根据短文内容回答下列问题。

    It's March, 2050.

    Frank and Mary Smith wake up in their comfortable house in the morning and switch on the bedroom computer to get the latest news.

    They used to read the Times, but changed to electronic newspapers many years ago.

There is the usual news about space: another space flight has returned from Mars and scientists have discovered a new planet. Then they turn to business news: the US dollar has risen greatly in Shanghai, one of the world's leading business centers. Mary tells the computer to buy 5000 dollars, and there is a quick response that it has been done.

As they watch the screen, Mary orders one of the household robots to make coffee for them. Frank disappears into the study to join a video conference with his partners around the world. He is a computer engineer, working for several companies. This is his third job: he used to be in marketing and then television.

    Mary has a quick look at the shopping channels--the usual selection of electric cars, household robots and cheap travel offers before picking up the video phone to talk to her assistant. She also has a job and she is doing medical research. Both she and Frank used to have an office desk in London, but in 2014 they decided to move to the seaside and work from home.

    Frank and Mary have one daughter, Louise, who also has her own workstation at home. She goes to school only one day a week, mainly to play with other students. Classrooms disappeared in 2030 because there was no longer any need for them: communications systems have made it much easier to learn at home.

    Louise, now thirteen, is studying Chinese at present, which has become a world language as important as English. Louise has many Chinese friends. They communicate by computer.

    According to the family doctor, Louise will live to at least 130. Her wish is to work for a few decades(十年) and then spend her time on music and painting.

      What's going to happen in the future? Will robots control our planet? Will computers become smarter than us? Not likely. But here are some things that scientists say are most likely to happen in 10 to 0 years from now, according to the BBC.

 Digital money      

      We used to pay with cash(现金) for everything we bought. Now when we use a credit card(信用卡) to shop online, money is spent without us seeing it. That means we are already using digital(电子的) money. Using a card is much easier than searching our pockets for change. It is also safer than carrying a lot of cash.    

When ATM cards were first introduced, they were not accepted everywhere. But now it's hard to live without them. It's reported that people in Sweden completely stopped using cash last year, and the US might be next.

Bionic(仿生的) eye    

It's no longer something only in a science fiction movie. People who are blind may have a chance to get their sight back—by wearing bionic eyes.

      A blind eye can no longer sense light, but a bionic eye can use a camera to “see” the environment and send data(数据) to the mind. Now the bionic eye only allows patients to see lights and unclear shapes. A high resolution(高清的) image could be just a few years away. 

Self-driving cars     

      Unlike a human driver, a self-driving car won't get distracted(分神) by a phone call, the radio or something outside the window. Sensors (探测器) and cameras on the car would allow it to stick strictly (严格地遵守)to the rules of the road and keep a safe distance from other cars. This would greatly reduce（减少） the number of road accidents. You could even take a nap while the car drives itself. In the future, driverless cars would be widely accepted.

E

    The Earth is our home; we must take care of it. This means keeping the land, air and water clean. Pollution is a dirty word. To pollute means to make things unfit or unclean to use. Pollution comes in many ways. We see it, smell it, taste it and drink it. Pollution is beginning to threaten (威胁) our health, our happiness and our life. Man has been polluting the earth from the time he first made fire, washed his clothes in the river and threw his waste on the ground. When land was used up or water became dirty, men moved on to another place. At first, the problem was not so serious because there was plenty of clean air, land and water. There weren't so many people then and their wants were fewer. All the dirty things could be absorbed (吸收) by nature and soon covered over. But this is no longer true. The increase of population and the development of industry(工业)have changed that. Man is slowly poisoning (毒害) his environment. Through the use of poison, man has polluted the land, killing the animals. By putting dirty water and chemicals into rivers and lakes we have polluted our drinking water, killing the fish.

    Our increasing population is part of the problem. More people, more waste.

    Where is this all to end? Are we turning the world into a big rubbish dump (堆存处), or is there any hope that we can get rid of (摆脱, 除去) the pollution? Luckily, millions of people have been warned of the danger of pollution. Large numbers of people are now working hard to bring pollution under control.

    We are lucky to live in a rich country where we have many things. However, most of us usually1 some things.

    Electricity(电) is one thing that we waste 2. Lights, TVs, 3 and other things are often kept on even when no one is using them. We should turn them off when we do not need them. It 4 less than a second to do it. Anyway, not wasting electricity saves money, because we do not have to 5 the electricity we do not use.

    The second thing that we often waste is water. Fresh water is precious(宝贵的) ， 6it shouldn't be wasted. It is only a simple matter of turning off a tap. I am sure 7 can do this easily if he wants to.

    8 big waste is food. My mother 9cook so much food that much of it was thrown away. I told her we had wasted so 10 food. She thought I was right and now cooks 11 what we can eat.

    It is not 12   to waste anything. I find there is a simple 13of not wasting things. That is to use only what we 14. Do not touch what we do not need. 15 this way we can stop being wasteful.

    Smartphone apps certainly make our lives easily. However, sometimes they can also cause problems.

    Recently, the Ministry of Education(教育部) announced that teacher should not use Wechat or QQ to give homework or ask parents to grade kids's homework.

    Many teachers in China depend heavily on apps to give homework. The kids have to do their homework, stare at a phone screen. For example, Liu Yanming, a sixth-grade student in Shanghai, usually has to use his mother mobile phone to do his homework. Liu Yong, his father is afraid that apps could distract kids by encourage them to watch something unrelated(无关) to homework. "He is just 12 years old, and I do not want to buy him a cellphone," Liu told China Daily. "I also worry that my son's eyesight will be hurt because of staring at the phone for too long."

    However, Bai Yueping, president of Shanghai Tangzhen Middle School, defended (辩护) using apps for homework. Parents can understand their kids' learning situation and supervise (监督) them to finish the homework, Bai told China Daily.

    Zhang Siqi is a student from Renmin University of China.       "The use of WeChat or QQ to give homework is convenient," Zhang told China Daily. "We're living in an Internet era （时代）. It's unwise to refuse to take advantage of technology."

    Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, believed that it is impossible to stop the use of electronic devices(设备) in the Internet era. However, students should use them when it's necessary, such as when they do listening exercises. "We don't want to stop outline education models, but they must be used carefully. Modern technologies are good... but they should not steal the show(喧宾夺主) ," he told China Daily.