【考场题目回忆】：

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

Nowadays it is easier to maintain good health than it was in the past.

Decades ago, many parts of the world suffered famine and hunger（饥荒）, and in some of the places, it is only recently that people are fed. Decades ago, the variety of foods on an average Chinese household’s dining table was fairly poor; compared with the old times, the Chinese now can choose from a great range. In the western world, foods used to be filled with sugar and salt, and the trend of eating lightly（轻食潮流） is nowprevailing（流行）. In terms of nourishment and diet the time haswitnessed （见证）shifts — from having none to having some, from monotony to diversity, from indulgence to abstinence.

Also, with good dietary supplements and medical service, people’s health increases: there have been all sorts of pills as complements to our bodily needs that foods alone cannot meet; and improved medical treating methods and medications help to reduce illnesses and to defeat diseases. These are the privileges（特权） those past generations did not have. Yet, food, nutrition and healthcare constitute （组成）only one part of the whole picture.

The other major aspect is lifestyle, including one’s timetable, stress, exercise, as well as consumption of alcohol and tobacco. Compared with my grandfather in his thirties and forties, my father, when he was the same age, had a busier schedule. Today, as I am in my heyday of career, I hardly have high-quality private time. Seldom can I be actually offline outside office hours; seldom can I sleep in on my days off; seldom can I take my time to enjoy a good cup of coffee on a Saturday afternoon.【划线部分是举例也是通过举例做对比，一石二鸟，一举两得。】All of these makes it less easy to keep fit and calm today than in the past, and in fact it is difficult to do so. What ensues from the out-of-control timetable is my high stress level,rendering（导致） me constantly alerted and nervous（精神的持续性紧张）. I believe this is not only my case but the case of many people of my age, and unlike our generation, the older generations were never in such a strained state. This is another reason why keeping healthy is less easy today. 

In addition, as people today have less private time, they exercise less, and as they suffer high levels of stress, they drink and smoke. This chain effect, as a result of the poor time management, is terrifying but true, and contrasts sharply（鲜明地） with the virtuous circle（良性循环） in the past. So, there is another apparent reason to believe that it was easier to maintain good health in the past than it is today. 

All in all, with those many factors taken into consideration, I find it hard to agree with the statement given.