| A.revealed B.display C.doubles D.contrary E.suggestions F.raw G.advance H.dramatic I.functions J.connected K.developed |
Your new smart TV might be your pride and joy today but they will pale into insignificance compared with the technology expected to fill homes by 2030.
And now experts at Rightmove have
In just two years’ time, a temperature-changing mattress(床垫) will come into being that warms up in the winter and stays cool in the summer.Self-cleaning fabrics(布), truly waterproof materials and personal climate control are all being
Fast forward to 2023, a “smart window” appears in the bedroom that
A smart mirror, which is actually a screen with an integrated computer, could even make polite outfit (服装）
And by 2025 the experts predict there will be self-heating towels.
While in 2030 the home will seem like an incredibly hi-tech space, with
Perhaps most excitingly, there’s a 3D printer that could be used to print everything from tools and electronics to food and clothing using just
And the experts predict that by 2030, the machines will be as popular as televisions.Pocket-lint’s Stuart Miles said that every single electronic device in the home will be
Tim Danton, Editor of PC Pro magazine thinks smart phones will
2 . What will the future school look like is difficult to make clear, but most experts agree that the school will be electronic in the future.
“Present-day schools will no longer exist in the next century,” says a report in The Age. “At that time, future schools will become community-style centers, which run seven days a week, 24 hours a day.” At the same time,computers will surely become a central part of the school in the future.
According to The Age, the distant learning will be popular and students will listen to teachers on computers. Going into classrooms on their computers, students will study at any time, which is very easy for them. However, it is necessary for students to go to the actual school in order to develop some social skills.
The Seashore Primary School is an imaginary school in the future created by the Education Department of Australia. At this school, all the teachers and students have laptop computers. Teachers check messages and call students back on a special telephone system and students use telephones to search for information or speak to their experts who teach their lessons. Besides, all the lessons are related to all sorts of subjects and all the students have their own learning plans created by teachers.
As one headmaster says, a laptop computer is students' library. data storage as well as the bridge to a wider world. Technology has changed the emphasis of future learning. Thus, we'll pay more attention to the learning of kids rather than the teaching.
1. What can we infer from the second and third paragraphs?| A．Present-day schools are more practical than future schools. |
| B．Students can't have discussions in future schools. |
| C．Future schools will be open to students all the time. |
| D．The number of teachers in future schools will become larger. |
| A．It has fewer desks and chairs. |
| B．Students study at a set time. |
| C．It has no teachers and books. |
| D．Students will go to actual school when necessary. |
| A．was built by the Education Department of Australia |
| B．is not a real school, but a virtual school at present |
| C．is very popular among teachers and students in Australia |
| D．is a successful example of the future school in the world |
| A．Objective. | B．Supportive. | C．Critical. | D．Contradictory. |
Today, we have to use switches for our lights, knobs for our appliances,
4 . I log onto a computer at the doctor’s office to say I have arrived and then wait until a voice calls me into the examination room. There, a robotic nurse
I should say I really do like many aspects of
When I call my dentist’s office and actually get a human being on the line, I am
After all, human cashiers sometimes
Even more than that, real-life cashiers often take an interest in particularly cute children, which can
Machines can be
Call it the spirit, the soul or the heart. It is
| A．tears | B．directs | C．follows | D．separates |
| A．worker | B．nurse | C．doctor | D．cleaner |
| A．signals | B．symptoms | C．words | D．symbols |
| A．at most | B．at last | C．at least | D．at intervals |
| A．economy | B．agriculture | C．literature | D．technology |
| A．cut in | B．pass by | C．take over | D．go away |
| A．annoyed | B．thrilled | C．discouraged | D．disappointed |
| A．smiling | B．laughing | C．shouting | D．weeping |
| A．machine | B．human | C．animal | D．plant |
| A．give | B．remind | C．bargain | D．buy |
| A．brighten | B．darken | C．strengthen | D．widen |
| A．turning | B．happening | C．describing | D．struggling |
| A．urgent | B．efficient | C．frequent | D．consistent |
| A．But | B．Because | C．Otherwise | D．Therefore |
| A．everything | B．nothing | C．anything | D．something |
5 . What will future schools look like in 100 years? Imagine future schools in which students are totally engaged in a class. They are concentrating on working together to solve real-world problems. They are self-driven and are coming up with amazing ideas on the spot. They are concerned with each other’s well-being as part of a team. Their concerns reach far beyond the classroom to others all over the globe.
The school of the future will be an amazing melting pot of different peoples coming together to solve real-world problems.
Will they even be called “schools” in the future?
