Many years ago, people lived a hard life. They couldn't use modern machines, because there was 1 one at that time. Today people have a better life but there are new problems. One of biggest problems is it has 2 our rivers and lakes dirty. It kills our fish and affects our 3 water. We call it water pollution. Noise pollution makes us talk more 4 and become angry 5. Air pollution is the most serious kind of pollution. It affects all living things in the world. Machines and factories 6 our air every day. Sometimes the pollution is so 7 that it is like a blanket (毯子）covering a city. Many countries are making new laws to reduce pollution. We must clean 8  water before we 9 them into some place. We need to do many other things to protect our environment. We must put rubbish into dustbins 10 throwing them about. We can go to work by bus, on foot, or with friends in a car. If we do like that every day, our environment will be better.

    Christmas is coming.1 you are thinking what gifts you need to buy, the Alice Ferguson Foundation is busy 2 the environment by building relationships between people and nature.

    At the 3 of the year, it designs events to help children celebrate Christmas without increasing the amount of 4 they create.

    Hanna Seligmann who works for the foundation, said they 5 that from Thanksgiving Day to New Year's day, the household trash increases by 25 percent. Many young people do not know the6 they throw away do not decompose (分解), or break down, at the same rate. For example, paper dissolves（溶解） in about four weeks. A metal can take up to 100 years. A plastic bag will not decompose for 450 years. Glass takes 1,000 years.

    Hanna Seligmann shows adults and children 7to reduce waste during the holiday gift-giving season.

    She encourages using things that are 8 in our houses like newspaper or old magazines. With imagination，children can wrap gifts in a 9 napkin or even a beautiful scarf. In fact，there's no better way to celebrate the holiday by giving10to the planet.

    Life in the year 3044 is very different 1  life in the 21st century. We still do many of the things you do, but we do them 2  For example, we now have e-friends to help us and company us. An e-friend is a machine that looks just 3 a human being. It can walk and talk and can do almost 4 we human beings do. My e- friend is a lot like me and we have 5 fun together. She helps me 6 my homework and we often go swimming. She is programmed to take care of me if anything 7, so I always feel safe when we are together.  She can also send me messages, just like old-fashioned emails, and I can download information from her memory. It's great  8an e-friend--I am never lonely and I always have someone to talk 9.

    I would like to tell you more about life in the year 3044, but I have to send my e-friend to clean up my room. Maybe 10 I will be able to travel back in time and visit you.

    Light travels at a very fast speed. It is about a million times1than the speed of sound. You can get some idea of this2by watching the start of a race. If you stand some distance away from the starter, you can see smoke from his gun before the sound gets to your 3.

    This great speed of light4some strange facts. Sunlight5about 8 minutes to get to us. If you look at the light of the moon tonight, 6 that the light rays(光线)leave the moon 1.3 seconds before they get to you. The nearest star is so7away that the light which you can see from it tonight started to8towards you several years ago. In some cases, the light from one of tonight's stars had started on its journey to you before you were born.

    So, to be exact, we can't say, "The stars are shining 9."We have to say instead, "The stars10pretty. They were shining several years ago, but their light has only just got to the Earth."

    There are many ways for us to reduce waste. For 1, we can reuse paper and plastic bags. We can also recycle newspapers, glass, and cans to2 new things. Here are some 3 ways to reduce waste.

Write on 4 sides of paper.

    Many people write on only one side of their paper. Why not stop 5the other side? Some students only use half the pages of their notebooks before getting new ones. Try to use up all the paper. People often give cards on birthdays or festivals. How about trying to 6 e-cards instead?

Don't throw away your old batteries (电池).

    Maybe you do not know that old batteries make the earth dirty. This is 7  they have poisonous parts in them. So, don't throw away batteries. Keep them together. Try to use rechargeable (充电的) batteries for your games and CD players.

    Give off all your unwanted clothes.

    There are many poor families in China. You may ask your mother to 8 your unwanted(多余的) 9. Then you can pass them on to those poor children. You will feel 10that you are helping someone else. Also, you can understand if your friends or relatives (亲戚) want them before throwing them away.