You are just waking up in the spring of 2030. Your Internet of Things bedroom opens solar-powered e-windows and plays gentle music while your smart lighting displays a montage(蒙太奇) of beachfront sunrises from your recent vacation.
Your shower uses very little water or soap. It recycles your grey water and puts the extra heat back into your home's integrated operating system. While you dress, your artificial intelligence (Al) assistant shares your schedule for the day and plays your favourite tunes.
You still start your day with caffeine but it comes from your loT refrigerator which is capable of providing a coffeehouse experience in your home. A hot breakfast tailored to your specific nutritional needs (based on chemical analysis from your trips to the "smart toilet") is waiting for you in the kitchen.
When it's time to leave, an on-demand transport system has three cars waiting for you, your spouse and your kids. On the road, driverless cars and trucks move with mathematical precision, without traffic jams. Accident rates are near zero.
En route, you call your R&.D team, who are wrapping up a day's work in Shanghai. Your life-sized image will be projected,which makes your colleagues see you as if you were sitting with them. It's a bit surreal(超现实的)for them to see you in the morning light given that it's dark on the Bund, Shanghai's waterfront, though the novelty fades after a few uses.
You review the day's cloud-based data from your Shenzhen manufacturing centre, your pilot project in San Diego, and your QA team in Melbourne. The massive datasets are collected in realtime from every piece of equipment and have been beautifully summarized by your company's AI. All these facilities are closely maintained and operated via a skilled predictive analytics platform. Pleased with the team's progress, you end the call and ease into a good book. This is the future and it will be here sooner than you think.
1. What will happen when you dress yourself according to the text?| A．Your schedule is sent to your boss. |
| B．Bedroom opens quickly. |
| C．Your favourite tunes are played. |
| D．Your coffee is ordered and served. |
| A．Made specially. |
| B．Mixed similarly. |
| C．Produced in advance. |
| D．Invented traditionally. |
| A．Because the team makes progress. |
| B．Because your images are wrapped up. |
| C．Because you did it ahead of time. |
| D．Because your life-sized picture is projected. |
| A．Why we need AI assistants. |
| B．What life will be like in 2030. |
| C．How we find meaningful work in the future. |
| D．How AI helps you lead an important life. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Not long after my daughter was born in early 2013, I had a serious thought about the life that lay ahead for her. With health and luck, she will live long enough to see the dawn of the 22nd century.
As a journalist, I often encounter the date 2100. It’s a milestone year frequently mentioned in climate change news reports, stories about future technologies and science fiction. But it’s so far ahead that the route we will take to get there is difficult to see. I rarely consider that, like my daughter, millions of people alive today will be there as 2100 arrives, inheriting the century my generation will leave behind.
For many of us, how often can we truly say we are thinking about the well-being of these future generations? How often do we think about the impact of our decisions on the decades and centuries ahead?
Part of the problem is that the “‘now’commands so much more attention,” the sociologist Elise Boulding once said. “If one is mentally out of breath all the time from dealing with the present, there is no energy left for imagining the future.” No wonder problems like climate change or inequality feel so hard to handle right now.
That’s why researchers are coming to the same conclusion that short-termism (短期主义) may be the greatest threat our species is facing this century. Despite our natural ability to look and plan ahead, we have a weakness in our thinking called “present bias.” For example, people are more likely to accept an offer of£10 today, rather than a guarantee of £12 in a week. They also tend to spend on pleasures, not save for rainy days.
I understand the dangers of short-termism. I can both justify the argument and feel the need to care more about future generations. But I admit I still struggle with how to translate that into clear action as an individual. To realize that we are just one in a chain of generations, we owe an obligation (义务) to our future generations to leave a better world than the one we inherited ourselves.
1. What is Paragraph2 mainly about?| A．People’s expectation of the year 2100. |
| B．The author’s thoughts on the year 2100. |
| C．The author’s plan for his daughter’s future. |
| D．People’s attitude to the importance of the year 2100. |
| A．Owing to our ignorance of the future. |
| B．Because of people’s inability to plan for the future. |
| C．Because of our difficulty in handling future problems. |
| D．Due to the lack of our mental energy to consider the future. |
| A．Preference. | B．Disorder. | C．Balance. | D．Freedom. |
| A．To criticize those who favor short-term rewards. |
| B．To express his dissatisfaction with the young generations. |
| C．To inspire people to think more about the future generations. |
| D．To show his determination to speak for his daughter’s future. |
【推荐2】NASA(美国宇航局) may be going to the same old moon soon，but it’s going to do something different this time—stay there.
