1 . Do you want to live another 100 years or more？Some experts say that scientific advances will one day enable humans to last tens of years beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human life span.
“I think we are knocking at the door of immortality(永生),”said Michael Zey，a Montclair State University business professor and author of two books on the future. “I think by 2075 we will see it and that's a conservative estimate（保守的估计）.”
At the conference in San Francisco，Donald Louria,a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in using genes as well as nano technology（纳米技术）make it likely that humans will live in the future beyond what has been possible in the past. “There is a great push so that people can live from 120 to 180 years,” he said. “Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years.”
However, many scientists who specialize in aging are doubtful about it and say the human body is just not designed to last past about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less diseases, they say failure of the brain and organs will finally lead all humans to death.
Scientists also differ on what kind of life the super aged might live." It remains to be seen if you pass 120, you know; could you be healthy enough to have good quality of life？" said Leonard Poon，director of the University of Georgia Gerontology Centre." At present people who could get to that point are not in good health at all."
1. By saying “we are knocking at the door of immortality”, what does Michael Zey mean?| A．they believe that there is no limit of living |
| B．they are sure to find the truth about long living |
| C．they have got some ideas about living forever |
| D．they are able to make people live past the present life span |
| A．people can live from 120 to 180 years |
| B．it is still doubtful how long humans can live |
| C．the human body is designed to last past about 120 years |
| D．it is possible for humans to live longer in the future |
| A．a great push | B．the idea of living from 200 to 300 years |
| C．the idea of living beyond the present life span | D．the conservative estimate |
| A．Living Longer or Not | B．Science，Technology and Long Living |
| C．Healthy Lifestyle and Long Living | D．No Limit for Human Life |
2 . Futurologists are making a lot of predictions about our future life and they are predicting how we will travel, work and live in the next 30 years. By 2048, some futurologists foresee that some talking" buildings will appear in our life.
By the middle of the century, it’s believed that buildings will be able to “talk" to people through various sensors when the heating needs to be turned on. As a result, there will be no switches. Instead, a lot of networks will appear, which can be compared to a human nervous system. In the next 30 years, buildings will be made from concrete plastics and shape-changing materials. All of them can heal themselves at that time. As architects (建筑师)are racing to develop the world's tallest buildings, there will be a need for new kinds of elevators, through which vehicles could even travel into the buildings. German engineers have already started working on such technology called Multi.
By mid-century, scientists believe that buildings will be miles tall. Some of them may be very large and they can function as small cities. By comparison,at present, the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, measures 829. 8 metres high. As the future building can rise through the clouds,their windows will be replaced by virtual screens. In this way, people can choose any view as they like.
At height extremes, a London Spaceport is also likely to come into being by 2048 as the space industry develops very quickly. There is a huge cost advantage going to space from as high a base as possible, so a spaceport is very likely to be over 10km and even as much as 30km, using carbon- based materials.
1. How will the heating system be controlled in the future?| A．Through the net. | B．Through mobiles. |
| C．Through sensors. | D．Through switches. |
| A．They can recover by themselves. | B．They can seek help automatically. |
| C．They can transport people into space. | D．They can protect people against harm. |
| A．Seeing the beautiful scenery. | B．Allowing vehicles to travel into buildings. |
| C．Connecting the earth with the space. | D．Making it possible to build high buildings. |
| A．Be the Best Buildings with Carbon-based Materials |
| B．The Higher the Building, the Better |
| C．Smart Buildings in the Next 30 Years |
| D．More Functions, Less Cost |
3 . 
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 |
4 . What are your retirement plans? 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 (航天器) 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,” 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.
1. What can we know about the show home from the text?| A．It has no windows or doors due to security concern. |
| B．Its design presents the idea of environmental protection. |
| C．It has thick walls keeping the home under proper pressure. |
| D．Its underground passages connect all the building together. |
| A．Put them off. |
| B．Give them away. |
| C．Carry them through. |
| D．Take them seriously. |
| A．The great influence of the Mars show home. |
| B．The development of related technology. |
| C．The competition from private companies. |
| D．The popularity of influential books on Mars. |
| A．Living on Mars: Possible or Not |
| B．Sending People to Mars: Yes or No |
| C．First-ever show home: How Is It Made |
| D．Future Home on Mars: What Will It Be Like |
5 . It’s 2035. You have a job, a family and you’re about 40 years old! Welcome to your future life.
