1 . When people talk about the future, we like to think that we will be able to drive out of our garages and take to the
Most of us have printed out an electronic document on paper, but think about the
Imagine having your own Ironman suit. There are several companies trying to build a practical robot ‘exoskeleton’. This is a suit of robot arms and legs which follows your
| A．parking lot | B．valleys | C．skies | D．dimension |
| A．confirm | B．predict | C．prove | D．approve |
| A．neglecting | B．avoiding | C．changing | D．controlling |
| A．flows | B．crashes | C．organization | D．control |
| A．accidents | B．industry | C．failure | D．analysis |
| A．Also | B．Hence | C．However | D．Therefore |
| A．access | B．improvement | C．possibility | D．compliment |
| A．normal | B．home-made | C．special | D．imported |
| A．high | B．advanced | C．various | D．low |
| A．click | B．check | C．remove | D．download |
| A．shopping | B．bargaining | C．shipping | D．delivery |
| A．intentions | B．movements | C．instructions | D．advice |
| A．forceful | B．possible | C．obvious | D．doubtful |
| A．criticized | B．programmed | C．developed | D．commented |
| A．wavy | B．direct | C．wrong | D．straight |
2 . A robot with a sense of touch may one day feel “pain”, both its own physical pain and sympathy for the pain of its human companions. Such touchy-feely robots are still far off, but advances in robotic touch-sensing are bringing that possibility closer to reality.
Sensors set in soft, artificial skin that can detect both a gentle touch and a painful strike have been hooked up to a robot that can then signal emotions, Asada reported February 15 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This artificial “pain nervous system,” as Asada calls it, may be a small building block for a machine that could ultimately experience pain. Such a feeling might also allow a robot to “sympathize” with a human companion’s suffering.
Asada, an engineer at Osaka University, and his colleagues have designed touch sensors that reliably pick up a range of touches. In a robot system named Affetto, a realistic looking child’s head, these touch and pain signals can be converted to emotional facial expressions.
A touch-sensitive, soft material, as opposed to a rigid metal surface, allows richer interactions between a machine and the world, says neuroscientist Kingson Man of the University of Southern California. Artificial skin “allows the possibility of engagement in truly intelligent ways”.
Such a system, Asada says, might ultimately lead to robots that can recognize the pain of others, a valuable skill for robots designed to help care for people in need, the elderly, for instance.
But there is an important distinction between a robot that responds in a predictable way to a painful strike and a robot that’s able to compute an internal feeling accurately, says Damasio, a neuroscientist also at the University of Southern California. A robot with sensors that can detect touch and pain is “along the lines of having a robot, for example, that smiles when you talk to it,” Damasio says. ‘It’s a device for communication of the machine to a human.” While that’s an interesting development, “it’s not the same thing” as a robot designed to compute some sort of internal experience, he says.
1. What do we know about the “pain nervous system”?| A．It is named Affetto by scientists. | B．It is a set of complicated sensors. |
| C．It is able to signal different emotions. | D．It combines sensors and artificial skin. |
| A．Delivered. | B．Translated. | C．Attached. | D．Adapted. |
| A．Robots can smile when talked to. |
| B．Robots can talk to human beings. |
| C．Robots can compute internal feelings |
| D．Robots can detect pains and respond accordingly. |
| A．Machines Become Emotional | B．Robots Inch to Feeling Pain |
| C．Human Feelings Can Be Felt | D．New Devices Touch Your Heart |
3 . “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．Margie doesn’t like her school. |
| B．It’s common to read paper books in 2157. |
| 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 learn different things at their own pace. |
| A．Envelope. | B．Opening. |
| C．Screen. | D．Schoolroom. |
| A．Longing. | B．Objection. |
| C．Suspicion. | D．Tolerance. |
4 . My future happiness
When I imagine my future, I see myself as an adult who is confident in my abilities, doing a job I love and living my life responsibly. When I grow up, I will be enjoying more convenience brought by the advances in technology, with more time to pursue hobbies and enjoy the company of family and friends.
I will feel the happiest in the future because I will learn more about life and develop into the best person I can be.
