"Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell."

    This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown person 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(电) 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(物质的). "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.

    Don't reply to somebody as soon as they leave a text message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but it soon gets boring.

    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 technology hobby. Every day, do something in the old 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.

Every Saturday evening, many people come to an open square in a small town in Xi' an. They want to watch Chen Kun and his friends put on a play. During the play, the audience （观众） can hear them, but they can not see them. That is because they are putting on a shadow puppet play （皮影戏）.

Shadow puppets are made of hard leather （皮革）. The leather is cut out in the shape of a person, an animal or an object. Each puppet is painted in bright colours and put on a stick. Some puppets have movable arms and legs.

During a shadow puppet play, Chen stands behind a white screen with lights behind it. The audience sit in front of the screen. Chen and his friends hold the puppets very close to the screen so the audience can see the puppets' shadows clearly. Then they move the puppets around and do the voices of the different characters.

Shadow puppet plays are a traditional Chinese art. Now with TV and films, shadow puppet plays are not as popular as before. To encourage more young people to learn the skills of shadow puppet plays, Chen provides training courses for students to teach them how to make shadow puppets.

Chen and his friends often work very hard for little money, but they do not mind. They want to keep this traditional art form alive.

We all enjoy being part of a group — there's no better work than teamwork, right? Actually, I disagree. Teamwork can be hard. In fact, it was so difficult that I left my office job and started working from home on my own. It's much better fit for me, and it has made me think about why teamwork can make our job harder rather than easier.

Personalities(个性) can make teamwork difficult. There is often someone on the team that puts their needs first. The team often goes along with this person whose ideas might not be the best, just the loudest. Just one difficult personality can make teamwork hard. Combine(结合) several challenging personality types and it's even harder.

Not having enough time together can also make teamwork challenging. For example, I was once on a team where we never had enough time to meet as a group. To successfully work as a team, you need time together — and lots of it.

A final reason teamwork is difficult is because there is often no training on how to work on a team. You can't just put people in a room and expect them to work well with each other. You need to build trust with your team members. Think of football players: They aren't just given a ball and told to play. They practice, and they train.

Team can be hard, but working alone has its challenges, too. When my computer doesn't work, I don't have an IT person to turn to. When I have a great idea, I don't have anyone to share it with to see if it really is a great idea. Don't get me wrong — I still like my team of one and enjoy making all of important decisions myself. But now I realize what was wrong with the teamwork I did in the past and how good teamwork could be if done correctly. And that's useful information — because one day I might want to turn ME TEAM into a WE TEAM.

At the end of year 2022, the Singaporean government announced that all drinks sold locally must use nutritional grade labels (营养等级标签) A, B, C, or D on their packaging, marking the percentage of sugar and saturated fat (饱和脂肪) in the drinks. So recently several Singaporean drink companies have already started to put these labels on every drink. In March, 2024 Shanghai, China did the same. The labels are from A to D. The more sugar and saturated fat a drink has, the less healthy the drink is. 

There is a 3D-printed library in our community (社区) . It was printed out in three {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. This library is special, just like a bird flying in the sky. There are different {#blank#}2{#/blank#} of books in this library. You can spend time {#blank#}3{#/blank#} books there. You can also choose some books you like from there {#blank#}4{#/blank#} return them three days later. There is a special box in front of the library. You can put some old books {#blank#}5{#/blank#} the box. Anyone can open the box and {#blank#}6{#/blank#} some books to read. These books can take away for {#blank#}7{#/blank#}. In return (作为回报), you need to put some old books in the box. It quickly became {#blank#}8{#/blank#} around the community. The box give people free books to read and make neighbors {#blank#}9{#/blank#}. Now this library has {#blank#}10{#/blank#} a hot topic online.

Which movie to choose?

最近，看电影已经成为越来越多人的娱乐休闲方式，而电影的种类也在趋于多元化，以满足不同观众的喜欢。请仔细阅读下列题中的五位观众的陈述和各部电影的介绍，选择符合五个观众情况的最佳电影选择。

 {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Mike: I like to watch action movies because it's exciting to see the heroes fight bad people.

 {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Lily: I love cartoons. The cartoon animals are always cute and lovely. It's quite enjoyable to watch cartoons.

 {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Sara: My favorite movies are comedies. It's a good way to relax by watching comedies. We are free to laugh. It's quite fun.

 {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Jack: I prefer to watch scary movies. Although some scenes may be frightening, I still enjoy myself. I think I can be braver after watching them.

 {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Tom: I enjoy watching love stories. I think love is the most beautiful thing in our lives. And it's wonderful to see people love each other.

A.                  B.               C. 

D.                E.