1 . Each of Apple’s products such as the iPhone and the iPad sounds cool and has become a fashion. Apple has cleverly taken advantage of the power of the letter “i”, and many other brands are following suit. The BBC iPlayer, which allows Web users to watch TV programs on the Internet, used the title in 2008. A lovely bear — popular in the US and the UK — that plays music and video is called iTeddy. A simplified version of The Independent was launched in 2010 under the name i.
In general, single-letter prefixes(前缀) have been popular since the 1990s, when terms such as e-mail and e-commerce first came into use.
Most “i” products are aimed at young people and considering the major readers of The Independent’s sister paper I, it’s no surprise that they’ve selected this fashionable name.
But it’s hard to see what’s so special about the letter “i”. Why not use “a” , “b”, or “c” instead? According to Tony Thorne, former Director of the Language Centre at King’s College London, “i” works because its meaning has become unclear. “When Apple uses ‘I’, no one knows whether it means the Internet, information, individual or interactive,” Thorne told BBC Magazines. “Even when Apple created the iPad, it seems it didn’t have one clear definition,” he said.
“However, thanks to Apple, the term is now connected with portability (轻便),” added Thorne.
Clearly the letter “i” also agrees with the idea that the Western world is centered on the individual. Each person believes they have their own needs, and they love personalized products for this reason.
Along with “Google” and “blog”, readers of BBC Magazines voted “i” as one of the top 20 words that have come to define the last decade.
But as history shows, people grow tired of fashion. From the 1900s to the 1990s, products with “2000” in their names became fashionable as the year was connected with all things advanced and modern.
However, as we entered the new century, the trend unavoidably disappeared.
1. Why do people use iPlayer?| A．To listen to music. |
| B．To make a call. |
| C．To watch TV programs online. |
| D．To read newspapers. |
| A．Engineers. |
| B．Young readers. |
| C．Fashionable women. |
| D．Old readers. |
| A．easy to carry |
| B．environmentally friendly |
| C．advanced |
| D．personalized |
| A．“i” products are often of high quality. |
| B．Actually nobody likes products with “2000”. |
| C．Fashion is closely connected with time. |
| D．The popularity of “i” products may not last long. |
1.家庭：
2．工作：
3.业余生活。
注意：1.词数100左右：
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯：
3.开头语已为你写好。
I often imagine what my life will be like in the future._______________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
3 . Preparing Cities for Robot Cars
The possibility of self-driving robot cars has often seemed like a futurist’s dream, years away from materializing in the real world. Well, the future is apparently now. The California Department of Motor Vehicles began giving permits in April for companies to test truly self-driving cars on public roads. The state also cleared the way for companies to sell or rent out self-driving cars, and for companies to operate driverless taxi services. California, it should be noted, isn’t leading the way here. Companies have been testing their vehicles in cities across the country. It’s hard to predict when driverless cars will be everywhere on our roads. But however long it takes, the technology has the potential to change our transportation systems and our cities, for better or for worse, depending on how the transformation is regulated.
While much of the debate so far has been focused on the safety of driverless cars(and rightfully so), policymakers also should be talking about how self-driving vehicles can help reduce traffic jams, cut emissions(排放) and offer more convenient, affordable mobility options. The arrival of driverless vehicles is a chance to make sure that those vehicles are environmentally friendly and more shared.
Do we want to copy — or even worsen — the traffic of today with driverless cars? Imagine a future where most adults own individual self-driving vehicles. They tolerate long, slow journeys to and from work on packed highways because they can work, entertain themselves or sleep on the ride, which encourages urban spread. They take their driverless car to an appointment and set the empty vehicle to circle the building to avoid paying for parking. Instead of walking a few blocks to pick up a child or the dry cleaning, they send the self-driving minibus. The convenience even leads fewer people to take public transport — an unwelcome side effect researchers have already found in ride-hailing(叫车) services.
A study from the University of California at Davis suggested that replacing petrol-powered private cars worldwide with electric, self-driving and shared systems could reduce carbon emissions from transportation 80% and cut the cost of transportation infrastructure(基础设施) and operations 40% by 2050. Fewer emissions and cheaper travel sound pretty appealing. The first commercially available driverless cars will almost certainly be fielded by ride-hailing services, considering the cost of self-driving technology as well as liability and maintenance issues(责任与维护问题). But driverless car ownership could increase as the prices drop and more people become comfortable with the technology.