According to NASA，it will set up an international camp on one of the moon’s poles(极)，and in 2020 astronauts will land on it.For the next four years，astronauts will only spend a week at a time there，but in 2024，NASA will have astronauts living on the moon for six months.
Very different from NASA’s moon tasks of the 1960s，the new plan stands for a new step of space exploration.
NASA’s tasks in the 1960s were all around the middle area of the moon.This time NASA has decided to go to the moon’s poles because they are the best for longer term(更长期的) research.NASA’s moon plan is not just for American astronauts—it includes space travellers from other countries，too.In 2004，the US announced a plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020.Last year，NASA said it would cost $104 billion to get back to the moon，but NASA did not say what a permanent moon camp would cost.According to NASA，the time frame(期限) for its moon plan is：
2011—the first test of one of the spaceships.
2014—the first manned test flight(试飞)of the exploration vehicle with no moon landing.
2020—the first flight of four astronauts to the moon.
根据短文内容回答问题
1. When will astronauts stay on the moon for six months according to NASA?
2. What does NASA plan to do?
3. What does the underlined word “permanent” mean in Chinese?
4. What’s the main idea of the passage?
【推荐3】The Google Brain team has been working on computing systems called “neural networks”—systems that were designed based on how neurons work in the human brain.
This time, they gave a mission to three of the neural networks, which they named Alice, Bob and Eve. Each of the networks had its own job—Alice sent messages to Bob, Eve tried to “eavesdrop”(偷听) and find out the messages, and Alice and Bob had to figure out a way to hide the messages from Eve. All the help that Alice and Bob got from the researchers before the mission began was made up of a set of numbers, which Eve didn’t have access to.
At first, Alice was not very good at sending secret messages. But slowly it worked on a way to encrypt(加密) them—putting information into a special code so that others could not understand it if they got the information—using he numbers given by researchers. And after practice, Bob also came to be able to decrypt(解密) Alice’s messages. Without the numbers or keys, Eve failed to understand Alice’s “speech” most of the time.
This test is considered a big step in the development of computers’ learning skills. “Computing with neural networks on this scale has only become possible in the last few years, so we truly are at the beginning of what’s possible, ” Joe Sturonas of US encryption company PKWARE told New Scientist magazine.
Unfortunately, the test happened only one week after UK physicist Stephen Hawking, While speaking at Cambridge University, warned how AI(artificial intelligence)could develop a will of its own. This could be “either the best or the worst thing ever to happen to human being”, he said.
But just as Sturonas pointed out, no matter what the possibilities of computers are in the future, they are just starting out. We still have plenty of time to work out a solution before they get anywhere near becoming a threat to humanity.
1. For what purpose was the test conducted?| A．To study how neurons work in the human brain. |
| B．To study how computing systems work and learn. |
| C．To find out a more effective way to keep secrets. |
| D．To find out a more powerful way to break the codes. |
| A．encrypting—messages—code—messages—decrypting |
| B．messages—encrypting—code—decrypting—messages |
| C．code—messages—encrypt—decrypting—messages |
| D．messages—code—decrypting—encrypting—messages |
| A．AI must be a blessing. | B．AI should be forbidden. |
| C．AI is sure to be a failure. | D．AI is a double-edged sword. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Puzzled. | D．Panicked. |
【推荐1】For centuries, two of the most interesting questions about Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” were “Who?” and “When?” A discovery made at Heidelberg University in 2005 answered both. A note confirmed the account of da Vinci’s first biographer, Giorgio Vasari: that the sitter was a merchant’s wife, Lisa Gherardini. The note also helped date the masterpicce to between 1503 and 1506.
A third conundrum— “Where?”— is still in dispute. But on June 3rd a French engineer, Pascal Cotte, declared that he and a collaborator had identified the landscape in the background of the painting. During a presentation, Mr Cotte contended that the artist was more plausibly depicting a part of his native Tuscany. Da Vinci represented the area not as it was, but as, in an unrealized scheme, he intended it to be.
Mr Cotte, who was asked by the Louvre to create a digital image of the painting, is the inventor of the multispectral camera: a device that can detect not only the drawing below the surface of an oil painting but also intermediate layers of work. It was among these, under what appears to be a pointed rock, that he found a preparatory sketch (草图) showing that da Vinci intended it to represent a castellated tower.
The landscape of the “Mona Lisa” also includes a huge overhanging precipice (悬崖). That is similar to one that da Vinci included in a sketch of a fortress contested (争夺) by Pisa and Florence in a war. The fortress with the nearby precipice—and a tower—all overlook the river Arno as it snakes from Florence to Pisa. All three also feature in drawings made by da Vinci to illustrate a plan about which, says Mr Cotte, he became “obsessive”.
