It's March, 2050.

   Frank and Mary Smith wake up in their comfortable house in the morning and switch on the bedroom computer to get the latest news. They used to read the Times, but changed to electronic newspapers many years ago.
   There is the usual news about space: another space flight has returned from Mars and scientists have discovered a new planet. Then they turn to business news: the US dollar has risen greatly in Shanghai, one of the world's leading business centres. Mary tells the computer to buy 5,000 dollars, and there is a quick response that it has been done.
   As they watch the screen, Mary orders one of the household robots to make coffee for them.

   Frank disappears into the study to join a video conference with his partners around the world. He is a computer engineer, working for several companies. This is his third job: he used to be in marketing and then television.
   Mary has a quick look at the shopping channels - the usual selection of electric cars, household robots and cheap travel offers - before picking up the video phone to talk to her assistant. She also has a job and she is doing medical research. Both she and Frank used to have an office desk in London, but in 2014 they decided to move to the seaside and work from home.
   Frank and Mary have one daughter, Louise, who also has her own workstation at home. She goes to school only one day a week, mainly to play with other students. Classrooms disappeared in 2030 because there was no longer any need for them: communications systems have made it much easier to learn at home.
   Louise, now thirteen, is studying Chinese at present, which has become a world language as important as English. Louise has many Chinese friends. They communicate by computer.
   According to the family doctor, Louise will live to at least 130. Her wish is to work for a few decades (十年) and then spend her time on music and painting.

① Tian Yi Pavilion (天一阁) is in the center of the city. Xu Zheng wants to write a report about the history of Ningbo. He needs to go to Tian Yi Pavilion to look for some information (信息). There is a bus station near his home.          

②Wang Hao Lives in Shanghai. He likes travelling (旅游). So he is going to Beijing. He'd like to get there quickly. He is sure he will have fun in Beijing.               

③This month Yuan Fang will visit her grandparents in her hometown (家乡). It's about 1,000 kilometers away. Yuan Fang wants to get there in 10 hours. And she can enjoy the sights (风景) along the way.        

④Guo Jing likes taking photos. She likes the photos of rivers and mountains best. She is very happy that her parents will take her to the Three Gorges (三峡). She wishes she can take many photos when they're travelling on the water.           

    There are many kinds of 1. transportation now. Which one do you like best, by train, by bus or by plane? Now let's look at these three kinds of transportation. 2.The fastest way to travel is by plane. If you want to save time, 3.乘火车是最好的选择. A plane ticket can also be easier to book, and there are 4.(hundred) of planes leaving half an hour to everywhere. But it is much 5.(expensive) than traveling by train or by car. Many people prefer to traveling together by train. Because the train is cheaper than the plane and you can see the beautiful scenery out of the windows. But sometimes people are very noisy on the train. And it's very small and crowded inside the train. Taking a car is great. You can feel freer in your own car and you can move quickly from place to place at any time you like. 6.But sometimes you may be late because of the heavy traffic  .You have to pay for a car park and petrol . Cars are less comfortable than trains. You can't sleep or relax when you drive. Cars pollute the air more than trains, too.

    This is Jill. She is twelve years old. She has two new friends. They are Sami and Pat. Sami is a girl. She's twelve. She is short and slim. She's from England. She's English. Pat is a boy. He is twelve too. He's tall and strong. He's from America. He's American.

    Your body is special—no two people in the world are the same. Although you are different from everyone else, you have exactly the same body parts as the people around you, doing different jobs that keep all of us alive.

    What is inside my head？

    Your head holds the most valuable part of your body in it—your brain. As you are reading, your eyes send pictures to your brain which makes meaning from what you see. Your brain helps you to remember and think, and makes sure your body is doing what it should do.

    What is my skin for？

    Your skin covers your body. In most parts of your body, the skin is just as thick as 0.5cm.If you cut your skin, it will have a quick cure(治愈)and stop viruses(病毒)from getting into your body. Your skin also helps you feel the heat and coldness of the environment around you. Hair grows from inside the skin. When you feel hot, extra heat comes out through your skin. As a result, your body temperature drops.

    How do I move？

    Muscles(肌肉) are found in most parts of your body. They work with your bones to help you move— whenever you cry or smile, eat or speak, walk or dance, etc.

    What does my heart do？

    Your heart is a very special muscle. It is a little bigger than your fist(拳头)and grows bigger as you do. If you place your hand on your heart, you will feel your heart beating which pushes blood to move around your body.

A different kind of alarm clock

    When Matty Sallin, 24, was studying art and technology at New York University, he got an interesting task for the final exam：Create something for the ordinary family. He decided to create an alarm clock.

    "To get up in time, many people have to use an alarm clock every morning. But the sound of the clock is extremely noisy and unpleasant." he says. So before he started to design the new clock, he asked different people what they'd like to wake up to in the morning. A lot of them said, "The smell of bacon(培根)."

    So Sallin and his two classmates invented a new kind of alarm clock: a wooden box with a pig face and a digital clock that uses the smell of cooking bacon to wake people up. He explains, "There's no danger of burning, because I built it carefully, It uses special light bulbs(灯泡) instead of a fire for cooking and turns off automatically after ten minutes. "Just a few easy steps are required to set the "alarm".

    "What you do is to put a few pieces of bacon meat inside the box the night before, then you set the alarm," says Sallin. "If you set the alarm for 8：00, it will turn on at 7:50 and slow cook for ten minutes under the bulbs. Then the bulbs turn off and a fan blows the smell out through the nose of the pig."

    "So the pleasant smell of bacon will wake you up. There will be no more noisy alarms," says Sallin. "Then you can open the door on the side and pull the bacon out and eat it."

    When Sallin was a kid, he spent a lot of time making drawings of inventions. "I wanted to make a lift in my back yard and a special tree house," he says. "But I never really thought I'd become an inventor！"

    Sallin got an A for his alarm clock and went on to invent other things-but people continue to email him every day asking where they can buy his alarm clack. If he decides to produce and sell his special alarm clock, maybe he can build a successful business out of it.