1 . We asked Professor John Williams, a futurologist, for his expert predictions on life in the next few decades.

“Unfortunately, it looks quite likely that the climate may ________significantly (显著地), with hotter summers, colder winters and more flooding. At the same time, fuel for heating or air conditioning will probably become much more expensive. For these reasons, our houses will certainly have to become much better ________. People are already building so-called ‘passive houses’, which have little or no central heating at all, ________ the body heat of the people who live there.

“Homes probably won’t be as big, and so we will need more adaptable (可改变的) furniture, such as sofa beds, and when we are not ________ our furniture we will be able to fold it away into wall cabinets (壁橱). Houses could have moveable walls so that the same space can be ________ in different ways.”

“New technology will make us more self-sufficient (自给自足的). Kitchens may have fish tanks which, as well as providing fish to eat, also ________ fresh vegetables. The plants will ________ oxygen for the fish. These tanks will be powered by household waste and create ________, which can then be used to run the family car—________ we might not all have cars!”

“Water will be more expensive and the home of the future will probably be designed to use much ________ water. Washing machines and dishwashers might use sound waves to shake ________ off. We may even take showers using sound waves. What water we do use will be recycled and used again round the house and private swimming pools will become a thing of the ________.”

“We will also ______ ) have more robots in our houses, though they won’t look like the ones in films. There will probably be small robots ________ to clean the fridge or open the curtains. ________ fridges will tell us when food is about to go out of date and even suggest recipes, and we will be able to communicate with our homes by mobile phone wherever we are.”

1.

A．change

B．improve

C．respond

D．cool

2.

A．prepared

B．placed

C．qualified

D．equipped

3.

A．dealing with

B．relying on

C．focusing on

D．giving out

4.

A．using

B．moving

C．cleaning

D．selling

5.

A．demanded

B．arranged

C．measured

D．enlarged

6.

A．produce

B．wash

C．store

D．cook

7.

A．find

B．save

C．provide

D．test

8.

A．spaces

B．energy

C．systems

D．material

9.

A．as

B．if

C．unless

D．though

10.

A．more

B．warmer

C．less

D．slower

11.

A．dirt

B．water

C．leaves

D．hair

12.

A．future

B．past

C．life

D．imagination

13.

A．regularly

B．suddenly

C．nearly

D．certainly

14.

A．designed

B．discovered

C．repaired

D．collected

15.

A．Old

B．Additional

C．Common

D．Clever

2 . 阅读下列材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Take a moment     1     (imagine) yourself in ten years. You might have a few more grey hairs and wrinkles, and hope to change your material circumstances, too. But does the person you imagine feel very close to the person you are today.

Some people have a vivid sense of future self, which feels     2     (extreme) close to their current identity. These people tend to be more responsible for their money     3     they are keen to act in a way     4     will make life easier in the years ahead than present. Many other people see their future self as a separate person that has little     5     (relevant) to their present identity and,     6     consequence, they are far less worried about the long-term consequences of their actions.

You could almost think about your future self as a relationship that should     7     (pay) great efforts to develop. Thinking more about whom we will be in the future has a profound effect on our health, happiness and     8     (finance) security. You might consider a simple imaginative exercise—writing     9     letter from the future. This encourages people to feel a greater sense of link with their future self, thus     10     (prepare) for positive behavioral change.

3 . Children’s Sci-fi Art Predicts Extraordinary Future

More than 80 sci-fi artworks are on display at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, showing a beautiful yet puzzling future. The “Brave New Sci-Fi World” exhibition features paintings and art installations (设备) by students from Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing and other cities. They imagine the future as a world where robots and human beings co-exist.

Ru Chen, from Shanghai New Putuo Primary School, has pictured a robot chameleon (变色龙) to be used in outer space to aid in the search and rescue of human beings in case of danger.

Li Jiaqi from Guangzhou Dongfeng East Road Primary School has painted a city where advanced technologies are everywhere, and even the city itself turns into a large robot.

Huang Yanrui from Beijing Shijingshan Gucheng No. 2 Primary School imagines his rubber, pencil box and such stationery (文具) becoming conscious robots, and beginning to design future human beings.

