This is a home of the future, a "smart home", where technology can do almost everything. Imagine we are in the year 2050, ①the computer wakes Tom up in themorning as usual. In front of him is a to-do list of the important events for the day, and it is provided by the computer too. According to Tom's request, the computer serves a list of possible dishes. All the dishes are nice.

    As Tom eats breakfast, the computer reminds him to reply to Lucy. Before Tom finishes his next bite, Lucy's computer receives the message. Then Tom goes to the supermarket. The store's system checks his car when he drives to the pickup area and greets him by name. "Good morning, Tom! Your order is in Case4. Thank you for shopping.'' When Tom removes his order from Case 4, all trades are completed automatically(自动地)over the information superhighway. That is, the money is electronically paid into the bank. Soon after arriving at the office, Tom reads another message from Lucy, telling him that she will go to dinner with him.

    The smart home can also do many other things:

    ◆Find things like keys and mobile phones.

    ◆②        (打开或关闭)machines and lights with your voice.

    ◆Clean your home from clothes to buildings automatically.

    ◆Record everything and everyone entering and leaving the house.

    ◆Take care of each member of the family, young or old.

    ③With the development of technology, the smart home will come true in the future. It is sure to play an important part in our life.

    Do you know some great inventors and their inventions?

    What factors (因素) are needed for their success?

    Well, good timing for a start. You can have a great idea which the public simply doesn't want … yet. The Italian Giovanni Caselli invented the first fax（传真）machine in the 1860s. Although the quality is excellent, his invention quickly died a commercial(商业的) death. It was not until the 1980s that the fax became very common in every office… too late for Giovanni Caselli.

    Money also helps. The Frenchman Denis Papin (1647-1712) had the idea for a steam engine （蒸汽机）almost a hundred years before the better-remembered Scotsman James Watt was even born… but he never had enough money to build one.

    You also need to be patient (it took scientists nearly eighty years to develop a light bulb which actually worked)… but not too patient. In the 1870s, Elisha Gray, a professional inventor from Chicago, developed plans for a telephone. Gray saw it as no more than “a beautiful toy”. However, when he finally sent details of his invention to the Patent Office(专利局) in February，1876, it was too late. Almost the same invention had arrived two hours earlier and the young man who sent it , Alexander Graham Bell, will always be remembered as the inventor of the telephone.

    Of course what you really need is a great idea—but if you haven't got one, a walk in the country and a careful look at nature can help. The Swiss scientist, George de Mestral, had the idea for Velcro(魔术贴) when he found his clothes covered in sticky seed pods after a walk in the country. During a similar walk in the French countryside some 250 years earlier, Rene Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur had the idea that paper could be made from wood when he found an abandoned wasps' nest(蜂巢).

    You also need good commercial sense. Willy Higinbotham was a scientist doing nuclear (核能的)research in the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, USA. In 1958 the public were invited to an exhibition in the Laboratory to see their work, but both parents and children were more interested in a tiny 120cm screen with a white dot which could be hit back and forth over a “net” using a button and a knob. Soon hundreds of people were ignoring the other exhibits to play the first ever computer game—made from a simple laboratory instrument called an “oscilloscope”. Higinbotham, however, never made money from his invention: he thought people were only interested in the game because the other exhibits were so boring!

    According to a new study, cats may be just as smart as dogs. Both cats and dogs may have episodic memory（情景记忆）, similar to that of human beings.

    The discovery shows that cats can recall memories of positive experiences like eating a delicious snack. The study was a test of episodic memory. Episodic memory means memory of past experiences that happened at a special time and place.

    In the test, cats were led to four open bowls of food. They were allowed to eat from two of them. After fifteen minutes, empty bowls took the place of the old ones. Then the same cats returned to look for food again. They spent more time searching for the old bowls.

    It seemed that the cats were able to remember the information of “what” and “where” about the bowls. This discovery suggests that they may have episodic memory. However, it's still not clear whether cats can truly experience past memories in the same way as human beings do. “It's difficult to know whether the cats can subjectively（主观地）remember the experience,” Nick Diamond, a researcher at the University of Toronto, explained.

    Still, the test plays an important role in the development of memory research in animals. “It opens the door to new studies. How long can cats' memories last? We may do some research on this in the future,” Professor Laurie Santos from Yale University told BBC News.

    The road to new discoveries is long and difficult. Though there are lots of problems to be solved and discussed along the way, such studies do lead us a step closer to the final success.

    There are many wetlands in China and some of them have become the world's important wetlands. The Chinese Yellow Sea Wetlands are among them. They are in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province. They are home to many different kinds of animals. The world's largest Milu Deer Nature Reserve is in them. More than 700 Milu deer live freely there. There are not many red- crowned cranes in the world, but every winter you can see some in the Red-crowned Crane Nature Reserve in the Yellow Sea Wetlands.

    The temperature in the wetlands is usually neither too high nor too low. There is a lot of rain and sunshine too. They are really good places for wildlife. Offering(提供) food and home to some special kinds of animals is not the only reason why we need to protect wetlands. Wetlands are important because they also prevent flood. But some people want to change the wetlands to make more space for farms and less space for wildlife.

    Luckily, more and more people are beginning to realize the importance of wetlands and wildlife. Every year, on February 2nd, many activities are held to tell people more about wetlands.

    Big data (数据) is a lot of sets of information that are put together so they can be used by a computer program. The computer program looks for different kinds of answers or patterns in the data. Big data can have different kinds of information from many sources, such as information that comes from schools, social media sites, companies, and governments. One set of data can have people's names and addresses. Another set can have what they like, where they go to school, and how much time they spend on the computer.

    Big data can be used in many ways. The government uses it to understand how many people travel on buses or trains. This information is then used to make bus or train systems better. Some schools use big data to understand which children may need extra help in class. The teacher can then give certain students more help or support so those students can succeed in school. Companies use big data, too. It helps them understand who buys their products. For example, one company uses weather data to see when people eat the most ice cream.

    Big data can be used for good reasons. Some hospitals use big data to predict if a baby who is born too early will get sick. The hospital can then take extra steps to take care of that baby so he or she does not get sick. Big data can also be used for bad reasons. It can be used to predict which kinds of people are likely to break the law or hurt others, even if they have not done anything wrong.

    How can big data be used for good and bad things? It is because the computer programs used to look at big data and understand it are written by people. People think a certain way. Because they think a certain way, they build a model of those ideas. These ideas are then used to look at the data. Sometimes, these ideas are helpful for people or businesses. Other times, bad ideas can cause problems for certain groups of people.