Mrs. Liscom is trying to wash the bowls (碗) after lunch and she looks ________. “Please Mom, sit down and let me help you,” says Fred Liscom, an eight-year-old boy.

She smiles, and says, “You, Fred, you wash the bowls?” “Yes, Mom,” answers Fred. “I see you do it every day ________ I want to do it.”

A look of relief (宽慰) comes over his mom’s ________ as she sits in her chair. Fred does the washing. Then he cleans the table, ________ everything in the kitchen, and then goes to school.

When school is over, Fred goes back home quickly (快速地), helps his mom cook ________, and again washes the bowls.

He keeps on in this way for several ________. One day, the doctor says to his mom “Well, madam, I can see you did have a good rest (休息), and you are very well now.” The doctor’s words make Fred ________. The doctor does not know ________ his mother can rest well. To ________ his mother, Fred can’t swim with the boys. He leaves school when school is over because he wants to help his mother with more ________. What a lovely boy!

One day, a father is doing some work carefully when his son comes and asks, “Dad, how much do you make an hour?”

His father gets a bit bored (厌烦的) and answers, “Why do you ask that?” The boy says, “I just want to know. Please tell me.” His father then says that he makes about $50 an hour.

“Oh, that’s too much!” the little boy answers with his head down. Looking up, he says, “Dad, can I borrow (借) $30?” The father gets angry and says, “That’s why you ask about my pay? If you want to borrow some money to buy a toy, then you go back to your room.”

________ After about an hour, the man goes to the boy’s room and opens the door. “Are you sleeping, son?” he asks. “No, dad.” the boy answers. “I am thinking—maybe I am too hard on you earlier,” his father says. “Here’s the $30 you want.”

The little boy sits up with a smile. Then, he takes out $20 from his schoolbag, then looks up at his father and says, “Dad, I have $50 now. Can I buy one hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”

With no words, the father’s eyes turn red.

You may know a lot about smart phones. But what about smart (智慧) cities?

Imagine (想象) living your life like this: When you get up in the morning, you say “Open the window” to the computer and it opens the window. The sunshine is shining and the birds are singing. Then you finish breakfast and sit in front of your desk and begin to have classes through the Internet. With the help of building a smart city, this may become true one day.

A smart city uses digital technologies (数字科技) such as the Internet to improve city planning, save resources (资源) and make our lives easier. For example, people live in smart cities, where there is Internet almost everywhere. They can do many things at home, such as booking train tickets, paying water bills and shopping online. What a convenient life it is!

Now China is making some cities smarter. For example, Guiyang is going to build free Wi-Fi in the whole city. Tianjin plans to start a smart city program to solve traffic problems. Guangzhou is building a smart city, so everyone in the city should work together to make it come true.

Mrs. Wilson likes to ask her husband to go shopping with her on Sundays. Her husband pays for the things that she buys. Now they are in a shop.

“Look, Andy. Is it a nice hair clip (发夹)?” Mrs. Wilson asks her husband. “All right. And how much is it?” he answers and gives money to the shop worker. When Mrs. Wilson asks him about something good or bad, he often says, “All right. And how much is it?”

At about 8:00 pm, Andy wants to have a drink. Suddenly (突然) his wife looks up at the moon and says, “Look, Andy. Is the moon beautiful?”

“All right. And how much is it?” her husband answers quickly.

There are many new ways of shopping, and online shopping is one of     46    . Online shopping has several     47    . First, you can shop at any time. The shops are always open. Second, shopping     48     takes a lot of time. But to shop on the Internet, you only need a computer and a mouse! You can also compare the     49     of the same product and spend a lot…or     50     money.

But many people like     51     out and shopping with friends. They don’t like shopping on the Internet because they can’t     52     the product or try the clothes on. Also, paying over the Internet isn’t always     53    .

Online shopping is changing our way of     54    . One day, no one will go to the shops any more,     55     you’ll be able to buy anything on the Internet, and you will be able to receive it anywhere in the world at any time!