During the twentieth century, cars, electric lights, space travel and amazing advances in medicine changed people’s lives. So what might this new century bring? There are hundreds of predictions flying around — let’s have a light-hearted look at some of them.

In a recent UK survey, teenagers were asked to make predictions about the year 2020. One of the most common predictions was that school uniforms won’t be around. They also predicted that both girls and boys will wear make-up more often, and more than 75% of men will wear skirts regularly. My dad is 65 next Saturday — I think I’ll buy him a skirt as a birthday present and tell him he’ll soon be in fashion!

Other predictions involve changing roles of men and women. By 2017, some people say that single men of working age will form more than 10% of all families. It is also predicted that washing powder advertisements will include more men because more of them will do housework. I’ll tell that to my husband when he gets home and see how keen he is to wash the dishes!

Many predictions are about crime and safety problems. Some people think that crime will improve and the world will become a more peaceful place. Others believe that crime is going to worsen and that people will stay at home becoming completely dependent on the Internet for shopping and work. It is also predicted that you will need an electronic card to get into parks as parents demand safe play areas for their children. This is old news for me --- our local government is going to introduce one this summer.

Technology is predicted to play an even more important role in our lives in the future. Some parents might have cameras at home so they can keep an eye on their children while they are out. Quick, kids, turn off the TV and do your homework!

Here’s another prediction. Researchers have concluded that cultural activity may add years to your life. The cinema, theatre and concerts may give us a longer life because they encourage strong feelings. Well, we’re watching Bridget Jones’ Diary this Friday night. Will that help us live longer?

Let’s finish up with my favourite prediction. In the future, elderly people are going to make up a larger proportion of the world’s population than ever before. In Britain, an estimated 100,000 people now in their thirties may live to be 100. And that includes me! I’ll have a big, big party, I promise!

1. The writer’s father ________ .

   A. has just turned sixty-five

   B. wears skirts

   C. is very fashionable

   D. is about to turn sixty-five

2.Why might more men do housework in the future?

   A. Washing powder advertisements suggest it.

   B. Men won’t want to work in offices any more.

   C. Traditional roles of men and women will change.

   D. Women will refuse to wash the dishes.

3.According to the passage, people might ________ , if crime worsens.

   A. need electronic cards to get into their homes

   B. stay at home and depend on the Internet

   C. help to make the world a more peaceful place

   D. work harder and make more money

4.Which of the following is NOT true？

   A. It’s likely that the writer is to live to be 100.

   B. The writer promises that she is going to hold a big, big party soon.

   C. Without an electronic card, you can’t get into a park freely in the future.

   D. The writer holds a positive attitude towards the changes in the new century.

5.From the passage, we may infer that the writer is probably ____ .

   A. a professional news reporter.

   B. a young and attractive sales girl.

   C. a middle-aged British housewife.

   D. a responsible government official.

 

【答案】

 

1.D

2.C

3.B

4.B

5.C

【解析】略

 

練習(xí)冊(cè)系列答案
相關(guān)習(xí)題

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源： 題型：閱讀理解

It was the district sports meet. My foot still hadn’t healed(痊愈) from a(n) ___36___ injury. I had___37___ whether or not I should attend the meet. But there I was, ___38___for the 3,000-meter run.

“Ready…set…” The gun popped and we were off. The other girls rushed ___39___ me. I felt ___40___ as I fell farther and farther behind.

“Hooray!” shouted the crowd. It was the loudest___41___ I had ever heard at a meet. The first-place runner was two laps（圈）ahead of me when she crossed the finish line.

“Maybe I should___42___, I thought as I moved on. ___43___, I decided to keep going. During the last two laps, I ran ___44___ and decided not to ___45___in track next year. It wouldn’t be worth it, ___46___my foot did heal.

When I finished, I heard a cheer--___47___ than the one I’d heard earlier. I turned around and___48___, the boys were preparing for their race. “They must be cheering for the boys. ”

I was leaving ___49___ several girls came up to me. “Wow, you’ve got courage!” one of them told me.

“Courage? I just ___50___a race!” I thought.

