1 . Future living: what will the home of tomorrow look like?

What will our homes be like in the future? Growing cities, shrinking living spaces, and climate change are major challenges     1    (face) urban planners and architects. We’re sharing three trends with you     2     will shape the home we live in tomorrow.

Energy efficient and carbon neutral

One of the greatest challenges for homes of the future is our increasing energy consumption, something that cannot be covered by fossil fuels going forward.     3    the impact of climate change becoming notable, it’s perfectly understandable that the buildings of the future could function as environmentally friendly power plants. Solar collectors and heat storage systems allow     4     are known as ‘plus-energy buildings’ to produce 100 percent renewable energy for emission-free operation.

The trend to downsizing

Living more efficiently not only means improving energy use and reducing one’s own carbon footprint, but also building to save space. Rooms     5    (design) to be multifunctional when there’s not a dedicated room available for every potential purpose. Modular and flexible furnishing systems that can be adapted to the individual floor space and room zones will replace     6    (fix) structures, ensuring that there’s room for everything even in a small space.   

Trends for living and working under one roof

Over the last few months, the office     7    (become) a feature in many people’s homes. For a number of years now, the home office has been evolving from a make-do desk into a comfortable long-term solution. This development means we need to ask     8     how we should construct our living spaces to allow us to concentrate and work productively.   

    9     you rent or own your own home in the future, what’s clear is that the home of tomorrow will be smarter, more flexible, and more sustainable. It will offer us space     10    (live), sleep and work both indoors and outdoors.

2 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。1.

A．Experiment on the future pizza.

B．Taste a specially-made pizza.

C．Travel to a future restaurant.

D．Meet with a group of futurists.

2.

A．They aimed to show people how to cultivate food in a lab.

B．They were curious to know what the future would look like.

C．They intended to promote the environmentally-friendly food.

D．They wanted to highlight the role of science in sustainable living.

3.

A．It is three times the size of a normal pizza.

B．All the ingredients come from an indoor lab.

C．Part of it has been 3D-printed by a robot chef.

D．It’s quite different from the traditional pizza except for the appearance.

3 . Being connected to the Internet has become a necessary part of modern life. Some people actually need it as they cannot do their jobs without it, and others simply feel they need it as they cannot imagine life without it.

To think that something that did not even exist 50 years ago has come to play a crucial role in our lives like this in just about 15 years makes one wonder–just what will the future bring?

In 2004, a survey was conducted in the US asking a group of technology experts their opinions on the Internet in the next ten years. 57% of them agreed that virtual classes will be more widely adopted in schools, allowing students to learn with those at the same level and with interests in the same subjects. It’s quite possible that, by the year 2030, every child in every school will do all their schoolwork on their own laptop with all their textbooks available (现成可使用的) on the Internet. No more heavy books to carry around and no more pens and paper!

At work, we already use email to deal with people both inside and outside our offices and video conferencing (电话会议) is occurring more frequently. This means that meetings can be held between offices in different countries without the trouble caused by business travel. Business travel will stop to exist in the future, and so will offices as people all start to work from home.

It has also become a trend for people to use pocket computers such as Blackberries. With this helpful equipment, people can send and receive emails, surf the Web, and read multimedia files from absolutely anywhere even if we are on a beach holiday.

The Internet will have a revolutionary (突破性的) effect on entertainment in the future. Already we can buy and download music and movies from the Internet but it is still possible for us to buy a CD or go to the DVD stores to rent the latest movies. However, it’s quite possible that in the future, CD shops and DVD rental stores will close and cinemas will no longer exist. Entertainment will become completely virtual although hopefully people will still want to get outside to play sports and entertain themselves in more healthy ways.

With the Internet we need only relax in the rocking chair. The Internet, however, has problems to be solved.

1. The expression “play a crucial role in” can be understood as “______”.

A．change a dull role into	B．play an interesting part in
C．have an important effect on	D．act a cruel character in

2. According to the passage, people are satisfied with all the following changes EXCEPT that ______.

A．people won’t have to make business travel any more thanks to the video conference

B．virtual classes can make students’ dream of getting rid of their schoolbags come true

C．people can be kept informed anytime and anywhere with the help of convenient equipment

D．CD shops and cinemas will shut down as a result of the adoption of virtual entertainment

3. What will the writer probably discuss after the last paragraph?

A．Bad effects the Internet can have on us.

