Self-driving cars are so popular that the University of Michigan has even established a town called Mcity to allow car manufacturers to safely test their autonomous cars.

While Mcity can be used to simulate（模拟）many real-life road conditions，it can't help test gestures drivers use to communicate their intention（意图）to other drivers，pedestrians or cyclists. To find a solution，US car manufacturer Ford，with researchers from Virginia Tech，at the beginning considered using text as a way to communicate the car's intention，but decided it would probably not work universally. The option of using symbols was also rejected，because research shows that a majority of people do not have a good understanding of what they mean.

Finally, the researchers settled on light signals. A white light warned that there were no humans in the car. A slow blinking one indicated that the car was coming to a stop, while a rapidly flashing light cautioned passersby that the car was about to speed up.

Then came the big challenge—testing the signals on real roads. "We needed to try out this new lighting to communicate the intention of the vehicle, but if you've got a driver behind the seat, you still have natural communication between humans," said Andy Shaudt, who led the research team. "So we needed to make it look like a driverless car."

The team designed a car seat costume（戏装）that the driver would wear to cover his or her face and upper body. Of course，the drivers could see very clearly. The researchers then equipped the car with cameras to capture human reactions to a light bar，which flashed one of the three signals when appropriate. Six drivers，all keeping their hands low on the wheel so as not to be noticed，took turns to test driving the car through the busy streets.

The overall reaction to the flashing lights was very encouraging. Who knew costumes could be useful for more than Halloween？

Your House Will Take Care of You in Old Age

Have you ever thought what your life would be like in old age?

Everyone talks about the “ageing” society with large numbers of elderly people needing home care. Now German researchers have set up a “smart” house, programmed to help the elderly live at home with dignity. Scientists at Germany’s Fraunhofer Society say the house combines existing technology with future-riented technology.

For example, the “smart” bathroom has a touchscreen mirror that can remind people to take their medicine, wash their hands or brush their teeth. The hardware behind Fraunhofe’s electronic bathroom is not new, and the software runs on a regular personal computer.

When the medicine cabinet is opened, a display in the middle of the mirror tells the person how many pills to take. The mirror is linked to a care provider, who can remotely check whether a patient at home is actually taking medicine and brushing his or her teeth. As many elderly people have arthritic (关节炎的) conditions that make it difficult to operate water taps, the mirror also has displays that turn the water tap on or off or control the water temperature.

The bathroom is only the start. Kitchens, bedrooms and all other parts of the “intelligent” home will become “user-friendly” to meet all kinds of individual needs. Sensors in doors, toilets, taps, light switches and carpets detect every activity and record them electronically. Doctors or care staff can see from the computer records what personal hygiene (卫生) tasks have been completed, how often the elderly person visits the bathroom or uses the toilet. In case of an emergency, the computer automatically alerts the chosen contact person or calls the care centre.

   Let us suppose it is now about A. D. 2060. Of course things have changed and life is very _____ .

Voyages to the moon are being made every day. It is as _____ to take a holiday on the moon today as it was for the people in the 1960s to take a holiday in Europe. At a number of _____ on the moon, many hotels have been built. The hotels are air-conditioned _____ In order that everyone can _____ the beautiful scenery on the moon, every room has at least one picture window. Everything imaginable is provided for the _____ of the young and the old.

What are people _____ now? People are still eating food. They haven’t yet started to take the electrical current or nuclear power as their _____ of energy directly. They may do this some day. But many kinds of foods now come _____ pill form, and the food that goes into the pill continues to mainly ______ green plants.

______ there are several times as many people in the world today as a hundred years ago, most of our planet’s surface has been filled. The deserts are ______ regularly with water and crops are no longer destroyed by pests (害虫). As a result, the ______ is always good.

Farming, of course, is very highly ______ Very few people have to work on the farm; it is possible to ______ the farm by just ______ a few buttons now and then.

People are now largely vegetarians (素食主义者). You see, as the number of people ______, the number of animals decreases. Therefore, people have to be vegetarians. And we are ______ both in our bodies and in our minds for we know the causes of diseases and pain and the ______ to them, and it is possible to ______ diseases.

Such would he our life in 2060.

   The future is time that is to come. The future is not the present or the past. It is later. We have seen many possible futures in science fiction. They range from the world’s polar ice caps melting to nuclear winters. But not all futures are morbid. We have seen the human race spread all over our universe, humans and aliens living in harmony together all over the universe.

It is very likely that we will make some kind of breakthrough in our ability to travel through space sometime in the next 150 years. This would give us the ability to rule other planets.

Finally, the Earth will die whether it be in 1,000 years or 100,000 years. We will be forced to move to another planet then. It’s really just a matter of time. When we do so, what will we discover?

Personally, I think everyone will be speaking the same language in 200 years. A world government definitely seems to be in our future. It is stable and has few wars. Indeed, the only type of wars that can happen is the civil war.

And what if we face aliens? If they are friendly, we would probably benefit a lot from putting our knowledge together. They must have advanced technology to travel for great distances. We could benefit from their technology. But if they aren’t friendly, then we will be in trouble. Hope that we will have become advanced enough, smart enough, and generally a better race by the time we meet thein. But this is all probably being discussed for nothing, because any race out there among the stars is probably as curious as we are about other creatures.