Thanks to new technology, my future life is sure to improve in various ways. Homes will become smarter to the extent that they might be programmed to learn about our needs and monitor our health and activity. I can imagine hearing an AI voice remind me to buy groceries or do more exercise! There will also be enormous advancements in transport options. I will be riding in a self-driving car, and other new means of transport may be developed in the future.
My development into a mature adult and access to advanced technology will provide me with more free-time opportunities.
| A．I might be able to ride a flying bike to quickly meet up with my friends. |
| B．I will become more knowledgeable about the world and myself. |
| C．When I think about the future, I realize my happiest days are still ahead of me. |
| D．For these reasons, I look forward to the future as the happiest moment in my life. |
| E．With less work-related stress, I will also have more time and energy to do volunteer projects. |
| F．The working day will be only four hours long thanks to robots. |
| G．Technological advances will guarantee that I will be in good health and find true happiness. |
5 . It’s a typical day at school. You’re playing soccer with your friends. One of them kicks you the ball and you run for it. You trip. You fly through the air. You land—hard, right on your face! The next moment, you’re in the nurse’s office. Your bleeding nose is being checked by laser sensors (激光传感器) that coming out of a...robot? Has the nurse’s office been taken over by sci-fi aliens (外星人) from outer space?
No. You’ve just been pushed forward 15 years into the future. And it’s a future that Susan Epstein, a computer science professor who teaches artificial intelligence, is really excited to think about. “I am crazy about this kind of thing! You could go up to the robot, put your nose in, and the machine would decide whether you needed to be treated, and how.”
Aside from being cool, an AI nurse has other advantages. It doesn’t need to take vacations. It doesn’t need to get paid a salary. And it might figure out what’s wrong with your nose faster than a human would. There are all kinds of ways that AI could be used to help make us healthier and researchers are studying how to use AI to diagnose (诊断) lung disease, cancer, and more.
Our robot nurse isn’t meant to completely take the place of humans, though. “It would work with real, live nurses and doctors,” says Epstein, “there are things humans are good at, like building trust among members of our own species or comforting someone who’s hurt or sick. A big part of medicine is the relationship between a doctor and a patient.”
Epstein points out that AI programs will never be perfect—no matter how much we might want them to be. But if AI can diagnose a deadly disease more precisely even 10 percent of the time, think of how many lives it could save. “Besides”, says Epstein, “I think there are probably patients who might prefer to have a machine for a doctor!” Would you?
1. What’s the function of para 1?| A．To introduce a scientific study. |
| B．To lead to the topic of the text. |
| C．To describe an experience of the writer. |
| D．To give an example to support an argument. |
| A．Humans are better at treating patients than AI doctors. |
| B．AI doctors alone can cure patients of most of the diseases. |
| C．Patients’ trust in doctors may affect their treatments positively. |
| D．Patients may receive as much comfort from AI doctors as from humans. |
| A．They are better at trust-building. |
| B．They will take over humans. |
| C．Their biggest strength is being cool. |
| D．They are life-saving if properly used. |
| A．Negative. | B．Favorable. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
6 . There is a profound relationship between science fiction and science. It is often said that stories change the world, what is less often heard is that stories change science, and therefore the future.
The use of science fiction to explore our world is similar to scenario (剧情) planning in Futures Studies, which shapes our ideas about the future, and goes beyond predicting artifacts that once seemed impossible to us like Verne’s submarine or the satellites of 2001 Space Odyssey.
In the words of Dutch researcher Sofia Kaloterakis, “Science fiction narratives structure our imaginative models about technoscientific projects such as robotics or space exploration”. Have you ever wondered how science fiction novels have impacted the idea we have about Artificial Intelligence or how Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson’s novel, has impacted what we now call the Metaverse (元宇宙)?
Science fiction helps us define possible futures. It provides us with an understanding of the rules underlying fictional worlds. It also allows us to put technological prototypes (原型) in the context of their use by humans. But most importantly, it determines the way we structure scientific thought and intervene (干预) in the future.
