1 . Travel is predicted to look extremely different in 2070.
Take airports for example, paperwork will be a thing of the past. Instead of paper passports,your information will be stored in the cloud. This type of technology won’t just include what we are familiar with today——like fingerprints or face scans—but also your heartbeat, as everyone’s heartbeat is unique.
There will be no need to check in. The facial recognition programme will instead be able to recognise you, match you with your booked flight and send messages to your phone as you walk through the airport without stopping.
Your bags, especially the heavy ones, will be sent directly from your train or taxi to the right plane. And that taxi will not be like the ones we know today. People will be expected to travel to the airport--and around their holiday destinations-in eVTOLs, which refers to électric air taxis that can take off and land without a runway.
As for the trouble of packing, 3D printers will provide perfect solutions. Simply provide your destination with your size using a body scan before you fly and, upon arrival, you will find a wardrobe(衣橱) filled with 3D-printed clothes. When you leave, these clothes will be recycled and. reprinted for the next tourist. Not only will this solve the problem of packing, but also make holiday fashion more environment-friendly.
While the predictions might seem unbelievable now, you only have to look back 50 years to realize it’s all possible. Think back to 1973 when smartphones were just a wild dream. “Google” seemed like a made-up word then, and notebook computers were still almost years away from being invented. Similarly, when we look forward to the next 50 years, the possibilities for development in technology for travel are endless.
1. What can we learn about the check-in at the airport in 2070?| A．You’ll have to carry your paper passports. |
| B．It won’t need your heartbeat information. |
| C．You must stop to check the phone for boarding. |
| D．It is no longer needed because of the facial recognition programme. |
| A．your bag will be sent to you by taxi |
| B．a body scan will work out your size |
| C．the clothes of your size will be ready for you |
| D．your packing may do harm to the environment |
| A．To prove the predictions are possible. |
| B．To show the inventions are necessary. |
| C．To list the achievements of the year. |
| D．To express the confidence for travel. |
| A．A new type of air taxi.。 | B．Prediction for future of travel. |
| C．The advantage of 3D prints. | D．The solution to future packing. |
2 . 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 |
3 . Our life will probably be very different in 2050. First of all, it seems that TV channels will have vanished by 2050. Instead, people will choose a program from a “menu”, and the computer will send the program directly to the television. By 2050, music, films, programs, newspapers and books will come to us in the similar way.
In many places, agriculture is developing quickly and people are growing fruit and vegetables for export. This uses a lot of water. Therefore, there could be serious shortages of water. Some scientists predict that water shortage could lead to more severe problems if we don’t act now.
In the future, cars will run on new clean fuels, and they will go very fast. Cars will have computers to control the speed. Today many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to your destination. Also, by 2050, space planes will fly people from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just two hours.
Some big companies now prefer to use robots that do not ask for pay rises or go on strike and work 24 hours a day. They are also easy to control. And they never argue with people. They can be easily used in a variety of places—factories, schools, hospitals, shops and homes.
Scientists will have discovered how to control genes. Scientists have already produced clones of animals. By 2050, scientists will be able to produce clones of people and decide how they look and how they behave. Scientists will be able to do these things. But should they?
1. What does the word “vanished” underlined in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Disappeared. | B．Spread. | C．Settled. | D．Reduced. |
| A．They are controllable. | B．They have much to be improved. |
| C．They can work in different places. | D．They can work for humans without complaining. |
| A．The author may want to use cloning technology. |
| B．The author probably disagrees with the idea of human cloning. |
| C．The scientists have already discovered how to control genes till now. |
| D．The scientists will face many difficulties of controlling animal genes. |
| A．High tech Cars | B．Robots | C．Cloning, Good or Not? | D．Life in the Future |
4 . It’s 2035. You have a job, a family and you’re about 40 years old. Welcome to your future life. Getting ready for work, you pause in front of the mirror, “Turn red,” you say. Your shirt changes from sky blue to deep red. Tiny preprogrammed electronics are rearranged (重新设置) in your shirt to change its color. Looking into the mirror, you find it hard to believe that you are 40. You look much younger. With amazing advances in medicine, people in your generation may live to be 150 years old. You’re not even middle-aged.
As you go into the kitchen and prepare to pour your cereal (谷类)breakfast into a bowl, you hear: “To lose weight, you shouldn’t eat that,” from your shoes. They read the tiny electronic code on the cereal box to find out the nutrition details. You decide to listen to your shoes. “Kitchen, what can I have for breakfast?” A list of possible foods appears on the counter as kitchen checks its food supplies.
