1 . In the movie “The Wrong Trousers”, a pair of futuristic trousers lets people walk on walls and ceilings. Inspired by the movie, researchers in England created “The Right Trousers”, a set of trousers embedded(嵌入) with electrical pumps to force air into tiny tubes that expand and can help elderly or disabled people with issues like getting up or improving blood flow. Now, material scientists, computer programmers and fabric designers are working to advance robotic clothing.
In June, researchers in Australia created robotic fibers, which can make fabric move automatically. Last year, scientists at MIT built fiber batteries that could be embedded into clothes and power robotic clothing. In recent years, Google partnered with brands like Levi’s and Adidas to put sensors in jackets, backpacks and shoes, letting users access their phones instantly. Researchers said they could soon unlock an era where clothing will act more like a computer, sensing how your body feels and telling your clothes how to help.
At the University of New South Wales in Australia, researchers are creating fabrics that can shape-shift. Thanh Nho Do, a senior lecturer at the school, said his team has created tiny tubes that can weave into sheets of fabric. These tubes can make fabric take various preprogrammed shapes. But challenges still remain for Do’s team, notably around making these robotic tubes smaller so they can weave easily with other fabrics.
Rebecca Kramer Bottiglio from Yale University agreed that many challenges remain before smart clothing “reaches their full potential.” It will be challenging to make these clothes, equipped with fibers and technology, strong enough to go through multiple cycles in the laundry, she said. Despite that, she says researchers will figure out a way forward. “Recent breakthroughs point toward a not-so-distant future where smart clothing will be a part of our everyday life.” she said.
1. What inspired the researchers to come up with “The Right Trousers”?| A．A film. |
| B．A blood issue. |
| C．The way electrical pumps work. |
| D．The way the elderly and disabled move. |
| A．They put sensors in clothes. |
| B．They created movable robotic fibers. |
| C．They made batteries for robotic clothing. |
| D．They released smart clothing connected to cellphones. |
| A．Making robotic tubes smaller. |
| B．Keeping robotic tubes properly shaped. |
| C．Producing stronger robotic tubes. |
| D．Programming the shape of robotic tubes. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Indifferent. | C．Worried. | D．Hopeful. |
2 . Futurologists predict that life will probably be very apparently distinct in 2050 in all the fields of activity, from entertainment to technology.
First of all, it seems that TV channels will have disappeared by 2050. Instead, people will choose a programme from a “menu” and a computer will send the programme directly to the television. Today, we can use the World Wide Web to read newspaper stories and see pictures on a computer thousands of kilometers away. By 2050, music, films, programmes, newspapers and books will come to us by computer. We will also be able to see, smell and touch the things that we see on television.
In transport, cars will run on new, clean “gas” and they will go very fast. Cars will have computers to control the speed of the car and there won’t be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to where you want to go. Space planes will fly all over the world and people will fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just two hours.
In technology, robots will have replaced people in factories. Many factories already use robots. Big companies prefer robots—they do not ask for pay rises or go on strike, and they work 24 hours a day. By 2050, we will see robots everywhere-in factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.
Last but not least, medicine technology will have conquered many diseases. By 2050, we will be able to help blind and deaf people see again and hear again. Scientists will be able to produce clones of people and decide how they look, how they behave and how much intelligence they have.
1. What will happen to the media in 2050?| A．Televisions will disappear |
| B．Computers will take the place of televisions. |
| C．Computers will choose the programme for us. |
| D．We can smell the dishes on television. |
| A．They will be less polluted and more safe. |
| B．They will be controlled by robots. |
| C．Planes will fly all over the world in a short time. |
| D．They will go at a very high speed and run on oil. |
| A．Robots will ask for pay rises and go on strike in the future. |
| B．There will be no people working in factories by 2050. |
| C．There will be cloned people coming to power by 2050 |
| D．More and more work will be done by robots by 2050. |
| A．What our future life will be like. | B．TV channels will disappear in 2050. |
| C．What cars will be like in the future. | D．Many diseases will disappear in 2050. |
3 . What will the future be like? Will the world be greener and more beautiful? Will people live more happily and more conveniently? Probably people will lead a better life.
