1、话题二探索未来.阅读A What shape the school of the future will take is uncertain, but most educators and observers agree that the future school will go electronic. In the future, schools as we know will no longer exist. In their place will be communitystyle centers operating seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
2、 Computers will become an essential part for an effective school of the future. Students will see and hear teachers on computers. Accessing “classrooms” on their home computers, students will learn when its most convenient for them. Yet some attendance at an actual school will be required to help st
3、udents develop appropriate social skills. One of American public schools, A. C. TAcademy in McKinney, Texas, was created as an actual “school of the future”. Originally funded by a $ 5.5 million grant from the US Department of Education, the school is now supported by the McKinney Independent School
4、 District. At the school, knowledge is “actively constructed by the learner on a base of prior knowledge, attitudes, and values”. Sophisticated (先进的) technology is in place to support the pursuit of knowledge. The 250 Academy students all have access to a computer. The 12to 18yearolds each have thei
5、r own computer; 7to 11yearolds have one portable computer for every two students; and 5and 6yearolds use computers at fixed stations. In addition, the students use multimedia computers, printers, CDROMs, VCRs, video editing machines, camcorders, cable television, online services, and telephonessimpl
6、e but effective research tools. Whatever the shape of a school of the future might be, technology is always a huge part of it. The school days when computers mean processing words or playing games will be behind us.1According to the passage, what will play an important role in the school of the futu
7、re?AComputers. BEnvironment.CTeachers. DSkills.2It can be inferred from the passage that _.Athere will be no longer schools in the futureBstudents will only stay at home to study in the futureCmany educators are sure of the function of future schoolsDmany students are playing games on computers now3
8、From Paragraph 5 we know that those sharing a portable computer with another one are _.Afrom any age group B12to 18yearoldsC7to 11yearolds D5and 6yearolds4Which of the following about AC.T. Academy is TRUE?AIt is the only actual public school in the future.BIt was funded by the McKinney Independent
9、School District.CAll students in it have a computer of their own.DHigh technology is made full use of in it.BIn the future, therapy patients may spend less time sitting in a therapists office and more time exploring virtual worlds. Researchers have created a new virtual reality (VR) app to treat the
10、 fear of heights. The app just had a clinical trial. People developed other VR therapies in the past. These programs needed a reallife therapist to guide patients through the treatment. But the new system only uses an animated avatar (虚拟化身) within the app. The avatar coaches patients as they climb a
11、 virtual highrise. This kind of therapistfree counseling could make it much easier for people to get help for fears and other disorders.“This is a huge step forward for VR therapy,” says Jennifer Hames, a clinical psychologist. “With this system, people dont need to visit a therapists office to get
12、expert help. They could get help in their regular doctors office, or even at home. That could be good for people who arent comfortable with facetoface therapy, or who cant afford it,” she says. To test how effective their app was, Freeman and colleagues recruited (招募) 100 adult volunteers, who were
13、moderately to severely afraid of heights. The researchers randomly assigned 49 people to have VR treatment while the other 51 participants got no treatment. Before the experiment began, participants filled out a questionnaire that rated their fear of heights from 16 to 80. They filled out the same q
14、uestionnaire right after the treatment. Then they did it again two weeks later. The scores of patients who got no treatment stayed the same. But people who used the VR app dropped an average of about 25 points on the scale. “The results give strong evidence that the new VR program is more helpful th
15、an no treatment at all. But its not clear how well this type of system could work for more complex mental health issues,” says Mark Hayward, a clinical psychologist at the University of Sussex. “And when it comes to helping people with more severe symptoms, VR probably wont replace trained therapist
16、s any time soon.”5What is the passage mainly about?AThe causes of the fear of heights.BThe results of the fear of heights.CA VR app to treat the fear of heights.DThe treatment of the fear of heights.6What do we know about the VR therapy?AIt has a therapist to guide patients.BIt is convenient and doe
17、snt cost much.CIt allows patients to climb a real highrise.DIt requires patients to go to the therapists office.7Why did Freemans team conduct the experiment?ATo rate the participants fear of heights.BTo check the effectiveness of the VR app.CTo find out how severe peoples fear of heights is.DTo exp
18、lore a new way to improve the treatment.8In helping people with more severe symptoms, _.Athe VR app is very helpfulBthe results of the app are not clearCtrained therapists are still neededDno trained therapists are necessaryCFuturologists are making a lot of predictions about our future life and the
19、y are predicting how we will travel, work and live in the next 30 years. By 2048, some futurologists foresee that some “talking” buildings will appear in our life. By the middle of the century, its believed that buildings will be able to “talk” to people through various sensors when the heating need
20、s to be turned on. As a result, there will be no switches. Instead, a lot of networks will appear, which can be compared to a human nervous system. In the next 30 years, buildings will be made from concrete plastics and shapechanging materials. All of them can heal themselves at that time. As archit
21、ects (建筑师) are racing to develop the worlds tallest buildings, there will be a need for new kinds of elevators, through which vehicles could even travel into the buildings. German engineers have already started working on such technology called Multi. By midcentury, scientists believe that buildings
22、 will be miles tall. Some of them may be very large and they can function as small cities. By comparison, at present, the worlds tallest building, the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai, measures 828 metres high. As the future building can rise through the clouds, their windows will be replaced by virtual
23、screens. In this way, people can choose any view as they like. At height extremes, a London Spaceport is also likely to come into being by 2048 as the space industry develops very quickly. There is a huge cost advantage going to space from as high a base as possible, so a spaceport is very likely to
24、 be over 10 km and even as much as 30 km, using carbonbased materials.9How will the heating system be controlled in the future?AThrough the net. BThrough sensors.CThrough switches. DThrough mobiles.10What might happen to the future buildings in a disaster?AThey can recover by themselves.BThey can se
25、ek help automatically.CThey can transport people into space.DThey can protect people against harm.11Whats likely to be the advantage of Multi?ASeeing the scenes as you please.BAllowing vehicles to travel into buildings.CConnecting the earth with the space.DMaking it possible to build high buildings.
