A live-streaming app（直播应用）that monitors（监控）students in classrooms in some middle schools has raised a lot of online discussion. It was reported that any user of the app Shuidi could see inside classrooms. Some parents have praised the app for giving them the chance to monitor their children, while others worry about privacy problems. Do you think the app is a good idea?

Barbara, 16:

I strongly support this app. Nowadays, children play an important role in the whole family, and parents always want to care for their children, wherever they are. This new platform（平台）helps parents see what their children are doing in classes. It’s also a good way to make students behave themselves in school.

Tina, 15:

I’m in favor of this app if parents get their children’s permission first. The app could help parents focus on children’s bad habits. It could also be used as a tool to prevent bullying（霸凌）. However, parents should get their permission first to protect their privacy.

Lucas, 16:

I think this app is a bad idea. Schools should be pleasant and relaxing places for students to study and play. But we will feel uncomfortable if cameras are watching us all the time. We should pay attention to our privacy. Our lives shouldn’t be watched by the public.

Frank, 15:

Any form of privacy invasion（侵犯）shouldn’t be allowed. Although some parents want to know more about their children, they should do it in a better way: Being under the eye of strangers is too dangerous.

The pencil is a very simple object. However, it took hundreds of people over centuries to make it what it’s like today.

The story of the pencil starts with graphite (石墨). 【小题1】 Around 1560, an Italian couple named Simonio and Lyndiana Bernacotti added wood holders to the graphite sticks. 【小题2】 In 1795, in France, Nicolas-Jacques Conte worked out a method (方法) of mixing graphite powders with clay. In this way, people made strong pencil cores (铅笔芯). 【小题3】

When pencils were handmade, they were made round. Then an American Joseph Dixon developed machines to make pencils. 【小题4】

There is a pencil for everyone and every pencil has a story. The Blackwing (黑翼) 602 is famous for being used by a lot of writers. And then, you have the Dixon Pencil Company. 【小题5】

In my opinion, there’s nothing that can be done to make the pencil better than it is.

As we all know, water is one of the most important things in the world. But we are short of water. The company Watergen produced a new machine to help work out this problem. The machine is called GENNY, it is small enough to be used in a home or office but can produce up to 30 liters of water a day. More importantly, it can produce clean water out of air.

GENNY takes air in and passes it through a filter (过滤器) to clean away dirty things. The filter is powerful enough to work even in areas with high air pollution. The air then passes through a room, then vapour in the air turns into water by heating and cooling in the room. The water is then passed through some more filters, and minerals (矿物质) are added to make it healthier and better-tasting. Finally, the water is kept fresh in a tank (大容器). As a company, Watergen plans to provide safe drinking water to millions of people.

Besides, Watergen tries to help the environment (环境) by encouraging people to use fewer plastic (塑料) bottles. People can put the water from jenny into glass bottles so that they won’t use plastic bottles any more. It calls for saving energy at the same time. There are even two kinds of jenny: one uses the electrical power and the other runs on energy from solar power.

The new machine of Watergen is sure to help many people around the world and help take care of our earth.