“Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell.” This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, it was written by an unknown citizen who lived in Rome in AD 53.

We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing(惊人的) and can even change our lives. Every week, School Edition carries a story on Page 6 of some great new invention. Remember the smart home, the magic see-through-coat and robots searching Mars?

 But have all these developments really improved the quality of our lives?

You are rushing to computer to finish your homework. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all right to get it done. How calm and happy do you feel?

 Inventions have speeded up our lives so much that they often leave us feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have no telephones, no cars, not even any electricity often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they lead simpler lives.

Our family in the UK went “back in time” to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today.

 The grandparents, with their daughter and grandsons Benjamin, ten and Thomas, seven, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house.

They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.

The grandma Lyn, said, “It was hard physically, but not mentally.”

She believed life was less materialistic(物质享受的) . “The more things you have, the more difficult life becomes,” she said.

The boys said they fought less. Probably they said, because there was less to fight over, such as their computer. Benjamin also noticed that his grandmother had changed from being a “trendy, beer-drinking granny, to one who cooked things”.

Here are some simple ways to beat the stress often caused by our inventions!

(1) Don’t be available all the time. Turn off your mobile phone at certain times of the day. Don’t check your emails every day.

(2) Don’t reply to somebody as soon as they leave a text message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but it soon gets annoying(烦人的) .

(3) Make sure you spend more time talking to your family. Set aside one evening a week when you don’t turn on the television. Play cards and chat instead.

(4) Get a low-tech hobby. Every day, do something in the old fashioned way, such as walking to have a face-to-face meeting instead of using the email or telephone, or making a birthday card.

1. The writer uses the quote(引语)  at the beginning of the story to __________.

A. share a truth about life

B. tell us what was like long ago

C. point out that whatever time you live in, you experience some big problems and they may be the same

D. make us wonder what causes such a thing to happen

2. Why did the family choose to spend some time in a 1940s house?

A. Because they loved to live simple lives.

B. Because they were curious about how people lived without modern inventions.

C. Because they were troubled by modern inventions.

D. Because living in a different time would be a lot of fun for them.

3. The writer gives the example of “a family in UK back in time” to __________.

A. show the new inventions also bring people some problems

B. show the life in the past is better than that of today

C. explain why new inventions are so useful

D. test the life without new inventions is terrible

4. What do you think the underlined word “available” in the first suggestion offered by the writer means?

A. Able to be found by others. 　　　　　　　　　　   B. Online.

C. Free. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D. Busy.

5. According to the passage, the writer seems to think that__________.

A. technology brings us nothing but bad effects

B. technology sometimes makes people feel stressed and tired

C. the problems that technology brings can not be avoided

D. human beings are still not able to deal with the problems that the technology brings

 

“Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell.” This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, it was written by an unknown citizen who lived in Rome in AD 53.

We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing(惊人的) and can even change our lives. Every week, School Edition carries a story on Page 6 of some great new invention. Remember the smart home, the magic see-through-coat and robots searching Mars?

 But have all these developments really improved the quality of our lives?

You are rushing to computer to finish your homework. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all right to get it done. How calm and happy do you feel?

 Inventions have speeded up our lives so much that they often leave us feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have no telephones, no cars, not even any electricity often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they lead simpler lives.

Our family in the UK went “back in time” to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today.

 The grandparents, with their daughter and grandsons Benjamin, ten and Thomas, seven, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house.

They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.

The grandma Lyn, said, “It was hard physically, but not mentally.”

She believed life was less materialistic(物质享受的) . “The more things you have, the more difficult life becomes,” she said.

The boys said they fought less. Probably they said, because there was less to fight over, such as their computer. Benjamin also noticed that his grandmother had changed from being a “trendy, beer-drinking granny, to one who cooked things”.

Here are some simple ways to beat the stress often caused by our inventions!

(1) Don’t be available all the time. Turn off your mobile phone at certain times of the day. Don’t check your emails every day.

(2) Don’t reply to somebody as soon as they leave a text message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but it soon gets annoying(烦人的) .

(3) Make sure you spend more time talking to your family. Set aside one evening a week when you don’t turn on the television. Play cards and chat instead.

(4) Get a low-tech hobby. Every day, do something in the old fashioned way, such as walking to have a face-to-face meeting instead of using the email or telephone, or making a birthday card.

1. The writer uses the quote(引语)  at the beginning of the story to __________.

A. share a truth about life

B. tell us what was like long ago

C. point out that whatever time you live in, you experience some big problems and they may be the same

D. make us wonder what causes such a thing to happen

2. Why did the family choose to spend some time in a 1940s house?

A. Because they loved to live simple lives.

B. Because they were curious about how people lived without modern inventions.

C. Because they were troubled by modern inventions.

D. Because living in a different time would be a lot of fun for them.

3. The writer gives the example of “a family in UK back in time” to __________.

A. show the new inventions also bring people some problems

B. show the life in the past is better than that of today

C. explain why new inventions are so useful

D. test the life without new inventions is terrible

4. What do you think the underlined word “available” in the first suggestion offered by the writer means?

A. Able to be found by others. 　　　　　　　　　　   B. Online.

C. Free. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D. Busy.

5. According to the passage, the writer seems to think that__________.

A. technology brings us nothing but bad effects

B. technology sometimes makes people feel stressed and tired

C. the problems that technology brings can not be avoided

D. human beings are still not able to deal with the problems that the technology brings