Answer:
1. The author had only a short lunch period, and it was difficult to clean up dishes after heating lunch using saucepans.
2. For a week, I battled with messy saucepans and sticky wooden spoons to heat my lunch each day.
3. Both texts state that it is easy to take for granted things that make life easier.
Explanation:
1. The microwave became an "<em>essential part</em>" of the narrator's everyday life for it simplifies the way he takes his lunch. It easily heats it up for him and then with not much dishes to be cleaned after. Considering the short time he has for lunch, he could easily heat his food in the oven and have it. But when it stopped working, he had to go through the whole process of cooking manually, battling "<em>with messy saucepans and sticky wooden spoons</em>" everyday just to have his lunch.
2. The statement about him battling with the "<em>saucepans and sticky wooden spoons</em>" to get his lunch ready supports the author's claim of the oven being an "<em>essential part</em>" of his life.
3. Both passages show how we tend to take the things that help us out for granted. The very ideas of the first passage about pencils and the second passage about ovens both show that whatever their uses are, we tend to think it is normal and nothing significant until they stop working or are no longer available.
