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　　It’s easy to laugh now．Ten years ago, companies like Netscape had to explain what“browser”means; the two founders of Google were just ordinary Stanford students．Over the past ten years, the Internet has totally changed everyday life for millions people around the world．Looking back over the last 10 years, the obvious question is：Where will the Internet take us in the future?

　　One of the best places to start trying to answer the question is with a man widely known as one of the“fathers of the Internet”, Between 1968 and 1982, Vinton Cerf played an important role in developing the network technology for wider use．In a recent article, Cerf wrote that the believed the Internet would continue to enhance people’s life through sound, video, etc．Interestingly, he also noted with confidence that 90percent of all applications on the Internet had yet to be invented．In the more distant future, Cerf predicted that an interplanetary(星际间)Internet would connect the shuttle, ground stations and other spacecraft．

　　Meantime, back on the earth, a survey from the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project from early last year looked at how the internet would affect our lives in 10 years’ time．The study looked at a wide range of topics, and it found some concerns along with the celebration．On the top of list of worries is a cyber(网络)attack．Many Internet experts agree that computer criminals are simply waiting for the right opportunity to strike．According to the Pew study, about 66% Internet users believe at least one devastating(毁灭性的)attack will occur in the next 10 years．Howard Schmidt, Who has worked on security issues at Microsoft company, said,“We will have self-repairing and self-configuring computer systems that can effectively protect one’s computer, so one perform the faction they want,”said Sehmidt．

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　　The sun is setting on a summer night．At the entrance to a deep dark cave, a few bats fly out high up into the air．More and more of the small creatures appear．Within a few minutes, a whole river of bats is pouring out of the cave, and they keep coming, millions and millions of them．

　　Sounds like a scary horror movie? Believe it or not, this scene takes place every night, all summer long, at Bracken Cave in Texas, where 20 million bats fly outside to feed on insects．Every March or April, Mexican free-tailed bats fly up to 1,000 miles from their winter home in Mexico to this cave, where they raise their young．Soon after they arrive, each mother gives birth to a baby．As many as 500 baby bats crowd into one square foot of space．All those badies create nice warm temperatures to keep them comfortable．If you’ve ever lost sight of your parents on a crowded playground, you may be wondering how mother bats recognize their babies．They use their sense of smell to recognize their own babies when it is time for the babies to nurse．

　　The cave, a quiet place in winter, filled with life all summer．Bat poop, called guano, soon covers the floor, prviding food for tiny organisms(微生物)．And then come the bugs．Kennedy says,“you walk in with your headlight on and the floor of the cave is full of bugs．Insects are flying around, and bectles(甲虫)move slowly up you legs!”

　　When the adult bats leave the cave at night of feed, they are helping humans．They eat tons of insects in a single night, including many pests that eat farmer’s crops．And they get rid of mosquitoes, too．When twenty million bats fly out of one cave opening, they make a column so thick that they show up on radar at the nearby airport．It can take three hours for all of them be to come out．

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　　The summer holiday will be upon us, which means it’s time to talk about holiday movies．There aren’t necessarily the 10 best films, but they all have something that caught our eye．

　　September 1

　　New Line Cinema

　　The nativity story

　　The passion of the christ broke the box office reord with its lifelike portrayal(描写)of Jesus’death．Now coms Nativity, the story of events leading up to his birth．

　　The big player here, as you might exepct, is Mary．She is played by young Keisha Castle-Hughes, an Oscar nominee for 2002’s Whale Rider．The director has Texas ties：Catherine Hardwicke is a McAllen native whose two previous films, Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown, both had a great deal of visual and dramatic energy．

　　September 8

　　Touchstone

　　Apocalypto

　　Speaking of Passion, folks have been taliking about Mel Gibson’s newmayan civilization epic for some time．Then all HELL Broke Loose, the filmmaker complains about Jews during a traffic stop, and this will also be rreleased beneath a cloud of controversy(争议)．

　　September 15

　　DreamWorks Pictures

　　Eragon

　　Remember playing Dungeons and Dragons when you were a kid? Oh, that was the kid you used to pick on? Well, still, we’ve been hearing about Eragon for more than year, and the giant dragon egg is finally ready to hatch．

　　Based on the novel by Christopher Paolini, Eragon tells a story of a farm boy who comes upon a dragon egg and follows his destiny to defend his native land against an evil king．The dragon acting promises to be grand, though it sounds like Frodo should be asking for royalties．

　　September 22

　　Universal Pictures

　　The Good Shepherd

　　Robert De Niro steps behind the camera to helm The Good Shepherd, a story of the early CIA as seen through ghe eyes of agent Edward Wilson(Matt Damon)．

