1 . After bouncing my rental car across several miles of red-dirt roads I walked for nearly another mile down the beach to a deserted valley. It was comforting to think that at the very least I was finally out of cell-phone range.
However, even on Kauai, Hawaii’s ‘Garden Island’, complete escape wasn’t all that easy to achieve. Noisy helicopters full of tourists flew overhead like so many dragonflies. Every 20 minutes or so the comforting sounds of wind and water were broken by the noise of a speeding tour boat racing to complete another lap around the island. Worst of all, not more than five minutes by car from the resort where I was staying, the Atomic Clock Internet Café signaled with promises of instant email.
I felt uncomfortable every time I drove by the Atomic Clock Café. I am a technology reporter for an online magazine—my life is driven and dominated by email. I’m drowned in it, usually 400 or 500 messages a day. The main reason for my visit to Kauai was to unplug, disconnect, log off, and get away from it all. No cell phone, no electronic organiser, no laptop. And definitely, no email.
Yes, my plan was to lie on the beach and not check my email. My friends and family were outraged as they could not understand how I could bear to live without email. But they didn’t understand. In my job, I am online, permanently. Cyberspace is more familiar to me than my backyard. While I am awake, my email is always on. I don’t like to be without it for too long. A few hours away from it, and I start to tremble. I am, however, no stranger to beaches and their relaxing qualities and so I knew, even when arriving well after dark at the comfortable cottage in the town of Waimea, that the island of Kauai gave me a good chance of beating my addiction to electronic devices.
Maybe it was full moon lighting the black-sand beach not 10 metres from my door. Or the mango trees casting shadows across the veranda ( 阳 台 ). Or the driftwood piled in loose heaps for as far as I could see along the shore. Without question, the long, slow sound of the waves rolling in calmed my restless soul, and I found I could, in fact, log off.
1. Why did the writer come to Kauai?| A．To get away from the modern technology. |
| B．To work for the Atomic Clock Internet Café. |
| C．To write reports on technological development. |
| D．To find whether there is an alternative to email. |
| A．He wrote articles about resorts around the world. |
| B．He enjoyed beach activities like boat racing. |
| C．He was eager to work in his backyard. |
| D．He spent much time working online. |
| A．relieved | B．shocked |
| C．amused | D．offended |
| A．argue against his friends’ doubt of Kauai |
| B．propose a possible destination of his trip |
| C．highlight the beauty of the beach of Kauai |
| D．show Kauai produced a relaxing atmosphere |
