A
The new year always brings predictions. You know who gets them right?
BLUETOOTH
In his futuristic 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury anticipated Bluetooth, describing wireless earphones that allowed for "an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talks" to be transferred through the air. Imagine how thrilled he would have been with a Bluetooth toaster! That was the idea behind Griffin's Connected Toaster, which warned you via smartphone when your toast was done. At $ 100, this baby cost a lot of bread, which may be why it was discontinued just two years after launch.
SMART WATCH
The Apple Watch lets you chat, play games, and watch videos on a device fastened to your wrist. Cool, huh? The Jetsons thought so… in 1962 — when Steve Jobs was still in second grade!
WI-FI
Nikola Tesla called it! In 1909, the famous electrical engineer told the New York Times, "It will soon be possible to send wireless messages all over the world so simply that any individual can carry and operate his own equipment." No doubt he was thinking of the Kérastase Hair Coach brush, which measured brushing speed and employed a micro-phone to listen to your hair, all to compute an overall hair-quality score sent to your smartphone. (Alas, it too is gone.)
GPS
Writer Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey) saw a world in which no one got lost. In 1956，he wrote that satellitescould make possible a position-finding grid (坐标方格) whereby anyone could locate himself by means of a couple of dials on an instrument about the size of a watch.” Clarke didn't mention that his system might also track another person, such as a criminal. Last year, the New York City police arrested a robber who was wearing a GPS ankle monitor — because he was still on probation (缓刑) for a prior crime.
21. Which of the predictions in the earliest?
A. BLUETOOTH B. SMART WATCH
C . WI-FI D. GPS
22. Why might Griffin’s Connected Toaster disappear?
A. Too expensive B. Out of date.
C . A little awkward D. Energy-consuming
23. What was Clarke’s prediction?
A. A GPS ankle monitor B. A robber-arresting instrument
C . A watch that could see the world D. An instrument that could locate a person.
