NEWSCASTER:
Humans can be impatient sometimes.We just can\'t wait to see what will happen in the future, so we\'re constantly trying to predict it.Wouldn\'t you like to know what the world will be like in the year 2100?Will technology have changed people\'s lives for the better or worse?Who knows?
NEWSCASTER:
But it\'s fun to imagine ..We\'re going to look at three people from history who did just that, visionaries whose imaginations were far ahead of their time and whose predictions, although not always accurate, were certainly always interesting.Leonardo Da Vinci is most famous for works of art such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper.However, Da Vinci wasn\'t just a painter, he was also an engineer, a musician, a biologist, a writer, a mathematician and an inventor.Despite living in the sixteenth century, Da Vinci was able to predict some of the twentieth century\'s major inventions, even though it would have been impoible, at the time, to have built them.
NEWSCASTER:
By studying the flight of birds, Da Vinci designed rudimentary （基本的，初步的）\'flying machines\'\' which, in the twentieth century, would become airplanes, hang gliders（滑翔机） and helicopters（直升机）.In his efforts to help defend the cities in which he lived, he came up with the idea of a tank, a machine gun and a cannon（大炮）.Four hundred years later, as the Industrial Revolution（工业革命） completely changed the face of the western world.HG Wells had only to look around him to think of the poible implications for the future.Regarded as the Father of Science Fiction, Wells became famous for his futuristic（未来主义的） stories, such as The War of the Worlds, in which Martians attack London, or The Time Machine, about a man who time travels to the year AD 802701.NEWSCASTER:
It was in his 1901 book Anticipations（预测，期待）, however, that HG Wells made his more realistic, and accurate, predictions about the future.He wrote, for example, that in the future every country in the world would have huge highways on which thousands of cars and trucks drove back and forth.This prediction has certainly come true.Another writer who predicted the impact technology would have on the world was Philip K.Dick.
NEWSCASTER:
Since his death in 1982, Dick has become famous due to many of his stories being made into science fiction movies.In the film Blade runner, for example, robots who look just like humans, begin to learn human emotions and try to find out about the origin of their life.In Total Recall, travel companies give you an adventure holiday by implanting（移植） synthetic（人造的，合成的） memories into your brain.And, in A Scanner Darkly, the government uses state of the art surveillance （监督） equipment to monitor the lives of its people.It seems unlikely that we\'ll see UFO\'s invade（侵略，入侵） the earth, a time machine, or robots that look exactly the same as humansbut as the drawings of Da Vinci prove, given enough time, and the right technology, even the most fantastic of ideas can come true.
POLITICIAN:
Around eight hundred million people on the planet don\'t have enough food.Every minute you listen to me speak, ten children under the age of six will die of hunger.A solution to this problem has existed since the end of the twentieth century, but the solution has been highly controversial in some parts of the world: genetically modified, or GM food.There is a solution to world hunger, but it\'s not GM food.To end world hunger, First World countries like America, Britain, France and Germany have to consume le, and give the surplus to Third World countries.POLITICIAN:
Genetic modification on the other hand, presents so many dangers that, if we\'re not careful, it could destroy the world as we know it!By modifying a plant or animal\'s genomes, genetic engineers can increase or decrease qualities already inherent in the DNA.Crops for example can be altered to become more resistant to drought or more resistant to attack from insect thereby reducing the need for pesticides.GM crops could be useful in the fight against world hunger, but the iue is: are these \'Frankenstein foods\'\' safe?If you alter the genetic makeup of a plant, how do you know that it\'s safe to eat?
POLITICIAN:
There is absolutely no proof to say that genetically modified foods are dangerous.In fact, ninety per cent of soya sold in the US, for example, is genetically modified.Another iue of concern is that of the impact a genetically modified plant or animal could have on our environment.Consider this: what if the GM plant or animalescapes into the wild?Some governments already permit GM crops to be grown and are carefully controlled and monitored, genetically modified animals or plants should therefore pose little problem.
