3 . With over 4.1 billion people, or around 55 percent of the world’s population, living in urban areas, cities and towns worldwide are getting increasingly jammed. In addition to spending hours stuck in traffic, residents are also exposed to high air pollution levels caused by   transportation emissions(排放). Now, Saudi Arabia hopes to overturn urban living with “The   Line”—a futuristic city designed around nature, without cars, roads and crowded places!       

The totally different city, announced on January 10, 2021, is the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince(王储)Mohammed bin Salman(MBS).Located in Neom, a 10, 000-square-mile high-tech planned development on the Red Sea coast. The Line will be the base of MBS’s Saudi Vision 2030. The strategic plan aims to diversify Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent economy into other fields, like                    tourism, and create exciting job opportunities for its citizens.

The 105-mile-long city, expected to cost between $100 billion and $200 billion, will be built along a straight line and comprise several self-sustaining communities. To ensure all services are within a short, five-minute walk, each community will feature a three-layer infrastructure(基础设施)．

There will be no cars or roads on the top “pedestrian layer”, so residents can freely walk and bike in the surrounding green spaces. The second “service layer”, will include all essential daily services, such as schools, medical clinics, leisure facilities, and grocery stores. The third “spine layer” will house ultra-high-speed transportation and autonomous vehicles transporting residents across communities in less than 20 minutes. The entire city will be powered with renewable clean energy sources such as solar and wind, and possibly even hydrogen．

If all goes according to the plan, construction of this groundbreaking, complex infrastructure project will start before the end of 2021. In addition to providing up to a million residents with a clean and stress-free living environment, the Line is expected to create 380, 000 new jobs, promote economic diversification, and contribute a shocking $48 billion to Saudi Arabia’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP)by 2030. More importantly, MBS believes it will provide governments worldwide a blueprint for how people and planet can co-exist in harmony.

4 . Welcome to your future life!

You get up in the morning and look into the mirror. Your face is firm and young-looking. In 2035, medical technology is better than ever. Many people at your age could live to be 150, so at 40, you’re not old at all. And your parents just had an anti-aging(抗衰老的) treatment. Now, all three of you look the same age!

You say to your shirt, “Turn red.” It changes from blue to red. In 2035, “smart clothes” contain particles(粒子) much smaller than the cells(细胞) in your body. The particles can be programmed to change your clothes’ color or pattern(样式).

You walk into the kitchen. You pick up the milk, but a voice says,“ You shouldn’t drink that!” Your fridge has read the chip (芯片) that contains information about the milk , and it knows the milk is old . In 2035, every article of food in the grocery store has such a chip.

It’s time to go to work. In 2035, cars drive themselves. Just tell your “smart car” where to go. On the way, you can call a friend using your jacket sleeve. Such “smart technology” is all around you.

So will all these things come true? “For new technology to succeed,” says scientist

Andrew Zolli ,“it has to be so much better that it replaces what we have already.” The Internet is one example—what will be the next?

6 . Andrew started his job four years ago at a job search company Glassdoor.com, when he worked in a computer programming language called Stata. Then other programming languages appear, and he has had to continually learn new skills. He says the ever-changing universe of work requires employees to be critical thinkers and fast to adapt to the new environment.

People need to learn new technologies and apply their skills quickly and regularly. When companies hire new workers, they are not always looking for knowledge of a certain software, but soft skills like problem solving, effective communication and leadership. They also may want candidates who show a willingness to keep learning new skills.

Students may believe that studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics, known as the STEM fields, will easily lead to a good first job. But employers are telling colleges: you are producing engineers, but they do not have the skills we need. That means finding new ways to solve a problem is more important than using established steps to do so.

To get students ready, some colleges and even high schools, are working on building critical thinking skills. One example of this is at the private Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Georgia. For three weeks in January, students either get jobs or go on trips. The experience gives them a better sense of what they might do in the future.

Career offices at universities also place a lot of importance on interview skills, teaching young people more than writing an effective resume and dressing well. They have to learn how to perform best on video and phone interviews, and how to deal with new ways of being chosen for a job.

7 . Most Americans are worried about new technology. They are concerned that machines, including robots, will take over work now done by humans. These findings come from a new report by the Pew Research Center of Washington D. C.

About 75 percent of Americans questioned by Pew said automation will increase income inequality between the rich and the middle class and poor. And 64 percent of people expect automation to be so common in America that people will face difficulty finding things to do with their lives.

Some of the concerns about technology come from a distrust about whether machines will always make the right decision. Many Americans believe humans have better judgement in dealing with. complex matters. One example is selecting a person for a job. Three-quarters of Americans said they would not want to apply for a job that uses a computer program to choose the most qualified person.

“Most Americans want the government to limit automation. For example, 87 percent support a requirement that all driverless vehicles have a human in the driver’s seat who can take control when an emergency occurs. And 85 percent want to limit machines to mostly doing jobs that are dangerous or unhealthy for humans. And only 25 percent expect more jobs to come from automation,” Pew said.

Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, spoke last May to graduating seniors from Harvard University in Massachusetts. His talk centered on the uncertain future facing young people. “Our generation will have to deal with tens of millions of jobs replaced by automation like self-driving cars and trucks.” Zuckerherg told the graduates.

Zuckerberg said young people had better launch(发起)projects that will bring both jobs and direct benefits to the people of the world. He said in his speech that 30000 people worked to put a man on the moon, and millions of people built the Hoover Dam as well as other great projects over the last 100 years.