Last summer, two nineteenth-century cottages were rescued from remote farm fields in Montana, to be moved to an Art Deco building in San Francisco. The houses were made of wood. These cottages once housed early settlers as they worked the dry Montana soil; now they hold Twitter engineers.
The cottages could be an example of the industry’ s odd love affair with “low technology,” a concept associated with the natural world, and with old-school craftsmanship (手艺) that exists long before the Internet era. Low technology is not virtual (虚拟的) —so, to take advantage of it, Internet companies have had to get creative. The rescued wood cottages, fitted by hand in the late eighteen-hundreds, are an obvious example, but Twitter’s designs lie on the extreme end. Other companies are using a broader interpretation (阐释) of low technology that focuses on nature.
Amazon is building three glass spheres filled with trees, so that employees can “work and socialize in a more natural, park-like setting.” At Google’s office, an entire floor is carpeted in glass. Facebook’s second Menlo Park campus will have a rooftop park with a walking trail.
Olle Lundberg, the founder of Lundberg Design, has worked with many tech companies over the years. “We have lost the connection to the maker in our lives, and our tech engineers are the ones who feel impoverished (贫乏的) , because they’re surrounded by the digital world,” he says. “They’re looking for a way to regain their individual identity, and we’ve found that introducing real crafts is one way to do that.”
This craft based theory is rooted in history, William Morris, the English artist and writer, turned back to pre-industrial arts in the eighteen-sixties, just after the Industrial Revolution. The Arts and Crafts movement defined itself against machines. “Without creative human occupation, people became disconnected from life,” Morris said.
Research has shown that natural environments can restore(恢复) our mental capacities. In Japan, patients are encouraged to “forest-bathe,” taking walks through woods to lower their blood pressure.
These health benefits apply to the workplace as well. Rachel Kaplvin, a professor of environmental psychology, has spent years researching the restorative effects of natural environment. Her research found that workers with access to nature at the office—even simple views of trees and flowers—felt their jobs were less stressful and more satisfying. If low-tech offices can potentially nourish the brains and improve the mental health of employees then, fine, bring on the cottages.
小题1:The writer mentions the two nineteenth-century cottages to show that ________.| A．Twitter is having a hard time | | B．old cottages are in need of protection | | C．early settlers once suffered from a dry climate in Montana | | D．Internet companies have rediscovered the benefits of low technology |
小题2:Low technology is regarded as something that _______.| A．is related to nature | B．is out of date today | | C．consumes too much energy | D．exists in the virtual world |
小题3:The main idea of Paragraph 5 is that human beings ________.| A．have destroyed many pre-industrial arts | | B．have a tradition of valuing arts and crafts | | C．can become intelligent by learning history | | D．can regain their individual identity by using machines |
小题4:The writer’s attitude to “low technology” can best be described as ________.| A．positive | B．defensive | C．cautious | D．doubtful |
小题5:What might be the best title for the passage?| A．Past Glories, Future Dreams | | B．The Virtual World, the Real Challenge | | C．High-tech Companies, Low-tech Offices | | D．The More Craftsmanship, the Less Creativity |
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