What Will Life Be Like in 2050

    Life will probably be very different in 2050 in all the fields, from entertainment to technology.

    TV channels will disappear in 2050. People will choose a program from a "menu" and a computer will send the program directly to the television.

    Water will become one of our most serious problems. Today in many places, agriculture is developing and people are growing fruits and vegetables to export(出口). This needs a lot of water. Need for water will increase ten times between now and 2050 and there will be serious shortages(短缺).

In transportation, computers will control the speed of the cars and there won't be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to where you want to go. Besides, space planes will take people halfway around the world in two hours. Nowadays, the United States Shuttle can go into space and land on Earth again. By 2050, space planes will fly all over the world and people will fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just two hours.

    In the field of technology, robots will replace people in many fields. Today many factories have already used robots. Big companies prefer robots because they do not ask for pay rises or go on strikes, and they work 24 hours a day. By 2050, we will see robots everywhere — in factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.

    Have you ever experienced the feeling of falling as you start to fall asleep? Sometimes you may come to realize this feeling. If so, don’t worry. Many people have felt the same thing.

In fact, these muscle twitches (肌肉抽搐) in the arms, legs or other parts of the body are called hypnic jerks (入睡抽动) or sleep starts. And they are very common. Up to 70 percent of people experience them sometimes, Huffington Post reported. But what causes it?

There are some theories(理论). Some scientists believe that the feeling of falling comes from the body relaxing itself, especially if the person is anxious or unable to get comfortable. As you’re about to sleep, your muscles become relaxed. But your brain stays awake. It misunderstands the relaxing of your muscles as a sign that you’re falling. Then the brain jerks the body awake as if it's trying to protect you.

    Other scientists believe that different phases of sleep might cause the hypnic jerks. When we sleep, we experience two phases: non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM). During REM, our heart rate (心率), breathing and nervous system can act irregularly (不规律地). If the body experiences flashes (一瞬间) of REM while entering sleep, these irregularities could cause twitches.

    If you don’t want to experience hypnic jerks, scientists have some suggestions. When you become deeply relaxed, you can learn how to reconnect slowly by moving your fingers and toes a little bit. Then start to move your head and open your eyes, while being aware of yourself as you get out of the relaxed state.

    But experts agree that hypnic jerks, though sometimes scary, are harmless. If it wakes you up, simply roll over and go back to sleep. But keep in mind: a caffeinated (含咖啡因的) drink, exciting evening activities or stress may make hypnic jerks happen more often.

    Students learn their lessons in class. They sit in the classroom and1 their teachers. This is a way of learning. Is this the only way for students to learn? Of course not. There is2 way to learn. That is to teach3. For example,4 you cannot remember anything when you are doing your homework, what will you do? You can look at your book to5the answer.

    How to teach yourself? The first thing you must do is reading. Read something you are 6.The second is that you must ask yourself question or ask other people. A clever student is usually 7at asking questions. The third is to answer the questions yourself by8 hard, by reading books, and sometime by asking other people. These are the ways of teaching yourself. If you 9 like these for a long time. You are sure to make great10 in your study.

Minutes

Green Building Committee(委员会) Meeting, WF Language School

    Many people may like taking photos of them by themselves. A girl named Helene Meldahl from Norway(挪威) also likes taking photos of her by herself. However(然而), her photos are so different.

    Before she takes photos, she always draws some interesting pictures on the mirror(镜子) in her bathroom. And it usually takes her about half an hour to finish every picture. Sometimes, she draws her favourite cartoon characters, like Garfield (加菲猫). Sometimes, she draws some lovely animals. Also, there are many other pictures. Then she takes photos with these pictures.

    At first, she just left messages(信息) for her roommates(室友) on the mirror with the lipstick(口红). One day when she did the same thing, she got the idea of drawing some pictures on the mirror and taking photos with them.

    Do you like reading stories? Maybe you will answer. "No. I am not a child any more!" Yes, children all over the world always love stories.

