1 . 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. |
| A．Admit. | B．Argue. |
| C．Remember. | D．Remark. |
| A．They like smartphone games. | B．They enjoy guessing callers’ identity. |
| C．They keep using landline phones. | D．They are attached to their family. |
| 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. |
The home of the future won't be
Space holidays will develop in the future, but these holidays won't be for everyone because they are
According to the laws of physics, the earth is going to
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
The Frankenstein myth confronts. Homo sapiens (智人) with the fact that the last days are fast approaching.
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
We would have a hard time
Cash is king, or so they say. In one form or another, human beings have been carrying around money for hundreds of years. Metal was first coined into cash between 700 and 600 BC by the Lydians, and banknotes have been in circulation since
5 . When people talk about the future, we like to think that we will be able to drive out of our garages and take to the
Most of us have printed out an electronic document on paper, but think about the
Imagine having your own Ironman suit. There are several companies trying to build a practical robot ‘exoskeleton’. This is a suit of robot arms and legs which follows your
| A．parking lot | B．valleys | C．skies | D．dimension |
| A．confirm | B．predict | C．prove | D．approve |
| A．neglecting | B．avoiding | C．changing | D．controlling |
| A．flows | B．crashes | C．organization | D．control |
| A．accidents | B．industry | C．failure | D．analysis |
| A．Also | B．Hence | C．However | D．Therefore |
| A．access | B．improvement | C．possibility | D．compliment |
| A．normal | B．home-made | C．special | D．imported |
| A．high | B．advanced | C．various | D．low |
| A．click | B．check | C．remove | D．download |
| A．shopping | B．bargaining | C．shipping | D．delivery |
| A．intentions | B．movements | C．instructions | D．advice |
| A．forceful | B．possible | C．obvious | D．doubtful |
| A．criticized | B．programmed | C．developed | D．commented |
| A．wavy | B．direct | C．wrong | D．straight |
6 . 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. |
| A．Delivered. | B．Translated. | C．Attached. | D．Adapted. |
| 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. |
| A．Machines Become Emotional | B．Robots Inch to Feeling Pain |
| C．Human Feelings Can Be Felt | D．New Devices Touch Your Heart |
7 . “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. |
| 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. |
| A．Envelope. | B．Opening. |
| C．Screen. | D．Schoolroom. |
| A．Longing. | B．Objection. |
| C．Suspicion. | D．Tolerance. |
8 . My future happiness
When I imagine my future, I see myself as an adult who is confident in my abilities, doing a job I love and living my life responsibly. When I grow up, I will be enjoying more convenience brought by the advances in technology, with more time to pursue hobbies and enjoy the company of family and friends.
I will feel the happiest in the future because I will learn more about life and develop into the best person I can be.
Thanks to new technology, my future life is sure to improve in various ways. Homes will become smarter to the extent that they might be programmed to learn about our needs and monitor our health and activity. I can imagine hearing an AI voice remind me to buy groceries or do more exercise! There will also be enormous advancements in transport options. I will be riding in a self-driving car, and other new means of transport may be developed in the future.
My development into a mature adult and access to advanced technology will provide me with more free-time opportunities.
| A．I might be able to ride a flying bike to quickly meet up with my friends. |
| B．I will become more knowledgeable about the world and myself. |
| C．When I think about the future, I realize my happiest days are still ahead of me. |
| D．For these reasons, I look forward to the future as the happiest moment in my life. |
| E．With less work-related stress, I will also have more time and energy to do volunteer projects. |
| F．The working day will be only four hours long thanks to robots. |
| G．Technological advances will guarantee that I will be in good health and find true happiness. |
9 . It’s a typical day at school. You’re playing soccer with your friends. One of them kicks you the ball and you run for it. You trip. You fly through the air. You land—hard, right on your face! The next moment, you’re in the nurse’s office. Your bleeding nose is being checked by laser sensors (激光传感器) that coming out of a...robot? Has the nurse’s office been taken over by sci-fi aliens (外星人) from outer space?
