1 . 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.
1. The second paragraph is mainly concerned with _______.| A．the function of VR |
| B．the origin of VR games |
| C．the history of online games |
| D．the future of the gaming industry |
| A．do physical exercise together in nature |
| B．have a more realistic gaming experience |
| C．enjoy better-quality pictures and sounds |
| D．play games without disturbing others |
| A．contact. | B．Movement. | C．Opening. | D．Damage. |
| A．Negative. | B．Objective. | C．Confident. | D．Suspicious. |
2 . 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
1. What does the underlined word “scan” in the 2nd paragraph most probably mean?| A．change | B．treat |
| C．examine | D．improve |
| A．English will be the main subject at school. |
| B．Students can go to the moon every week. |
| C．Cafeteria will replace other restaurants. |
| D．AIDS and cancer will disappear. |
| A．difficult | B．meaningless | C．important | D．easy |
| A．Kristen. | B．Morgan. | C．Carly. | D．Roberta. |
| A．the environment will have changed a lot |
| B．there will be more wildlife and forests |
| C．the environment will be seriously damaged |
| D．cars will run on solar power and electricity |
3 . 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.
Trying to make the holiday possible will not be an easy task, and the Japanese company plans to make it in stages.
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.
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.
So perhaps in a few years you might be enjoying yourselves on the moon.
| A．Next, the hotel will have a wide range of sporting activities. |
| B．Tourists who want to travel into space can stay at a big hotel. |
| C．The first thing to do is to organize trips around the earth for a few hours. |
| D．There would probably be holidays to a moon hotel within the next ten years. |
| E．There is plenty of sand, but the big problem will come with producing water. |
| F．This part of the development plan does not seem to be too difficult to carry out. |
| G．This is because a lunar day, which is 14 earth days long, is followed by 14 days of darkness. |
Robotic age draws closer
These days, robots are
“We wanted to make something simple
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
Although robots have been developed mainly for military
Unmanned systems allow human beings to do their tasks
“We can put them in the ocean and they
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
Someday, a DARPA robot might find a hidden bomb or help a disabled person select a shirt and button
1. 太空、海洋探索； 2. 人工智能开发；
3. 材料的回收利用等。
注意：
1. 词数80字左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头和结尾已经为你写好，不计入总字数。
Good afternoon, boys and girls!
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thanks for listening!
6 . Is there anybody out there? For centuries humans have wondered although the ways in which we have gone about this have varied. As we have gained a greater understanding of the universe, our searches have taken on more concrete(具体的) forms. Questions about aliens(外星人) have become a subject for science rather than science fiction.
Now new cooperation between the Very Large Array (VLA) observatory in New Mexico and the SETI Institute in California means that our curiosity about whether aliens exist can be closer than ever before to being satisfied. Data from the VLA’S 28 radio telescopes, used to scan a vast area of sky, will be fed through a special supercomputer that will search for distant signals.
How likely it is that a signal will be found, and what this might mean, are hard questions to answer. SETI’s existing projects have not discovered any signals from other planets so far. But recent discoveries in space and Earth sciences have provided some encouragement for those who are enthusiastic about the possibility, however remote, of detecting other civilizations.
Once it was thought that our solar system could be unique. Since the discovery of the first exoplanet (a planet beyond the solar system) in the 1990s, thousands more have been located. Around one in five stars is now thought to have a planet in their orbit(运行轨道) in a so-called “habitable(适合居住的) zone”—that is, at a distance from the star where the temperature means that life is theoretically possible.
Are Earth’s 7.5 billion humans, along with billions of other animals and plants they share their home with, on their own in the universe? If there is another life form somewhere, could it be as intelligent as humans? Or could it threaten them? I think all of these need further exploration. As explorations of Mars continue, and a new set of observations from the James Webb Space Telescope are set to begin, our interest in the possibility of alien life appears as much as before.
1. Why does the VLA work with SETI?| A．To develop new radio telescopes | B．To find evidence of aliens’ existence |
| C．To build a special supercomputer | D．To search for distant signals |
| A．Life does indeed exist on exoplanets |
| B．New technologies are employed to find aliens |
| C．Some exoplanets may have habitable zones |
| D．Signals have been discovered from other planets |
| A．Uncertain | B．Positive | C．Unacceptable | D．Worried |
| A．Space: the unknown place | B．Finding aliens: possible or not? |
| C．Receiving signals: aliens appear again? | D．Exoplanets: home of aliens |
7 . You’ve heard the predictions from some of the brightest minds about AI’s influence. Tesla and SpaceX’s chief Elon Musk worries that AI is far more dangerous than nuclear weapons. The late scientist Stephen Hawking warned that AI could serve as the “worst event in the history of our civilization” unless humanity is prepared for its possible risks.
But many experts, even those who are aware of such risks, have a more positive attitude, especially in health-care and possibly in education. That is one of the results from a new AI study released Monday by the Pew Research Centre.
Pew canvassed the opinions of 979 experts over the summer, a group that included famous technologists, developers, innovators, business and policy leaders. The interviewed experts, some of whom chose to remain anonymous, were asked to join in the discussion of a serious and important question: “By 2030, do you think it is most likely that advancing AI and related technology systems will improve human capacities and control them?”
Nearly two-thirds of experts predicted most of us will be mostly better off. But a third thought otherwise, and a majority of the experts expressed at least some concerns over the long-term impact of AI on the “essential elements of being human”. Among those concerns were data abuse, loss of jobs and loss of control brought by autonomous weapons and cybercrime. Above all, by taking data in and spitting answers out, those “black box” tools make decisions in digital systems. It is an erosion in our ability to think for ourselves.
