By 2050
Futurologists predict that life will probably be very different in 2050.
TV channels 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 companies 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 is equipment that connects 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 __________.

When you think of the tremendous technological progress we have made, it’s amazing how little we have developed in other respects. We may speak scornfully of the poor old Romans because they enjoyed the seemingly excited killing that went on in their arenas（竞技场）. We may despise them because they mistook these goings on for entertainment. We may forgive them because they lived 2000 years ago and obviously knew no better. But are our feelings of superiority（优越）really justified? Are we any less blood-thirsty? Why do boxing matches, for instance, attract such universal interest? Don’t the audience who attend them hope they will see some violence? Human beings remain as bloodthirsty as ever they were. The only difference between ourselves and the Romans is that while they were honest enough to admit that they enjoyed watching hungry lions tearing people apart and eating them alive, we find all sorts of arguments to defend sports which should have been banned long ago.
　　It really is incredible that in this day and age we should still allow hunting or bull-fighting, that we should be prepared to sit back and watch two men punch each other in a boxing ring, that we should be relatively unmoved by the sight of one or a number of racing cars crashing and bursting into flames. Any talk of ‘the sporting spirit’ is merely hypocrisy（虚伪）. People take part in violent sports because of the high rewards they bring. Audience are willing to pay vast sums of money to see violence. A world heavyweight championship match, for instance, is front page news. Millions of people are disappointed if a big fight is over in two rounds instead of fifteen. They feel disappointment because they haven’t experienced the exquisite pleasure of witnessing continuous violence.
　　Why should we ban violent sports if people enjoy them so much? You may well ask. The answer is simple: they are uncivilized. For centuries man has been trying to improve himself spiritually and emotionally—though with little success. But at least we no longer tolerate the sight madmen imprisoned in cages, or public punishment of any of the countless other barbarous (野蛮的) practices which were common in the past. Prisons are no longer the harsh forbidding places they used to be. Social welfare systems are in operation in many parts of the world. Big efforts are being made to distribute wealth fairly. These changes have come about not because human beings have suddenly improved, but because positive steps were taken to change the law. The law is the biggest instrument of social change that we have and it may exert great civilizing influence. If we banned dangerous and violent sports, we would be moving one step further to improving mankind. We would recognize that violence is unworthy of human beings.
【小题1】It can be inferred from the passage that the author’s opinion of nowadays’ human beings is ________________

Have you ever heard the story of the four-minute mile? For years people believed that it is impossible for a human being to  【1】 a mile in less than four minutes until Roger Banister proved it  【2】 in 1954．Within one year, 37 runners  【3】 the belief barrier．And the year after that, 300 other runners did the same thing．
What happens if you put an animal in a  【4】? Any animal, big or small, will swim its way through．What happens when someone, who does not know how to swim, falls in deep waters? You  【5】．If an animal who has not learned swimming could  【6】 by swimming, why not you? Because you believe you will drown while the animal does not．
These  【7】 show the power of beliefs．There is no other more  【8】 force in directing human behavior than belief．Our beliefs have the power to  【9】 and to destroy．
In a way it is our beliefs that determine how much we’ll be able to  【10】 our potential．So pay attention to some of your  【11】．Do you believe you are weak in mathematics? Do you believe that other people dislike you？Do you believe life is full of  【12】？
Belief is not  【13】, however．It’s nothing but the generalization of a past incident．As a kid, if a dog bit you, you believed all dogs to be 【14】．To change certain behavior, identify the beliefs associated with it．Change those beliefs and a new pattern is  【15】 created．

When students and parents are asked to rate subjects according to their importance, the arts are unavoidably at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is viewed as entertainment, but certainly not an education priority(优先). This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is beneficial and important for all students.

Music tells us who we are, because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it reflects their thinking and values, as well as the social environment it came from. Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song. The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity as a society.

Music provides a kind of perception (感知) that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts explore the emotive (情感的) meaning of the same phenomenon. We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.

The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols. They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other. They are the language of civilization through which we express our fears, our curiosities, our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children access to an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.

Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human. The arts do. Music is an important way we express human suffering, celebration, the meaning and value of peace and love.    

    So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.

1.According to Paragraph 1, students   ____  .

A. regard music as a way of entertainment 

B. disagree with their parents on education

C. view music as an overlooked subject   

D. prefer the arts to science

2.In Paragraph 2, the author uses jazz an example to_________ .

A. compare it with rock music           

B. show music identifies a society

C. introduce American musical traditions  

D. prove music influences people’s lifestyles

3.According to the passage, the arts and science__________.

A. approach the world from different angles

B. explore different phenomena of the world

C. express people’s feeling in different ways

D. explain what it means to be human

4.What is the main idea of the passage?   

A. Music education deserves more attention.    

B. Music should be of top education priority.

C. Music is an effective communication tool.

D. Music education makes students more imaginative.

If eighteen-year-old Karki doesn't turn out to be the next Edison, I'll chop off my locks This kid invented a solar pane (嵌板) which uses human hair as a conductor and could provide the world with cheap, green electricity, solving the energy crisis.
Karki, a Nepal teenager, who lives in a village in Rural Nepal, used human hair to replace silicon, which is a common but expensive component of solar panels.
By using hair as a replacement, Karki says solar panels can be produced for around 23 pounds. But if they were mass-produced, Karki says they could be sold for less than half that price, which could make them a quarter of the price of those already on the market.
The solar panel works because melanin, the substance giving hair its color, is light sensitive and can act as an electrical conductor. Karki was inspired to follow this route by a Stephen Hawking book, which explained how to create energy from hair.
The device (设备) Karki has shown is able to produce 9V or 18W of energy -- plenty to charge a mobile phone. Half a kilo of hair can be bought for only 16p in Nepal and lasts a few months, where as a pack of batteries would cost 50p and last a few nights," according to Karki.
Karki has now sent out several devices to other districts near his village for testing. "First I wanted to provide electricity for my home, then my village. Now I am thinking for the world," he said.
Karki says the idea is more important than ever because of the urgent need for renewable energies in the face of limited power sources and global warming. Slowly, natural resources are decreasing. One day we will be in a great crisis. This is an easy solution for the crisis we are having today.
64. What is the best title of the passage?
A. Introduction of Solar Panels            B. Functions of a New Solar Panel
C. Special Solar panel Materials                      D. Karki Invented a New Solar Panel
65. Why did Karki want to invent a solar panel with hair?
A. Because hair is not very expensive.
B. Because silicon is hard to find.
C. Because he wanted to provide electricity for his home.
D. Because the energy crisis is very serious in his home town.
66. From the last paragraph we can know ________.
A, Karki s invention is of great importance       
B. Karki can predict what will happen in the future
C. the energy crisis will disappear in the future 
D. Karki's invention will make him wealthy
67. The purpose of this passage is to ________.
A. Karki for his great invention          B. introduce a new solar panel
C. promote the sales of solar panels        D. warn people of the energy crisis