No. You’ve just been pushed forward 15 years into the future. And it’s a future that Susan Epstein, a computer science professor who teaches artificial intelligence, is really excited to think about. “I am crazy about this kind of thing! You could go up to the robot, put your nose in, and the machine would decide whether you needed to be treated, and how.”
Aside from being cool, an AI nurse has other advantages. It doesn’t need to take vacations. It doesn’t need to get paid a salary. And it might figure out what’s wrong with your nose faster than a human would. There are all kinds of ways that AI could be used to help make us healthier and researchers are studying how to use AI to diagnose (诊断) lung disease, cancer, and more.
Our robot nurse isn’t meant to completely take the place of humans, though. “It would work with real, live nurses and doctors,” says Epstein, “there are things humans are good at, like building trust among members of our own species or comforting someone who’s hurt or sick. A big part of medicine is the relationship between a doctor and a patient.”
Epstein points out that AI programs will never be perfect—no matter how much we might want them to be. But if AI can diagnose a deadly disease more precisely even 10 percent of the time, think of how many lives it could save. “Besides”, says Epstein, “I think there are probably patients who might prefer to have a machine for a doctor!” Would you?
1. What’s the function of para 1?| A．To introduce a scientific study. |
| B．To lead to the topic of the text. |
| C．To describe an experience of the writer. |
| D．To give an example to support an argument. |
| A．Humans are better at treating patients than AI doctors. |
| B．AI doctors alone can cure patients of most of the diseases. |
| C．Patients’ trust in doctors may affect their treatments positively. |
| D．Patients may receive as much comfort from AI doctors as from humans. |
| A．They are better at trust-building. |
| B．They will take over humans. |
| C．Their biggest strength is being cool. |
| D．They are life-saving if properly used. |
| A．Negative. | B．Favorable. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
10 . There is a profound relationship between science fiction and science. It is often said that stories change the world, what is less often heard is that stories change science, and therefore the future.
The use of science fiction to explore our world is similar to scenario (剧情) planning in Futures Studies, which shapes our ideas about the future, and goes beyond predicting artifacts that once seemed impossible to us like Verne’s submarine or the satellites of 2001 Space Odyssey.
In the words of Dutch researcher Sofia Kaloterakis, “Science fiction narratives structure our imaginative models about technoscientific projects such as robotics or space exploration”. Have you ever wondered how science fiction novels have impacted the idea we have about Artificial Intelligence or how Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson’s novel, has impacted what we now call the Metaverse (元宇宙)?
Science fiction helps us define possible futures. It provides us with an understanding of the rules underlying fictional worlds. It also allows us to put technological prototypes (原型) in the context of their use by humans. But most importantly, it determines the way we structure scientific thought and intervene (干预) in the future.
Alex McDowell, Creator of the Minority Report worldbuilding in 2002, and Peter von Stackelberg explain what fictional narratives can bring to the table:
The richness of “storyworlds” — the “universes” within which stories take place — provides us with detailed rules of the context in which a larger reality unfolds that extends beyond a single story, and has the potential to provide us with deeper learning about the underlying systems that regulate those worlds.
Lastly, the relationship of futures narratives to theories such as Social Constructivism has been highlighted by several scholars. A central idea of this sociological theory is that whenever we use words or other symbols to refer to objects in our world we are constructing them. And, therefore, prediction is also a social construction. In narrating we intervene in the world. In narrating the world, we construct it. In writing science fiction we intervene in the science of the future.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．The storyworlds created by science fictions. |
| B．Artifacts and technologies in science fictions. |
| C．Science fiction narratives affecting future studies. |
| D．The relation between science and science fictions. |
| A．It provides us with technologies and tools. |
| B．It allows us to establish reasonable future. |
| C．It decides our thinking and affects the future. |
| D．It helps us learn the rules of fictional world. |
| A．There are general rules for a single story. |
| B．They are the “universes” where stories happen. |
| C．There are no regulations or guiding systems. |
| D．They have a potential context within a story. |
| A．Science fiction narratives can construct future worlds. |
| B．The science of future intervenes in today’s science. |
| C．Objects can’t be constructed by words or symbols. |
| D．Scholars care little about narratives about future. |
