1 . Life will probably be very different in 2050. First of all, it seems that TV channels will have vanished by 2050. Instead, people will choose a programme from a “menu” and a computer will send the programme directly to the television. By 2050, music, films, programmes, newspapers and books will come to us in the similar way.
In many places, agriculture is developing quickly and people are growing fruit and vegetables for export. This uses a lot of water. Therefore, there could be serious shortages of water. Some scientist predict that water could be the cause of wars if we don’t act now.
In the future, cars will run on new, clean fuels (燃料) and they will go very fast. Cars will have computers to control the speed and there won’t be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to your destination. Also, by 2050, space planes will fly people from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just two hours.
Some big companies now prefer to use robots that do not ask for pay rises or go on strike, and work 24 hours a day. They are also easy to control. And they never argue with people. They can be easily used in a variety of places — factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.
Scientists will have discovered how to control genes (基因). Scientists have already produced clones (克隆) of animals. By 2050, scientists will be able to produce clones of people and decide how they look and how they behave. Scientists will be able to do these things, but should they?
1. Which of the following best explains “vanished” underlined in paragraph 1?| A．Settled. | B．Spread. | C．Disappeared. | D．Decreased. |
| A．Robots can work in different places. |
| B．Robots have much to be improved. |
| C．Robots work for humans for free. |
| D．Robots have many advantages. |
| A．He probably disagrees with the idea of human cloning. |
| B．He is looking forward to using of cloning technology. |
| C．The scientists have already discovered how to control genes. |
| D．The scientists will face many difficulties of controlling genes. |
| A．High-tech Cars | B．Life in the Future |
| C．Is Cloning Really Good? | D．Are You Ready for the Future? |
2 . The future home is something that people have talked about for decades. Because the future home idea inspires our imagination, scientists and engineers have been working hard to develop different systems to make houses “smarter”.
The video camera at the entrance recognize visitors using facial recognition. The facial recognition software of the future home will not only recognize friends, but strangers as well. And the software in the future home will run the strangers faces against a database of criminals.
The future home will also have smart application appliances (家电) as well. There will be a vast networking system connecting them. Ovens, microwaves and refrigerators will be controlled automatically, so remote cooking will be a possibility and meals are prepared for your arrival.
There will also be a green systems in place such as saving and reusing washing water and bathwater. Plants and people may receive pure or mineralized (含矿的) drinking water.
If you think this future home idea is pie in the sky or science fiction, then think again. Most of the systems described here are either in development or already out in the market. Future homes may not be standard yet for the middle class but this is not as far ahead as many people would think.
1. What can the facial recognition software be used for in the future houses?| A．Greeting friends. | B．Collecting criminals information. |
| C．Recognizing visitors. | D．Following dangerous criminals. |
| A．Facial recognition software. | B．Remote cooking. |
| C．Smart refrigerators. | D．Saving and reusing water. |
| A．Attractive. | B．Common. | C．Special. | D．Excellent. |
| A．Smart future home |
| B．A smart networking system |
| C．Software in future home |
| D．Various household appliances |
3 . What do you plan to do when you retire? Keep working? Get more exercise? Or learn something new? You may put them on hold. There's a chance that, sooner or later, you might have to move further than you were thinking, as far as Mars.
On Thursday, National Geographic will show the first-ever Mars show home, giving earthlings (地球人)an idea of what their life could look like on the Red Planet. In the not-so-distant year of 2037, the igloo-shaped structure could be the home of your future.
It shows a house built using recycled spacecraft parts and Martian soil, called regolith, which has been microwaved into bricks. Some parts of the home are recognizable — a kitchen, a bedroom — but there are fundamental differences that are important to human survival.
As the Martian atmosphere is around one hundredth as thick as the Earth’s, people will need permanent (永久的) shelter from the sun；society will move largely indoors. Most buildings will be connected by underground passages and the houses won't have windows. The homes will have simulated solar lighting, or natural light that has been bent several times. Walls will need to be 10 to 12 feet thick, to protect people from dangerous rays (光线)that can pass through six feet of steel, and a double air-locked entrance to keep the home under proper pressure.
"We don’t think of our houses as things that keep us alive, but on Mars your house will be a survival centre, 99 says Stephen Petranek, author of How We’ll Live on Mars. This is not just the stuff of sci-fi. “10 to 20 years from now there will certainly be people on Mars,” Petranek says.
“We’ve had the technology for 30 years to land people on Mars, but we haven’t had the will, ”Petranek says. But two main factors have “completely swung public attitudes”.
The private companies’ participation has forced government agencies to speed up their game, and influential films such as Gravity and The Martian have caught society’s eye.
