1 . Twenty-five years ago on July 1,1997, I woke up very late in my apartment in Singapore. l jumped out of bed in ______ . I woke up my 8-year-old daughter Avy. ”We’re late for school,“ I half-yelled at her. We finally ______ it to the nearby bus stop in time. ______ , the school was only two stops away. We got in, _____ our eyes as the sunlight streamed into the bus.

Her mom had flown to Hong Kong several days earlier on assignment for a newspaper to ______ the handover(交接) of the city’s return to China.

l had ______ from work for a week to help look after our daughter. I would ______ my daughter from school around midday. At the end of the day, I would watch the news on TV, which had led the entire week with the ______ events happening in Hong Kong. I would wonder ______ my wife was in the crowd that was gathered to ______ the handover.

The year, 1997, was ______ because the Asian financial crisis began. For that week though, that was the least of my ______ . I just made sure we did not have a ______ of July 1, when we were nearly late for school. My wife was very busy during the handover, chasing down stories in Hong Kong as the British flag was ______ for the last time.

I later spent a few years working in Hong Kong, but my enduring memory of the days surrounding its return to China was the time I spent as a ______ , although it is kind of hard to call an 8-year-old a baby.

2 . Modern inventions have speeded up people’s lives amazingly. Motor cars ________ a hundred miles in more than an hour, aircraft cross the world within a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of ________ seems never-ending. Every year motor cars are produced which go even faster and each new computer boasts(吹嘘) of ________ precious seconds in handling tasks.

All these save time, but at a cost. When we lose or ________ half a day in speeding across the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jet-lag(时差). Our bodies feel that they have been ________ behind in another time zone. Again, spending too long at ________ results in painful wrists(手腕) and fingers. Mobile phones also have their dangers: too much use may transmit harmful ________ into our brains.

However, how do we ________ the time we have saved? Certainly not relax, or so it seems. We are so used to constant activity that we find it ________ to sit down and do nothing or even just one thing at a   ________ . Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen ________ to a story on the radio, letting imagination take us into another world.

There was a time when some people’s lives were devoted simply to the cultivation(耕作) of the ________ or the care of cattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives went on at a much gentler pace. There is much that we might envy about a ________ of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors ________ . Modern machines have ________ people from that primitive(原始的) existence.

3 . “Ladies and gentlemen, the time train has arrived at the terminal!” It felt like I had woken up from a dream, _________ soon discovered I had come to 2035. Suddenly, I heard a strange voice calling my name. I turned around, only to find a robot _________ to me enthusiastically. “I’ll show you around the city in 2035!” I nodded immediately, _________ what the city would be like.

Once I walked out of the train station, many crossed air lanes came into view. The robot, seeing how _________ I was, explained the new traffic system to me. The system was put into place by many famous engineers using highly _________ technology. In fact, it eliminated (消除) the issue of traffic jams entirely.

Next we made our way to a restaurant nearby. Just as I _________ that there was no menu, a waiter began to scan my body with a special _________, which gave me a big fright, so I _________ out of my seat immediately. The robot explained it was just a machine that was able to figure out what our body needed and chose the recipe that _________ us most. The waiter then introduced me to the electronic screen that allowed me to choose the environment according to my __________. I pressed the “beach” button on the screen and __________ I felt a sea breeze. I couldn’t help but __________ at how rapidly technology had advanced.

We __________ returned to the train station. Just as I __________ the train, I heard a familiar voice calling my name. I opened my eyes to see my mom standing over me. What a __________ dream!

4 . What will the future be like? Good or bad? A lot of science fiction writing imagines a dark and _______ world. Planet of the Apes shows a miserable future for humankind.

There's a word to _______ the kind of future world which often appears in science fiction: dystopia (非理想化的地方), a(n) _______ unpleasant or bad place. The _______ is utopia. But does tomorrow's world have to be so disappointing?

No. A new project wants to use the power of science fiction to _______ a better future. The _______ of Project Hieroglyph is to bring together writers, scientists, engineers and artists to create optimistic stories about a _______ society in the next 50 years,

It's _______ to create a dystopia than write a feel - good story. There's more conflict in a world full of problems, and stories are interesting when there are a lot of problems to solve. No _______, no story! But the project produced a book with some ________ plots. One of them is about environmentalists who fight to ________ people from building the first hotel in the polar areas.