The Spring Festival, the most important Chinese holiday when everyone returns home has caused headaches for millions of Chinese. More than 2 billion people travel at the same time, making getting travel tickets and the journey arduous. But in several decades, the Spring Festival travel may not be a problem at all. China plans to build more than 120,000 kilometers of railway and a fast transportation network that will serve 90% of the population.
And because most of China will be cities, people will not have to go to other places to find jobs, so it will no longer be a problem. In the future, new information about timely events will be sent by humans or even robots to personal web tools through the Internet. That means only digital (数字化的) newspapers can be seen. Readers can discuss topics with journalists and editors. Information will move faster.
Oil is running out faster than expected. But scientists have found something else for oil as fuel. Coal, natural gas, solar power, nuclear power and even water can take the place of oil as sources (来源) of energy.
Schools will go electronic. Everything will be in the computer and students will not need to bring books to school. They will find information on the Internet. A computer will be the students’ library, schoolbag and connection to the outside world. There will be robot teachers, who will check homework on computers and communicate with the students’ parents through emails. And school buses will be like spaceships, comfortable and safe.
However, what can the future actually become? It remains to be seen.
1. What does the underlined word “arduous” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Possible. | B．Necessary. | C．Difficult. | D．Boring. |
| A．Traditional newspapers will disappear completely. |
| B．Transportation networks will be in severe situations. |
| C．Sources of new energy will be very hard to discover. |
| D．People will be in face of having fewer jobs to take up. |
| A．Students will be free of homework. | B．Computers will play a key role in it. |
| C．Students will travel into space daily. | D．It is much more colorful than before. |
| A．Worries on Life in the Future | B．A Great Lifestyle in the Future |
| C．Ways to Succeed in the Future | D．Predictions on Life in the Future |
4 . Future means a time that is not yet here. It can be a short time from now or a long time from now. Scientists think that many wonderful things may come true in our future life.
Are you wondering whether there'll be televisions in the future?
What about driving cars in the future? Well, a very small child probably will be able to drive a car. Computer systems will hold each car on the right road to get wherever the "driver" wants to go.
The future should be a wonderful time in which to live. But the time you are living in now was also “a wonderful future” to the people who lived 100 years ago.
| A．But maybe the most wonderful surprise in the future will be weather control. |
| B．In the future, life will be the same as we live today. |
| C．Now let’s see what the wonders are that may appear in the future. |
| D．And it probably will be impossible for car accidents to happen. |
| E．What about the food of the future? |
| F．People will suffer from serious hunger in the future. |
| G．The future televisions will be totally different from what they are. |
5 . By the year 2050, a fifth of the world’s cities will experience unprecedented climate conditions and environments that currently don’t exist in any major cities, according to new research. A team of scientists at the Crowther Lab in Switzerland produced the report, which described the climate for 520 major cities 30 years in the future.
The results showed that 77 percent of the world’s cities will experience a surprising change in climate conditions by 2050, and 22 percent of the 520 cities will see conditions that are not currently experienced by any existing major cities.
In China in 2050, the climate of Xi’an, in Shanxi province, will be similar to that of current day Maseru, the capital city of Lesotho in southern Africa, with the maximum temperature of the warmest month likely to increase by 4.59℃. Chongqing in southwest China will resemble the climate of Swaziland capital Mbabane, as the warmest temperature is predicted to rise by 5.1℃.
Scientists predict summers in Europe will get warmer by an average of 3.5℃ and European winters will see temperature rises of 4.7℃. London’s climate will be more similar lo Barcelona, and Madrid’s to Marrakech.
The Crowther Lab hopes the analysis will motivate decision-makers to take necessary steps to prevent or address some of the climate effects due to the threat of climate change. The report also found that cities in tropical regions will experience smaller changes in average temperature but will be controlled by shifts in rainfall regimes. This may lead to a noticeable increase in unexpected events, and severe droughts.
