1 . What the future school will 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, schools will become community-style centers, which run seven days a week, and 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 distance 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.
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 with a special telephone system and students use telephones to search for information or speak to their teachers who give 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 a student’s library, data storage(数据存储) device 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. According to the report in The Age, students in future schools will ________.| A．mainly study online | B．study at set times |
| C．have no teachers | D．never go to actual schools |
| A．telephones are important in Australia |
| B．how future schools will work |
| C．every student needs a learning plan |
| D．students enjoy getting in touch with teachers |
| A．Lesson. | B．Score. | C．Attitude. | D．Focus. |
| A．The Schools in the Future | B．Great Changes in Technology |
| C．Seashore Primary School | D．Actual Schools to Be Replaced |
2 . In the far, far future, bicycles and perhaps skates may be run by jet power, and a new thing to ride may be a small flying saucer (飞碟). Imagine a race between them!
There may be telepathy helmets (心灵感应头盔) that send thought waves from your brain to that of your friend miles away. You just think a thought and your friend knows it! You can have secrets with each other that nobody else can turn in on!
What about the food of the future? Scientists think that much of it will be artificial—made in factories from such surprising things as coal, limestone, air and water. The artificial food will be healthful because all the things that you need to live a long and healthy life will be put into it.
The future hospitals will probably have “body banks” that can give you almost any new part you need to keep on living. People of the future may live to be a lot older than 100 years.
What about highways of the future? Well, a very small child probably will be able to drive a car. Electric signals will hold each car on the right road to get wherever the “driver” wants to go. And it probably will be impossible for cars to crash together. Controls that won’t even have to be touched will make all speeding cars miss each other or will put on the brakes. Driving cars will be as safe as being at home.
But maybe the most wonderful surprise in the future will be weather control. Cities may have giant plastic domes (圆顶罩) over them to keep out snow, rain, or storms. When you plan a picnic in a park, you won’t have to worry about rain. It will rain only when the “weatherman” thinks it is necessary to fresh the air inside the city. All other days will be fair and warm.
The future should be a wonderful time in which to live and the time we are living in now is also a wonderful future to the people who lived 100 years ago.
1. How will you probably talk with each other in the future according to paragraph 2?| A．With a safety helmet. | B．By thought waves. | C．Through secret words. | D．On a special phone. |
| A．It only consists of water. | B．It is difficult to digest. |
| C．It is nutritious enough. | D．It can keep us from aging. |
| A．Road safety will be hugely raised. | B．People will not see a doctor any more. |
| C．Driving on the highways will be avoided. | D．No storms will happen in the neighborhood. |
| A．A health report. | B．A magazine. | C．A guidebook. | D．An advertisement. |
3 . You are just waking up in the spring of 2030. Your Internet of Things bedroom opens solar-powered e-windows and plays gentle music while your smart lighting displays a montage(蒙太奇) of beachfront sunrises from your recent vacation.
Your shower uses very little water or soap. It recycles your grey water and puts the extra heat back into your home's integrated operating system. While you dress, your artificial intelligence (Al) assistant shares your schedule for the day and plays your favourite tunes.
You still start your day with caffeine but it comes from your loT refrigerator which is capable of providing a coffeehouse experience in your home. A hot breakfast tailored to your specific nutritional needs (based on chemical analysis from your trips to the "smart toilet") is waiting for you in the kitchen.
When it's time to leave, an on-demand transport system has three cars waiting for you, your spouse and your kids. On the road, driverless cars and trucks move with mathematical precision, without traffic jams. Accident rates are near zero.
En route, you call your R&.D team, who are wrapping up a day's work in Shanghai. Your life-sized image will be projected,which makes your colleagues see you as if you were sitting with them. It's a bit surreal(超现实的)for them to see you in the morning light given that it's dark on the Bund, Shanghai's waterfront, though the novelty fades after a few uses.
You review the day's cloud-based data from your Shenzhen manufacturing centre, your pilot project in San Diego, and your QA team in Melbourne. The massive datasets are collected in realtime from every piece of equipment and have been beautifully summarized by your company's AI. All these facilities are closely maintained and operated via a skilled predictive analytics platform. Pleased with the team's progress, you end the call and ease into a good book. This is the future and it will be here sooner than you think.
1. What will happen when you dress yourself according to the text?| A．Your schedule is sent to your boss. |
| B．Bedroom opens quickly. |
| C．Your favourite tunes are played. |
| D．Your coffee is ordered and served. |
| A．Made specially. |
| B．Mixed similarly. |
| C．Produced in advance. |
| D．Invented traditionally. |
| A．Because the team makes progress. |
| B．Because your images are wrapped up. |
| C．Because you did it ahead of time. |
| D．Because your life-sized picture is projected. |
| A．Why we need AI assistants. |
| B．What life will be like in 2030. |
| C．How we find meaningful work in the future. |
| D．How AI helps you lead an important life. |
4 . All the efforts you put into studying at university may not have been enough—because robots could be coming for your job. A new study finds that as many as 800 million workers could be replaced by robots by 2030.
