A
Ray Kurzweil is an inventor and futurist (未来主义者) with some interesting ideas about how humans will soon be able to live much longer than the average 78 years they do now.If Kurzweil is right, this is a question we'll have to ask ourselves in the near future.
The first challenge is how to stop our bodies from getting old and dying.Kurzweil doesn't see this as a problem.With gene (基因) technology, we'll soon be able to turn off genes that cause aging and disease.This technology is getting cheaper and advancing at an incredible (难以置信的) rate.Kurzweil believes that from every year after 2023, we'll be adding more than a year to the average life expectancy (寿命)．He also expects that within the next 20 years, we will have nanobots (纳米机器人) in our blood.These tiny robots will keep our bodies healthy and free from diseases by finding damaged cells and destroying them.
Of course, if we're all going to live longer, then there are going to be more of us on this already overcrowded earth.Many people think there are likely to be problems with resources such as food and energy.Kurzweil doesn't agree.He says that the same technologies used to increase our life expectancy will also be used to help with food production and energy needs.For example, he says, sunlight can potentially give us 10,000 times more energy than we now use.We just need to develop the technology to get it and make it cheaper.There are also new technologies that can recycle water extremely cheaply.This means that dirty water can be made clean again at a very low cost.
But what are we going to do with all this extra time? Won't we all get bored? Again, Kurzweil says no.For a start, we won't be stuck in old bodies.We'll stay young for years.This means we'll be able to experiment with many more things than we can now.We'll also see huge developments in virtual (虚拟的) reality technology that will keep us entertained for years.
The future, according to Ray Kurzweil, looks good, and we might just be around to see it.
语篇解读：本文是议论文。文章围绕人类寿命被延长进行了探讨。
1．According to Kurzweil, the average life expectancy will increase greatly because of________.
A．medical advances
B．cheaper technology
C．richer natural resources
D．improved living environments
解析：选A 细节理解题。文章第二段讨论如何解决人类生老病死的问题，Kurzweil 提到可通过改变促使人生老病死的基因以及利用微型机器人消除致病细胞来延长人类的寿命。故在Kurzweil看来，医学方面的发展可使人类的平均寿命大幅度提高。
2．What does the underlined word“it” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A．Life. B．Food.
C．Water. D．Sunlight.
解析：选D 词义猜测题。根据画线词前的“the same technologies ...be used to help with ...energy needs”和Kurzweil列举人类对太阳光的使用率可知，此处it指的是可被人们充分利用的“太阳光”。
3．Which of the following does Kurzweil agree with?
A．Food shortages will become more serious in the future.
B．Technology will play an important role in the future.
C．Robots will take the place of humans in the future.
D．Humans will live in a virtual world in the future.
解析：选B 推理判断题。根据第二至第四段提到的科技对人类寿命、食物和能源以及人类精神世界的影响可知，科技在未来将起到举足轻重的作用。
4．What would be the best title for the text?
A．Are robots about to rise?
B．What will future life be like?
C．Is it possible to live much longer?
D．Can technology change the world?
解析：选C 标题归纳题。本文主要是针对Kurzweil提出的人类寿命可被延长所进行的讨论，故C项做标题符合本文主旨。
