1 . In the movie “The Wrong Trousers”, a pair of futuristic trousers lets people walk on walls and ceilings. Inspired by the movie, researchers in England created “The Right Trousers”, a set of trousers embedded(嵌入) with electrical pumps to force air into tiny tubes that expand and can help elderly or disabled people with issues like getting up or improving blood flow. Now, material scientists, computer programmers and fabric designers are working to advance robotic clothing.
In June, researchers in Australia created robotic fibers, which can make fabric move automatically. Last year, scientists at MIT built fiber batteries that could be embedded into clothes and power robotic clothing. In recent years, Google partnered with brands like Levi’s and Adidas to put sensors in jackets, backpacks and shoes, letting users access their phones instantly. Researchers said they could soon unlock an era where clothing will act more like a computer, sensing how your body feels and telling your clothes how to help.
At the University of New South Wales in Australia, researchers are creating fabrics that can shape-shift. Thanh Nho Do, a senior lecturer at the school, said his team has created tiny tubes that can weave into sheets of fabric. These tubes can make fabric take various preprogrammed shapes. But challenges still remain for Do’s team, notably around making these robotic tubes smaller so they can weave easily with other fabrics.
Rebecca Kramer Bottiglio from Yale University agreed that many challenges remain before smart clothing “reaches their full potential.” It will be challenging to make these clothes, equipped with fibers and technology, strong enough to go through multiple cycles in the laundry, she said. Despite that, she says researchers will figure out a way forward. “Recent breakthroughs point toward a not-so-distant future where smart clothing will be a part of our everyday life.” she said.
1. What inspired the researchers to come up with “The Right Trousers”?| A．A film. |
| B．A blood issue. |
| C．The way electrical pumps work. |
| D．The way the elderly and disabled move. |
| A．They put sensors in clothes. |
| B．They created movable robotic fibers. |
| C．They made batteries for robotic clothing. |
| D．They released smart clothing connected to cellphones. |
| A．Making robotic tubes smaller. |
| B．Keeping robotic tubes properly shaped. |
| C．Producing stronger robotic tubes. |
| D．Programming the shape of robotic tubes. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Indifferent. | C．Worried. | D．Hopeful. |
2 . “May 17, 2157
Dear diary,
Today, Tommy found a real book!...”
“What’s it about?” Margie asked.
“School. ” replied Tommy, turning the yellow pages.
“Why would anyone write about school? I hope they can take my geography teacher away.”
“It’s not our school. This is the old sort that they had centuries ago.”
“Anyway, they had a teacher.” Margie said, reading the book over his shoulder.
“Sure, they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”
“A man? How could a man be a teacher?”
“Well, he just told the boys and girls things and gave them assignments and asked them questions.”
“A man isn’t smart enough.”
“Sure, he is. My father knows as much as my teacher.”
Margie wasn’t prepared to argue about that. She said, “I wouldn’t want a strange man in my house to teach me.”
Tommy laughed. “The teachers didn’t live in the house. They had a special building and all the kids went there.”
“And all the kids learned the same thing?”
“Sure, if they were the same age.”
“But my mother says a teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches and that each kid has to be taught differently.”
“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to read the book.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Margie said quickly.
They weren’t even half-finished when Margie’s mother called, “Margie! School!”
“Not yet, Mamma.”
“Now!” said Mrs. Jones.
Margie said to Tommy, “Can I read the book some more with you after school?”
“Maybe,” Tommy said.
Margie went into the schoolroom, right next to her bedroom, and the mechanical teacher was on waiting for her.
The screen was lit up, and it said, “Please insert yesterday’s assignments in the proper slot.”
Margie was still thinking about the old schools they had when her grandfather’s grandfather was a little boy. All the kids from the whole neighborhood came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the schoolroom, going home together at the end of the day. They learned the same things, so they could help one another on the assignments and discussed them.
And the teachers were people…
1. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?| A．It’s common to read paper books in 2157. | B．Margie doesn’t like her school. |
| C．Online learning is what Margie wants. | D．Tommy feels his father is smarter than his teacher. |
| A．There are only female teachers at school. | B．Teachers give no assignments to students. |
| C．A special building is constructed for teachers. | D．Students are taught differently at school. |
| A．window | B．Envelope | C．Screen | D．Schoolroom |
| A．Longing | B．Objection | C．Doubt | D．Tolerance |
3 . Futurologists predict that life will probably be very apparently distinct in 2050 in all the fields of activity, from entertainment to technology.
First of all, it seems that TV channels will have disappeared by 2050. Instead, people will choose a programme from a “menu” and a computer will send the programme directly to the television. Today, we can use the World Wide Web to read newspaper stories and see pictures on a computer thousands of kilometers away. By 2050, music, films, programmes, newspapers and books will come to us by computer. We will also be able to see, smell and touch the things that we see on television.
In transport, cars will run on new, clean “gas” and they will go very fast. Cars will have computers to control the speed of the car and there won’t be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to where you want to go. Space planes will fly all over the world and people will fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just two hours.
In technology, robots will have replaced people in factories. Many factories already use robots. Big companies prefer robots—they do not ask for pay rises or go on strike, and they work 24 hours a day. By 2050, we will see robots everywhere-in factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.
Last but not least, medicine technology will have conquered many diseases. By 2050, we will be able to help blind and deaf people see again and hear again. Scientists will be able to produce clones of people and decide how they look, how they behave and how much intelligence they have.
