Elephants are the largest living animals on land. More than 5001 kinds of elephants were found on the earth over the last 55 million years. Only  2   kinds are still alive today: the African elephant and the Asian (or Indian) elephant. These elephants can only be found in  3   places. However, the older kinds lived in cold places a long time  4 . An example is the mammoth (猛犸象) — the largest hairy elephant.

    The mammoth was the largest living elephant, which was about seven tons. 5  the elephants today, mammoths had black or dark brown hairs 6 their bodies. All the mammoths had tusks (长牙).

    Scientists found most of the extinct (灭绝的) animals by 7  the fossils,  8  their bones and teeth that could be found. However, mammoths are quite different. During the Ice Age, mammoths died and were covered  9 in the ice. The ice kept them very well. So scientists could find the  10  body of the mammoth.

    Life in the future will be very different from it is today. Between then and now many changes1place, but what will the changes be?

    The population is growing2. There will be more people in the world and most of them will live3than people do now.

    Computers will be4smaller and more useful, and there will be at5one in every home. And the computer study will be one of the most important 6in schools then.

    People will work fewer hours than they do now and they will have more free time7sports , watching TV and traveling.

    Traveling will be much easier and cheaper. And more people will go to 8countries for holidays.

    There will be changes in our work, too.9and hard work can be done by robots. Because of this, many people will not have work10. This will be a problem.

    When talking about inventors, who do you first think of? Forget Thomas Edison. Meet the teenage 1 at the 24th Jiangsu Adolescents Science &. Technology Innovation Contest(江苏青少年科技创新大赛).

    Wang Xingyu, from Kunshan No. 2 Middle School, invented "a 2 line" in the zebra crossing. Wang often saw people running through

the red 3 , so he thought of an idea,

    "I 4 a spray tube(喷管) in the zebra crossing. When the light is red and 5 crosses, it sprays water. If the light is 6, it will not work," said Wang.

    But does it 7 water? "There's a water channel(槽) on the ground, so the water will be collected and 8 again," he said. Zong Hangchen, from Nantong Special Education Middle School, also got his invention idea from daily experience.

    Zong's 9 could only feel a little light. When he walked on the sidewalk for the blind, he often came across obstacles(障碍物). Once he 10 hurt his nose.

    11 help himself and the blind, Zong made something that has radar(雷达) and a loudspeaker. Users tie radar onto their knees and 12 the loudspeaker around their necks. When they meet obstacles, the radar will see them and the loudspeaker will make a 13 to tell the users.

    Chen Huijuan, an official from Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology, was 14 at these inventions.

    15 some ideas are simple, the creations are very good," she said. "Get inspiration( 灵感) from small things in life and you can be an, inventor, too.

    In real life, robots are mainly used in factories. They do many different jobs. Usually these jobs are too 1, difficult or boring for humans.

Robots also help disabled people and people who cannot look after 2. For example, scientists are making a robot to help 3 people. Now many of them have a dog to help them. The dog is called a guide dog. In the future, guide dogs might be robot dogs.

One robot dog is called Meldog. It has wheels. It usually "walks" 4 its owner. It is very clever. It knows the speed of its owner's walk. Meldog talks to its owner by 5. The owner wears a special belt. This belt 6 instructions to the owner from Meldog such as "Stop here", "Turn left" and "Turn right".

    In the United States, another 7 of robot helps disabled workers. This robot, called Kilroy, helps disabled computer operators. The robot 8 the sound of its owner's voice. It follows instructions such as "Turn the page" and "Make a cup of coffee".

    Robots are also used in American 9. They can do simple jobs. For example, they shave (刮脸) patients and brush their teeth and take meals from the kitchen to patients' rooms. It never gets lost 10 this robot has a map of the hospital in its computer memory.