1 . Someone has put forward a dream home which is so advanced that its kitchen can suggest what to make with certain things. Also, a Microsoft home doesn’t just warn you when you’re out of milk — it can send you a fresh gallon.
But are these innovations just magic, or are they really coming soon to a neighborhood near you? To find out, US News asked some experts to get their opinions about the home of the not-so-distant future. Here’s a look at the innovations.
The housing boom was marked by mass-produced buildings filled with units which look the same. The coming years, however, will give way to a personalized approach to home construction, with houses as more of an instrument of self-expression. “The successful builders will be the ones that figure out how to change their production model enough to make the buyers feel like they are really getting something that is designed for them, not just a model,” says Kermit Baker, the chief economist at the American Institute of Architects.
Future homes will probably become smaller. “We will be building smaller but smarter houses,” says Ed MeMahon, a senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute. “Instead of having a room for just one use, consumers will demand homes that make better use of space,” says Susanka, whose best-selling book, The Not So Big House, has become increasingly influential in home design. Seldom-used quarters, such as dining and living rooms, will be replaced with space that can serve both functions. “The goal of his ‘right-size’ home is to fit its owners like a specially cut suit rather than a jacket you buy in a store,” says Susanka.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To present the main idea the passage. | B．To present what the future house is like. |
| C．To lead to the topic of the passage. | D．To show the history the housing. |
| A．Almost all the houses had no their own features. |
| B．The houses were designed according to owners’ idea. |
| C．The houses were smaller but smarter than before. |
| D．The houses could change production model easily. |
| A．Those that are much bigger and brighter. | B．Those that are much smaller but smarter. |
| C．Those that are much bigger and smarter. | D．Those that are environmental and energy saving. |
| A．Smart houses have a room for every use. | B．Smart houses can make better use of space. |
| C．Smart houses have very advanced furniture. | D．Smart houses can warn you when you’re out of milk. |
2 . Nowadays, everyone seems to hope to go into space and live on new planets. Instead of depending on another pre-existing planet, could we make a new planet by ourselves?
First of all, if we were to live on it, we should find a good place in space to put the new planet. We would want it to be in a habitable zone, which means the planet should be at the right distance from its star to make sure there would be perfect temperatures and most importantly, liquid water.
We’d also need the right materials to make the planet. Our Earth is made up of many different elements (元素). If we made our own new planet, we’d probably want it to have similar elements and a similar structure (结构). We’d also want enough water to form some oceans.
But even if we get all of the materials, creating a new planet like Earth could have many troubles. It might be something more like a huge space station. It would be pretty expensive if we wanted it to be super big.
We would probably also need a lot of food because there is going to be many scientists and astronauts out in space working on this project!
According to NASA, each astronaut uses about 0.83 kilograms of food per meal, including 0.12 kilograms of packaging (包装) material. Without the weight of the packaging material, we’d need about 780 kilograms of food just to feed one astronaut for a year.
Putting all these together could make it possible to make our own planet one day! In fact, creating a new planet would probably require a very modern technology and there would be tons of other things to think about. And if this is possible, it won’t likely happen within a very long time.
1. To create a new planet, which of the following should we first do?| A．To collect materials similar to Earth. | B．To prepare plenty of food for astronauts to eat. |
| C．To design its inner structure. | D．To find a proper place to set it. |
| A．About 0.12 kilograms. | B．About 0.71 kilograms. |
| C．About 0.83 kilograms. | D．About 0.95 kilograms. |
| A．It is a waste of time and money. |
| B．It may be a dangerous thing for humans. |
| C．It is impossible to come true in the near future. |
| D．It should be one of NASA’s next plans. |
1. 学历和专业；
2. 工作(从事的职业，工作时间等)；
3. 生活(包括业余爱好，日常交往等)；
4. 实现上述愿望的途径。
注意：
1. 词数100左右(短文开头已为你写好，不计入总词数)；
2. 可以适当发挥，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：专业 major
What will I be like in ten years?
In ten years I will be more mature and confident.
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4 . What life will be in 2050?
It’s hard to say definitively what life will be like in 2050. However, we can make some educated guesses based on the trends that are happening now. For instance, it’s likely that technology will play an even greater role in our lives than it does now. We might have flying cars, or robots to do our household chores.
The world population is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, so resources may be strained. People may live in smaller homes or even underground to conserve space and energy. We may also see drastic changes in the way we get our food. With advances in technology, it’s possible that we’ll be able to create artificial meat or grow food in laboratories.
In 2050, many aspects of our life will be very different from what they are now. People’s lives, the environment, transportation, and education all change at a new level.
