Henry Rollins wrote:“Loneliness adds beauty to life.” Indeed, in the eyes of artists, loneliness never goes out of style. There are paintings that draw loneliness, songs that are inspired by loneliness, and many works of literature that are about this theme.
In the eyes of UK economist Rachel Reeves, however, loneliness is far from romantic. Instead, it’s a serious problem in the country.
So how serious is it? On Jan. 17, UK Prime Minister Theresa May appointed(任命) Tracey Crouch as the country’s first “Minister for Loneliness”. Her job is to tackle the loneliness—a problem which is affecting more than 9 million people in the country, and is more harmful to one’s physical and mental health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
And the problem hasn’t just appeared recently. In 2014, the UK was given the title “loneliness capital of Europe” by The Telegraph. A survey found that British people were less likely to get to know their neighbors or build strong relationships with people than those from other European countries.
But this doesn’t mean that the problem only affects Britons. In fact, we’re suffering from loneliness now more than ever, despite most of the world now having access to the Internet, which has made us more connected than ever.
What we need, according to Kim Leadbetter, is to have “proper human connections”. “Our lives nowadays are so busy. We spend most of our time on our phones, laptops. We need to sit down and speak to human beings,” Leadbetter said.
But the first steps toward fighting this problem are to accept its existence. After all, without loneliness, many beautiful paintings, songs, and literary works wouldn’t even exist. And bad or not, being lonely is simply part of the experience of being human.
8. What can we learn about the UK’s loneliness problem?
A.The government is working to solve the problem. |
B.More than half of British people suffer from loneliness. |
C.The UK became the loneliest country in the world in 2014. |
D.British people communicate less with their neighbors than ever. |
9. What does the underlined word “tackle” in the third paragraph probably mean?
A.Suffer. | B.Fight. | C.Ignore. | D.Avoid. |
10. What does Leadbetter suggest doing to deal with loneliness?
A.Accepting its existence calmly. |
B.Making more phone calls to our friends. |
C.Stopping the use of electronic products. |
D.Communicating with the people around us face to face more often. |
11. Which of the following would the author probably agree with?
A.Loneliness is bad to society. |
B.It is hard to find a solution to social loneliness. |
C.Loneliness is just a normal part of our life. |
D.Only artists can appreciate the beauty of loneliness. |