The teacher-student relationship is changing. Teachers are acting more as helpers rather than keepers of all knowledge. Students are driving their own education to the path that they feel best fits them. In the future, employers may not be as concerned with a diploma. They’ll look more at cases and examples of how students contribute to solving real-world problems. They’ll want to know how well they work in a team.
What will problem-solving look like in the future?
Information from the Internet is accessible everywhere and at unimaginable speeds. Kids are connected to news around the world in real time. Imagine someone could put out a request to the global community to help solve an issue in their own community! Classes can adopt an issue and work with other classes around the world in real time to create solutions.
What will information look like in the future?
It’s already everywhere. Users can get flooded by the constant flow of information. The need to understand what is true and what is not is important. The flipped classroom (翻转课堂) has already completely changed lecture-based lessons. It presents interesting content to students before they even come to class. They can access the Internet as many times as they want to review the lessons.
1. What is the key message of the first paragraph?| A．The things students will do in the future school. |
| B．The situation where students will be in the future. |
| C．The attention students will pay to in the classroom. |
| D．The methods students will use to study in the classroom. |
| A．Respect. | B．Patience. | C．Teamwork. | D．Concern. |
| A．Teachers encourage students to develop leadership. |
| B．Students are really relaxed with their heavy study. |
| C．The employers value students’ diplomas most. |
| D．Students have the right to choose the most suitable lessons. |
| A．To help students to improve the problem-solving ability. |
| B．To provide the lessons for students to study before or after class. |
| C．To help students to keep in contact with the outside world. |
| D．To help students to understand the most difficult content. |
Scientists and engineers
Two American researchers, Andrew McKenzie from the University of Kansas and Jeffrey Punske of Southern Illinois University, have explored one possible problem with such travel. They considered the possibility
Languages naturally change as communities grow more isolated from each other, the researchers noted in the paper. The long isolation of a community could lead to enough differences in language to make
The researchers say one possible solution to
7 . For years, planet-hunters have been searching for a planet other than Earth that can support life. They may have found one.
The planet is the sixth found orbiting a star called Gliese 581. Steven Vogt, one of the scientists involved, expects the new planet to have water. On Earth, when we find water, we find life.
A planet that can support life has to be just the right size for its system and just the right distance from its star. Some planets orbit so close to their stars that they’re much too hot for liquid water—or for life as we know it.
But a right-sized planet that's neither too close nor too far might be just right for water. Gliese 581 is probably just right. It is about three times as huge as Earth.
The new planet is 20 light years away, which is as far as 250 million trips to the Moon and back.
Gliese 581 is an exciting discovery—and astronomers are likely to find more soon, thanks to new, powerful telescopes specifically designed to look for planets.
| A．We can’t travel at the speed of light. |
| B．It’s pretty hard to imagine that water wouldn't be there. |
| C．Human beings won’t be visiting this planet any time soon. |
| D．So scientists looking for life on other planets look for water first. |
| E．It orbits its star so closely that it goes all the way around in only 37 days. |
| F．Astronomers will probably find more potential life-supporting planets soon. |
| G．Other planets keep their distance from the stars—where they’re too cold to have water or life. |
8 . In May this year, as part of our 150th anniversary, we asked readers aged between 18 and 25 to enter an essay competition. The task was to tell us, in no more than 1,000 words, what scientific advance they would most like to see in their lifetimes, and why it mattered to them.
The response was phenomenal: we received 661 entries. Some entrants hoped that science would make their lifetimes much longer than they can currently expect. Many looked forward to work that will end climate change. Others wanted to see advances in our understanding of human history, crop growth, space exploration, and medical technologies. The ideas were inspiring.
The winner is a compelling essay by Yasmin Ali, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham, UK. Ali submitted a piece on Beethoven, her brother’s hearing loss and the science which she hoped would one day cure it. It stood out to the judges as a reminder of why many scientists do research: to make the world better tomorrow than it is today.
All essays were judged by a group of Nature editors. The top ten submissions were then ranked by three members of a separate judging group: Magdalena Skipper, editor-in-chief of Nature; Faith Osier, a researcher; and Jess Wade, a physicist. All submissions were kept anonymous throughout the process.
We also selected two runners-up(非冠军的获奖者).Physicist Robert Schittko at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, proposes that nuclear fusion(核聚变) could offer a solution to the climate crisis, in a piece that effortlessly mixes grand ambition with gentle humour. And chemist Matthew Zajac at the University of Chicago in Illinois wrote a powerful personal account of why he wants to see advances in the field of same-sex reproduction.
The results show that today’s young scientists have a wealth of ideas, talent and conviction that research can transform their world. We look forward to seeing what they do next.
