What am I going to wear today? That daily question often wastes us tune and causes stress. Some people have many clothes and might still think. There '* nothing to wear "Hut. What if they have only six Items of clothing to choose from and wear for an entire month? That’s the idea behind Six Items or Less.

Six Items or Less is a social experiments, a gentle way of saying "no" to fashion consumerism (消费主义)and the high cost of clothing. Heidi Hackemer came up with the idea. She shared the idea with her friends. And all of a sudden, they had almost 100 people from around the world saying that they wanted to take part in this experiment.

It was an interesting month for them. Hackemcr was surprised at how few people notice that. She was wearing the same six items the whole month. Having fewer choices reduced stress in her life. "I learned what's really important and what's really worth stressing. I also into found that this simplicity exists in other parts of my life. I realized that physical things that we allow into our world really block our mind. And our mind can be quite a powerful and positive if we clear up a little bit."

Kristy Hogue said the experiment inspired her to reexamine her life. Within six items, at first she was really excited and everything was working out perfectly and she never got bored. Then she started to feel a little bored. Then she eventually accepted it and started to be more relaxed .

Alexander was one of the 40 men "Sixers". The most difficult part for him was having to wash clothes by hand every clay. Hut the experiments changed his perspective (观念)on what makes people happy. " We have many choices for everything . But all those choices don't necessarily lead up to any kind of satisfaction ion. We are any about novelty ( 新鲜事) In fact, slowing down little bit and considering your choices a little tightly, actually leads to more time, more happiness and more content.

48. Heidi Hackemer began the Six Items or Less experiment because she wanted to ______

A. try souring special

B. remove the blockers in her mind

C. reexamine her life and he happy

D. fight the custom of overspending on clothes

49. By having fewer clothes to choose from every day, Hackemer fell ________.

A. strange                     B. relaxed                   C. bored             D. surprised

50. What would be the belt title for this passage?

A. Many choices for everything

B. What am going to wear today?

C. Six items or less can make you feel better

D. People's craziness about fashion consumerism

Please help! I live in Germany with my wife and three kids. My parents live in the UK. I want my kids to have as much contact with their grandparents as possible. The kids all use e-mail, Skype and SMS but my parents won’t. I’ve bought them a laptop, paid for broadband, given them both mobile phones and a digital camera, but they won’t use them. My parents say they hate computers and new technology. What can I do with these “technophobes”?
Daniel, Buremburg, Germany
Actually, the original technophobes were the Luddites, a group of cloth workers in 19^th century Britain during the Industrial Revolution. The Luddite cloth workers, who traditionally made cloth by hand, were worried that machines were going to take away their jobs and way of life. These machines could make cloth much faster and cheaper than humans. In 1811 and 1812 the Luddites destroyed the machines that they hated so much, but the British government supported the factory owners. Many Luddites were arrested. Charlotte Bronte’s novel Shirley will tell your parents all about it.
Laura, Valencia, Spain
Laura makes some interesting points, I think. Technophobes has been a common theme in science fiction. Frankenstein, one of the first science fiction, is a warning of what could happen if humans began to experiment with human life.
Freda, Copenhagen, Denmark
One thing you could try is to find hardware that is designed for older people to use. An example is the mobiles made by the US company, Jitterbug. Instead of icons and menus the Jitterbug phones ask users simple “yes/no” questions and have larger keypads. The company realized that there are potentially 100 million older users in the US alone.
Graham, Patras, Greece
【小题1】The underlined part “the technophobes” in the passage refers to ______.

A．those who are ready to try new technology

B．those who are addicted to the Internet

C．those who refuse to use modern technology

D．those who are devoted to inventing new things

Please help! I live in Germany with my wife and three kids. My parents live in the UK. I want my kids to have as much contact with their grandparents as possible. The kids all use e-mail, Skype and SMS but my parents won’t. I’ve bought them a laptop, paid for broadband, given them both mobile phones and a digital camera, but they won’t use them. My parents say they hate computers and new technology. What can I do with these “technophobes”?

Daniel, Buremburg, Germany

Actually, the original technophobes were the Luddites, a group of cloth workers in 19^th century Britain during the Industrial Revolution. The Luddite cloth workers, who traditionally made cloth by hand, were worried that machines were going to take away their jobs and way of life. These machines could make cloth much faster and cheaper than humans. In 1811 and 1812 the Luddites destroyed the machines that they hated so much, but the British government supported the factory owners. Many Luddites were arrested. Charlotte Bronte’s novel Shirley will tell your parents all about it.

Laura, Valencia, Spain

Laura makes some interesting points, I think. Technophobes has been a common theme in science fiction. Frankenstein, one of the first science fiction, is a warning of what could happen if humans began to experiment with human life.

Freda, Copenhagen, Denmark

One thing you could try is to find hardware that is designed for older people to use. An example is the mobiles made by the US company, Jitterbug. Instead of icons and menus the Jitterbug phones ask users simple “yes/no” questions and have larger keypads. The company realized that there are potentially 100 million older users in the US alone.

Graham, Patras, Greece

1.The underlined part “the technophobes” in the passage refers to ______.

A. those who are ready to try new technology 

B. those who are addicted to the Internet

C. those who refuse to use modern technology 

D. those who are devoted to inventing new things

2.Which of the following is TRUE of the Luddites?

A. They called themselves the technophobes.  

B. They got full support from their factory owners.

C. They preferred to keep their traditional working methods.

D. They were killed by the government.

3.Who has put forward a practical and useful suggestions?

A. Laura.             B. Freda.           C. Daniel.          D. Graham.

4.The passage is probably taken from _____.

A. a personal blog                        B. a letter between friends    

C. a personal diary                       D. a speech on new technology

5.What can we infer from the passage?

A. Daniel would buy her parents a novel written by Shirley.

B. Charlotte Bronte wrote about technophobes in her novel Shirley.

C. Daniel would buy her parents cell phones with icons and menus.

D. Daniel worried about her children using e-mails.