How will the Internet change the world? Will we enjoy a smarter life in the future? Recently, many of the world’s biggest Internet companies took part in an important meeting. They talked about how to build a future for our online world. The Internet can make our lives easier in many ways. The companies at the meeting showed us some of their latest technology. Here are some examples. Let’s take a look.
Lip reading machines
They can not only read faces. They can also read your lip movements. The Chinese Internet company Sogou has made lip reading technology. You don’t need to speak aloud. The machine turns your lip movements into voice or text. This could be very useful if you are in a noisy place and people cannot hear you on your phone. Police can also use this technology. Sometimes they see criminals on city-monitoring cameras, but they don’t know what they say. The lip reading technology can help people with this.
Smart shoes
Your feet might hurt if your shoes don’t fit you. This won’t happen if you wear “smart” custom-made shoes. The Xiemofang company brought a machine to the meeting. The machine scans your feet. It records 39 parts of your feet. It also has a database (数据库). The database has more than 10,000 kinds of shoes. You can choose the colour and style. It also gives you suggestions for your choices. The suggestions are based on records of other people’s feet. You can get your new shoes after 10 days.
Unmanned supermarkets
You walk into a supermarket, pick out your goods and go to check out. But there is no worker. There is just a tablet (牌子) that says “Please smile”. When you smile, it gives you a discount (打折). Your money goes from your Alipay account to the supermarket. You don’t need to do anything. The Alibaba company has made this supermarket. When you go into the supermarket, it knows your face and your Alipay account. It also knows your facial expressions. So it knows how much you like your goods. The supermarket not only makes shopping easier, but also comprehends you.
1. Many Internet companies took part in an important meeting to show us ________.| A．how powerful the online world is | B．how to use technology on the Internet |
| C．how to enjoy a life in the future | D．how technology makes life better |
| A．There are no workers in the unmanned supermarkets. |
| B．If you smile, you can get a discount in the unmanned supermarkets. |
| C．The machine can recognize not only your face but also your Alipay account. |
| D．You needn’t pay anything if you are satisfied with your goods. |
| A．a book review | B．a science fiction |
| C．a technology magazine | D．a news report |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】The Information about Some Great Inventions
Invention | Wheel | Telephone | Light bulb(灯泡) | Paper |
Appearing(出现) time | A few thousand years ago | In 1876 | In 1879 | Around 2, 000 years ago |
Inventor(发明者) | Unknown | Alexander Bell | Thomas Edison | Cai Lun |
Inventor’s Nationality(国籍) | Unknown | American | American | Chinese |
Early Main Material(材料) | Wood | Plastic and metal | Glass and metal | Cotton or fax(亚麻) |
Main Use(主要用途) | Making travelling faster | Used for communicating over distances(距离) | Giving light | Used for recording information |
1. What’s the form(表格) above about?
| A．Rules. | B．Movies. |
| C．Dreams. | D．Inventions. |
| A．The wheel. | B．The paper. |
| C．The telephone. | D．The light bulb. |
| A．One. | B．Two. |
| C．Three. | D．None. |
| A．Wood. | B．Glass and metal. |
| C．Plastic and metal. | D．Cotton and flax. |
| A．have enough light to read | B．travel faster |
| C．communicate over distances | D．have more books to read |
【推荐2】By 2050, nearly 70% of the world’s population （人口） will live in cities. Many of them will become large cities with a population of more than 10 million. Moving people around each large city will be difficult. The traffic speed（速度） in London will fall to about 7 miles per hour. Around the same speed it was 150 years ago, in the days of the horse and cart. But city planners are working on ways to solve （解决） the problem.