　　The great actor gets a fine cast to play with．William Hurt, Michael Gambon, John Turturro, Angelina Jolie are all along for the ride．

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　　LG Electronics, the world’s fourth largest cell phone producer, has added another feature to the mobile phone-reading books for the visually impaired(弱视)．The company started marketing the model, the LF1300 on Sep．18．No other people but the blind and visually-impaired with a certificate(证书)can buy the talking phone at sales shops of LG Electronics．

　　“The LF1300 is the world’s first mobile phone that is capable of reading books for the print-disabled, who otherwise could not enjoy them．This is not about making money but about continuing to put froth efforts to reduce the digital difference for the disabled,”LG Vice President said．

　　Its users can download about 300 audio books from the Internet site of LG Sangam Library to their phones for free in two ways．One is to access the digital library’s Website on a computer designed for the blind to get the audio books and transfer them to cell phones．The other is to download the digital books directly with cell phones through the wireless net work by touching a hot key on the LF1300 phone．

　　On top of its unique feature of reading books, the LF1300 is no worse than the pupular top-line phones in both outlooks and functionalities(功能性)．The phone is armed with an MP3 player and a Bluetooth headset, enabling users to listen to the music or talk without a cord．The user interface(界面)of the LF1300 is also designed for the blind, enabling phone users to control it through a voice guidance system．

　　However, because the phone’s internal memory of 17MB is small even for a single audio book file, which takes up 80MB on average, a high-volume external memory is a must for the talking book services．

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　　A The teenage girl who sat in Madeline Levine’s office was bright and pretty．She came from a well-off family that loved her deeply．And she had used a razor(剃刀)to carve the word“Empty”into the skin of her left forearm．Outwardly, this girl seemed to have a happy life; underneath the surface, she was on the edge of disaster．

　　As a psychologist, Levine has noticed important changes in the type of problems that today’s teens have．She believes today’s parents are so busy working to make sure their children have the best of everything that, increasingly, we miss out on giving our children what they need the most：time, attention and unconditional love．

　　“All of us believe that we are somehow doing the best for our kids, and that this will help our kids lead the best life．But the things that help our children grow up to be normal and happy have very little to do with material goods,”Levine says．

　　A parent’s job is to ensure a kid works hard, believes Levine, but they need to be realistic about their child’s abilities, Most of us are actually rather ordinary．We should let children know everyone has strengths and weaknesses．

　　One teen told Levine his whole had been about preparing for college．Another was afraid to go home after getting cut from the school basked-ball team-he felt terrible about letting his father down．

　　Kids who constantly feel they’ve disappointed their parents, and that they aren’t good enough, often end up depressed and suicidal(自杀)．Children need to know they are loved unconditionally, even if they don’t make the football team or get A on every project．“At the end of the day, we all just want to go home, to a place where we’re loved simply for who we are,”Levine says．

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　　Would you eat a ready meal from the fridge rather than cook by yourself?Have you been doing Internet shopping rather than going to the stores?What can’t you be bothered to do?

　　A study into how lazy British people are has found more than half of the adults are so idle(懒散的)that they’d catch the lift rather than climb two flights of stairs．

　　Just over 2000 people were quizzed by independent researchers at Nuffield Health．Britain’s largest health center．The results were extremely surprising．

　　About one in six people questioned said if their remote control was broken, they would continue watching the same channel rather than get up．

　　More than one third of those questioned said they would not run to catch a bus．Worryingly, of the 654 respondents with children, 64％said they were often too tired to play with them．

　　This led the report to conclude that it’s no wonder that one in six children in the UK are classified as obese(very fat)before they start schoo1．

　　Dr Sarah Dauncey, medical director of Nuffield Health, said,“People need to get fitter, not just for their own sake, but for the sake of their families, friends and evidently their pets too．”

　　“If we don’t start to take control of this problem, a whole generation will become too unfit to perform even the most fundamental tasks．”

　　And Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, was shamed as the most idle city in the UK, with 75％questioned admitting they do not get enough exercise, followed closely by Birmingham and Southampton, both with 67％．

　　The results bring serious challenges for the National Health Service．where obesity－related illnesses such as heart disease and cancer have been on a steady increase for the past 40 years and are costing billions of pounds every year．

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　　Are the British people Europeans?This may seem a strange question to Africans and Asians, who tend to think of all white men as Europeans．But the British, when they are in Britain, do not regard themselves as Europeans．The Europeans, to them, are those rather excitable foreigners from the other side of the English Channel, who have never learnt how to speak English．Europe is“the Continent”, a place full of interest for British tourists, but also the source of almost all the wars in which Britain has ever been involved．Thus , although geographically speaking Britain is part of Europe ,yet the fact that it is a separate island has made its people feel different from the rest of Europe and they sometimes annoy continental nations by failing to support them ,or even to understand them , in time of need．