26、12What does the underlined word “they” (Para.3) most probably refer to?AScientists. BGerman engineers.CFuture buildings. DVirtual screens.七选五With the development of science and technology, our daily life is becoming more varied and more convenient. At the same time, life in the late 21st century wil
27、l be different from that nowadays, because many changes will take place then, but what will the changes be? _1_ There will be more and more people in the world and most of them will live longer than today. Computers will be much smaller and more useful, and there will be at least one in every home.
28、_2_ People will work fewer hours than they do now. They will have more free time for sports, watching TV and traveling. Traveling will be much cheaper and easier. _3_ _4_ More land will be used to build new towns and houses. Then there will be less room for cows and sheep, so meat will be more expen
29、sive. Maybe no one will eat it every day. Instead they eat more vegetables and fruit. Maybe people will be healthier thanks to that. Work in the future will be different, too. _5_ Because of this, many people will not have enough work to do. This will be a problem.AThe population is growing fast.BRo
30、bots are most useful in the future.CThere will be changes in our food, too.DDangerous and hard work will be done by robots.EThe population is becoming smaller and smaller.FAnd more people will go to other countries for travel.GAnd computer study will be one of the important subjects at school.话题二探索未
31、来.阅读A【语篇解读】本文是一篇说明文,介绍了未来学校的情况。尽管未来学校是什么样还不确定,但很多人认为未来学校将会呈现电子化的趋势。1答案与解析:A细节理解题。根据第二段第三句可知,电脑在未来的学校中会起到很重要的作用。故选A。2答案与解析:D推理判断题。根据最后一段最后一句可知,在未来的校园生活中,电脑不再只是被用来处理文字或玩游戏了。由此可推知,现在很多学生用电脑来玩游戏。3答案与解析:C细节理解题。根据第五段第二句中的“7to 11yearolds have one portable computer for every two students”可知,七到十一岁的学生两人共享一台手提
32、电脑。4答案与解析:D细节理解题。根据文章第三段和第四段可知,A.C.T. Academy是按照未来学校模型设计的,学校利用了尖端技术来支持学生对知识的追求,因此D项正确。B【语篇解读】文章主要介绍了一款用于治疗恐高症的app。5答案与解析:C主旨大意题。第一段是主题段,根据最后两句“Researchers have created a new virtual reality (VR) app to treat the fear of heights.The app just had a clinical trial.”可知,文章主要介绍了一款用于治疗恐高症的app。6答案与解析:B细节理解题
33、。根据第二段的最后一句“.make it much easier for people to get help for fears and other disorders.”和第三段的最后一句可知,这种疗法既方便,又不需要花很多钱。7答案与解析:B细节理解题。根据第四段的第一句“To test how effective their app was, Freeman and colleagues recruited 100 adult volunteers.”可知,研究人员做实验是为了测试这个app的有效性。8答案与解析:C细节理解题。根据最后一段的最后一句“And when it comes
34、 to helping people with more severe symptoms, VR probably wont replace trained therapists any time soon.”可知,当涉及帮助症状更严重的人时,VR很可能不会在短期内取代受过训练的治疗师,所以C项正确。C【语篇解读】本文是一篇说明文。本文主要介绍了未来的建筑是什么样子。9答案与解析:B细节理解题。根据第二段第一句“By the middle of the century, its believed that buildings will be able to talk to people thr
35、ough various sensors when the heating needs to be turned on.”可知,未来供热系统通过传感器来控制。10答案与解析:A细节理解题。根据第二段第四、五句“In the next 30 years, buildings will be made from concrete plastics and shapechanging materials. All of them can heal themselves at that time.”可知,未来建筑在灾难中可以自行恢复。11答案与解析:B细节理解题。根据第二段最后两句“As archit
36、ects are racing to develop the worlds tallest buildings, there will be a need for new kinds of elevators, through which vehicles could even travel into the buildings. German engineers have already started working on such technology called Multi.”可知,Multi的优点是能够让车辆在楼房中穿梭。12答案与解析:C词义猜测题。根据“.scientists
37、believe that buildings will be miles tall. Some of them may be very large.”可知,这里的they指的是future buildings。.七选五【语篇解读】本文是一篇说明文,介绍了将来人们的生活会有什么变化,分别从人口增长、计算机、工作时间、饮食和工作五个方面进行说明。1答案与解析:A根据空后可知,此段介绍未来人口会越来越多,故A项“人口增长快速”符合语境。2答案与解析:G此段主要介绍未来计算机的情况,结合语境和选项可知,G项符合语境。3答案与解析:F此处考查上下文逻辑关系,所填答案应是对前一句的引申。根据关键词比对可知,F项中的travel和空前的Traveling对应,故选F。4答案与解析:C此处考查段落大意。根据空后内容可知,本段主要介绍未来人们的饮食情况,故选C。5答案与解析:D此处考查前后句的因果关系。此段主要介绍未来人们的工作情况。空处是导致人们没有足够的工作来做的原因,故D项“危险和繁重的工作由机器人来做”符合语境。