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Module 1 Reading The City of the Future What will the city of the future look like? No one knows for sure, and making predictions is a risky business. But one thing is certain—they are going to get bigger before they get smaller. In the future, care for the environment will become very important as earth's natural resources run out. We will use lots of recycled materials, such as plastic, aluminium, steel, glass, wood and paper, and we will waste fewer natural resources. We will also have to rely more on alternative energy, such as solar and wind power. All this seems certain, but there are plenty of things about city life in the future which are not certain. To find out what young people think about the future of urban life, a teacher at a university in Texas in the United States asked his students to think how they would run a city of 50,000 people in the year 2025. Here are some of the ideas they had: Garbage ships To get rid of garbage problems, the city will load huge spaceships with waste materials and send them towards the sun, preventing landfill and environmental problems. Batman Nets Police will arrest criminals by firing nets instead of guns. Forget smoking No smoking will be allowed within a future city's limits. Smoking will be possible only outside cities, and outdoors. Forget the malls In the future all shopping will be done online, and catalogues will have voice commands to place orders. Telephones for life Everyone will be given a telephone number at birth that will never change no matter where they live. Recreation All forms of recreation, such as cinemas, bowling, softball, concerts and others, will be provided free of charge by the city. Cars All cars will be powered by electricity, solar energy or wind, and it will be possible to change the colour of cars at the flick of a switch. Telesurgery Distance surgery will become common as doctors carry out operations from thousands of miles away, with each city having its own telesurgery outpatient clinic. Holidays at home Senior citizens and people with disabilities will be able to go anywhere in the world using high-tech cameras attached to their head. Space travel Travelling in space by ordinary citizens will be common. Each city will have its own spaceport. Module 1未来的城市 未来的城市将会是什么样子呢？没有人确切地了解，预测也是一件很冒险的事。但有一件事是可以肯定的——它们将会先变大，然后再变小。在未来，爱护环境将会很重要，因为地球的资源将濒临枯竭。我们将会使用大量的可回收材料，例如，塑料、银、钢铁、玻璃、木头和纸。我们浪费自然资源的程度将会有所减弱。我们也将不得不更多地依赖其他能源。例如，太阳能和风能。所有的这些似乎是肯定的，但是还有许多关于城市生活的事情仍是未知的。 为了获知年轻人对未来城市生活的想法，美国得克萨斯州的一位大学老师让他的学生们思考如何管理一个在2025年拥有5万人口的城市，下面是他们的一些构想： 垃圾船：为了摆脱垃圾问题的困扰，城市将会用巨型宇宙飞船装载废弃材料，朝太阳发射，这样做防止了垃圾填埋和环境问题。 勤务兵网：警察逮捕罪犯时，将会向罪犯射出网状物而不是用枪。 戒烟：在未来城市范围内将禁止吸烟。只有在郊区和户外才允许吸烟。 告别商厦：将来所有的购物将会在网上进行，商品目录将会有语音指令来排序。 电话人生：每个人一出生就会给予一个电话号码，将来无论他们居住在哪儿，这个电话号码都不会更改。 娱乐：所有的娱乐形式，例如，电影院、保龄球、垒球、音乐会和其他等等都将由该市政府免费提供。 汽车：所有的汽车都将由电能、太阳能或风能提供动力，并且只要轻轻按一下开关就能够改变汽车的颜色。 远程手术：随着每个城市拥有自己的远程手术门诊部，医生将能在数千里以外实施手术，远程手术将会变得十分普通。 居家度假：年长的市民和残疾人通过使用绑在头上的髙新技术相机可以周游世界。 太空遨游：普通市民遨游太空将会变得很平常，每个城市都将有自己的太空港。 Cultural Corner Famous Last Words Not all predictions come true. Many of them are wrong, and some are very wrong. Here are just a few of the bad predictions people made in the twentieth century about the twenty-first century: AIRPLANES "No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris." Orville Wright, 1908. COMPUTERS "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Waston, chairman of IBM, 1943. CLOTHES "Thirty years from now people will be wearing clothes made of paper which they will be able to throw away after wearing them two or three times. "Changing Times Magazine, 1957. MEN ON THE MOON " With the first moon colonies predicted for the 1970's, work is now in progress on the types of building required for men to stay in when they're on the moon. " Arnold B. Barach in The Changes to Come, 1962. THE BEATLES " We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out. " Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962. ROBOTS IN THE HOUSE " By the year 2000, housewives will probably have a robot shaped like a box with one large eye on the top, several arms and hands, and long narrow pads on the side for moving about. " New York Times, 1966. KEYS " By the mid-1980's no one will ever need to hide a key under the doormat again, because there won't be any keys." Computer scientist Christopher Evans, The Micro Millennium, 1979. |
