A smart home is a home with a communication network. This network connects devices(装置), such as lights and TV sets, and allows them to be controlled from far away through electrical wiring, mobile phone communication or WiFi over the internet.

    More and more people may start to consider owning a smart home, because it makes life much more convenient. It can help keep your room at a certain temperature. It can record what happens inside the home and send the video to your phone. When you are on vacation abroad, you can use a smart home controller to switch on or off the electricity when necessary. Some smart homes can receive a visitor, allowing him to come in and offering him a drink. They can even feed the cat and water the plants.

    Besides, smart homes are easy to fix. Most smart home technology and devices are wireless and can be set up with a minimum of tools,using only the guiding information. When a problem appears,you can deal with it yourself without paying a professional.

    However, for home-users,the smart home technology is far from perfect.It can be rather expensive to own the technology and the devices. Also, because the smart home system(系统) allow its owner to get home information from anywhere, it leaves the home easy to be attacked by hackers(黑客), who may secretly use or change the information in the system.

Now,many scientists are excited at the future of smart home technology. Imagine being able to get fashion advice from your mirror, or receive food shopping suggestions from your refrigerator. While there are others who worry that those smart devices will make people lazier and lonelier. Whatever it is, one thing is for sure—smart home technology will change the way we live and work.

No. 4 Middle School

Kunming, Yunnan

April 2nd, 2014

Dear Editor,

I live in a beautiful city. Many visitors come to my city. There are so many colorful peacocks (孔雀)here.

    The peacocks mostly (主要）live on the grassland of Dongfeng Square. Visitors can give them food freely. They usually throw food to them, and don't think about at all whether the food is right or not. Some of the peacocks became ill. Some even died after eating the bad food.

    I'm sure most of the visitors who throw food to the peacocks really like the birds, but they don't realize that they may be doing any harm.

    We should tell the visitors that what they have done is very harmful to the birds, and we also must stop this kind of thing from happening.

    Perhaps we can build some small shops beside Dongfeng Square to sell peacock food. For every one of us, it's our duty to give more love to these beautiful birds and to look after them carefully.

Yours,

Sun Yan

    Is there intelligent（有智力的）life on other planets? For years, scientists said "no." or "we don't know." But today this is changing. Seth Shostak and Alexandra Barnett are astronomers（天文学家）. They believe intelligent life exists（存在）somewhere in the universe. They also think we will soon contact them.

    Why do Shostak and Barnett think intelligent life exists on other planets? The first reason is time. Scientists believe the universe is about 12 billion years old. "This is long enough for other planets to have intelligent life, "say Shostak and Barnett. The second reason is size the universe is huge. "Tools like the Hubble Telescope（哈勃望远镜）have shown that there are at least 100 billion galaxies, "says Shostak. "And our galaxy, the Milky Way, has at least 100 billion stars. Some planets going around these stars might be similar to the earth. "

    In the past, it was hard to look for signs of intelligent life in the universe. But now, powerful telescopes（高倍望远镜）allow scientists to discover smaller planets-the size of Mars or the earth-in other solar systems, these planets might have intelligent life.

    Have beings from space already visited the earth? "Probably not, "says Shostak. "It's a long way away. However, intelligent beings may contact us in other way, such as radio signals（信号）. In fact, they may be trying to communicate with us now, but we don't have the right tools to receive their messages. However, this is changing. By 2025, we could make contact with other life forms in our universe and we might help each other. "

Kids' health: Four steps for fighting stress

    Everybody gets stressed from time to time.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Some ways of dealing with stress like screaming or hitting someone--don't solve (解决)much. But other ways like talking to someone you trust, can lead you to solve your problem or at least feel better.

    Try taking these four steps the next time you are stressed:

    ⑴Get support.   When you need help, reach out to the people who care about you. Talk to a trusted adult, such as a parent or other relatives.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}They might have had similar problems, such as dealing with a test, or the death of a beloved pet.

    ⑵Don't take it out on yourself.   Sometimes when kids are stressed and upset they take it out on themselves. Oh, dear, that's not a good idea. Remember that there are always people to help you. Don't take it out on yourself.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    ⑶Try to solve the problem.   After you're calm and you have support from adults and friends, it's time to get down to business.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Even if you can't solve it all, you can solve a piece of it.

    ⑷Be positive.   Most stress is temporary (暂时的). Remember stress does go away, especially when you figure out the problem and start working on solving it. These steps aren't magic, but they do work~ And if you can stay positive as you make your way through a tough time, you'll help yourself feel better even faster.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}.