北師大版高中英語模塊11--Unit32(2)-1

[00:03.01]Unit 32 Reading and speaking

[00:07.61]What didn't come to pass

[00:10.20]by Vivienne Parry, former presenter

[00:13.05]of Tomorrow's World

[00:15.02]1 Forecasting what life is going to be

[00:16.88]like years down the line is a dodgy business.

[00:19.87]Even the experts don't always get it right.

[00:22.80]Take Bill Gates, for example.

[00:25.07]In 1981, he firmly stated that "640k of memory

[00:29.85]ought to be enough for anyone."

[00:31.92]So it's more than a bit embarrassing for him

[00:34.79]now that,even on a standard issue home PC,

[00:38.24]you need 200 times that amount of memory

[00:40.93]just to run his own company's software.

[00:44.17]Fortunately for Bill,

[00:45.47]others predicted that the technological

[00:47.26]future would involve giant computers

[00:50.08]that were the size of cities,

[00:52.21]whereas what we actually have

[00:54.56]are ever-shrinking models that you can tuck

[00:57.29]neatly into your pocket,

[00:59.24]which are hundreds of times more powerful

[01:01.48]than their lumbering predecessors.

[01:03.89]Nano-technology is definitely the way forward.

[01:05.67]