1 . You are just waking up in the spring of 2030. Your Internet of Things (IoT) bedroom opens solar-powered e-windows and plays gentle music while your smart lighting displays a montage (蒙太奇) 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 integrated operating system. While you dress, your artificial intelligence (AI) assistant shares your schedule for the day and plays your favourite tunes.
You still start your day with caffeine but it comes from your IoT 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 spouse and your kids. On the road, driverless cars and trucks move with mathematical precision, without traffic jams. Accident rates are near zero.
On route, you call your R&D team, who are wrapping up a day’s work in Shanghai. Your life-sized image will be projected, making your colleagues see you as if you were sitting with them. It’s a bit surreal (超现实的) for them to see you in the morning light given that it’s dark on the Bund, Shanghai’s water-front, though the novelty fades after a few uses.
You review the day’s cloud-based data from your Shenzhen manufacturing centre your pilot project in San Diego, and your QA team in Melbourme. The massive datasets are collected in realtime from every piece of equipment and have been beautifully summarized by your company’s AI. All these facilities are closely maintained and operated via a skilled 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. What will happen when you dress yourself according to the text?| A．Your breakfast is ordered and served. | B．E-windows open quickly. |
| C．Your favourite songs are played. | D．Your schedule is sent to your boss. |
| A．Produced specially. | B．Made in advance. |
| C．Mixed similarly. | D．Changed randomly. |
| A．Because you did it beforehand. | B．Because you were on the scene. |
| C．Because your images are wrapped up. | D．Because your life-sized picture is projected. |
| A．Why We Need AI Assistants | B．How Life Will Be in the Future |
| C．How AI Helps Us Succeed | D．How AI Does Meaningful Work |
2 . By 2050 we’ll be able to send memories, emotions and feelings across the Internet.
I’m talking about telepathy (心灵感应), really. We’ll still communicate the traditional way.
Medicine will develop fast, too. We will have cured certain forms of cancer, and we will have begun to treat the disease like the common cold. We’ll live with it. It will no longer be deadly.
| A．We will do a few tests. |
| B．People will live an easy life. |
| C．We won’t fear it like we used to. |
| D．Brain science will have changed communication. |
| E．We can already use human cells to grow skin, noses, ears, etc. |
| F．But communicating telepathically will avoid misunderstandings between people. |
| G．Our clothes will discover the beginnings of a heart disease, and advise us to get treatment. |
3 . Since several organisations plan to put the first man on Mars by 2030, new trips to the Moon will take place around 2025. If you go to the Moon, you need a place to stay in. So what will it be like? Maybe the following article can give us some inspiration.
August 23, 2025—Today a new chapter in space travel was written. Rod Markham and his wife-to-be Susan Millster arrived safely on the Moon to spend 5 nights as the first guests at the Starbright Hotel that was set up for this purpose two years ago.
Not only are they the first hotel guests on the Moon, but they also set a new record for expensive accommodation since the price was $3.7 million per night, per person. However, the move from the Earth to the hotel is included in the price.
The hotel itself will probably have a hard time just to try to gain one star in any hotel rating system, because there is no room service. The guests have to do the cleaning of the room themselves and there is no bathroom in it. However. they have more stars than they need just outside their windows.
Rod and Susan will get married by linking their local minister in San Diego, California at 9:00 p.m. EST tonight, and the wedding will be broadcast live by several major TV networks in a 1-hour special report, including the preparations for the trip.
Six astronauts are along with them and during the stay they’ll set up further accommodations for the guests who have made reservations at the Starbright Hotel next year. The hotel has no employees, only some workers when guests stay at it.
1. What does the new chapter in space travel refer to according to paragraph 2?| A．That humans landed on Mars for the first time. |
| B．That the first hotel on the Moon was set up. |
| C．That the first hotel guests landed on the Moon. |
| D．That the hotel on Mars welcomed its first guests. |
| A．They can't find much help. |
| B．They will get five-star service. |
| C．They have to cook food themselves. |
| D．They can use the bathroom in their room. |
| A．It will last for an hour. |
| B．It can be watched live on the Earth. |
| C．A minister on the Moon will host it. |
| D．Their relatives and friends will be present. |
| A．Accept reservations from others. |
| B．Improve room service for the couple. |
| C．Look for several employees for the hotel. |
| D．Prepare accommodations for future guests. |
4 . Most of the 20th century has been a development on the Industrial Revolution taken to an extreme（极端）: people now own more products than ever before; there are enough nuclear weapons to destroy the earth several times over; there is hardly any forest left and pollution has got to the point where we buy water. Within a few years I predict you will be able to buy air—there once was a time when you didn't need to buy food or shelter either.