1. What’s the essay competition about?| A．The scientific expectation. |
| B．The fantastic scientific ideas. |
| C．The dreams of future life. |
| D．The celebration of anniversary. |
| A．She showed great talent in music. |
| B．She found the cure for the loss of hearing. |
| C．She appealed for people to care about hearing loss problem. |
| D．She reminded people to remember the meaning of science development. |
| A．Robert Schittko won the second place. |
| B．There were two winners in the essay competition. |
| C．Matthew Zajac presented his view of same-sex reproduction. |
| D．The two runners-up were selected for the same field they chose. |
| A．Doubtful. |
| B．Favorable. |
| C．Impossible. |
| D．Ignorant. |
9 . Robots and computers are weakening wages by simplifying jobs and turning skilled work into unskilled labour. Automation is spreading into office jobs and the services sector, meaning middle-class careers and professions whose wages risk being cut down were influenced in a way never seen before. It will squash pay packets severely for years or even decades to come, a new report from Barclays has warned, which said several careers have already been destroyed as routes to prosperity.
Lorry drivers were once highly paid, but as the technology of vehicle is improving, real wages have crashed. The average US trucker earned $38 000 (£26 000) in 1980, but only $46 000 now—but to keep up with price inflation (通胀率), the wage should be several multiples of this. Similarly London’s black cab drivers have to learn the knowledge, training hard to learn the capital’s streets in detail by memory. However, satnavs (卫星导航) and apps such as Uber have led to a large inrush of drivers who have not had to pass this test, driving down earning for cabbies.
Industries soon to be affected include medicine with even complex tasks such as surgery becoming simpler. Surgeons already use robots widely in surgeries, microrobots can perform surgeries at microscopic levels that surgeons cannot manually perform. Human judgement is sill necessary, but might become less so with the development of machine, learning platforms in the medical field. With the development of machine vision, machines could also be better equipped to make medical diagnoses.
It could take many years before new technologies such as artificial intelligence (人工智能) becomes fully embedded (嵌入) in the economy to the extent that they boost productivity and wages once more. So far the effect has broadly been positive. It is estimated that 15.8 million jobs have been created overall by computer technology in the past 40 years, counting those both created and destroyed.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?| A．Robots will replace humans soon. |
| B．Robots have influenced humans’ wages. |
| C．Robots have a negative effect on humans. |
| D．Robots will steal your wages but not your job. |
| A．Tested drivers rushed in. | B．Price inflation is very serious. |
| C．Apps such as Uber appeared. | D．Black cab drivers are too many. |
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. | C．Neutral. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．Fast Spread of Automation. | B．Advantages of Automation. |
| C．Potential Market for Automation. | D．Great Influence of Automation. |
10 . Created in the 1920s by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect who designed Waterloo Bridges, the red public telephone boxes, which can be seen all over the UK, are regarded as one of the most typical symbols of this country.
However, pubic phones have had their day despite their lovely housings. While coin-operated and card-operated telephones are on the edge of extinction, mobile phones are playing a significant role in people's lives. Though they are more portable, flexible and extensively used, mobile phones have their kryptonite: battery life. Instead of trashing the phone booths, a project was then promoted to recycle and reuse them. To be consistent with the environment-friendly preference, people are allowed o rent and repurpose the red phone boxes. In this way, they are making an unusual comeback.
When you take a walk down Tottenham Court Road in London and find your mobile phone in a low-battery condition, there happens to be a green option for you. The abandoned phone booths are being repurposed as free charging stations powered by solar energy.
Inside the booths, which are newly painted green, there are various adaptors that can be connected to different brands and models of mobile phones. Just walk in, plug your phone in, and charge it up whenever it needs to be supplied with power. Most people would stay inside the boxes while they charge. Fully aware of this when launching the project. Solarbox can now reach a large quantity of audience by displaying ads on solid equipment. Its advertisers include well-known companies like Uber. Yet 30% of advertising space is reserved for local community projects.
Apart from transforming phone booths into solar-powered charging stations, other forms of transformation can be found in and outside the UK. For example, there is medical equipment or mini-libraries adapted from phone booths, while in America, thousands of phone booths have been transformed into wi-fi hot spots.
1. What does the underlined word "kryptonite" in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Feature. | B．Limit. |
| C．Characteristics. | D．Lack. |
| A．It can save all the disappearing phone boxes. |
| B．It enables people to transform their phones for free. |
| C．It is a win-win strategy for both the communities and the companies. |
| D．It was launched mainly because of people's affection for the phone booths. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Opposed. | C．Favorable. | D．Objective. |
| A．The red abandoned phone booths in the UK are turning green. |
| B．The phone booths in the UK are being rebuilt on a large scale. |
| C．The UK phone booths are giving way to the mobile phones. |
| D．The UK phone booths are transformed for different purposes. |