 robot taxis | Robot taxis will play a part. There’ll be more than 30 million Robot taxis on the road by 2040, Drivers don’t need to drive by themselves. By 2050, there will be more robot taxis in the city streets. We can call the taxis very quickly. |
 buses | Public transport （公共交通工具） like buses will be highly personalized （个性化）. People don’t need to look through the bus timetable. Buses will be connected on the Internet and make the way by themselves according to（根据）where the people need to go. |
 bikes | Bikes will be helpful and safe, too. Cities could build special roads for them high above city streets. Xiamen in southeast China already has an 8-kilometer bicycle way to protect riders like that. That may be another kind of transport in 2050. It will be wonderful. |
1. Most of people will live ________ by 2050.
| A．in the big cities | B．in the small cities | C．in London | D．in the villages |
| A．Moving people | B．People in Xiamen | C．People in the streets | D．City planners |
| A．Two | B．Three | C．Four | D．Five |
| A．The traffic speed in London will be slow because of the big population. |
| B．There will be robot taxis drove by people by 2040. |
| C．Buses can make the way by themselves. |
| D．Roads for bikes will be high above city streets. |
| A．In a storybook. | B．In a magazine. | C．In a report. | D．In a travel guide. |
Maybe cars are one of the most important inventions. It is convenient to travel for people especially for American. Cars were widely used by American thanks to Henry Ford. He produced a simple car called the Model T. He sold the car at a low price that many Americans could afford. The car was easy to operate and became part of everyday life in the United States, Henry Ford put America on wheels.
Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863. He grew up on a farm, but he disliked farm work. He liked machines. At the age of 16, Ford got a job in a machine shop. In his spare time, he built engines. After years of experiments, Ford produced his first car in 1896.
Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Ford wanted to produce large numbers of cars at low cost. He brought out the first Model T in 1908.
Ford set up factories that could make cars fast. As cars were being built on a line, each worker along the line did one set of tasks, on car after car.
Workers often found their work boring. Many of them left after a short time. To keep his workers, Ford doubled the pay for his workers.
Ford started a charity, the Ford Foundation in 1936. When Ford died in 1947, he left most of his money to the Ford Foundation. The Ford Foundation is still giving money to help poor countries and poor areas.
1. How old was Henry Ford when he produced the first car?| A．33. | B．45. | C．36. | D．47. |
| A．Henry Ford gave Americans wheels. |
| B．Henry Ford let many Americans have cars. |
| C．Henry Ford set up factories that produced wheels. |
| D．Henry Ford bought many wheels. |
| A．Because they didn't get enough money. |
| B．Because their jobs were dangerous. |
| C．Because they found their work boring. |
| D．Because there was too much noise. |
| A．His family. | B．His country. | C．His friends. | D．The Ford Foundation. |
| A．Cars called the Model | B．Henry Ford |
| C．The Ford Foundation | D．The Ford Motor Company |
【推荐1】In the future, computers and other machines will be able to remember you by looking at your eyes! The program works because everyone’s eyes are different. So in the future you won’t have to remember a number when you want to use a machine or take money out of a bank. You will just have to look at the machine and it will be able to tell who you are.
The eye-recognition (眼睛识别) program is already being tested in shops and banks in the USA, Britain, Spain, Italy and Turkey. This technology will take the place of all other ways of finding out who people are.
We already have machines that other kinds because your eyes don’t change as you get older, or get dirty like hands or fingers. And even twins have different eyes, so the program can be up to 94% correct. It is not always correct. It depends on how good the technology is. Some programs may only be right 51% of the time. In Britain, it was found that 91% of people who had tried it said they liked the idea.
1. What will the program for remembering eyes be used for?| A．Banks and computers. | B．Banks and shops. | C．Guns and computers. | D．Guns and shops. |
| A．You look at the machine and type a number. | B．You need to speak and then look. |
| C．You look at the machine. | D．The machine looks at you. |
| A．You needn’t remember a number. | B．You needn’t take money with you. |
| C．You don’t need to speak. | D．People think they are interesting. |
| A．Some eyes are the same. | B．Eyes can change. | C．It is not always correct. | D．Eyes can get dirty. |
【推荐2】①Driving coaches might soon be joining the list of jobs to be replaced by AI in the near future. A company in China has developed an AI-powered driving coach called Robo Coach, and it’s already being used in driving schools.
②Unluckily, Robo Coach is not a humanlike robot that sits next to you and complain about your driving skills. The digital driving coach developed by Beijing Yi Jia Jia Technology is actually a teaching and safety control system.
③The other ways in which Robo Coach differs from human driving coaches are even more amusing, though. Robo Coach will call you as “mommy” or “daddy”.
