1 . The home of the future won't be completely different and we will be living in houses and flats just as we do today. But people will want to shape their homes to match their dreams. No two homes will be the same. People will be able to buy "house kits" containing a basic house structure, with movable walls, doors and windows. They will put together the different parts to create the home they want.
Many jobs that we do today will disappear, others will still exist but will change and new jobs will be created. Skilled workers such as builders, gardeners and electricians won't disappear because machines can't replace them. Teachers will still exist because students need human contact. But they will be using modem technology in class more and students will be working more at home. The medical technology revolution and space travel will create new jobs which we can only imagine today.
Space holidays will develop in the future, but these holidays won't be for everyone because they won't be cheap. Short space trips will develop first; then space hotels will orbit the earth where it will be possible to have a longer vacation. By the end of the next century, there will have been holiday centres on the moon with leisure facilities（休闲设施）for families.
Paper won't exist in the future. Instead, there will be e-paper which people will be able to use over and over again. This will develop in order to save natural resources. E-newspapers and e-magazines will replace traditional newspapers and magazines and we will download information and news articles from the Internet every day onto our reusable paper.
The laws of physics tell us that the earth is going to disappear some time in the future. This isn't going to happen tomorrow but scientists predict that it will happen in five billion years when our sun explodes. We will have to explore the universe and find another home. At some point in the distant future, either we stay on the earth and die with it, or we leave and move to another planet. There won't be any other choice.
1. Homes of the future will .| A．be completely different from those of today |
| B．be very similar to our homes |
| C．all be different from one another |
| D．be movable as you want |
| A．Skilled workers will face great challenges. |
| B．The future will witness job changes. |
| C．Technology will totally replace workforce. |
| D．An unimaginable life will come into being. |
| A．become a very common way to spend holidays |
| B．be the best holiday options for families |
| C．attract a lot of people |
| D．be still only for very rich people |
| A．it will be a symbol of fashion |
| B．it won't waste natural resource |
| C．it will be cheaper to produce |
| D．it will be convenient to carry |
In the future your automobile will run on water instead of gas! You will be able to buy a supercomputer that fits in your pocket! You might even drive a flying car!
Not all past predictions have been proven wrong. A few of them have been surprisingly accurate. Some great thinkers predicted the arrival of the credit card, the fax machine and even the Internet — years before they happened. But for each prediction that has come true, some others have missed by a mile. Many of these predictions didn't consider how people would want to use the technology or whether people really needed these high-tech things in their lives or not. Let’s look at some predictions from the not-too-distant past.
Robot helpers
Where's the robot in my kitchen? Nowhere, of course. And he's probably not coming anytime soon. Robots do exist today, but mostly in factories and other working environments.
Back in the 1950s, however, people said that by now personal robots would be in most people’s homes.
So why hasn’t it happened? Maybe because robots are still too expensive and clumsy. And probably the idea of robots cooking our dinners and washing our clothes is just too strange. At home we seem to be doing fine without them.
Telephones of tomorrow
In 1964 an American company introduced the video telephone. They said by the year 2000 most people would have a video phone in their homes. But of course the idea hasn’t caught on yet.
Why? The technology worked fine, but it overlooked something obvious: people desire for privacy. Would you want to have a video phone conversation with someone after you just stepped out of the shower? Probably not — it could be uncomfortable! Just because technology doesn’t always mean people will want to use it.
And finally, how about that crazy prediction of the flying car? It’s not so crazy any more! But a flying car remains one of the most wonderful technology ideas to catch our imagination. Keep watching the news or perhaps the sky outside your window to see what the future will bring.
1. Robot helpers haven't been used in most people’s homes because .| A．using this kind of robot at home is simply a waste of time and money |
| B．this kind of robot hasn’t been developed yet |
| C．people find it difficult to control this kind of robot |
| D．this kind of robot won’t bring people practical use |
| A．become popular | B．become enjoyable |
| C．come into sight | D．come to life |
| A．It is too difficult to imagine. |
| B．It is too crazy to realize. |
| C．It is likely to appear in the future. |
| D．It has been the focus of the news. |
| A．predictions that catch our imagination |
| B．predictions that haven’t come true |
| C．new technology that can benefit our life |
| D．new technology that is in wide use |
3 . What shape the school of the future will take is uncertain, but most educators and observers agree that the future school will go electronic.