Important developments in the last century are the breaking down of the class structures left over from the Industrial Revolution stage, bringing with it the empowerment（授权）of the "common man": the working day is set by law to only 8 hours a day; everyone has the vote; the media has less obvious government control; people have landed on the moon, sent spacecraft to Mars and so on. Families have also been shrinking; the nuclear family came about, and especially in the last half of the 20th century, one-parent families are becoming more common. The smaller size of the family shows the increased independence of people—once upon a time people had to live in large groups to survive.
Humans have realized their personality and independence and taken their control of the world to an extreme. In many countries the land is almost completely used in the production of food and as living space. People live in small cities which are entirely human constructed ,made from materials which are also entirely human constructed（concrete bricks）with hardly any remains of nature. Weeds are poisoned because they are messy; even parks have trees grown in tidy lines; grass is mowed to keep it short and soon. I think the massive drug "problem" troubling people is a result of too much of this influence, humans needing to escape the dull world they have created by entering fantasy worlds.
Over the last 100 years, the 20th century consciousness has spread throughout the world. Most of Asia has been thoroughly "Westernized", and most of the Third World is being over-run by Western ways of doing things and living.
1. How is the text mainly developed?| A．By giving examples and stating facts. |
| B．By stating facts and making comparisons. |
| C．By listing facts and arguing. |
| D．By predicting and concluding. |
| A．Becoming smaller. | B．Getting better off. |
| C．Disappearing sharply. | D．Becoming popular. |
| A．Effects of pollution. | B．Changes in people's way of living. |
| C．Development in science and technology. | D．Control of population. |
| A．Birth rate is over controlled. | B．Population quality has greatly improved. |
| C．People have more rights and freedom. | D．Government has lost control of society. |
5 . 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(蒙太奇) 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 integrated operating system. While you dress, your artificial intelligence (Al) assistant shares your schedule for the day and plays your favourite tunes.
You still start your day with caffeine 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 spouse and your kids. On the road, driverless cars and trucks move with mathematical precision, without traffic jams. Accident rates are near zero.
En route, you call your R&.D team, who are wrapping up a day's work in Shanghai. Your life-sized image will be projected,which makes your colleagues see you as if you were sitting with them. It's a bit surreal(超现实的)for them to see you in the morning light given that it's dark on the Bund, Shanghai's waterfront, though the novelty fades after a few uses.
You review the day's cloud-based data from your Shenzhen manufacturing centre, your pilot project in San Diego, and your QA team in Melbourne. The massive datasets are collected in realtime from every piece of equipment and have been beautifully summarized by your company's AI. All these facilities are closely maintained and operated via a skilled 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. What will happen when you dress yourself according to the text?| A．Your schedule is sent to your boss. |
| B．Bedroom opens quickly. |
| C．Your favourite tunes are played. |
| D．Your coffee is ordered and served. |
| A．Made specially. |
| B．Mixed similarly. |
| C．Produced in advance. |
| D．Invented traditionally. |
| A．Because the team makes progress. |
| B．Because your images are wrapped up. |
| C．Because you did it ahead of time. |
| D．Because your life-sized picture is projected. |
| A．Why we need AI assistants. |
| B．What life will be like in 2030. |
| C．How we find meaningful work in the future. |
| D．How AI helps you lead an important life. |
6 . Your options for an ego - friendly home may seem somewhat limited now—solar panels, rain barrels, and maybe a small garden—but as the world of green technology advanced, there is a rise in the number of smart, ego-friendly home improvements. Some of them are available now.
A home thermos tat (恒温器) can automatically adjust the temperature for you, making sure your house is warm when you get home and reducing energy waste during the day. For example, a thermos tat called Nest Learning Thermos tat learns your heating and cooling preference and automatically adjusts itself.
Years ago, recycling paper and plastic was the most you could do to save resource.