The study from the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that between 400 million and 800 million individuals could be replaced by automation(自动化) or robots and need to find new jobs by 2030 around the world. It estimates that 30 percent of the hours people spend on working globally could have been automated by that time.
Those most affected will be people who work in predictable environments doing tasks such as operating machines and preparing fast food. Those who make a living by collecting and processing data also face a high risk of being replaced by robots. But people who work in less predictable environments such as gardeners, plumbers, and childcare staff face a smaller risk, because their roles are technically difficult to be automated and often command relatively lower wages, which makes automation a less attractive business proposition(商业提议).
However, it’s not all doom for the future of employment. The Study notes that automation sometimes allows workers to remain employed in a different position. “Even when some tasks are automated, the employment rate in those occupations may not decline because workers may perform new tasks,” McKinsey &Company wrote in a release on its website.
It noted that China has the largest number of employees who would need to switch occupations, up to 100 million if automation was adopted rapidly, or 12 percent of the 2030 workforce. The numbers are higher in more advanced economies, with up to one-third of the 2030 workforce in America and Germany needing to switch occupations, along with nearly half of the 2030 workforce in Japan. Countries which fail to prepare workers for transition to new jobs will feel the impact of a rise in unemployment and depressed wages, according to the study.
1. Why will lots of people need to find new jobs by 2030 around the world?| A．They don’t put efforts into their study at university. |
| B．The world’s working population is on the steady rise. |
| C．They will be paid less with the development of technology. |
| D．Robots or automation will take the place of their positions. |
| A．Machine operation. | B．Fast food cooking. |
| C．Childcare in kindergarten. | D．Data collection. |
| A．Estimated figures. | B．Public opinions. |
| C．Financial reports. | D．Website contents. |
| A．Education. | B．Business. | C．Lifestyle. | D．Technology. |
Cards and digital(数字的) technologies
Cash is no longer king. Over recent years fewer and fewer transactions have been made with cash. The most recent figures show coins and notes are used just 34% of
Instead we’re paying with cards and digital technologies. Some of this is down to user choice, with contactless cards and smartphones making spending
But it’s also being forced upon us. Some retailers are refusing physical money as they can avoid the high bank charges levied(征收) at them for
This could be bad news if you still primarily use cash,
As a result this move towards cashless society makes many uneasy.
6 . Most people, when they travel to space, would like to stay in orbit (轨道) for a few days or more. And this stands to reason, if you’re paying $ 20,000 for your trip to orbit! So in order for tourism to reach its full potential there’s going to be a need for space hotels. What would a space hotel actually be like to visit? Hotels in orbit will offer the services you expect from a hotel — private rooms, meals, bars. But they’ll also offer two unique experiences: impressive views — of Earth and space — and the endless entertainment of living in zero gravity — including sports and other activities that make use of this.
The hotels themselves will vary greatly — from being quite simple in the early days to huge luxury (奢侈的) structures at a later date. It’s actually surprising that as later as 1997, very few designs for space hotels were published. This is mainly because those who might be expected to design them haven’t expected the costs to come down far enough to make them possible.
Lots of people who’ve been to space have described vividly what it’s like to live in zero gravity. There are obviously all sorts of possibilities for dancing, gymnastics, and zero-G sports. Luckily, you don’t need to sleep much living in zero gravity, so you’ll have plenty of time for relaxing by hanging out in a bar with a window looking down at the turning Earth below.
Of course all good things have come to an end, unfortunately. And so after a few days you’ll find yourself heading back to the earth. You’ll be thinking how soon you can save up enough to get back up again-or maybe you should change jobs to get to work in an orbiting hotel!
1. When traveling in space, most people would like to stay in orbit for a few days because ________.| A．it is expensive to travel in space |
| B．they would find the possible life in other star systems |
| C．they could enjoy the luxury of space hotels |
| D．they want to realise the full potential of tourism |
| A．The gravitational pull. | B．The special views. |
| C．The relaxation in a bar. | D．The space walk. |
| A．When was the space traveling made possible? |
| B．What are the unique experiences that space hotels will offer? |
| C．Why were there not many published designs for space hotels? |
| D．How can the travelers enjoy themselves in space hotels? |
| A．traveling in space | B．the ways of living in space hotels |
| C．zero gravity and space hotels | D．the description of space hotels |
