1 . THE TIME MACHINE
It was at ten o'clock today that the first of all Time Machines began its career. I gave it a last check, and sat myself in the leather seat. I pushed the starting lever (操纵杆) on the main panel forwards an inch then immediately backwards again. Looking around, I saw my laboratory exactly as before. Had anything happened? I thought my mind had tricked me. Then I saw the clock. A moment before, it was a minute or so past ten; now it nearly half past three!
I drew a breath, gripped(紧握) the lever and pushed it forwards. The laboratory went hazy around me. My niece came in to fetch something, maybe her handkerchief, apparently without seeing me. It probably took her a minute, but to me she moved like a rocket! I pushed the lever further. Night came as if a lamp was being turned out, and in another moment came the day. Tomorrow night came, then skipped to day, again and again, faster and faster still.
It is hard to explain the strange and unpleasant feeling of time travelling. It felt like I was being driven fast on a winding road. As my pace grew faster, the walls of the laboratory fell away, and I was left in the open air. The sun and moon looked as if they were being thrown across the sky, but soon there was division between night and day. Around me I saw trees growing like puffs of smoke; they grew, spread, and died in moments. I saw huge buildings rise up, then disappear like in a dream. The whole surface of the earth was being changed, melting and flowing before my eyes. I calculated that I was being pushed through time at hundreds of years a minute.
I had a strong urge to look at the random things that were being flashed before my eyes! I had thought about the risk of stopping the Time Machine many times. So long as I travelled at maximum speed, it didn't matter. But if I stopped and the same space was being occupied by something else, we would be forced together and explode like a bomb! Like an impatient fool, I pulled the lever backwards hard. With a sudden jolt, the Time Machine was flipped on its side, and I was thrown through the air.
I was stunned for a moment, and then heard the sound of thunder. I was sitting in the rain in some mud next to the machine. “A fine welcome,” I said, “for a man who has travelled thousands of years to be here!”
(Adapted from the novel The Time Machine written by H.G.Wells, a novelist famous for the science fiction)
1. How does the Time Traveller first know he has travelled through time?| A．He saw the clock move forward. |
| B．He noticed the tomorrow night came. |
| C．He spotted his niece moving like a rocket. |
| D．He was being driven fast on a winding road. |
| A．Doubtful and depressed. | B．Safe and happy. |
| C．Strange and unpleasant. | D．Excited and joyful. |
| A．Because he would be forced together with something else and explode like a bomb. |
| B．Because he was being pushed through time at hundreds of years a minute. |
| C．Because some random things would be flashed before his eyes. |
| D．Because the same space would be destroyed by something else. |
| A．On a winding road. | B．In some mud in the rain. |
| C．In the muddy leather seat. | D．Along the walls of the laboratory. |
2 . It’s 6 A.M., and the alarm clock is ringing earlier than usual. It’s not a malfunction (故障): the smart clock scanned your schedule and adjusted because you’ve got that big presentation first thing in the morning. The electric car is ready to go, charged by the solar panels on your roof. When you get home later, there’s an unexpected package waiting. You open it to find cold medicine. Turns out, health sensors embedded (嵌入) in your bathroom detected signs of an upcoming illness and placed an order automatically.
That, at least, is the ideal design of the smart home that exists 10 years out. But a decade from now, we’ll dip into the Internet of Things (IoT) totally.
A range of technological developments will drive smart—home technology well beyond what’s available on store shelves today. Innovations in AI stand to change almost everything in our lives. You might already be using some kind of AI—powered voice—assistant device to get the latest news or weather forecast every morning. IoT company Crestron, for example, is working on software that follows a person’s habits, like which music they want to hear in the morning or which lights they want to be on at a certain time of day. Then, once it gets the hang of a user’s preferences, it automatically plays just the right playlists or makes the lights less bright before bedtime.
All this learning that the smart home of the future will be doing may raise privacy concerns. In 2016, hackers took over hundreds of thousands of secure IoT devices, then used them to send fake Internet traffic, the incident broke Internet connections for a moment throughout parts of North America and Europe. A bill put forth by Virginia Senator Mark Warner would push the government to set up minimum security requirements for smart devices used by federal agencies; such requirements could eventually become standard for the industry at large.
You’re more likely than not to end up in a connected home one day, whether you mean to or not. Ultimately, people will come to see smart—home technology as essential as electricity, refrigeration or air-conditioning. People will rely on it.
