I hope when you read this letter you don’t find my writing too messy! At the moment, I’m 15 years old and living at home with my family. I love school and have lots of good friends. We do lots of fun things together like parties, ice skating and swimming. My biggest worry is not doing well in my school exams, but I’m working really hard so hopefully I have nothing to worry about.
There’s so much I(you!)want to do. I hope you’ve travelled all over the world and seen lots of things and met lots of people. I hope you’ve visited the Great Wall in China and the pyramids in Egypt, shopped in New York City and in Paris, seen polar bears in Norway and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I’ve just remembered, you always wanted to see elephants in India—I hope you’ve managed to do that too.
I promise myself I’ll always try my best and have no regrets. I never want to forget where every step of my life has taken me. Already it seems as if so much has happened. I’ve moved from primary to junior middle school(about to graduate), been taught to swim and dance(I love ballet dancing), learned to speak Chinese and French, and raised money for those in need by selling old toys and books.
I really hope you’re happy. I hope you have a successful career that you enjoy doing and look forward to each morning when you wake up. I hope you’re surrounded by good friends and family and maybe also have a family of your own. More than anything else, I hope you’ve enjoyed every single moment so far!
1. How does Linda develop Paragraph 2?| A．By giving examples. | B．By telling stories. |
| C．By comparing facts. | D．By listing numbers. |
| A．stay with her family | B．always try her best |
| C．visit her friends more | D．travel as much as she can |
| A．a lovely home | B．a lot of holidays |
| C．a career she loves | D．a lot of money |
| A．hopeful | B．worried | C．uncertain | D．curious |
2 . The future home is something that people have talked about for decades. Because the future home idea inspires our imagination, scientists and engineers have been working hard to develop different systems to make houses “smarter”.
The video camera at the entrance recognize visitors using facial recognition. The facial recognition software of the future home will not only recognize friends, but strangers as well. And the software in the future home will run the strangers faces against a database of criminals.
The future home will also have smart application appliances (家电) as well. There will be a vast networking system connecting them. Ovens, microwaves and refrigerators will be controlled automatically, so remote cooking will be a possibility and meals are prepared for your arrival.
There will also be a green systems in place such as saving and reusing washing water and bathwater. Plants and people may receive pure or mineralized (含矿的) drinking water.
If you think this future home idea is pie in the sky or science fiction, then think again. Most of the systems described here are either in development or already out in the market. Future homes may not be standard yet for the middle class but this is not as far ahead as many people would think.
1. What can the facial recognition software be used for in the future houses?| A．Greeting friends. | B．Collecting criminals information. |
| C．Recognizing visitors. | D．Following dangerous criminals. |
| A．Facial recognition software. | B．Remote cooking. |
| C．Smart refrigerators. | D．Saving and reusing water. |
| A．Attractive. | B．Common. | C．Special. | D．Excellent. |
| A．Smart future home |
| B．A smart networking system |
| C．Software in future home |
| D．Various household appliances |
3 . We don’t know how different our life will be in the future. We can only try to imagine it.
At first we think about human relationships. In the year 2050, we will use computers almost every day. We will be making new friends through the Internet even our husbands or wives will be met in this way. It will be much faster and easier for us. On the other hand, our relationships with people won’t be as important as they are today -- we will feel a little lonely.
Computers will also help us in many other activities in 2050. For example, they will be used by the children at school to make their learning easier. In addition, there will be much more other machines which will play a similar role as computers, like robots which will do the housework for us.
Spending holidays will also be completely different. Travelling to other planets or to the moon will be available for everyone. Means of transport will, of course, change, too. We will be using solar-powered cars, which will be much more environmentally friendly.
We could expect that the faster technological progress would lead to a more polluted environment. But it isn’t true. We will pay more attention to the environment protection. Scientists will probably find cures for many dangerous diseases, like cancer or AIDS. Therefore, our surroundings as well as our health will be in better condition.
Although we can’t predict the exact changes which will be made in the world, we often think about them. We worry about our and our children’s future; we have expectations, hopes as well as fears. But I think we should be rather sanguine about our future. We should be happy and believe good things will happen.
1. Why will people probably feel a little lonely in 2050?| A．The number of people will become much smaller. |
| B．There will be less face-to-face communication. |
| C．People won’t like making friends with each other. |
| D．People won’t communicate with each other much often. |
| A．Computers will do all the things for human beings. |
| B．How people will use computers to communicate with each other. |
| C．Machines like computers and robots will help people a lot. |
| D．How people will use robots to do the housework. |
| A．Disappointed. | B．Surprised. |
| C．Curious. | D．Optimistic. |
| A．How people will communicate in the year 2050. |
| B．What our life will be like in the year 2050. |
| C．How people will travel and spend their holidays in the year 2050. |
| D．What high technology will appear in the year 2050. |
4 . It’s 2035. You have a job, a family and you’re about 40 years old. Welcome to our 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 rearranged 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（谷物） into a bowl, you hear, “To lose weight, you shouldn’t eat that,” from your shoes. They read the nutrition details on the cereal box. You decide to listen to your shoes. “Kitchen, what can I have for breakfast?” A list of possible foods appears on the table as the kitchen checks its food supplies.
