1 . I log onto a computer at the doctor’s office to say I have arrived and then wait until a voice calls me into the examination room. There, a robotic nurse
I should say I really do like many aspects of
When I call my dentist’s office and actually get a human being on the line, I am
After all, human cashiers sometimes
Even more than that, real-life cashiers often take an interest in particularly cute children, which can
Machines can be
Call it the spirit, the soul or the heart. It is
| A．tears | B．directs | C．follows | D．separates |
| A．worker | B．nurse | C．doctor | D．cleaner |
| A．signals | B．symptoms | C．words | D．symbols |
| A．at most | B．at last | C．at least | D．at intervals |
| A．economy | B．agriculture | C．literature | D．technology |
| A．cut in | B．pass by | C．take over | D．go away |
| A．annoyed | B．thrilled | C．discouraged | D．disappointed |
| A．smiling | B．laughing | C．shouting | D．weeping |
| A．machine | B．human | C．animal | D．plant |
| A．give | B．remind | C．bargain | D．buy |
| A．brighten | B．darken | C．strengthen | D．widen |
| A．turning | B．happening | C．describing | D．struggling |
| A．urgent | B．efficient | C．frequent | D．consistent |
| A．But | B．Because | C．Otherwise | D．Therefore |
| A．everything | B．nothing | C．anything | D．something |
2 . Time Travel
If you could travel in time, where would you go? Perhaps you would watch an original performance of a Shakespeare's play in Elizabethan England. What about hanging out with Laozi in the Spring and Autumn Period? Or maybe you'd voyage far ahead of the present day to see what the future holds.
The possibility of time travel is indeed appealing. Stories exploring the subject have been around for hundreds of years. Perhaps the best known example is science fiction The Time Machine, which was written by H. G. Wells and published in 1895 for the first time. It was adapted for at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. The term “time machine” , invented by Wells, is now universally used to refer to a vehicle transporting people into the far future.
But could time travel actually be possible? Some scientists say yes, in theory. They propose using cracks in time and space called “wormholes”, which could be used as shortcuts to other periods. Einstein's theory of relativity allows time travel in extreme circumstances. And British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking says you could travel into the future with a really fast spaceship going at nearly the speed of light.
Even if you could travel into the past, there is something called the “grandfather paradox”. It asks what would happen if a time traveler were to go back in time and have his own grandfather killed for some reason, and therefore prevent himself from being born. If the time traveler wasn't born, how would he travel back in time?
And would you really like to visit the future? In H. G. Wells' book, the main character travels into distant time. He arrives at a beach where he is attacked by giant crabs. He then voyages 30 million years into the future where the only living thing is a black object with tentacles（触角）. If that's what's in store, maybe we are better just living in the present day after all.
1. Why is the novel The Time Machine mentioned in Paragraph 2?| A．To praise the contribution of H. G . Wells. |
| B．To state the story's different features. |
| C．To prove the long history of time travel. |
| D．To show people's interest in time travel. |
| A．There is the possibility to invent the time machine. |
| B．They push the invention of the first spaceship. |
| C．They have been proved wrong by some time travelers. |
| D．There are differences in many ways between them. |
| A．The traveler is prevented from meeting his grandfather. |
| B．The grandfather's death makes the traveler's birth impossible. |
| C．The traveler goes back in time to seek for his grandfather. |
| D．The reunion of the traveler and his grandfather brings happiness. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Unclear. | C．Supportive. | D．Unconcerned. |
3 . Sixty percent of Americans play video games daily, according to Techjury. In order to escape from the reality of quarantine (隔离), more people have turned to video games and VR (virtual reality) has become more popular than ever.
The world of VR isn't new to the gaming industry. It has been an ongoing concept for years, dating back to the 1800s. NASA popularized VR technology in 1989, bringing light to advancements that had never been seen before, and in 1991, SEGA introduced VR to gamers.
Gaming companies such as Oculus and HTC have redefined gaming by allowing players to involve themselves deeply in the world of VR through personal headsets. VR users are able to socialize through chat rooms, create 3D art and exercise through heart-pumping gameplay. Once a user puts on a headset, they are immediately transported into a virtual world. This allows the player to have a better experience compared to simply staring at a TV with a game controller.
