The term “staycation” means vacations that you take at home or near your home rather than traveling to another place. It is is closely connected with less pollution, saving money and not contributing to the overwhelming disorder that takes place in some of the world's most touristic areas.

The concept of staycation was born at the time of the 2008 market ______ in the United States.

Because of it, many households were forced to ______ their expenses and consequently limit   their vacation budget. The shortage of money to travel abroad is at the origin of why many people started to (re) discover their most ______ surroundings

At the same time, awareness of the ______ impacts of tourism, especially on what concerns   the impacts of transportation, started to increase too. And so did the perception that some of the main cities (abroad) are increasingly overloaded with people-- with places such as Barcelona, Venice, or the Seychelles planning on ______ a tourist cap.

Staycation appears like a great solution for the ______ above mentioned. It is a great way of spending joyful vacations while helping one's ______ and the environment. ______, staying     close to home eliminates the budget for accommodation and transport.

Apart from the financial ______ gained by leaving behind expensive plane tickets or by not booking hotel rooms that aren't cheap, staycation also has the benefit of keeping harmful ______ in the ground. Cars, boats, and planes are not (or are less) used; ______, other means   of transport such as public transport, bicycles, electric scooters or just walking are favored.

This allows people's carbon footprints not to ______ as much as they would if long distances   had been traveled.

A staycation is a form of alternative tourism that is fully in line with the slow tourism trend. Slow tourism invites you to live in the ______ moment. It encourages you to take your time, discover nearby landscapes, reconnect and spend more time outdoors in nature with the people you enjoy, There are no fully-booked days, and there is no ______ to go from one activity to another just to stay busy all the time.

Given the multiple ______ of local tourism, you no longer have a reason to be embarrassed at the coffee machine at work when you are asked where you are going on vacation this year.

I was appreciating my family photos on my computer, admiring my two beautiful babies when I found a(n) _________ scene: my laptop (笔记本电脑) was in almost all the pictures. There was my daughter, 8 months old, playing at my feet while I was _________ on the couch. There was my son, with a big transformer, on my left arms.

I’d heard about the Internet addiction before, but I always thought it was something only _________ playing too much World of Warcraft (a computer game) day and night. Now, it seemed my Internet habit is slowly but surely crossing the _________. Sometimes I find myself _________ at midnight, surfing the Web _________ my family are sleeping. I read news, keep up with friends and write my blog…just for something to do.

It _________ that I’m not the only mom who is addicted to the computer. A lot of moms are contributing to a growing global addiction. There’s a movement among psychiatrists (doctors who specialize in mental diseases) to _________ the Internet addiction as an official mental disorder. And a recent Stanford University national survey found that 14 percent of Internet users find it _________ to stay away from it for several days; 9 percent try to hide their ____________ Internet use from their loved ones; 8 percent admit they use the Web as a way to escape ____________.

You’re likely not the kind of addict who skips baths or abuses drugs to help stay up for more online time. You may have noticed, ____________, that going online has become a necessary part of your life, which, ____________, means a box of clothes go ____________. It may also mean you’re missing much time with your baby--something you probably do ____________ about.

A cure for the future in the past?

For over fifty years, the people of Britain have relied on the welfare state to make sure they have adequate health services. But now the National Health Service is sick. Government _____ and underfunding are forcing hospitals to close, and waiting lists for treatment are getting longer. Under such circumstances, it is no surprise that more people are turning to private (but expensive) healthcare.

For some, however, there are _____. They are turning their back on modern pills, tablets and resorting to other conventional medicine. It seems paradoxical, but in an age of microchips and high technology, traditional medicine, the old-fashioned cures that our grandparents relied on, is making a _____.

Consider these case studies:

Maude is 76 years old and has been suffering from arthritis for almost ten years. “The pain in my joints was almost _____, and my doctor referred me to a surgeon at the London Hospital. I was told that I needed _____, but would need to wait for at least two years before I could have the operation. In _____, I started having massage sessions. To my surprise, these were very therapeutic, and while they didn’t cure the disorder, they did _____ it to some extent”.

Ron is 46. His high-powered city job was _____ for a series of stress-related illnesses, and the drugs he took didn’t work well on the nervous strain. “I read about _____ which involve the whole person rather than the individual symptoms, but I had always doubted about such kind of medicine for all diseases. However, my friend _____ a dietician who told me that part of my problem was diet-related. Basically, the food I was eating was _____ to my disorder. She gave me a list of foods that would provide the right vitamins and minerals to keep me in good health. At the same time, she advocated a more _____ lifestyle-running, swimming, that kind of thing. I’ m a bit of a couch potato, and this kind of lifestyle I had lived was _____ the problem. Now I feel great!”

So is there still a place in our lives for modern medicine? While it is true that some infections and viruses may be _____ by turning to traditional medicine, more serious illnesses such as cancer need more extreme measures. We do need our health service at these times, and we shouldn’t stop _____ in its future. But we mustn’t forget that for some common illnesses, the cure may lie in the past.