Last year I went back to the US to visit family, friends and     1     number of old places. I started in the desert of California, crossed the prairies(大草原) and farms of Iowa, and then rose into the     2    (amaze) mountains and woodlands of Tennessee and North Carolina.

I went to Iowa City to visit my good friend, Matt, and     3    (he) wife. Though there’s not much to recall(回忆) about the city, I will never forget the great time we had     4    (hang) out together. We     5    (sing) with guitars, cooked dinners, played board games, and walked in the woods.

One place I visited was     6    (extreme) special to me: Asheville, North Carolina. It is a mountain town where I went to college.     7    (memory) were everywhere I looked. I walked by my college dormitory and thought of my old roommate, David. I remembered late nights when we would cook pizzas     8    complain about our schoolwork and professors. Nothing had changed—except the people. Everyone I knew had moved away.

A good trip     9    (teach) you something. I learn that a place is only as good as the people whom you share it     10    .

3 . As a child, I had spent my holidays travelling our village in Bangladesh — running across the rice fields or farms and fishing in lakes. But, this had started to wear off as a teen. One thing I remember about that trip was when we were only about half an hour from our village, we had to get out of our car. The road in front of us was completely under water. We all got on a bamboo boat for another two or three hours.

That was 15 years ago — the last time I visited our village. One by one, many other villagers left there. But my father has been working hard to build it up. He doesn’t want it to be lost.

Yes, we should protect our home. But there is something else to think about: climate crisis (气候危机). Bangladesh is at the centre of the climate crisis — it is hit by floods, droughts, storms and other natural disasters. “I jokingly say, Bangladesh is God’s laboratory for natural disasters,” says Prof Ainun Nishat, an expert on climate change from Bangladesh.

The period from June to October sees heavy rains. But the rainfall time is becoming more erratic (无常的). In 2020, Sylhet, my hometown, was hit by huge floods that affected thousands of families, whose homes were swept away. In fact, over a quarter of the country was flooded. Nearly 1.3 million homes were damaged, and hundreds of people died.

The weather is getting more extreme (极端的). It is getting too hot. And the supply of water can’t be relied upon, leaving the land getting drier.

Although people have worries about droughts and floods, unlike in the past, the country is well-prepared to deal with them. Prof Nishat says, “Maybe 20, 30 years back we depended on external (外部的) support to return to normal from any natural disaster, but now it’s different. The country has developed, and we suffered these disasters many times, so the people are one of the most prepared.”

6 . The future is just around the corner, and according to some people who make the future their business, it doesn’t look dissimilar to what you see around you now, but below the surface there will be differences.

Your home of the future

One of the places in your home is the bathroom. It will have a toilet that can test urine (尿) for sugar levels, take your blood pressure and weigh you. All that information can then be uploaded to your doctor. Even the bathroom soap will be upgraded, which will have sunscreen (防晒霜) in it, which will stick to your skin.

The future of technology

The kitchen is often the centre of a home and it has the most potential for future changes. For example, a Web-enabled refrigerator will be able to talk to the manufacturer when a part wears out, so it can order a replacement without you ever knowing something was wrong.

Tiny, inexpensive computer chips called RFIDs, or radio frequency identification chips, will be attached to every product in your house. The refrigerator will read the chips, and will even be able to tell you when the milk has gone bad.

The counter will be able to make dinner suggestions. Your washing machine will know how to wash your favourite linen (亚麻布) skirt. And you will be able to call your oven from your cellphone to tell it when to start cooking the pot roast.

Future travelling

Futurists say robots will be a large part of life. Though a driverless car sounds like a crazy idea, it is built to be safer and more efficient than what is currently parked in the driveway.

Even with all of the changes coming in the future, the human condition will not change, though. At day’s end, you will still share a drink with a friend and kiss your kids goodnight, for no robots can do that.

7 . It's March, 2050.

Frank and Mary Smith wake up in their comfortable house in the morning and switch on the bedroom computer to get the latest news. They used to read the Times, but changed to electronic newspapers many years ago.

There is the usual news about space: another space flight has returned from Mars and scientists have discovered a new planet. Then they turn to business news: the Us dollar has risen greatly in Shanghai, one of the world's leading business centres. Mary tells the computer to buy 5,000 dollars, and there is a quick response that it has been done. As they watch the screen, Mary orders one of the household robots to make coffee for them. Frank disappears into the study to join a video conference with his partners around the world. He is a computer engineer, working for several companies. This is his third job: he used to be in marketing and then television. Mary has a quick look at the shopping channels—the usual selection of electric cars, household robots and cheap travel offers-before picking up the video phone to talk to her assistant. She also has a job and she is doing medical research. Both she and Frank used to have an office desk in London, but in 2023 they decided to move to the seaside and work from home.

·Frank and Mary have one daughter, Louise, who also has her own workstation at home. She goes to school only one day a week, mainly to play with other students. Classrooms disappeared in 2030 because there was no longer any need for them: communications systems have made it much easier to learn at home. Louise, now thirteen, is studying Chinese at present, which has become a world language as important as English. Louise has many Chinese friends. They communicate by computer. According to the family doctor, Louise will live to at least 130. Her wish is to work for a few decades（十年）and then spend her time on music and painting.

In 1818 Mary Shelley published Frankenstein, the story of a scientist who tries to create a superior, being and instead creates a monster. In the last two centuries, this story     1     (tell) over and over again in countless variations. At first sight, the Frankenstein story appears to warn us that if we try to play God and engineer life we will be punished severely. Yet the story has a     2     (deep) meaning.

The Frankenstein myth confronts. Homo sapiens (智人) with the fact that the last days are fast approaching.     3     some nuclear or ecological disaster strikes, the pace of technological development will soon lead to the replacement of Homo sapiens by completely different beings who possess not only different physiques, but also very different cognitive and emotional worlds. This is something most Sapiens find extremely worrying. We like to believe that in the future people just     4     us will travel from planet to planet in fast spaceships. We don’t like to think about the     5     (possible) that in the future, beings with emotions and identities like ours will no longer exist, and our place will be taken by alien life forms     6     abilities beat our own.

We seek comfort in the fantasy that Dr. Frankenstein can create only terrible monsters, whom we would have to destroy in order to save the world. We like to tell the story that way because it implies that we are     7     best of all beings, that there never was and never will be anything better than us. Any attempt     8     (improve) us will inevitably fail, because even if our bodies might be improved, you cannot touch the human spirit.

We would have a hard time     9     (accept) the fact that scientists could engineer spirits as well as bodies, and that future Dr. Frankenstein could therefore create something     10     (true) superior to us, something that will look at us as condescendingly (居高临下地) as we look at the Neanderthals (穴居人).

In the near future, the smart     1    (home) with new technology will solve many daily problems for us. We will be using     2     (advance)technology every day for automatic control of everything. All controls will respond    3     our voice commands and prepare everything for us according to our     4     (day) routine. In the meantime, regular health checks     5     (monitor) our health every day and give us a warning early     6     if there is something abnormal, which     7    (potential) save our lives. In addition, by     8    (detect)abnormal signs in our homes, smart homes will provide us with the relevant information, so we will be able    9     (fix) the problem in time. Many of these new innovations are already     10     (avail) and being used in some homes, and most new homes will begin to use this new technology in the not-too-distant future.