“I would have given up on the first lap,” said another girl. “We were cheering for you. Did you hear us?”

Suddenly I regained___51___. I decided to ___52___ track next year. I realized strength and courage aren’t always ___53___ in medals and victories, but in the ___54___we overcome(戰(zhàn)勝). The strongest people are not always the people who win, ___55___ the people who don’t give up when they lose.

36. A. slighter B. worse  C. earlier D. heavier

37. A. expected      B. supposed    C. imagined    D. doubted

38. A. late      B. eager  C. ready  D. thirsty

39. A. from behind B. ahead of     C. next to       D. close to

40. A. ashamed      B. astonished  C. excited       D. frightened

41. A. cheer    B. shout  C. cry     D. noise

42. A. slow down   B. drop out     C. go on  D. speed up

43. A. Therefore     B. Otherwise   C. Besides      D. However

44. A. with delight B. with fear    C. in pain       D. in advance

45. A. play     B. arrive  C. race    D. attend

46. A. even if  B. only if       C. unless D. until

47. A. weaker B. longer C. lower  D. louder

48. A. well enough B. sure enough       C. surprisingly enough   D. strangely enough

49. A. while    B. when  C. as       D. since

50. A. finished       B. won    C. passed D. lost

51. A. cheer    B. hope   C. interest       D. experience

52. A. hold on B. turn to       C. begin with  D. stick with

53. A. measured     B. praised       C. tested  D. increased

54. A. sadness B. struggles    C. diseases      D. tiredness

55. A. or B. nor     C. and     D. but

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源： 題型：閱讀理解

Millions of people all over the world use the word OK. In fact, some people say the word is used more often than any other word in the world. OK means all right or acceptable. It expresses agreement or approval.

    Some people say it came from the Native American Indian tribe known as the Choctaw(喬克托語(yǔ)). The Choctaw word “okeh” means the same as the American word okay. Experts say early explorers in the American West spoke the Choctaw language in the nineteenth century.

But many people doubt this. Language expert Allen Walker Read wrote about the word “OK” in reports published in the 1960s. He said the word began being used in the 1830s.    Some foreign-born people wrote “ all correct” as “o-l-l-k-o-r-r-e-c-t”, and used the letters OK. Other people say a railroad worker named Obadiah Kelly invented the word long ago. They said he put the first letters of his name---O and K---on each object people gave him to send on the train. 

  The organization supported Martin Van Buren for president in 1840. They called their group the OK club. The letters were taken from the name of the town where Martin was born---Old Kinderhook, New York.

Then there is the expression A-OK. It is a space-age expression. It was used in 1961 during the flight of astronaut Alan Shepard. He was the first American to be launched into space. His flight ended when his spacecraft landed in the ocean, as planned. Shepard reported, “Everything is A-OK.”    One story says it was first used during the early days of the telephone to tell an operator that a message had been received.

There are also funny ways to say okay.    These expressions were first used in the 1930s. Today, a character on the American television series “The Simpsons” says it another way. He says okely-doke.

A. Some people say okey-dokey or okey-doke.

B. Still others say a political organization invented the word.

C. Therefore, it has become popular in that area from then on.

D. But many experts don’t agree on what the expression means.

E. Still, language experts do not agree about where the word came from.

F. It was a short way of writing a different spelling of the word “all correct”.

G. However, some experts say the expression did not begin with the space age.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源： 題型：閱讀理解

閱讀下面的短文，然后按照要求寫(xiě)一篇150詞左右的英語(yǔ)短文。

Beijing, Oct. 2, 2008 --- Tourist destinations around the country had at least 4.05 million visitors, up 33.4 percent year-on-year, during the first four days of the week-long national holiday.

The tourism revenue(財(cái)政收入) jumped 37.5 percent year-on-year.

This year’s “golden week” National Day holiday runs from Sept. 29 to Oct.5. In previous years, the seven-day holiday kicked off on Oct. 1.

Beijing had a visitor increase of more than 60 percent, with many tourists drawn to see the Olympic venues(場(chǎng)所).