1. What will happen to the media in 2050?| A．Televisions will disappear |
| B．Computers will take the place of televisions. |
| C．Computers will choose the programme for us. |
| D．We can smell the dishes on television. |
| A．They will be less polluted and more safe. |
| B．They will be controlled by robots. |
| C．Planes will fly all over the world in a short time. |
| D．They will go at a very high speed and run on oil. |
| A．Robots will ask for pay rises and go on strike in the future. |
| B．There will be no people working in factories by 2050. |
| C．There will be cloned people coming to power by 2050 |
| D．More and more work will be done by robots by 2050. |
| A．What our future life will be like. | B．TV channels will disappear in 2050. |
| C．What cars will be like in the future. | D．Many diseases will disappear in 2050. |
4 . 2050 seems a long way away, but it is not impossible to predict the future though. With the speed we are moving now so many amazing things are going to happen in the future. So where is technology going in the future?
◇The Internet will be free for everyone.
The Internet is really a key driver these days. But it is not free for everyone yet. There have already been attempts like Facebook’s Free Basics.
◇Personal airplanes will be used widely for short journeys.
With the increasing population, it is not very hard to predict that common methods of transportation will not be enough.
◇Most cancers will be treated successfully.
◇
There will be great achievements in space research. In the year 2050, humans will be able to live on Mars. We will receive more intelligent signals from space. Chances are we will be able to find the next Earth — like planet.
| A．Though it hasn’t happened yet |
| B．Let’s start our predictions |
| C．The world’s population will cross 9. 6 billion |
| D．What do you think of my predictions of 2050 |
| E．Humans will live on other planets |
| F．There will be much heavier traffic on the road |
| G．The number of deaths caused by cancers will be greatly reduced |
5 . Today, the original Beetle has largely disappeared from the world’s roads since Volkswagen stopped producing it in Germany in 1978. But the instantly recognizable car was once everywhere. From the 1970s to the 1990s, more than 21 million Beetles were produced worldwide. Many adults in their 40s or above have a story about the Beetle, or at least a memory.
Part of its universal appeal is its unique look. There’s something about the car that just makes people smile: its happy shape, its cheerful colors, and perhaps its small size. However, the smiles that beetles evoke, in people are not simply due to their design. It has a character almost. It has a sort of soul in a way. It’s beyond a machine. For the better part of a century this car has been a part in people’s lives. Seeing these cars on the road is like a time capsule. It opens people to memories and stories that might otherwise go untold. By allowing us to travel back in time, they remind us of what’s important. In today’s world, this car represents something very basic and earthy and genuine. Exactly the kind of travel we need right now.
“My parents had three, a white one, then a red one, and then an orange one. It was the car I grew up with,” said actor Ewan McGregor. “They would put us in the back of the Beetle in Scotland and drive to France for camping holidays in summer. My first car was a 1978 Beetle and now I own two, parked at my home in Los Angeles.”
McGregor thinks the car’s future is electric. He has recently turned his 1978 model into a fully electric car. “Moving forward, maybe we’ll just have to think; smaller cars, low emissions (排放), and something that makes us feel happy,” he says.
1. When was the production of Beetles stopped in Germany?| A．In the 1990s. | B．In the 1980s. | C．In the late 1970s. | D．In the early 1960s. |
| A．To keep an unpleasant feeling in one’s mind. |
| B．To find out information about one’s character. |
| C．To bring a feeling or a memory into one’s mind. |
| D．To ask somebody to do something in a rude way. |
| A．He wants to be reminded of his childhood. |
| B．They are used to decorate his new home. |
| C．He has too many children for just one car. |
| D．His parents have left one of their cars to him. |
| A．Advertisement. | B．Lifestyle. | C．Environment. | D．Economy. |
6 . In 2017,the United Arab Emirates announced its ambition to colonize Mars within the next 100 years. But architects are already imagining what a Martian city might look like-and planning to recreate it in the desert outside Dubai.
Mars Science City was originally scheduled to cover 176,000 square meters of desert-the size of more than 30 football fields-and cost approximately 135 million dollars. To create a space for Dubai's Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) to develop the technology needed to colonize Mars,architects Bjarke Ingels Group were asked to design a prototype of a city suitable for sustaining life on Mars-and then adapt it for use in the Emirati desert.
For this unique commission,the architects first had to overcome the immense challenges of creating a design to make the severe environment of Mars habitable. Mars has a thin atmosphere and no global magnetic field,so there's little protection from harmful radiation. Temperature is another problem-the average on Mars is a chilly 63 degrees C. The thin atmosphere also means there's little air pressure,so liquids quickly evaporate into gas; despite freezing temperatures,an unprotected human's blood would boil on Mars.But according to Jonathan Eastwood,director of the Space Lab at Imperial College London,the biggest challenge in terms of a sustained presence on Mars is not the engineering or scientific challenge,but the human and personal one.More researches need to be done to test the effects of isolation on mental and physical health of astronauts.
The MBRSC hopes that,in future,such research could take place in Mars Science City.This is going to be our platform where we can develop the science and the technology that will help us in our future missions to Mars,said Adnan AlRais,Mars 27 Program Manager at MBRSC."We want to come up with a totally new facility that will help the international community.”
1. What information can you get about the Martian city?| A．It is planned to be completed in the next 100 years. |
| B．It occupies more than 30 football fields of Dubai. |
| C．It has been put into use in the desert outside Dubai. |
| D．It serves as a prototype for sustaining life on Mars. |
| A．A thin atmosphere exposes people to harmful radiation. |
| B．High temperature makes unprotected human's blood boil. |
| C．Little air pressure causes liquid to turn into gas quickly. |
| D．A long period of isolation may affect physical health. |
| A．Positive | B．objective | C．critical | D．skeptical |
| A．The research on the effects of living on Mars. |
| B．A Martian city designed for the desert outside Dubai. |
| C．The United Arab Emirates' ambition to colonize Mars. |
| D．The challenges of surviving the inhabitable environment of Mars. |