Policymakers should start thinking now about how to make sure the appearance of driverless vehicles doesn’t extend the worst aspects of the car-controlled transportation system we have today. The coming technological advancement presents a chance for cities and states to develop transportation systems designed to move more people, and more affordably. The car of the future is coming. We just have to plan for it.
1. According to the author, attention should be paid to how driverless cars can __________.| A．help deal with transportation-related problems |
| B．provide better services to customers |
| C．cause damage to our environment |
| D．make some people lose jobs |
| A．Safety. | B．Side effects. |
| C．Affordability. | D．Management. |
| A．Employed. | B．Replaced. |
| C．Shared. | D．Reduced. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Sympathetic. |
4 . From self-driving cars to carebots (care+robots) for elderly people, rapid development in technology has long represented a possible threat (威胁) to many jobs normally performed by people. But experts now believe that almost 50 percent of occupations existing today will be completely unnecessary by 2025 as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to change businesses.
“The next fifteen years will see a revolution in how we work, and a revolution will necessarily take place in how we plan and think about workplaces,” said Peter Andrew, Director of Workplace Strategy for CBRE Asia-Pacific. A growing number of jobs in the future will require creative intelligence, social skills and the ability to use artificial intelligence.
The report is based on interviews with 200 experts, business leaders and young people from Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America. It shows that in the US technology already destroys more jobs than it creates. But the report states, “Losing occupations does not necessarily mean losing jobs—just changing what people do.” Growth in new jobs could occur as much, according to the research. “The growth of companies that have the speed and technological know-how will directly challenge big companies,” it states.
A 2014 report by Pew Research found 52 percent of experts in artificial intelligence and robotics were optimistic about the future and believed there would still be enough jobs in the next few years. The optimists pictured “a future in which robots do not take the place of more jobs than they create,” according to Aaron Smith, the report’s co-author.
“Technology will continue to affect jobs, but more jobs seem likely to be created. Although there have always been unemployed people, when we reached a few billion people there were billions of jobs. There is no shortage of things that need to be done and that will not change,” Microsoft’s Jonathan Grudin told researchers.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The result of job reduction. |
| B．The fast development of AI. |
| C．The future life of elderly people. |
| D．The influence of technology on jobs. |
| A．Take the place of AI. |
| B．Work in a traditional way. |
| C．Take up jobs requiring creativity. |
| D．Enjoy life without working anymore. |
| A．Job unemployment will stay high. |
| B．More jobs tend to appear in the future. |
| C．Job competition is likely to grow fiercer. |
| D．Technology will have less control over jobs. |
| A．Are People Losing Their Jobs? |
| B．The Requirements for Future Jobs |
| C．The Challenging Life in the Future |
| D．Does Technology Simplify Everything? |
5 . I have to remind myself
I suffered from “time lag” that I kept getting flashbacks from previous time period.We climbed in a capsule through a small
未来世界
1. 我相信未来是一个舒适、发达，让人满意的世界。气候温和，环境优美，污染问题彻底得到解决。
2. 居住地：陆地，漂浮城市，海洋等。
3. 交通方式：环保汽车，太空飞船，甚至利用时光机穿越过去或未来。
4. 只要努力，一切都可能实现。
注意：
① 短文应包括所提示的内容，适当发挥；
② 要求书写清楚,句子通顺，语法正确。
The world in the future
I believe that _______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Think of space，perhaps a permanent(永久的) station on the moon will have been set up. Perhaps people will be able to visit the moon as tourists. Cheap rockets for space travel will have been developed，permitting long journeys throughout the solar system(太阳系). When that time comes，people will be taking holidays in space and visiting other planets. Great progress will have been made in medicine，too. Perhaps a cure will have been discovered for the most terrible of all diseases—cancer. Pollution is a problem we must solve. In a hundred years’time it will have been controlled.
All the world will have been developed — even Antarctica. There will be large cities in Antarctica. We already have supersonic(超音速的) flight，but in a hundred years’time we will have supersonic land travel as well.
We will have used up most of earth’s land to build our cities， so floating cities will have been built. The Japanese already have plans for cities of this kind. And there will be cities under the sea. The first of these will have been completed.
1. We will have developed ______ in a hundred years’time，permitting long journeys all over the solar system.
| A．cheap rockets for space travel | B．a plane |
| C．a spaceship | D．a satellite |
| A．in a year | B．about half a century later |
| C．in the year 2050 | D．about a century later |
| A．we’ll make good use of space on the earth |
| B．cities under the sea |
| C．Japan will first build floating cities |
| D．earth’s land is in danger |
| A．Travel in the Future | B．Future Life |
| C．Where to Live in the Future | D．Space Travel |
