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 . When it came to imaging the future, Arthur C. Clarke stubbornly refused to take credit for any predictions. The Internet, 3-D printers, email: he may have described them all long before they existed. As a science fiction writer, he came up with the idea of a “personal transceiver” that is small enough to be carried about, able to contact with anyone in the world and perform global positioning, making getting lost a thing of the past. Elsewhere, he predicted everything from online banking to reusable spacecraft. His best remembered fictional work of all is 2001: A Space Odyssey. It also happened to forecast the iPad, computer software that is able to read lips, and space stations.
Interestingly, his vision of the future has barely aged. For example, life in Sri Lanka inspired his 1979 novel, featuring a “space elevator”, a planet-to-space transportation system that would do away with the need for rocket travel. Those human settlements on Mars or Venus are decidedly behind schedule(we humans were expected to have set foot on both by 1980), and we’re still looking for the key that should have fully unlocked the languages of whales and dolphins by 1970.
It’s a way of thinking that was likely fuelled by his inability to be anything other than utterly absorbed in all that interested him. At the very start of his career, he shared a flat on London’s Gray’s Inn Road with fellow science fiction writers who nicknamed him “Ego” because of his talent for turning out (关掉) distraction. Once he’d become a big enough name to be interviewed, he’d send journalists home loaded with research papers.
He once said, “Trying to predict the future is a discouraging and risky occupation.” If a prediction sounds at all reasonable, technological progress is sure to leave it seeming “ridiculously conservative”. But if, by a miracle, a person were to be able to describe the future exactly as it will unfold, “His predictions will sound so absurd and far-fetched that everybody would laugh him to scorn (轻蔑).”
1. What can we infer from the first paragraph?| A．Clarke is an imaginative science fiction writer. | B．Clarke is crazy about the future devices. |
| C．Clarke is expert at telling one’s fortune. | D．Clarke is a rarely talented inventor. |
| A．there is no need for rocket travel in future |
| B．unlocking the languages of animals is ahead of time |
| C．humans were expecting to settle on Mars by 1980 |
| D．Clarke’s predictions still seem impossibly distant |
| A．He could focus all his mind on something. | B．He cared more about himself than others. |
| C．He was absorbed in what interested him. | D．He was proud of being a big name. |
| A．The rapid progress of technology. | B．The absurdness of some predictions. |
| C．The difficulty of predicting the future. | D．The miracle of dependable predictions. |
3 . What is the future of AI (人工智能)? Will it be a good thing? We asked four students what they think.
Liu Lei
| I think AI will be more useful in our future lives. It’s now used in many fields, like phones and medicine. No one really knows what will happen if machines become smarter than humans. However, I’m sure AI will help us solve many problems. |
Xu Lu
| I’m worried that people create something that can be better than themselves. In the near future, AI will develop at a high speed. Humans may be replaced (取代) because AI robots will do a lot of work instead of people. |
Zhao Mingming
| I really think that Al will change the way we work, the way we live, and the way we think. Imagine if we could put a CPU into our brains! Soon we’ll be able to improve our math and memory. How exciting! |
Molly
| Think of what’s happening now. Some robots are used to kill animals. So I think AI will be very dangerous for humans, too. We need to be careful about what we ask machines to do. |
| A．Because humans are smarter than AI. |
| B．Because AI robots will do lots of human jobs. |
| C．Because humans will put a CPU into our brains. |
| D．Because we can’t improve our math and memory. |
| A．AI will be more useful for people. | B．AI will be less useful for people. |
| C．AI will be dangerous for people. | D．AI will be important for people. |
| A．Liu Lei and Xu Lu | B．Liu Lei and Zhao Mingming |
| C．Xu Lu and Molly | D．Zhao Mingming and Molly |
4 . 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(光秃的).
Perhaps all this gives the impression that future man will not be a very attractive creature to look at! This may well be true. But 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 that____| A．humans need’t wear glasses in the future. |
| B．man’s life will be different in the future. |
| C．future man will look quite different from us. |
| D．man is growing taller and uglier as time passes |
| A．guess | B．explain | C．compete | D．know |
| A．future life is always predictable(可预测的) |
| B．human beings will become less attractive in the future |
| C．less use of a bodily organ(器官)may lead to its degeneration(退化) |
| D．human beings hope for a change in the future life |
| A．Colour and height | B．size and appearance |
| C．thought and observation | D．thought and emotion |
5 . 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. |
6 . 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. |
7 . Everything is going to change more in the next ten years than it has in the last hundred, so it’s difficult to think about 100 years in the future. I can only guess what it might be like.
