阅读理解 In the future your automobile will run on water instead of gas! You will be able to buy a supercomputer that fits in your pocket! You might even drive a flying car! Not all past predictions have been proven wrong. A few of them have been surprisingly accurate. Some great thinkers predicted the arrival of the credit card, the fax machine and even the Internet—years before they happened. But for each prediction that has come true, some others have missed by a mile. Many of these predictions didn't consider how people would want to use the technology or whether people really needed these hightech things in their lives or not. Let's look at some predictions from the nottoodistant past. Robot helpers Where's the robot in my kitchen? Nowhere, of course. And he's probably not coming anytime soon. Robots do exist today, but mostly in factories and other working environments. Back in the 1950s, however, people said that by now personal robots would be in most people's homes. So why hasn't it happened? Maybe because robots are still too expensive and clumsy. And probably the idea of robots cooking our dinners and washing our clothes is just too weird. At home we seem to be doing fine without them. Telephones of tomorrow In 1964 an American company introduced the video telephone. They said by the year 2000 most people would have a video phone in their homes. But of course the idea hasn't caught on yet. Why? The technology worked fine, but it overlooked something obvious: people desire for privacy. Would you want to have a video phone conversation with someone after you just stepped out of the shower? Probably not—it could be uncomfortable! Just because technology doesn't always mean people will want to use it. And finally, how about that crazy prediction of the flying car? It's not so crazy any more! But a flying car remains one of the most wonderful technology ideas to catch our imagination. Keep watching the news or perhaps the sky outside your window to see what the future will bring.
(1)
Robot helpers haven't been used in most people's homes because____.
A . using this kind of robot at home is simply a waste of time and money
B . this kind of robot hasn't been developed yet
C . people find it difficult to control this kind of robot
D . this kind of robot won't bring people practical use
(2)
What does the underlined phrase "caught on" in paragraph 6 probably means?
A . Become popular.
B . Become enjoyable.
C . Come into sight.
D . Come to life.
(3)
What does the author think of the flying car?
A . It is too difficult to imagine.
B . It is too crazy to realize.
C . It has been the focus of the news.
D . It is likely to appear in the future.
(4)
What does the passage mainly deal with?
A . Predictions that might have benefited our life.
B . Predictions that haven't come true.
C . Predictions that are proved useless.
D . Predictions that catch our imagination.
答案: D
A
D
B