Have you ever wondered what life is like now     1     (compare) to, say, the 1980s or the 1990s? I went to ask some people I know who were adults in the ‘80s and 90s’, and the answer I got was that “Overall, life is a lot     2     (good) now!” This didn’t really surprise me. I mean, these days we’ve got mobile phones and the internet and so on — but     3    (actual) those weren’t the things they talked about.

So what did they talk about? For     4     start, we don’t have to work physically hard since now there are a lot of things like dishwashers for housework. Then there’s the matter of how, these days,     5     is possible to work at home — it’s mainly     6    (computer) that have made this possible. Not only that, there’s a lot more     7     (equal) now. It’s easier for all people, whatever their social background, gender (性别), colour and so on, to have equal access     8     a variety of career opportunities.

That said, it’s not all a matter of improvement. Quite a few people told me that they feel more stressed these days because they rely a lot on technology and they are always     9    (anxiety) about security on the internet. Plus, we spend a lot of our time     10     (use) smartphones. One person said, “Wouldn’t it be great to be off the grid (不上网) for a few days?”

Two vegetarian meals each day. A monthly budget of 200 yuan. Working just one or two months a year. In April, an Internet     1    (use) posted this brief description of his simple, stress-free life. He described his philosophy     2    tangping. “I can be like Diogenes, who slept in his wine cask (桶) in the sun,” he wrote.

The post spread     3    (crazy). On social media, people showed their approval of tangping by sharing pictures of themselves (and, often, their cats)     4    (lie) in bed. More than 60％ of over 240, 000 respondents to a poll (民意测评) on Weibo, said tangping was their idea of the good life.

Tangping     5    (describe) a longing to escape the pressure of modern life in China, where young people    6    (expect) to work long hours, buy property, get married and have children. Many people in their 20s and 30s grumble (抱怨) that hard work no longer rewards them with a     7    (good) quality of life. They have adopted an academic term, neijuan or “involution”, to describe how extra input no longer produces more output.

    8    academic from Tsinghua University thought of tangping to be “ extremely irresponsible”. “The only way     9    (ensure) a happy life is working hard,” said a commentary in one newspaper, “this attitude disappoints one's parents     10    hundreds of millions of taxpayers as well”.

Using social media too much and posting many selfies （自拍照)have caused a rise in narcissism，according    1     a new study.Narcissism is when someone becomes very self-centred and believes they are quite attractive.They want attention and likes from other people and think they are    2     ( good) than everyone else.Researchers at universities in Swansea and Milan studied how 74 people aged 18 to 34 used social media and    3     (look) at how their personality(性格〉changed. The researchers found that those    4     used social media    5     ( heavy)through posting selfies showed an average 25% increase in narcissism over the four months of the study.

Professor Phil Reed，from the Department of Psychology at Swansea University，said:“There have been    6     (suggestion) of connections between narcissism and the use of selfies on social media but    7     was not known if using social media was connected with narcissism until this study.The results of this study suggest that posting selfies can increase narcissism. Professor Reed said that about 20 per cent of people may be at risk of    8     (develop)narcissism. This is because they want     9     (get) attention from other people after they post a selfie and show others how    10     (they) life is better or how they are more attractive.