Since finishing my studies at Harvard and Oxford, I’ve watched one friend after another land high-ranking, high-paying Wall Street jobs. As executives (高级管理人员) with banks, consulting firms, established law firms, and major corporations, many are now ____ on their way to impressive careers. By society’s ____, they seem to have it made.

On the surface, these people seem to be very lucky in life. As they left student life behind, many had a ____ drink at their cheap but friendly local bar, shook hands with longtime roommates, and ____ out of small apartments into high buildings. They made reservations at restaurants where the cost of a bottle of wine ____ a college year’s monthly rent. They replaced their beloved old cars with expensive new sports cars.

The thing is, a number of them have ____ that despite their success, they aren’t happy. Some ____ of unfriendly coworkers and feel sad for eight-hour workweeks devoted to tasks they ____. Some do not respect the companies they work for and talk of feeling tired and ____. However, instead of devoting themselves to their work, they find themselves working to support the ____ to which they have so quickly become ____.

People often speak of trying a more satisfying path, and ____ in the end the idea of leaving their jobs to work for something they ____ or finding a position that would give them more time with their families almost always leads them to the same conclusion: it’s ____. They have loans, bills, a mortgage (抵押贷款) to ____, retirement to save for. They recognize there’s something ____ in their lives, but it’s ____ to step off the track.

In a society that tends to ____ everything in terms of dollars and cents, we learn from a young age to consider the costs of our ____ in financial terms. But what about the personal and social costs ____ in pursuing money over meaning? These are exactly the kinds of costs many of us tend to ignore — and the very ones we need to consider most.

   In our modern world, when something wears out, we throw it away and buy a new one. The ___ is that countries around the world have growing mountains of ___ because people are throwing out more rubbish than ever before.

How did we ___ a throwaway society? First of all, it is now easier to ___ an object than to spend time and money to repair it. ___ modern manufacturing(制造业)and technology, companies are able to produce products quickly and inexpensively. Products are plentiful and ___.

Another cause is our ___of disposable(一次性的)products. As ___ people, we are always looking for ___ to save time and make our lives easier. Companies ____ thousands of different kinds of disposable products:paper plates, plastic cups, and cameras, to name a few.

Our appetite for new products also ____ to the problem. We are ____ buying new things. Advertisements persuade us that ____ is better and that we will be happier with the latest products. The result is that we ____ useful possessions to make room for new ones.

All around the world, we can see the ____ of this throwaway lifestyle. Mountains of rubbish just keep getting bigger. To ____ the amount of rubbish and to protect the ____, more governments are requiring people to recycle materials. ____, this is not enough to solve(解决)our problem.

Maybe there is another way out. We need to repair our possessions ____ throwing them away. We also need to rethink our attitudes about ____. Repairing our possessions and changing our spending habits may be the best way to reduce the amount of rubbish and take care of our environment.

   Hundreds of people have formed impressions of you through that little device (装置) on your desk. And they’ve never actually ____ you. Everything they know about you ____ through this device, sometimes from hundreds of miles away. ____ they feel they can know you ____ from the sound of your voice. That’s how powerful the ____ is.

Powerful, yes, but not always ____. For years I dealt with my travel agent only by phone. Rani, my faceless agent whom I’d never met ____, got me rock-bottom prices on airfares, cars, and hotels. But her cold voice really ____ me. I sometimes wished to ____ another agent.

Rushing out ____ I called out over my shoulder, ＂By the way, what’s your name?＂ ＂I’m Rani,＂ she said.  I turned around and saw a ____ woman with a big smile on her face waving to wish me a safe trip. I was ____! Why had I thought she was cold? Rani was, well, so ____.

Sitting back in the car on the way to the airport, I figured it all out. Rani’s ____ — her warm smile, her nods, her ‘I’m here for you’ ____ — were all silent signals that didn’t travel through wires.