3 . It is almost impossible to be left alone in a digital world, where people are meant to be connected. In this respect, digital technologies have _______ our life.

The possibility to be connected all the time has brought our personal space to a(n) _______ as we've known it. People have become so _______ in the world of networks that one can often be contacted even if they'd rather not be. Today we can talk, text and e-mail, not only from our _______, but from our mobile phones as well.

Most people have become _______ on digital technology simply because it has become a necessary part of life, and at this point not _______ it would make them an social outsider. _______, many jobs and careers require people to be connected. From this point of view, being reachable might feel like a _______ to those who may not want to be able to be contacted at all times.

But solitude(独处) still can be possible for those who _______ want it. Computers can be ________ and mobile phones can be turned off. Of course, the choice to be “off” and “on” has many ________ as well as disadvantages. When travelers end up ________ in mountains, and mobile phones can mean life or death, although they can also make people feel ________ and forced to answer unwanted calls.

Actually, attitudes towards digital technologies as a society ________ widely. Some find them a gift. Others consider them a curse. Whether you like it or not, it's hard to imagine what life would be like without the ________ in digital technologies.

4 . Perhaps you have ever heard the saying: Change is the only constant. Everyone, without doubt, goes through changes in their life, whether it is a physical state of aging or a mental state of emotional maturity. However, some are afraid to make the conscious decision to move or they think it's too late to have a fresh start.

I have a friend named Jack. At the age of 37, he is a Senior Manager at one of the Big Four. He has a great salary, owns his own apartment and enjoys the fine things in life, but not without the heavy burdens that his job brings. On the surface, it looks like he has got life figured out. Yet when I once asked if he was happy with his work, he answered that he some- times wished to quit his job to do something less stressful. But he’d become accustomed to this lifestyle and felt that it would be too late to give it up to achieve a new ambition.

For him, the risks are too high, so whether he can't abide his present job or not, he has to choose to suck it up. You might have come to a similar situation as Jack’s or you might be a Jack. You're now facing a wall. No matter what it is—the stress of your job or the terrible feeling, it’s time that you had to decide whether you'll tear down that wall or continue to let it enclose you. I suggest pushing back the boundaries and breaking the fixed patterns. Why do you feel it's too late to start over? That is simply because you're comparing yourself with others—younger or more successful individuals. In fact, you should compare yourself with the older version of you.

Don't become that person who lets life pass by only to regret it when you are making your way into old age. Don't let your life plateau（停滞不前）and waste away in the daily chores. Don't give up the potential you still have hidden and be locked away by your current state. Now, you’d better bravely start going after the things you want to do, without abandoning your dreams, ambitions and responsibilities.

5 . As the winner of six gold medals, cyclist Sir Chris Hoy is one of Britain's most successful Olympians. Now he has written a book to help young people achieve their own goals in life, called Be Amazing! An Inspiring Guide to Being Your Oum Cham pion. The book is packed with stories from his cycling career and the lessons he learned along the way. Speaking to The Week Junior, Hoy says the book's advice can apply to anything, whether it's sport, the arts or science.

When he was young, Hoy never thought he would have a career in cycling. “First of all, I wasn't that good at it,” he says. Heever thought that successful people were just certain to be great and were different from everyone else. But after growing up, Hoy realized that wasn't true and he saw whatever can happen if you work hard at something you love. He won his first gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Greece in a time trial event. In this event, the cyclists took it in turns to see who could go the fastest round a track. Before Hoy's turn came, the world record had been broken three times. However, he focused on his own performance and won gold. Hoy said hearing his name followed by the words “Olympic champion” was truly magical.

If Hoy could give his younger self a piece of advice, it would be, “Not everyone can win a gold medal, so there has to be more than that. There has to be enjoyment and fun at the heart of everything.”

6 . Every week in China, millions of people will sit in front of their TVs watching teenagers compete for the title Character Hero, which is a Chinese-style spelling bee. In this challenge, young competitors must write Chinese characters by hand. To prepare for the competition, the competitors usually spend months studying dictionaries.

Perhaps the show’s popularity should not be a surprise. Along with gunpowder and paper, many Chinese people consider the creation of Chinese calligraphy(书法) to be one of their primary contributions to civilization. Unfortunately, all over the country, Chinese people are forgetting how to write their own language without computerized help. Software on smart phones and computers allows users to type in the basic sound of the word using the Latin alphabet. The correct character is chosen from a list. The result? It’s possible to recognize characters without remembering how to write them.

But there’s still hope for the paint brush. China’s Education Ministry wants children to spend more time learning how to write.

In one Beijing primary school we visited, students practice calligraphy every day inside a specially decorated classroom with traditional Chinese paintings hanging on the walls. Soft music plays as a group of six-year-olds dip brush pens into black ink. They look up at the blackboard often to study their teacher’s examples before carefully attempting to reproduce those characters on thin rice paper. “If adults can survive without using handwriting, why bother to teach it now?” we ask the calligraphy teacher, Shen Bin. “The ability to write characters is part of Chinese tradition and culture,” she reasons. “Students must learn now so they don’t forget when they grow up.” says the teacher.