1. What do the underlined words "put them on hold" in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Put them off. | B．Give them away. |
| C．Carry them through. | D．Take them seriously. |
| A．It has no windows or doors due to security concern. |
| B．Its design presents the idea of environmental protection. |
| C．It has thick walls keeping the home under propel pressure. |
| D．Its underground passages connect all the buildings together. |
| A．The development of related technology. |
| B．The competition from private companies. |
| C．The great influence of the Mars show home. |
| D．The popularity of influential books on Mars. |
| A．Living on Mars: Possible or Not | B．Sending People to Mars: Yes or No |
| C．First-Ever Show Home: How Is It Made | D．Future Home on Mars: What Will It Be like |
It's undeniable: Being among the first to try out a new piece of technology is cool. There's the excitement of doing what has never been done before-the feeling that you're living in the future. And when you're the sole member of your social circle with the latest hot gadget, people stare in fascination. They ask you questions. They see you as the holder of powerful, secret knowledge-for a little while, until the next big thing comes along. People tend to underestimate the costs of this temporary coolness, which they pay in more ways than one. Don't fall into the early adopter trap. Don't join the first wave of consumers who invest in the latest media-hyped hardware; instead, wait and see.
To put it frankly, early adoption is a bad investment. First, the earliest versions of devices are not only expensive, they are also the most expensive that those devices will ever be. Companies are presumably attempting to recover the cost of production as fast as they can, and they know that there are serious tech-lovers who will pay a great deal to be first. Once the revenues from early adopters' purchases are safely in their hands, they can cut the price and shift to the next marketing phase: selling the product to everyone else. This is why the cost of the original iPhone dropped about U. S. $200 only eight months after its release. Plus, electronics hardly ever become more expensive because intense competition in the industry puts downward pressure on prices over time. Prices of gadgets will fall shortly after release, and they will likely keep falling. Many new TV models drop significantly in price as little as ten days after hitting the market. Further, electronics rapidly depreciate because they become obsolete (废弃的)so quickly. This means that early adopters pay the maximum price for an item that does not hold onto its value. The resale price of a cell phone or laptop can drop by fifty percent within just a few months.
Speaking of becoming obsolete, those who are first to leap into a new technology risk (三野志) wasting money and time on something that will never catch on. Another good reason to resist the early-adoption temptation is that the first version of a product typically has defects that cost a lot in time and frustration. Such problems are so common with new technology that early adopters are basically unpaid beta testers and troubleshooters. Unless this sounds to you like a fun way to spend your time, don't be among the first users. If you wait to learn what the problems are with a new electronic gadget, you can look forward to a smoother experience—or choose a less troublesome product.
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注意：1)词数100左右；
2)可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3)开头和结尾已给出，不计入词数。
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
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Thank you for your listening!
6 . What if we had the power to control time, instead of moving from the past to the present to the future? What if we could jump, loop and travel through time in a machine? What if we could go wherever and whenever we pleased?
This ability would allow us to witness historic wonders, change decisions and see people from the past. We could right wrongs and stop wars from starting.
The mysterious puzzle of time has kept people debating its nature for hundreds of years. Science fiction writers have turned it into imaginative stories. Some scientists have even attempted to explain it using math. This math tries to make the dream of time travel come true.
The scientist Albert Einstein said that time and space are one thing. He called it “spacetime.” Einstein said that there are three dimensions in space: height, width and depth. A scientist named Hermann Minkowski added time as a fourth dimension.
Einstein introduced two ideas that have led to theories about the possibility of time travel. The first is relativity. The idea of relativity is that the force of gravity causes space to bend, which causes time to twist. The second idea focuses on special relativity. The idea is that a traveler moving super-fast through flat spacetime will enter the future. Einstein considered time “relative” because it is measured based on where we are on Earth or in space.
Stephen Hawking is a famous scientist. He believes that a time machine will never be built. If it were possible, he thinks we would already know. If a time machine could be built, how come no one from the future has invaded us?
The first science fiction story with this theme is The Clock That Went Backward by Edward P. Mitchell, which was published in 1881. Since then, thousands of books, films and television shows have explored the idea of time travel, in which some tools such as phones, watches, photographs and old books take travelers backward and forward.
Will time travel ever happen? Who knows? Most important is to keep your eyes open and have a sense of wonder.