“Ready for your trip to space? ”You ask your son and daughter. In 2005 only specially trained astronauts went into space, — and very few of them. Today anyone can go to space for day trips or longer vacation. Your best friend even works in space. Handing your children three strawberries each, you add, “The doctor said you need these for space travel.” Thanks to medical advances, vaccination shots (疫苗注射) are a thing of the past. Ordinary foods contain specific vaccines. With the berries in their mouths, the kids head for the front door.
It’s time for you to go to work. Your car checks your fingerprints and unlocks the doors. “My office. Autopilot (自动驾驶).” you command. Your car drives itself down the road and moves smoothly into traffic on the highway. You sit back and unroll your e-newspaper. The latest news downloads and fills the viewer. Looking through the pages, you watch the news as video films rather than read it.
1. What changes the color of your shirt?| A．The mirror. | B．The shirt itself. | C．The counter. | D．The medicine. |
| A．By pouring the breakfast into a bowl. | B．By listening to the doctor’s advice. |
| C．By testing the food supplies in the kitchen. | D．By checking the nutrition details of the food. |
| A．breakfast | B．lunch | C．vaccines | D．nutrition |
| A．In order of time. | B．In order of character. |
| C．In order of preference. | D．In order of importance. |
5 . What will man be like in the future – in 5000 or even 50,000 years from now? We can only make guesses, of course, but we can be sure that he will be different from what he is today, for man is slowly changing all the time.
Let us take an obvious example. Man, even five hundred years ago, was shorter than he is today. Now, on average, men are about three inches taller. Five hundred years is a relatively short period of time, so we may assume that man will continue to grow taller. Again, in the modern world we use our brains a great deal. Even so, we still make use of only about 20% of the brain's capacity. As time goes on, however, we shall have to use our brains more and more, and eventually we shall need larger ones! This is likely to bring about a physical change too: the head, in particular the forehead, will grow larger.
Nowadays our eyes are in constant use. In fact, we use them so much that very often they become weaker and we have to wear glasses. But over a very long period of time it is likely that man's eyes will grow stronger.
On the other hand, we tend to make less use of our arms and legs. These, as a result, are likely to grow weaker. At the same time, however, our fingers will grow more sensitive because they are used a great deal in modern life.
But what about hair? This will probably disappear from the body altogether in course of time because it does not serve a useful purpose any longer. In the future, then, both sexes are likely to be bald.
Perhaps all this gives the impression that future man will not be a very attractive creature to look at! This may well be true. All the same, in spite of all these changes, future man will still have a lot in common with us. He will still be a human being with thoughts and emotions similar to our own.
1. The passage mainly tells us ________.| A．man's life will be different in the future |
| B．what man will look like in the future |
| C．man is growing taller and uglier as time passes |
| D．human's organs' functions will become weak |
| A．he makes use only 20% of the brain's capacity |
| B．his brain has grown larger over the past centuries |
| C．the other 80% of his brain will grow in due time |
| D．he will use his brain more and more as time goes on |
| A．He will be hairless because hair is no longer useful. |
| B．He will have smaller eyes and will wear better glasses. |
| C．His fingers will grow weaker because he won't have to make use of them. |
| D．He will think and feel in a different way. |
| A．human beings will become less attractive in the future. |
| B．less use of a bodily organ may lead to its degeneration (退化). |
| C．human beings hope for a change in the future life. |
| D．future life is always predictable. |
6 . Luggage-free travel, boarding queues and self-flying planes will be common for travelers in 20 years' time. You'll even be able to go on a holiday without leaving your sofa. The bold predictions have been made by futurologist and author Ray Hammond, who is based in the UK.
According to Hammond’s predictions published in the Future Travel Report by Allianz Insurance, it's likely that tourists will be flying to and from the moon regularly by 2040. What's more, passports could disappear, as airports move more and more into the land of facial pattern recognition systems at check-in gates. Computer systems that can scan your face and check you into your flight will be standard in 20 years, the report notes.
When you board your flight, after checking in with your smiling dial, don’t expect to be greeted by the pilot. Hammond bets that planes will be flying themselves in 2040. No pilots and no supervision. It'll play well for the special routes of plane travel-extra-long flights, which have raised concerns about the aircraft staffs tiredness. Are you nervous at the thought of a plane under its own control? You'll be calmer by the time you step aboard Hammond says. Well already be used to self-driving cars.
