Young Japanese people are evolving a new lifestyle for the 21st century based on the cell phones that few are now able to live without.
While about one-third of Japanese primary school students aged 7-12 use cell phones, by the time they get to high school, that figure has shot up to 96 percent, according to a government survey released last month. They are using their phones to read books, listen to music, chat with friends and surf the Internet -- an average of 124 minutes a day for high school girls and 92 minutes for boys.
While the wired world they now inhabit holds enormous advantages for learning and communicating, it also brings a downside, say experts who point to a rise in cyber-bullying and a growing inability among agers to deal with other people face to face. 'Kids say what's most important to them, next to their own lives, is their cell phone,' said Masashi Yasukawa. 'It's a very scary world,' he said. 'As they reveal personal information about themselves, children can become prey (猎物) of s who cheat or are ually attracted to children. '
Education professor Tetsuro Saito said a survey of 1,600 middle school students aged around 14 found that most middle school cell phone users rarely used their phones to talk. Children seemed to want the security of communicating with someone, without the bother of dealing with a real person.
'Communication ability is bound to decline as cell phones and other devices are now getting between people,' he said. Tomomi, 18, said: 'I send some 20 emails a day. There are people I don't talk with -- even if I see them at school, I just exchange mail with them. I guess we're connected only by a machine.'
Saito's survey found that students can also use their cell phones as an emotional crutch (拐杖) , and the more problems they have at home, the more dependent they seem to become on their phones. More than 60 percent of students who said they do not enjoy being with their families send 20 or more emails a day, compared with 35 percent of those happy with their families.
And even if cell phones can bring comfort, it can come at a terrible cost.
. Which of the following topics is not included in the passage?
A. Sending emails to people around. B. Doing reading and listening to music.
C. Watching television on the cell phone. D. Getting the psychological dependence.
65. What's the meaning of the underlined word 'downside' in Paragraph 3?
A. space below something solid or hard B. down part of a hill or mountain
C. decreasing of a certain figure D. negative part or disadvantage of something
66. Masashi says the cell phone is a scary world because the children will ________.
A. be exposed to a lot of frightening information
B. have their personal information exposed to some bad people
C. be attractive to some other children
D. go hunting with some s who will cheat them
67. What will possibly be talked about in the paragraph that follows the passage?
A. The comfort brought by cell phones. B. The average cost of cell phones in Japan.
C. The high cost a ager's phone bill hits. D. The writer's attitude towards the problem.