1 . When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s, we had a milkman delivering milk to our doorstep. His name was Mr. Basille. He wore a white cap and drove a white truck. As a 5-year-old boy, I couldn’t take my eyes off the coin changer fixed to his belt. He noticed this one day during a delivery and gave me a quarter out of his coin changer.
Of course, he delivered more than milk. There was cheese, eggs and so on. If we needed to change our order, my mother would pen a note — “Please add a bottle of buttermilk next delivery” — and place it in the box along with the empty bottles. And then, the buttermilk would magically (魔术般) appear.
All of this was about more than convenience. There existed a close relationship between families and their milkmen. Mr. Basille even had a key to our house, for those times when it was so cold outside that we put the box indoors, so that the milk wouldn’t freeze. And I remember Mr. Basille from time to time taking a break at our kitchen table, having a cup of tea and telling stories about his delivery.
There is sadly no home milk delivery today. Big companies allowed the production of cheaper milk, thus making it difficult for milkmen to compete. Besides, milk is for sale everywhere, and it may just not have been practical to have a delivery service.
Recently, an old milk box in the countryside I saw brought back my childhood memories. I took it home and planted it on the back porch (门廊) . Every so often my son’s friends will ask what it is. So I start telling stories of my boyhood, and of the milkman who brought us friendship along with his milk.
1. Mr. Basille gave the boy a quarter out of his coin changer to __________.| A．show his magical power | B．pay for the delivery |
| C．satisfy his curiosity | D．please his mother |
| A．He wanted to have tea there. | B．He was a respectable person. |
| C．He was treated as a family member. | D．He was fully trusted by the family. |
| A．Nobody wants to be a milkman now. | B．It has been driven out of the market. |
| C．Its service is getting poor. | D．It is not allowed by law. |
| A．He missed the good old days. | B．He wanted to tell interesting stories. |
| C．He needed it for his milk bottles. | D．He planted flowers in it. |
2 . It’s exciting to imagine how future humans will have solved the problems we have now, or what amazing new inventions will make our lives more convenient and interesting. We asked top scientists to share their predictions on what the world will be like in a century. If they’re right, the 2114 is going to be really cool.
1. Robots will do your chores and more.
Robots will be doing most of our jobs, from building homes to teaching math. There are already robots that clean floors and pump gas. In the future they will be more complicated and useful. Unfortunately, with robots taking all the jobs, unemployment will be high.
2. You will read minds.
Speaking of being social, we will communicate in an entirely different way. Forget texts and emails. Mindreading technology will allow us to send thoughts to each other without speaking a word. We will also be able to send thoughts to objects around us. (Instead of pressing “start” on the microwave, you could just think “start”.) Meanwhile, chips implanted (植入) in our brains will improve memory and intelligence.
3. Your car will drive you.
Today, around 30,000 Americans die in car accidents each year. One hundred years from now, accidents will be a thing of the past. According to Mark Safford, consultant or the U.S. department of Transportation, future cars will drive themselves. These electric cars will communicate with other cars on the road to travel safely in close formation at high speeds.
4. You will eat fake meat.
Raising animals is not an efficient way to produce food, and it harms the environment. Cows, chickens, and pigs eat a lot, and then we have to deal with all that poop (粪便). What’s more, that poop can poison lakes, rivers, and streams. Today, scientists can “grow” meat in a lab from animal cells, but it’s expensive and not very delicious. In the future, they will have perfected the process. You’ll order hamburgers that come from factories, not cows. Scientists may even find ways to make lab grown meat tastier and healthier than the real thing.
1. According to the passage, what is likely to happen when robots become more common in the future?| A．People will be much lazier. |
| B．More people will lose their jobs. |
| C．People may become physically weaker. |
| D．More people may become less intelligent. |
| A．have a good memory | B．talk to other creatures |
| C．read books efficiently | D．convey messages silently |
| A．less popular | B．more expensive |
| C．much easier to operate | D．much smaller and lighter |
| A．much more harmless | B．less tasty but healthier |
| C．more organic and delicious | D．more environmentally friendly |
William N. Brown was a young airman in the U.S. Air Force when he first became interested in China. Driven by
In the beginning, William’s father strongly objected his move to China,
4 . In May this year, as part of our 150th anniversary, we asked readers aged between 18 and 25 to enter an essay competition. The task was to tell us, in no more than 1,000 words, what scientific advance they would most like to see in their lifetimes, and why it mattered to them.
The response was phenomenal: we received 661 entries. Some entrants hoped that science would make their lifetimes much longer than they can currently expect. Many looked forward to work that will end climate change. Others wanted to see advances in our understanding of human history, crop growth, space exploration, and medical technologies. The ideas were inspiring.
The winner is a compelling essay by Yasmin Ali, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham, UK. Ali submitted a piece on Beethoven, her brother’s hearing loss and the science which she hoped would one day cure it. It stood out to the judges as a reminder of why many scientists do research: to make the world better tomorrow than it is today.
All essays were judged by a group of Nature editors. The top ten submissions were then ranked by three members of a separate judging group: Magdalena Skipper, editor-in-chief of Nature; Faith Osier, a researcher; and Jess Wade, a physicist. All submissions were kept anonymous throughout the process.
We also selected two runners-up(非冠军的获奖者).Physicist Robert Schittko at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, proposes that nuclear fusion(核聚变) could offer a solution to the climate crisis, in a piece that effortlessly mixes grand ambition with gentle humour. And chemist Matthew Zajac at the University of Chicago in Illinois wrote a powerful personal account of why he wants to see advances in the field of same-sex reproduction.
The results show that today’s young scientists have a wealth of ideas, talent and conviction that research can transform their world. We look forward to seeing what they do next.
1. What’s the essay competition about?| A．The scientific expectation. |
| B．The fantastic scientific ideas. |
| C．The dreams of future life. |
| D．The celebration of anniversary. |
| A．She showed great talent in music. |
| B．She found the cure for the loss of hearing. |
| C．She appealed for people to care about hearing loss problem. |
| D．She reminded people to remember the meaning of science development. |
| A．Robert Schittko won the second place. |
| B．There were two winners in the essay competition. |
| C．Matthew Zajac presented his view of same-sex reproduction. |
| D．The two runners-up were selected for the same field they chose. |
| A．Doubtful. |
| B．Favorable. |
| C．Impossible. |
| D．Ignorant. |
