1 . What do you plan to do when you retire? Keep working? Get more exercise? Or learn something new? You may put them on hold. There's a chance that, sooner or later, you might have to move further than you were thinking, as far as Mars.

On Thursday, National Geographic will show the first-ever Mars show home, giving earthlings (地球人)an idea of what their life could look like on the Red Planet. In the not-so-distant year of 2037, the igloo-shaped structure could be the home of your future.

It shows a house built using recycled spacecraft parts and Martian soil, called regolith, which has been microwaved into bricks. Some parts of the home are recognizable — a kitchen, a bedroom — but there are fundamental differences that are important to human survival.

As the Martian atmosphere is around one hundredth as thick as the Earth’s, people will need permanent (永久的) shelter from the sun；society will move largely indoors. Most buildings will be connected by underground passages and the houses won't have windows. The homes will have simulated solar lighting, or natural light that has been bent several times. Walls will need to be 10 to 12 feet thick, to protect people from dangerous rays (光线)that can pass through six feet of steel, and a double air-locked entrance to keep the home under proper pressure.

"We don’t think of our houses as things that keep us alive, but on Mars your house will be a survival centre, 99 says Stephen Petranek, author of How We’ll Live on Mars. This is not just the stuff of sci-fi. “10 to 20 years from now there will certainly be people on Mars,” Petranek says.

“We’ve had the technology for 30 years to land people on Mars, but we haven’t had the will, ”Petranek says. But two main factors have “completely swung public attitudes”.

The private companies’ participation has forced government agencies to speed up their game, and influential films such as Gravity and The Martian have caught society’s eye.

1. What do the underlined words "put them on hold" in paragraph 1 probably mean?

A．Put them off.	B．Give them away.
C．Carry them through.	D．Take them seriously.

2. What can we infer about the show home from the text?

A．It has no windows or doors due to security concern.

B．Its design presents the idea of environmental protection.

C．It has thick walls keeping the home under propel pressure.

D．Its underground passages connect all the buildings together.

3. According to Petranek, what has sped up the process of sending people to Mars?

A．The development of related technology.

B．The competition from private companies.

C．The great influence of the Mars show home.

D．The popularity of influential books on Mars.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Living on Mars: Possible or Not	B．Sending People to Mars: Yes or No
C．First-Ever Show Home: How Is It Made	D．Future Home on Mars: What Will It Be like

2 . What will man be like in the future? How about in 5,000 or even 50,000 years from now? We can only make a guess, of course, but we can be sure that he will be different from what he is today.     1    

Let's give an example. Man, even 500 years ago, was shorter than he is today. Now, on the average, men are about three inches taller. 500 years is a relatively short period of time, so we may guess that man will continue to grow taller. Again, in the modern world we use our brains a great deal. Even so, we still make use of only about 20% of the brain's capacity(容量). As time goes on, however, we shall have to use our brains more and more---and finally we shall need even larger ones!     2     The head, in particular the forehead, will grow larger.

    3     In fact, we use them so much that very often they become weaker and we have to wear glasses. But over a very long period of time it is likely that man’s eyes will grow stronger. On the other hand, we tend to make less use of our arms and legs.     4     At the same time, however, our fingers will grow more sensitive because they are used a great deal in modern life.

But what about hair? It will probably disappear from the body altogether in course of time because it does not serve a useful purpose any longer. In the future, then, both sexes are likely to be bald.

Perhaps all this gives the impression that future man will not be a very attractive creature to look at!     5     He will still be a human being, with thoughts and emotions similar to our own.

A．Nowadays our eyes are in constant use.

B．This probably brings about mental changes.

C．These, as a result, are likely to grow weaker.

D．This is likely to bring about physical changes, too.

E．That's because man is slowly changing all the time.

F．As a result, future man will have little in common with us.

G．In spite of all these changes, future man will still have a lot in common with us.

3 . What will the future school look like is difficult to make clear, but most experts agree that the school will be electronic in the future .

" Present-day schools will no longer exist in the next century," says a report in The Age. "At that time, future schools will become community-style centers, which run seven days a week,24 hours a day. ” At the same time, computers will surely become a central part of the school in the future.

According to The Age, the distant learning will be popular and students will listen to teachers on computers. Going into classrooms on their computers, students will study at any time, which is very easy for them. However, it is necessary for students to go to the actual school in order to develop some social skills.

The Seashore Primary School is an imaginary school in the future created by the Education Department of Australia. At this school, all the teachers and students have laptop computers . Teachers check messages and call students back on a special telephone system and students use telephones to search for information or speak to their experts who teach their lessons. Besides, all the lessons are related to all sorts of subjects and all the students have their own learning plans created by teachers .

As one headmaster says, a laptop computer is students⁵ library, data storage （数据存储）as well as the bridge to a wider world. Technology has changed the emphasis of future learning. Thus, well pay more attention to the learning of kids rather than the teaching.

1. According to the report in The Age, students in future schools will _______.

A．have no teachers	B．study at a set time
C．mainly study online	D．never go to actual school

2. The example of the Seashore Primary School is given to show _______.

A．telephones are important in Australia

B．how future schools will work

C．every student needs a learning plan

D．students enjoy getting in touch with teachers

3. Which of the following is the best title of the text?

A．The Schools in the Future

B．Great Changes in Technology

C．The Seashore Primary School

D．Actual Schools to Be Replaced

4 . Researchers in Australia have discovered an effective new method to capture the atmospheric carbon dioxide that is damaging our planet and transform it into something solid, making it much easier to store.

Carbon capture isn’t new, but previous methods call for the gas to be compressed into liquid and then injected underground. Widespread usage of that technology has been locked by economic and environmental concerns due to possible leaks. Instead, in a study published in Nature Communications, the group details their sustainable and cost-effective plan for transforming CO2 into coal.

This new process involves a liquid metal catalyst( 催化剂 )that is efficient in conducting electricity. CO2 gas is dissolved in a container with some liquid. Once electricity charge is introduced, the CO2 begins to turn into solid pieces of carbon, which can be collected and stored.

What makes this particularly unique is that the entire process can occur at room temperature. Previous experiments have only shown a gas to solid conversion at extremely high temperature, which made it impossible on a large scale. Now, the researchers are hoping that their work will be used to create even further when it comes to carbon storage.

In an interesting side benefit, the solid carbon also works as an electrode( 焊 条 ), which opens up a world of possibilities. “A side benefit of the process is that the carbon can hold electrical charge, becoming a super battery, so it could potentially be used as a part in future vehicles,” explains Dr. Dorna Estrafilzadeh, a researcher. “The process also produces fuel as a by-product, which could also have industrial applications.”

1. What can we know about the previous carbon capture methods?

A．People have to inject liquid to the gas.

B．The previous methods can be done easily.

C．The previous methods are not very popular.

D．People have widely accepted previous methods.

2. What is the special part of the new method?

A．It needs electricity to make the process efficient.

B．It can be done in any kind of container.

C．It doesn’t need extreme temperature.

D．It can produce much solid carbon.

3. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．The method will make fossil oil disappear.

B．The method will influence the future industry.

C．The method will make developed countries more powerful.

D．The method will be used to make new vehicles.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．How to change carbon into CO2.

B．A new carbon capture technology.

C．A new technology to get useful carbon.

D．Australia makes the world cleaner than before.