Although VR has many positive aspects, using virtual reality too much can cause health problems among users. When using VR, it is common for people to lose spatial (空间的) awareness. Therefore, users are encouraged to play in an area that is clear of furniture and other objects causing potential danger. Eye strain can also be caused by using VR too much, so it is important to limit your time playing in virtual reality and take breaks in order to minimize the possibility of experiencing negative health effects.
How VR will develop in the future is unknown to us. However, new advancements for it are on the way. Teslasuit, a company specializing in VR equipment, is creating haptic (触觉的) suits for VR gameplay. These suits will allow users to feel aspects of VR while in game and will increase involvement, build 360-degree awareness and engage muscle memory. There are an endless number of possibilities that users can experience and create in VR, and the boundaries of the virtual world are limitless.
1. The second paragraph is mainly concerned with _______.| A．the function of VR |
| B．the origin of VR games |
| C．the history of online games |
| D．the future of the gaming industry |
| A．do physical exercise together in nature |
| B．have a more realistic gaming experience |
| C．enjoy better-quality pictures and sounds |
| D．play games without disturbing others |
| A．contact. | B．Movement. | C．Opening. | D．Damage. |
| A．Negative. | B．Objective. | C．Confident. | D．Suspicious. |
Dream for Future
People were busy in their own laboratories in the Mars.Turtex told me,“Let us go to the Earth to have a cup of coffee.”
I laughed for such a childish joke and I also jokingly asked him,“Is there no coffee shop in the Mars?”
He replied,“It has but they can’t prepare coffee as tasty as that on the Earth.”
However,for a while I thought it would be better to take a cup of tasty coffee from Ramu’s Coffee Shop located at our village,Kushmandi.
Turtex told me to enter a room near his laboratory.We entered there and found that the room was internally coated with some materials like sponge.Turtex closed the door of the room with a clap.I saw some colourful buttons inside the room.After a few seconds I heard another clap and noticed that the door opened.
Turtex said,“Come with me.”
I asked,“Where?”
He replied,“Now we are at Kushmandi.”
I shouted,“What?”
We came out of the room and I astonishingly viewed the sky-scrapers around me.Turtex said loudly,“What’s wrong with you?Come with me.”
Eventually we entered a coffee club designed like a Five Star Restaurant.Suddenly I noticed a display board with an electronic text on,“Welcome to Kushmandi.Now you are in famous Ramu’s Coffee Shop.Enjoy the taste of the best coffee on the Earth.”
Suddenly many hazy and crazy questions came to my mind.
“What was the nearby room of the lab?How was it possible to travel an enormous distance from the Mars to the Earth?Is it like opening my favourite TV channel with a remote?How the poor coffee stall of our village turned into a Five Star Coffee Club?In which century were we?”
注意:续写词数应为150左右。
Thinking such hazy things,I followed Turtex into the coffee club.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
The waiter brought us two cups of coffee and left.
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5 . Do you want to live another 100 years or more? Some experts say that scientific advances will one day enable humans to last tens of years beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human life span.
“I think we are knocking at the door of immortality(永生),” said Michael Zey, a Montclair State University business professor and author of two books on the future. “I think by 2075 we will see it and that’s a conservative estimate(保守的估计).”
At the conference in San Francisco, Donald Louria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in using genes as well as nanotechnology(纳米技术) make it likely that humans will live in the future beyond what was possible in the past. “There is a great effort so that people can live from 120 to 180 years,” he said. “Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years.”
However, many scientists who specialize in aging are doubtful about it and say the human body is just not designed to last past about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say failure of the brain and organs will finally lead all humans to death.
Scientists also differ on what kind of life the super aged might live. “It remains to be seen if you pass 120, you know; could you be healthy enough to have good quality of life?” said Leonard Poon, director of the University of Georgia Gerontology Centre. “At present people who could get to that point are not in good health at all.”
1. By saying“we are knocking at the door of immortality”,Michael Zey means_________.| A．they have got some ideas about living forever |
| B．they believe that there is no limit of living |
| C．they are able to make people live past the present life span |
| D．they are sure to find the truth about long living |
| A．the human body is designed to last past about 120 years |
| B．it is possible for humans to live longer in the future |
| C．it is still doubtful how long humans can live |
| D．people can live from 120 to 180 |
| A．a great effort |
| B．the conservative estimate |
| C．the idea of living from 200 to 300 years |
| D．the idea of living beyond the present life span |
| A．No Limit for Human Life |
| B．Living Longer or not |
| C．Science,Technology and Long Living |
| D．Healthy Lifestyle and Long Living |
Life on Mars
Some people believe humans could live on the planet Mars by the year 2100. Our own planet, the Earth, is becoming more and more crowded and polluted because of the rapid increase in population.
