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?”

5 . A new study from the Netherlands has found that an important factor in a child’s ultimate level of education, even more important than their own family’s economic situation, is whether they grow up with rich neighbors nearby.

Researcher Agata Troost and her colleagues at Delft University of Technology used a national database to track the address of every Dutch baby born in 1995, a total of 140,338 people, from birth to age 23. Using geolocating software, they drew up a socioeconomic profile (概况) for each child's immediate neighborhood, figuring the percentage of neighbors who were rich, middle class or disadvantaged.

After controlling a number of other factors, including parents’ earnings and levels of education, the researchers found that a child's own experience of wealth or poverty mattered less to their ultimate level of schooling than exposure to well-off neighbors. The data suggest that growing up in a rich area, with well-maintained parks, libraries and soccer fields, as well as interactions with educated neighbors, could boost a poor child's ability to see beyond their immediate horizons (眼界).

“Rich families create neighborhoods and activities that create opportunities,” said Ms. Troost, and these advantages are shared with other children who happen to live nearby. The finding echoes an earlier study by Mr. Chetty and his colleagues, which showed that having even one inspiring teacher in middle school can improve a student’s career prospects. Whether in the classroom or on the street, it seems that social interactions outside the family can start a young person's motivation and ambition.

At the same time, the study also stressed the importance of the home environment. When parents are well educated, children are likely to be, too. And that's the moral of the story: Neighborhoods can have different effects on different children, depending on how educated their parents are, whether they are male or female, and how much casual contact they have with people who are different from their own families. “Location, location, location” may be a old saying for buying a house, but we're learning that it also holds true for children's development.