Sam's dad told camping stories all through dinner. "Once I saw a snake outside my tent. Did I tell you about that?" Sam shook his head and tried not to look impatient. In fact, he really wanted to get out to the tent in the backyard (后院). His friend, Kent would go there.

    Finally, everyone finished dinner. Sam asked if he could go out. "I think you should help do the dishes first," said Mom. Sam washed all the dishes and helped clean the kitchen, and then he ran to the tent.

Kent was waiting for him. "Have you been waiting long?" asked Sam.

    "Not long,"said Kent. "Oh, well, we're here now. Let's get ready." "Ready for what?" asked Kent.

    "For anything that is going to happen," answered Sam. They played cards for some time in the tent. Then they read some books. After that, Sam told some of his dad's camping stories. When they got tired, they turned out the light ( 灯) and listened for noises in the dark. But they didn't hear any noises for a very long time ...

    Finally, Sam heard something at the tent flap ( 帐篷门帘). He felt very scared and kept his eyes closed.

    "Hey, get up, boys! Breakfast is ready." It was Sam's mom.

    Sam opened his eyes and looked at Kent. He was still sleeping. Sam sighed (叹息道), "We slept through the night, and nothing happened!"

    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.

① "When side by side two rabbits go, who can tell the buck (雄兔) from the doe (雌兔)?" China's Yang Jingru and Li Jinzi "played the buck and the doe" in the women's 1,500m short track speed skating (短道速滑) event of the Winter Youth Olympic Games on Jan 20th, 2024.

②They used the classic "rabbit strategy (策略)". The key of the "rabbit strategy" is teamwork of two skaters. One skater runs very fast from the start, while the other stays behind. This is different from the usual 1,500m speed skating strategy of keeping the same speed and then speeding up in the last few turns.

③Using the "rabbit strategy", after the first turn, Yang suddenly skated at full speed. She ran one turn faster than the other skaters and stayed at the back of the group, but nobody noticed it.

④Working with Yang, Li changed between the front and the back in the first half of the race. This made the other skaters wonder (感到疑惑) who was the "leading rabbit". In fact, when the bell rang and showed that there was only one turn to go, everyone had two turns left except Yang. As a result, Yang and Li rushed the finish line successfully while others were getting into a mess.

⑤The two Chinese short track speed players cleverly use the "rabbit strategy". They won both gold and silver medals, making it a classic case at the Winter Youth Olympics.

On my first round-the-world trip in 2006, I planned everything out in advance. I knew where I was going, staying for how long, and how I would get there. And then half-way through I ditched the plan and went with the flow (随大流) . Over the years, how I plan my travel has changed. Now, I'm a last-minute planner and seldom travel with any plan. 

Traveling without a plan gives you great flexibility (灵活性). Since nothing is booked far in advance, you can turn to something different when you change your mind or something better comes along. I changed my plans to meet a friend on an island in Thailand and stayed for a month. I wouldn't have had that experience if I had kept to my planned schedule. 

"    ★    " — they overplan their trips. Their whole journey is scheduled. Two days here, three days there. I understand why people do that. When time is short, you want to see as much as possible. You don't want to waste a single second. 

Actually, it is better to slow down your pace. Spending more time in one place allows you to get a better feel for the rhythm of life. You can visit at a more relaxed pace, see more than just the attractions, and open up your schedule to the happy accidents of travel. 

When I first made my travel plan, I tried to include everything in it. Then I realized it was unrealistic, and reviewed my plan. I came up with a list of one or two things I want to see each day and spaced everything out. It's an important lesson to learn. I think the best trip plan is to work out the general path you want to take, book the first few nights of your trip, and let your travels unfold from there. This way you are never locked into a certain place if your feelings change. 

Once or twice, there was crying and sighing (叹息) from a little leaf, as leaves often do when the wind is blowing. The tree said, "What's the matter, little leaf ?"

"The wind, " said the leaf, "just told me that one day it would pull me off and throw me on the ground. "

" Don't be afraid, " the tree said. "Hold on , and you shall not go off until you are ready. "

So the leaf stopped sighing and went on singing. It grew all summer long until October. When the bright days of autumn came, the leaf saw all the leaves around growing very beautiful. Some were yellow, some were brown, and many were colorful. Then the leaf asked the tree what this meant (意味着).

The tree said, " All these leaves are getting ready to fly away, and they have put on these colors because of their joy (快乐). "

The little leaf started to want to go and grew colorful thinking of it. Then it saw that the branches (树枝) of the tree had no bright colors on them and asked why.

"We must keep on our working clothes because we don't finish our work, " said the tree, "but your clothes are for holidays because your work is now over. "

Just then, the wind came, and the leaf let go (放手) without thinking. The wind took it up and turned it over and over. Then it fell slowly down on the ground, among hundreds of leaves.

Hello, everyone. My name is John White. I'm a middle school student. I like soccer very much（非常）. I play soccer after school every day. My father likes it, too. He plays soccer very well. I like playing soccer with my father very much. We have five soccer balls. But my mother and my sister don't like soccer. So they don't play soccer. They only watch TV at home. They think watching TV is very interesting.