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UNIT 10
Text A
Pre-reading Activities
First Listening
1. Rapid advances in technology are affecting education just like every other field. Have a look at this list of products and services that students of the future will have, and imagine what each one does. Then, as you listen to the tape, circle the products and services that you hear the students talk about.
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Second Listening
2. What other technological advances do you imagine will affect education in the 21st century? What about other aspects of human life and civilization?
The Next 30 years
Edward Cornish
In less than three years the world will reach the outstanding year 2000, and in less than four — on January 1, 2001, to be precise — a new millennium will begin. I am encouraged to offer my personal view of what is likely to happen in the next 30 years — a view that is heavily influenced by years of reading articles and books about the future.
To begin with, the next 30 years will almost certainly bring us incredible new achievements. The problems and dangers now facing the world are, in my judgement, far outweighed by solutions and opportunities. It is true enough that humans have an extraordinary genius for making mistakes, but it is balanced by our strong tendency to notice and correct them.
Rising Living Standards
The trends indicate that humans will be better off economically 30 years from now than they are today. Hundreds of millions of people will live in homes that will seem like palaces to their parents and grandparents. At the same time, brought together by telecommunications, people around the world will work together more efficiently than ever before. Expertise will flow easily and cheaply to places where it is needed. Computers and cellular phones will become commonplaces.
Thanks to genetic engineering, plants will grow bigger, mature faster, need less fertilizer, and resist insects and diseases. New materials will permit improvements in products ranging from refrigerators to automobiles; roofs may rarely need repairs; stockings and underwear may not wear out during the owner's lifetime.
Living to Be 200 Years Old
Life expectancy will rise around the world, creating a rapidly growing proportion of old people in the population, as well as the age of the oldest humans — now above 120 years. Rapid progress in biotechnology suggests that breakthroughs may occur that will enable medical science to slow or reverse the aging process. This could mean that many people born in the next 30 years may live to be 200, 300, or more years old.
Increased life expectancy has some serious drawbacks, however. As people get older, more will find themselves disabled. Happily, increasingly sophisticated medicines and devices to assist the ill and disabled will become available in the coming decades. Researchers are finding ways to prevent and even partially cure blindness, deafness, muscular deterioration, and other problems connected with aging. This means that increasing numbers of people will be able to work and support themselves for years beyond the typical retirement age of 65.
The Global Village
The nations of the world will become more tightly integrated because of rapidly improving telecommunications and transportation. A global culture will develop rapidly and take its pick of clothing styles, foods, drinks, games, sports and customs from countries everywhere.
A network of superhighways will link up the nations of Asia, Europe, and Africa. Engineers are already talking enthusiastically about a tunnel under the Mediterranean at Gibraltar to link Europe with Africa. And superhighways across the Eurasian land mass will allow residents of Shanghai and Hong Kong to drive comfortably and rapidly to destinations like Paris, Rome, and Stockholm. Travelers in a hurry will, of course, still prefer to fly, especially over long distances. Space-planes should be in service within the next 20 years, making flights from Tokyo to New York in only a couple of hours.
Humans Colonize Space
We will push the frontiers of human settlement in all directions. The Moon will acquire its first permanent base, and the human population living in space will rise steadily, as manufacturing develops aboard spacecraft and the resources of other planets are explored. Meanwhile, advancing technology will also solve many of the problems of living and working in unfriendly environments on Earth, so the population of Antarctica and the Polar Regions will climb steadily. The forbidding Himalayas may experience a development boom, including, perhaps, luxury hotels for tourists.
The pace of ocean development will speed up as seaside nations increasingly assert their ownership of the resources off their shores. Ocean farming will become increasingly attractive as food prices rise. Studies have shown that the biological productivity of the ocean can be greatly increased by adding certain chemicals.
Future Dangers and Problems
The 21st century will be a century of fantastic achievement, but it may be accompanied by horrors on an unheard-of scale, as was the 20th century with its world wars and atomic bombs. The biggest single cloud hanging over the next 30 years is violence — crime, terrorism, and war. The Cold War is over, but hot wars on a smaller scale must be expected. In addition, nuclear weapons may be used by terrorists.
The world's growing population and intensifying economic activity are increasingly destroying forests and polluting land, water, and air. Successful programs for reducing air pollution in many cities and restoring forests in many areas have demonstrated that environmental destruction is not irreversible, but the job will take great effort on a global scale.
Unfortunately, the steady rise in world population makes it likely that, for the world as a whole, environmental conditions will continue to worsen for some years to come. Though a number of precious animal species such as pandas may be preserved, thousands upon thousands of others will almost certainly perish during the next 50 years as their habitats shrink.
If we cannot look forward to a peaceful, problem-free future, we can at least comfort ourselves with the realization that it will probably be the best period of history we humans have ever experienced.
(937 words)
New Words
precise
a. 1. exact in form, detail, measurements, time, etc. 精确的
2. particular; exact; very 恰好的
3. sharply clear 极清楚的
millennium
n. a period of 1,000 years 一千年，千年期
outweigh
vt. 1. be greater in value or importance than 在价值（或重要性、影响等）上超过
2. be greater in weight 在重量上超过
grandparent
n. the parent of sb.'s father or mother 祖父或祖母；外祖父或外祖母
*telecommunication
n. 电信，远距离通信
efficiently
ad. in a way that works very well and without waste 效率高地；能胜任地
cellular
a. of a telephone system that works by radio 蜂窝移动电话系统的
*commonplace
n. things frequently seen, not anything special 寻常的事物，常见的事物
a. 平凡的，普通的
engineering
n. the science or profession of an engineer 工程学；工程师行业
fertilizer
n. a natural or chemical substance to help plants grow well 肥料
refrigerator
n. 冰箱
rarely
ad. seldom 很少，难得
underwear
n. 内衣