About 920,000 people, up 62 percent year-on-year, visited 21 major tourist sites in Beijing, according to figures released by the office.

The must-see Forbidden City welcomed 120,000 visitors, up 140 percent.

Shanghai saw a 52.2-percent rise in the number of tourists at more than 70 sites.

In Sichuan province, about 107,400 people, an increase of 360 percent from last year, visited the ancient town of Huanglongxi near Chengdu.

Chinese trains carried more than 5.4 million passengers on Wednesday alone, an increase of almost 13 percent. About 557, 300 people traveled by air and 53.2 million people hit the roads on the same day.

[寫(xiě)作內(nèi)容]

從2008年起，國(guó)家調(diào)整了假日設(shè)置，五一黃金周被取消，增加了傳統(tǒng)節(jié)日的休假，對(duì)此人們?cè)u(píng)價(jià)不一。在今年國(guó)慶前，網(wǎng)上流傳一些專(zhuān)家和機(jī)構(gòu)的說(shuō)法，國(guó)家將會(huì)在近期取消“十一”黃金周，又引起了各種反響。請(qǐng)你對(duì)此現(xiàn)象發(fā)表意見(jiàn)。

內(nèi)容要點(diǎn)包括:

以約30個(gè)詞概括新聞報(bào)道；

用約120個(gè)詞談?wù)勀愕挠^點(diǎn)，內(nèi)容包括：

支持者意見(jiàn)：雖然縮短了“五一”長(zhǎng)假，但增加了三個(gè)傳統(tǒng)節(jié)日，有利于提高傳統(tǒng)文化意識(shí)，減輕了旅游地的接待壓力，增加了親人團(tuán)聚的機(jī)會(huì)．．．．．．

反對(duì)者意見(jiàn)：會(huì)導(dǎo)致長(zhǎng)假期間的交通更加擁擠，減少了遠(yuǎn)方的人員回家探親的機(jī)會(huì)．．．．．．

你的觀點(diǎn)。

[寫(xiě)作要求]

1．你可以使用實(shí)例或其它論述方法支持你的觀點(diǎn)，也可以參照閱讀材料的內(nèi)容但不得直接引用原文中的句子；

2．文中不能出現(xiàn)真實(shí)姓名和學(xué)校名稱(chēng)；

[評(píng)分標(biāo)準(zhǔn)]   概括準(zhǔn)確，語(yǔ)言規(guī)范，內(nèi)容合適，篇章連貫。

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源： 題型：閱讀理解

My grandmother was an iron-willed woman, the feared head of the family. When I was five years old, she invited some friends to her apartment for a party. 26the guests was a neighborhood big shot(大亨). They had a little girl about my age who was27 and very much used to getting her own way.

Grandmother spent a lot of time with the big shot and his family. She 28 them the most important members of her social circle and tried hard to please them. At one point during the party, I 29my way to the bathroom and closed the door behind me. A minute or two later, the little girl 30the bathroom door and simply walked in. I was still sitting down. “Don’t you know that little girls aren't31to come into the bathroom when a little boy is using it!?” I shouted. The32I had piled upon her shocked the little girl. Then she started to cry. She tearfully33to her parents and my grandmother. Grandmother was waiting for me when I left the bathroom. I received the longest, sharpest34. After her scolding was over and I had been dismissed, the party 35.

Twenty minutes later, all that changed. Grandmother walked by the bathroom and noticed a flood of water36out from under the door. She37the bathroom door and saw that the sink and tub were plugged(塞)up and that the taps 38at full blast (擰到最大). Everyone knew who did it. The guests quickly formed a39wall around me, but Grandmother was40 angry that she almost got to me anyway.

My grandfather took me41to the window. He was a kind and gentle man, full of wisdom and patience.42did he raise his voice to anyone, and never did he43 his wife. He looked at me with much curiosity, 44 angry or upset.

“Tell me,” he asked, “why did you do it?”

“Well, she shouted at me 45,” I said earnestly. “Now she's got something to shout about.”

Grandfather didn’t speak right away. He just sat there, looking at me and smiling. “Eric,” he said at last, “you are my revenge(復(fù)仇).”