This involved diverting (改道) the Arno to cut off Pisa’s water supply and give Florence an outlet to the Mediterranean. In the early 1500s, with the two city-states at war, the idea was under active consideration. Mr Cotte argues that a channel at the right of the “Mona Lisa” is too wide to be a road, and is instead the dried-up bed of the Amo as da Vinci imagined it once his plan had been adopted.
It never was. But if Mr Cotte’s theory is right, it might just explain why Gherardini, a Florentine, wears such a contented, if inscrutable, smile.
1. What was painted in the “Mona Lisa” according to Mr Cotte?| A．A part of da Vinci’s hometown as it was. |
| B．An overhanging precipice and a fortress. |
| C．A pointed rock and a castellated tower. |
| D．The dried-up bed of a river. |
| A．Pascal Cotte | B．Leonardo da Vinci |
| C．Giorgio Vasari | D．Lisa Gherardini |
| A．Because da Vinci’s idea was taken seriously. |
| B．Because da Vinci’s plan was adopted. |
| C．Because Pisa’s water supply was cut off. |
| D．Because Florence had a good chance to win the war. |
| A．Where did Mona Lisa smile? |
| B．When was the “Mona Lisa” painted? |
| C．Who was the sitter of the “Mona Lisa”? |
| D．Why did Mona Lisa put on a smile? |
【推荐2】You want your children to do well in school. You want them to have nice friends and interesting hobbies and to not go out with strangers. You may even want them to be happy. But in this computer game, you can always start over with a new digital child if things don't work out as planned.
A new game in China puts players in control of those most fearsome of characters: Mom and Dad. The mission? Raise a son or daughter from kindergarten to college.
In a nation of famously demanding, scolding and, yes, sometimes loving mothers and fathers, the game, Chinese Parents, is a hit. Since its release in September, it has found a huge audience on Steam, an online marketplace run by the American game maker Valve Corporation. There are no official figures for how many people have downloaded the game but it has caused heated discussion online while earning tens of thousands of reviews.
Yang Gee Yelling, a founder of Moy wan Games, the independent studio that developed Chinese Parents, said he hoped to produce an English version this year. The success of the game, which costs $9. 99 to play, does not appear to be driven by people hoping to exact revenge for their own upbringings. Quite the opposite: Some fans have written that, by letting them experience childhood from their parents' perspective, it had moved them to tears.
"I used to not understand many things my mom made me do when I was little, "said Kang Shang hero, 19, a professional blogger in the northeastern city of Qinhuangdao. "But when I play the game and try to increase figures for my son so he can unlock more achievements and marry the prettiest girl in school, start to understand my parents more.
All the joys and trials of raising children are here. Players choose between pushing their digital generation to attain conventional success and allowing them some appearance of childhood innocence. They must give career guidance and tolerate (just barely) their teenager's first dates. Everything leads up to the gaokao, the highly competitive college entrance exam that decides the fortunes of so many young Chinese people.
1. What's the function of the first paragraph?| A．To attract readers to the topic. | B．To present the parents' expectations. |
| C．To arouse argument among readers. | D．To state clear fact. |
| A．It is produced as expected. |
| B．It has aroused heated discussions and received many comments online. |
| C．Many parents have been engaged in playing this computer game. |
| D．It is hoped that an English version of this computer game will come out this year. |
| A．Pessimistic. | B．Cautious. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Disgusted. |
| A．To introduce the computer game Chinese Parents. |
| B．To encourage children to play this computer game Chinese Parents. |
| C．To persuade parents to be strict with their children. |
| D．To let parents understand their children better. |
Recently, two researchers, Jose Millan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated (展示) a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person's thoughts.
In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.
“Our brain has billions of nerve cells. These send signals through the spinal cord (脊髓) to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles.” Tavella says. “Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices.”
The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp (头皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.
Prof. Millan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. “The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair.”
He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit from. And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.
1. BCI is a technology that can ________.
| A．help to update computer systems |
| B．link the human brain with computers |
| C．help the disabled to recover |
| D．control a person's thoughts |
| A．By controlling his muscles. |
| B．By talking to the machine. |
| C．By moving his hand. |
| D．By using his mind. |
| A．scalp→computer→cap→wheelchair |
| B．computer→cap→scalp→wheelchair |
| C．scalp→cap→computer→wheelchair |
| D．cap→computer→scalp→wheelchair |
| A．make profits from them |
| B．prove the technology useful to them |
| C．make them live longer |
| D．learn about their physical condition |
| A．Switzerland, the BCI Research Center |
| B．New Findings About How the Human Brain Works |
| C．BCI Could Mean More Freedom for the Disabled |
| D．Robotic Vehicles Could Help to Cure Brain Injuries |