    Chinese children are1in Monkey King's story. It2a popular bedtime story in China for many years. In fact, adults also love the story a lot. For them. Monkey King has become a very3part in the memory of their childhood. The clever and humorous monkey4the hearts of many Chinese people. British boys and girls all know Alice's Adventures in Wonderland well. As the name5, it's a story full of dangerous but exciting trips. Children laugh, cry and even get frightened with Alice together while reading the story. Most American kids have read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by the famous writer6. Everyone likes the brave boy who also has lots of7. Some scenes of the story may make your heart go faster, for Tom and his friends meet some very bad men and are usually8. Of course in the end, they beat the bad ones.

    You may also ask me9I like stories. Yes, I have liked them since I was very young. At that time. I often10all my pocket money on storybooks. For me. stories are much more delicious than chocolate！They help me learn a lot.

    So either the young or the old. let's enjoy stories!

Let's enjoy a movie!

Zootopia

    From large elephant to a small mouse, animals live happily together in Disney's Zootopia.

    Language: English

    Running Time: 1 Hour and 30 Minutes

    Price: Weekdays— $50 $25 ( children under 6)

    Weekends— $60 $30 (children under 6)

    I've never imagined the movie is 8s0 interesting. There are 64 kinds of animals in it. After I watched the movie, I learned more about: animals. I would highly recommend this movie to those animal lovers.

——John

    I have seen many cartoons of this kind, but this one is surprisingly funny and I love the sweet voices in it. My brother and I just couldn't help laughing from beginning to end.

——David

    This movie is so well made. I went to see it with my 5-year-old son last Sunday afternoon. I love the beautiful music while my son loves the rabbit police officer Judy very much. It shows that small animals like her can also do serious work.

——Nancy

    Adam Braun set up the organization Pencils of Promise in 2019. Its purpose is to make sure all children have a c to study better. In 2019, the organization b a new school somewhere every 90 hours. It has helped more than 22,000 children in Africa and Asia.

    It started when Adam Braun studied in a college. He was visiting India when a boy stopped him and a for money on the street. Mr Braun asked the boy w he would want, if he could have anything in the world.

    "I thought the answer was going to be 'a house' or 'a car' or 'a boat'. His answer was 'a pencil'. So I gave him my pencil and he was very h and excited. I realized he had never been to s before, and that was the reality(现实) for 57 million children around the world," Braun said.

    Adam Braun started working in finance(金融) after he graduated from college, but he n forgot the boy and the problem he realized.

    "We live in a world in which every child can have a chance to get a good education, because we have everything necessary already. We are .a to educate every child. So I promised to help create that world," Braun said.

    Mr Braun has r money for his project. He paid for building the first Pencils of Promise School in Laos five years ago. S then, his organization has helped pay for more than 200 schools in the countryside of Laos and Ghana.

阅读下面的短文，在空白处填入一个适当的词，或填入括号中所给单词的正确形式。

    How long does it take to build a new house? It usually takes about six months or more. each year, thousands of people work together to build new homes in just four months! Who does this (wonderful) work? Habitat for Humanity.

    Habitat for Humanity is a group that builds homes for （family) in need. It has branches(分部) in different states around the country.

    This group works all over the world, too. Volunteers help build the homes. They are unpaid workers who do all the work for   (free). Volunteers can be builders and painters. They can be teachers or bankers. Some are students. Habitat for Humanity has built more than 300,000 houses. More than 1.5 million people  (live)in these houses.

    Building a home is hard work. Volunteers learn to put up walls. They use many (machine)and tools. These selfless(无私的) volunteers work with the family that will live in the house. Everyone (work) together to make the  family's dreams come true.

Suruchi Srikanth has worked with Habitat for Humanity for four years. She (begin) volunteering in high school. She has built many homes with other volunteers. She takes her responsibilities(责任) seriously. Volunteers know they don't help, homes may not get built. They are good citizens who care about other people.

