By 2050
Futurologists（未来学家）predict that life will probably be very different in 2050.
TV channels（频道）will have disappeared. Instead, people will choose a program from a “menu” and a computer will send the program directly to the television. Today, we can use the World Wide Web to read newspaper stories and see pictures on a computer thousands of kilometers away. By 2050, music, films, programs, newspapers, and books will come to us by computer.
Cars will run on new, clean fuels and they will go very fast. Cars will have computers to control the speed and there won’t be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to your destination. Space planes will take people halfway around the world in 2 hours. Today, the United States Space Shuttle can go into space and land on Earth again. By 2050, space planes will fly all over the world and people will fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just 2 hours.
Robots will have replaced people in factories. Many factories already use robots. Big computers prefer robots—they don’t ask for pay rises or go on strike, and they work 24 hours a day. By 2050, we will see robots everywhere—in factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.
Medical technology will have conquered many diseases. Today, there are devices（设备）that connect directly to the brain to help people hear. By 2050, we will be able to help blind and deaf people to see and hear again.
Scientist will have discovered how to control genes（基因）. Scientists have already produced clones（克隆）of animals. By 2050, scientists will be able to produce clones of people, and decide how they look, how they behave and how clever they are. Scientists will be able to do these things, but should they?
小题1:According to the passage, the following can be realized today EXCEPT __________.
A．reading newspapers on a computer
B．making a space shuttle go into space and land on Earth again
C．creating cloned animals
D．choosing TV programs freely from a “menu”小题2:We can learn from the passage that some big companies prefer robots to human workers, because human workers __________.
A．can work 24 hours a day
B．often ask for more pay
C．are not clever enough
D．are often late for work小题3:From Paragraph 5 we can infer that __________.
A．there will be no blind and deaf people by 2050
B．few diseases will attack people by 2050
C．devices are connected directly to the brain to help people hear
D．medical technology will be more effective by 2050小题4:What is the author’s attitude towards the cloning technology?
A．The author does not support the use of cloning technology.
B．The author thinks human cloning is impossible.
C．The author does not really support the idea of human cloning.
D．The author is quite excited about human cloning.
