Phil White has just returned from an 18,000-mile, around-the-world bicycle trip. White had two reasons for making thisepic journey. First of all, he wanted to use the trip to raise money for charity, which he did. He raised £70,000 for the British charity, Oxfam. White's second reason for making the trip was to break the world record and become the fastest person to cycle around the world. He is still waiting to find out whether he has broken the record or not.

   White set off from Trafalgar Square, in London, on 19th June, 2004 and was back 299 days later. He spent more than 1,300 hours in the saddle (车座) and destroyed four sets of tyres and three bike chains. He had the adventure of his life crossing Europe first, and then the Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and finally the Americas. Amazingly, he did all of this with absolutely no support team. No jeep carrying food, water and medicine. No doctor. Nothing! Just a bike and a very, very long road.

   The journey was lonely and desperate at times. He also had to fight his way across deserts, through jungles and over mountains. He cycled through heavy rains and temperatures of up to 45 degrees, all to help people in need. There were other dangers along the road. In Iran, he was chased by armed robbers and was lucky to get away with the little money he had. The worst thing that had happened to him was having to cycle into a headwind on a road that crosses the south of Australia. For 1,000 kilometers he battled against the wind that was constantly pushing him. This part of the trip was slow, hard and depressing, but he made it in the end. Now Mr. White is back and wants to write a book about his adventures.

Humans might live on another planet one day! That seemed 1 years ago. But now the idea might come true. Stephen Hawking, a great British scientist, said that we humans only have 1,000 years to live on the Earth. It means that humans will 2 to another planet in 1,000 years.

 In fact, we have found one red planet — Mars. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and it's 3 to Earth, but it's much colder than Earth. For many years, scientists have studied Mars.

 Some years ago, they 4 robots there and wanted to find water and life on Mars. 5 , they found that there was water on it. Then, the idea of living on Mars becomes possible.

 In 2013, Dutch scientists first planned to put 6 on Mars in the 2030s. They offered people one- way tickets to go there and build new homes on Mars.7 it was dangerous, over 200, 000 people still wanted to take part in.

 American scientists showed another plan to get humans to Mars in 2033. They are working on building larger 8 to fly to Mars these days. They are also doing a lot of preparations to help people 9 the Earth.

I believe that humans will go to Mars and have an even closer look 10 our red neighbor.

Today, I am going to talk about life in the future.  {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Will life be like in the future? No one can answer this question.  Today, cameras in space can take {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (photo) of places billions of light years (光年) away {#blank#}3{#/blank#} the Earth.  Science is developing very fast and people know more about space.  With {#blank#}4{#/blank#} help of science, we may also visit {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (that) places.  We may have to {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (leave) the Earth to live in space {#blank#}7{#/blank#} the Earth will not hold so many people one day.  In the future, we {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (travel) very fast by spaceship.  {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (we) spaceships will be as large as a city, and every spaceship will carry more than 10,000 people.  There {#blank#}10{#/blank#} also many buildings in our spaceships, such as hospitals, schools, shops and cinemas. 

① What's the weather like in different cities around China? What's the weather like in your city? Today we'll travel to some cities that have their own special weather. 

② Turpan (吐鲁番) is a city in Xinjiang. In Turpan, the sun shines for a long time every day and there is little rain. It is like a desert. The highest temperature in summer can be 49℃. You can even boil (煮) an egg on the ground. 

③Lhasa (拉萨) is the capital city of Tibet. The city is at a high altitude (海拔). It's sunny most of the time. The sun is so strong that the rain in summer does not last long. If you travel to Lhasa, you need to drink a lot of water because you often feel thirsty. 

④ The coldest city in China is Genhe in Inner Mongolia. It is very cold in winter. The coldest temperature is -58℃. The water- vapor you breathe out turns into ice at once. It is dangerous to stay outside for a long time. 

⑤ Ya'an is a city in Sichuan. It rains nearly 300 days a year and it's always very warm. The plen- tiful (大量的) rain not only brings fresh air, but also makes the city beautiful, as the rain helps green plants grow. It is a wonderful place to live in. 

 On Oct.24, Deep Blue Aerospace, a Chinese space company, sold two space travel tickets in a livestream(直播). This was the first time space tickets were sold in China. Each ticket was 1.5 million yuan. But during the stream, they were sold for 1 million yuan each.

 The space trip will last about 12 minutes. According to the company, passengers will sit in a spacecraft(航天器) that is about 4 meters tall and 3.5 meters wide, with six big windows and space for six people. The spacecraft will go 100 kilometers above Earth.

 Travelers will experience weightlessness (失重) for at least five minutes and see Earth from above before coming back down safely.

 Passengers must be between 18 and 60 years old. They need to be healthy. They also have to take some training before the trip.

 The trip will use the company's Nebula-1 rocket. It runs on O₂ and kerosene (煤油) and can be reused. This makes the trip cheaper. As this technology gets better, space tickets might become less expensive, said a leader of Deep Blue Aerospace.

 The company plans to do lots of tests in 2026 to make sure the space trip is safe. They hope to begin the trip in 2027.