Getting ready for work, you pause in front of the mirror.
“Turn red,” you say. Your shirt changes from sky blue to deep red. Tiny preprogrammed electronics(智能电子元件) are re-arranged in your shirt to change its color. Looking into the mirror, you find it hard to believe you’re 40. You look much younger.
With amazing advances in medicine, people in your generation may live to be 150 years old. You’re not even middle-aged! As you go into the kitchen and prepare to pour your breakfast cereal into a bowl, you hear, “To lose weight, you shouldn’t eat that.” from your shoes. They read the tiny electronic code on the cereal box to find out the nutrition details. You decide to listen to your shoes. “Kitchen, what can I have for breakfast?” A list of possible foods appears on the counter as the kitchen checks its food supplies.
“Ready for your trip to space?” you ask your son and daughter. In 2005 only specially trained astronauts went into space —and very few of them. Today anyone can go to space for day trips or longer vacations. Your best friend even works in space. Handing your children three strawberries each, you add, “The doctor said you need these for space travel.” Thanks to medical advances, vaccination shots(防疫针) are a thing of the past. Ordinary foods contain specific vaccines. With the strawberries in their mouths, the kids head for the front door.
It’s time for you to go to work. Your car checks your fingerprints and unlocks the doors. “My office, Autopilot,” you command. Your car drives itself down the road and moves smoothly into traffic on the highway. You sit back and unroll your e-newspaper. The latest news downloads and fills the viewer. Looking through the pages, you watch the news as video film rather than read it.
1. What changes the color of your shirt?| A．The mirror. | B．The medicine. | C．The counter. | D．The shirt itself. |
| A．By pouring the breakfast into a bowl. | B．By checking the nutrition details of the food. |
| C．By testing the food supplies in the kitchen. | D．By listening to the doctor’s advice. |
| A．vaccines | B．lunch | C．breakfast | D．nutrition |
Man has been interested in robots for quite some time. Scientists are always inventing new and good robots, which will play an important role in our future lives.
They will take over jobs such as preparing meals, washing dishes, and sweeping the floor, so that we will have more free time to have fun.
They will do all the heave and dangerous work, and be put in hospitals, schools and offices.
Whenever we feel sad, lonely or upset, we can have a chat with a robot. Robots will not only be good friends but they will also offer us good advice.
In conclusion, robots will be more and more intelligent and will benefit us in many ways.
A. Robots will be our friends.
B. Robots will help us with our work.
C. Robots will be of help in doing housework.
D. Robots will replace humans in many ways.
7 . The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is mostly a desert. However, this has not stopped the country from creating great building projects. On September 26, UAE officials announced another ambitious project — Mars Science City. Expansive deserts and miles of coastline provide plenty of options for safe rocket launches (发射). And its position on the Earth makes it especially appealing as the spin of the Earth provides an extra push, meaning less fuel is needed to get payloads into orbit. All these seem to make it possible.
The Mars City Project, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, or BIG, will provide a realistic model to simulate (模仿) living on the surface of Mars, the red planet. It is part of the UAE’s Mars 2117 Project to lead the global race to land humans on Mars and be the first to build a settlement there. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Prime Minister and ruler of Dubai, says, “The UAE seeks international support to develop technologies that benefit humans, and lay the foundation of a better future for more generations to come.”
Built outside Dubai, the 1.9 million square feet city is expected to cost $135 million. It will consist of several dome-shaped laboratories, similar to the ones imagined for the first Mars settlers. Scientists from around the word will be invited to conduct research to come up with methods to create food, water and energy, using techniques which can be copied onto the red planet. The living spaces, where the researchers can live for up to a year, will simulate the planet’s conditions as much as possible.
