Inventions usually make a big difference to people’s lives. Do you have any great inventions at home? Do they help you a lot in your life or bring you much ________? Here are some of the most useful inventions in families ________ a survey.

The most helpful and creative ________ for kids is the reading pen. With the specially-designed pen, kids find it convenient and fun to learn. Little kids can learn a lot including story-telling, poems and music. They start learning ________ touching the contents in the books with the pen. This way kids can learn by ________. They are also great helpers for primary school students after school.

Mopping robots (扫地机器人) are popular with people who are too ________ to do housework. They are more popular with office ladies. They can help people clean dirt, dust and hair easily. With the help of them, people don’t need to ________ much time on housework. They can enjoy a more relaxing life after work.

As for old people, an electric foot basin (电动洗脚盆) is the best invention. It’s a good ________ to buy one for your grandparents. It can help keep their blood pressure normal and improve blood circulation (循环). The special basin can keep the water ________. So washing ________ with it will help old people become healthier and more relaxed.

Do you often listen to music at loud volumes (音量)? You should know that this habit is bad for your hearing. Over 1 billion young people are at risk of hearing loss (听力丧失) ,because of listening to loud noise for long periods of time. Listening to music or watching a TV show at loud volumes can harm your hearing.

The United Nations has standards for safe listening. It is not safe to listen to sounds that are louder than 85 dB (分贝) for eight hours or 100 dB for 15 minutes. The sound of a busy road is about 85 dB and the sound of a rock concert can be about 100 dB.

Loud noise is harmful to the inner ear. Most of us are bon with about 16,000 hair cells (听毛细胞) in our inner ears. These cells notice sounds. However, listening to loud noise for a long time can make these cells work too hard and cause some of them to die. This is what causes hearing loss. Once this happens, it's hard to get your hearing back.

Some people might think that their music isn't all that loud. But this can depend on where you are. For example, if you are in a noisy place like the subway, you might turn up your music too loud without realizing it. Later, when you listen to it at the same volume in a quiet place, you alight feel uncomfortable

The "safe level" for most sound is below 80 dB for up to 40 hours a week. A level of 80 dB is about equal to (相当于) the noise of a subway.

Here is some advice on safe listening. Over-the-ear headphones   (头戴式耳机) are better than in-ear ones. They do a better job of stopping outside noise, so you can listen at a lower volume. Don't listen to loud music on your headphones for a long time. Follow the 60:60 rule: listen to music at 60 percent of your headphones' maximum volume for no more than 60 minutes a day.

The world uses about a thousand million (百万) tons of water a day. Water is a human right and everyone should have their share. Yet more than 700 million people around the world have trouble getting clean, safe water.

Treating wastewater is a good way to provide fresh water for us. And it also helps the environment by keeping waste out of rivers and oceans. 80% of wastewater around the world is not treated at all, and it is running into oceans. But now we have got the technology to treat and reuse the wastewater.

While 75% of our planet is covered with water, only about 2% is fresh water—that comes from rivers, lakes, ice and snow. The rest, 98% of the water, is in seas and oceans. It is too salty to drink. Then desalination businesses come in. More than 19,000 factories have been built around the world, mostly in coastal countries. They process (加工) more than 92 million tons of water every day. But the technology they use requires a lot of energy.

Scientists are working to create a less costly technology. They want to produce 20 times more clean water and make sure everyone has enough. But for now, the world still faces each day with not having enough water for everyone.

Computer scientist Mary has an idea for a new robot to help her work with children. How should it look? The robot should have arms to be able to lift things. And if it is going to communicate with people, it will also need a face. Scientists believe that giving a robot a face can make it seem more friendly. Humans would also like to pay more attention to robots with faces. But what kind?

For Mary, she wants to make sure that her new robot doesn’t look too much like a human. She wants people to just treat it as a machine-person. If it looks more like a human than a machine, she thinks users might find it a bit creepy and feel afraid. Mary also believes that robots’ faces don’t need to look a lot like ours. Her research shows that we can enjoy communicating with robots whether or not they look like humans, because our brains are able to look for faces. Just put two circles on top of a robot’s body, and we will see a face.

Dave feels differently. He believes that although at first we might be afraid when seeing a robot with a lifelike face, we may soon get used to it. If robots are going to work closely with humans, they should look as much like us as possible. After all, faces are an important part of the way we communicate.

To make his robots look as much like real people as possible, Dave invented a special skin (皮肤) for their faces. With this skin, robots can show human-like expressions and appear to be angry, sad, happy or surprised. Dave’s robots are also programmed to copy expressions. How? Just imagine his robot is looking at you. The cameras in its eyes send pictures of your face to its central computer!

Some people seem to be born happy. Nothing seems to get them down. However, some people seem to have everything going well but they still do not seem to be happy.     41    .

◆Listen to music

Music is good for people. There are different kinds of it. Light music can help us relax; some pop music can make us feel happy.     42    .

◆    43    

You may not have a pet of your own, but pets are so good at making people happy. Many reasons can explain why people like to have pets. Some pets are lovely and some need exercise, which is helpful to you, too.

◆Stay fit and healthy

Try to keep fit and health y by exercising every day.     44    . The great thing about exercise is that it helps release (释放) chemicals and these chemicals make you feel happy!

◆Be kind and smile

Often it is the small things that make people happy.     45    . At the same time, it will also build happiness for you.

56. 每个人在生命中都会遇到挫折和困难，它们是我们成长和发展的重要组成部分。如果我们能够正确地看待困难和挫折，并从中吸取教训和力量，那么我们就可以更好地应对未来的挑战。请以“Difficulties Make Me Grow Up”为题写一篇作文，叙述你所经历的困难如何助你成长，以及你的感受。