B．The possible school life in the future.

C．More excitements the Internet will bring us.

D．The likely ways to solve the problems.

4. What is probably the best title for the passage?

A．Virtual reality, our best friend!

B．What will future life be like with the Internet?

C．Goodbye, textbooks and offices!

D．How can human beings deal with the Internet?

4 . Life in 2060

An international group of 40 scientists have made some very surprising predictions about the future. They say that in the next 50 years the way we live will change beyond our wildest dreams.

    1     With regular injections, centenarians will be as vigorous as today’s 60-year-olds. Women will be able to give birth well into old age; their biological clocks could be extended by 10 years.

Professor Ellen Heber-Katz says: “    2    ” Damaged parts will be replaced. Within 50 years whole-body replacement will be routine. But doctors will need huge supplies of organs for transplant. Where will they come from? Scientists say these could be grown inside animals from human cells.

Professor Susan Greenfield of Oxford University says, “in 50 years’ time we may have a clearer idea of how the brain generates consciousness.” Studies of the brain and the nature of consciousness will bring much greater understanding of disorders such as depression. Other scientists go further than Professor Greenfield. They believe that by 2060 computers will develop their own consciousness and emotions.     3    

Thanks to a device which can ‘read’ emotions, feelings, and thoughts, we will be able   to ‘talk’ to animals. The story of Dr. Dolittle will be fact, not fiction. “    4    ” says Professor Daniel Pauly from Canada. “so we might all become vegetarian.”

A．People will take for granted that injured or diseased organs can be repaired in much the same way as we fix a car.

B．This device could first work with primates(灵长类), then mammals, then other vertebrates, including fish.

C．Within 50 years, living to 100 years old while will enjoying active, healthy lives will be a common thing.

D．A number of scientists predict that the biggest breakthrough in the next 50 years will be the discovery of extra-planet beings.

E．Human beings may eventually be replaced by computers in some areas of life.

F．We don’t yet know how the brain gives us our awareness of being alive.

5 . Our own experience working together on health, development, and energy the last twenty years has been one of the most rewarding parts of our lives.It has changed who we are and continues to fuel our optimism about how much the lives of the poorest people will improve in the years ahead.

What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．The author believes the lives of the poorest will get better.

B．Much more progress will be made in the near future.

C．The work on health is the most valuable experience.

D．People’s efforts have been materially rewarded.

6 . Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

Will Experimentation on Animals End?

One of the most debatable issues in science is the use of animals in research. Scientists experiment on animals for different reasons, including basic research to explore how organisms function, investigating potential treatments for human disease, and safety and quality control testing of drugs, devices and other products.

    1    However, opponents believe it is cruel and meaningless, as observations in animals often do not translate directly to humans.

In 1959, William Russell and Rex Burch proposed their “3Rs” guidelines for making the use of animals in scientific research more humane: restrict the use of animals; refine experiments to minimize distress; and replace tests with alternative techniques.     2     Around 29 million animals per year are currently used in experiments in the U.S. and Europeans Union countries. This is less than half the total in the mid-1970s —— a significant drop.

    3    Improvements in imaging methods that offer a look inside the bodies of animals allow scientists to get more and better data from each experiment than before.

For example, researchers previously had to do experiments with multiple mice at different stages of cancer development, but now they can watch the disease develop in a single living animal using a dye. Similarly, as brain-imaging techniques become more advanced, some questions that were addressed with experiments in monkeys before may be better answered by looking into the human brain now. “    4    ” says Larry Carbone, a senior veterinarian(兽医) at the University of California in San Francisco.

A．Over the course of five decades their guidelines have become widely accepted worldwide.

B．The awareness of animal protection contributes to the decline of the number.

C．Human volunteers must be able to replace monkeys more and more in the next 10 to 20 years.

D．New experimental techniques help to push numbers down.

E．Its supporters point to the long list of medical advances made possible with the help of animal research.

F．The number of the animals used in research is still considerable.