The city of the future

What will the city of the future look like? No one knows for sure, and making predictions {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(be) a risky business. But one thing is certain —they are going to get bigger before they get smaller. We will use lots of {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(recycle) materials, such as plastic aluminums, steel , glass ,wood and paper, and we will waste fewer {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(nature) resources. We will also have to rely more {#blank#}4{#/blank#}alternative energy, such as solar and wind power.

    A teacher at {#blank#}5{#/blank#} university in the United States asked his students to think {#blank#}6{#/blank#} 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,{#blank#}7{#/blank#} (prevent) landrills and environmental problems .

    Cars  All cars will be powered by electricity, solar energy or wind , and{#blank#}8{#/blank#}will be possible to change the color 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 {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(have) its own telesurgery outpatient clinic.

    Holiday at home  Senior citizens and people with disabilities will be able to go anywhere in the world using high-tech cameras {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(attach) to their head.

    I felt upset when I was {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (tell) that I would have to leave the company. In order to find {#blank#}2{#/blank#} new job to support the family, I read almost all the newspapers {#blank#}3{#/blank#} set down almost all the telephone numbers in ads {#blank#}4{#/blank#} my notebook and tried to call almost all the companies that needed new clerks. Not until I{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (find) a job in a small town near Townsville did I calm down. My new boss, Mr. Brown, was one of my schoolmates {#blank#}6{#/blank#} I was getting along well with at school. Both of us were {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (excite) to see each other and we spent the whole afternoon {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (talk) about things and persons that we remembered at school. He asked me to give {#blank#}9{#/blank#} some advice on how to enlarge his present business and he was {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (entire) happy about my advice.

    Strange things happened {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Tangshan Earthquake happened. The well walls had deep cracks. A smelly gas came out of them. The water pipes {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (crack) and burst. At 3:42  {#blank#}3{#/blank#} the morning of July 28, 1976, everything began to shake. It seemed as if the world was at {#blank#}4{#/blank#} end. Steam burst from holes in the ground. Hard hills of rock became rivers of  {#blank#}5{#/blank#}  (dirty). Soon the whole city lay in {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(ruin). Many people died or were {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (injure). Everything in the city was destroyed. People were {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (shock) at this and wondered how long the disaster would last. The army organized teams to dig out those {#blank#}9{#/blank#} were trapped and to bury the dead. Workers built shelters for {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (survive). Fresh water was taken to the city. Slowly the city began to breathe again.

    The cheongsam is a female dress with distinctive Chinese features and enjoys a growing {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (popular) in the international world of high fashion. The name "cheongsam", {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(mean) simply "long dress", entered the English vocabulary from the dialect of China's Guangdong Province. In other {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(part) of the country including Beijing, however, it is known as "qipao", which has a history behind it.

    After the early Manchu (满族) rulers came to China, the Manchu women normally wore a one-piece dress which came to be called "qipao". {#blank#}4{#/blank#}the rule of the Qing Dynasty was ended in 1911, the female dress survived the {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(politics) change and, with later improvements, has become the traditional dress for Chinese women.

    The cheongsam, {#blank#}6{#/blank#}neck is high, collar closed, fits well the female Chinese figure, and its sleeves may be either short, medium or full length, depending {#blank#}7{#/blank#}seasons or tastes. In addition, it is not too difficult {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(make). Nor does it need too much material. Another beauty of the cheongsam is that, they can {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(wear) either on casual or formal occasions. In either case, it {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(create) an impression of simple and quiet charm, elegance and neatness.

Trees, plants and flowers are all around us and we enjoy their beauty every day. However, we are so used to them {#blank#}1{#/blank#} we may even take them for granted without {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(realize) how much inspiration they have given us. In fact, nature has inspired many of the most {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(fascinate) designs around us, including those in architecture. Nature {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (present) in various architectural designs.

Today, architects continue to explore ways {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (capture) the beauty of natural forms, to mimic the way nature works or even to make natural organisms part of a building. ArtScience Museum, Singapore was designed to show the {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (connect) between nature and the modern city environment in which it sits. Visitors are often amazed to find themselves in an urban building that so {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(true) captures the beauty of natural forms. Harare's Eastgate Centre is {#blank#}8{#/blank#} superb example of biomimicry (仿生学). To use biomimicry is to create structures {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(base) on natural forms and processes. Creating buildings such as these enables us to live {#blank#}10{#/blank#} closer harmony with our environment.

Black Friday is a popular holiday, which is usually celebrated {#blank#}1{#/blank#}day after Thanksgiving in the United States. On this day, Americans all over the country rise at dawn in order to stand at the head of the line at {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(vary) stores, so that they can get deeply discounted (打折的) deals offered by these stores.

This day is called Black Friday because it is the day on which many traders "hit the black",{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(mean) that they start to make money after being "in the red", all year long. The traders used {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(write) with a red pen on their ledgers (账簿) to show losses and black inks to show gains. It is not how this holiday gets its name, although it is {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(common) believed by the public to be the case.

Although this day {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(continue) to be a big holiday in the United States, it is beginning to lose some of its {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(popular). That is because more and more people are turning {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(they) attention to online shopping. It allows them to buy what they want {#blank#}9{#/blank#}convenience. As a result, Cyber (网络的) Monday appears,{#blank#}10{#/blank#}is a day directly competes with Black Friday and may lead to its downfall.