“Ready for your trip to space,” you ask your son and daughter. In 2021 only specially-trained astronauts went into space---and very few of them. Today anyone can go to space for daytrips or longer vacations. Your best friend even works in space. Thanks to medical advances, vaccination shots (防疫针) are a thing of the past. Ordinary foods like strawberries contain specific vaccines(疫苗). 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,” you command. Your car drives itself down the road and move smoothly into traffic on the highway.
1. What changes the color of your shirt?| A．The mirror. | B．The shirt itself |
| C．The counter. | D．The medicine. |
| A．By pouring the breakfast into a bowl. |
| B．By listening to the doctor’s advice. |
| C．By testing the food supplies in the kitchen. |
| D．By checking the nutrition details of the food on the cereal box. |
| A．breakfast | B．lunch | C．vaccines | D．nutrition |
| A．In order of time. | B．In order of frequency. |
| C．In order of preference. | D．In order of importance. |
5 . The sea could be the food bowl of the future. In Jervis Bay, south of Sydney, seaweed, which is rich in fibre and omega 3, is grown and harvested.
Pia Winberg is a marine scientist who runs Australia's first food-grade fanned seaweed company. Her crop is grown alongside mussels (贻贝)and is used as an additive in pasta (意大利面)and other products.
Seaweed is also raised in large tanks, where it absorbs carbon dioxide waste from a wheat processing factory. The business is small, but could help to reduce the ecological footprint of traditional farming.
“We used ten percent of seaweed instead of wheat in breads and pastas, we've eliminated a million hectares of land, we've eliminated all of the carbon dioxide emissions associated with that, and we've also reduced the pressures on very precious fresh water.” said Pia Winberg.
Spiny sea urchins (多刺海胆虫)are another blue economy resource. They can destroy marine habitats, but a recent competition for environmental start-ups in Australia, saw them not as a pest but a delicacy (美味).
Martina Doblin, CEO of Sydney Institute of Marine Science, said, “By 2050 we will have some ten billion people on the planet, and about half the food they eat will come from the ocean. So, we really do need to pay attention to the way that we manage the blue economy-generating wealth from the ocean but in a sustainable (可持续的)way.”
Farming at sea has its challenges. Infrastructure (基础设施)has to be sound, as do supply chains and biosecurity. But get these things right, and the ocean might just be the next great economic frontier.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To lead to the main topic. |
| B．To describe a new kind of seaweed. |
| C．Tell how important the food safety is. |
| D．To explain the meaning of blue economy. |
| A．Ocean exploration has made little progress so far. |
| B．More and more people will die of hunger in the future. |
| C．More work is needed for a better use of the natural resources. |
| D．Sea farming will be a good way to solve the coming world food problem. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. | C．Tolerant. | D．Negative. |
| A．How to Protect the Marine Animals |
| B．Measures to Develop Blue Economy |
| C．Farming the Sea for the Future of Food |
| D．Traditional Farming is Gradually Disappearing |
6 . What will power your house in the future? Nuclear, wind, or solar power? According to scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, it might be leaves – but man-made ones.
Natural leaves are able to change sunlight and water into energy. It is known as photosynthesis (光合作用). Now researchers have found a way to copy this seemingly simple process.
The man-made leaf developed by Daniel Nocera and his partners at MIT can be seen as a special chip with catalysts (催化剂). Similar to natural leaves, it can split water into hydrogen and oxygen when put into a bucket of water. The hydrogen and oxygen gases are then stored in a fuel cell (电池), which uses those two materials to produce electricity.
A man-made leaf is not a new idea. The first man-made leaf was invented in 1997 but was too expensive and changeable for practical use. The new leaf, on the contrary, is made of cheap materials, easy to use and highly stable. In laboratory studies, Nocera showed that a man-made leaf prototype (原型) could operate continuously for at least 45 hours without a drop in activity.
The wonderful improvements come from Nocera’s recent discovery of several powerful, new, inexpensive catalysts. These catalysts make the energy change inside the leaf more efficient with water and sunlight. Right now, the new leaf is about 10 times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural one. Besides, the machine can run in whatever water is available; that is, it doesn’t need pure water. This is important for some countries that don’t have enough pure water.
With the goal to “make each home its own power station” and “giving energy to the poor”, scientists believe that the new machine could be widely used in developing countries, especially in India and rural China.
1. What will give power to our house in the future, according to MIT?| A．Man-made leaves. | B．Nuclear. |
| C．Solar power. | D．Wind. |
a. man-made leaves split water into hydrogen and oxygen
b. the hydrogen and oxygen gases are stored in a fuel cell
c. the man-made leaves are put in water
d. the fuel cell uses hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity
| A．cbad. | B．bcad. |
| C．cabd. | D．cadb. |
| A．Secure. | B．Powerful. |
| C．Unnatural. | D．Unchangeable. |
| A．build up more power stations in the world |
| B．provide cheaper energy for developing countries |
| C．offer people in developing countries access to pure water |
| D．gain a deeper understanding of the photosynthesis process |
