“Josh! Kate! Emma! Time to go!” Mrs. Cater called from the car.

Emma and Kate hurried to finish their breakfast and Josh was busy looking for his Backpack.

As usual, it was a big rush. Every morning, their mother or father had to drive them to school.

“HURRY!” called their mother. Not so gently (温柔地) this time.

Kids ran to the car. Then Mom turned onto the road.

“Kids, what activities do you have after school?” Mom asked.

“I have dance class.” said Kate.

“I have soccer.” said Josh.

  “I have art class.” said Emma. Their mother just sighed (吸气).

That afternoon, Mrs. Carter had to pick up everybody. She drove a long way. Finally they were home.

Looking at the tired mother. Emma said. “I have an idea! We can ride bikes to school.”

“It’s too far! And taking a taxi costs a lot. If there were buses, that would be nice.” said Kate.

“Today we talked about cars in science class. Many people are all driving at the same time. That’s bad for the air. It uses too much gas (汽油). So we could do a carpool (拼车). Kill two birds with one stone!” said Josh proudly.

“Fantastic! We can talk to our neighbors.” said Kate excitedly.

“Yes!” said Josh “Mom! We could ask them to carpool.”

That night the family went to visit their neighbors.

The family told the Smiths their plan. They all loved the idea!

Evan Smith and Josh were on the same soccer team Their parents would take turns to pick up the boys.

The Carters visited other neighbors. One family said they would drive to school two days a week. Another family had children to Emma’s art class. Someone else had kids in Kate’s dance class.

Finally, they had a schedule (日程表). It showed when each family would drive. Josh said, “Tomorrow, I will tell my science teacher our plan. He will be proud of us! We are being careful with important Earth resources (资源). And we’ve solved our family problem.”