【正文】 l m y hometown! Then I caught si ght of Wang Ping again and fl ew after him . Ariving at a strangel oki ng house, he showed m e i nto a large, bri ght clean room . It had a green wal l, a brown floor and soft li ghti ng. Suddenl y the wal l m oved –i t was m ade of trees! I found l ater that their l eaves provi ded the room wi th muchneeded oxygen. Then Wang Ping flashed a switch on a puter screen, and a tabl e and som e chairs rose from under the fl oor as i f by m agic. “Why not si t down and eat a l ittl e?” he sai d. “You m ay find thi s diffi cul t as i t i s your first time travel tri p. Just rel ax, si nce there i s nothing pl aned on the timetabl e today. Tom orrow you’l l be ready for some vi si ts.” H avi ng said this, he spread some food on the tabl e, and produced a bed from the floor. After he left, I had a bri ef meal and a hot bath. Exhausted, I sli d i nto bed and fel l fast asleep. More news later from your l ovi ng son, Li Qi ng I H AVE SEEN AMAZING TH INGS My fi rst vi si t was to a space stati on consi dered the m ost m odern in space. Descri bed as an enormous round pl ate, i t spi ns slowly i n space to im itate the pul of the earth’s gravity. Insi de was an exhi bi ti on of the m ost uptodate i nventions of the 31st century. A gui de(G) showed us around al ong a moveable path. G: Good m orning to al l our vi si tors from 20xx. Fi rst we’re going to exam ine one of the latest form s of muni cation am ong our space ci ti zens. No more typists worki ng on a typewri ter or puter! N o more postage or postcodes! Messages can now be sent usi ng a “thoughtpad”. You pl ace the m etal band over your head, clear your mi nd, press the sendi ng button, think your message and the next i nstant it ’s sent. It’s stored on the “thoughtpad” of the recei ver. It’s quick, effi ci ent and environm ental y fri endly. The only lim itati on i s if the user does not thi nk his or her m esage clearl y, an uncl ear m esage m ay be sent. But we canot bl am e the tool s for the faul ts of the user, can we? During the explanation I l oked at the pai r of sm al l objects cal ed “thoughjtpads” on a tabl e. They just looked li ke m etal ri bbons. So ordi nary but so powerful! Whil e I was observing them, the path m oved us on. G: And now l adies and gentl em en, we are i n the “environment area”. Peopl e used to col lect waste i n dustbi ns. Then the rubish was sent to be buri ed or burned, am I ri ght?(We nodded.) Wel l, now there’s a system where the waste is di sposed of usi ng the pri nci pl es of ecol ogy. A gi ant machine, al ways greedy for more, swal lows al l the waste avail abl e. The rubbish is turned into several grades of useful material, such as “ferti lizer” for the fields and “soul ” for deserts. Nothing is wasted, and everything, even pl astic bags, is recycled. A great i dea, isn’t it? I stared at the movi ng model of the waste machine, absorbed by i ts efficiency. But agai n we moved on. G: Our thirdthese ci ti es are not as large as those i n Chi na, they have worl dfam ous fotbal teams and some of them even have two! It is a pity that the industri al cities bui lt i n the nieenth century do not attract vi si tors. For hi stori cal archi tecture you have to go to older but sm al l er towns bui lt by the Romans. There you wi l find out m ore about Bri ti sh hi story and cul ture. The greatest hi stori cal treasure of al i s London wi th i ts m useum s, art col l ecti ons, theatres, parks and buil di ngs. It i s the centre of nati onal governm ent and its admi ni strati on. It has the ol dest port buil t by the Rom ans i n the first century AD, the oldest buil di ng begun by the Angl oSaxons in the 106os and the ol dest castle constructed by later N orm an rul ers in 1066. There have been four sets of invaders of Engl and. The fi rst invaders, the Rom ans, l eft thei r towns and roads. The second, the Angl oSaxon, l eft thei r language and thei r government. The third, the Viki ngs, i nfluenced the vocabulary and placenames of the N orth of Engl and, and the fourth, the Norm ans, l eft castles and i ntroduced new words for food. If you look around the Bri ti sh countrysi de you wi l find evi dence of al these i nvaders. You m ust keep your eyes open i f you are going to m ake your tri p to the Uni ted Kingdom enjoyabl e and worthwhil e. SIGH TSEEING IN LONDON Woried about the tim e avai lable, Zhang Pi ngyu had m ade a l ist of the sites she wanted to see i n London. H er fi rst deli ght was goi ng to the Tower. It was bui lt l ong ago by the Norm an i nvaders of AD 106. Fancy! Thi s sol id stone, square tower had rem ained standi ng for one thousand years. Al though the bui ldings had expanded around i t, it rem ai ned part of a royal pal ace and prison bi ned. To her great surprise, Zhang Pi ngyu found the Queen’s jewel s guarded by speci al royal soldiers who, on speci al occasi ons, stil l wore the fourhundredyearol d uni form of the tim e of Queen El i zabeth I. There fol owed St Paul’s Cathedral buil t after the terri ble fire of London i n 1666. It l ooked spl endid when fi rst buil t! Westmi nster Abey, too, was very i nteresting. It contai ned statues i n m em ory of dead poets and wri ters, such as Shakespeare. Then just as she cam e out of the abbey, Pi ngyu heard the fam ous sound of the cl ock, Bi g Ben, ri ngi ng out the hour. She fi ni shed the day by l oki ng at the outsi de of Bucki ngham Pal ace, the Queen’s house i n London. Oh, she had so m ush to tel her fri ends! The second day the gi rl visited Greenwi ch and saw its ol d shi ps and fam ous cl ock that sets the worl d tim e. What i nterested her m ost was the l ongitude l ine. It i s an imagi nary l ine dividi ng the eastern and western hal ves of the worl d and i s very useful for navigati on. It passes through Greenwich, so Pingyu had a photo taken standi ng on either si de of the li ne. The l ast day s