1 . Nostalgia (怀旧) has become increasingly common in the current accelerated, unexpected changes. More and more Americans are turning back with longing to what feels like simpler, sweeter times. They collect cassette tapes, manual typewriters, even decades-old video games.
Is it a mistake to miss the past? Some psychologists warn that too much devotion to the so-called good old days is an escape from reality; it suggests loneliness or that a person is having a difficult time coping in the present. Psychologist Stephanie Coontz argues that nostalgia distracts us from addressing the problems of modern life and contributes to anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, etc.
But new studies suggest that a modest amount of nostalgia is not only harmless, but actually beneficial. They suggest it helps strengthen our sense of identity and makes us feel more optimistic and inspired. It is also a tool for self-discovery and memories are a psychological response when you want to take a break from negativity. Recalling our childhood reminds us of “the times when we were accepted and loved unconditionally,” says Krystine Batcho, a psychologist. “That is such a powerful comfort, knowing that there was a time in life when we didn’t have to earn our love.” Nostalgia can turn even the most ordinary past into legends which warms the heart and the body. Let’s not forget that nostalgia has been a source of inspiration to countless American writers. Mark Twain recalled his boyhood, writing, “After all these years, I can picture that old time to myself now, just as it was then.”
So go ahead, daydream a little about your best childhood friend, a long-gone family pet, etc. As Dr. Sedikides says, “Nostalgia is absolutely central to human experience.” But at the same time, keep these words of wisdom from the great inventor Charles Kettering in mind as well: “You can’t have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.”
1. How is nostalgia viewed by the psychologists in Paragraph 2?| A．It might leave a person in low spirits. |
| B．It suggests loneliness suffered in the past. |
| C．It saves people from dull reality temporarily. |
| D．It helps to solve the problems in modern life. |
| A．Its reasons. | B．Its benefits. |
| C．Its side effects. | D．Its working principles. |
| A．He had a strong sense of identity. |
| B．He took pictures of the good old days. |
| C．He is an example of being obsessed with the past |
| D．He drew inspiration from nostalgia for his works. |
| A．Critical. | B．Doubtful. | C．Objective. | D．Indifferent, |
2 . You are just waking up in the spring of 2030. Your Internet of Things bedroom opens solar powered e-windows and plays gentle music while your smart lighting displays a montage (剪辑的)of beachfront sunrises from your recent vacation.
Your shower uses very little water or soap. It recycles your grey water and puts the extra heat back into your home's operating system. While you dress, your artificial intelligence (Al) assistant shares your schedule for the day and plays your favorite tunes.
You still start your day with a coffee but it comes from your lot refrigerator which is capable of providing a coffeehouse experience in your home. A hot breakfast tailored to your specific nutritional needs (based on chemical analysis from your trips to the “smart toilet” is waiting for you in the kitchen.
When it's time to leave, an on-demand transport system has three cars waiting for you, your wife (or husband) and your kids. On the road, driverless cars and trucks move with mathematical accuracy, without traffic jams, routine maintenance or road rage. Accident rates are near zero.
On the way, you call your R&D team, who are enveloping a day's work in Shanghai. Your life-sized image is projected (投射)into the China Innovation Centre and your colleagues see you as if you were sitting in the room. It’s a bit surreal for them to see you in the morning light given that it's dark on the Bund, Shanghai's waterfront, though the novelty disappears after a few uses.
You review the day's cloud-based data from your Shenzhen manufacturing center, your pilot project in San Diego, and your QA team in Melbourne. The large amounts of datasets were collected in real-time from every piece of equipment and have been beautifully summarized by your company's AL All these facilities are closely maintained and operated through a advanced predictive analytics platform.
Pleased with the team's progress, you end the call and ease into a good book.
This is the future and it will be here sooner than you think.
1. How can we describe the life in the future?| A．Artificial | B．Accurate | C．Remarkable | D．Intelligent |
| A．We can have a bath without using water. |
| B．We can drive to work without concerning any accidents. |
| C．We can enjoy the coffeehouse experience without going there. |
| D．We can deal with all our work at home without turning to others for help. |
| A．In time order. | B．In logical order. |
| C．By comparing. | D．By offering examples. |
| A．To attract us to use the Al system. |
| B．To introduce the life in the future. |
| C．To teach us how to use the Al system. |
| D．To encourage us to study hard for the future. |
3 . When he was a kid, Alex Vardakostas began working in the grill (烧烤店) alongside adult employees. He estimates he has cooked 50,000 burgers (汉堡包).
Now, Vardakostas co-owns a burger joint called Creator, in San Francisco, California. But he doesn’t stand over a grill flipping burgers, and neither do his employees. At Creator, burgers are cooked and assembled entirely by machine. And because it costs less to maintain the machine than to pay a kitchen’s worth of employees, burgers cost less.
Creator is just one example of a growing phenomenon: Automation is taking over more and more jobs. That means work is done by machines or computers instead of people.
According to a report from McKinsey Global Institute, about 800 million people could be forced out of their jobs by 2030, McKinsey predicts that as technology improves, some tasks will be done more quickly or cheaply by machine, so businesses will install robots or computer programs to perform them.
Some jobs are more likely to be automated than others. Machines can do jobs that have three characteristics: They are routine, repetitive, and predictable. Some of these jobs pay low wages and require little education. But others pay well and demand an advanced college degree. Taxi drivers, cashiers, lawyers, and doctors all perform some tasks that can be done by machines.
So what jobs are safe from automation? Answers include coming up with new ideas or work that involves interacting with other people and building relationships, Jobs in engineering, science, the arts,therapy, and nursing are examples.
At Creator, Vardakostas hired people to do just that kind of work. Instead of repetitive burger prepping, workers interact with customers and advise them on flavor pairings, like mushroom sauce with pickles and onion jam. “In our world at Creator, all the work is creative and social,” Vardakostas says. “And I think that is what we’re going to see more of the future.”
1. What’s the difference between Creator and a traditional restaurant?| A．There is neither worker nor waiters at Creator at all. |
| B．The price of burgers at Creator is higher than that of a traditional one. |
| C．The number of owners of Creator is larger than that of a traditional one. |
| D．Some work is done by machines instead of humans at Creator. |
| A．More working opportunities have to be created. |
| B．More cheap machines will be invented. |
| C．A lot of people will lose their jobs. |
| D．Humans will have difficulty in running business. |
| A．To introduce the topic of the text. |
| B．To increase the plot of the story. |
| C．To introduce a modern restaurant. |
| D．To make an advertisement for Vardakostas. |