“Across all scientific fields, the greatest challenge in climate science is no longer the precise measurement of climate change impacts, but inspiring people to picture is actual effects in order to motivate action,” said Tom Crowther, senior scientist und founder of the Crowther Lab.
1. According to the research, among the 520 cities by 2050, about ________ cities will experience the climate conditions that no major cities currently have experienced.| A．400 | B．114 | C．260 | D．104 |
| A．By listing figures. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By doing experiments. | D．By explaining theory. |
| A．To compare the climate change of the major cities of the world. |
| B．To inspire people to picture its actual effects in order to motivate action. |
| C．To inspire decision-makers to take necessary steps to prevent some climate effects. |
| D．To show most word’s cities will experience a striking change in climate conditions. |
| A．World Temperature | B．Current Climate Change |
| C．Big Titles in the World | D．Future Climate Change in Most Big Cities |
6 . 
News anchors(主播) must have been reluctant to read out the following news: Xin Xiaomeng began working as the world’s first female artificial(人工的) intelligence news anchor at Xinhua News Agency on Sunday, three months after a male robot joined the profession.
Unlike previous news robots though, Xin does not read news like a cold machine; she reads it almost like a human being. The muscles on her face stretch and relax-and her reactions change-as she continues reading. That’s why many news anchors were worried: Will AI replace us in the near future?
To find the answer, we have to analyse the technologies that support Xin at her job. Three key technologies are used to support Xin. First, samples of human voices are collected and synthesized (合成). This is followed by the collection and synthesis of human muscle movement samples. And third the voices and movements are married in a way that when the Al news anchor reads, the micro -electric motors behind her face move to make her expressions seem more human.
Yet we need a thorough knowledge of deep leaning technology to make a robot imitate a person’s voice. The developer needs to collect tens of thousands of pieces of pronunciations, input them Into the machine and match them with the text or the Al to lean and read. The process for imitating facial movements is similar. The developer has to analyse the movements of the 53 muscles in the human face, make a model set from the collected data for the AI news anchor to lean, and imitate the movements of facial muscles via programs
Both the technologies used to make Xin’s performance impressive are mature. The real difficulty lies in the third -the technology to match the pronunciations with facial movements so that Xin expressions vary according to the content of the news report. In fact, Xins expressions don' t always change according to the content. As a result, her expressions look anything but human. Actually. AI is still no match for human qualities.
1. What does the underlined word "reluctant "in the first paragraph mean?| A．Delighted. | B．Unwilling. | C．Confused. | D．Optimistic. |
| A．They read news without expressions. | B．They looked like a human being |
| C．They could interview sports stars | D．They could interact with audience. |
| A．This technology is very perfect so far |
| B．This technology is quite popular now |
| C．This technology remains at the theoretical stage |
| D．This technology is far from mature. |
| A．human news anchors should learn from AT anchors to save their jobs |
| B．Al anchors perform much better than human news anchors at present |
| C．Al news anchors won 't replace human news anchors in the near future |
| D．Xin Xiaomeng s expressions vary so naturally that they are true to life |
7 . There’s a good chance something you've bought online has been in the hands of a “ picker” first. These are the workers in warehouses(仓库)who pick, pack and ship all those things we’re ordering.
At Amazon and other companies, they’re working side by side with robots. Experts say while the robots are replacing some human workers, the machines aren't quite ready to take over completely.
When a robot finds its storage unit, it slides underneath, lifts it up and then delivers it to a worker 一 they’re called pickers. On a recent day, the computer told a picker to grab what looked like a fantasy board (棋盘)game. The picker found it, canned it and placed it on the conveyor belt.
“In a traditional fulfillment center where the associate would walk to the different items , it can take hours to fulfill a customer order. “ Robinson says.
Now, with the help of robots, that task takes minutes 一 and fewer humans.
So is this a sign we're entering a new industrial revolution?
“It’s definitely going to take over a lot of jobs. " says Karen Myers, a scientist at SRI, one of Silicon Valley's oldest research centers.
At the same time, she says, we're running against the limits of technology. Take “the picker” at the Amazon fulfillment center. Myers says those skills are proving to be uniquely human.