Wang Zhihan, from Shanghai Shangde Experimental School and her schoolmates, stick electronic components on stone faces as a metaphor (隐喻) for the increasingly unclear boundaries between the reality and virtual world. “We hope to remind people never lose yourself in a world with advanced technologies,” she said.

The exhibition will last till November 4.

Opening hours:

Tuesdays-Sundays 9: 00- 17: 15; legal holidays 8: 45- 18: 30.

Transportation Guide:

Metro: Metro Line 2: Shanghai Science and Technology Museum Station.

Metro Line 4, Metro Line 6 and Metro Line 9: change to Metro Line 2 at the Century Avenue Station.

Bus Routes: Bus 184, 640, 794, 983, 984, 987, 1023, 640 inter-zonal bus will take you there.

1. Whose artwork is related with space?

A．Ru Chen’s.

B．Li Jiaqi’s.

C．Huang Yanrui’s.

D．Wang Zhihan’s.

2. Where does the student with an imagination of stationery robots come from?

A．Shanghai.

B．Guangzhou.

C．Chongqing.

D．Beijing.

3. Which line can directly take you to the museum?

A．Metro Line 2.

B．Metro Line 4.

C．Metro Line 6.

D．Metro Line 9.

4 . 假定你是李华，你校英语俱乐部举办论坛，探讨机器人在未来生活中的应用。请你写一篇发言稿，内容包括：
1. 选择一个领域进行陈述（如日常生活、医疗、汽车制造等）；
2. 描述机器人在该领域的应用（可举例说明）；
3. 介绍机器人的优势所在。
注意：写作词数应为80左右。
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 . “May 17, 2157

Dear diary,

Today, Tommy found a real book!...”

“What’s it about?” Margie asked.

“School.” replied Tommy, turning the yellow pages.

“Why would anyone write about school? I hope they can take my geography teacher away.”

“It’s not our school. This is the old sort that they had centuries ago.”

“Anyway, they had a teacher.” Margie said, reading the book over his shoulder.

“Sure, they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”

“A man? How could a man be a teacher?”

“Well, he just told the boys and girls things and gave them assignments and asked them questions.”

“A man isn’t smart enough.”

“Sure, he is. My father knows as much as my teacher.”

Margie wasn’t prepared to argue about that. She said, “I wouldn’t want a strange man in my house to teach me.”

Tommy laughed. “The teachers didn’t live in the house. They had a special building and all the kids went there.”

“And all the kids learned the same thing?”

“Sure, if they were the same age.”

“But my mother says a teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches and that each kid has to be taught differently.”

“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to read the book.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Margie said quickly.

They weren’t even half-finished when Margie’s mother called, “Margie! School!”

“Not yet, Mamma.”

“Now!” said Mrs. Jones.

Margie said to Tommy, “Can I read the book some more with you after school?”

“Maybe,” Tommy said.

Margie went into the schoolroom, right next to her bedroom, and the mechanical teacher was on waiting for her.

The screen was lit up, and it said, “Please insert yesterday’s assignments in the proper slot.”

Margie was still thinking about the old schools they had when her grandfather’s grandfather was a little boy. All the kids from the whole neighborhood came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the schoolroom, going home together at the end of the day. They learned the same things, so they could help one another on the assignments and discussed them.

And the teachers were people…

1. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A．Margie doesn’t like her school.

B．It’s common to read paper books in 2157.

C．Online learning is what Margie wants.

D．Tommy feels his father is smarter than his teacher.

2. Which of the following is TRUE about a school in 2157?

A．There are only female teachers at school.

B．Teachers give no assignments to students.

C．A special building is constructed for teachers.

D．Students learn different things at their own pace.

3. What does the underlined word “slot” probably mean?

A．Envelope.	B．Opening.
C．Screen.	D．Schoolroom.

4. What can we learn about Margie’s feelings about old schools?

A．Longing.	B．Objection.
C．Suspicion.	D．Tolerance.