    One of the best things about being in Singapore is the food. There are places to eat here to suit everyone's taste.

    Coffee shops

    Singaporeans go to coffee shops not just to eat and drink, but also to chat or even play games. Although the old coffee shops are slowly disappearing, they are still a good place to go if you want to get cheap and good food.

    Hawker centres (小贩美食中心)

    Hawker centers are probably the most special eating places in Singapore. Each centre has many food and drink stalls (摊位)under one roof. Compared with coffee shops, they are cheaper. After ordering you will get your food within 10 to 15 minutes.

    Food courts (美食广场)

    Food courts are usually found in shopping malls and are air-conditioned, so they are more expensive. Some food courts even offer Italian, Korean, Japanese and Greek food all in the same place. Unlike in hawker centres, you have to carry your own food to your table.

    Fast food

    Fast food is popular with children and teenagers. It arrived in Singapore in the late 1970s and can be found everywhere today. There's Mcdonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King and much more.

    The second Sunday in May is Mother's Day. American children of all ages give their mothers something special. It is the day that children their love to their mothers. It is the day to celebrate motherhood and all the small and big things she has done for her children. However, did you know that Mother's Day celebration is no recent thing?

    In the United States, Mother's Day became an official holiday in 1910. An American girl, Anna, asked her governor for mothers for their love. And they set the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day and a year later all the other states celebrated it.

    On Mother's Day morning some American children serve their mothers breakfast in bed. will give their mothers presents which they have made themselves or bought in stores. Adults give their mothers red carnations (康乃馨), the official Mother's Day flower. If their mothers left the world, they may bring white carnations to their grave sites (墓地). This is the busiest day of year for American restaurants. On the special day, do not want Mum to cook dinner!

Many Chinese mothers are afraid that their children will fall behind their classmates, so these mothers are becoming" tiger mothers". They believe the harder their children study, the happier life they will have in the future. Is it true? Lulu and her sister Sophia may have a say.

Lulu and Sophia have a" tiger mother". She pushed them a lot when they were young. For example, they were not allowed to get grades lower than A's. They had to practice the piano or violin for several hours a day. There were no games or TV.

The tiger mother, Amy, is a Chinese-American professorate Yale Law School in the USA. Several years ago, she wrote a book named Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and shared her strict parenting style(育儿方式)in it.

Many people don't like Amy's style of parenting. They once worried that her daughters would not be happy. However, the two girls have grown up and they are thankful to their mother. Sophia has just graduated from Yale University. She is hard-working, friendly and helpful. Not long ago, she shared some useful studying tips online. Lulu is also a warm, smart and popular girl in her friends' eyes. She said tiger mothers believed that a child could succeed by being pushed to go all out.

Still, not everyone agrees with the tiger mother's parenting style. In fact, there isn't a parenting style that fits everyone. What's the best parenting style for you? Maybe you should work it out together with your parents.

Come and meet my best friend, Lisa. Lisa is a beautiful girl. Many people like her because her good look. So do I. As my best friend, she likes to do same things as me. We like singing and reading books. There are also some (different) between us. I am shy and I always like to stay by myself.  Lisa is much outgoing than me. She is (talent) in telling jokes. She often makes me (laugh). She is good at sports, too. She plays sports every day to keep healthy. She thinks it is not necessary for friends (be) the same. Her favorite (say) is, "A true friend reaches for your hand and .

(touch) your heart. "What do you think of my best friend?

When I was in Chengdu, I saw teahouses everywhere in the street. There is a saying," China has the best teahouses in the world and Chengdu has the best teahouses in China."

The service in teahouses is really friendly. When you go into a teahouse, the waiters or waitresses(女服务员) greet you with smiles on their faces and with teapots and cups in their hands. After you sit down, they set the cups on the table and pour the tea into the cups.

