One of those big social networking sites, Facebook, has attracted over 58 million members. Commentator Melody Cramer is no longer one of them. Here is what she shares with us about her story.

I deleted all 1,281 of my co?workers, second?grade classmates and people who I don’t know at all. I shut down my account, completely. I’m 30, and I’ve been on Facebook since March of 2004, which makes me one of the website’s earliest users.

At first, I used it obsessively. If I had a free moment, I’d log on to see whether my friends had updated their profiles. I’d sit alone scrolling through these updates and then run into someone at a coffee shop and have nothing to say because I already knew everything about them, and they knew everything about me.

In November, I went to my ten?year high school reunion and was not pleasantly surprised. Lauren became a model, Josh went to law school, Dina was a teacher. I hadn’t talked to any of them since graduation, but I knew exactly what they were doing, both now and last week. But lately, I’m overwhelmed(应接不暇). Facebook opened up to everyone, not just college students, and my co?workers started to join, which meant they now knew what I was doing when I wasn’t at work.

And as a rule: you can NOT make friends with your coworkers because then they’ll ask you the next day. But I thought we were friends. And you are friends but not the kind of friends who tell each other what they do outside of work. So now the people you work with can see what you did last night, and you’re constantly worrying what people might say about what you did last night instead of actually doing anything tonight. So Iquit. I became a 30?year?old Luddite, a person who is strongly against technology development. I’ve retuned to how the world worked when I was 20, before I knew when my friends and co?workers were counting down the seconds to vacation or entering a complicated relationship. I’m hoping life will be a lot simpler now. People will be more mysterious now that I actually have to talk to them to find out their favorite books or hobbies or neurosis(神经症). I don’t know when my college roommate goes to the supermarket, and I think I’m a better person for not knowing. In fact, you could say getting off a social network was the best thing I’ve done this week.

1.Melody Cramer decided to quit Facebook mainly because ______.

A. she thought it wasted too much time

B. she was afraid of the strangers on her account

C. she was tired of exposing her life to co?workers

D. she thought it made real?world life less interesting

2.We can learn from the passage that Melody Cramer ______.

A. had a 10?year membership of Facebook

B. used to be very objected to Facebook

C. was unpleasant to attend high school reunion

D. was one of the co-founders of Facebook

3.Which of the following about Melody Cramer is TRUE?

A. She owes her communication skills to Facebook.

B. She wishes she could be several years younger.

C. She prefers to face her friends and co-workers in reality.

D. She is no longer curious about anything around her.

4.The best title for this passage can be _____.

A. Addiction to Facebook

B. Farewell to Facebook

C. Friends Online

D. A Simpler Life

Editor Henry Slocum,

I read your May 10th article in the local newspaper Honesdale Times about electronic books,or e-books,with great interest.You made several good points about the disadvantages of e-books.You may have overlooked,however,some of the ways in which they are superior to traditional books.Yes,e-books are expensive,but they are also convenient.In addition,due to their environment-friendly nature, e-books have the potential to change our planet for the better.

E-books, for anyone who is unfamiliar with the term,are about the same size and shape as regular books.They have a large screen in the middle,however.This screen shows the reader a page of text that has been downloaded from a computer.Once the reader has finished reading the page on the e-book screen.he or she scrolls down to see a new page.The process continues until the entire book has been read.

As you pointed out.Mr.Slocum,it's great to lie on a warm,sandy beach with a book.You can do that just as easily with an e-book as you can with a traditional paper book.In fact,because e-books are so light, you can carry them anywhere.Say,for example,that you like to read on the bus.Which would you rather carry with you-a heavy 800-page novel,or an e-book that weighs only a few ounces?

Another important advantage is offered by e-books as well.They are more environmentfriendly than traditional books.At present,thousands of trees are cut down each year to meet the publishing industry’s demand for paper.Books that don’t sell are eventually returned to the Dublisher and destroyed.This terrible waste could be avoided if everyone used e-books,which require no paper.

Sincerely,

David Eng

1.What does Editor Henry Slocum think about e-books?

A.Interesting

B.Environment-friendly

C.Convenient

D.Expensive.

2.In David’s letter, he thinks that______

A.E-books will come down in price

B.E-books do little harm to the environment

C.E-books come in various sizes and shapes

D.E-books are no better than traditional books

3.The main purpose of the letter is to______

A.provide evidence that e-books are a good idea

B.honor the person who invented e-books

C.scold publishers for wasting so much paper

D.explain how to read e-books

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