More and more people like keeping pets, so pet hospitals are usually very busy. Kind persons who love animals are needed to provide help in busy pet hospitals. Those vets (兽医) will teach them how to take care of the pets.

    Scientists think that pets will probably be much smaller because people in the future will live in much smaller space. Scientists are now working on making very small farm animals. The same thing might be done to make small cats and dogs.

    It's said that one day you might own a panther (豹) as a pet. Some scientists believe that they might have to start turning wild animals into pets since this might be the only way to save them from dying out.

    What about buying a robot to be a pet? This may sound silly, buy it could become true. Robot dogs have been made to sell. They are like real dogs. These pets might become more and more popular in the future.

    Lots of people want pets while they are on holidays. A hotel in Minnesota has solved this problem. They lend cats to their guests. Many experts (专家) believe that this idea will become more and more popular. It is very possible that in the future you will be able to order a pet, as well as room service, at a hotel.

    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.

Emily's Blog

Shut Up Zoos, Not Animals!

You may think that visiting zoos is harmless fun, but you're wrong because zoos are just prisons(监狱) for animals. The difference is that prisoners get out after a few years! Animals in cages look bored and are boring to look at. After all, we all know what an elephant looks like, we've seen them on TV. So why make animals suffer by shutting them up for our fun? Shut up the zoos instead!

Posted by: Emily on April 19, at 18：12 Comments(3)

Comments

I partly agree. But some zoos aren't there for our fun. I've just got back from Jersey Zoo. It saves rare animals and breeds them. Then it returns the babies to the wild. Not all zoos are the same, you know.

Posted by: Angela on April 21, at 18：17

Quite agree! Every time I go to the zoo, I never look into the poor animals' eyes! Kept in the small and smelly cages, they look so lonely and sad. Hope one day they will return to nature, where they can live happily and freely with their families.

Posted by : John on April 22, at 12：21

Personally, I think zoos are fantastic places for children. They can play with animals and enjoy themselves so much there. Also, they learn a lot about animals. Why shut up?

Posted by: David on April 22, at 21：05 )

    The 21st century discoveries about the human brain and its functioning have showed the surprising fact that human abilities are not fixed at birth. In other words, what you are able to do with your life is not fixed when you are born. It is not all in the genes (基 因 ). It is not just nature: nurture (教育, 培育) plays an important part in the moulding (塑造) of what a person is, and what he/she can be.

    Brain plasticity (可塑性) or neuroplasticity (神经可塑性) refers to the amazing ability of the human brain to modify (修改) its structure and functions according to the changes within the body and/or in the outer environment.

    In his book „The Brain that Changes Itself‟ psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge, M.D., offers an introduction to the great scientists strongly supporting neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they've changed. The book describes real life stories of stroke( 中 风 ) patients learning to speak again, and the amazing story of a woman born with half a brain that restructured itself to work as a whole. It is a book that changes the way we think about our brain, its nature, and its potential (潜能).

    The genes we receive from our parents are finite (有限的), no doubt about that. However, our brain's ability to develop is infinite. New brain cells are being born all the time, and to keep them alive and growing, we have to stimulate (刺激) them.

    Here lies the promise of neuroplasticity in the moulding of children into adults who are capable of realizing their potential. For, genius is nothing but a human being who has realized his /her inborn potential! What Mozart, Einstein and da Vinci had was inborn potential plus (和，外加) the right environment.

    All geniuses started life in exactly the same way. They had parents who supported the development of their individual gifts and talents. They had the right environment and stimuli (刺激， 刺激物) that led to the best development of themselves.

    You can think about your child's gifts as the merging (融合的) colours of a rainbow. The possibilities are endless. All children are born with three natural abilities that provide them with the potential to think like a genius: the abilities to think, to learn and to develop their own individual way of thinking and learning.

    Can your child be a genius? Yes, he/she can be, if you give him/her the right environment, the right stimuli and the right guidance.

注意：1、观点明确，语句连贯、通顺；2、词数80字左右，短文的开头已给出不计入总数。

3、常用句型：（1）The students of our class have different ideas about... （2）Some parents think...（3）These years, some students are interested in... I like... but I hate...（4）Firstly, ... Secondly, ... Thirdly,... （5）In my opinion..