In the future, schools as we know will no longer exist. In their place will be community-style centers operating seven days a week, 24 hours a day Computers will become an essential part for an effective school of the future. Students will see and hear teachers on computers. Accessing “ classrooms ” on their home computers, students will learn when it's most convenient for them. Yet some attendance at an actual school will be required to help students develop appropriate social skills.
One of American public schools, A. C. T. Academy in McKinney, Texas, was created as an actual “ school of the future”. Originally funded by a ＄5. 5 million grant from the US Department of Education. the school is now supported by the McKinney Independent School District.
At the school knowledge is “ actively constructed by the learner on a base of prior knowledge, attitudes, and values”. Sophisticated(先进的) technology is in place to support the pursuit of knowledge.
The 250 Academy students all have access to a computer. The 12-to 18-year-olds each have their own computer;7-to 1l-year-olds have one portable computer for every two students; and 5-and 6-year -olds use computers at fixed stations. In addition, the students use multimedia computers, printers, CDROMs, VCRs, video editing machines, camcorders, cable television, online services. and telephones-simple but effective research tools.
Whatever the shape of a school of the future might be, technology is always a huge part of it. The school days when computers mean processing words or playing games will be behind us.
1. According to the passage, what will play an important role in the school of the future?| A．Computers. |
| B．Environment |
| C．Teachers. |
| D．Skills. |
| A．there will be no longer schools in the future |
| B．students will only stay at home to study in the future |
| C．many educators are sure of the function of future schools |
| D．many students are playing games on computers now |
| A．from any age group |
| B．12-to 18-year-olds |
| C．7- to 11-year-olds |
| D．5-and 6-year-olds |
| A．It is the only actual public school in the future. |
| B．It was funded by the McKinney Independent School District. |
| C．All students in it have a computer of their own. |
| D．High technology is made full use of in it. |
4 . 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 nanotechnology(纳米技术) make it likely that humans will live in the future beyond what was possible in the past. “There is a great effort 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 disease, 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”,Michael Zey means_________.| A．they have got some ideas about living forever |
| B．they believe that there is no limit of living |
| C．they are able to make people live past the present life span |
| D．they are sure to find the truth about long living |
| A．the human body is designed to last past about 120 years |
| B．it is possible for humans to live longer in the future |
| C．it is still doubtful how long humans can live |
| D．people can live from 120 to 180 |
| A．a great effort |
| B．the conservative estimate |
| C．the idea of living from 200 to 300 years |
| D．the idea of living beyond the present life span |
| A．No Limit for Human Life |
| B．Living Longer or not |
| C．Science,Technology and Long Living |
| D．Healthy Lifestyle and Long Living |
5 . People have speculated (思索) for centuries about a future without work. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by inequality: A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in a wasteland. A different prediction holds that without jobs to give their lives meaning, future people will simply become lazy and depressed.
But it doesn’t necessarily follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with dissatisfaction. Such visions are based on the downsides of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the absence of work, a society designed with other ends in mind could provide strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure.
These days, spare time is relatively rare for most workers. “When I come home from a hard day's work, I often feel tired,” says John Danaher, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland, adding, “In a world in which I don’t have to work, I might feel rather different — perhaps different enough to throw himself into a hobby with the enthusiasm usually reserved for professional matters.”
Daniel Everett, an anthropologist (人类学家) at Bentley University studied a group of hunter-gathers in the Amazon called the Piraha for years. According to Everett, while some might consider hunting and gathering work, hunter-gatherers don’t. “They think of it as fun,” he says. “They don’t have a concept of work the way we do.”
Everett described a typical clay for the Piraha: A man might get up, spend a few hours fishing, have a barbecue, and play until the evening. Does this relaxing life lead to the depression and purposelessness seen among so many of today’s unemployed? “I’ve never seen anything like depression there, except people who are physically ill,” Everett says. While many may consider work necessary for human life, work as it exists today is a relatively new invention in the course of human culture. “We think it’s bad to just sit around with nothing to do,” says Everett. “For the Piraha, it’s quite a desirable state.”
1. What might be some people’s attitude towards the work-free world?| A．Objective. | B．Negative. |
| C．Skeptical. | D．Cautious. |
| A．Risks. | B．Losses. |
| C．Challenges. | D．Disadvantages. |
| A．work plays an important role in our future life |
| B．people don’t know how to balance work and life |
| C．people’s work-free future life will be full of charm |
| D．higher unemployment makes life tougher for workers |
| A．To justify John Danaher’s opinion. | B．To show a future life without work. |
| C．To compare different views on work. | D．To introduce the Piraha in the Amazon. |
6 . The auto industry, aviation (航空) giants and lots of new companies are increasingly entering the race toward producing flying cars and air taxis, many of which are said to be fully electric. On the surface, there are so many innovations happening that it’s easy to forget that the world hasn’t even seen a fully autonomous car yet, let alone an electric flying vehicle you can park in your driveway.