最近，在一本英文旅游杂志上刊登了国际空间站(TSS-- International Space Station)将在2020年对游客开放的信息（见下表)。如果有可能（具备足够的时间和金钱)，你是否会去争取成为第一批游客。请谈谈你的理由。
Information About the Trip to ISS
Number of visitors 2 every year
Length of stay 30 days (at most)
Cost $ 27000 per night (stay)
$ 40 million (transport)
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8 . Several recent studies examined how machine automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will change the future of work.
Some people predict these technologies could replace up to 30 percent of workers worldwide by 2030. The possibility of being replaced will greatly increase for workers with less education, said Price Waterhouse Coopers, an international company providing financial and tax services. It estimated(估计) that in Britain, up to 46 percent of workers without a college degree could be in danger because of automation. This would drop to about 12 percent for workers with undergraduate degrees or higher.
“New smart machines have the hidden power to replace our minds and to move around freely in the world,” the study said. It added that the greatest job replacement is expected to come in the areas of transportation, storage, manufacturing (制造业)and retail（零售）.
The Rand Corporation recently published its own report on the future effects of automation and AI on jobs and the workplace. Osonde Osoba was a co-author of the report. He noticed that fears over machines taking jobs from humans goes back centuries. He agrees there will be major job disruptions(混乱) because of AI and automation, especially for lower skilled workers. But he believes the future problems have been overestimated(高估) without historical evidence to support the predictions. “It’s not so much that the jobs are getting replaced, but it’s more like tasks are getting replaced and jobs are reconfiguring(重新装备) over time to account for that automation.” He added that it will be very difficult for companies to completely automate most jobs, because they request a worker to perform many different duties and to respond to unexpected situations.
“If you are thinking about detailed things an individual(个人) might do to prepare themselves, I guess being more adaptable and being able to reeducate yourself to fit into a different job.” Osonde Osoba suggests.
1. According to the whole passage, _________are most likely to lose their job?| A．scientists in laboratories | B．teachers in colleges and universities |
| C．milkmen in milk companies | D．officers in governments |
| A．Companies have completely automated most jobs for saving cost. |
| B．Humans have feared to be replaced by AI and automation. |
| C．The job replacement has come in transportation and retail. |
| D．People with high degrees get higher danger of losing jobs than those with no college degree. |
| A．Future workers: what to do to keep the job. |
| B．Job replacement: who is to blame. |
| C．Automation and AI: how to replace the future job. |
| D．New studies: why the future job is replaced. |
9 . The future is time that is to come. The future is not the present or the past. It is later. We have seen many possible futures in science fiction. They range from the world’s polar ice caps melting to nuclear winters. But not all futures are morbid. We have seen the human race spread all over our universe, humans and aliens living in harmony together all over the universe.
It is very likely that we will make some kind of breakthrough in our ability to travel through space sometime in the next 150 years. This would give us the ability to rule other planets.
Finally, the Earth will die whether it be in 1,000 years or 100,000 years. We will be forced to move to another planet then. It’s really just a matter of time. When we do so, what will we discover?
Personally, I think everyone will be speaking the same language in 200 years. A world government definitely seems to be in our future. It is stable and has few wars. Indeed, the only type of wars that can happen is the civil war.
And what if we face aliens? If they are friendly, we would probably benefit a lot from putting our knowledge together. They must have advanced technology to travel for great distances. We could benefit from their technology. But if they aren’t friendly, then we will be in trouble. Hope that we will have become advanced enough, smart enough, and generally a better race by the time we meet thein. But this is all probably being discussed for nothing, because any race out there among the stars is probably as curious as we are about other creatures.
1. The underlined word “morbid” in Paragraph 1 can be replaced by __________ .| A．unpleasant | B．exciting |
| C．probable | D．serious |
| A．Humans will have to face death. | B．Humans will travel and live in space. |
| C．Humans will move to another planet. | D．Humans will go back to the past time. |
| A．scientific facts | B．time and space |
| C．science fiction | D．the author’s imagination |
