—Yes, I agree ___________you.

—We were told ___________a picnic this weekend.

—He seems to have a cold ___________the weather changes suddenly.

    Each one of us shares this planet with over seven billion others. And we all need1. People and products need to move from city to city and country to country. However, we all know2most cars, motorcycles, boats and planes cause air pollution. They are also3. This is a serious problem in many cities.4inventors are coming up with creative ideas to try to reduce the pollution and noise.

    In many cities around the world, motorcycles are very5. Now Vietnam has around 33 million motorcycles and China has almost 120 million. Motorcycles are a faster and cheaper way to get around a city than6. Yet air pollution is a growing problem. In large cities, people7it is difficult to breathe. To solve these problems, an American company designed an environmentally friendly motorcycle. It uses electricity as fuel (燃料). As a result, there is8pollution. It's also quiet and fast. This makes9a good choice for getting around a city.

    The Italian city of Venice is a city with only a few10. There are no cars in the city centre.11cars, water taxis and buses carry people along the city's canals (运河). However, they cause pollution,12to the water. English engineers Dick and Jem designed a solar-powered (太阳能的) water taxi. The water taxi13run for a day after being charged (充电).

    Planes also cause air and noise pollution. Designing an environmentally friendly airplane is a real14. Some airplane companies have15to solve the problems. Swiss engineers have gone one step further. They developed a solar airplane. This airplane even tries to travel around the world.

    In the mid 1990s, people started doing business on the Internet. At that time, there were two kinds of companies. First, there were traditional companies which sold things in shops. Then, there were Internet companies which didn't have shops; they sold things only over the net.

    Traditional companies didn't want to lose any business. Quickly, they created their own website and began selling things over the net. These are the so-called "brick and click" companies. Many shops are made of brick, and you click on your mouse to buy things with your computer. That's where the name "brick and click" comes from.

    By the late 1990s, e-businesses like Amazon.com and Buy.com were in trouble. Their profits were not very high, and there was a lot of competition. Many of these businesses lost a lot of money, and in 2000, many e-businesses went out of business.

    Why are "brick and click" companies, like Barnes & Noble, Toys "R" Us, and Walmart so successful? First, many customers know and trust their names. Their websites, like walmart.com, are easy to remember. These companies also have a lot of experience. They know how to run a successful business.

    In the world of e-commerce, companies are fighting for every dollar and every customer. Will "brick and click" companies win the war? Only time will tell.

    Mason has seen the future—and it's fun. Mason likes thinking about how machines can make our life easier by doing the work we hate, such as cleaning. He shows a floor cleaning machine that's built into the wall. It can clean up the floor.

    When it comes to the kitchen, Bruce, an expert at Whirlpool, is sure that in a few years, robots will be doing most of the boring work, freeing us to relax. "More than just fun, future kitchens will be environmentally friendly," he says. A new system will be built in the house which can recycle energy lost from your kitchen to make the whole home warm.

    "The fridge will be the centre of the home," says Daniel, a market expert. The fridge will have a touch screen (触摸屏幕) where you can watch TV, surf the Internet, check your emails, keep a shopping list and order vegetables. "Your fridge is the first place you go to in the morning and the last place at night," says Daniel.

    "I wonder why a 1.9-metre man and 1.6-metre woman have to cook meals on counters (柜台) of the same height," Jane Langmuir, an expert of cooking machines, says. "But times have changed. We have made a new counter where you can press a button and it moves to whatever height you want."

    Ted Selker has made the dish maker which lets you make dishes and bowls out of plastics at home. After each meal, the dishes are changed straight back into plastics.

at eight o'clock last night?