1. What is the author’s purpose of writing the first paragraph?| A．To show time and space are connected. |
| B．To show people’s interest in time travel. |
| C．To draw readers’ attention to time travel. |
| D．To make people believe time travel is possible. |
| A．Time travel is possible in the future. |
| B．People can’t move faster than light. |
| C．Time travel is against scientific rules. |
| D．Spacetime is not a real thing in theory. |
| A．The first science fiction story. |
| B．Some tools used in time travel. |
| C．Edward P. Mitchell, the pioneer. |
| D．Different works about time travel. |
| A．cautious. | B．pessimistic |
| C．sceptical | D．optimistic. |
7 . Recently we carried out a survey of 1,000 people from different countries to find out what they think
The survey suggests that
Education will
According to the survey, home life will be
Pollution is something that seems to
No matter how dark or bright it may seem, it is up to us to
| A．education | B．life | C．nature | D．space |
| A．hopes | B．tears | C．rights | D．plans |
| A．marriage | B．leadership | C．friendship | D．neighborhood |
| A．private | B．perfect | C．necessary | D．expensive |
| A．however | B．instead | C．anyhow | D．therefore |
| A．until | B．unless | C．because | D．although |
| A．provide | B．complete | C．receive | D．change |
| A．facts | B．abilities | C．goals | D．thoughts |
| A．end | B．past | C．moment | D．future |
| A．busier | B．safer | C．sadder | D．easier |
| A．unhealthy | B．frozen | C．over-cooked | D．ready-made |
| A．famous | B．cheap | C．popular | D．difficult |
| A．doubt | B．believe | C．remember | D．warn |
| A．confuse | B．frighten | C．satisfy | D．worry |
| A．stop | B．continue | C．refuse | D．begin |
| A．cold | B．impossible | C．suitable | D．free |
| A．expect | B．promise | C．predict | D．wish |
| A．As a result | B．In other words | C．In a similar way | D．On the other hand |
| A．catch | B．spread | C．prevent | D．carry |
| A．take over | B．look after | C．pay for | D．think about |
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 |
Your Robot Teacher of The Future
Will your job be done by a robot in the future? Bank of England economists predict that almost half of all UK jobs are under threat of automation. Those most at risk involve repetitive manual labor, such as factory positions. But could even the venerable profession of teaching soon have to compete against powerful electronic educators?
At first glance, teaching might seem to be unaffected to replacement by robots. Teachers use a range of soft skills that machines find hard to replicate. They judge pupils’ needs and adapt feedback accordingly. They adapt materials to make them more attractive and effective. And they provide pastoral care: looking out for students who lag behind or disrupt the class.
Nonetheless, some believe the future of education will be technological. In an interview with BusinessInsider magazine, futurist Thomas Frey predicts that “by 2030 the largest company on the Internet is going to be an education-based company that we haven’t heard of yet.”
He thinks that “bots”—online robot teachers—will make education so efficient that students will be able to compress an entire undergraduate degree into six months of learning. A bot learns what your “interests” and “reference points” are, “and it figures out how to teach you in a faster and faster way over time,” according to Frey.
Whether or not such incredible speeds will be reached, over the last decade there has been a huge increase in online learning platforms. Companies such as Udemy and Khan Academy produce courses that allow millions to learn at home for free at their own pace. But there are limitations. Without the face-to-face stimulation of a classroom environment, the overwhelming majority of students fail to complete online courses. How to sustain motivation to learn is one more skill that online teachers will need to master.
Indeed, Frey admits there is some way to go:“ Nobody has quite cracked the code for the future of education.” What do teachers themselves think about this? Professor Donald Clark from Derby University in the UK thinks that we should welcome change, even though people will lose their jobs.
“Artificial intelligence will destroy jobs—so why not use it for a social good such as learning?” he asked.
10 . What will man be like in the future? How about in 5,000 or even 50,000 years from now? We can only make a
Let us take an example. Man, even 500 years ago, was
Again, in modern world we use our
Nowadays our eyes are in
On the other hand, we
But what about hair? This will probably
Perhaps all this gives the impression that future man will not be a very
| A．guess | B．research | C．joke | D．decision |
| A．what | B．how | C．that | D．which |
| A．dying | B．changing | C．growing | D．improving |
| A．longer | B．taller | C．bigger | D．shorter |
| A．journey | B．life | C．time | D．distance |
| A．stop | B．continue | C．keep | D．hope |
| A．minds | B．heads | C．brains | D．hearts |
| A．occupy | B．choose | C．control | D．use |
| A．passes down | B．goes on | C．moves away | D．runs out |
| A．cause | B．take | C．occur | D．lead |
| A．in total | B．in trouble | C．in particular | D．in charge |
| A．constant | B．practical | C．proper | D．suitable |
| A．hats | B．smiles | C．clothes | D．glasses |
| A．plan | B．mean | C．tend | D．decide |
| A．therefore | B．however | C．otherwise | D．besides |
| A．grow | B．appear | C．disappear | D．survive |
| A．have | B．keep | C．hold | D．serve |
| A．attractive | B．ugly | C．special | D．ordinary |
| A．size | B．difference | C．appearance | D．common |
| A．bodies | B．thoughts | C．mouths | D．noses |