People who go to teahouses are not really thirsty. They pay 20 cents to go to a teahouse and sit there all day long to chat(聊天)with each other. Nowadays, more and more people go to teahouses for business(生意)talks. Some teahouses also have performances, such as storytelling and Sichuan Opera.

Dragon Head Raising Day: time for a haircut

China is a country with many colorful days and festivals. The Dragon Head Raising Day（Longtaitou）is one of them.

This special day is on the second day of the second month in the Chinese lunar calendar（阴历）. It stands for the start of spring and farming.

The dragon is important in Chinese culture. We Chinese people call ourselves the"descendants（后代）of the dragon". Therefore, people celebrate the Dragon Head Raising Day with many customs about dragons.

On the day in ancient times, people put ashes（灰）in the kitchen. This was to"lead the dragon into the house". People believed that with the help of the dragon, they could have a good harvest（收成）in autumn.

Also, people eat special foods on that day. The foods are usually named after dragons. For example, people eat"dragon whisker（细须）"noodles and dumplings called"dragon teeth".

Today, many customs have faded away（消退）. But one that has remained is the cutting of hair. It was said that a haircut during the first lunar month may bring bad luck to the mother's brothers. So many people have their hair cut on the Dragon Head Raising Day.

If music makes you smarter and exercise helps you to think, surely exercising to music can turn you into a clever person.

A team of scientists from Ohio State University did experiments on 33 volunteers who were getting better from heart disease after operations. They found those volunteers who exercised while listening to Italian musician Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons did much better on language ability tests than without music. It is also used in medical fields for patients who have had head hurts because of its moderate tempo(舒缓的节拍).

"Exercise seems to cause positive changes in the nerve (神经) system and these changes may improve the learning ability of people with heart disease," said the psychologist Charles Emery, who led the study. "And listening to music is thought to enhance understanding. We just wanted to put the two results together," he added.

The volunteers said they felt better emotionally and physically after exercising with or without music. But their improvement on the test doubled after listening to music during exercise. Scientists have proved that music can be good for health and education. It helps reduce stress and sadness, encourage relaxation or sleep, wake up the body and improve memory and thoughts.

Scientists have been studying the results of exercise to music on learning and understanding since the early 1950s. A study showed that students who listened to Mozart's violin pieces and exercised went on to get higher marks in an IQ test. With important exams drawing near, your parents will not probably allow you to listen to music or play sports. But perhaps now you have good reasons to argue with them.

There are so many expressions in American English that sound enjoyable but are not. When someone says they have to "face the music", it does not mean they are going to a concert. "Facing the music" means to accept the punishment(惩罚) of an action.

For example, "I can't face another night of camping! It's cold and rainy. "or" In life, you must face your fears. " Face used in this way is very common. Back to "facing the music", imagine a friend asks you to take care of her expensive sports car. She gives you the key and says, "Thanks so much for watching my car while I'm away. But there's one thing. Please, do not drive it. It is an extremely(极其) fast car. " You want to show off(炫耀) to some friends. So, you drive it around town one night. As bad luck would have it, you lose control of the car and drive it into a stop sign. Bang!

When your friend returns, you must tell her what you have done and "face the music". It could be losing her friendship or paying to repair her car – or both. Whatever the music is, you must face it.

To "take your medicine" means to accept the results from something bad you have done. And if someone says, "You made your bed. Now lie in it. ", they mean you created a bad situation and now you have to experience the results!

I'm Linda. Welcome to my room. My school ID card and my schoolbag are on the sofa. What are those in the bookcase? Oh, they are my tape player and some tapes.

My name is Jack. This is my room. Look! My books are on the sofa. My blue jacket is on the bed. In the bookcase is my brother John's dictionary. Where is my pencil box? Oh, it is on the chair.

Hi, I'm Sally. What can you see in my room? My computer is on the desk. The CDs are in the bookcase.

What are those under the bed? Oh, they are three baseballs. They are my sister Alice's.