Each one of us shares this planet with over seven billion others. And we all need1. People and products need to move from city to city and country to country. However, we all know2most cars, motorcycles, boats and planes cause air pollution. They are also3. This is a serious problem in many cities.4inventors are coming up with creative ideas to try to reduce the pollution and noise.
In many cities around the world, motorcycles are very5. Now Vietnam has around 33 million motorcycles and China has almost 120 million. Motorcycles are a faster and cheaper way to get around a city than6. Yet air pollution is a growing problem. In large cities, people7it is difficult to breathe. To solve these problems, an American company designed an environmentally friendly motorcycle. It uses electricity as fuel (燃料). As a result, there is8pollution. It's also quiet and fast. This makes9a good choice for getting around a city.
The Italian city of Venice is a city with only a few10. There are no cars in the city centre.11cars, water taxis and buses carry people along the city's canals (运河). However, they cause pollution,12to the water. English engineers Dick and Jem designed a solar-powered (太阳能的) water taxi. The water taxi13run for a day after being charged (充电).
Planes also cause air and noise pollution. Designing an environmentally friendly airplane is a real14. Some airplane companies have15to solve the problems. Swiss engineers have gone one step further. They developed a solar airplane. This airplane even tries to travel around the world.
It's March, 2050. Frank and Mary Smith wake up in their comfortable house in the morning and turn on the bedroom computer to get the latest news. They get used to reading The Times over the years. The only difference is that they changed to electronic newspapers many years ago.
After breakfast, as they watch the screen, Mary orders the household robot to make coffee for them. Frank is a computer engineer, working for several companies. He goes into the study to take part in a video conference with his partners around the world.
Mary takes a quick look at the shopping channels at home before beginning the video call to talk to her assistant. She also has a job and she is doing medical researches.
Frank and Mary have one daughter, Louise, who also has her own work station at home. She goes to school only one day a week, mainly to play with other students. Louise is studying Chinese at present. Chinese has become an important language in the world.
According to the family doctor, Louise will live to at least 130 years old. Her wish is to work for a few decades(十年)and then spend her time on music and painting.
In the mid 1990s, people started doing business on the Internet. At that time, there were two kinds of companies. First, there were traditional companies which sold things in shops. Then, there were Internet companies which didn't have shops; they sold things only over the net.
Traditional companies didn't want to lose any business. Quickly, they created their own website and began selling things over the net. These are the so-called "brick and click" companies. Many shops are made of brick, and you click on your mouse to buy things with your computer. That's where the name "brick and click" comes from.
By the late 1990s, e-businesses like Amazon.com and Buy.com were in trouble. Their profits were not very high, and there was a lot of competition. Many of these businesses lost a lot of money, and in 2000, many e-businesses went out of business.
Why are "brick and click" companies, like Barnes & Noble, Toys "R" Us, and Walmart so successful? First, many customers know and trust their names. Their websites, like walmart.com, are easy to remember. These companies also have a lot of experience. They know how to run a successful business.
In the world of e-commerce, companies are fighting for every dollar and every customer. Will "brick and click" companies win the war? Only time will tell.
A kind of little cars may some day take the place of today's cars. If everyone drives such cars in the future, there will be less pollution. There will also be more space for parking cars in cities, and the streets will be less crowded. Three such cars can fit in the space now needed for one car of the usual size.
The little cars will cost much less to own and to drive. Driving will be safer too, as these little cars can go only 65 kilometres an hour. The cars of the future will be fine for getting around a city, but they will not be useful for long trips. Little cars will go 450 kilometres before needing to stop for more gas (汽油).
If big cars are still used along with the small ones, two sets of roads will be needed in the future. Some roads will be used for the big, fast cars and other roads will be needed for the slower, small ones.
Mason has seen the future—and it's fun. Mason likes thinking about how machines can make our life easier by doing the work we hate, such as cleaning. He shows a floor cleaning machine that's built into the wall. It can clean up the floor.
When it comes to the kitchen, Bruce, an expert at Whirlpool, is sure that in a few years, robots will be doing most of the boring work, freeing us to relax. "More than just fun, future kitchens will be environmentally friendly," he says. A new system will be built in the house which can recycle energy lost from your kitchen to make the whole home warm.
"The fridge will be the centre of the home," says Daniel, a market expert. The fridge will have a touch screen (触摸屏幕) where you can watch TV, surf the Internet, check your emails, keep a shopping list and order vegetables. "Your fridge is the first place you go to in the morning and the last place at night," says Daniel.
"I wonder why a 1.9-metre man and 1.6-metre woman have to cook meals on counters (柜台) of the same height," Jane Langmuir, an expert of cooking machines, says. "But times have changed. We have made a new counter where you can press a button and it moves to whatever height you want."
Ted Selker has made the dish maker which lets you make dishes and bowls out of plastics at home. After each meal, the dishes are changed straight back into plastics.
Have you ever (hear) of the Stonehenge? Every year it (receive) more than 750, 000 visitors. People like to go to this place especially June as they want to see the sun (rise) on the longest day of the year.
For many years, historians believed Stonehenge was a temple where ancient leaders (try) to communicate with the gods.
, historian Paul Stoker thinks this can't (be) true because Stonehenge was built so (much) centuries ago. Other people believe the stones have a medical purpose. They think the stones can prevent illness and keep people (health).
No one is sure what Stonehenge was used for. Some think it might be a burial place or a place to honour ancestors. Others think was built to celebrate a victory over an enemy.
Have you ever thought about what our food will be in the future?
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. Instead, people will eat more fruit and vegetables. In this way, people may be healthier.
Only about 29%of the Earth's area is land and the rest is sea, so some think maybe we can get more food from the sea.
Besides, though rice supports more than half the world's population, it needs a lot of water to grow. Therefore, it might be impossible to grow rice in the future. Some farmers are experimenting with new crops. The soybean (黄豆) makes a good substitute (替代品) for rice and meat.
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A. Maybe no one will eat it every day. B. Scientists predict (预测) the climate will get drier during the next century. C. Scientists are always trying out new ways of growing food. D. Farmers like to grow beans because they don't need much water, and beans also improve the quality of the soil. E. As the population is growing fast, there must be changes in our food. |
