4 . At the doctor’s office, first I log onto a computer to announce my presence. Then I wait until a robotic nurse _______ me into the examination room. Soon, in steps the doctor, who also is a robot. He records my _______, does a few calculations and then _______ out a prescription (处方). Having swiped (刷) the credit card at a machine on the way out, I return home without having come across another human being. This scene is my horrible imagination of the future, which hasn’t come to pass —_______ not yet now.

I really do like many aspects of _______. I’m a big fan of air conditioners in summer and heat in winter. But I don’t want machines to _______. When I call my dentist’s office and on the line actually get a human being, I am pleased. When I call the airport and get the lady-computer who _______ asking me to report myself, I want to scream. When I see the slow occupation of self-service check-out stations at the supermarket, I feel like shouting, “When it _______ cashiers, make mine humans, please!” 

After all, a human cashier might _______ a bag of flour leaking and get you a replacement. Real-life cashiers may have a ________ word for an elderly person struggling to pay the bill. Even more than that, they often take an interest in particularly cute children, which can ________ a young mother’s day. I don’t want to go back to the Stone Age, but I’m also ________ about a completely computerized world, where face-to-face communication is replaced by swiping credit cards and feeding numbers. Self-service check-out stations can be efficient. But they lack a(n) ________ so vital to everyday life. It is something that urges us to offer others a smile, a hug or a prayer, which may be ________ what they need at that moment. Call it the spirit, the soul or the heart. It is something that no ________ will ever have.

5 . Recently we carried out a survey of 1,000 people from different countries to find out what they think _______will be like in the future. The results clearly show both our _______and fears.

The survey suggests that_______ — one of the most important human relationships — will change greatly. People will make friends through the Internet. Computers will become really_______by 2050. Even now, some people describe them as their best friends! Others, _______, say that we will become much more isolated (孤立的) from each other _______we will have little real human communication.

Education will _______ a lot too. As more and more children will be using computers in schools, certain _______, such as mental arithmetic (心算), won’t be necessary. Even writing by hand will have become a thing of the_______.

According to the survey, home life will be________. Most people believe that by 2050 robots will be doing the housework and we will be eating________food. A lot of people think that we might only cook for fun in the future. Space exploration will become increasingly________. Fifty percent of the people we talked to ________that man will regularly (定期地) visit Mars.

Pollution is something that seems to ________many people. Some fear that it will________to get worse, and that our planet will become________to live on. Others even ________that one day we' ll have to pay for clean air.

________, people seem to be quite optimistic about genetic engineering (基因工程), as they think scientists will use it to ________diseases like cancer and AIDS.

No matter how dark or bright it may seem, it is up to us to ________our planet and try to make it a better place.

6 . What will man be like in the future? How about in 5,000 or even 50,000 years from now? We can only make a________, of course, but we can be sure that he will be different from________he is today, for man is slowly________all the time.

Let us take an example. Man, even 500 years ago, was________than he is today. Now, on average, men are about three inches taller. 500 years is a relatively short period of________, so we may guess that man will________to grow taller.

Again, in modern world we use our________a great deal. Even so, we still________only about 20% of the brain’ s capacity (容量).As time________, however, we shall have to use our brains more and more --and finally we shall need even larger ones! This is likely to________a physical change, too. The head,________, the forehead, will grow larger.

Nowadays our eyes are in________use. In fact, we use them so much that very often they become weaker and we have to wear________. But over a very long period of time it is likely that man’s eyes will grow stronger.

On the other hand, we________to make less use of our arms and legs. These, as a result, are likely to grow weaker. At the same time,________our fingers will grow more sensitive (敏感的) because they are used a great deal in modern life.

But what about hair? This will probably________from the body altogether in course of time because it does not________a useful purpose any longer. In the future, then, both sexes are likely to be bald(无发或少发的).

Perhaps all this gives the impression that future man will not be a very________creature to look at! All the same, in spite of all these changes, future man will still have a lot in________with us. He will still be a human being, with________and emotions similar to our own.

7 . A parent’s hopes for 2030

When 2010 arrived, my son was only a year old—tiny and_________, the master of a few basic words, but still mostly the baby we'd welcomed into the world,_______ all his first times.

Now my baby has grown into a(n) _________—tall, strong, stout, and smart, a(n) _________ of Akira Kurosawa samurai movies.

A _________from now, in 2030, he will be an adult. I expect the next 10 years to fly by, and be filled with _________. As 2020 begins. I am thinking about the kind of world my son will_________ and experience. I _________for him, and for all the young people of his age. So I have several   _________for the world my son and his generation will live in：

I hope we finally get__________about climate change. Polar ice is melting. The oceans are __________ . The question is __________whether we can stop climate change, but whether we’re willing and able to do anything to __________ it.

I’m not sure what a warming planet will mean for my son's life. I__________ it means he will live in a world where nations and groups __________   limited resources like clean water and food, which means that the danger of climate change won't come just from warmer climate, but from other humans competing for control over what’s __________.

The world is always going to be full of __________about how to solve the challenges we face. I hope, too, that my son’s generation learns to __________justice—but to do so with big heart and humility, recognizing our common humanity(人性) even with people who __________ us.

The world of 2030 won’t build itself. We are__________ it now, so my final wish is that we build the kind of world we actually want our children to live in.