在本专栏中，我会编写一些常见话题的写作素材和观点。本期的素材话题是The pros and cons of technology(科技的利弊)，也是各大英语考试的高频话题。
蓝色标注的为相关话题词汇。
The benefits of technology科技的好处
1 Facilitate people's lives便利人们的生活
Technology has made our lives easier, freeing our hands and allowing us to have more time at our disposal. Many physically demanding
chores that used to be done by humans are now performed by machines,
such as cleaners and automatic washing-machines. A more recent example
is driverless cars, which promise to liberate human drivers from being chained to the driving seat.科技让我们的生活变得更轻松，解放了我们的双手并使我们有更多的时间可以支配。许多过去由人类完成的费力活现在由机器来完成，如清洁器和自动洗衣机。一个更近的例子就是无人驾驶汽车：无人汽车有望使驾驶者摆脱一直坐在驾驶位上。
2 Drive economic growth促进经济发展Technological advances always go hand in hand with economic progress. The last few decades have seen China rise to economic prosperity thanks largely to its efforts to develop state-of-the-art technologies, with people's living standards dramatically improved during the same period.科技进步与经济发展密切相关。在过去的几十年里，很大程度上由于中国竭力发展最先进的技术，中国实现了经济繁荣，同时人民的生活水平得到显著提高。
3 Improve health conditions改善健康状况Breakthroughs in medical technology have offered us deeper insights into the human body.
This makes us better equipped to prevent and cure
diseases that perplexed humanity decades ago. It also helps to
extend average life spans.医学技术的重大进展使我们更深入地了解人类的身体。这使我们更有条件预防和治疗几十年前困惑人类的各类疾病。这也有助于延长平均寿命。
The drawbacks of technology科技的弊端
1 Environmental damage环境问题Technology does simplify people's lives and boost economic growth, but comes at a heavy environmental cost. Traditional
cars, mostly powered by fossil fuels, are considered a major
contributor to global warming. Although new-energy vehicles are touted by many as a
green substitute for their traditional counterparts, the environmental
damage resulting from the discarded batteries are again arousing concerns.科技的确便利了人们的生活、促进了经济发展，但是对环境造成了很大危害。传统的汽车主要以化石能源为燃料，这类汽车被视为是全球变暖的一大主要因素。尽管新能源汽车被很多人视为是传统汽车的环保替代品，但是丢弃的新能源汽车电池造成的环境破坏再次引发了人们的担忧。2 Unemployment失业问题
With each round of technological revolution comes a new wave of unemployment. The advent of e-commerce, for example, has rendered many bricks-and-mortar merchants bankrupt, a disruption aggravated by the pandemic in the past few years. Artificial intelligence, which is reaching maturity, could jeopardise the
livelihood of manual workers like deliverymen and factory
hands, and even of some mental ones such as entry-level translators.每一轮技术革命都会伴随着新一轮的失业。例如，电子商务的到来已经使很多实体商业倒闭，而近几年的疫情又加剧了这一影响。目前正在接近成熟的人工智能可能会影响体力劳动者(例如快递员和工厂员工等)甚至是一些脑力工作者(比如初级的笔译员)的饭碗。
Technology is a mixed blessing.科技有利有弊
Technology itself holds no authority: it is the choices people make about it that shape the world. It can be a boon if employed to benefit humanity, but a bane if exploited for illegal purposes.科技本身是中性的：影响世界发展的是人们对科技做的选择。如果科技被用于造福人类，则是一种福报；但如果被用于非法目的，则是一种祸害。
