Ingles

THE FAMILY IN THE AGE OH TECHNOLOGY

1 .Dick and Marie Mallory live in quit outside New York City. Dick is the sales manager of a large department store in New York City and Marie is a writer. Karen and mark, their two children, are both high school students. Although the Mallory do not realize it, they rely very greatly on machines. In fact, they depend on machines so much that we can say thatmachines make their way of live possible.
Whether they are at work, at home, or at school, their lives are tied to machines. In many ways they represent the modern family in the age of technology.

2. On a typical working day the Mallory are awakened by music from their clock radio, which is tuned to their favorite station. If they are very tired and decide to turn it off and go back tosleep, it will automatically awaken them again in a few minutes. At the same time as the radio comes son, the coffee pot in the kitchen begins to make their morning coffee automatically. By the time they are ready for breakfast, the coffee is finished. While Marie fries some eggs in the electric frying pan, dick makes toast and mark slices oranges to make juice in their electric juicer.

3. Afterfinishing breakfast, Marie drives dick to the railroad station. The station is always crowded with other commuters like him, people who must travel 30 or even 50 miles to work each day. Some are reading the newspaper, and others are talking as they wait nervously for the train. Although sometimes late, today the train arrives at the station exactly on schedule. Dick gets on the train and finds aseat. Then he puts on a set of earphones and turns on his pocket tape recorder. The music makes the 45 minute trip go quickly.

4. When the train gets to the city, dick hurries though the station. Suddenly he remembers that he has to stop at the bank. The bank does not open until 9:30 a. m. but that does not bother dick. He simply goes up to the automatic taller machine outside the bank, inserts hisplastic bank card. Pushes his code number and tells the machine gives him the money and returns his card

5. when dick arrives at his office, the first thing he does is to turn on his desk top computer and check of messages, but the computer reminds him that he has a sales meeting at 10 o clock. Then he presses a button, and the computer screen displays this month s sales figures. As he isstudying them, he gets a phone call from the manager of a branch store. The manager will not be able to come to the meeting out. He would like to have the sales figures. Dick tells him he will send him the sales report by computer. Then he asks his a secretary to make 10 copies of the report. At exactly 10 o clock the alarm on his watch beeps quietly, telling him that it is time meeting. He picks uphis papers and heads for the conference room.

6. Even though Marie does not work in a modern office, she also uses a lot of machines. When she comes back from the train station, the flashing light on her telephone answering machine tells her that she has a message. She listens to the recording. The message is from her sister who has invited her for lunch. She calls her back and says that she cannot meet her for lunch but will stop by after she finishes working.
7. Before starting to work, she puts the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher and some dirt clothes into the washing machine. The she sits down at the computer. Marie always uses computer for her writing because she can make changes easily. She also uses it to keep track of the family s expenses and for recording her favoriterecipes. She works for four hours, then turns the computer off, and sets ready to visit her sister. Before she goes out she puts some meat and potatoes in the microwave oven and then sets the automatic timer. Finally, she writes a note for the children and leaves.

In the office, at school, and at home, machines play a large part in the life of the Mallory family. Like many other people, they...