Is your TV connected to the Internet? What about your chair,or your fridge? Probably they are not. But in the future, most things in your home may be connected, thanks to the so-called “Internet of things”.

The Internet of things may be coming sooner than you think. Earlier this year, A Samsung CEO spent a lot of time talking about the Internet things. He said that five years from now,every Samsung product will be part of the Internet of things,no matter whether it's a remote control or a washing machine.

So, how do household(家用的) objects that are part of the Internet of things work? Well,think of a common chair. When connected to the Internet, the chair warms up when it knows the user has just walked into the room and is feeling cold.

An Internet-connected camera could help people feel safer in their homes. It can know people's faces and has an infrared sensor(红外传感器),so even if it's dark it can see when someone passes by and send you a message on your smartphone to let you know who's there. If the person is someone you don't know,it can tell you that ,too.

But according to MIT Technology Roview, whether companies are connecting dog food bowls or security systems to the Internet, there may be some problems. For example, many early connected-home objects don't have much built-in security, which means they could be hacked(被黑客攻击). Morever, it could be difficult to get these new machines to work together especially when they are made by different companies. To fight this ,many companies have joined the Open Interconnect Consortium, which had 45 menbers by late 2014.

So, picture this: you enter your home.The temperature changes to make you feel comfortable. Your favorite music starts playing for you. Do you think that this would be a good thing? It may happen sooner than you think.

A

    Everyone knows that exercise is important. It makes your heart and body strong. But you need to know the following.

*Get your body ready!

    Before you do any exercise, be sure to warm up for at least five minutes. During warming up, you should stretch(伸展) all parts of your body.

*Exercise enough, but not too much.

    It's good to exercise twice each week. Thirty minutes each time is enough. Try all kinds of things until you find one, two or even three sports that are right for you.

*Exercise at fitness centres.

    There is a lot of equipment(设备) at fitness centres. The equipment will help exercise your arms, legs and other parts of your body to make you fit. Some people buy equipment. But it is very expensive.

*Stop playing when you are hurt!

    If you get hurt when you are doing exercise, don't play again until you are well.

*Don't get thirsty!

    Drink a lot of water when you are playing sports because it is easy to become thirsty.

    Many wild animals, such as pandas, are in d{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Often there is not e{#blank#}2{#/blank#} land or forests, so the animals do not have a safe place to live.

    There are only about 1,600 pandas in the wild today. Pandas do not have many babies, and baby pandas often d{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. The situation is getting more and more difficult. We need to p{#blank#}4{#/blank#} them.

    The government is s{#blank#}5{#/blank#} up nature parks and the pandas live in peace there.

    Read the questions and answer YES or NO, then you will find out how good you are.

⒈When you don't understand something, you ask questions.

⒉You like listening to older people talk about the past.

⒊You think that you can learn something interesting from everyone around you.

⒋You are brave enough when you have to talk to people you don't know.

⒌You enjoy reading books about famous people.

⒍You always see and talk to different people.

⒎You are interested in learning new ways of doing things.

⒏You enjoy sharing experiences with friends and learning from people of all ages.

⒐You talk a lot about yourself.

⒑Even if you are often wrong, you make your own decisions.

⒒You hate teaching what you are good at: sports, technology and so on.

⒓Your parents don't understand you, so you don't talk to them much.

Score Now! (开始计分 )

    Score2 points if you answer YES to each of the first 8 questions, and 0 if you choose NO.

    Score 2 points if you answer NO to each of the last 4 question, and 0 if you choose YES.

    18-24. You are friendly and open-mind. You make people feel important by listening to what they have to say. You'll probably succeed in learning all kinds of interesting things.

    10-16. Remember that every single person you know can teach you something. You will great make your life rich and colorful.

    0-8 About 400 years ago, a famous writer wrote, “No man is an island.” This is still true today. Try to be more open and interested in people around you.

Would it surprise you to learn that, like animals, trees can communicate with each other and pass on their wealth to the next generation—their young trees?

    Suzanne Simard, forest ecologist(生态学家) at the University of British Columbia, explains how trees are much more complex(复杂的) than most of us ever imagined. Although Charles Darwin(达尔文) thought that trees are competing for survival of the fittest, Simard and her team have made a new discovery and showed just how wrong he was. In fact, the opposite is true: trees survive through their group work and support, passing around necessary nutrition(营养) such as nitrogen(氮) and carbon "depending on who needs it".

    Nitrogen(氮) and carbon are shared through miles of underground fungi (真菌) networks. This makes sure that all trees in the forest ecological system give and receive just the right amount to keep them all healthy. This system works in a very similar way to the networks of neurons (神经元) in our brains, and when one tree is destroyed, it influences all.

    Simard talks about "Mother trees". These are usually the largest, oldest plants that on which all other trees depend. These "Mother trees" are connected to all the other trees in the forest by this network of fungi, and may manage the resources of the whole trees and plants in the forest. She explains how these trees pass on the wealth to the next generation, transporting important resources to young trees so they may continue to grow. When humans cut down "Mother trees" without paying attention to these highly complex "tree societies" of the networks on which they feed, we are reducing the chances to save the whole forest.

    "We didn't take any notice of it," Simard says sadly. "Mother trees" move nutrition into the young trees before dying, but we never give them chance. If we could put across the message to the forestry industry, we could make a huge difference towards our environmental protection efforts for the future.

    The coffee shop Starbucks will give people a discount if they bring their own cups. It wants to cut down on the number of paper cups that are put in the rubbish bins. It is part of a two-month experiment in cafes in England. Starbucks wants to reduce waste and recycle more, The president of Starbucks in the UK said, "We are very happy to increase recycling rates(比率)，and reusable cups are a key part of our waste reduction plan." Bosses will decide later if they will continue the discounts. People who bring their own cups will not get a discount on the cafe's cheaper filter coffee.

    The problem of paper cups has been in the news a lot. Around seven million cups are thrown away every day. Reporters say that some cafes lie about how many paper cups they recycle. The reporters say the cafes do not recycle as many cups as they say. Customers wrongly believe that a coffee shop is environmentally friendly. Less than one in 400 paper cups at coffee shops are recycled. A coffee drinker said she would bring her own cup. She said, "I am so sad that cafes recycle so little. I thought they were more responsible."