26. A. Between             B. Among             C. Around             D. Beside

27. A. spoiled               B. harmed             C. liked                D. concerned

28. A. imagined            B. told                  C. evaluated           D. considered

29. A. made                 B. found              C. pushed             D. wound

30. A. closed                B. opened             C. beat                 D. tapped

31. A. expected            B. asked                      C. supposed          D. told

32. A. happiness           B. depression               C. embarrassment D. anger

33. A. complained               B. apologized      C. replied             D. referred

34. A. cry                    B. blame               C. comment         D. demand

35. A. picked up            B. broke down              C. carried on          D. took off

36. A. moving              B. stirring            C. floating            D. streaming

37. A. pushed open       B. pulled down     C. shut up             D. knocked at

38. A. had gone             B. were going        C. went                D. had been going

39. A. productive          B. hard                 C. protective         D. rough

40. A. so                      B. too                   C. as                    D. very

41. A. by his hand               B. by the hand       C. by surprise        D. with anxiety

42. A. Often                 B. Sometimes        C. Always             D. Rarely

43 A. argue with           B. talk with           C. put up with       D. come to terms with

44. A. other than           B. instead of          C. rather than         D. more than

45. A. for something    B. for nothing       C. without doubt   D. with sympathy

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源： 題型：閱讀理解

Humans are social animals. They live in groups all over the world. As these groups of people live apart form other groups, over the years and centuries they develop their own habits and ideas, which from different cultures. One important particular side of every culture is how its people deal with time.

Time is not very important in nonindustrial societies. The Nuer people of East Africa, for example, do not even have a word TIME that is in agreement with the abstract thing we call time. The daily lives of the people of such nonindustrial societies are likely to be patterned around their physical needs and natural events rather than around a time schedule(時(shí)間表) based on the clock. They cook and eat when they are hungry and sleep when the sun goes down. They plant crops during the growing seasons and harvest them when the crops are ripe. They measure time not by a clock or calendar(日歷), but by saying that an event takes place before or after some other event. Frequently such a society measures days in terms of "sleeps" or longer periods in terms of "moons". Some cultures, such as the Eskimos of Greenland measure seasons according to the migration(遷徙) of certain animals.

Some cultures which do not have a written language or keep written records have developed interesting ways of "telling time". For example, when several Australian aborigines(土著居民) want to plan an event for a future time, one of them places a stone on a cliff or in a tree. Each day the angle of the sun changes slightly. In a few days, the rays of the sun strike the stone in a certain way. When this happens, the people see that the agreed-upon time has arrived and the event can take place.

In contrast(成對(duì)比), exactly correct measurement of time is very important in modern, industrialized societies. This is because industrialized societies require the helpful efforts of many people in order to work. For a factory to work efficiently (well, quickly and without waste),for example, all of the workers must work at the same time. Therefore, they must know what time to start work in the morning and what time they may go home in the afternoon. Passengers must know the exact time that an airplane will arrive or depart. Students and teachers need to know when a class starts and ends. Stores must open on time in order to serve their customers. Complicated (復(fù)雜的) societies need clocks and calendars. Thus, we can see that if each person worked according to his or her own schedule, a complicated society could hardly work at all.

By saying "Humans are social animals",the author means________.

A. they live all over the world

B. they are different from other animals

C. they live in one place, district or country, considered as a whole

D. they are divided into many groups

Time is not very important in non-industrial societies, because peoplein those societies________.

A. don't have the word TIME in their languages

B. don't get used to using clocks and other timepieces

C. don't measure time in their daily lives around an exact time schedule

D. don't need to plan their daily lives around an exact time schedule

The Australian aborigines' way of"telling time" is based on________.

A. the change of the sun rays            B. the movement of the earth in relation to the sun

C. the position of the stone             D. the position of the tree or the cliff

Which of the following might be the best title for this passage?

A. Time and Culture                  B. The Measurment of Time

C. Time Schedule and Daily Life        D. Clock,Calendar and Society

查看答案和解析>>

同步練習(xí)冊(cè)答案