1. What is the purpose of paragraph 1?| A．To reveal people’s busy life in ten years. |
| B．To display pollution-free homes in ten years. |
| C．To show how people will cure illness in the future. |
| D．To describe how smart the home can be in the future. |
| A．Push your preferences towards green living. |
| B．Play your favorite songs with voice control. |
| C．Provide the latest news and weather automatically. |
| D．Make home devices function according to your habits. |
| A．The IoT devices were of low quality. |
| B．The government made a law because of it. |
| C．Security problems from smart devices were urgent. |
| D．Hackers were common in North America and Europe. |
| A．It’s electrical and reliable. | B．It’s attractive and necessary. |
| C．It will not need much designing. | D．It will not be affected by evil hackers. |
3 . What will the future school look like is difficult to make clear, but most experts agree that the school will be electronic in the future .
" Present-day schools will no longer exist in the next century," says a report in The Age. "At that time, future schools will become community-style centers, which run seven days a week,24 hours a day. ” At the same time, computers will surely become a central part of the school in the future.
According to The Age, the distant learning will be popular and students will listen to teachers on computers. Going into classrooms on their computers, students will study at any time, which is very easy for them. However, it is necessary for students to go to the actual school in order to develop some social skills.
The Seashore Primary School is an imaginary school in the future created by the Education Department of Australia. At this school, all the teachers and students have laptop computers . Teachers check messages and call students back on a special telephone system and students use telephones to search for information or speak to their experts who teach their lessons. Besides, all the lessons are related to all sorts of subjects and all the students have their own learning plans created by teachers .
As one headmaster says, a laptop computer is students5 library, data storage （数据存储）as well as the bridge to a wider world. Technology has changed the emphasis of future learning. Thus, well pay more attention to the learning of kids rather than the teaching.
1. According to the report in The Age, students in future schools will _______.| A．have no teachers | B．study at a set time |
| C．mainly study online | D．never go to actual school |
| A．telephones are important in Australia |
| B．how future schools will work |
| C．every student needs a learning plan |
| D．students enjoy getting in touch with teachers |
| A．The Schools in the Future |
| B．Great Changes in Technology |
| C．The Seashore Primary School |
| D．Actual Schools to Be Replaced |
4 . Japan's biggest airline is betting that the future of travel isn't traveling at all. For the last month, a married couple has been interacting with a robot—called an Avatar—that's controlled by their daughter hundreds of miles away. Made by ANA Holdings Inc., it looks like a vacuum cleaner with an iPad attached. But the screen displays the daughter's face as they chat, and its wheels let her move about the house as though she's really there.
“Virtual travel” is nothing new,of course.Storytellers, travel writers and artists have been stimulating the senses of armchair tourists for centuries. It's only in recent decades that frequent, safe travel has become available to the non- wealthy.
Yet even as the world's middle classes climb out of the armchair and into economy-class seat, there are signs of a post-travel society emerging. Concerns about environmental sustainability cause loss to airlines which release much carbon. And the aging of abundant societies is both restricting physical travel and creating demand for alternative ways to experience the world. For the travel industry, virtual reality offers an attractive response to these trends.
Of course, new technologies encourage far-out claims. ANA doesn't plan to start selling Avatars until next year. Profits, too, will probably be difficult to make: By one estimate, the global market for this kind of technology will be worth only about $300 million by 2023. By contrast, ANA's traditional travel business brought in more than $19 billion last year.
But if the business value for virtual vacations is still weak, the market for technologies that bridge physical distances between families and coworkers seems likely to only expand. ANA's robots may not replace its airplanes any time soon, but they ll almost certainly be a part of travel's high-tech future.
1. Why does the author use the example of a couple interacting with a robot?| A．To show the Japanese are crazy about travel. |
| B．To indicate virtual travel begins to enter people's real life. |
| C．To show the couple are very enthusiastic over robots. |
| D．To express the close relationship between the couple and their daughter. |
| A．Storytellers, travel writers and artists have been using it for centuries. |
| B．Frequent and safe travel has become available to the ordinary people. |
| C．People are worried about the air pollution caused by airlines. |
| D．More and more people lose interest in travel. |
| A．They will be put on the market soon. |
| B．They will bring ANA a lot of money, |
| C．They will replace ANA's airplanes soon. |
| D．They are almost unavoidable in travel's future. |
| A．Your Next Travel May Be Virtual |
| B．Easy Travel in the Future |
| C．Virtual Travel Benefits |
| D．Air Travel Disappearing |