The research city will also include a museum featuring famous space achievements to help educate and inspire children to undertake space exploration and discovery. To discover whether the construction method works on Mars, the museum’s walls will be 3D printed using the sand from the nearby desert. Now, if they would only add some living quarters for the general public to experience life on Mars without leaving Earth, life would be perfect.
1. What can we conclude about the United Arab Emirates?| A．It is short of fine weather. |
| B．It is a nice place for launching. |
| C．It can provide adequate fuel supply. |
| D．It has the greatest architects in the world. |
| A．Educate visitors on trips to Mars. |
| B．Develop the Mars settlers’ imagination. |
| C．Find ways to produce food, water and energy on Mars. |
| D．Create a climate-controlled environment for future use. |
| A．To show famous space techniques. |
| B．To make full use of the nearby desert. |
| C．To inspire children to love exploration. |
| D．To test building skills used by Mars settlers. |
| A．UAE to Build Mars Science City |
| B．UAE’s Great Exploration of Mars |
| C．UAE to Build First Mars Settlement |
| D．UAE’s Scientistific Contribution to Humans |
8 . Preparing Cities for Robot Cars
The possibility of self-driving robot cars has often seemed like a futurist’s dream, years away from materializing in the real world. Well, the future is apparently now. The California Department of Motor Vehicles began giving permits in April for companies to test truly self-driving cars on public roads. The state also cleared the way for companies to sell or rent out self-driving cars, and for companies to operate driverless taxi services. California, it should be noted, isn’t leading the way here. Companies have been testing their vehicles in cities across the country. It’s hard to predict when driverless cars will be everywhere on our roads. But however long it takes, the technology has the potential to change our transportation systems and our cities, for better or for worse, depending on how the transformation is regulated.
While much of the debate so far has been focused on the safety of driverless cars(and rightfully so), policymakers also should be talking about how self-driving vehicles can help reduce traffic jams, cut emissions(排放) and offer more convenient, affordable mobility options. The arrival of driverless vehicles is a chance to make sure that those vehicles are environmentally friendly and more shared.
Do we want to copy — or even worsen — the traffic of today with driverless cars? Imagine a future where most adults own individual self-driving vehicles. They tolerate long, slow journeys to and from work on packed highways because they can work, entertain themselves or sleep on the ride, which encourages urban spread. They take their driverless car to an appointment and set the empty vehicle to circle the building to avoid paying for parking. Instead of walking a few blocks to pick up a child or the dry cleaning, they send the self-driving minibus. The convenience even leads fewer people to take public transport — an unwelcome side effect researchers have already found in ride-hailing(叫车) services.
A study from the University of California at Davis suggested that replacing petrol-powered private cars worldwide with electric, self-driving and shared systems could reduce carbon emissions from transportation 80% and cut the cost of transportation infrastructure(基础设施) and operations 40% by 2050. Fewer emissions and cheaper travel sound pretty appealing. The first commercially available driverless cars will almost certainly be fielded by ride-hailing services, considering the cost of self-driving technology as well as liability and maintenance issues(责任与维护问题). But driverless car ownership could increase as the prices drop and more people become comfortable with the technology.
Policymakers should start thinking now about how to make sure the appearance of driverless vehicles doesn’t extend the worst aspects of the car-controlled transportation system we have today. The coming technological advancement presents a chance for cities and states to develop transportation systems designed to move more people, and more affordably. The car of the future is coming. We just have to plan for it.
1. According to the author, attention should be paid to how driverless cars can __________.| A．help deal with transportation-related problems |
| B．provide better services to customers |
| C．cause damage to our environment |
| D．make some people lose jobs |
| A．Safety. | B．Side effects. |
| C．Affordability. | D．Management. |
| A．Employed. | B．Replaced. |
| C．Shared. | D．Reduced. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Sympathetic. |
9 . What if the car waiting patiently behind a parked bus is a driverless or autonomous vehicle(AV)? Will this robot car be able to understand what you mean when you flash your lights or madly wave your hands? Its sensors could decides that it’s only safe to overtake when there’ no oncoming traffic at all. On a busy road at school home time, this may be never leading to increasingly angry passengers and increasingly angry driers queuing behind.
