Years ago, a cigarette commercial asked if you were smoking more, but enjoying it less. That describes the way many of us live today. We are doing more, but enjoying it less. And when that doesn’t work, we compound the problem. In our frantic search for satisfaction, we try stuffing still more into our days, never realizing that we are taking the wrong approach.

    The truth is simple; so simple it is hard to believe. Satisfaction lies with less, not with more. Yet, we pursue the myth that this thing, or that activity, will somehow provide the satisfaction we so desperately seek.

    Arthur Lindman, in his devastating book, “The Harried Leisure Class,” described the futility of pursuing more. His research focused on what people did with their leisure time. He found that as income rose, people bought more things to occupy their leisure time. But, ironically, the more things they bought, the less they valued any one of them. Carried to an extreme, he predicted massive boredom in the midst of tremendous variety. That was more than twenty years ago, and his prediction seems more accurate every year.

    Lindman, of course, is not the first to discover this. The writer of Ecclesiastes expressed the same thought thousands of years ago. It is better, he wrote, to have less, but enjoy it more.

    If you would like to enjoy life more, I challenge you to experiment with me. How could you simplify your life? What could you drop? What could you do without? What could you stop pursuing? What few things could you concentrate on?

    The more I learn, the more I realize that fullness of life does not depend on things. The more I give up, the more I seem to gain. But words will never convince you. You must try it for yourself.

1.Arthur Lindman predicted twenty years ago that ______.

A. more things brought more value    B. the more people had, the less they valued them

C. people didn’t like to pursue more   D. massive boredom came from less variety

2.What does the article suggest to make our life happier?

A. To enjoy more things.              B. To buy more things.

C. To sell things we do not need.     D. To get rid of useless things.

3.The passage is probably written to ___________.

A. introduce Arthur Lindman and  his book   B. tell the readers what is satisfaction

C. introduce how to simplify people’s life    D. persuade people to simplify their life

Australians have been warned that they face a life or death decision over their water — drink recycled sewage (污水) or die.

With the drought (干旱) continuing, the country is set to be forced to use purified (净化的) waste water for drinking, even though there is great opposition to the measure.

Queensland has become the first state to introduce the policy after a warning from its premier.

 "I think in the end, because of the drought, all of Australia is going to end up drinking recycled purified water," said Peter Beattie.

 "These are difficult decisions, but you either drink water or you die. There's no choice. It's liquid gold, it's a matter of life and death."

Beattie said Australia's second largest state would become the first to use recycled water for drinking.

Water is recycled in Britain and parts of northern Europe along with the US and Israel.

But Australians have never liked the idea.

To try to change the way Australians think, Prime Minister John Howard and Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull have adhered to Queensland's move.

"I am very strongly for recycling and Mr. Beattie is right and I agree with him completely," Howard said.

“Australian cities, all now facing water shortages because of the worst drought on record, must start to use recycled water.” added Turnbull, "All of our big cities have to widen (使变宽) the range of water sources to include sources which do not depend on rainfall."

1. What is the text mainly about?

A. Continuing drought forces Australians to drink recycled sewage

B. Australians face the choice of life and death

C. Premier Beattie is worried about his people’s health

D. We should avoid drinking recycled water to keep healthy

2. The underlined phrase “adhered to” in Paragraph 9 probably means_________.

A. disliked    B. gone against    C. supported      D. doubted  

3. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A. Nobody disagrees to the idea of drinking recycled purified water

B. Australia's second largest state has become the first state to introduce the policy

C. No other countries but Australia decide to drink recycled water

D. The drought is the worst one in the droughts recorded in Australian history.

4. It can be inferred from what Premier Peter Beattie said that________.

A. he gives orders to drink purified waste water

B. It is painful for him to see his people drink recycled sewage

C. If the decision is made, people won’t survive the drought

D. It’s up to you to either make a life or death decision

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