In 2009, The Wall Street Journal asked four architectural firms to imagine the future of green homes.
| A．There are quite a lot of benefits of green homes. |
| B．Others, like walls made of gardens, are a bit more futuristic |
| C．Traditional energy sources are still the norm in most houses |
| D．Nest users have saved 29 million in energy in less than two years |
| E．It will depend on the type of heating and cooling system in your home |
| F．Now, recycling factories have gone way beyond the traditional materials |
| G．And one of the groups, Rios Clementi Hale Studios, undertook the project |
7 . Technologically, the 20-year jump from 2015 to 2035 will be huge. Back in 1995 we were in the early days of the Internet, we worked in small rooms and our computers were heavy and powered by Windows 95. There were no touch screen phones or flat screen TVs; people laughed at the idea of reading electronic books.
So, what will our world really be like in 2035? What will the future jobs and technology be like? The world in 2035 will probably be much like it is today, but smarter and more automatic. We can see the future of our work first.
Taxi drivers will be replaced by self-driving Uber cars and receptionists will be replaced by robots. Doctors can use vast medical databases and travel agents will be wiped out by trip-planning, flight-booking web services. Even writers are threatened by companies such as Narrative Science, which currently uses AI to create sports reports and financial updates.
Obviously, there will also be new jobs created: the computer engineer who fixes the self-driving Uber taxis, programmers, space tour guides and vertical (垂直的) farmers. Technology will continue to disrupt (扰乱) businesses and get rid of jobs, creating new professions we can’t yet envisage now.
Those of us who work probably won’t do so in a traditional office either. We’re already seeing a shift in the definition of work. It’s now a task you perform, not a place you go to. Productivity is no longer measured by sitting at a desk. There’s no nine to five. No job for life.
The biggest advantage of working from home is that you save a lot of time commuting back and forth to work. You can spend extra time with your children or spouse and read the newspaper instead of sitting in traffic. Of course, advanced technology will ensure that most of us can work from home.
1. What’s the function of the questions in paragraph 2?| A．Leading in the topic of the article. | B．Raising the thinking of the readers. |
| C．Introducing the work of the future. | D．Inspiring readers to explore the future. |
| A．Assess. | B．Ignore. | C．Imagine. | D．Reject. |
| A．In the office. | B．At the hotel. | C．In the open air. | D．At home. |
| A．The future health. | B．The future technology. | C．The future marriage. | D．The future transportation. |
8 . “The past is a different country; they do things differently there," L.P. Hartley wrote in one of his best-known novels, The Go-Between. To the British novelist, the past was irrelevant. And one of my Chinese students once told me "I have no interest in the past. I'm only interested in the present and the future." I have to disagree. The "past" is a very interesting country, and the more we know about it, the more we will be able to understand the present and thus, prepare ourselves for the future.
An ideal place, as I see it, that can allow us to look back on the past is the museum. I prefer to visit museums as if you are sitting in the same room with some of the greatest men in history. While no museums can claim to offer a complete picture of human history, the lessons we can learn from the events and wonders of the past are of great value.
Thanks to modern technology, museums are being transformed from places of looking and learning to spaces of participation and interaction. A large number of immersive (沉浸式) multi-media displays, which allow visitors to engage with its exhibits during their visit, play a big part at the Shanghai Natural History Museum.
The rise in technology has also made museums more accessible than ever. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, traditional museums have started to think outside of the box in order to create new ways for visitors to experience their collections online. It is definitely good news for those who are fascinated by museums but are struggling to actually go there. However, you shouldn't expect to get the same experience that an in-person visit would provide, at least, that is, for now.
International Museum Day is observed on May 18 every year. This is a quick reminder that you should always spare some time to visit museums and appreciate the "must-see 'em" things that are an important part of the cultural heritage of humankind.
1. What does the writer think of “the past”?| A．Different. | B．Significant. | C．Unrelated. | D．Understandable. |
| A．It’s where to learn and reflect. |
| B．It’s where to learn about previous events. |
| C．It’s where to meet with great minds. |
| D．It’s where to appreciate ancient wonders. |
| A．Offering online exhibits. | B．Allowing more in-person visits. |
| C．Adding multi-media displays. | D．Showing a complete picture of history. |
| A．Technology Revives Museums | B．Observe International Museum Day |
| C．Museums Are “Must-see 'ems” | D．Visit Museums In-person or Online |
9 . By mid-century there will likely be 9 billion people on the planet, using ever more resources and leading ever more technologically complex lives. What will our cities be like? How much will artificial intelligence (AI) advance? Will global warming cause disastrous changes, or will we be able to engineer our way out of the climate change issues? Recently, the magazine Big Think asked top minds from a variety of fields to weigh in on what the future holds 40 years from now. The result is as follows.
