More and more people like keeping pets, so pet hospitals are usually very busy. Kind persons who love animals are needed to provide help in busy pet hospitals. Those vets (兽医) will teach them how to take care of the pets.

    Scientists think that pets will probably be much smaller because people in the future will live in much smaller space. Scientists are now working on making very small farm animals. The same thing might be done to make small cats and dogs.

    It's said that one day you might own a panther (豹) as a pet. Some scientists believe that they might have to start turning wild animals into pets since this might be the only way to save them from dying out.

    What about buying a robot to be a pet? This may sound silly, buy it could become true. Robot dogs have been made to sell. They are like real dogs. These pets might become more and more popular in the future.

    Lots of people want pets while they are on holidays. A hotel in Minnesota has solved this problem. They lend cats to their guests. Many experts (专家) believe that this idea will become more and more popular. It is very possible that in the future you will be able to order a pet, as well as room service, at a hotel.

    How cool would it be if people could（travel）in tubes（管道）? They may travel to another city in just（minute）. In the near future, this might not only happen in films,also in real life. The first open air test of the tube train took placeMay 11, 2016. It happened in the Nevada desert, the USA. Elon Musk（have）the idea of developing the tube train. He isfounder（创始人）of the American space company SpaceX. He calls the tube train the Hyperloop. The Hyperloop will be even（fast）than planes. It will go about 1, 200 kilometres per hour. Planes usually（flight）800 to 1,100 kilometres per hour. The company Hyperloop One is still（work）on the tube train. They want people to travel（use）the Hyperloop by 2021.

Hello! I'm a robot called Skybot F-850. I'm 180 cm tall weigh 160 kg. I become famous now. I'm the first human-like robot to go into outer space!

Aug 22, I went to space in a spacecraft(宇宙飞船). My job is （do）tasks that are too（danger）for humans. For example, I will do some work outside of a space station.

I will also work as assistant (助手). When there（be）no one on the space station. I will do my own work. If you have any question about（me）work, I will do my （good）to answer you.

I （return）to Earth on Sept 7. It'll be so （excited）to travel into space!

Nowadays, many people drive their cars to work. There are a lot of cars in the street and the1is very busy. So sometimes it is not2 for people to get to work on time. When you are going to be late, you only dream of taking a plane there. Can3dream come true?

Yes! You can take a plane in months!

Four engineers in Germany are4in making planes. They are making a new plane-Lilium jet. It doesn't look like a plane5an egg. Many people think it looks funny and interesting, The great "egg" can take two people to the sky and6      three hundred kilometers in one hour. That's really great.

Some people call Lilium jet "a flying car". Why? Firstly, it's not difficult for people to learn to drive it. People can drive it just like driving a car. But it can go 7and farther than a car. Secondly, Lilium jet is not very big, only a quarter of a plane. So it doesn't need a(n)8. Only a small place is OK. It can stop anywhere. In the future, the "flying car" will come into people's life and9our ways of trip.

Lilium jet will come on the market soon.10you want to make your trip easy and funny; why not buy one? I'm sure you will have a good time on it.

    What can we do whenever Earth faces a disaster? Is the only solution running away from the planet in spaceships? The latest Chinese sci-fi movie, The Wondering Earth, offers a different and more ambitious（有雄心的）idea.

    The film is based on a short story by Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin. In the film, Earth is in danger of being destroyed by the dying sun. Humans around the world work together to build a giant engine system that will push Earth away from the sun. We're taking the Earth with us to run away.

    What makes The Wandering Earth different from Hollywood-style space films? It's probably the special cultural background. For thousands of years, “homeland” has rooted in the hearts and minds of Chinese people. One old saying is luoyeguigen. It means returning to one's homeland in old age, like fallen leaves returning to the roots of their tree. There are also many ancient poems about homeland. “The season called the White Dew begins tonight / Nowhere as in our native place is the moon so bright” (露从今夜白，月是故多明). These all show that Chinese people have the tight bond（情感纽带）with their homeland.

    What is Chinese sci-fi? Guo Fan, the film's director said: "Chinese sci-fi is a way to express our cultural and the spiritual core (精神内核). Otherwise, we're just imitating（模仿）others and telling the same American stories." And the film was released on February 5, 2019, the first day of Chinese New Year. It was a time when many people had just made the hard journey back to their hometowns. It seems the best time to tell this Chinese sci-fi story. Anyway, to us Chinese, Earth goes wherever humans go, because it's our home.

