With the development of modern science and technology, the functions of cellphones have changed greatly. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}The only difference may be that they fit in your pocket and you pay by the minute to use them. Some of the things a cellphone can do for you will be available this year:

Surf at speed

    Cellphones that let you use the Web have been around for years. So, what's new? Well ,  faster third-generation (3G)  networks that let you surf at anywhere. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Possible choices are from IJG Electronics VX 8000 and Motorola V1150.Listen as you go.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} There is no doubt that it is about to change. Sony Ericsson's new W8001 can hold around 150 songs in its 500 MB memory. And Samsung's SPH-V5400 even comes with a l. 5 GB hard drive. Mobile phones may eventually replace miniMP3 players, especially for teens. Say cheese.

    Camera cellphones are not new either but most of them have limitations: around l- megapixel  (百万像素 ) .  However new technology has made 2-megapixel units more common ,and 3-megapixel units are showing up soon. Some 2-megapixel models, like Sony Ericsson's K7501, offer limited zoom and focus controls.   {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Portable TV.

    You say you like "watching TV"? That's what Samsung MMA700 wants to give you. The new model lets users watch popular TV programmes~ for a fee. Other choices are Nokia's 6620, Sanyo's MM740 and NEC's N940. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    The above are just a handful of what you ' ll see in the coming months.  Further down the road, your mobile phone may play a host of other roles, such as mobile credit card, position locator and so on. So what is there that a cellphone can't do?

A. The NEC model lets you watch public TV - no fee.

B. Without a cellphone, you can do nothing in your daily life.

C. Nowadays, new cellphones are much cheaper than old ones.

D. Today's do-it-all mobiles have a lot in common with the computer.

E. This then allows a carrier to send video, music, and games to your phone.

F. Others, like LG's recent A7110, can even capture 30 minutes of full-motion video.

G. The problem with most cellphone MP3 players is that they hold only a handful of songs.

    If you see a group of people dancing and singing on the street or in the railway station, you don't need to feel surprised. They are a flash mob(快闪族), which is a group of people who come together suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, and then quickly break up. They are usually organized with the help of the Internet or other digital communication network. At a predetermined(预先决定的) time, they gather and perform some distractions(消遣) such as waving their hands and exchanging books. Then, they quickly break up before the police can arrive. Using mobile phones, the flash mob can change its location if the first one has been replaced for any reason.

    Bill Lasik, senior editor of Harper's Magazine, organized the first flash mob in Manhattan in May 2003 and the first successful flash mob came together on June 3, 2003 —after the first attempt failed at Macy's department store. Lasik claimed that the activity was designed to make fun of hipsters(赶时髦的人), and call attention to the cultural atmosphere.

    Flash mob gatherings can sometimes shock people. Such an activity might seem amusing and untrue, but it also might frighten people who are not aware of what is taking place. Undoubtedly, flash mobs can serve as good political tools in any direction. They also have great economic potential, such as using flash mobs to advertise a product.

    The flash mob is now becoming more and more popular. People use it to do many things. For example, in 2009, Michael Jackson's fans took part in a flash mob to remember him. Hundreds of his fans gathered singing and dancing Michael's famous song “Beat It” together. Flash mobs give people from all walks of life an opportunity to come together to create a memory.

    Chinese colleges have come up with an unusual way to help freshmen settle in. They turn their gyms into campsites for moms and dads, some of whom have traveled thousands of miles across the country, to say goodbye.

For the past five years, Tianjin University in northern China has provided free accommodation for parents in what it calls "tents of love". Other schools let parents sleep on mats in school gymnasiums.

    "Going to college is a life moment and my parents didn't want to miss that," said Zhang Jinqi, a freshman at Tianjin University majoring in applied chemistry. His parents traveled with him on the 19-hour train journey from Jiangxi Province in southern China.

    Images of school gyms packed with parents have been widely shared on Chinese social media prompting a debate on whether China's only children are too coddled.

    Some have voiced criticism of Tianjin University, saying that they think both the parents and the children should be more independent.

    Xiong Bingqi, the deputy director of think-tank 21st Century Education Research Institute，thinks the problem is overstated. "It has always been a problem in China that at the start of every school year, colleges are packed with parents who come along to drop off their children and stay with them," he said. "For some families, it's their way to celebrate the first-ever family member who's able to go to college," Xiong added. "There's nothing wrong with sharing the happiness."

    Zhang's father said the decision to escort their son was a no-brainer. He and his wife are among the many "campers" who sleep in the 550 temporary tents set up in the Tianjin University gym.

    "My child has lots of luggage and we also want to go traveling," said his father Zhang Yonghui. "The hotels nearby are fully booked so I have to sleep in the tents."

    Their son also shrugged off the criticism although he said he was looking forward to living on his own for the first time. "Being accompanied by my parents doesn't mean I'm spoiled."

