A young man from a village called Nawalapitiya married a young woman from Maiyuwa, a small village. They lived with the man's big family—his parents, his brothers, their wives and children. The family kept an elephant, in which the woman soon took a great interest. Every day she fed it with fruit and sugar.

    Three months later, having quarreled with her husband, the woman went back to her parents' home. Soon the elephant refused to eat and work. It appeared to be ill and heartbroken. One morning after several weeks the animal disappeared from the house.

    It went to the woman's home. On seeing her, the elephant waved its trunk and touched her with it. The young woman was so moved by the act of the animal. So she went back to her husband's home.

    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.

I am a boy from Changsha. There are three people in my family—my parents and I. 

We {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(go) to Shenzhen next week. Changsha is about 800 kilometres {#blank#}2{#/blank#} from Shenzhen. There are several {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(way) to go there. We can go there by coach, by plane {#blank#}4{#/blank#} by train. Different people have different ideas. My father wants {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(go) there by coach. He thinks it is {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(interesting) way to go. My mother wants to take the train there. She thinks it is {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(cheap) way to go, because the train ticket price is {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(low) of the three ways.{#blank#}9{#/blank#}, I want to take the plane. As we know, it goes {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(fast) of the three. 

I hope we can enjoy ourselves on the trip. 

 Hi! My name is Justine. I'm from America and I'm a middle school student. I. et me1 you something about my life (生活).

I always get up at 6: 30 am. I have 2 and then I go to school at 7: 00 am. Some of my classmates and I go to the3 club after school on Mondays and Fridays. In the club, we dance, and we4 make dancing videos(视频). Then I go home and do my homework. At 7:30 pm, l have dinner and talk with my5 .

I don't think my school life is difficult. Every school day, I have seven classes. Some of my classmates think history is 6 , but I can get much fun from it.

 In my 7 time, I often go to play with my classmate, Nancy. We talk about our lessons and8 TV shows about our favorite dancers.

I'm lucky(幸运的) because there are many holidays(假期) in the school year. For example (例如), I have one week for the New Year and two9 for the summer holidays. In the holidays, I have great parties with my friends.

110 my life and I'm a happy middle school girl.