　　Where did the British people come from?This is an interesting question, since they are a mixture of many different races, and all these races invaded Britain at various times from Europe．Nobody knows very much about Britain before Romans came during the first century B．C．, but there had been at least three invasions before that．The first of these was by a dark-haired Mediterranean race called the Iberians．The other two were by Celtic tribes ;first the Gaels , whose descendants(后代)are the modern Scots and Irish, some of whom still speak the Gaelic language; and secondly the Britons ,who gave their name to the whole island of Britain．These were the people whom the Romans conquered．The Romans gave the Britons a good deal of their civilization, but they never settled in Britain in very large numbers, so the British race survived until the overthrow of the Roman Empire by the“barbarians”, i．e．the numerous Germanic tribes which overran the whole of Western Europe．

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　　Thinking of throwing your old cell phone?Think again．Maybe you should mine it first for gold, silver and other metals．It’s called“urban mining”, searching through the small pieces of metal in electronic products for gold, silver and other expensive metals．It is a growing industry around the world as prices for metal grow higher and higher．

　　The gold and other precious metals from electronic products are melted down and then sold．The metals can be made into jewelry or circuit(电路)for mobile phones．“It can be precious, so we want to recycle whatever we can,”said Tadahiko Sekigawa, president of Eco-System Recycling Co．Ltd．

　　A ton of ore(矿石)from a gold mine produces just 5 grams of gold on average, while a ton of mobile phones can give 150 grams or more, according to a study by Yokohama Metal Co-Ltd．, another recycling company．The same amount of useless mobile phones also contains around 100 kg of copper and 3 kg of silver, among other metals．

　　Recycling has become more important because prices of metals have hit record highs．Eco-Systems, opened 20 years ago near Tokyo, usually produces about 200 to 300 kg of gold bars a month, worth about ＄5.9 million to ＄8.8 million．That’s about the same as a small gold mine．

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　　Education is an expensive part of American life．Its size is matched by its variety．Differences in American schools compared with those found in the majority of other countries lie in the fact that education here has long been intended for everyone．Schools are expected to meet the needs of every child, regardless of ability, and also the needs of society itself．This means that public schools offer more than academic subjects．It surprises many people when they come here to find high schools offering such courses as typing, sewing , radio repair, computer programming or driver training, along with traditional academic subjects such as mathematics, history, and languages．Students choose their courses depending on their interests, future goals, and level of ability．The basic goal of American education is to develop every child to the utmost of his or her own possibilities, and to give each one a sense of community．

　　Schools have traditionally played an important role in creating national unity and“Americanizing”the millions of immigrants who have poured into this country from many different backgrounds and origins．Schools still play a large role in the community, especially in the small towns．

　　The teaching may seem unfamiliar to many, not only because it is informal, but also because there is not much emphasis on learning facts．Instead, Americans try to teach their children to think for themselves and to develop their own intellectual and creative abilities．Students spend much time learning how to use materials, libraries, statistics, and computers．Americans believe that if children are taught to reason well and to research well, they will be able to find whatever facts they need throughout the rest of their lives．Knowing how to solve problems is considered more important than the accumulation(积累)of facts．

　　This is America’s answer to the searching question that thoughtful parents all over the world are asking themselves in the fast-moving time,“How can one prepare today’s child for a tomorrow that one can neither predict nor understand?”

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　　A gadget which makes water out of air could become the greatest household invention since the microwave．

　　Using the same technology as a dehumidifier(除湿器), the Water Mill is able to create a ready supply of drinking water because it can always get it from an unlimited source－the air．

　　The company behind the machine says not only does it offer an alternative to bottled water in developed countries, but it is a solution for the millions who face a daily water shortage．

　　The machine works by drawing in wet air through a filter(过滤器)and over a cooling instrument which changes it into water droplets．It can produce up to 1 2 liters a day．The Water Mill will also produce more water when storms pass over, as the amount of water which is contained in the air increases．In keeping with its eco-development, the machine uses the same amount of electricity as three lights．

　　Inventor Jonathan Ritchey said：“The demand for water is off the chart．So people are looking for freedom from water distribution systems that are shaky and unreliable．”

　　The machine, which is about 3 feet wide, is likely to cost ￡800 when it goes on sale here in the spring．Its maker, Canadian Firm Element Four, roughly calculates that a liter of water cost around 20p to produce．

　　Environmentalists state that half the world’s population will face water shortage because of climate change by 2080．One in five is said to lack access to safe drinking．

　　The Water Mill is not effective in areas where the amount of water contained in the air is below about 30 percent, but in Britain that won’t be much of a problem．