Alex McDowell, Creator of the Minority Report worldbuilding in 2002, and Peter von Stackelberg explain what fictional narratives can bring to the table:
The richness of “storyworlds” — the “universes” within which stories take place — provides us with detailed rules of the context in which a larger reality unfolds that extends beyond a single story, and has the potential to provide us with deeper learning about the underlying systems that regulate those worlds.
Lastly, the relationship of futures narratives to theories such as Social Constructivism has been highlighted by several scholars. A central idea of this sociological theory is that whenever we use words or other symbols to refer to objects in our world we are constructing them. And, therefore, prediction is also a social construction. In narrating we intervene in the world. In narrating the world, we construct it. In writing science fiction we intervene in the science of the future.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．The storyworlds created by science fictions. |
| B．Artifacts and technologies in science fictions. |
| C．Science fiction narratives affecting future studies. |
| D．The relation between science and science fictions. |
| A．It provides us with technologies and tools. |
| B．It allows us to establish reasonable future. |
| C．It decides our thinking and affects the future. |
| D．It helps us learn the rules of fictional world. |
| A．There are general rules for a single story. |
| B．They are the “universes” where stories happen. |
| C．There are no regulations or guiding systems. |
| D．They have a potential context within a story. |
| A．Science fiction narratives can construct future worlds. |
| B．The science of future intervenes in today’s science. |
| C．Objects can’t be constructed by words or symbols. |
| D．Scholars care little about narratives about future. |
7 . Children’s Sci-fi Art Predicts Extraordinary Future
More than 80 sci-fi artworks are on display at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, showing a beautiful yet puzzling future. The “Brave New Sci-Fi World” exhibition features paintings and art installations (设备) by students from Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing and other cities. They imagine the future as a world where robots and human beings co-exist.
Ru Chen, from Shanghai New Putuo Primary School, has pictured a robot chameleon (变色龙) to be used in outer space to aid in the search and rescue of human beings in case of danger.
Li Jiaqi from Guangzhou Dongfeng East Road Primary School has painted a city where advanced technologies are everywhere, and even the city itself turns into a large robot.
Huang Yanrui from Beijing Shijingshan Gucheng No. 2 Primary School imagines his rubber, pencil box and such stationery (文具) becoming conscious robots, and beginning to design future human beings.
Wang Zhihan, from Shanghai Shangde Experimental School and her schoolmates, stick electronic components on stone faces as a metaphor (隐喻) for the increasingly unclear boundaries between the reality and virtual world. “We hope to remind people never lose yourself in a world with advanced technologies,” she said.
The exhibition will last till November 4.
Opening hours:
Tuesdays-Sundays 9: 00- 17: 15; legal holidays 8: 45- 18: 30.
Transportation Guide:
Metro: Metro Line 2: Shanghai Science and Technology Museum Station.
Metro Line 4, Metro Line 6 and Metro Line 9: change to Metro Line 2 at the Century Avenue Station.
Bus Routes: Bus 184, 640, 794, 983, 984, 987, 1023, 640 inter-zonal bus will take you there.
1. Whose artwork is related with space?| A．Ru Chen’s. | B．Li Jiaqi’s. | C．Huang Yanrui’s. | D．Wang Zhihan’s. |
| A．Shanghai. | B．Guangzhou. | C．Chongqing. | D．Beijing. |
| A．Metro Line 2. | B．Metro Line 4. | C．Metro Line 6. | D．Metro Line 9. |
8 . By 2050 we’ll be able to send memories, emotions and feelings across the Internet.
I’m talking about telepathy (心灵感应), really. We’ll still communicate the traditional way.
Medicine will develop fast, too. We will have cured certain forms of cancer, and we will have begun to treat the disease like the common cold. We’ll live with it. It will no longer be deadly.
| A．We will do a few tests. |
| B．People will live an easy life. |
| C．We won’t fear it like we used to. |
| D．Brain science will have changed communication. |
| E．We can already use human cells to grow skin, noses, ears, etc. |
| F．But communicating telepathically will avoid misunderstandings between people. |
| G．Our clothes will discover the beginnings of a heart disease, and advise us to get treatment. |
9 . 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. |
Take a moment
Some people have a vivid sense of future self, which feels
You could almost think about your future self as a relationship that should
