Eighteenth or Last Men.

　　However, most of our ideas about the future are really very short-sighted. Perhaps we can see some possibilities for the next fifty years. But the next hundred? The next thousand? The next million? That's much more difficult.

　　When men and women lived by hunting 50,000 years ago, how could they even begin to picture modern life? Yet to men of 50,000 years from now, we may seem as primitive in our ideas as the Stone-Age hunters do to us. Perhaps through the cribe , These words, which I have just made up , have to stand for things and ideas that we simply can't think of .

　　So why bother even to try imagining life far in the future? Here are two reasons. First unless we remember how short our own lives are compared with the whole human history, we are likely to think our own interests are much more important than they really are. If we make the earth a poor place to live because. we are careless or greedy or quarrelsome, our grand-children will not bother to think of excuses for us.

　　Second, by trying to escape from present interests and imagine life far in the future, we may arrive at quite fresh ideas that we can use ourselves. For example, if we imagine that in the future men may give up farming, we can think of trying it now. So set you imagination free when you think about the future .

59．A particular mention made of Stapledon's book in the opening paragraph ____________

　　A．serves as a description of human history B．serves an introduction to the discussion

　　C. shows a disagreement of views 　　 D. Shows the popularity of the book

60 The text discusses men and women 50,000 years ago and 50,000 years from now to show that _________.

　　A．human history is extremely long 　　

　　B．life has changed a great deal

　　C．it is useless to plan for the next 50 years

　　D．it is difficult to tell what will happen in the future

61．According to the writer of the text , imagining the future will _________.

　　A．serve the interests of the present and future generations

　　B．enable us to better understand human history

　　C．help us to improve farming

　　D．make life worth living

C ☆☆

　 The easy way out isn't always easiest. I learned that lesson when I decided to treat Doug, my husband of one month, to a special meal. I glanced through my cookbook and chose a menu which included homemade bread. Knowing the bread would take time, I started on it as soon as Doug left for work. As I was not experienced in cooking , I thought if a dozen was good, two dozen would be better, so I doubled everything. As Dong loved oranges, I also opened a can of orange and poured it all into the bowl. Soon there was a sticky dough(面团)covered with ugly yellowish marks. Realizing I had been defeated, I put the dough in the rubbish bin outside so I wouldn't have to face Doug laughing at my work, I went on preparing the rest of the meal , and ,