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.

2. What did scientists at MIT do last year?

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.

3. What does Do’s team find challenging?

A．Making robotic tubes smaller.

B．Keeping robotic tubes properly shaped.

C．Producing stronger robotic tubes.

D．Programming the shape of robotic tubes.

4. What is Rebecca’s attitude toward the future of smart clothing?

A．Doubtful.

B．Indifferent.

C．Worried.

D．Hopeful.

2 . A. Human feet will become just one big toe.

In a lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1911, a surgeon named Richard Clement Lucas made a curious prediction that the “useless outer toes” will become used less and less, so that “man might become a one-toed race” in the next century. Look and check your toes.

B. Our houses will be cleaned by hoses.

In a 1950 article titled “Miracles You’ll See in the Next 50 Years,” the New York Times’ longtime science editor Waldemar Kaempffert predicted that by the 21st century, all you’ll have to do to get your house clean is “simply turn the hose on everything.”

That’s because he imagined furniture would be made of synthetic fabric or waterproof plastic. “After the water has run down a drain in the middle of the floor” all you’d have to do is “turn on a blast of hot air” to dry everything. A mercy for housewife, right?

C. We’ll live in flying houses.

Inventor, science writer, and futurist Arthur C. Clark—who co-wrote the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey—believed that the boring houses of 1966 would be extremely different by the time we reached the 21st century. Evidently, the houses of the future would have nothing keeping them on the ground and they would be able to move to anywhere on the earth on a whim (异想天开). So easy to travel abroad!

D. We’ll eat candy made of underwear.

In Popular Mechanics, Waldemar Kaempffert predicted that all food would be delivered to our homes in the form of frozen bricks by the 21st century. “Cooking as an art is only a memory in the minds of old people,” he wrote. And, thanks to advances in cooking technology, Kaempffert predicted it would even be possible to take ordinary objects like old table cloth and “silk-like underwear” and bring them to “chemical factories to be made into candy.” No, thanks! Not at all!

1. How many toes would become useless and disappear in his left foot, according to the surgeon?

A．Five.

B．Four.

C．Three.

D．Two.

2. What’s the writer’s attitude towards the candy made of underwear?

A．He likes it very much.	B．He thinks it acceptable.
C．He completely rejects it.	D．He would like to have a try.

3. What do all the articles have in common?

A．They were all put forward by the greatest minds at their time.

B．Although they sounded unbelievable, they were well received.

C．They appeared in the same magazine almost around the same time.

D．They were interesting predictions about the century we are living now.

3 . Future means a time that is not yet here. It can be a short time from now or a long time from now. Scientists think that many wonderful things may come true in our future life.     1    

Are you wondering whether there'll be televisions in the future?     2    . Television screens( 屏幕) probably will be large and flat, hanging on the wall or going across the four walls of a room. People on the screen will look as real as if they were right in the room with you.

    3    . What people may eat in the future will be man-made in factories from such surprising things as coal, limestone, air, and water. Worry about the taste? You may be wrong. The man-made food will be delicious and healthy because all the things that you need to live a long and healthy life will be put into it.

What about driving cars in the future? Well, a very small child probably will be able to drive a car. Computer systems will hold each car on the right road to get wherever the "driver" wants to go.     4    . Computer controls will make all speeding cars miss each other or stop in time. Driving cars will be as safe as being at home.

    5    . Cities may have large 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 the weather. It will rain only when the “weather man”thinks it is necessary. In all other days you will be able to enjoy pleasant weather.

The future should be a wonderful time in which to live. But the time you are living in now was also “a wonderful future” to the people who lived 100 years ago.

A．But maybe the most wonderful surprise in the future will be weather control.

B．In the future, life will be the same as we live today.

C．Now let’s see what the wonders are that may appear in the future.

D．And it probably will be impossible for car accidents to happen.

E．What about the food of the future?

F．People will suffer from serious hunger in the future.

G．The future televisions will be totally different from what they are.

4 . If you think of the jobs that robots could never do, you would probably put doctors and teachers atop of the list. It’s easy to imagine robots and factory workers. But are we underestimating what robots can do?

In some cases, they already do better than doctors at diagnosing illness. Also, some patients might feel more comfortable sharing personal information with a machine than a person. Could there be a place for robots in education after all?

British education expert Anthony Seldom thinks so. He even has a date for the robot takeover of the classroom:2027. He forecasts that robots will do the main job of disseminating knowledge and teachers will be like helpers. Intelligent robots will read students’ faces, movements and even brain signals. Then they will pass the information on to each student in the way he or she can understand.

However, it’s not a popular opinion. Most people think it’s impossible that robots will have the ability to really connect with humans like another human can.

One thing is certain, though. A robot teacher is better than no teacher at all. In some parts of the world, there aren’t enough teachers and 9%-16% of children under the age of 14 don’t go to school. That problem could be partly solved by robots because the owners can teach anywhere.

Being a teacher is a difficult job and teachers often feel overworked. Perhaps the question is not “Will robots replace teachers?” but “How can’t robots help teachers?” Teachers spend a lot of time doing non-teaching work, including more than 1 hour a week marking homework. If robots could cut the time teachers spend marking homework and writing reports, teachers would have more time and energy for the parts of the job humans do best.

1. What does the author mainly intend to show in the first paragraph?

A．Robots can do creative work.

B．Robots will replace doctors soon.

C．Robots work better than humans.

D．Robots can do more jobs than imagined.

2. What does the underlined word “disseminating” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Storing.	B．Spreading.
C．Analyzing.	D．Replacing.

3. Which word best describes the public’s attitude to Anthony Seldom’s forecast?

A．Unacceptable.	B．Uncreative.
C．Unconcerned.	D．Reasonable.

4. What’s the main idea of the text?

A．What robots are never able to do.

B．What the weaknesses of robots are.

C．Whether robots will evolve by themselves.

D．Whether robots will completely replace human teachers.