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.

2. What does paragraph 4 intend to show?

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.

3. What does the author want to express in the last paragraph?

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.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．High-tech Cars	B．Life in the Future
C．Is Cloning Really Good?	D．Are You Ready for the Future?

2 . Have you ever seen a rushing car without a driver?    1     Companies like Google and Tesla have been designing and testing these cars.

So how do they work? The cars have sensors all around which can detect other cars and obstacles in the road. Sensors on the wheels also help when parking, so the car knows how far it is from the kerb (马路牙子) or other parked cars. Road signs are read by cameras, and satellite navigation systems are used so the car knows how to get to your destination.     2    .

Sound like your idea of heaven? Sitting back, looking out of the windows and even watching a film or reading a book while “driving” would be possible with this new technology.     3     They would drive more safely than people and they have quicker reaction time in case of an emergency.

    4     For example, computers would have difficulties making ethical (伦理的) decisions: if a child ran into the road, would the computer choose to hit the child or swerve(突然转向) and potentially kill the car’s passengers?

Although being driven around by a machine would perhaps mean that no one needs a driving license, saving money for everyone, many people would be put out of a job by the dawn of driverless cars.     5     I’m not convinced I’d want a driverless car --- but it’s only a matter of time before they’ll become more affordable and commonplace on our roads.

A．All you have to do is type in the address!

B．There would also be many legal decisions to be made.

C．However, there are many drawbacks of driverless cars.

D．Driverless cars have many advantages as well as disadvantages.

E．It sounds crazy, but driverless cars will soon be filling roads near you.

F．In addition, computers are generally more efficient drivers than humans.

G．Bus, taxi, train and tram drivers as well as driving instructors would be made unnecessary.

3 . 一家英语报社向中学生征文，主题是“十年后的我”。请根据下列要点和你的畅想完成短文。
要点：1.家庭；2.工作；3.业余生活。
注意：1.写作词数为80左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答。

Me in 10 Years

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入 1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

A company     1     (name) “Future Tours” transported Li Qiang and his friend Wang Ping     2     (safe) into the future in a time capsule. They climbed in through a small opening and soon the journey     3    (complete). They were still on the earth but 1,000 years in the future.

Confused by the new surroundings, Li Qiang was hit by a lack of fresh air. Li Qiang chose     4     hovering carriage driven by computer and began     5    (move). There were so many carriages     6     he lost sight of Wang Ping. A few minutes     7    (late), Li Qiang caught sight of Wang Ping.

    8    (arrive) at a house, he was surprised to see tree     9    (leaf) surrounding the house and they provided the house with much-needed oxygen.     10     a good dinner, Li Qiang felt exhausted, so he slid into bed and fell fast asleep.

5 . Ever since the beginning of human civilization, we are trying to reduce manual efforts by making simple to extremely complex machines. The next step in the same process is robotics and automation. Robotics and automation is a field with abundant potential. It expands its scope from household applications to solving mysteries of the Universe to curing untreatable medical conditions.

Up until the beginning of 2020, robots of any kind are made up of nor-living materials. Recently scientists from the University of Vermont & Tufts University introduced Xenobots, which have opened a whole new Universe for this field. Xenobots are the world’s first living and self-healing microbots. These robots are designed with the help of computer-generated- evolutionary algorithm(算法). The living cells used for its creation are skin, heart and stem cell from the African frog embryos(胚胎).

These microbots are very basic in nature, made up entirely from the organic substance. They can move forward, turn around, spin in circles and flip over. They are smaller than a millimetre and can travel inside the human body. Just imagine the possibilities we will have, once scientist is able to teach Xenobots to do the desired task. One day they even might be able to fight cancer cells. They will be able to clear microplastics in the oceans and lots more.

But if these bots are a life form, why are we calling them robots? This is because scientists are designing them to move or work according to their wills. A certain arrangement for skin and heart cells in an Xenobot will make it move in a straight line, while a different arrangement of the same cells will be required to move them in circular motions.

Xenobots are positively a great step. Scientists are also calling them a brand new life form on the planet. The future is unseen but is undoubtedly full of countless possibilities.

1. Which of the following is the potential of the robotics?

A．Making complex machines.	B．Reducing manual efforts.
C．Expanding our scopes.	D．Clearing space mysteries.

2. Where do Xenobots differ from the other previous robots?

A．In nature.

B．In size.

C．In movement.

D．In materials.

3. What are Xenobots able to do already now?

A．Travel inside the human body.	B．Create new life.
C．Fight cancer cells.	D．Clear microplastics in the oceans.

4. What is the author’s attitude towards the future of Xenobots?

A．Doubtful.

B．Positive.

C．Ambiguous.

D．Disapproving.

6 . Elon Musk is famous for making bold claims and big bets. Here’s a look at some of his recent goals and how they’re shaking out.

1. Which of Elon Musk’s predictions has so far failed to come true?

A．Trips to the moon.	B．Hyperloop and Loop.
C．Self-driving Tesla cars.	D．Brain computer interfaces.

2. The Boring Company is established to .

A．create vacuum tubes	B．solve traffic problems
C．build tunnels over the world	D．speed up the SpaceX program

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Autonomous robo-taxis are actually impractical.

B．Musk is concerned about the future of the world.

C．Musk’s Neuralink is suspected of doing something illegal.

D．Musk makes predictions merely to attract the world’s attention.

7 .

News anchors(主播) must have been reluctant to read out the following news: Xin Xiaomeng began working as the world’s first female artificial(人工的) intelligence news anchor at Xinhua News Agency on Sunday, three months after a male robot joined the profession.

Unlike previous news robots though, Xin does not read news like a cold machine; she reads it almost like a human being. The muscles on her face stretch and relax-and her reactions change-as she continues reading. That’s why many news anchors were worried: Will AI replace us in the near future?

To find the answer, we have to analyse the technologies that support Xin at her job. Three key technologies are used to support Xin. First, samples of human voices are collected and synthesized (合成). This is followed by the collection and synthesis of human muscle movement samples. And third the voices and movements are married in a way that when the Al news anchor reads, the micro -electric motors behind her face move to make her expressions seem more human.

Yet we need a thorough knowledge of deep leaning technology to make a robot imitate a person’s voice. The developer needs to collect tens of thousands of pieces of pronunciations, input them Into the machine and match them with the text or the Al to lean and read. The process for imitating facial movements is similar. The developer has to analyse the movements of the 53 muscles in the human face, make a model set from the collected data for the AI news anchor to lean, and imitate the movements of facial muscles via programs

Both the technologies used to make Xin’s performance impressive are mature. The real difficulty lies in the third -the technology to match the pronunciations with facial movements so that Xin expressions vary according to the content of the news report. In fact, Xins expressions don' t always change according to the content. As a result, her expressions look anything but human. Actually. AI is still no match for human qualities.

1. What does the underlined word "reluctant "in the first paragraph mean?

A．Delighted.

B．Unwilling.

C．Confused.

D．Optimistic.

2. What can we infer about previous news robots?

A．They read news without expressions.	B．They looked like a human being
C．They could interview sports stars	D．They could interact with audience.

3. What do we know about the third technology?

A．This technology is very perfect so far

B．This technology is quite popular now

C．This technology remains at the theoretical stage

D．This technology is far from mature.

4. From the last paragraph, we can draw a conclusion that____.

A．human news anchors should learn from AT anchors to save their jobs

B．Al anchors perform much better than human news anchors at present

C．Al news anchors won 't replace human news anchors in the near future

D．Xin Xiaomeng s expressions vary so naturally that they are true to life