“Our fingers are incredibly flexible and the current generation of robotic operators, they’re getting much, much better,” she says. “But they're just not quite there yet. ”
There’s also the robot’s brain.
Remember that board game the Amazon worker was looking for? She could barely see the box filled into the storage bin — but she could tell it was a board game. Robots can’t do that.
Technologists say that, increasingly, humans will work side by side with robots — instead of robots working alone.
Amazon says robots and humans enabled the Tracy warehouse to fulfill customer orders faster. That means more customers and more human workers.
1. A picker does some tasks except .| A．picking goods | B．producing goods | C．spotting goods | D．packing goods |
| A．more efficient | B．less straight | C．more difficult | D．less profitable |
| A．powerful | B．artificial | C．flexible | D．energetic |
| A．Robots replacing humans completely. |
| B．The advantages of shopping online. |
| C．The future of robots. |
| D．Robots and humans working side by side. |
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._______________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
9 . If you’re tired of the big cities and sandy beaches; if you don’t want to head to Disney again, perhaps it’s time for a summer holiday in space. Russia has declared(宣布) plans for its first floating hotel, 217 miles above earth, and it is something of an offering with good service.
Hosting just seven guests in four cabins(座舱), the accommodation (膳宿) will include huge windows with views back to earth and tasty microwave meals will be served instead of the ones often used by astronauts.
Just getting there will be an adventure in itself—it will take two days aboard a rocket—and it won’t exactly be a budget holiday: A five-day stay will cost you￡100, 000 to￡500, 000 for your journey. The hotel is due to open by 2019 and it will be far more comfortable than the International Space Station (ISS) used by astronauts and cosmonauts.
In the weightlessness of space, visitors can choose to have beds that are either vertical(垂直的) or horizontal(水平的). Tourists, who will be accompanied by experienced astronauts, will dine on food prepared on Earth and sent up on the rocket, to be reheated in microwave ovens(炉子). Many kinds of delicious food will be offered.
Iced tea, mineral water and fruit juices will be included, but alcohol will be strictly forbidden. Toilets will use flowing air instead of water to move waste through the system. Waste water will be recycled.
Sergei Kostenko, chief executive of Orbital Technologies which will construct the hotel, said: “Our planned module inside will not remind you of the International Space Station. A hotel should be comfortable inside, and it will be possible to look at the Earth. The hotel will be aimed at wealthy individuals and people working for private companies who want to do research in space.” The hotel can also be used as an emergency shelter for astronauts aboard the International Space Station if there is a disaster.
1. Which can be the best title of the passage?| A．Russia has the advanced technology in exploring space |
| B．The International Space Station is being built now |
| C．The astronauts will have a second home in space |
| D．Russia declares the design for its first space hotel |
| A．expensive | B．exciting |
| C．cheap | D．uncomfortable |
| A．The space hotel is built to remind you of the International Space Station. |
| B．The hotel is built with big windows so that tourists can see the earth. |
| C．Many kinds of drinks are offered including alcohol. |
| D．In the near future, a space trip for most of the people can be realized. |
In discussion of technological changes，the Internet gets most of the attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells（细胞） are the basic units of all living things，and until recently，scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cells，such as those of brain cells，would not last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100，medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so，people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs（器官）. The medicine，made up of the basic building materials of life，will build new brain cells，heart cells，and so on－in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.
It is exciting to imagine that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic condition of human existence，but many technical problems still must be cleared up on the way to this wonderful future.
1. According to the passage，human death is now mainly caused by ________.
| A．diseases and aging | B．accidents and war |
| C．accidents and aging | D．heart disease and war |
| A．the Internet | B．medicine |
| C．brain cells | D．human organs |
| A．heart disease will be far away from us |
| B．human brains can decide the final death |
| C．the basic materials of cells will last forever |
| D．human organs can be repaired by new medicine |
| A．Over 100 years. |
| B．More than 120 years. |
| C．About 150 years. |
| D．The passage doesn’t tell us. |
