I spent two months with an American family last year when I studied in America．It is said that “The best house is in the U.S.A．， the best wife is in Japan and the best food is in China．”So I took 36    and pleasure to   37    “the best food” for my American family．Each day，regardless of my poor skill of cooking，I performed my play in  38   way：changing the dishes’colour，the meat’s type or the soup’s style．Thus，my American friends could discover the    39   of eating Chinese food． Because of my“      40    ” job，I was often rewarded by their    41  of  appreciation , such as “very  tasty”，“excellent”etc．But the joke was here： yesterday， I cooked Sichuan－style    42  for dinner．I was   43   at my achievement．When all the family members arrived at the table，they first looked     44  at the fish，then looked at me． “Why do all the fish have their    45   ？” they asked，“It’s horrible！” Horrible or beautiful？ I don’t know． But I    46  know that fish heads are delicious. The    47   is the best part of fish； in    48    only the respectable guest can have the special     49  of enjoying it． Another                      50     thing is：the American friends often said to me“    51 ”as they  52   fruits or other things． According to Chinese tradition，I would simply smile in answer to their kindness 53 actually helping myself to any of the food.     54  ，I said “help yourself” to them whenever I brought home fruits．Dear me，no matter how much or how often I brought home food， as long as it was nice to their taste，they    55  hesitated to use their hands to “help themselves” until all was finished． 

“Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell.”

This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown citizen who lived in Rome in AD 53 wrote it.

We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing and can even change our lives.

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

Picture this: You’re rushing to finish your homework on the computer. Your mobile phone rings, a QQ message from your friend appears on the screen, and the noise from the television is getting louder and louder. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all night 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 simple 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, 10 and Thomas, 7, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house. They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.

The grandmother, Lyn, said, “It was hard physically, but not mentally.” She believed life was less materialistic. “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. Also Lyn changed from being a “fashionable, beer-drinking granny, to one who cooked things.”

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

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.

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

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.

Don’t worry too much about life ― laugh more.

68. The passage is mainly about ______.

A. the important roles technology plays in our everyday life

B. improvements of our life with technology

C. problems with technology 

D. major changes which will be likely to happen to technology

69. The writer uses the quote (引文) at the beginning of the story to ______.

A. share a truth about life  

B. tell us what life was like long time ago

C. point out that you experience some big problems and they may be the same

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

70. 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 a different time would be a lot of fun for them.

71. What do you think the underlined word “available” in the 1st suggestion offered by the writer means?

A. Busy.                        B. Free.                   C. Usable.                 D. Found by others.