It's likely that by 2050 the majority of the people in the world will live in urban areas and will have a much higher average age than people today. Cities theorist Richard thinks urbanization will transform the education system of, making our economy less houses driven and removing the divisions between home and work.
And rapidly advancing technology will continue ever more rapidly. Cities of the future won't look like “some sort of science-fiction fantasy”, but it's likely that technological advances and information overlays (VR and AR) will greatly change how we live. Self- driving cars will make the roads safer and provide faster transports. A larger version of driverless cars-driverless trucks — may make long-distance drivers out of date.
Some long view predictions are completely dire. Environmentalist Bill says that if we don't make great progress in fighting global warming, it's likely we could see out-of- control rises in sea levels, huge crop shortfalls and wars over limited freshwater resources.
In terms of how we will eat, green markets founder and “real food" supporter Nina believes that there will be more small milk processing plants and more regional food operations and we'll be healthier as a result. New York Times writer Mark thinks that people will eat fewer processed foods and eat foods grown closer to where they live. And more people will be aware of the ethical responsibility" to grow foods.
1. What may happen by 2050 based on the magazine Big Think ?| A．Education will be driven by economy. | B．The majority of people will be taller. |
| C．AI will cause disastrous changes. | D．Most people will live in big cities. |
| A．It will make people live in science-fiction fantasy. |
| B．It will ensure safer transports due to faster cars. |
| C．It will greatly change the way in which people live. |
| D．It will increase the number of long-distance drivers. |
| A．Magical. | B．Terrible. | C．Ridiculous. | D．Meaningful. |
| A．People will eat healthier and fresher foods. |
| B．Land-raised farm systems will be improved. |
| C．There will be smaller regional food operations, |
| D．Food supplies will become much more limited. |
10 . On paper, hydrogen（H2）looks like a dream fuel. Coal, oil, and natural gas produce carbon dioxide, which warms the earth when burned, Hydrogen produces pure water. Hydrogen packs more energy into less space than a battery（but certainly less than petrol）. Also, empty tanks（燃料箱）can be refilled with hydrogen much faster than refilling empty batteries with electricity.
While in practice, things are trickier. Storing a meaningful amount of hydrogen gas requires pressing it several hundred-fold. Changing it into the liquid form is another option, but it should be cooled to-253C. Both processes require a heavy and strong tank. While a 700 bar tank is acceptable for a city bus or a truck, adapting it for use in small vehicles is very difficult because the pressure during refilling would be too great.
The solution? Powerpaste.
A German team of researchers, led by Marcus Vogt, have come up with an interesting "powerpaste", which can store hydrogen energy at atmospheric pressure, ready for release when needed. It is so named because it comes in tubes and looks like toothpaste（牙膏）, not in its traditional form of gas.
The main ingredient（原料）of the paste is magnesium hydride, a substance that reacts with water to form hydrogen. The escaped hydrogen can then be directed into a fuel cell, where it reacts with oxygen from the air to produce electric power.
Refueling is very simple, as instead of going to a filling station, drivers and riders can simply replace an empty tube with a new one and refill the water tank.
Given that powerpaste only begins to break down at temperatures of around 250℃ it remains safe even when a vehicle stands in the baking sun for hours.
However, we will have to be patient. Just because researchers have succeeded in developing a new fueling way does not mean that we can expect to see such vehicles on the road anytime soon. It will indeed be several years before this concept is turned into reality.
1. As a fuel, what is the advantage of hydrogen over oil?| A．Refilling empty tanks will be more convenient. |
| B．It is less likely to worsen global warming |
| C．More energy can be packed in the same space. |
| D．It will produce pure water for people to drink. |
| A．The practical difficulties to use hydrogen as fuel in small vehicles. |
| B．The detailed processes of adapting a strong tank in small vehicles. |
| C．The differences in fueling between large vehicles and small ones. |
| D．The tricks of building strong tanks in small vehicles. |
| A．inexpensive | B．powerful | C．convenient | D．environment-friendly |
| A．Powerpaste-driven vehicles sometimes move very slowly on the road. |
| B．Practical use of powerpaste-driven vehicles will not come very soon. |
| C．Powerpaste-driven vehicles can only work after being in the sun for hours |
| D．It will be years before the researchers work out the concept of powerpaste. |
