Not so long ago, people lived in big families. Children grew up knowing their cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and other relatives. These children felt connected.

    At that time, people were connected to their food. Most people grew their own vegetables and fruit. Many families had a house cow for milk, cheese, butter and cream. Most families also had meat animals. When visitors came unexpectedly, dad would be sent to kill the chook (鸡) for dinner. Everyone helped with cooking and mealtimes were a social event. When the meal ended, most of the families cleaned up and washed up together. But how different is the situation today?

    The fast life is all around us—fast food, fast cars, fast conversations, fast families, fast holidays. Our fast-paced life has weakened these connections. We have been fooled into thinking we need to, or even must, be fast and have what the "fast life" gives us. Stress is leading to many new health problems.

    The way to solve the problem is the Slow Movement. It aims to deal with the problem of "time poverty (缺乏)" through making connections. It supports a growing cultural change towards slowing down. It has spread to more than sixty countries and become a worldwide movement.

    The Slow Movement tells us that we need to slow down and connect with our life. We need connection to people—ourselves, our family, our community, our friends—to food, to place (where we live), and to life.

    By being part of the Slow Movement, many people have known how they lost connection to most sides of their lives and to the natural world and rhythms (节奏) around them. And more importantly, they have reconnected—they have lived a new connected lifestyle.

    A girl who graduated from a world famous university wanted to do translation work for authority leaders. She was so happy when she entered the British Embassy (大使馆). She thought it was the greatest happiness in her life as many graduates wanted to get that job and she was one of the few people who got it!

    But when she started her new job, she realized that it was just a job of answering calls and recording staff members' arriving and leaving times. It was supposed to have no future. For some time, she felt disappointed and didn't know what to do. However, she didn't want to give up this job. She thought about it for one or two days and finally she decided that she would try her best to do this job. From then on, she learnt to appreciate her own job. She wrote down the names and phone numbers of the staff members on a notebook so that he could remember them. She found great pleasure in dealing with the daily chores. When a phone call came in, she picked up the phone as soon as possible. When someone asked her about who was not in the office, she would give the right name and even the time when he or she left. Nobody could do that except her.

    Her excellent work received praise not only from the embassy's members, but also from people in the local government. A leader of a famous company in Britain was deeply impressed by her, so he invited her to work for him. After that she became the leader's personal translator and she was appreciated by the foreigners.

    We cannot choose our destiny (命运), but we can choose the attitude with which we face our life. Maybe me attitude could change our destiny.

—OK. I'll keep this in mind.

—Let's go to play with her and cheer her up.

—That's true. Even on weekends he is ________ his work.

—________ all your worries ________. Smile to her and you will be friends again.

—That's true. Pollution from factories ________ our efforts to make our world cleaner.

—Well. You'd better conduct a survey before you make the decision.