Maria, a US high school student, is busy with her studies every day. But after school, she puts down her books and goes off to ________. She looks after cats at a Humane Society（动物保护协会）, helps teachers at school and cleans up the beach. Why? Because about half of US public schools ________ students to do at least 20 hours of community service in order to graduate （毕业）. “This project is to give students a ________ of the real world, develop a habit of volunteering and ________ explore a career（事业）” said Bob Parks, a teacher at Maria school. Volunteering takes time ________ Maria enjoys it. “I learn so ________ from it,” she said. She plans to keep volunteering even after she has finished her required hours of work. Maria is on ________ way towards 250 hours to get a silver medal（银奖）at graduation. She hopes the medal will help her ________ her dream.

Some parents agree with the project and want their children to ________ more time volunteering. Michael, a junior, guides patients and brings them newspapers and meals every Saturday at JFK Medical Center. He is at 258 hours. David, Michael’s father, said, “Twenty hours isn’t ________. Children should have more contact（联系） with the world.”

Two months after returning to England, Gulliver sets sail on a ship, travelling to the Cape of Good Hope（好望角）.On the way, a strong storm draws the ship off course（航向）and the ship finally arrives at an unknown land. Gulliver sees a giant（巨人）following the boat. He runs away, and when he stops, he is on a hill. He is greatly surprised to see that the grass around is about twenty feet high.

He walks down a path through a field but cannot see anything over a crop because it is forty feet high. He tries to climb a set of steps into the next field, but he cannot climb over them because they are too high. When he sees another giant, Gulliver hides from him, but the giant calls for more people to come, and they begin to cut the crop with scythes. Gulliver lies down and feels sad about his situation, thinking about how unimportant he must be to these giant men.

A giant finally noticed him, and picked him up between his fingers to get a closer look. Finally the giant puts him in his pocket and begins to walk towards his master.

The giant’s master, the farmer of these fields, takes Gulliver from his man and watches him more closely. He asks the other men if they have ever seen anything like Gulliver, then puts him onto the ground. They sit around him. Gulliver begins to speak as loudly as he can. He gives a lot of gold to the farmer, but the farmer cannot understand what it is.

Would you like to live in a city where buildings turn the lights off for you, and self-driving cars will find the nearest parking space themselves? Although it might sound a little far from you, living in a "smart" city like this could happen sooner than you think.

Great changes have taken place in towns that we have lived in for centuries, while completely new cities are being built. One such place is the city of Songdo. Every home there will have a "telepresence" system (远程遥控系统) —allowing users to control the heating and looks, take part in video meetings, and receive education, healthcare and government services. Around the city, escalators (自动扶梯) will only move when someone is on them, and offices and schools will all be connected (连接) to the system.

The great mind behind Songdo is from the company(公司) Cisco. In fact, technology companies around the world such as IBM, Siemens and Microsoft are already in the business.

About 75% of the world's population will live in cities by 2050, so cities will need to be more modern to solve the coming problems. "Making cities smarter is one way out, and I think this will in turn make cities greener,” said Dan Hill, head of a research company.