But will these stories actually change anything or merely keep us entertained? A good science fiction story can be ________. It is plain to see that stories can inspire hundreds thousands millions of people to ________ something that they want to do. The influence of science fiction has already been well ________ in modern research.

Time will tell how far we can go. Let's dream big and think ________ the box.

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. Now my baby has grown into an _________—tall, strong, and smart, a lover of Akira Kurosawa’s 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 face and experience. I _________ about him, and about all the young people of his age. So I have several hopes 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 rising. 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 _________ to my son’s life. I suspect 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 rising oceans, but from 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 a big heart and humility, recognizing our common humanity even with people who __________ us.

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

8 . I arrive at the doctor’s office and then wait until a computer voice calls me into the examination room. A robotic nurse _________ me and some time later, in _______ the doctor, who is also a robot. He notes down my _________and gives me a prescription (处方). I then_______for my visit using a credit card and return home without having met another human being. This is my nightmarish (噩梦般的) vision of the_______, which hasn’t happened yet.

I should say I really do like many aspects of _________. I am a big _______ of air conditioning in summer and heaters in winter. But I am writing this because I don’t want machines to _________.

When I call my dentist’s office and actually get a human being on the line, I am _________. And when I see the introduction of yet more self-service checkout stations at the grocery store, I feel like ______________, “When it comes to cashiers, make mine a(n) ______________, please!”

After all, human cashiers sometimes give you money-off coupons to ______________ you money. Moreover, ____________ cashiers often take an interest in cute children, which can ______________ young mothers’ day. A cashier may also show pity for an elderly person ______________ to get that last penny out of his purse.

Machines can be ______________ and cost-effective and they often get the job done just fine. ____________, they lack an element so important to everyday life.

Call it the____________, the soul or the heart. It is ______________ no machine will ever have. It is human being that encourages us to ____________ at others, which may be what they need at that moment.

9 . I log onto a computer at the doctor’s office to say I have arrived and then wait until a voice calls me into the examination room. There, a robotic nurse ______ me onto the scales and then takes my blood pressure. Some time later, in steps the ______, who is also a robot. He notes down my ______ and gives me a prescription (处方). I pay for my visit using a credit card and return home without having met another human being. This is my terrible vision of the future, which hasn’t happened ______ yet.

I should say I really do like many aspects of ______. I am a big fan of air conditioning in summer and heaters in winter. But I am writing this because I don’t want machines to ______.

When I call my dentist’s office and actually get a human being on the line, I am ______. But when I see the introduction of yet more self-service checkout stations at the grocery store, I feel like ______ “When it comes to cashiers (收银员), make mine a(n) ______, please!”

After all, human cashiers sometimes ______ you a store coupon (优惠券) for items you are buying.

Even more than that, real-life cashiers often take an interest in particularly cute children, which can ______ young mothers’ day. A cashier may also show pity on an elderly person ______ to get that last penny out of his purse.

Machines can be ______ and cost-effective and they often got the job done just fine. ______ they lack an element so important to everyday life.

Call it the spirit, the soul or the heart. It is ______ no machine will ever have. It is human being that encourages us to smile at others, which nay be what they need at that moment.

10 . I am an imaginative girl. I have always been ___________ about the future just like the great novelist, Liu Cixin.

What will life be like in the future? What will happen to humans and other living things? When I was a little girl, I often thought about these questions and drew __________ of my imaginary future life in my album.

How will people in the future __________? Perhaps there will be cities underground, in the air or in the sea, where there will be new kinds of __________ like underground express trains, airships and undersea trains. With __________ technology, we may even be able to fly on a broom, just like Harry Potter.

Living conditions will also certainly ____________ . Just imagine such a house in __________ it feels like spring all year because of an intelligent thermostat. All complicated and boring chores will be________   by a robot.

As for travel, it may be possible to travel through time and space freely. What if there were time machines to travel to any time in history? If I could __________a time machine, I would go to the age of dinosaurs and take them to the __________. By that time, more and more people would __________ dinosaurs as pets—you might even see people walk dinosaurs in the streets.

Maybe one day, riding flying dinosaurs to fly to schools in cities in the sky will be common. All kinds of creatures will work and play with us. What a harmonious world it will be!

However, as science and technology __________, pollution may become more serious, and then people will need to __________ new planets to live on. At the same time, human beings may __________become too dependent on science and technology, but I’m __________ that we can solve these problems step by step.