1 . I’m 16. On a recent night, while I was busy thinking about important social issues, like what to do over the weekend and who to do it with, I overheard my parents talking about my future. My dad was upset — not the usual stuff that he and Mom and, I guess, a lot of parents worry about like which college I’m going to, how far away it is from home and how much it’s going to cost. Instead, he was upset about the world his generation is turning over to mine, a world he fears has a dark and difficult future — if it has a future at all.

He sounded like this: “There will be a pandemic that kills millions, a devastating energy crisis, a horrible worldwide depression and a nuclear explosion set off in anger.”

As I lay on the living room couch, eavesdropping on their conversation, starting to worry about the future my father was describing, I found myself looking at some old family photos.

There was a picture of my grandfather in his Citadel uniform. He was a member of the class of 1942, the war class. Next to his picture were photos of my great-grandparents, Ellis Island immigrants. Seeing those pictures made me feel a lot better. I believe the world my generation grows into is going to get better, not worse. Those pictures helped me understand why.

I considered some of the awful things my grandparents and great-grandparents had seen in their life times: two worlds wars, killer flu, a nuclear bomb. But they saw other things, too, better things: the end of two world wars, the polio vaccine, passage of the civil rights laws. They even saw the Red Sox win the World Series—twice.

I believe that my generation will see better things, too — that we will witness the time when AIDS is cured and cancer is defeated; when the Middle East will find peace and Africa grain, and the Cubs win the World Series — probably, only once. I will see things as inconceivable to me today as a moon shot was to my grandfather when he was 16, or the Internet to my father when he was 16. Ever since I was a little kid, whenever I’ve had an awful day, my dad would put his arm around me and promise me that “tomorrow will be a better day.” I challenged my father once, “How do you know that?” He said, “I just do.” I believe him. My great-grandparents believed that, and my grandparents, and so do I.

3 . Space tourism is the term used to describe space travel for recreational or leisure purposes. What was once only a dream, as described in A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, is now becoming a reality.

Futurologists attempt to make predictions of what life will be like in the future. After the first man landed on the moon, they thought that hotels would be built on the moon by the year 2000. They also considered the possibility that, in the 21st century, families might go for a holiday on the moon. Neither of these predictions have come true yet-but the rapid development of technology may mean these predictions are possible in the years to come.

Space Adventures is currently the only company to have succeeded in sending paying passengers into space. It worked with the Federal Space Agency of Russia and Rocket and Space Corporation Energia to provide flights for the world’s first private space explorers. Each paid over $20 million for their 10-day trip to the International Space Station.

Following successful explorations into space, other companies are now considering the possibility of enabling tourists to visit space. To make it affordable, suborbital space travel is being considered by some companies, like Virgin Galactic. Passengers would be transported to a height of between 100 and 160 km above earth, experience 3 — 6 minutes of weightlessness and a view of the stars before back to earth. This is expected to cost around $200, 000 per person.

Whilst it could be an enriching experience, there are some disadvantages. Many critics say that a huge growth in the spaceflight industry could drastically speed up the process of global warming. The ozone layer would be damaged further and the polar regions would suffer. In addition, space travel is only really affordable for the super-rich, though Virgin Galactic claims to be ‘opening space to the rest of us’.

4 . 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.

5 . Life in the future will be different from life today.Between then and now many changes will happen. But what will the changes be?

The population is growing fast. There will be many people in the world and most of them will live longer than people live now.

Computers will be much smaller and more useful, and there will be at least one in every room.And computer studies will be one of the important subjects in schools then.People will work fewer hours than they do now and they will have more free time for sports, watching TV and travel.Traveling will be much cheaper and easier. And many more people will go to other countries for holidays.

There will be changes in our food, too. More land will be used for building new towns and houses for all the people. Then there will be less room for cows and sheep, so meat will be more expensive. Maybe no one will eat it every day.Instead they will eat more fruit and vegetables. Maybe people will be healthier.