④Besides voice, the system uses a dashboard (仪表盘) screen and a smart rearview mirror (后视镜) to communicate with the learner. Robo Coach uses sensors (传感器) to stop if the car runs into something or increase speed suddenly for no reason, similar to how self-driving cars work.
⑤The Robo Coach has more than 40 different sensors on the car to notice people, other cars and roads. _______ And to make faster decision making, the car is also provided with radar systems (雷达系统) .
⑥The system isn’t just keeping new drivers from meeting accidents. It also collects information on the learner’s driving behavior and even body position. It studies these driving habits in real time to see if the learner is too traditional or easy to be angry during practice and changes its teaching style. By recording all the problems a learner runs into during lessons, the system aims to help the new driver correct past mistakes and prevent new ones.
⑦The Robo Coach is now being used in five driving instruction centers owned by Yi Jia Jia’s parent company as well as 22 other driving schools across China.
1. Which sentence can be put in _______ in Paragraph ⑤?| A．It can correct your mistakes at any time. |
| B．It can stop immediately if learners meet any danger. |
| C．It communicates with learners and helps decision making and instructions. |
| D．It studies learners’ driving habits and records them. |
| A．The Robo Coach can do everything when learners learn to drive. |
| B．AI might replace human driving coaches soon. |
| C．With the Robo Coach’s help, learners can improve their driving skills quickly and safely. |
| D．The Robo Coach will sit next to you and help you correct your driving skills |
| A．To tell us that many people are worried about the safety of AI coaches. |
| B．To warn us that AI coaches will replace human’s place. |
| C．To suggest we prepare for the idea that AI coaches will help learners in the future. |
| D．To show us the fact that AI coaches are being used in some driving schools across China. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
【推荐3】China’s biggest solar-powered drone (太阳能无人机), Oimingxing-50 or Morning Star 50, finished its first test flight in September, 2022. The drone was built by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC,中国航空工业集团有限公司).
Drones have been used for quite a few years now. There are different ways of increasing the flying time. However, all these methods (方法) become less useful compared with the unlimited (无限的) power provided by the Sun. That’s why researchers have been working to make solar-powered drones that can not only stay in the air for longer but also perform more tasks while in the sky.
In 2018, China tested the first version (版本) of Morning Star, which was 91 feet wide. Made from a special kind of plastic, the drone was so light, weighing only 41 pounds. Compared with it, the Morning Star 50 is much larger and has a wingspan (翼展) of 164 feet.
On September 3, Morning Star 50 took off from an airport in Yulin City in the Shaanxi province in northwest China and landed back 26 minutes later after a smooth flight. Staff told some local reporters that all flight systems worked normally. This is a good start for future flights of the solar-powered drone that could last for many days or even months at a time.
In the US, Airbus has been testing the Zephyr solar-powered drones for the past few years. Its latest version, the Zephyr S, came close to breaking the record for the longest flight. It stayed in the air for 64 days. Unluckily, the drone fell onto the ground only a few hours before it would have set a new record.
1. Which one is an expected advantage (优点) of solar-powered drones?| A．They’re cheaper than others. | B．They can fly in bad weather. | C．They can stay in the air for longer. |
| A．Its appearance. | B．Its material. | C．Its shape. |
| A．It failed to land smoothly. | B．It flew for only a few hours. | C．It set a new record in the US. |
| A．The history of drones. | B．The different uses of drones. | C．The introduction of a new kind of drones. |
【推荐1】Do you ever feel like you are running from one activity to another, or studying a mad rush of one subject after another?
When things happen at such a fast pace (节奏), it is easy to lose sight of what you are doing, or what you are learning. It is important to stop yourself every now and then to think about what you’ve been doing or learning.
Self reflection means stopping the mad rush of activity and calming yourself and your mind so your brain can weigh the information it has already received. Some people prefer to do their self reflections in their minds, while others keep written notes. Either method can work, depending on what your own personal style is. Whether thought or written, the process is the same.
School textbooks are often divided into units. This can make it easier for someone who wants to begin the process of self reflection to get started. Watch for the times when you complete a unit in any subject you are learning: math, history, science, or any other topic. Sometimes you are reminded that the unit is over because there is some kind of test.