6 . Complete the passage using the correct forms of the words in the box. Do you believe Hawking’s predictions?

pros and cons             take over            on a scientific basis            have an urge to          superior conflict with          backwards

Time travel, alien invasions, and artificial intelligence have always been popular themes in science fiction. However, these were never the exclusive domains of sci-fi writers. Some scientists also    1     explore these themes    2    . Take time travel as an example. Many fascinating stories based on time travel go either    3     or forwards in time. However, the former is not really an option. World-famous scientist Stephen Hawking once explained that travelling into the past would     4    the basic rule that cause comes before effect. But it would be possible to travel into the future in a vastly     5    spaceship approaching the speed of light. In addition to the question of time travel, Hawking also expressed his opinions on alien invasions and Al development. When many scientists and scholars were still arguing about the     6    of alien existence and AI development, Hawking said he believed aliens would invade Earth, and that humans would eventually    7     by Aland robots.

7 . When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline (座机)?

These days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t own a mobile phone. In fact plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.

Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter (29%) rely only on their smartphones according to a survey (调查). Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third concede that it’s not really necessary and they’re keeping it as a security blanket — 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.

More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor (因素)— only 58 percent of Generation Ys still use landlines now and then, compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers who’ve perhaps had the same home number for 50 years. Age isn’t the only factor; I’d say it’s also to do with the makeup of your household.

Generation Xers with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone (using Caller ID would take the fun out of it).

How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries?

1. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about mobile phones?

A．Their target users.	B．Their wide popularity.
C．Their major functions.	D．Their complex design.

2. What does the underlined word “concede” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Admit.	B．Argue.
C．Remember.	D．Remark.

3. What can we say about Baby Boomers?

A．They like smartphone games.	B．They enjoy guessing callers’ identity.
C．They keep using landline phones.	D．They are attached to their family.

4. What can be inferred about the landline from the last paragraph?

A．It remains a family necessity.

B．It will fall out of use some day.

C．It may increase daily expenses.

D．It is as important as the gas light.

8 . A robot with a sense of touch may one day feel “pain”, both its own physical pain and sympathy for the pain of its human companions. Such touchy-feely robots are still far off, but advances in robotic touch-sensing are bringing that possibility closer to reality.

Sensors set in soft, artificial skin that can detect both a gentle touch and a painful strike have been hooked up to a robot that can then signal emotions, Asada reported February 15 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This artificial “pain nervous system,” as Asada calls it, may be a small building block for a machine that could ultimately experience pain. Such a feeling might also allow a robot to “sympathize” with a human companion’s suffering.

Asada, an engineer at Osaka University, and his colleagues have designed touch sensors that reliably pick up a range of touches. In a robot system named Affetto, a realistic looking child’s head, these touch and pain signals can be converted to emotional facial expressions.

A touch-sensitive, soft material, as opposed to a rigid metal surface, allows richer interactions between a machine and the world, says neuroscientist Kingson Man of the University of Southern California. Artificial skin “allows the possibility of engagement in truly intelligent ways”.

Such a system, Asada says, might ultimately lead to robots that can recognize the pain of others, a valuable skill for robots designed to help care for people in need, the elderly, for instance.

But there is an important distinction between a robot that responds in a predictable way to a painful strike and a robot that’s able to compute an internal feeling accurately, says Damasio, a neuroscientist also at the University of Southern California. A robot with sensors that can detect touch and pain is “along the lines of having a robot, for example, that smiles when you talk to it,” Damasio says. ‘It’s a device for communication of the machine to a human.” While that’s an interesting development, “it’s not the same thing” as a robot designed to compute some sort of internal experience, he says.

1. What do we know about the “pain nervous system”?

A．It is named Affetto by scientists.	B．It is a set of complicated sensors.
C．It is able to signal different emotions.	D．It combines sensors and artificial skin.

2. What does the underlined word “converted” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Delivered.

B．Translated.

C．Attached.

D．Adapted.

3. What does Damasio consider as an interesting development?

A．Robots can smile when talked to.

B．Robots can talk to human beings.

C．Robots can compute internal feelings

D．Robots can detect pains and respond accordingly.

4. What can be the best title of the text?

A．Machines Become Emotional	B．Robots Inch to Feeling Pain
C．Human Feelings Can Be Felt	D．New Devices Touch Your Heart