Do you want to know what our life will be like in the future? Let’s have a look. You may get a surprise.

You won’t go to the kitchen when you are hungry. You will give orders to the kitchen robot. The robot will cook the food for you in a few minutes. Then it will bring it to you.

In the kitchen you will find a special food machine. The food machine will tell you what your body needs. It will help you eat healthily. The food machine will be connected with the kitchen robot. The robot can get messages from the food machine.

After having a meal, you can go to your home office. You will work at home and you don’t need to go out to work any more.

You will have a special information screen. You can get any information on the screen. When you receive a message from a friend in other places, your information screen will be turned on automatically (自动地). Your friend’s face appears on the screen. Then you can talk to your friend easily.

Little Peter is a boy of nine. He began to go to school the year before last and now he’s in Grade Three. He lives not far from the school. but he’s often late for class. He likes watching TV in the evening and goes to bed late, so he can’t get up on time in the morning.

This term Mrs Black, Peter’s aunt, works in Peter's school. He teaches Grade Three maths. He’s strict with Peter and often tells the boy to obey(遵守) the school rules and come to school on time. Yesterday morning Peter got up late. When he hurried to school, it was a quarter past eight. His aunt was waiting for him at the school gate.

“You’re ten minutes late for the first class, Peter.” Mrs Black said angrily. “Why are you often late for class?” Every time, when I get to the street corner, I always see a guidepost. It says, 'SCHOOL-GO SLOW!'”

It's easy to tell someone good news, but what about bad news? Are there any good ways to give bad news without making people too upset?     16    

★ Say something good   Try to start the conversation with something good so that what you say is not all bad. For example,"I know you play soccer very well, but we only need one teammate."Or you may end the conversation with a promise."     17       "

★Prepare your listener for the news   Use words to introduce what you' re going to say, like"I'm really sorry, but..."or "I'm afraid I' ve got some bad news."     18    

★Try to give a reason.     19    Try to explain the decision: if you have to cancel a trip with friends, can you explain why?

★    20    If you' re giving someone bad news, try to use a soft friendly voice to make you sound kind. Say things to show you understand, like "I'm really sorry.I know this must be disappointing."