In fact, there are several hurdles before people are riding through the air. “They are short on technology, and they are short on regulation.” said Jennings-Bates, vice president of a car company.
Uber and Boeing, both world famous companies, have announced ambitious plans for air taxis. However, the types of vehicles they have in mind would require magical electric batteries that don’t exist yet.
Whether the United States actually needs flying cars remains relatively unclear. Aviation experts say that air vehicles help solve congestion problems in big cities. “Today, we have a lot of traffic congestion on the roadways,” said Laurie Garrow, associate director for the Center for Urban and Regional Air Mobility at Georgia Tech. “Air taxis would provide a solution for that.” Others argue that putting traffic in the skies doesn’t solve very much. “We aren’t going to change the world in terms of traffic with flying cars,” said Jennings-Bates. “At best, it may take the place of traffic in the area, which is arguably less pleasant.”
Some experts say it’s not a question of whether flying cars will take off. Instead, it’s a question of how soon the concepts would be safe enough for humans to occupy. “Everyone is very excited and they’re coming up with very different designs,” Garrow said. “But you have a lengthy certification process that will need to go through to make sure the craft and flights are safe.” She estimates that it’ll be about 20 years before the U.S. sees more than test flights.
1. What can we infer about flying cars from Paragraph 1?| A．They are fully electric. | B．They are unavailable yet. |
| C．They need special driveway. | D．They equal autonomous cars. |
| A．Ambitious plans. | B．Big problems. |
| C．Electric batteries. | D．Current innovations. |
| A．Test flights. | B．Design. |
| C．Production. | D．Safety. |
| A．Why we should produce flying cars. | B．How hard the race of making flying cars is. |
| C．How close we are to seeing flying cars. | D．What people’s opinions are about flying cars. |
7 . 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 |
8 . Participants in an online forum were asked whether space exploration was worthwhile. Here are some of the comments they posted:
Planet Girl 7.17 pm
Our world is damaged by war, hunger and poverty. Billions of people struggle just to survive from day to day. Meanwhile the US space agency has US $16 billion to play with every year. We must deal with the world’s urgent problems. Space exploration is a luxury we cannot afford.
Dragon 7.18 pm
That $16 billion spent on space is nothing compared to the $370 billion spent on the military.
JJ 7.20 pm
Exploring space is investing in the future. Everyone knows we’re running out of resources. There’s massive over-population too. The solar system has heaps of resources we can use for mining, and maybe we can explore other planets. If we don’t do it now, it might be too late.
Planet Girl 7.22 pm
We have to settle problems of over-population and resource consuming here on Earth, instead of chasing science fiction dreams. Otherwise we will just export our unsustainable lifestyle to another planet. We might consume the whole universe!!
JJ 7.23 pm
Space explorers rock! They know what they are in for, and they still do it anyway. That’s what I call courage! We humans have always struggled to expand our horizons. We want to know what else is out there. Who knows, maybe we’ll discover the solution to all our problems out there!
Switched-on 7.25 pm
Space exploration has had a huge effect on our lives. Want to talk to someone halfway around the world? Sure. Get the weather forecast? Coming right up. Check exactly where you are? Absolutely. It’s all possible, thanks to satellite technology, global positioning systems, and the rest. If there was no space exploration, we’d be sitting around in the dark, not talking online!
Penny 7.50 pm
Satellites are launched by private companies — for profit. Planet Earth doesn’t always benefit. Exploring remote planets certainly does not contribute to life on Earth.