1. Why is Stephen Hawking mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．To warn humans to give up AI as soon as possible. |
| B．To remind readers that a new AI age has come into view. |
| C．To prove great scientists care much about the future of AI. |
| D．To introduce the main idea of the text that AI benefits the future. |
| A．Most experts are certain that AI will be out of control. |
| B．Pew asked experts from different fields for opinions. |
| C．Pew concludes that humans will suffer from AI. |
| D．33% of experts think AI will have little impact on humans. |
| A．Because they make decisions in digital systems. |
| B．Because they can take data in and spit answers out. |
| C．Because they may weaken our ability to think independently. |
| D．Because they may decrease humans’ welfare in the long term. |
| A．Experts’ concern about AI. | B．Humans’ being controlled by AI. |
| C．Experts’ Expectation of AI. | D．AI’s influence on society. |
1、人们可以选择到月亮上度假或在海底生活；
2、人们依靠机器人做家务；
3、所有材料都可以回收利用。
注意：
1、词数100字左右；
2、可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3、开头和结尾已经为你写好，不计入总字数。
Our Future Life
Good afternoon, boys and girls!
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thanks for listening!
9 . The sea could be the food bowl of the future. In Jervis Bay, south of Sydney, seaweed, which is rich in fibre and omega 3, is grown and harvested.
Pia Winberg is a marine scientist who runs Australia's first food-grade fanned seaweed company. Her crop is grown alongside mussels (贻贝)and is used as an additive in pasta (意大利面)and other products.
Seaweed is also raised in large tanks, where it absorbs carbon dioxide waste from a wheat processing factory. The business is small, but could help to reduce the ecological footprint of traditional farming.
“We used ten percent of seaweed instead of wheat in breads and pastas, we've eliminated a million hectares of land, we've eliminated all of the carbon dioxide emissions associated with that, and we've also reduced the pressures on very precious fresh water.” said Pia Winberg.
Spiny sea urchins (多刺海胆虫)are another blue economy resource. They can destroy marine habitats, but a recent competition for environmental start-ups in Australia, saw them not as a pest but a delicacy (美味).
Martina Doblin, CEO of Sydney Institute of Marine Science, said, “By 2050 we will have some ten billion people on the planet, and about half the food they eat will come from the ocean. So, we really do need to pay attention to the way that we manage the blue economy-generating wealth from the ocean but in a sustainable (可持续的)way.”
Farming at sea has its challenges. Infrastructure (基础设施)has to be sound, as do supply chains and biosecurity. But get these things right, and the ocean might just be the next great economic frontier.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To lead to the main topic. |
| B．To describe a new kind of seaweed. |
| C．Tell how important the food safety is. |
| D．To explain the meaning of blue economy. |
| A．Ocean exploration has made little progress so far. |
| B．More and more people will die of hunger in the future. |
| C．More work is needed for a better use of the natural resources. |
| D．Sea farming will be a good way to solve the coming world food problem. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. | C．Tolerant. | D．Negative. |
| A．How to Protect the Marine Animals |
| B．Measures to Develop Blue Economy |
| C．Farming the Sea for the Future of Food |
| D．Traditional Farming is Gradually Disappearing |
10 . Those concerned that robots are taking over the world can rest easy-for now. Though the androids have proved useful at performing ordinary tasks, they are not ready for prime time. At least that appears to be the case at Japan’s cutting-edge Henn-na Hotel chain where over half of the robot staff is being replaced by humans.
The first Henn-na Hotel opened in July 2015, where guests were greeted and checked-in by either a family-friendly English-speaking dinosaur robot or a Japanese-speaking humanoid. Autonomous robots stood ready to help guests carry luggage to their rooms, while a cute doll-shaped android called Churi, placed inside each room, provided them with information about nearby attractions. Even the hotel’s garbage cans were robotic.
Not surprisingly, the lodging, recognized in 2016 as the world’s first robot-staffed hotel by Guinness World Records, drew in curious visitors from all around the world.
But as the years have passed, the hotel’s main draw — its employees — are becoming less of a novelty (新颖) and more of a bother. Also as the robots are “aging”, they are costing more to repair and maintain. Earlier this month, the hotel chain’s parent company H. I. S. announced that it had decided to “fire” over half of the robot employees and replace them with humans. Among them are the chain’s two robot receptionists. In addition to scaring young guests, they are also unable to photocopy guests’ passports-a requirement when checking into a Japanese hotel--forcing human employees to step in each time. Also, out are the cute Churi robots, which have proved unable to answer even the simplest questions and annoyed guests by interrupting their conversations.
While this is a setback, the company’s officials are not discouraged. They plan to continue with their ambitious expansion plans and believe the human-robot interaction is a learning process.“When you actually use robots, you realize there are places where they aren’t needed.” said one of the officials.
1. What could robots in the first Henn-na Hotel do?| A．Offer guests traffic information. | B．Help guests pack their luggage. |
| C．Greet guests in English or Japanese. | D．Direct guests to check in at the front desk. |
| A．They cause trouble to customers. | B．They ignore instructions. |
| C．They annoy human employees. | D．They are beyond repair. |
| A．They think highly of their interaction with customers. |
| B．They are against the use of state-of-art equipment. |
| C．They plan to hire more cute Churi robots. |
| D．They’ve realized the limitations of robots. |
| A．Robot Employees-Ready for Prime Time |
| B．Japanese Hotel Chain Expands Ambitiously |
| C．Robot Employees-a New Novelty for Hotels |
| D．Japanese Hotel Chain “Fires” Robot Employees |
