day 25mission: the phone-free weekend

mission: the phone-free weekend

Retell a story and an explainer you hear once, prepare for five minutes, read an argument aloud and answer two questions in a row, two and a quarter minutes each.

words to say

• 限制 xiànzhì · to limit, restrict; limit
• 自律 zìlǜ · self-disciplined
• 控制 kòngzhì · to control
• 屏幕 píngmù · screen
• 软件 ruǎnjiàn · software; app
• 功能 gōngnéng · function, feature
• 操作 cāozuò · to operate, use
• 下载 xiàzài · to download

a passage to retell

• A young man wrote software at a computer company. His father was getting old and had to take medicine every day. The son made an app specially to remind his father at eight every evening. But the father never looked at the reminders on his phone. Still, from then on, the father phoned his son every evening to say he had taken his medicine. Only then did the son understand: what his father wanted wasn’t a reminder, it was his son’s care.
• Many people pick up their phones more than a hundred times a day, yet they don’t notice. That’s because every new message is like a little surprise. We don’t know when the next message will come or what it will be, so the brain is always waiting for it. That expectation makes us look at the screen again and again. So experts advise switching off every alert you don’t need, and letting your phone go quiet.

a passage to read aloud

众所周知，科技已经进入了我们生活的方方面面。从衣食住行到学习工作，几乎每件事都离不开手机和电脑。然而，科技本来是为了让生活更方便，而不是让人被它控制。如今，有些软件的功能越来越多，操作越来越复杂，用的人却越来越累；有些人每天看屏幕的时间，比跟家人说话的时间还多。这样的科技，功能再多，也算不上真正的进步。我认为，好的科技应该像一位安静的助手：需要它的时候，它就在身边；不需要的时候，它不来打扰我们。人应该控制科技，而不是被科技控制。