    A new report shows what life might be like in 100 years from now. Experts on space and architecture(建筑), and city planners gave their ideas on life in 2116. Twenty－five years ago, we could not imagine how greatly the Internet would change our lives. Now the Internet has revolutionized the way we communicate and learn. They said the changes in the next century would be even more unbelievable.

    The way we live, work and play will be totally different from today. There will be many tall buildings, underwater cities, and holidays in space. People will work at home and have virtual(虚拟的) work meetings. People will have 3D printers to "print" everything they need at home, such as food, clothes and so on. There will also be less need for doctors. Our home health robot will tell us what the problem is and give us treatment. We will also go into space for holidays and get resources that we have used up on the Earth. Researchers interviewed 2，000 adults about the predictions, and most of them thought they were most likely to happen!

    The future is coming! All over the world there are many new ideas for new places to live and work in and some of them will be in the sea! They will be very big and lots of people will live and work in them. The Americans are planning to build a town called Atlantis City. It will be in the sea, about five miles away from the land. But the most exciting idea comes from Japan. It is called Aeropolis. Aeropolis will be a huge sea city with parks, schools, a hospital and an airport…and it will move! It will travel slowly around the world. There are just two problems. Aeropolis will cost (花费) a lot of money to make. And for people who get seasick, it won't be much fun.

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Future astronauts could travel with emotional support robots

    To help astronauts of the future survive (幸免于) the mental (精神的) challenges that come with staying in space for quite a long time, space travelers‟ tasks could soon be accompanied(陪伴) by AI-powered, empathetic (有同理心的, 同感的) robotic helpers.

    Not only does space travel present astronauts with lots of physical stresses, spending months or years in such a physically demanding (要求高的) place with limited space and the same people can also raise many mental tests as well. According to MIT Technology Review, scientists are working to alleviate astronauts from some of the latter challenges by creating "an AI assistant that's able to feel human emotion and respond (做出反应) with empathy."

    While such a technology would prove itself useful by being able to predict the needs of the

crew members in space and "intervene (干预) if their mental health is in danger," it has the potential to be life-saving when humans choose to explore beyond Earth's gravitational field (引力场) and towards deep space.

    Though astronauts currently on the International Space Station have an intelligent robot to interact with called CIMON, it is short of proper emotional intelligence according to NASA CTO Tom Soderstrom. As a result, a team at the organization's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is working on a more complex (复杂的) emotional support companion that can control a spacecraft's functioning in addition to tracking the crew members‟ behaviours.

    Right now in the lab, an AI-equipped robot called Henry the Helper can be found walking around the grounds assisting visitors who appear confused or lost based on their facial expression. Two more emotionally intelligent robots are expected to be introduced later this year, one of which is said to be able to take part in conversations more complex than giving navigation(导航) assistance.

    The team's final goal is to make a companion named Fiona the Future a reality, an emotionally intelligent cross-platform system. Fiona, if all goes according to the JPL's plans, will help keep astronauts of the future stay mentally fit as they start their journeys to deep space.

Visiting outer space is still a far dream for anyone who isn't an astronaut, but a day trip to the stars is already open for people to order!

A new company (公司), Space Perspective, is planning tests with passengers. It has big plans to run up to 500 flights from different places across the USA by 2024. If successful, reaching the outer side of space could be as easy as flying abroad in a few years' time. The plan will be for spacemen and up to eight passengers to travel in Neptune, a capsule (太空舱) tied to a balloon the size of a football field.

They will move slowly upwards right to the side of space, 30 km away from the Earth. There, space tourists will be able to look back at the Earth and out to dark space and the sight of millions of stars. Although the price is yet to be fixed, the expensive flight, which will take six hours, is likely to cost over ￡100, 000. Because the capsule remains within the Earth's atmosphere (大气层), no special clothing or training are needed. It means that older people or those with health problems will be included.

One problem may be the method of landing back on the Earth. The balloon moves back down from space until it falls down in the sea. Passengers, spacemen, capsule and balloon are then gotten back by ship.

Now Neptune faces competition from the Stratollite, a balloon being developed by a company called World View Enterprises, while the super-rich Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are all pouring money into developing business space flying machines. The advantage of the balloon is that it will be cheaper than a space plane or rocket.

Space travel may soon be a reality (现实), but how visitors get there is still a very open question.

    What do you think the future will be like? Here are some answers from some students.