And how will a robot car driving out from a T-junction into oncoming traffic be able to make the necessary eye contact with a human driver? These safety-first robot cars could become victims of their own politeness and end up being bullied and ignored by aggressive, impatient humans. This, at any rate, is one of the conclusions to be drawn from research carried out by Dr Chris Tennant of the psychological and behavioral science department at the London School of Economics. His Europe-wide survey finds that nearly two-thirds of drivers think machines won’t have enough common sense to interact with human drivers. And more than two-fifths think a robot car would remain stuck behind our parked lorry for a long time.
“If you view the road as a social space, you will consciously negotiate your journey with other drivers. People who like that negotiation process appear to feel less comfortable engaging with AVs than with human drivers,” says Mr. Tennant in his report. Of course, humans are always skeptical about new technologies of which they have little experience. That skepticism usually decreases with usage, however. And even many skeptics accept that emotionless AVs could cause fewer accidents than we humans, with our tendency to road anger, tiredness and lack of concentration. A statistic often repeated is that human error is responsible for more than 90% of accidents. But 70% of the 12,000 people Mr. Tennant and his team interviewed agreed that: “ As a point of principle, humans should be in control of their vehicles.” An even greater proportion-80%-thought an autonomous vehicle should always have a steering wheel.
1. According to the text, an autonomous vehicle______.| A．is controlled by a robot | B．waits shorter than other cars |
| C．judges traffic by drivers online | D．recognizes angry human drivers |
| A．won’t interact with human drivers |
| B．avoid passing T-junctions ahead of time |
| C．drive in the same ways as a human driver |
| D．may suffer from impatient human drivers |
| A．Autonomous vehicles will be less social |
| B．Autonomous vehicles are safer than generally expected |
| C．Human drivers have been replaced by autonomous vehicles |
| D．Human drivers are willing to interact with autonomous vehicles |
| A．An autonomous car takes a test run |
| B．What is driverless technology like? |
| C．Say no to the coming driverless trend |
| D．Would you bully a driverless car or show it respect? |
10 . Have you ever wanted to travel back in time? What about traveling into the future? There’s an easy way to do it.
One way you can make a time travel journey is by writing a letter to your future self to be opened in the future. To your future self, the letter will be a visit from the past. What can be gained by writing a letter to yourself? It depends on how good your letter is. You have the chance to say something to your future self. What would you want to communicate? You’ll be able to talk to yourself 5, 10, 15 years down the road. There may be instructions for your future self, or you may have goals that you will want to check up on.
There are a lot of things you could include in your letter or letters to yourself. The more you include, the better the letter will be to you. Here are some ideas of things to include in your letter:
Your thoughts and feelings about life, religion, politics, society, etc.
Your feelings for your family.
Your likes and dislikes.
Your dreams.
The type of person you want yourself to become.
…
Be creative with what you put in your letter. Include a picture of yourself or family to show the period from which the letter came.
You can store your letter in many different ways. You can give your letter to a friend or family member to keep and mail to you. If you can get others to take part, have them write letters to themselves as well and ask someone to be the letter holder until it’s time to send the letters. You can also use a service online to store your letter and e-mail it to you.
Make the most of your letter writing, and you will help your future self make the most of the present.
1. How can you travel into the future?| A．By traveling back in time. |
| B．By writing a letter to your future self. |
| C．By opening a letter from the past. |
| D．By paying a visit to the future. |
| A．have the chance to say something to your future self |
| B．talk to yourself 5, 10, 15 years down the road |
| C．write more about instructions for your future self |
| D．include as many things as possible in your letter |
| A．To check up on your goals. |
| B．To share your feelings with your family. |
| C．To show the time when the letter was written. |
| D．To find out your thoughts and feelings now. |
| A．How to Write a Letter to Your Future Self |
| B．What to Communicate with Your Future Self |
| C．What to Include in a Letter to Your Future Self |
| D．How to Make the Most of Your Letter |