1. The underlined sentence (Par.2) means that space exploration is_________.| A．expensive but necessary |
| B．expensive and unnecessary |
| C．very important but too expensive |
| D．not very important but affordable |
| A．The cost of space exploration is too much. |
| B．Planet Girl’s idea is acceptable. |
| C．Space exploration is worthwhile. |
| D．The military is more useful than space exploration. |
| A．He agrees that space exploration costs too much. |
| B．He does not know how much space exploration costs. |
| C．He thinks space exploration is worthwhile, whatever the cost. |
| D．He knows Planet Girl is wrong about the cost of space exploration. |
| A．Its cost to the community. |
| B．Its effect on environment. |
| C．Its contribution to technology in everyday life. |
| D．Its capacity to serve people in their everyday life. |
| A．Living on other planets is a real possibility. |
| B．Spending money on war is unnecessary. |
| C．Space exploration encourages creativity. |
| D．Earth’s resources are fast disappearing. |
9 . In the near future, IoT (Internet of Things) will drive huge innovation (革新) in the way our food is grown. Plants will have a “voice”, not a human voice, but a voice based on data that can tell people, computers, and machines when, for example, they are thirsty, or need more sun, medicine, etc.
Take vertical (垂直的) farms, for example. Farming is moving indoors where the growth of plants can be monitored and controlled. The facilities are built vertically, so growing areas can be put in piles. This greatly reduces the amount of land needed for farming.
From an IoT point of view, vertical farms are connected in two ways. First, small sensors (传感器) in the soil or connected to plants tell a control system exactly how much light, water, and nutrients are needed to grow the healthiest crops. Sensors will also tell vertical farmers when crops are nearing their peak for harvesting at just the right time to make sure it’s still fresh when it reaches its final destination.
Second, vertical farms will be connected to other networks and information systems, including databases that track local demand. For example, local restaurants may input when they need fresh food supplies. And vertical farmers could get that information so they know which crops to grow in what quantities. This type of IoT system would have been unimaginable a generation ago.
Today, vertical farms are being experimented. Yet, the numbers point to a bright future for the industry, especially as the world’s population continues to grow. For example, Green Sense Farms in Chicago is able to harvest crops 26 times a year using 85 percent less energy, one-tenth the water, and no pesticides. A side benefit of lower energy use is lower CO2 output of two tons per month, with the added benefit of creating 46 pounds of oxygen every day.
1. What is the main idea of the text?| A．Voice machines help plants speak up. |
| B．Farmers are all turning to vertical farming. |
| C．IoT has brought great innovation to our future life. |
| D．Vertical farms driven by IoT are a future for agriculture. |
| A．By recording farmers harvesting crops. |
| B．By monitoring farmers working their fields. |
| C．By analyzing information to preserve crops. |
| D．By passing information on to a control system. |
| A．expand the output of crops | B．match supply with demand |
| C．determine the needs of farmers | D．move restaurants onto farms |
| A．Negative. | B．Indifferent. | C．Optimistic. | D．Doubtful. |
10 . Who is smarter? A human being or artificial intelligence(人工智能)?
The question swept the world when a Google－developed program called AlphaGo defeated the world top player，South Korean Lee Se－del，4－1.
So，what comes next?
Some people have been arguing that artificial intelligence，or AI in short，will be a bad thing for humans. In an interview with the BBC in 2014，UK scientist Stephen Hawking warned that “the development of full artificial intelligence could mean the end of the human race.”
So are we really about to live in the world shown in the Terminator movies?
“Not quite，” answered The Economist. After all，it's not hard to get a computer program to remember and produce facts. What is hard is getting computers to use their knowledge in everyday situations.
“We think that，for the human being，things like sight and balance(视觉平衡)，are natural and ordinary in our life.” Thomas Edison，founder of Motion Figures，a company that is bringing AI to boys，told the newspaper. “But for a robot，to walk up and down just like human beings requires various decisions to be made every second，and it's really difficult to do.”
As The Economist put it，“We have a long way to go before AI can truly begin to be similar to the human brain，even though the technology can be great.”
Meanwhile，John Markoff of The New York Times said that researchers should build artificial intelligence to make people more effective.
“Our_fate_is_in_our_own_hands，” he wrote.“Since technology depends on the values of its creators，we can make human choices that use technology to improve the world.”
1. What was the result of the match?| A．Lee Se－del won AlphaGo 4－1. | B．Lee Se－del was defeated. |
| C．Google program beat AlphaGo. | D．Neither side won the match. |
| A．It's very hard for AI to beat the human brain. |
| B．AI would take the place of human beings. |
| C．AI can make various decisions quickly. |
| D．AI does better than humans in sight and balance. |
| A．Stephen Hawking. | B．John Markoff. |
| C．The New York Times. | D．The Economist. |
| A．AI will improve the world completely. |
| B．AI is in the control of human beings. |
| C．AI may bring disasters to human beings. |
| D．AI will make our future out of control. |
