Here is a page from a magazine called Future. Read the following information about things that may happen in ten years.

    Cars will run on solar power (太阳能) and will be much cleaner. They will be much safer. For example, if you are too close to another car or if you are driving dangerously, your car will slow down or stop by itself.
    New cities will have to be built in the sea. Some cities on water will have two levels (层). People will live on the upper level; the lower level will be used for traffic, shops and factories.
    Biotechnology (生物技术) will make food better and healthier. Plants without insects or illnesses (病虫害) will be developed. The taste of fruit and vegetables will be better and food will be kept longer.
    Many new ways to cure (治愈) illnesses will be found. People will use products of genetic engineering (基因产品) to cure more illnesses. However, some new illnesses will appear.

    Only humans speak using words. But all kinds in the animal world can communicate in one way or another. Maybe you have heard about the way bees dance around to send messages to each other and the way dogs bark in different ways to give warnings, to be friendly or to be playful. But did you know about infrasonic communication used by elephants? This is how it works:

    Humans hear low sounds like thunder rumbling in the sky. But we don't hear sounds lower than this. However, animals such as elephants and hippos can hear much lower sounds than humans can. And what's more, they can make those low sounds as well, and they use them to communicate with each other. This is known as infrasound.

    The amazing thing about infrasound is that it travels over several kilometers. Higher-level sounds like the one people can hear, don't travel well through walls, leaves, trees and so on, which is why we can't hear sounds from more than 100 meters away. But infrasound is much stronger and things like grass and trees have no influence on it. Therefore, it can travel much further. Elephants can hear infrasonic calls from four kilometers away!

    There have been reports of people watching groups of elephants feeding or resting and then the elephants suddenly all stopped what they were doing for no reason at all. They obviously heard a warning call from a long way away, but the people didn't hear a sound. In places like a zoo or wildlife park where you can get nearer to animals, it is a bit easier to sense when infrasonic sounds are made. When you stand near mother elephants with their babies in a zoo, you may notice a slight rumbling in the air every few minutes—not loud or strong, but clearly noticed. This is infrasonic communication—the mother elephants “talking” to their babies.

    You may know several kinds of police, traffic police and street police. But have you ever heard of energy-saving (节能) police?

    A group of 22 new policemen went to work in Beijing. They went around the city to see the use of energy in hotels, office buildings, shopping centres and other public places. One of their aims is to make sure that these places have set their air conditioners (空调) no cooler than 26℃.

    They also set up a special phone hotline so that people can tell them which building doesn't follow the rule.

    "If everyone sets the air conditioner at 26℃, Beijing will save 400 million kilowatt-hours of electricity in one summer. That's one third of all the usage of the city in the season, said an advertisement."

    A show was held in Beijing last week on energy-saving technology (技术) and productions to introduce a green life to the public. Environmentally—friendly machines, like a machine that helps collect used bottles, have attracted lots of attention.

    "We want to tell people that there are some ways to protect the environment. Each of us can find effective (有效的) ways to do it in our daily life," said Liu Qianguang, an environmental engineer.

With the two sessions （两会） opening in Beijing, it is time for Chinese to discuss big things happening in the country. What are the most important things when it comes to running a country? We interviewed some students at home and abroad to share their ideas. 

For more information about the two sessions, visit the website http://www. people, com. cn/.