We can see beverage bottles（饮料瓶）almost everywhere. Can you imagine they can be sent into the sky? A science teacher and his students, from a primary school in Zhejiang Province, made a rocket with beverage bottles and launched（发射）successfully in May.

The teacher called Wang Yin said that the school’s learning theme of this year was about space and humans. And on May 15th, Tianwen-1 landed on Mars successfully. To celebrate it and let students experience the launching process, Wang decided to help his students make a water rocket.

The water rocket pushed by air and water wasn’t a new idea, but what Wang wanted to make was a two-stage（两段式）rocket. It wasn’t an easy job for the students. However, they showed great interest and did all the work with excitement. They continued with the project even after many failures. On May 17th, Wang and the students made it. Their rocket rose to a height of over one hundred meters. Later that day, Wang posted a video about the launch online. In just half a day, over 13 million people watched it. They all spoke highly of what he did. Wang said, “My students are crazy about it. It’s really meaningful.”

In the past few years, cars have become smarter and smarter. In more than nine cities, there are driverless taxis in China. Across the world, many “smart roads” have been in practice, and more are being built. Some new technologies are being put to use.

● Roads that recharge (充电)

Global warming has forced us to search for new energy sources. Why not look to the roads? With the right technologies, cars around the world could be producing energy as they go.

Piezoelectricity, in fact, is nothing new. It was invented in 1880. However, it has never been widely used before now. Lancaster University is going to change that. It has been improving the technology, including developing roadside batteries (电池) that can store the electricity.

● Built-in brain

Roads of the future may be able to know how many people are on them. They could send people updates on weather and traffic situations, and recharge electric cars as they drive.

This seems to be a dream, but a company has almost made it come true. By sensing the weight of a vehicle (车辆), the company’s smart roads can record the speed of each wheel. After having collected traffic data (数据) , the roads will send it to the drivers.

● Roads that never freeze

It can be dangerous to drive in snowy weather. A tech company has developed the snowless roads. When they feel snow or ice on their surfaces, the roads will heat themselves up, melting (融化) the snow or ice away. The project has been successfully tested on a few roads and in some car parks.