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今天我们的生活变化得比历史上任何时候都快。下面我们报道的是未来将对我们日常生活产生重大影响的三个重要变化。
Three Things That Will Change Your life
Today our lives are changing faster than at any time in history．Here we report on three important changes that will have a big impact on our everyday lives in the future．
The cashless1) society Cash and bank－notes will disappear almost completely．T hey will be replaced by smart cards －－plastic cards with microchip2) processors“loaded”with some money．When we pay for goods，the retailer will insert our smart card into a payment terminal and money will be transferred from our card to the retailer' s card．When all the money is used up，we will be able to“reload3)”it by inserting it into a telephone，dialing our bank account and transferring money to the card from the account．If we want to transfer money from our card to a bank account，we will use the same method．Smart cards will be able to hold several different currencies at the same time，so if we go aboard，we will use our smart cards in the same way．
Interactive4) telephones Human telephone operators will be sharply replaced by talking computers．These computers will recognize speech，ask us what information we need，access the information from a database，and convert it to speech．If we want to book a flight or pay a bill by phone，we will interact with a talking computer to do so．Of course，this won't happen until all the technology is in place，but when it is we will soon get used to interacting with computers in this w ay．Human telephone operators will be used only for more complex5) operations such as dealing with complaints or solving concrete problems．
Intelligent cars Traffic congestion in cities will be reduced because drivers will use electronic route maps to find the quickest route to their destination and avoid traffic jams．Congestion will also decrease when electronic systems start changing motorists for driving in cities．As soon as motorists have to pay to drive in cities，they will stop using their cars and use public transport instead．Speed control systems will be built into cars．These systems will automatically regulate the speed of the car to take account of traffic and weather conditions and prevent accidents．It will be many years before these changes bring results but when they do，there will be a titanic6) improvement in road safety．
