Changes in residence and jobs place a tremendous amount of stress and pressure on people【1

】they try to adjust themselves to new people and places. Yet transient relationships are not【2】only to people and places. Objects move in and out of our lives at an astonishing rate. America, the "consumer society", has also【3】the name "the throw away society". Every year we throw away incredible quantities of bottles, cans, paper, and on and on. Buildings are torn【4】around us, and new ones take their places; they are cheaper to replace than to repair. With every major change, our places feel less familiar. Our lives become filled with a sense of impermanence and uncertainty.

The rate at which new and sometimes contradictory information comes at us【5】contributes to our feelings of instability and transience. It's estimated that 90 percent of all scientists who ever lived are alive today. New scientific discoveries are being made every day of the week,【6】unlike in other ages, new ideas are quickly applied in practical ways. The【7】of new technology on our lives is felt almost immediately.

As we look back on history, we think in terms of large periods of time, from the ten thousand years of the agricultural revolution to the three hundred years of the industrial【8】. Today time feels like it's accelerating. We now【9】to think of change in terms of centuries, or rather in terms of decades: the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The day may come when we think of great【10】of historical change in terms of years, even months.

(1)

A．so that

B．as

C．until

D．since