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    You don't need to get in a time-travelling machine to see how technology will change our lives, such as the way we shop. Several new technologies that are to change your buying habits already appear. Let's see what's in store for your future shopping.

    Try it on, virtually（虚拟地）. Want to shop online for a new pair of glasses? You don't need to guess which pair looks best on you—use the eBay Fashion iPhone app to try a pair of glasses you're checking out on a picture of your face. But what about buying something bigger? Thanks to Microsoft Kinect's action tracking（跟踪）camera, you can cover clothes on your screen body. You can even choose the background of your virtual fitting room to improve your shopping experience.

    Get a perfect, custom fit. Everyone's body is shaped differently. To get a perfect fit, you sometimes have to get your clothes changed. But by using 3D scanning technology, all the clothes you buy will fit your body perfectly. Some companies scan（扫描）your body using High-tech to get the real sizes, so they can make special clothes just for you.

    High-tech shopping carts（推车）and checkout counters（收银台）. High-tech shopping carts could be common in malls and supermarkets in the future. Microsoft Kinect-enabled carts are under test. The cart can follow you along the aisles（通道）, controlled only by your movement and your voice.

    In the United States, several supermarkets use a certain set called “Scan It” that gives buyers the freedom to scan products on their own while they shop. If we don't want to wait in line before the checkout counters, we can use Toshiba's new object Recognition Scanner. The machine identifies（辨认）a product as soon as it's placed in front of a camera just by its shape and color, even if it has no bar code.

    Everyone has got two personalities (性格)—the one that is shown to the world and the other that is secret and real. You don't show your secret personality when you're awake because you can control yourself, but when you're asleep, your sleeping position shows the real you. In a normal night, of course, you often change your sleeping positions. The important position that best shows your secret personality is the one that you go to sleep.

    If you go to sleep on your back, you're a very open person. You normally trust people and you are easily influenced by new ideas. You don't like to make people unhappy, so you never express your real feelings. You're quite shy and you aren't very confident.

    If you sleep on your stomach, you are a person who likes to keep secrets. You worry a lot and you're always easily becoming sad. You never want to change your ideas, but you are satisfied with your life the way it is. You usually live for today not for tomorrow.

    If you sleep on curled up (蜷缩) , you are probably a very nervous person. You have a low opinion of yourself and often protect yourself from being hurt, so you are very defensive. You're shy and you don't usually like meeting people. You like to be on your own.

    If you sleep on your side, you have usually got a well-balanced (平衡的) personality. You know your strengths and weaknesses. You're usually careful. You have a confident personality. You sometimes feel worried, but you don't often get unhappy. You always say what you think, even if it makes people angry.

    If music makes you smarter and exercise helps you to think, surely exercising to music can turn you into an intelligent(聪明的) person.

    A team of scientists from Ohio State University did tests on 33 volunteers who were getting better from heart problems following operation(手术). They found that people who exercised while listening to "The Four Seasons" did much better on language ability tests than without music.

    "Facts suggest that exercise improve the learning ability of people with heart problems," said the scientist Charles Emery, who led the study. "And listening to music is thought to enhance understanding. We just wanted to put the two results together." he added.

    The volunteers said they felt better after exercising with or without the music. But their improvement on the test doubled after listening to music during exercise. Scientists have shown it is true that music can be good for health. It helps cut down stress, sadness and nervousness. And it also wakes up the body and improves memory and thoughts.

    In medical fields, music is used widely for patients who have had headaches before and after operation. "The Four Seasons" was used because of its soft tempo(节拍) and better results in earlier research.

    "Exercise seems to cause better changes in the nervous system and these changes may have a direct result on learning ability." Emery said. Scientists have been studying the result of music on understanding since the early 1950s. By 1990, scientists were using Mozart's music to help children with speech disorders. Mozart was chosen because his music is not overexciting. A study showed students who listened to Mozart scored higher marks in an intelligence test. With important exams coming, your parents will not probably allow you to listen to music. But perhaps now you have good reasons to argue with them.

    Some scientists say that animals in the ocean are increasingly threatened(威胁) by noise pollution caused by human beings. The noise that influences sea animals comes from a number of human activities. It is caused mainly by industrial underwater explosions(爆炸) , ocean drilling, and ship engines. Such noises are added to natural sounds. These sounds include the breaking of ice fields, underwater earthquakes, and sounds made by animals themselves.

    Decibels (分贝) measured in water are different from those measured on land. A noise of one hundred and twenty decibels on land causes pain to human ears. In water, a decibel level of one hundred and ninety five would have the same effect（效果）.

    Some scientists have proposed setting a noise limit （限度）of one hundred and twenty decibels in oceans. They have observed that noises at that level can frighten and confuse whales（鲸鱼）.

    A team of American and Canadian scientists discovered that louder noises can seriously injure some animals. The research team found that powerful underwater explosions were causing whales in the area to lose their hearing. This seriously affected the whales' ability to exchange information and find their way. Some of the whales even died. The explosions had caused their ears to bleed.

    Many researchers whose work depends on ocean sounds object to a limit of one hundred and twenty decibels. They say such a limit would mean an end to important industrial and scientific research. Scientists do not know how much and what kinds of noises are harmful to ocean animals. However, many scientists suspect that noise is a greater danger than they believed. It's time for them to take action to help ocean animals.

    The computers changed our lives in the 1980s, the Internet changed our lives in the 1990s, and the robots will change our lives in the new century. Do you think there will be robots in people's homes? It's NOT a dream that every home will have a robot.

    Now, robots are not only able to help people do the housework, but also able to help the doctors do the difficult operations, play chess with people, play the piano and so on.

    A new cooking robot is used in Beijing. It can cook all the dishes on the menu, and you only need to wait two to four minutes.  In the future, the robot will be a nurse, a security guard, or a partner in your life.

    Experts believe robots will be used everywhere, from the industrial robots to service robots. In the future, robots will become part of the family, and provide close service for people. We all look forward to the new robot age.