When you do arrive at your destination and check into your hotel, there won’t be a porter carrying your heavy suitcase to your room. By 2040, we'll have the ability to send our clothing measurements to our hotel ahead of our arrival, where they'll have a 3D printer ready to print out our clothing. And when we check out, our clothes will be shipping off for recycling.
Virtual reality will be so advanced within 20 years that it'll allow us to experience other countries and destinations without stepping foot outside our door. The report says, “Multi-sensory virtual reality technology will allow armchair travel planners to ‘step into’ virtual hotel rooms, explore museums or walk into restaurants.” However, it won’t kill the real-life tourism industry-instead, it's expected to give it an even bigger improvement.
1. What did Ray Hammond say about traveling by self-flying plane?| A．It is boring. | B．It is challenging. | C．It is relaxing. | D．It is frightening. |
| A．Make it easier for tourists to book tickets. | B．Make clothes easily available to tourists. |
| C．Make recycling more common in tourism. | D．Make it possible to travel without passports. |
| A．Flying to the moon and back regularly. | B．Having no need to book trips. |
| C．Enjoying virtual reality only in museums. | D．Traveling with anyone as you please. |
| A．Predictions on Travel by 2040 | B．Possible Changes About Life in 2040 |
| C．Changes of the Means of traveling | D．The Bright Future of the Tour Industry |
7 . In the near future, IOT （Internet of Things） will drive huge innovation （革新）in the way our food is grown. Plants will have a "voice"， not a human voice, but a voice based on data that can tell people, computers, and machines when, for example, they are thirsty, or need more sun, medicine, etc.
Take vertical （垂直的）farms, for example. Farming is moving indoors where the growth of plants can be monitored and controlled. The facilities are built vertically, so growing areas can be put in piles. This greatly reduces the amount of land needed for farming.
From an IOT point of view, vertical farms are connected in two ways. First, small sensors （传 感器）in the soil or connected to plants tell a control system exactly how much light, water, and nutrients are needed to grow the healthiest crops. Sensors will also tell vertical fanners when crops are nearing their peak for harvesting at just the right time to make sure it's still fresh when it reaches its final destination.
Second , vertical farms will be connected to other networks and information systems, including databases that track local demand. For example local restaurants may input when they need fresh food supplies. And vertical farmers could get that information so they know which crops to grow in what quantities. This type of IOT system would have been unimaginable a generation ago.
Today, vertical farms are being experimented. Yet, the numbers point to a bright future for the industry especially as the world's population continues to grow. For example, Green Sense Farms in Chicago is able to harvest crops 26 times a year using 85 percent less energy, one-tenth the water, and no pesticides. A side benefit of lower energy use is lower C02 output of two tons per month, with the added benefit of creating 46 pounds of oxygen every day.
1. What is the main idea of the text?| A．Voice machines help plants speak up. |
| B．Farmers are all turning to vertical farming. |
| C．IOT has brought great innovation to our future life. |
| D．Vertical farms driven by IOT are a future for agriculture. |
| A．By recording farmers harvesting crops. |
| B．By monitoring farmers working in their fields. |
| C．By analyzing information to preserve crops. |
| D．By passing information on to a control system. |
| A．Expand the output of crops. | B．Match supply with demand. |
| C．Determine the needs of farmers. | D．Move restaurants onto farms. |
| A．Negative. | B．Unconcerned. |
| C．Hopeful. | D．Doubtful. |
8 . What will the future school 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, future schools will become community-style centers, which run seven days a week,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 distant 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.
The 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 on a special telephone system and students use telephones to search for information or speak to their experts who teach 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 students5 library, data storage （数据存储）as well as the bridge to a wider world. Technology has changed the emphasis of future learning. Thus, well 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．have no teachers | B．study at a set time |
| C．mainly study online | D．never go to actual school |
| 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．The Schools in the Future |
| B．Great Changes in Technology |
| C．The Seashore Primary School |
| D．Actual Schools to Be Replaced |
9 . After decades of playing catch-up with the U.S. and Russian space programs, China did something neither nation nor any other had done this December: land a spaceship on the dark side of the moon.