    Mary: If we don't take good care of the Earth now, our children and grandchildren will be born into a world with much pollution (污染). There will be fewer trees and more buildings, because there will be more people.

    Jack: I agree with Mary. Things will be worse. The weather in the future will be much hotter. Humans won't be able to live on the Earth. We will have to look for another planet to live on.

    Linda: I think the life in the future will be better. Most people in the world will use "green cars" by 2020, so there will be less pollution and people will live to be 200 years old. As for space travel, I would say, we will visit Mars (火星) in about fifty years.

Fill in each blank with a proper word with the help of the given letter.

Have you ever imagined t to other countries without your paper passport? In the f, there will be a new kind of passport called the “cloud passport” and it will come into your d life someday. Your paper passport will become history.

The cloud passport will have your name, photos and so on. It is easy f you to check them on the computer.

If you take a paper passport with you, you might lose it. H , with the cloud passport, you don't have to worry about that. Do you think the cloud passport is a great idea?

This is the year 2070. Today is my (fifty) birthday, but I look like a person of eighty-five. I have serious kidney (肾脏) problems because I don't have enough water (drink). I'm afraid I don't have much time left to live. I'm already one of the oldest people in this society.

I remember when I (be) five years old, everything was very different. There were lots of trees in the parks. I could enjoy a shower for half  hour. At that time,  /'wɪmɪn/ all had beautiful hair. Now, we have to shave (剃光) our heads to keep them clean without the use of water.

I remember there were "Saving Water" warnings in many public places, but nobody (pay) attention. We believed water would last forever. Now, all the rivers and lakes are either dry or polluted. Water is much (expensive) than gold and diamonds.

In the past, doctors suggested adults drink eight glasses of water a day. Nowadays, I am allowed half a glass only. Most people are weak and sick.

When my son asks me about my childhood, I tell him about how pleasant it was to fish in the rivers  how healthy people were. When he asks, "Why is there no clean water now?" I feel guilty (有罪的). I belong  those people who simply turned a blind eye to all the warnings.

I hope the people living in the 2020s (true) understand the importance of saving water.

In recent years, there have been many films about robots trying to take over the world. Studies show that up to 20 million factory jobs worldwide could be taken by robots in the next 10 years. Some people are worried about what might happen in the future.

On 8" September, 2020, The Guardian published (发表) an article written by a robot called GPT-3. It wrote that "robot" comes from the Greek word for "slave" (奴隶) and humans have nothing to fear from robots, which are only here to help humans. However, the fact that a robot could write such an article has made some people feel even more uneasy. Where is the robot technology heading? Can robots and humans work together?

What's your opinion on this matter?

A. Birds are colorful and nice to watch. Some birds can even say hello to the master. They are safe and stay in their cages, but training a bird is not easy.

B. Hamsters (仓鼠) don't need a large place to live in and can be easily taken care of. You can play with them. But if you touch them with your fingers, you may get hurt.

C. lf you prefer a quiet home, fish may be your best choice. They are beautiful and won't stop you from sleeping. But cleaning the fish tank needs much time.

D. Many families keep dogs because they are smart and faithful. They can play with you and even understand your words. But you need to spend time walking them.

E. Keeping a rabbit as a pet is fun. Rabbits, with lovely red eyes and white fur all over their bodies, are pleasant to hold in arms. But they need cleaning every day.

F. Cats may be many children's best choice. They are both cute and independent. You don't need to spend too much time looking after them. However, keeping cats may cost much money because you need to buy some toys for them.

Sam likes to play with the pet. If it can follow his instructions, he must be very happy. He hopes they can do exercise together.

Tina wants to keep a nice pet at home. She likes holding her pet in her arms when she is watching TV. She thinks cleaning pets is of great fun.

Mike is a student. He wants to play with the pet in his free time. But he knows little about looking after pets. His room isn't big enough, either.

Mr. Green is a businessman. He is busy working every day. He wants to choose an interesting pet for his little girl. He doesn't care the price

Mrs. Brown is a housewife. She is busy with housework at home. She wants a pet that can talk. She hopes it can make her life lively.

Big data(数据)is a lot of sets of information that are put together so they can be used by a computer program. The computer program looks for different kinds of answers or patterns in the data. Big data can have different kinds of information from many sources, such as information that comes from schools, social media sites, companies, and governments. One set of data can have people's names and addresses. Another set can have what they like, where they go to school, and how much time they spend on the computer.

