1 . Choose the words below to replace the words or phrases in italics.

multiple   pace   salary   retirement   decent   occupations   essential   specialist   retrain   likelihood

I listened to a really interesting podcast about future careers yesterday. It said that we can expect to have     1     many jobs over the course of our lives rather than just one. Things are changing at a very fast     2     speed these days in the job market and this will continue in the future.

Although there will always be the opportunity to earn a     3     satisfactory income, if you want to really achieve great things, you should aim to become a     4     highly skilled person in one particular area. There is a strong     5     chance that people will regularly     6     train again to learn more skills until they reach     7     the time they stop working. The podcast also talked about the types of skills that will be     8     absolutely necessary in the future such as critical thinking. I can’t wait to see what the future brings!

2 . Complete the passage with the correct form of the words and phrases below.

prospect   remain relevant   earn a decent salary   innovator   specialist   occupation   multiple times   pace   be qualified   essential

Things have changed so much since our parents’ and grandparents’ time, especially when it comes to jobs and careers. When our parents were starting to find work, the     1     of staying in the same     2     for your entire life was very common. Nowadays, that idea would be considered really unusual!

There will be new     3     21^st century skills that we will have to have. For example, a university degree is still useful, but technology developments mean that many skills we have now are unlikely     4     in the future.     5     is one thing, but if we really want to succeed in our careers we have to be     6     thinking of new and exciting ways to do things. It won’t be enough to have only a general understanding of our area of work but we should keep learning until we become     7    . And given that people will not stay in the same career for long, we can expect that we will have to go back to education and training at some stage     8     to work in another field. In fact, we might have to do that     9    !

Jobs change at an amazing     10     these days, and if we can keep up, we can have really exciting and rewarding future careers.

3 . Complete the passage using the correct form of the words and phrases below.

logical thinking   comprehension skill   reliable   persuade   critical thinking   financial skill   trend   routine

I recently spoke to Ms Xue about the skills we will need in years to come and the future     1     for jobs and careers. According to Ms Xue, in the future a lot of     2     office and factory jobs will disappear. We need to have many skills which we can start developing now. One of the most important is     3    , which is the ability to analyse and evaluate information.     4     which is the ability to use our reason well, will be highly useful in the workplace, as it will help us use our knowledge     5     others.     6     will be highly valued and companies will always appreciate a     7     person who they can trust to do their job. Even outside the workplace, there are important skills we will need. For example, good     8     will benefit us greatly when we start earning money and have financial responsibilities.

5 . Complete the passage using the correct forms of the words in the box. Do you believe Hawking’s predictions?

pros and cons             take over            on a scientific basis            have an urge to          superior conflict with          backwards

Time travel, alien invasions, and artificial intelligence have always been popular themes in science fiction. However, these were never the exclusive domains of sci-fi writers. Some scientists also    1     explore these themes    2    . Take time travel as an example. Many fascinating stories based on time travel go either    3     or forwards in time. However, the former is not really an option. World-famous scientist Stephen Hawking once explained that travelling into the past would     4    the basic rule that cause comes before effect. But it would be possible to travel into the future in a vastly     5    spaceship approaching the speed of light. In addition to the question of time travel, Hawking also expressed his opinions on alien invasions and Al development. When many scientists and scholars were still arguing about the     6    of alien existence and AI development, Hawking said he believed aliens would invade Earth, and that humans would eventually    7     by Aland robots.

6 . Below is a letter from the present you to the future you. Try to complete it with the most appropriate verb forms.
Dear Future Me,

How are you? If you’re still very hard-working, then I’m sure you’re    1     (keep) yourself busy! I do    2     (hope) you’re healthier though. I know I love eating too much junk food and far too many sweets. I hope you’re stronger than me and     3    (give up) these bad habits.

How’s everything going with work? Do you remember that you    4    (want) to be a pilot? If you do, then I hope you’re flying around the world to fun places and     5    (do) a lot of sightseeing. I think that the computer technology in your time must    6    (be) so much better than it is now. The way things are going right now, people will no longer    7    (drive) cars one day because computers     8    (operate) them completely. Moreover, companies will probably     9    (try) to do the same thing with planes soon afterwards. I think it would be quite dangerous if all the cars on the road were driverless. However, I think the idea of     10    (have) any pilots on a plane is much more dangerous. This is because any big computer problem could cause one or more planes full of people to crash!

I hope I’m right about planes still    11     (need) pilots, but if I’m wrong, I look forward to    12    (find) out what other job you chose for your career.

Your friend,

Present Me

8 . 根据句意，选择单词并以其适当形式填空。

On today’s episode of “Future Change”, we talked about predictions about the future with two experts from different fields. Dr. Han, a computer scientist     1     that computers would be cleverer than humans in the     2     future. He thought people would also be programming computers to think like humans. Another guest Vincent Black, an architect, predicted that smart homes with integrated sensors could keep us     3    , save us energy and warn us of     4     dangers. With the development of advanced technology, he also believed that cities floating on water are part of our world’s future. Whether their predictions are     5    or not, today’s talk is a good interaction.