    I must have looked deep in thought, or as deep in thought as an 11-year-old man can, when my grandmother glanced up from her weeding to ask, "You have something on your mind, don't you?"

    "Yes, I was thinking that someday I want to be an Olympic speedskating champion like my hero, Eric Heiden, I want to be a doctor like my parents and I want to help children in Africa."

    I immediately knew I had confided in the right person when a knowing smile broke across her face. "Johann, of course! You can do anything you want to do!" she said simply. And with my grandmother's support, I set out to pursue my passions.

    14 years later, I was well ready to take hold of my first dream: becoming an Olympic champion. The Olympics in 1994 were in my home country, Norway. As I entered the Olympic stadium, I wasn't the best athlete, and many had doubts about my ability to perform well. But I had something special working for me. I had a woman in the first row who believed in me following my passions just as much as I did. For the first time ever, my grandmother was going to see me skate.

    It happened. Breaking a world record, I won the gold.

    As I stood on the podium(领奖台) that I had dreamed about my entire life, a curious question popped into my head. Why me? Why did I win, given all the other incredible competitors out there? The reason had to be more than a grandmother who shared a belief in her grandson's dream. The question led me to only one answer: because I wanted to make a difference in the world, and with all the media attention on my success, I could.

    I immediately knew what that difference had to be: hope in the lives of the children in Africa. Six months earlier, I'd been invited to Egypt as an ambassador for Olympic Aid.

    Mrs Smith trembled(颤抖)with excitement when she was told her fortunes(命运). "Somebody is coming home to you, " Mrs Gray said slowly. "He's carrying a rifle(步枪)on his back and he's almost there."

    Mrs Smith felt as if she could hardly breathe. "And there he is!"Mrs Gray cried, pointing to the road. They all rushed to the door to look.

    A man in a blue coat, with a gun on his back, was walking down the road toward the Smith farm. His face was hidden by a large pack on his back.

    Laughing and crying, Mrs Smith grabbed(抓住)her hat and her children and ran out of Mrs Gray's house. She hurried down the road after him, calling his name and pulling her children along with her. But the soldier was too far away for her voice to reach him.

    When she got back to their farm, she saw the man standing by the fence. He was looking at the little house and the field of yellow wheat. The sun was almost touching the hills in the west. The cowbells rang softly as the animals moved toward the barn(畜棚).

    "How peaceful it all is, "Private Smith thought." How far away from the battles, the hospitals, the wounded and the dead. My little farm in Wisconsin. How could I have left it for those years of killing and suffering?"

    Mrs Smith hurried up to her husband. Her feet made no sound on the grass, but he turned suddenly to face her. For the rest of his life, he would never forget her face at that moment.

    "Emma!" he cried.

    The children stood back watching their mother kissing this strange man. He saw them, and kneeling down, he pulled from his pack three huge red apples. In a moment, all three children were in their father's arms. Together, the family entered the little unpainted farmhouse.

    Later that evening, after supper, Smith and his wife went outside. The moon was bright, above the eastern hills. Sweet, peaceful stars filled the sky as the night birds sang softly.

    His farm needed work. His children needed clothing. He was no longer young and strong. But he began to plan for next year. With the same courage he had faced the war, Private Smith faced his difficult future.

    More than 20 years ago, a skeleton called Little Foot turned up in a South African cave. The nearly complete skeleton was a member of the human family. Now researchers have freed most of the skeleton from its stony shell and analyzed the fossils (化石) and they say 3.67-million-years-old Little Foot belonged to a unique species.

    Researcher Ronald Clarke and his colleagues think Little Foot belonged to A. Prometheus (普罗米修斯南猿). Clarke works at the university of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg South Africa. He studies fossilized humans and our relatives. Their foundings, published in four papers, have suggested the species A.Prometheus might have existed. Clarke has believed in that species for more than a decade, he found the first Little Foot's remains in a storage box of fossils in 1994. People began digging out the rest of the skeleton in 1997.

    Many other researchers instead argue that Little Foot likely belonged to a different species, which is known as A.africanus (南方古猿非洲种). Researcher Raymond Dart first identified A.africanus in 1924. He was studying the skull (头颅骨) of an ancient youngster called the Taung Child. Since then, people have turned up hundreds more A. africanus fossils in South African caves. Those include Sterkfontein, where Little Foot was found.

    The braincase is the part of the skull that holds the brain. And researchers found a partial braincase that Dart thought belonged to a different species in Makapansgat, one of those other caves. In 1948, Dart called this other species A. Prometheus, but he changed his mind after 1955. Instead, he said that braincase and another fossil at Makapansgat belonged to A.africanus. There was no A. Prometheus after all, he concluded.

    Clarke and his colleagues want to bring back the rejected species. They say Little Foot's distinctive skeleton, an adult female that is at least 90 percent complete, is solid evidence for it.