Strictly speaking, of course, the moon has no dark side. But because of the way it orbits Earth, our natural satellite shows us only one side － the other is hidden from our view. No one even saw the far side until 1959, when the Soviet Luna 3 spaceship flew around for a look and sent back photos. No astronaut or spaceship went there until this December, when the China National Space Agency (CNSA) launched a 2,500-pound lander called Chang’e-4 to the southern end of the lunar far side.
Chang’e-4 operated a small rover (探测车) to survey the geography there for the first time ever. By examining the geography of its landing area, Chang’e-4 could solve longstanding puzzles about the moon, including how it formed 4.5 billion years ago. Chang’e-4 also carried a very small ―lunar biosphere (生态圈) ‖ containing silkworm eggs and a tiny greenhouse designed to grow potatoes in order to study the growth of the seeds on the moon.
Besides Chang’e-4, China plans to launch Chang’e-5 in 2019. Its mission will be to gather moon rocks using an orbiter, a lander or collector, an ascent stage (上升器) and a capsule that will separate from the orbiter and return the rocks to the earth. ―With these missions, the Chinese will have shown complete mastery of flight in the space between the earth and the moon,‖ said Paul Spudis, an experienced lunar researcher based in Houston.
CNSA has already outlined ideas for Chinese astronauts to follow the robots to the moon. Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of CNSA’s Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center, told that China plans a permanent robotic lunar station in about 10 years and suggested a human presence on the moon another decade or so after that. Spudis said China’s ambitious Chang’e-4 and Chang’e-5 missions should send human’s plans for lunar return into rapid development.
1. What do we know about the dark side of the moon from the first two paragraphs?| A．Two western countries have taken its photos. |
| B．It is hidden from people’s view due to the earth’s orbit. |
| C．China is the first country to land a spaceship there. |
| D．It exists because the sun never shines there. |
| A．To study the geography of the lunar dark side. |
| B．To grow potatoes on the moon. |
| C．To examine the growth of eggs and seeds. |
| D．To survey the lunar biosphere. |
| A．The lander. | B．The collector. |
| C．The ascent stage. | D．The capsule. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Disapproving. |
| C．Ambiguous. | D．Favorable. |
10 . Think of the empty cities in zombie(僵尸)movies. The streets, the shops and the schools still there just like they would be on a normal day, except there are no people to be seen. It is the emptiness that scares you.
Now a real-life "ghost city" is being built in the US. But fortunately, it has nothing to do with zombies - it is going to be a place to test the technology of the future
Called CITE - the Center for Innovation(创新), Testing and Evaluation(测评) - the city is the idea of technology company Pegasus Global Holdings. Covering an area of 15 square miles (39 square kilometers), it is the size of a small US city and sits in the middle of the New Mexico desert.
But why do we need an empty city that nobody will call home?
The reason is that we can't afford to test the latest technologies in the cities that we live in - they might not be ready and could cause problems and danger in our everyday lives.
"It will be a true laboratory without the problems and safety issues that come with people living there. Here you can break things and run into things, and get used to how they work, before taking them out into the market, Pegasus managing director Robert Brumley told technology magazine Wired.
In fact, without worrying about hurting people, anybody with a new idea can ask to test it in this city. Just think about the possibilities- driverless cars can move freely on the streets, homes with robots can be designed and energy sources like nuclear power can also be put to the test.
As good as the idea may seem, however, there are still doubts about CITE. "One of the most difficult things to do when developing these new technologies is to have them safely move around people, who can suddenly jump out in front of something," Reese Jones, a founder of Singularity University, US, told Fortune magazine.
Jones is worried that, even if a technology works perfectly well in CITE, introducing it to a real city will still be a whole different story because there will be people living in the city.
But no matter what, perhaps we should wait until CITE is finished in 2018. Maybe it will turn out to work just fine.
1. The empty city is being built_____.| A．so people can experience the technology of the future |
| B．to try driverless cars and robots in |
| C．to test new technology in |
| D．as a place full of the latest technology |
| A．It is located beside the New Mexico desert. |
| B．It was started by Singularity University. |
| C．Things in the city can easily be broken down and built again. |
| D．Anyone can ask to try out their new designs there. |
| A．CITE offers great possibilities for future technology |
| B．new technologies will work perfectly well with the help of CITE |
| C．settings in CITE should be real in order to create the best results |
| D．testing results in CITE may not prove to work in a real city |
| A．To explain why CITE could be very helpful. |
| B．To show that CITE has a bright future. |
| C．To explain CITE and problems it may have. |
| D．To offer a good solution that will help to develop future technologies. |
