北师大初中英语九年级Unit 2-8（MP3+LRC）

[00:02.02]Unit 2 Life in the Future

[00:05.19]Lesson 8

[00:09.59]Exercise 1.2

[00:13.27]Welcome back to the show.

[00:15.28]Our subject today is predictions for the future.

[00:19.03]With me in the studio

[00:20.44]I have Steve Hill and Chris Morgan.

[00:23.70]Steve is an expert in technology and inventions.

[00:27.52]Chris is the other of a book

[00:30.58]called Past ideas of the Future.

[00:33.13]Let's start with you ,Chris.

[00:35.40]Tell us,what is your book about?

[00:38.77]Basically,my book is about past predictions

[00:42.16]for the future.

[00:43.51]That is,

[00:44.34]some people made predictions in the past

[00:47.20]and some of those predictions have come true

[00:50.12]and some have not.

[00:52.13]I see.Where did you get your ideas?

[00:55.38]Well,movies are one place.

[00:57.89]It is very interesting to watch old movies

[01:00.85]that describe a future world.

[01:03.49]But what we often see is very different from

[01:06.25]the way we live now.

[01:13.46]Exercise 1.3

[01:16.36]Why is this?

[01:17.93]It's because some things

[01:19.43]that people predicted in the past

[01:21.66]have not come true ...

[01:24.22]That's true.And,on the other hand,

[01:26.20]other things

[01:27.12]that people did not expect to happen

[01:28.78]have developed so quickly.

[01:31.51]Can you give me some examples?

[01:34.39]Sure,In old movies about the future

[01:37.00]you often see people traveling in flying cars.

[01:40.76]Of course,this hasn't happened yet.

[01:43.17]But maybe this will be possible in the future.

[01:46.21]Hmm...I'm not sure about that.

[01:49.60]Other movies show that

[01:51.45]robots can do all the housework.

[01:53.54]There are robots doing housework,

[01:56.09]washing the clothes,that sort of thing ...

[01:59.05]This may be possible some time in the future.

[02:02.54]but for now..

[02:04.06]For now.

[02:04.91]We have to wash the clothes,right?

[02:07.74]I don't think it will be possible for robots

[02:10.56]to do all the housework--some jobs perhaps...

[02:15.13]Maybe you're right.

[02:16.66]Other things that we often see in old movies

[02:19.11]about the future

[02:20.37]are videophones in everybody's home.

[02:23.43]This might happen soon,

[02:24.61]but ask yourself,"How many people do you know

[02:28.50]with a videophone in their house?"

[02:31.04]Yes,I see your point.

[02:33.21]And what about the things we have now

[02:35.78]but people did not predict so much in the past?

[02:39.35]Well.

[02:39.82]I think the best example of this is the Internet

[02:43.59]Every day,millions of people use e-mail,

[02:46.82]or chat,or buy things or look for information.

[02:51.75]I agree.It's amazing

[02:53.76]how quickly the Internet has grown

[02:55.54]and I don't think anybody predicted this.

[02:58.38]Other things that have developed very quickly

[03:01.23]are cell phones

[03:02.93]-and all the amazing things that they can do.

[03:06.83]You're right,I don't think people expected

[03:09.26]these things develop so quickly

[03:11.28]and become as common as they have.

[03:18.85]Exercise 2.3

[03:21.40]Do you know how to predict the future?

[03:25.33]To make predictions for the future

[03:27.01]is very difficult.

[03:28.99]And in the world of fashion,music,etc,

[03:31.83]It is almost impossible to predict

[03:34.72]which things will be successful

[03:36.90]and which things will not be successful

[03:39.38]or will fail.

[03:41.13]One well-known example is the Beatles.

[03:44.12]At the start of their career,

[03:46.20]the group tried to get a contract

[03:48.64]but many record companies were not interested.

[03:51.78]Finally,

[03:52.61]a small company asked them to sign a contract.

[03:55.96]The rest is history.

[03:58.41]Another example is in the world of fashion.

[04:01.68]Jeans have been popular for more than a century

[04:05.37]In the 1850s,Levi Strauss thought

[04:08.71]people needed strong canvas in California.

[04:12.17]So he brought some there.

[04:14.19]But when he got there,he knew he was wrong.

[04:17.61]He didn't know what to do with the canvas.

[04:20.39]But later he found the workers there

[04:22.52]need strong pants,

[04:24.42]so he used the canvas to make pants,

[04:27.20]At that time,nobody knew that

[04:29.52]his pants would be the fashion all over the

[04:31.89]world for more than a hundred years.