Online shopping is big business. Trillions of dollars of goods were bought over the Internet in 2020. Although some people prefer to shop in real shops, some experts say that 95% of all shopping will be done through the Internet by 2040. With the fast growth in online sales recently, people may think that online shopping only began in the last ten years. In fact, the world’s first online shopping took place more than 35 years ago.

A British woman named Jane Snowball was the first person to shop online. At the time, in May 1984, she was a 72-year-old grandmother living in Gateshead, England. A computer engineer named Michael Aldrich made some changes to Snowball’s television set and remote control. His modification enabled the elderly woman to place an order at the local Tesco supermarket. The order was sent through telephone lines to the store which would send the items to her home and she paid for them in cash. However, this historic moment didn’t lead to a huge worldwide industry because the websites had not been invented yet. Aldrich only thought that it was a fun experiment.

These days, online shopping is experiencing huge growth. With the Covid-19 pandemic, people in many parts of the world are staying home much more and even work remotely. A lot of them are shopping on the Internet without going out to keep away from the virus. Experts believe the disease has speeded up the use of the Internet to buy goods at least two to three years. That’s why the pandemic will be seen as another milestone (里程碑) in the history of online shopping.

We always think that it’s OK for us to leave our plants alone during our vacation. That’s because plants won’t scream(大叫) like pets, so they must be okay, right?

A recent study has found that some plants will scream in a high frequency(频率) when they are having stress.

The research was carried out on tomato plants and tobacco(烟草) plants by cutting their stems(茎) and taking water away from them. When they started cutting the stems, they found that the plants started “screaming” between 20 and 100 kHz and they believe that this scream is to warn other plants nearby.

When the tomato plants’ stems were cut, 25 distress sounds(求救信号) were recorded during an hour, and on the other hand, 11 distress sounds were recorded from the tobacco plants.

When they took water away from the plants, the tomato plants recorded even more distress sounds with 35 distress sounds in an hour while the tobacco plants recorded 15 distress sounds.

The group of scientists then said, “This changes the way we think of plants as we always made sure that they were silent, but the thing is that their voices are too high to be heard.”

Many people catch a could in spring or fall. 【小题1】.You never know which one you may get. When you get a cold, your body works hard to stop it. 【小题2】.You get a fever, but the heat of your body is killing the virus (病毒) 【小题3】In some countries, people may eat chicken soup to feel better. Some people take hot baths and drink warm water or milk. 【小题4】Some scientists say that taking medicine when you have a cold is bad for you. If you take medicine, your body will stop reacting to the virus.【小题5】.Bodies can do a great job by themselves.