4 . Where is the future going?

Our work habits have changed a lot over the past thirty years. While our parents may have expected to stay in one job, with one company, for their whole life, we are faced with the possibility of changing jobs and even careers several times. Our understanding of education, work and society is different from that of earlier generations.     1         Many of today's jobs will either disappear or change in the next ten years or so.

What about people who work with computers? Well, things will change for them, too. More advanced computer programs and new technologies will remove the need for computer operators who perform simple actions. Modern search engines can do many of the things that yesterday's computer operators did. Word processing and simple information handling can be done automatically.     3    

A rapidly changing job market also creates new challenges for students, teachers and parents.     4     And it is becoming more difficult for parents to understand the kind of world their children are entering. Schools and teachers are also facing difficulties as they try to adapt to the new needs of their students, and the students themselves have to try to deal with all the changes and many questions.

    5     There are no easy answers, but we can try to turn challenges into opportunities. As the job market changes, new areas of growth appear. If we become good learners, and if we work together with our parents, friends and teachers, we can find ways to create a future where there is room for all of us to do what we are good at and enjoy.

5 . Sixty percent of Americans play video games daily, according to Techjury. In order to escape from the reality of quarantine (隔离), more people have turned to video games and VR (virtual reality) has become more popular than ever.

The world of VR isn't new to the gaming industry. It has been an ongoing concept for years, dating back to the 1800s. NASA popularized VR technology in 1989, bringing light to advancements that had never been seen before, and in 1991, SEGA introduced VR to gamers.

Gaming companies such as Oculus and HTC have redefined gaming by allowing players to involve themselves deeply in the world of VR through personal headsets. VR users are able to socialize through chat rooms, create 3D art and exercise through heart-pumping gameplay. Once a user puts on a headset, they are immediately transported into a virtual world. This allows the player to have a better experience compared to simply staring at a TV with a game controller.

Although VR has many positive aspects, using virtual reality too much can cause health problems among users. When using VR, it is common for people to lose spatial (空间的) awareness. Therefore, users are encouraged to play in an area that is clear of furniture and other objects causing potential danger. Eye strain can also be caused by using VR too much, so it is important to limit your time playing in virtual reality and take breaks in order to minimize the possibility of experiencing negative health effects.

How VR will develop in the future is unknown to us. However, new advancements for it are on the way. Teslasuit, a company specializing in VR equipment, is creating haptic (触觉的) suits for VR gameplay. These suits will allow users to feel aspects of VR while in game and will increase involvement, build 360-degree awareness and engage muscle memory. There are an endless number of possibilities that users                                               can experience and create in VR, and the boundaries of the virtual world are limitless.

6 . These are some ideas that some people came up with about what the life will be like in the year 2500.

We will have established a base on the moon. School kids can take field trips to the moon weekly. We will have found cures (疗法) for AIDS and cancer. The war will have ended and peace flows freely through the land. Kids will learn more and be smarter than ever before! History will be the main subject at school. Cafeteria (自助餐厅) food will be delicious! You just walk up to a machine, stick out your tongue, and it will scan your taste buds (味蕾) to see what you want to eat.

— Kristen

Here I am in the wonderful year of 2500 and life is so easy. I work in a pet store and it is so hard! I have to wake up at midnight every day and fly my car to the store. It takes so long to get there. It takes me 20 seconds to get to the store in Mississippi from my home in Florida! At work, I have to push 5 buttons and then I go home. It takes 2 seconds and that is like forever.

— Morgan

In the year 2500, I think we will have invented cars that run on things we don’t need like garbage. Tail gas will smell like whatever you like such as chocolate. I also predict that buildings will be able to go into a different dimension(维度) so your car won't hit them. The cars in 2500 don’t fly, for we haven’t got that technology yet, but they can hover (盘旋) up to seven feet. These cars are made for speed!

— Carly

Instead of cars, we may have hovering devices that float around. We could also have electric cars instead of gas powered cars. Food might be more healthy. What I believe is that the environment will change most. The environmental changes will also determine many other changes. If more people try to help the environment, then perhaps in 2500 we will have more forests and wildlife. If people won’t help the environment, then we will have no forests and little wildlife left.

— Roberta

7 . Fancy a holiday to the moon? Sounds crazy? Not really. A Japanese company has been working on how to organize holidays to the moon for several years now.    1    

Trying to make the holiday possible will not be an easy task, and the Japanese company plans to make it in stages.    2    A transport system, like the space shuttle ( 航天飞机) used by NASA at the moment is likely to be developed for this purpose.

The next stage is to build a big hotel orbiting 500 km above the earth. The hotel will orbit the earth once every four or five hours, which will offer visitors some fascinating views of the earth.     3    While this may not seem very exciting at first, think about new sports that can be designed for people to play in zero gravity.

The final stage in the plan is the construction of a hotel on the surface of the moon itself. As solar energy would be used to provide power, it would be important to build the hotel near one of the poles of the moon in order to gather as much solar energy as possible.    4    It is also important to find a part of the moon which is flat, as a long runway will need to be built for the space shuttle to land on. Meanwhile, the company has already developed ways to make cement (水泥) on the moon.     5    The company plans to produce water from oxygen elements, which can be found in moon rocks and hydrogen, which will have to be imported from earth.

So perhaps in a few years you might be enjoying yourselves on the moon.

Robotic age draws closer

These days, robots are     1     (common) than you might think. Consider the Roomba,     2     robotic vacuum cleaner (真空吸尘器) which cleans floors on its own.

“We wanted to make something simple     3     people could use every day,” says Greiner, co-founder of iRobot, the company that makes the smart vacuum cleaner.“And that's what inspired us to build the Roomba.”

Some robots like the Roomba are already very common in many US households.

iRobot makes everything from the Roomba to robots that someday might become a part of us.

“You can have robotics     4     (equip) into your body, to get back that arm or leg that you've lost, either in some accident or disease,”says Greiner.

Although robots have been developed mainly for military     5     (apply), civilian uses for the technology are growing, according to Michael Toscano, president of the Association for Unmanned(自控的) Vehicle Systems International.

Unmanned systems allow human beings to do their tasks     6     an extension of their hands, their eyes and their ears,”

“We can put them in the ocean and they     7     (swim) for eight or nine months, collecting data and monitoring ocean pollution,”says Hudson of iRobot.

Recently the US government's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) displayed a“robotic man”.

Instead of depending on the remote control, DARPA's “robotic man”can     8     (actual) look at some blocks, find one with a special pattern, and move it to a new location. Mandelbaum, DARPA's project manager, says more     9     (challenge) tasks lie ahead.

Someday, a DARPA robot might find a hidden bomb or help a disabled person select a shirt and button     10    .