新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第一册 unit09c_new

[by:和谐英语学习网|http://www.hxen.net|和谐英语||和谐英语学习网]
[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net，就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中！Lifestyles of the 21st Century
[00:-1.00]Americans in the future will probably not live as Americans do today.
[00:-2.00]Fusion(核聚变) power will be capable of producing energy without limits
[00:-3.00]while saving natural resources.
[00:-4.00]People may live well past a hundred years,
[00:-5.00]be equipped with plastic body parts, and eat man-made foods.
[00:-6.00]Space travelers will walk on the planets.
[00:-7.00]These factors of life were science fiction images a few decades ago.
[00:-8.00]Today such events are already discussed as if real.
[00:-9.00]How do people image life in the United States in the future?
[00:10.00]Below are some predictions made by Richard N. Farmer,
[00:11.00]who gave his light-hearted opinion of the "World of 2084."
[00:12.00]Since no one wants to do the dirty,
[00:13.00]uninteresting factory-line work any more,we decide not to.
[00:14.00]So we take some chimpanzees(黑猩猩),
[00:15.00]or if we really want some strength, some great apes (猿),
[00:16.00]do a bit of scientific engineering here and there,
[00:17.00]and we create some animals,which are made for the factory line.
[00:18.00]They work their eight hours a day,
[00:19.00]and don't mind the repetition a bit. . . .
[00:20.00]Jack Baxter,a common American of 2084,glanced at his stop-watch.
[00:21.00]He was slowing down;
[00:22.00]he could only run the kilometer in four minutes flat now,
[00:23.00]and when he was 80,he could do it in three-fifty.
[00:24.00]But,being 140 years old made a difference,
[00:25.00]regardless of what his doctor said.
[00:26.00]Jack had received his first cancer shot in 1981;
[00:27.00]he had received his man-made heart in 2014,
[00:28.00]before they really got those human ones perfected,
[00:29.00]so he wasn't a very good example of a complete human.
[00:30.00]But he felt pretty good he had been one of the lucky ones,
[00:31.00]who had received his shots to make him young again before he turned 40,
[00:32.00]so he was still a young-looking fellow.
[00:33.00]Of course,he looked old in his world,
[00:34.00]since no one got much beyond 30-looking any more.
[00:35.00]And of course, he would die,
[00:36.00]right now fellows pushing 200 were in poor shape and kicking off . ...
[00:37.00]Death used to be a pretty simple thing.
[00:38.00]Body processes stopped,and you left us.
[00:39.00]But nowadays even,
[00:40.00]it is not uncommon for a person to be brought back with heart massage
[00:41.00]perhaps a full hour or more after he's "dead."
[00:42.00]By 2084,if we can store a dead body in a cold refrigerator room soon enough,
[00:43.00]lots of people who now would die may not.
[00:44.00]Now we all die,sooner or later;
[00:45.00]maybe by 2084,we won't die until we are good and ready.
[00:46.00]And that would be a new freedom indeed.
[00:47.00]Johnny,who's almost 10,can't read,but no one is worried.
[00:48.00]Indeed,Johnny has been going to school since he was 3,
[00:49.00]but it hasn't been the kind of school that we are familiar with.
[00:50.00]The kids learn all sorts of things about living together
[00:51.00]and getting along with each other,
[00:52.00]but nothing about school subjects.
[00:53.00]You see, we have figured out that age ten
[00:54.00]is about the time that a child can really put reading and mathematical skills to use
[00:55.00]So,on his tenth birthday, Johnny goes to the brain-control center.
[00:56.00]He sits for an hour or so under a machine that looks something like a hair-dryer,
[00:57.00]with him attached to it.
[00:58.00]When he finishes, the entire reading,writing,
[00:59.00]and math patterns he needs to know are impressed right on his brain.
[-1:00.00]Why fool around for years drilling kids,
[-1:-1.00]when all education really is made up of is a set of very mixed brain patterns?
[-1:-2.00]Just add them straight onto the brain,
[-1:-3.00]and you save lots of time and money.
[-1:-4.00]And if you want to teach any other kind of skills,
[-1:-5.00]like electrical theory for electricity workers,
[-1:-6.00]well,there's a pattern for that too.