【推荐2】There is going to be a new city in the middle of the desert in New Mexico, USA. It looks almost the same with other middle-size American cities, with 35,000 homes, high buildings, highways, factories, a shopping centre and an airport. But it’s missing one very important thing. It doesn’t allow people to live there.

Known as Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation (CITE), the city is going to cost $1 billion to build. It is going to be a test city for the future, allowing both the government and private companies to try out new technology (科技), products and services in an environment that looks like the real world. Driverless cars, drones (无人机), robots and different power systems are some ideas to be tested in the city. Because there are no people in the city, scientists build a computer lab (实验室) underground to collect all the information from the test, then send it to a research (研究) center nearby.

The idea of CITE comes from a technology company Pegasus Global Holdings. “It offers scientists a safe place to test some technologies that may cause dangers, like driverless cars, without influencing our daily life. No people will get hurt if anything goes wrong,” Pegasus manager Robert Brumley told CNN.

Many scientists are happy to see new testing ways like this. “We need more new testing places,” Future Cities Lab designer Nataly Gattegno told CNN. “CITE will allow us to do tests much faster.”

Cities can be lovely and green homes for plants and animals. Many cities around the world want to make this come true. Let’s see how they do that!

Milan, Forest city

In the center of Milan, Italy, there are two tall buildings. Green plants cover them. They look like forests in the air. The “forests” have 800 trees, 15, 000 small plants and 5, 000 bushes. The area of these plants cover is the same as 30, 000 square meters of woodland. People plant them in big pots on large balconies. They attract 1, 600 kinds of birds and butterflies.

Cape Town, Cat city

Caracals (狞猫) live in Cape Town (开普敦) , South Africa. Cars cause 70 percent of their deaths. To save the big cats, people catch and mark cats. They also give the cats radio collars (电子项圈) . The collars tell people where the cats go. Then, people put signs at these places. Seeing the signs, cars can slow down and help take care of the cats.

Costa Rica, Sweet City

If bees could choose a place to live, they might want to live in Costa Rica (哥斯达黎加) . The city is doing its best to make bees feel at home. There, bees and other pollinators (传粉者) like butterflies, birds and bats are all seen as citizens. In the city, there’re flowers along every sidewalk so that bees and butterflies have food. It also builds “bee hotels” around the city. These are safe places for bees to live. It’s now nicknamed “Sweet City”!