Life in the year 3044 is very different1life in the 2lst century. We still do many of the things you did, but we do them2. For example, we now have e-friends to help us and keep us company. An e-friend is a machine that looks just3a human being. It can walk and talk and can do almost4we human beings do. My e-friend is a lot like me and we have5fun together. She helps me6my homework and we often go swimming. She is programmed to take care of me if anything7, so I always feel safe when we are together. She can also send me messages, just like old-fashioned emails, and I can download information from her memory. It's great8an e-friend—I am never lonely and I always have someone to talk9.
I would like to tell you more about life in the year 3044, but I have to send my e-friend to clean up my room. Maybe10I will be able to travel back in time and visit you.
Life in the future will be different. Between then and now many changes will happen. But what will the changes be?
The population is growing fast. There will be many people in the world and most of them will live longer than people do now.
Computers will be much smaller and more useful, and there will be at least (至少) one in every room. And computer studies will be one of the important subjects in schools then. People will work fewer hours than they do now and they will have more free time for sports, watching TV and travel. Travelling will be much cheaper and easier. And many more people will go to other countries for holidays.
There will be changes in our food too. More land will be used for building new towns and houses for all the people. Then there will be less room for cows and sheep, so meat will be more expensive. Maybe no one will eat it every day. Instead they will eat more fruit and vegetables. Maybe people will be healthier. Work in the future will be different too. Robots will do dangerous and hard work. Because of this, many people will not have enough work to do. This will be a problem.
Would you like to live in a city where buildings turn the lights off for you, and self-driving cars will find the nearest parking space themselves? Although it might sound a little far from you, living in a "smart" city like this could happen sooner than you think.
Great changes have taken place in towns that we have lived in for centuries, while completely new cities are being built. One such place is the city of Songdo. Every home there will have a "telepresence" system (远程监控系统)—allowing users to control the heating and locks, take part in video meetings, and receive education, health care and government services. Around the city, escalators (自动扶梯) will only move when someone is on them, and offices and schools will all be connected to the system.
The great mind behind Songdo is from the company Cisco. In fact, technology companies around the world such as IBM, Siemens and Microsoft are already in the business.
About 75% of the world's population will live in cities by 2050, so cities will need to be more modern to deal with the coming problems. "Making cities smarter is one way out, and I think this will in turn make cities greener," said Dan Hill, head of a research company.
Class Three had an interesting class meeting last week. Here is what four of the students said.
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Li Lei |
In 2050, China will be richer than it is now. Shanghai will prepare for the 40th Olympic Games in 2052. The sky will be bluer and clearer. The air will be fresher. There will be more pandas living happily in China. I believe that 2050 will be the year of China. |
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Wei Hua |
A holiday to fly to the Moon won't be a dream. We can also fly to other planets and talk with aliens. We might also eat something like medicine pills (药丸) but not today's meals. Everyone will enjoy a more comfortable life. |
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Liu Tao |
Robots will be very popular. They'll do what we don't want to do. We'll build new homes on other planets. By the 40th Olympic Games in 2052, I'll be fifty-two years old. And maybe we'll have an exciting talk with the people on Earth in my new home on another planet! |
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Mei Mei |
By the year of 2050, cloning (克隆) will be used in many places. It will bring back animals in the past that we can't see now. The world will be one big family. We'll live a much easier and better life. |
Today there are nearly 7. 4 billion people on Earth. By the year 2050 there may be 9. 8 billion. There are many people to feed. We need more and more food.
One way to produce more food is growing stronger plants. For thousands of years, farmers have made plants better. Every season, they pick the best plants for the next season. It works very slowly. Since 1983, scientists have been able to change plants more quickly by changing their genetic (基因的) material. Foods from plants grown in this way are called genetically modified (转基因的) foods, or GM foods.
By changing the genetic material of a plant, it is possible to make new plants. Scientists make plants which are strong against plant diseases. They can also help in our diseases: a kind of rice will be grown, for example, which stops people becoming blind.
Rich countries produce GM foods because they are easy to grow and bring in more money. Poor countries are interested in them because they help produce more food.
GM plants are not natural. No one knows how good or bad they are. Making GM foods is only one way of feeding people in 2050. There are strong feelings against them because they are unnatural. They may feed people, then hurt them or their children later. But both rich and poor countries are interested in their uses, and they are not going to go away. In 2050, we may think differently about them.
How cool would it be if people could（travel）in tubes（管道）? They may travel to another city in just（minute）. In the near future, this might not only happen in films,also in real life. The first open air test of the tube train took placeMay 11, 2016. It happened in the Nevada desert, the USA. Elon Musk（have）the idea of developing the tube train. He isfounder（创始人）of the American space company SpaceX. He calls the tube train the Hyperloop. The Hyperloop will be even（fast）than planes. It will go about 1, 200 kilometres per hour. Planes usually（flight）800 to 1,100 kilometres per hour. The company Hyperloop One is still（work）on the tube train. They want people to travel（use）the Hyperloop by 2021.
What would the future life be like? I think we can travel faster and safer around the world and into space. We will have new energy（能源）that doesn't make pollution. Possibly, people will find ways to use cleaner things, such as sea water, to make energy without polluting the Earth.
Put a cake on the machine and it makes a new one. We can send food and presents to our friends easily with a fax machine.
Now we have to press a key or type a word to make a machine work. But in the future, if we think of something, the machine can make it for us.
We can go into computer games and films, and everything will feel real. Maybe, one day we can collect our dreams and put our dreams on DVDs.
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A. We will have machines that can copy everything in the future. B. We will have clever robots that work for us, and the robots can bring us useful things and take away our trash. C. The machine can understand our ideas. D. We can make our homes like forests or sunny beaches or anything we want. E. Maybe one day we can work in Beijing, sleep in Chengdu and visit the Moon for a holiday. |
