题目内容
This message is to inform all the children that Santa's post office in Himmelpfort, Germany, is open to receive your holiday wishes. That means you can mail your letters to Santa about 6 weeks sooner than that last year. Santa knows you've been good and wants to make sure he and his helpers receive your wish list earlier.
Eight post offices are organized across Germany to answer all letters children send. This year they plan to receive over 250,000 letters. Though the letters fly from over 80 different countries, Santa and his helpers can understand and make sure to answer all the letters.
In 1984, two children from Berlin sent their wish lists to Himmelpfort after spending vacation there. Their letters were answered by postal employees and later Himmelpfort increased its helpers to meet the needs of increased mail traffic. Year after year, Santa and his crew use an eco-friendly powered vehicle to collect the thousands of letters he receives from young boys and girls. The great news for this year is that if you come to the beautiful town of Himmelpfort, you can drop off your letter and visit Santa in person, from Tuesdays to Thursdays until Christmas Eve.
Santa does not currently have an e-mail, Twitter or a Facebook account. He believes in old-fashioned communication. So get out your paper and write your wish list. Just make sure your letter is clear so you can receive an official response, send your letters to:
Santa
Christmas Post Office
Himmelpfort, Germany 16798
1.This year Santa and his helpers _____.
A. are eager to receive more wishes
B. keep traveling around 80 countries
C. are able to receive kids’ letters earlier
D. answer most of the letters from kids
2.From the 3rd paragraph, we know that _____.
A. post offices send kids all the presents they ask for
B. children from Berlin like spending holidays in Himmelpfort
C. Santa uses a powered vehicle because of the heavy mail traffic
D. children can visit Santa in the flesh before Christmas Eve this year
3.Santa doesn’t have social communications online probably because he _____.
A. is not sure about the online security
B. trusts traditional ways of communication
C. prefers official and formal letters
D. thinks written letters are clearer than e-mails
4.This text is intended for _____.
A. tourists coming to Himmelpfort
B. teenagers preferring writing letters
C. parents preparing for Christmas
D. children planning to write to Santa
Escape from FoMO
Here’s a test you might enjoy: rate these situations on a number scale, ranging from 1 for mild discomfort to 7 for unbearable distress.
Situation 1: you’re visiting New York City and realize there’s no way you’ll be able to get to all the exhibits, see all the recommended plays or take in even part of the “musts”. How do you feel now? Something like 5?
Situation 2: you’re at dinner with friends, and you’ve all agreed to make it a strictly phone-free evening. But your smartphone won’t stop keeping Twitter and text alerts. Something is obviously up in your social network, but you can’t check. Even 7 wouldn’t match the stress you’re feeling now.
Welcome to FoMO (Fear of Missing Out), the latest mental disorder caused by social media connections sharing updates that leaves individuals feeling that they are missing out on something more exciting, important, or interesting going on somewhere else. It is an outcome of technological advancement and booming social information. According to a recent study, 56 per cent of those who use social networks suffer this.
It is not uncommon that at night when you’ve sworn again to put the phone aside or turn off the computer, you cast one last glance at the screen on your way to bed in case you miss some titbit (趣闻)supplied by mere acquaintances or even strangers’ requesting your “friendship”.
We all know the studies showing that end-of-life regrets centre on what we didn’t do, rather than on what we did. If so, constantly watching others doing things that we are not is rich ground for a future of looking back in sorrow. Attractive online images—so charming from afar—make FoMO more destructive. Technology has become the major construct through which we define intimacy (亲密).You may look on in wonder as someone taps out an endless text message instead of actually talking to the person they’re with. Being connected to everyone, all the time, is a new human experience; we’re just not equipped to cope with it yet.
Researchers say our dependence on technology can be reduced if we manage to separate ourselves, even for short periods of time, from our gadgets. However, the problem can only be settled when we grasp that our brains and our humanity—not our technologies—enable this addiction. We cannot seek solutions without honestly asking ourselves why we are so afraid of missing out. Researchers find FoMO occurs mostly in people with unfulfilled psychological needs in fields such as love, respect and security. FoMO levels are highest in young people, in particular young men.
What, then, can we do about something so damaging to our quality of life? The best way to cope with FoMO is to recognize that, at our fast-paced life, we are sometimes bound to miss out. Instead of trying to maximize our benefits, we seek a merely “good enough” result. If you still doubt that“good enough” is the best cure for FoMO, the words of the American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson might strike the right chord,“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”
Escape from FoMO
Main Points | Details |
Concept of FoMO | FoMO, constantly 1. our peace of mind, refers to the unease of feeling that we are not part of social connection. |
Examples of FoMO | • When having dinner with friends, we feel extremely depressed when 2. to check our social network. • Determined as we are to put aside phones, we can’t shift our (73) from them until we go to bed. |
3. behind FoMO | • Technology develops and social information explodes. • Images of online friends 4. more to us, compared to our real world friends. • Some of us attempt to feel5.A fulfilled on social network. |
Bad effects of FoMO | • We are constantly6. for things that we didn’t do. • Communicating with friends in the virtual world gives7. to the decline of important relationships with friends and family. |
Suggestions on avoiding FoMo | • Get (8. from the modern technology. • Recognize that missing out is part of our life. • Accept that9.can sometimes be “a blessing in disguise”. |