POLITICIAN:
Some years ago, over a hundred thousand genetically modified salmon escaped from a fish farm in the US.Can you imagine these \'Super Salmon\'?Bigger, faster, stronger, eating everything and destroying all the natural animal and plant life in the rivers ..GM technology allows us to produce cheaper and better food.Furthermore, we can produce food in greater quantities than ever before.GM foods provide us with a viable solution to deal with the demand of climate change and population growth.POLITICIAN:
Tinkering with nature and unleashing super weeds and super salmon onto the planet may ultimately lead to one of the biggest man made disasters ever.
Immigration
ADVENTURER:
During the twentieth century, the world underwent(经验) continuous change as empires crumbled（崩溃，破碎，粉碎） and small nations aerted （宣称）their independence.In the twenty first century, however, we\'re faced with a different kind of change and with this change comes a difficult and controversial（有争议的） question: as our world becomes increasingly globalized can a country still maintain some kind of \'national identity\'?\'National identity\'\' can be thought of as the rituals（典礼，宗教仪式）, traditions and beliefs of the people of a nation.However, as the demographics （人口统计资料）of countries change due to immigration and emigration, the concept of national identity is itself undergoing a complex change.On the one hand, those who leave their home and move to another country have an already well established（确认） identity（身份）, based on race, language, religion, history, food, clothing and music that they bring to their new country.
ADVENTURER:
On the other hand, residents（居民） of a country feel their nation\'s identity changing due to the different customs and beliefs of immigrants.This mixing up of different kinds of people living in the same country is called \'multiculturalism\'.And the topic of debate in many
multicultural societies is that of national identity when so many cultures do exist side by side.What is it that really defines our national identity?Think of the country where you live or in which you were born.ADVENTURER:
What would you say were the things that define it, define you?Language, food, tradition?Yet, is there anything deeper than these factors that could bring people together?Is there a way of looking at different cultures, different kinds of people, and seeing the similarities, instead of the differences?The French national flag is made up of red, white and blue, colors which represent the values \'liberty\', \'equality\'\' and \'fraternity\'.
ADVENTURER:
If these are truly taken to heart then we can see how different people with different lifestyles, behaviors can begin to coexist（共存，和平共处）.Think about the nation where you live or in which you were born.What are the values that bind everyone together?Are they changing?What values would you like your new, 21st century national identity to include?
PROFESSOR:
Confucius a man known around the world for his philosophies and teachings may also be credited with how countries around the world operate.The Confucian attitude towards education was that there were no cla distinctions - education was for all.This fundamental belief of
fairne for all paved the way for the revolutionary idea of meritocracy.In Ancient China, following periods of war, the need for governance was crucial.Thousand\'s of bureaucrats were needed to carry out
administrative duties.
PROFESSOR:
It was at this point that the Imperial Exam was set up, to identify those who could read and write and carry out administrative duties and best suited to a life in the civil service.At its peak, the highest level Imperial Exam was a nine day and night ordeal, examining candidates on their understanding of the Chinese Claics, Confucian values and strict writing styles.Because of the demands of the exam, those who sat it were held in high regard and were awarded with a certain degree of power.In the reign of Emperor Kang Xi, candidates questioned the examiners\'\' marking methods and how impartial the examiners had been.The Emperor became diatisfied with the Chief Examiner\'s methods and aigned Prince Yong Zheng to aist with remarking.
PROFESSOR:
This led to the reinstatement of a rigorous method insuring against favoritism.Once completed, a bureaucrat was aigned to write an ID number on the exam paper.Another was attributed with the task of sticking paper over the name.Once copied word for word in red ink, another bureaucrat had to check to see that the two exam papers were identical.Once it was certain that the papers were identical, the original copy was filed and the red ink version was paed to one of two examiners.
PROFESSOR:
That\'s quite a lot of work.The effect of the exam on Chinese society was huge, encouraging cultural conformity at many levels of society.In some cases, people re sat the exam right up into their 70\'s and 80\'s.Various countries, including Korea, Japan, England, France and the United States, adopted this system in different forms.The paperwork involved would have been inordinate.
PROFESSOR:
From 1646 until 1904 more than 26700 candidates sat the very highest level exam and some records show that around a million people sat the different level exams held every three years.If you multiply these numbers by the people required to administer the exam, as well as the paper work involved, the number of man hours needed for the selection of civil servants really begins to escalate.It\'s a matter
