【推荐1】Today’s grandparents are joining their grandchildren on social media, but the different generations’ online habits couldn't be more different. The over-55s are joining Facebook in increasing numbers, meaning that they will soon be the site’s second biggest user group, with 3.5 million users aged 55-64 and 2.9 million over-65s.

Sheila, aged 59, says, “I joined to see what my grandchildren are doing, as my daughter posts videos and photos of them.     1    That's how we did it when I was a child, but I think I'm lucky I get to see so much more of their lives than my grandparents did.”

    2    Children under 17 are leaving the site—only 2.2 million users are under 17—but they’re not going far from their smartphones. Chloe, aged 15, even sleeps with her phone. “It's my alarm clock so I have to, ” she says. “I look at it before I go to sleep and as soon as I wake up. ”

    3    Sheila, on the other hand, has made contact with old friends from school she hasn't heard from in forty years. “We use Facebook to arrange to meet all over the country, ” she says. “It's changed my social life completely. ”

Teenagers might have their parents to thank for their smartphone and social media addiction as their parents were the early adopters of the smartphone. Peter, 38 and father of two teenagers, reports that he used to be on his phone or laptop constantly. “I was always connected and I felt like I was always working, ” he says. “How could I tell my kids to get off their phones if I was always in front of a screen myself? ”     4    “I'm not completely cut of from the world in case of emergencies, but the important thing is I'm setting a better example to my kids and spending more quality time with them. ”

Is it only a matter of time until the generation above and below Peter catches up with the new trend for a less digital life?

A．Ironically, Sheila’s grandchildren are less likely to use Facebook themselves.

B．Unlike her grandmother’s generation, Chloe’s age group is spending so much time on their phones at home that they are missing out on spending time with their friends in real life.

C．It’s a much better way to see what they’re doing than waiting for letters and photos in the post.

D．With the trend of two generations meeting online becoming ever more common, a new communication gap, without doubt, is being created, even it's not clear yet.

E．So, in the evenings and at weekends, he takes his SIM card out of his smartphone and puts it into an old-style mobile phone that can only make calls and send text messages.

F．Maybe it’s time that we pay more attention to the new normal.

【推荐2】Let me start by saying that I don’t have a smartphone, but I probably will in the future. I think smartphones are basically awesome and I have nothing against the basic idea of using smartphones.

My problem starts when the lines between fun and work, between alone and together— become blurred. I’ve just returned from two years in a different country, and haven’t been around my friends for a while. The first several times I met them all, I was surprised to discover that even though we’re all sitting around in the same room, people are actually sitting around smartphones and playing/surfing/taking pictures.

Smartphones made it easier than ever before to access e-mails everywhere. Whether you’re on the bus, in bed or at the bar with your friends — your e-mails are right there and available to you and this can definitely be a problem. Work is great, but is answering e-mails at 3 a.m. really necessary? Do you really want to have to choose between friends and work when you’re hanging out in a bar, just because you happened to see that e-mail?

Smartphones revolutionized our lives. I’m not here to oppose that. But should they replace many of the other things we used to be doing, together and alone? If you think about it for a minute, I’m sure you’ll find someone you know who sometimes finds it hard to draw the line between phone time and people time. This has been a problem for a while, but smartphones make it that much worse. So don’t throw away your smartphones just yet; but do try to remember, at the end of the day, they’re just phones!

1. What does the underlined word “blurred” (para. 2) probably mean?

A．Blocked.	B．Unclear.
C．convenient.	D．wrong.

2. What happened when the writer met his friends after he returned from abroad?

A．They welcomed him warmly.

B．They sat in the same room talking happily.

C．They went to a net bar to surf the internet.

D．They played with their smartphones.

3. The writer is likely to answer e-mails _____________.

A．in his office on the morning of workdays	B．on a bus to work
C．in bed at 3 a.m.	D．in a bar after work

4. What does the writer suggest people do in the passage?

A．Throw away their smartphones.

B．Check e-mails all the time.

C．Draw the line between phone time and people time.

D．Communicate with others using smartphones.

【推荐3】When he was a kid, Alex Vardakostas began working in the grill (烧烤店)alongside adult employees. He estimates he has cooked 50,000 burgers (汉堡包).

Now, Vardakostas co-owns a burger joint called Creator, in San Francisco, California. But he doesn't stand over a grill flipping burgers, and neither do his employees. At Creator, burgers are cooked and assembled entirely by machine. And because it costs less to maintain the machine than to pay a kitchen's worth of employees, burgers cost less.

Creator is just one example of a growing phenomenon: Automation is taking over more and more jobs. That means work is done by machines or computers instead of people.

According to a report from McKinsey Global Institute, about 800 million people could be forced out of their jobs by 2030. McKinsey predicts that as technology improves, some tasks will be done more quickly or cheaply by machine, so businesses will install robots or computer Programs to perform them.

Some jobs are more likely to be automated than others. Machines can do jobs that have three characteristics: They are routine, repetitive, and predictable. Some of these jobs pay low wages and require little education. But others pay well and demand an advanced college degree. Taxi drivers, cashiers, lawyers, and doctors all perform some tasks that can be done by machines.

So what jobs are safe from automation? Answers include coming up with new ideas or work that involves interacting with other people and building relationships. Jobs in engineering, science, the arts, therapy, and nursing are examples.

At Creator, Vardakostas hired people to do just that kind of work. Instead of repetitive burger prepping, workers interact with customers and advise them on flavor pairings, like mushroom sauce with pickles and onion jam. "In our world at Creator, all the work is creative and social," Vardakostas says. "And I think that is what we're going to see more of the future. ”

1. What's the difference between Creator and a traditional restaurant?

A．There is neither worker nor waiters at Creator at all.

B．Some work is done by machines instead of humans at Creator.

C．The number of owners of Creator is larger than that of a traditional one.

D．The price of burgers at Creator is higher than that of a traditional one.

2. What does the report from McKinsey Global Institute predict?

A．A lot of people will lose their jobs.

B．More cheap machines will be invented.

C．More working opportunities have to be created.

D．Humans will have difficulty in running business.

3. What kind of person is most likely to lose jobs in the future?

A．A writer who always publishes works.

B．A nurse who is good at taking care of patients.

C．A cleaner who works in a big supermarket.

D．An engineer who can design new machines.

4. Why does the author mention Creator?

A．To make an advertisement for Vardakostas.

B．To increase the plot of the story.

C．To introduce a modern restaurant.

D．To introduce the topic of the text.