. In this way, people may be healthier.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Only about 29%of the Earth's area is land and the rest is sea, so some think maybe we can get more food from the sea.

    Besides, though rice supports more than half the world's population, it needs a lot of water to grow. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Therefore, it might be impossible to grow rice in the future. Some farmers are experimenting with new crops. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}The soybean (黄豆) makes a good substitute (替代品) for rice and meat.

    Set your imagination free. Children's imagination is amazing. They can always create things that surprise everyone. To 1 children's imagination ,New York City will hold an activity called the Inventgenuity Festival (创意发明节) for children.

The Inventgenuity Festival is all about thinking and 2things. It's held for children aged from seven to sixteen. Parents are also able to 3the festival.

    There will be many different kinds of workshops in the festival. Children are 4to create things in those workshops. For example, they can make things 5funny hand-made T-shirts or cartoon toy dolls. No one will tell them6to make these things. They create everything with their imagination. Besides making things, children can see a wonderful movie called A trip to the Sun in a 7during the festival.

    In the festival, children are asked to do most of the work by themselves.8, if the work is too difficult for them, they can ask their parents for 9 .

    To take part in the festival, children need to register (注册) first , and then 10the workshops they like on the website. One child can take part in two workshops at a time.

Known as "soft gold", Gambiered Canton gauze (香云纱) is the only silk fabric (织物) that's still hand-dyed (手染的) using natural plants in the world today.

The skill has a history of more than 500 years. In 2008, it was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage (国家非物质文化遗产). Ouyang Yongze is an inheritor of the dyeing skills from Guangdong. The man started learning the skills in 2017.

The dyeing process includes 30 steps. It can take up to six months and is done by hand with materials from nature. "The plant shuliang (薯莨), river mud, sunshine, and grass are all important in dyeing," Ouyang told China Daily.

To dye the fabric, workers put it in shuliang juice and let it dry on the grass. They repeat this many times until it turns brownish yellow. Then, they put river mud on it to help shuliang react fully. After washing and drying it again, the fabric turns black!

Mastering the skills is difficult, according to Ouyang, who put full effort into controlling the density (浓度) of shuliang juice. "Too much may cause color loss, and too little may nor lead to a dark enough fabric," he said. "Better control of the density comes after many failures."

Also, the job can be really tiring as workers have to be at work in the sun for 8 hours each day. Only a few people work in the industry, and skilled masters are getting older as fewer young people take part.

Considering this, Ouyang works harder to develop the traditional craft. He has got together other dyeing skills such as tie-dyeing (扎染法) and batik (蜡染) and has worked with famous fashion designers. They turn the silk into both traditional and fashionable clothes that are popular worldwide. He thinks this can help make the craft stay alive and drew people to the industry.