There will be a lot of new jobs born to serve the development of society. And if you are good at using social media, you can be an online celebrity and make a lot of money. You can also choose to be a full-time housewife and take care of your family if you want.
Rockefeller University mathematical biologist Joel Cohen predicts that by 2050, the world will be majority urban dwellers with a high average age. In contrast, U.S. cities theorist Richard Florida believes that urbanization trends will result in a work-from-home economy and do away with divisions between home and work life. Other experts interviewed by Popular Mechanics envision a future in which solar energy is ubiquitous, 3-D printing has replaced traditional manufacturing and everyone has a personal assistant in the form of an AI.
However, there are also some reasons to be pessimistic about the future. The world will be a more dangerous place in 2050. Global warming will cause rising sea levels and extreme weather conditions that will make life difficult for people around the world.
| A．As technology continues to develop, so does the concern for environment. |
| B．By 2050, everyone will be able to afford higher education. |
| C．In addition, there will be new diseases that we have not yet seen. |
| D．In general, life in 2050 is more convenient, more comfortable and more fun. |
| E．There are some grounds for optimism in this scenario. |
| F．As a result, we will have a lot of health problems. |
5 . You are just waking up in the spring of 2030. Your Internet of Things (IoT) 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 (AI) assistant shares your schedule for the day and plays your favourite tunes.
You still start your day with caffeine but it comes from your IoT 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.
On route, you call your R&D team, who are wrapping up a day’s work in Shanghai. Your life-sized image will be projected, making 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 water-front, 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 Melbourme. 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 breakfast is ordered and served. | B．E-windows open quickly. |
| C．Your favourite songs are played. | D．Your schedule is sent to your boss. |
| A．Produced specially. | B．Made in advance. |
| C．Mixed similarly. | D．Changed randomly. |
| A．Because you did it beforehand. | B．Because you were on the scene. |
| C．Because your images are wrapped up. | D．Because your life-sized picture is projected. |
| A．Why We Need AI Assistants | B．How Life Will Be in the Future |
| C．How AI Helps Us Succeed | D．How AI Does Meaningful Work |
6 . 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 |
| A．Rice fields. | B．Childhood memory. | C．Game playing. |
1.House 2. transport 3. health 4. security 5. work 6. entertainment 7...
从中任意挑选2-3个进行合理想象；
题目自拟，写一篇英语短文。
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In the near future, we
10 . What if we had the power to control time, instead of moving from the past to the present to the future? What if we could jump and travel through time in a machine? What if we could go wherever and whenever we pleased?
This ability would allow us to witness historic wonders, change decisions and see people from the past. We could right wrongs and stop wars from starting.
The mysterious puzzle of time has kept people debating its nature for hundreds of years. Science fiction writers have turned it into imaginative stories. Some scientists have even attempted to explain it using math. This math tries to make the dream of time travel come true.
The scientist Albert Einstein said that time and space are one thing. He called it “spacetime”. Einstein said that there are three dimensions (维度) in space: height, width and depth. A scientist named Hermann Minkowski added time as a fourth dimension.
Einstein introduced two ideas that have led to theories about the possibility of time travel. The first is relativity (相对论). The idea of relativity is that the force of gravity causes space to bend, which causes time to twist. The second idea focuses on special relativity. The idea is that a traveler moving super-fast through flat spacetime will enter the future. Einstein considered time “relative” because it is measured based on where we are on Earth or in space.
Stephen Hawking is a famous scientist. He believes that a time machine will never be built. If it were possible, he thinks we would already know. If a time machine could be built, how come no one from the future has invaded us?
The first science fiction story with this theme is The Clock That Went Backward by Edward P. Mitchell, which was published in 1881. Since then, thousands of books, films and television shows have explored the idea of time travel, in which some tools such as phones, watches, photographs and old books take travelers backward and forward.
Will time travel ever happen? Who knows? Most important is to keep our eyes open and have a sense of wonder.
1. The three questions the author uses in Paragraph 1 are __________.| A．to show time and space are connected |
| B．to show people’s interest in time travel |
| C．to draw readers’ attention to time travel |
| D．to make people believe time travel is possible |
| A．Time travel is possible in the future. | B．People can’t move faster than light. |
| C．Time travel is against scientific rules. | D．Spacetime is not a real thing in theory. |
| A．The first science fiction story. | B．Some tools used in time travel. |
| C．Edward P. Mitchell, the pioneer. | D．Different works about time travel. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Approving. | C．Doubtful. | D．Hopeful. |
