Many people like to watch TV. There are all kinds of programs on TV. The soap opera is one of them. The soap opera was first on the radio in the 1920s. Then it started on TV in the 1940s. Why do so many people, especially young people, like to watch the soap opera on TV? What makes it popular? Let’s find out.

First, what’s happening in the soap opera is very different from our life. Everything is perfect in the play. People almost don’t need to worry about anything. People don’t have money problems. Second, there were many beautiful girls and handsome boys in soap operas. They are so cool. They make young people crazy and happy. Third, the story in the soap opera is usually interesting. It makes people relaxed after a day’s hard work. Even some old people like to watch it, too. But some people don’t like it. They think the show is too slow and too long. Do you like watching the soap opera? What do you think of it?

What will our world be like in 2200? Maybe no one     61     (know). Because we never know what will happen in the f    62    . But it’s very interesting     63     (make) some predictions.

Water will become as expensive as oil because many rivers will     64     (appear). We will have to save water and pay more for clean water than before. Cities will be very big and     65     (crowd) with people. There will be fewer trees and more     66     (pollute). The environment will be in great danger.

Students won’t go to school. They just stay at home and study o    67    . Students from all over the world may study together on the Internet. It’s common for them to do their homework and exercises on the computer.

Each family will have a robot. You can ask it to do almost e    68     for you. It will serve you twenty-four hours a day. The robot will look like a human. It can talk with you when you are alone. You won’t know whether it is a human or a robot when you meet it. People will have l    69     time to work and more time to travel.

The vehicles (交通工具) will fly freely in the sky because every vehicle will have wings. They will take you to any place. You can go to sleep d    70     your travel when you feel tired. All vehicles will be safe because robots drive them.

During the Jin Dynasty (265-420), there was a child named Che Yin. He was smart and loved to read. He grew up in a poor family and couldn’t buy lamp oil to study at night. One night, he saw fireflies (萤火虫) outside his house and came up with an idea. He caught some fireflies in a bag and used the bag as a lamp. It is said that he spent all of his summer nights reading like this.

Another child named Sun Kang also loved reading. One night during winner, Sun used up all of his lamp oil and couldn’t study at night. When he woke up at midnight, he saw the snow reflecting (反射) the moonlight outside his house. “Oh, I can use the reflected light to read!” he thought. He took out his books and read, even though he was cold.

Both of these kids later became successful. People turned their stories into the Chinese idiom (成语) nangying yingxue.

Do you feel uncomfortable if you can’t touch your iPad or computer for a day? Do you often spend over two hours on the Internet each time only to play games or search the Internet? Do you know what it is? It is called Internet addiction. According to experts, the people with Internet addictions spend nearly thirty to forty hours online every week. They lose control (控制) of the time on the Internet.

A study shows that about six to ten percent of Internet users become addicted. The teenagers spend more time on the Internet than with friends and family. That’s why some experts worry most about young people. It is too difficult for the teenagers to keep away from the Internet. If they have one of the following symptoms (症状), they should be more careful.

*Go out with the friends less and less.

*They can’t wait to get online again.

*They decide to spend a short time online, but then spend more.

How can we help the teenagers to solve this problem? Some experts advise that parents should limit (限制) their children’s time for Internet use. If children can’t do it, their parents can use some apps or tools (工具) on the computer to limit. Talking with them more and reading some interesting books with them can also help the teenagers.

84. 初中的时光已经过去了一半。比起小学，你有哪些方面的进步呢？请以“I’m doing better”为题写一篇短文。

I’m doing better

How time flies! I have been a middle school student for one and a half years and I think I am growing up. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________