Big data can be used in many ways. The government uses it to understand how many people travel on buses or trains. This information is then used to make bus or train systems better. Some schools use big data to understand which children may need extra help in class. The teacher can then give certain students more help or support so those students can succeed in school. Companies use big data, too. It helps them understand who buys their products. For example, one company uses weather data to see when people eat the most ice cream.

Big data can be used for good reasons. Some hospitals use big data to predict if a baby who is born too early will get sick. The hospital can then take extra steps to take care of that baby so he or she does not get sick. Big data can also be used for bad reasons. It can be used to predict which kinds of people are likely to break the law or hurt others, even if they have not done anything wrong.

How can big data be used for good and bad things? It is because the computer programs used to look at big data and understand it are written by people. People think a certain way. Because they think a certain way, they build a model of those ideas. These ideas are then used to look at the data. Sometimes, these ideas are helpful for people or businesses. Other times, bad ideas can cause problems for certain groups of people.

In the future, life will be different because many changes will take place. Robots will be like human servants. They will help with the housework and do the most 1jobs. There are already robots working in factories in China and2 countries in the world. Some can help to build cars, and they do simple jobs over and over again. People can have more time to relax. Scientists are now trying to make robots 3people and do the same things as us. However, it may 4hundreds of years. Robot scientist James White thinks that it will be difficult for a robot to do the same things as a person.5, it's easy for a child to wake up and know where they are but robots won't. But other scientists think that robots will be able to talk to people 625 to 50years.

Cars will run on electricity（电）instead of oil. And there will be fewer cars and less 7.

Everyone 8planting trees on the earth. The sea and the sky will be cleaner and bluer. So the 9will get better and better.

Our everyday food will be different, too. More land will be used for building new towns and houses. Then there will be less space for cows and pigs. Maybe people will eat less meat because it will be expensive. They will eat more vegetables and fruits, so people will be much 10.

    Modem inventions make our life easier and more interesting than before. Let's take a look at some inventions.

Life in the year 3015 is very different from life in the 21st century(世纪). We still do many of the things, but we do them1.For example, we now have e-friends to2us and talk with us. An e-friend is a machine that looks just3a man. It can walk and talk and can do almost4we can do. My e-friend is a lot like me and we have a lot of5together. She helps me with my homework and we often go swimming. She can take care of me if (如果) anything happens, so I always feel6when we are together. She can also send me7, just like the old email, and I can download(下载) the information from her memory(记忆). It's great to have an e-friend. I am never8and I always have someone to talk with.

I would like to tell you more about life in the year 3015,9I have to send my e-fried to clean up my room. Maybe one day I will travel back in time and 10you. Then I can tell you something interesting in 3015.

February is not just a time to enjoy your winter holiday You can also find lots of exciting science, culture, entertainment （娱乐）and sports events. Check out some of the cool things happening this month and make your own plans.

February Tianwen 1 reaches Mars

On July 23, 2020, China sent its Mars probe Tianwen l into space. It will reach the Red Planet around February. After that, it will spend another two to three months in space before it finally lands on Mars

February 11 Spring Festival Eve

Are you ready to stay up late to celebrate Spring Festival Eve? As the most important holiday in China, Spring Festival has many interesting traditions. Families putted couplets（对联）on their doors. Kids wear new clothes and get "lucky money". People set off fireworks. Did you know? In Guangdong, people give each other oranges during Spring Festival. It means good luck and shows  their best wishes to others.

February 21 International Mother Language Day（国际母语日）

The day was picked by the United Nations （联合国）in 1999. According to the Linguistic（语言学的）Society of America, there are now6, 909 known languages around the world.

February 12 Anew film about Nezha

After Nezha gets hit （击中）by lightning and dies, his soul （灵魂） still lives. Nezha is reborn as a young boy in a modern city. He lives a normal（正常的）life until dragons find him. What will happen to him?  You can find the answer in the new film Rebirth of Nezha（《新神榜: 哪吒重生》）.

Technology is developing fast and it has become an important part of our life. What will the world be like in the future?

3-D food will be both delicious and nutritious. We just need to tum on a printer in the kitchen and then we can enjoy our favorite food.

5G network will allow people to get information faster. It is said that download speeds 10-20 times faster than 4G.

Underwater cities will provide more space. We may turn to underwater homes which will be built as low as 15 kilometers below the sea.

Space tour will be a piece of cake. For us common people on the earth, we can leave our home and enter space to take a trip.

A robot will be a part of life. Robots can do many of the same things as we humans do, like driving cars.