After 100 years, I think that borders will disappear through the development of science and technology.
Food from Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter will become popular.
My family will live in Mangshi, but I’ll take the super airplane daily to my work office. It’ll take 30 minutes from Mangshi to New York. My wife will go to her office in London.
| A．We plan to eat dinner in Paris. |
| B．They will fly to Tokyo for shopping. |
| C．In other words, the world will be united into one. |
| D．What kinds of car will we be driving in the future? |
| E．However, I think it will be better to live then than now. |
| F．People who don’t have time will eat such things as beans. |
| G．The clothes that people will wear in the future are easy to wash. |
8 . 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.
·The Internet will be free for everyone.
The Internet is really a key driver these days.
·
With the increasing population, it is not very hard to predict that common methods of transportation will not be enough. There will be much heavier traffic on the road. So in this case personal airplanes will be a handy method of transportation for common people.
Of course, there will be proper air traffic control for these personal airplanes.
·Most cancers will be treated successfully.
·Humans will live on other planets.
There will be great achievements in space research.
We will receive more intelligent signals from space. Chances are we will be able to find the next Earth-like planet.
| A．But it is not free for everyone yet. |
| B．So where is technology going in the future? |
| C．The world's population will cross 9.6 billion. |
| D．What do you think of my predictions of 2050? |
| E．In the year 2050, humans will be able to live on Mars. |
| F．Personal airplanes will be used widely for short journeys. |
| G．The number of deaths caused by cancers will be greatly reduced. |
9 . Fancy a holiday to the moon? Sounds crazy? Not really. A Japanese company has been working on how to organize holidays to the moon for several years now.
Trying to make the holiday possible will not be an easy task, and the Japanese company plans to make it in stages.
The next stage is to build a big hotel orbiting 500 km above the earth. The hotel will orbit the earth once every four or five hours, which will offer visitors some fascinating views of the earth.
The final stage in the plan is the construction of a hotel on the surface of the moon itself. As solar energy would be used to provide power, it would be important to build the hotel near one of the poles of the moon in order to gather as much solar energy as possible.
So perhaps in a few years you might be enjoying yourselves on the moon.
| A．Next, the hotel will have a wide range of sporting activities. |
| B．Tourists who want to travel into space can stay at a big hotel. |
| C．The first thing to do is to organize trips around the earth for a few hours. |
| D．There would probably be holidays to a moon hotel within the next ten years. |
| E．There is plenty of sand, but the big problem will come with producing water. |
| F．This part of the development plan does not seem to be too difficult to carry out. |
| G．This is because a lunar day, which is 14 earth days long, is followed by 14 days of darkness. |
10 . Let us suppose it is now about A.D. 2060. Let’s make believe it is about 45 years from now. Of course, things have changed and life is very different.
Voyages to the moon are being made every day. It is as easy to take a holiday on the moon today as it was for the people in 1960 to take a holiday in Europe. At a number of scenic spots on the moon, many hotels have been built. The hotels are airconditioned, naturally. In order that everyone can enjoy the beautiful scenery on the moon, every room has at least one picture window. Everything imaginable is provided for entertainment of young and old.
What are people eating now？People are still eating food. They haven’t yet started to take on heir (继承) supply of energy directly as electrical current or as nuclear power. They may some day. But many foods now come in pill form, and the food that goes into the pill continues to come mainly from green plants.
Since there are several times as many people in the world today as there were a hundred years ago, most of our planet’s surface has to be filled. The deserts are irrigated with water and crops are no longer destroyed by pests. The harvest is always good.
Farming, of course, is very highly developed. Very few people have to work on the farm. It is possible to run the farm by just pushing a few buttons now and then.
People are now largely vegetarians (素食者). You see, as the number of people increases, the number of animal decreases. Therefore, people have to be vegetarians and we are healthier both in our bodies and in our minds, and we know the causes and cure of disease and pain, and it is possible to get rid of diseases. No one has to be ill any more.
Such would be our life in 2060.
1. When was the passage written?| A．In about A. D. 2060. | B．In about 1960. |
| C．In about 2014. | D．In about 2015. |
| A．Many other animals. |
| B．Many tourists. |
| C．Many plants. |
| D．A sea. |
| A．Biscuits in pill form. | B．Foods in pill form. |
| C．Foods in liquid form. | D．Foods in gas form. |
