Stress and pressure-filled days have become an almost normal part of contemporary life, du

e to the ever-growing demands of careers, home maintenance, parenting responsibilities, and community involvement. Because of this, there is a general consensus that just doing all that daily needs to be done is an emotionally intense and complex process. In fact, a wit once commented, "Living these days is like a grammar lesson: the past is perfect; the present is tense."

Technology makes it more difficult to separate ourselves from work. In times past, it was possible to have a stressful workplace, go home, and relax. Since less work was mental and more was physical, it was relatively easy to remove oneself —physically and mentally —from it. The sophisticated communication technology available today was not yet developed. In contrast to the "good old days," it is no longer possible for busy men and women to go home or go on vacation and truly "get away from it all." It becomes difficult to relax when you are carrying a beeper that may go off any minute. The result is higher levels of stress in men and women because technology enables others to "find them anywhere."

It is ironic that much technology is designed to make work easier and faster; presumably, this will make life easier for those who must operate the technology, but such is not the case. Witness the prophetic words of the great philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806- 1873): "It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being." How true this is despite the promise of "miraculous" new machinery ranging from a "new and more efficient" vacuum cleaner to the most sophisticated computer. The solution to living well lies not in new and better technology, but in the selective disuse of it so that life can be enjoyed in a more emotionally fulfilling way.

This passage mainly discusses ______.

A．modern man's life that is filled with stress and pressure

B．new technology that has failed to make modern man's life comfortable

C．the negative impact of advanced technology on men's psychological well-being

D．the contrast between contemporary life and life in the past