Work in the future will be different, too.Robots will do dangerous and hard work.Because of this, many people will not have enough work to do. This will be a problem.

How will our continuously growing population affect our way of life, our environment, even our planet? No matter how you look at it, we will face     1     extremely serious problem. By the middle of the 21st century, we will have used up all the oil that     2     (drive)our cars if at the rate we’re going. Even if scientists develop some new     3     (way)of feeding the human race, the crowded conditions on the earth will make     4     necessary for us to look for open space somewhere else. But none of the planets in our solar system are able     5     (support)life at present. One possible solution     6     the problem, however, has recently been raised by an American scientist, Professor Carl Sagan. His idea is     7     before the earth’s resource are almost exhausted, it will be     8     (total)possible to change the atmosphere of Venus(金星) and so create a new world almost as large as earth itself.

However,     9     his idea is turned into reality, humans have a long way to go. On the one hand, Venus is much     10     (hot)than the earth; on the other hand, there is only a tiny amount of water there.

9 . In the far, far future, bicycles and perhaps skates may be run by jet power, and a new thing to ride may be a small flying saucer (飞碟). Imagine a race between them!

There may be telepathy helmets (心灵感应头盔) that send thought waves from your brain to that of your friend miles away. You just think a thought and your friend knows it! You can have secrets with each other that nobody else can turn in on!

What about the food of the future? Scientists think that much of it will be artificial—made in factories from such surprising things as coal, limestone, air and water. The artificial food will be healthful because all the things that you need to live a long and healthy life will be put into it.

The future hospitals will probably have “body banks” that can give you almost any new part you need to keep on living. People of the future may live to be a lot older than 100 years.

What about highways of the future? Well, a very small child probably will be able to drive a car. Electric signals will hold each car on the right road to get wherever the “driver” wants to go. And it probably will be impossible for cars to crash together. Controls that won’t even have to be touched will make all speeding cars miss each other or will put on the brakes. Driving cars will be as safe as being at home.

But maybe the most wonderful surprise in the future will be weather control. Cities may have giant plastic domes (圆顶罩) over them to keep out snow, rain, or storms. When you plan a picnic in a park, you won’t have to worry about rain. It will rain only when the “weatherman” thinks it is necessary to fresh the air inside the city. All other days will be fair and warm.

The future should be a wonderful time in which to live and the time we are living in now is also a wonderful future to the people who lived 100 years ago.

10 . Don’t you want to talk less and smile more? That seems to be Amazon’s vision for the future of the smart home. According to the company, talking to their devices is just a temporary stage. Next, their gadgets (小玩意) will just know what we want and do it for us without a single command. To plot this route, the consumer tech giant showed off a series of new gadgets at its annual hardware event in September, 2020.

This vision of a smart home has been the road map for home automation for decades. A true smart home doesn’t just react to commands, it can foresee what will happen and take action accordingly. This could include lights switching on when you arrive home, heating turning off when the house is empty, or security drones (无人机) activating when somebody breaks in. Amazon says it’s ready for this domestic revolution, even if it’s still a few decades off.

Connectivity is the guarantee of a true smart home. The updated Echo smart speaker line that was recently displayed doesn’t just have a showy new look, it comes with a suite of tech to keep everything connected. This extended network, which will be launched in the US in later 2021, is designed to support expanding the smart home out to the smart garden and the smart driveway and beyond to the smart neighbourhood.

At the event, Amazon also showed off an actual robot. The Ring Always Home Cam ($ 250, coming in 2021) was perhaps the most fancy offering from the event, and certainly raised a fair number of eyebrows. At roughly 13cm high, the Always Home Cam is a drone with a camera. It rises up from its docking station and flies on pre-set paths. If a security event is detected, it will send warnings to your phone.

Ultimately, a true smart home won’t just rely on voice commands or drones. The less aggressive tech such as sensors, computer vision, and AI will work together to respond to our needs without violating our privacy. But, as Limp says, the true smart home “is a long-term vision, and there’s still lots to be done to make that a reality”.