Matt Mason has seen the future—and it’s fun. Mason likes thinking about how machines can make our lives easier by doing the work we hate, such as cleaning. He shows a hard floor cleaning system（系统）that’s built into the wall: it will blow dirt to a part of the room where it will be collected by a vacuum（吸尘器）. Then the system will drop some cleaner on the floor and an arm will mop（用拖把擦）it up. “This may trouble you,” says Kara, an expert in Mason’s company. “But you can program it to come on at 3 a. m., and it will just wet-mop the floor for you.”

When it comes to the kitchen, Bruce Beihoff, another 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（能量）lost from your kitchen to make the whole home warm.”

“The fridge will be the center of the home,” says Daniel Lee, a market expert. The fridge will have a touch screen （触摸屏幕）where you can watch TV, surf the Internet, check your e-mail, keep a shopping list and order vegetables. “Your fridge is the first place you go in the morning and the last place at night,” says Lee.

Ever wonder why a 1.9-meter man and a 1.6-meter woman have to cook meals on counters（工作台）of the same height. “The height was decided over 50 years ago, according to the height of ordinary women,” says Jane Langmuir, an expert of cooking machines. “But times have changed. We have made a new counter where you press a button and it moves to whatever height you want.” At the same time, Ted Selker at MIT’s Counter lab has made the Dishmaker which lets you make dishes and bowls out of plastics at home. After each meal, the dishes are changed straight back into plastics.

1. How many inventions are mentioned in the passage?

    A. Three.               B. Four.                C. Five.          D. Six.

 2. In future, if you want to clean your house, you will _________.

A. have a recycling system built in the wall

B. get up early to start your cleaning system

C. use your fridge to give orders to a cleaner

D. leave the work to a kind of cleaning machine

  3. What is future kitchen work like?

A. Terrific and relaxing.               B. Easy and interesting.

C. Enjoyable and exciting.            D. Funny and amazing.

  4. From the passage, we know _________.

A. people will have more and more time enjoying themselves

B. future kitchens can provide all the energy for our life every day

C. the fridge can be found in the center of a future house

D. people must be expert at computers to use these inventions

　　Matt Mason has seen the future--and it's fun. Mason likes thinking about how machines can make our lives easier by doing the work we hate, such as cleaning. He shows a hard floor cleaning system（系统）that's built into the wall: it will blow dirt to a part of the room where it will be collected by a vacuum（吸尘器）. Then the system will drop some cleaner on the floor and an arm will mop（用拖把擦） it up. “This may trouble you,” says Kara, an expert in Mason's company. “But you can program it to come on at 3 a m, and it will just wet-mop the floor for you.”

　　When it comes to the kitchen, Bruce Beihoff, another 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（能量）lost from your kitchen to make the whole home warm.”

　　“The fridge will be the center of the home,” says Daniel Lee, a market expert. The fridge will have a touch screen（触摸屏幕）where you can watch TV, surf the Internet, check your e-mail, keep a shopping list and order vegetables. “Your fridge is the first place you go in the morning and the last place at night,” says Lee.

　　Ever wonder why a 1.9-meter man and a 1.6-meter woman have to cook meals on counters（工作台）of the same height. “The height was decided over 50 years ago, according to the height of ordinary women,” says Jane Langmuir, an expert of cooking machines. “But times have changed. We have made a new counter where you press a button and it moves to whatever height you want.” At the same time, Ted Selker at MIT's Counter lab has made the dishmaker which lets you make dishes and bowls out of plastics at home. After each meal, the dishes are changed straight back into plastics.

[　　]

[　　]

A．have a recycling system built in the wall

B．get up early to start your cleaning system

C．use your fridge to give orders to a cleaner

D．leave the work to a kind of cleaning machine

[　　]

[　　]

A．We will eat something in the fridge from the morning to the evening.

B．We can surf the Internet and check our e-mails from it.

C．We can buy vegetables and watch TV from it.

D．We will have some fridges in our homes.

[　　]

A．people will have more and more time enjoying themselves

B．future kitchens can provide all the energy for our life every day

C．the fridge can be found in the center of a future house

D．people must be expert at computers to use these inventions

If you could see a movie of your life before you lived it, would you want to live it? Probably not. The excitement of living is that you don’t know what’s coming.
Sure, it’s hard to see uncertainty in such positive（积极的）light when you’re out of work, or when you feel like you’re failing. But uncertainty is really another word for chance.
When Allison graduated from Harvard, she had chances all over the place but had no idea what she wanted to do. She took a job in consulting（咨询）, but she knew she wouldn’t stay there. She took the GRE and scored so high that she was able to increase her income（收入）by teaching students. Still, she didn’t think she wanted to go to graduate school. Allison knew she wasn’t doing what she wanted, but she didn’t know what she wanted.
She worried. All her friends were going to graduate school or starting their own businesses. She was lost and felt that she would never find anything out. After six years, Allison, by having a general（全面的）plan in mind, got married, moved to the Midwest, and used her consulting experience to get a great job. Allison realized that she spent her years finding her way: time well spent, and time we must all take if we’re being honest with ourselves.
The only way to lead an interesting life is to face uncertainty and make a choice. Otherwise your life is not your own—it is a path someone else has chosen. Moments of uncertainty are when you create your life, when you become who you are. Uncertainty usually begins with a job hunt, but it doesn’t end there. Every new role we take on means another round of uncertainty. Instead of fearing it, you should find some ways to deal with uncertainty.
【小题1】From the first two paragraphs, we can learn that                     .