Use these natural breaks as opportunities to stop and reflect. Find a quiet place. This can even be sitting at your desk at school when you finish something early and the other students are still working. If you are going to take notes, take out a piece of paper or your reflection notebook. Take down some quick notes on things that you learned in this unit that you did not know before you began. Let your mind think over the notes you have written and make some connections.
Sometimes just stopping to think deeply allows your brain to make connections so that new information can be quickly recalled (回想起) when you need it again. Next, think about things that you still wonder. For example, maybe you learned a new way to solve a math problem, but you’re not sure when to use it. Writing down your questions will help you remember to continue looking for answers the next time you come across the same topic.
Self reflection is an essential (必不可少的) skill for a successful student. If you have never taken time to reflect, try it now.
1. What do you have to do for self reflection?| A．To divide your textbook into some small parts. |
| B．To take down some notes quickly and carefully. |
| C．To calm your mind and make some connections. |
| D．To get fully prepared for the test at the end of a unit. |
| A．It needs a quiet and comfortable place. |
| B．It is a must for a successful student. |
| C．It can help solve all the problems. |
| D．It depends on the same method. |
| A．To prove the necessity of self reflection. |
| B．To introduce some effective ways to do self reflection. |
| C．To encourage students to try self reflection and become successful. |
| D．To argue the importance of self reflection to students’ development. |
【推荐2】Dinner customs are different around the world. If you are a dinner guest in Ghana, this information will help you.
In Ghana dinner is usually from four in the afternoon to six in the evening. But there are no strict rules about time in Ghana. Whenever a guest arrives, a family offers food.
When you go to a home, the host takes you to the living room first. At this time everyone welcomes you. Then you go to the dining-room. There you wash your hands in a bowl of water. All the food is on the table.
In Ghana you usually eat with your fingers. You eat from the same dish as everyone else. But you eat from one side of the dish only. It is not polite to get food from the other side of the dish. After dinner, you wash your hands again in a bowl of water.
Most meals in Ghana have a dish called fufu. People in Ghana make fufu from the powder of some plants. Sometimes they cut the fufu with a saw because it is very hard and like rubber. You must chew fufu well, or you can get sick. You eat fufu with the fingers of your right hand only.
1. In the fourth paragraph, the writer wants to tell us ________.| A．what to eat in Ghana | B．how much time to spend on a dinner |
| C．the way of eating | D．different food at a dinner |
| A．told some strict rules about dinner | B．taken to the dining-room |
| C．taken to the living room | D．told to wash your hands |
| A．smell | B．taste |
| C．press with your hands | D．crush with your teeth |
| A．the top of a dish | B．the other side of the dish |
| C．the dish only for you | D．just one side of a dish |
| A．dinner is always at six | B．rules for dinner time are not strict |
| C．a family offers food only at four | D．you don’t have to wash your hands again after dinner |
【推荐3】In the world, a five-day work week is common. However, in some places, people are exploring the idea of paying workers the same for working just four days a week. Some companies have been slow to try it. The results of last year’s experiment suggested the move may be good for both companies and workers.
Last June, 61 UK companies agreed to try giving their workers a four-day work week. They asked their workers to do as much as they usually did in five. The experiment turned out to be good for most companies. The number of days that workers were out sick dropped by 65%. About 57% fewer people left their jobs during the experiment. What’s more, the companies made more money—about 1.4%.
How did workers do more in less time? Some companies cut meetings, or made sure they were shorter. Others used technology to help workers get more done quickly. Some companies created “a focus time” so workers could work on just one thing without being interrupted (打扰).
In general, workers said the four-day work week left them feeling less tired. About 71% said they felt less “burnt out” with their new work hours. About 73% of the workers were more satisfied with the time they spent working. Workers reported that the extra day off allowed them to do more of what they loved.
Professor Brendan Burchell, who helped run the study, said, “A four-day week means a better life for so many people.” At the end of the experiment, 92% of the companies involved (参与) said they planned to keep the four-day work week.
根据文章内容，判断句子正 (T)、误 (F)。1. The writer explains the experiment results by listing numbers.
2. The expression “a focus time” in the passage means “a time to take a break from work”.
3. Paragraph 4 mentions workers’ feelings about working four days a week.
4. We can know the four-day work week has been highly thought of from the last paragraph.
5. The purpose of this passage is to introduce different companies.
