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       Technology will allow homes in the future to be “smart.” Appliances will__31__with each other－and with you. Your stove,__32__ , will tell you when your food is cooked and ready to eat. Refrigerators will suggest recipes__33__ food items you already have. The technology is possible because of tiny information-storing devices called RFID chips. People already use them to__34__pets and farm animals. Future RFID chips will store information about all the items in your cabinets. For example, they will record the date that you bought each item. __35__ devices will “read” this information using radio waves. When you need more food, your cabinets will tell you to buy it.

Due to interference from the Earth’s atmosphere, viewing stars from ground-based telescope is already hard enough. For star-gazers __36__ in cities, the situation is even more difficult. All the light from street lamps, office buildings, and houses constantly “washes out” the sky and__37__star light.__38__, amateur astronomers often get together in clubs to organize trips to rural areas. High-altitude locations work best, __39__ low-lying areas can also make excellent viewing locations. Interest in astronomy clubs peaks every year or two__40__headline events like passing comets and meteor showers take place. At these times, groups made up of dozens of space enthusiasts from to explore the universe together.

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       Born in Ghana, West Africa, in 1989, Freddy Adu has become one of the most promising young soccer players in the world. Soccer fans have been extremely enthusiastic about Adu since 2003, when he became the youngest player ever to sign a professional sports contact in the United States. He was 13 years old at the time! The next year, he became the youngest athlete ever to play in an all-star game, a match in which the best individual players from many professional teams compete.

       As a child, Adu did what many children in Ghana love to do—play soccer. Although there were no formal teams or leagues, Adu played soccer every day. He says that he loved learning the sport by teaching himself. Adu’s mother recognized her son’s talent and encouraged it by providing soccer balls, which were expensive. Since he was the child with the sports equipment, other children always came looking for Freddy when they wanted to kick the ball around a field.

       Education was very important to Adu’s mother, and she wasn’t sure that her son could receive a good education in Ghana. She had some relatives in the United States, so she applied for residency there. Adu’s family received U.S. residency cards and moved to Maryland in 1997, when Freddy was eight years old. Freddy’s new school friends soon noticed his talent for soccer, and the parents of one friend encouraged him to join a soccer club. This was Adu’s first experience playing organized soccer, and he helped his team from the Potomac Soccer Association win a tournament in Italy in 2000. One professional Italian team was so impressed by Adu that they offered him $750,000 to play for them. Adu’s mother turned down the offer and insisted that her ten-year-old son needed to finish school first.          Adu did finish high school at the age of 14 after enrolling at a boarding school for athletes. Nowadays, he is playing professional soccer and living with his mother in a house he bought for her. His annual salary with the D.C. United team is $500,000, and Adu is also paid to advertise products such as sports shoes and soda.

       Thanks to modern technology, humans have less to do. Machines make our coffee in the morning and clean our dishes. Robots do the vacuuming, mop the floors, and mow our yards hands-free. But what would it be like if machines drove our cars for us? What if cars could drive us to work while we read the newspaper or worked on the computer? This may sound like science fiction. In fact, driverless cars are already on the roads, and could soon end up at a dealer near you.

       Cars today already think for us. GPS navigation systems can give people directions without looking at a map. Sensors built into cars sound an alarm if drivers get too close to a person or another vehicle. Cameras can see for us at night and steer cars around obstacles to avoid accidents. Smart cars can park themselves and control drivers when they’re about to make a dangerous turn. Now car companies are building driverless cars that will do all of these, and much more.

       According to car manufacturers, hands-free driving has important benefits. For example, driverless cars can improve safety. In the United States, over 90% of car accidents are the result of human errors. Drivers can make bad judgments, get sleepy, and run red lights, but robots don’t. In a hands-free car, people can respond to email without worrying about hitting another car. Also, driverless cars would use less fuel. They don’t need to be as heavy because they are less likely to crash.

      Although driverless cars sound perfect, there are problems. For instance, automated cars cannot anticipate the unexpected like humans can. They might not recognize when a police officer tells traffic to stop or pull off. Driverless cars may be too “polite” on the highway, where many people speed. A car that is following the speed limit could cause more accidents. In addition, if an accident does occur, who is at fault? Do you blame the driver? The car? The car manufacturer? Therefore, countries will have to decide who is responsible and write new laws, which won’t be easy.