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Friends Reunited One of the biggest Internet successes is a website called Friends Reunited. Friends Reunited brings together – that is, unites – old friends, people who used to be friends with each other, but have not seen each other for a long time. The website was begun in 1999 by a London couple called Stephen and Julie Pankhurst. Julie wanted to know what her old school friends were doing. Did they all have families or their own? Did they still live in the same area? Were they married? Did they have children? She and her husband realised that the Internet was the perfect way to get in touch with old friends, and Steve and his business partner, Jason Porter, built the website. Slowly, people heard about the site and became interested. By the end of 2000 the site had 3,000 members. Then the website was mentioned on a radio programme and suddenly the site became very popular. By the end of 2001 the website had 4 million members, and by the end of 2002 it had over 8 million! How do you find old friends using Friends Reunited? It’s very easy. People join the website and give information about themselves – the name of their old school, the neighbourhood they lived in, the college the went to, the sports team they belonged to, etc. To find an old friend, you type in their name, school, etc. you may find that your friend is a member of the website, and you can then contact him or her through the website. Most people are very happy to reply, and people often become friends again as a result. There are many wonderful stories about people who have found each other again through Friends Reunited. For example, there is the extraordinary story of a man who lost his memory as a result o a bad car accident. He could not remember anything about his past. Through Friends Reunited he contacted old friends, and with their help, he was able to find out about his past and put his memory back together. Another man writes: “Thanks to Friends Reunited, I have found my daughter, who I have not seen since she was 13. she is now 27 and I have discovered that I am a grandfather. It would have been impossible to find my daughter without the help of Friends Reunited. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.” Module 3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. |
