World Future Society
People
People may live for up to 120 years and use new technology to help when people go blind, deaf and have other problems. The number of people over a hundred years old could go from 135,000 today to 2.2 million people by 2050. By 2015 people think that 100 million workers will be able to work from home for a company in a different country by using the Internet.
Money
Worldwide e-business will become even more successful with online shops that sell special products for each person, which will be brought to their house the next day.
Environment
The technology for making energy from wind and the Sun is growing very quickly. In the future wind and Sun energy could become much cheaper and many more countries could use it. This would be very useful in poor countries. The air in big cities would also become much cleaner and healthier as a result.
Society and culture
The Internet will help to create more worldwide friendships. Families may spend more time together as people will be able to do 24-hour online banking and shopping.
Technology                  
The new science of “nanotechnology” (very small robots or machines) will make all sorts of products smaller and lighter. Very, very small machines could take away rubbish, make things in factories, and help inside the human body by taking away fat. By 2012 people will be able to wear these small machines that look like watches, which will give them lots of information about their body and keep them healthy.
【小题1】What does the World Future Society do?

Life in the twenty-first century

The World Future Society is a group of people from more than 80 countries who are interested in how modern technology is making our world better, and who write reports about how it will change our lives.                                                                                                                                             The things that we will be able to do in the twenty-first century (since the year 2000) should help us live better lives in many ways, at home and at work, in our own country and around the world. Here are just some of them, put into five groups.

People

People may live for up to 120 years and use new technology to help when people go blind, deaf and have other problems. The number of people over a hundred years old could go from 135,000 today to 2.2 million people by 2050. By 2015 people think that 100 million workers will be able to work from home for a company in a different country by using the Internet.

Money

Worldwide e-business will become even more successful with online shops that sell special products for each person, which will be brought to their house the next day.

Environment

The technology for making energy from wind and the Sun is growing very quickly. In the future wind and Sun energy could become much cheaper and many more countries could use it. This would be very useful in poor countries. The air in big cities would also become much cleaner and healthier as a result.

Society and culture

The Internet will help to create more worldwide friendships. Families may spend more time together as people will be able to do 24-hour online banking and shopping.

Technology      

The new science of “nanotechnology” (very small robots or machines) will make all sorts of products smaller and lighter. Very, very small machines could take away rubbish, make things in factories, and help inside the human body by taking away fat. By 2012 people will be able to wear these small machines that look like watches, which will give them lots of information about their body and keep them healthy.

1.What does the World Future Society do?

  A. Look at how technology will make people happy.

  B. Look at how technology will change the world.

  C. Make technology work better for themselves.

  D. Make small machines to make us healthier.

2. How will technology help people?

  A. Help all people live for over 120 years.

  B. Help disabled people to get jobs.

  C. Make people healthier and live longer.

  D. Help workers to use the Internet.

3.How will people go shopping?

  A. In special shops.

  B. Using the Internet at certain times.

  C. Using the Internet any time of the day.

  D. Using nanotechnology.

4. How will technology help the environment?

  A. Poor countries will have enough energy.

  B. Wind energy will be cheaper than Sun energy.

  C. We will not need wind and Sun energy.

  D. Wind and Sun energy will be cheaper.

5.The new science of “nanotechnology” will _______.

  A. drive small machines to work for people

  B. make good-quality watches

  C. allow people to eat more

  D. make very small products

When the Audet family turns on the lights at Blue Farm, they are using electricity that comes from cows—cow manure (粪肥), to be specific.
Cows produce a lot of wastes. One cow can create 30 gallons of wastes each day. Now imagine the output of over 1,000 cows at Blue Farm. That’s really a big amount.
When farmers clean their barns, they put the wastes in a big heap, and spread some of them on their fields for fertilizer(肥料). But now places like Blue Spruce Farm have a new way of using cow wastes. They use them to produce electricity.
Here’s how it works: A big machine moves back and forth cleaning the barn floor. “The cows aren’t bothered,” says Marie Audet. “They are animals of habit; they get used to it, and just lift one foot and then another to let it go by.”
The machine pushes the manure into a big 600-gallon tank like a small swimming pool. The tank is called a digester (化粪池) because what happens there is just like what happens inside a cow: Bacteria(细菌) get to work and continue to digest the manure.
Methane gas (甲烷、沼气)in the atmosphere is known as a “greenhouse” gas because it keeps heat just like a greenhouse does, causing our planet to warm up. That’s an environmental concern. But the digester has a good result. Its gas is kept and used to power electric generators (发电机).
At Blue Farm, the generators make enough electricity to power 400 homes. The Audet family sells the extra electricity they can’t use themselves.
【小题1】We learn from the text that the Audet family is using cow wastes to ______.

默写（共40小题，每小题0.5分，满分20分）
【小题1】: Big Ben takes its name from Sir Benjamin Hall who __________  __________ __________ the making of the clock when the new Houses of Parliament were being built.
It is not only  __________  __________  __________, but is extremely accurate as well.
Big Ben has rarely gone wrong. Once, however, it  __________  __________ give the correct time.
【小题2】: It was over 30 feet  __________  _________ and had a 2,500-horsepower engine. Although Campbell  __________ _________ __________  __________ over 304 miles per hour, he had great difficulty in controlling the car because a tyre burst during the first run.
【小题3】: They have all __________  __________ __________  __________ by a boy who, while playing truant, traveled 1,600 miles.
He has surely set up a record for the thousands of children who  __________ __________ evading school.
【小题4】:   He  __________  __________  __________  _________ Paris
until he built his home on the island.
British theatre is especially  __________  __________  __________ __________ William Shakespeare and his plays.
Also, it is still common to throw things onto the stage after a performance in a British theatre, but it is more usual fore people to throw flowers
__________ __________ money or vegetables today.
【小题5】: Han often said, “ __________  __________  __________  __________ drive a genius like you, Dr Einstein.”
After looking through the concerto, Mozart’s father was  __________ __________ __________ speak.
For example, when he was travelling, he often  __________  __________  __________ where he had placed his tickets.