Without an oversized calendar tacked to their kitchen wall, Fern Reiss and her family could never keep track of all the meetings

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问题     Without an oversized calendar tacked to their kitchen wall, Fern Reiss and her family could never keep track of all the meetings, appointments, home-schooling lessons, and activities that fill their busy days. "I’m not sure they make a calendar large enough for us", says Ms. Reiss of Newton, Mass., explaining that her life revolves around "two companies, three children, a spouse, a lot of community involvement, a social life, the kids’ social life, and volunteering in a soup kitchen every week". "Everybody we know is leading a frenetic life", she adds. "Ours is frenetic, too, but we’re spending the bulk of our time with our kids. Even though we’re having a crazy life, we’re having it in the right way".
    Although extreme busyness is hardly a new phenomenon, the subject is getting renewed attention from researchers. "A good life has to do with life having a direction, life having a narrative with the stories we tell ourselves", Chuck Darrah, an anthropologist, says. "Busyness fragments all that. We’re absolutely focused on getting through the next hour, the next day, the next week. It does raise questions: If not busyness, what? If we weren’t so busy, what would we be doing? If people weren’t so busy, would they be a poet, a painter?"
    For the Reisses, part of living a good life, however busy, means including the couple’s children in volunteer work and community activities. "We want the kids to see that that’s a priority", she says,
    Between working full time as a publicist, caring for her home, spending time with her husband and extended family, and helping her grandmother three times a week, a woman says, "I am exhausted all the time". Like others, she concedes that she sets "somewhat unrealistic expectations" for what she can accomplish in a day,
    Being realistic is a goal Darrah encourages, saying, "We can do everything, but we can’t do everything well and at the same time". He cautions that busyness can result in "poor decisions, sloppy quality, and neglect of the things and people that matter most in the long run". He advises: "Stop taking on so much, and keep in perspective what’s most important to you". Darrah’s own schedule remains full, but he insists he does not feel busy. His secret? Confining activities to things he must do and those he wants to do. He and his wife do not overschedule their children. To those with one eye on the calendar and the other on the deck, Darrah offers this advice: "Before you take anything on, ask yourself: Do you have to do this? Do you want to do this? Live with a kind of mindfulness so you don’t wake up and discover that your life is a whirl of transportation and communication, and you’ve hollowed yourself out".

选项 A、crazy and meaningless.
B、tedious but orderly.
C、hasty and messy.
D、busy but sensible.

答案D

解析 本题问作者如何描述赖斯的生活。从首段首句"...the meetings,appointments,home-schooling lessons,and activities that fill their busy days"及第二句都可以看出赖斯的生活是繁忙的;而首段末句谈到"Even though we’re having a crazy life,we’re having it in the right way",可以看出,他们认为自己做得很好。那作者对此的态度又是如何呢?第二段谈到生活要有方向。第三段首句谈到"For the Reisses,part of living a good life,however busy,means including the couple’s children…",可以看出作者认为他们虽然忙,但还是有自己的生活方向,即他们的生活还是合理的,因而"繁忙却合理"正确。注意,本文的基调是让人们不要过分忙碌,但关于赖斯一家的例子却是正面的例子(日程虽然忙碌但是有自己的目标),不要看到他们很忙就认为是反面的例子。狂热而无意义:文中说赖斯生活繁忙,但安排得有条不紊,并无贬意,该选项与此不符。枯燥但有序:赖斯的生活繁忙,但并不是说枯燥无味;相反,是很有意义的,特别是在孩子的教育方面。匆忙且杂乱:赖斯的生活匆忙,但并不杂乱。首段末句谈到他们自己感觉非常好。
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