Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)
Passage1:
The Next Society
The new economy may or may not materialize, but there is no doubt that the next society will be with us shortly. In the developed world, and probably in the emerging countries as well, this new society will be a good deal more important than the new economy (if any). It will be quite different from the society of the late 20th century, and also different from what most people expect. Much of it will be unprecedented. And most of it is already here, or is rapidly emerging.
In the developed countries, the dominant factor in the next society will be something to which most people are only just beginning to pay attention: the rapid growth in the older population and the rapid shrinking of the younger generation. Politicians everywhere still promise to save the existing pension system, but they--and their constituents--know perfectly well that in another 25 years people will have to keep working until their mid-70s, health permitting.
What has not yet sunk in is that a growing number of older people--say those over 50--will not keep on working as traditional full time nine-to-five employees, but will participate in the labor force in many new and different ways: as temporaries, as part-timers, as consultants on special assignments, and so on. What used to be personnel and are now known as human resources departments still assume that those who work for an organization are full-time employees. Employment laws and regulations are based on the same assumption. Within 20 or 25 years, however, perhaps as many as half the people who work for an organization will not be employed by it, certainly not on a full-time basis. This will be especially true for older people. New ways of working with people at arm's length will increasingly become the central managerial issue of employing organizations, and not just of businesses.
The shrinking of the younger population will cause an even greater upheaval, if only because nothing like this has happened since the dying centuries of the Roman Empire. In every single developed country, but also in China and Brazil, the birth rate is now well below the replacement rate of 2.2 live births per woman of reproductive age. Politically, this means that immigration will become an important and highly divisive issue in all rich countries. It will cut across all traditional political alignments. Economically, the decline in the young population will change markets in fundamental ways. Growth in family formation has been the driving force of all domestic markets in the developed world, but the rate of family formation is certain to fall steadily unless bolstered by large-scale immigration of younger people. The homogeneous mass market that emerged in all rich countries after the Second World War has been youth-determined from the start. It will now become middle-age-determined, or perhaps more likely it will split into two: a middle-age-determined mass market and a much smaller youth-determined one. And because the supply of young people will shrink, creating new employment patterns to attract and hold the growing number of older people (especially older educated people) will become increasingly important.
Knowledge is all
The next society will be a knowledge society. Knowledge will be its key resource, and knowledge workers will be the dominant group in its workforce. Its three main characteristics will be:
· Borderlessness, because knowledge travels even more effortlessly than money.
· Upward mobility, available to everyone through easily acquired formal education.
· The potential for failure as well as success. Anyone can acquire the "means of production",
i. e, the knowledge required for the job, but not everyone can win.
Together, those three characteristics will make the knowledge society a highly competitive one, for organizations and individuals alike. Information technology, although only one of many new features of the next society, is already having one hugely important effect: it is allowing knowledge to spread near-instantly, and making it accessible to everyone. Given the ease and speed at which information travels, every institution in the knowledge society--not only businesses, but also schools, universities, hospitals and increasingly government agencies too-- has to be globally competitive, even though most organizations will continue to be local in their activities and in their markets. This is because the Internet will keep customers everywhere informed on what is available anywhere in the world, and at what price.
This new knowledge economy will rely heavily on knowledge workers. At present, this term is widely used to describe people with considerable theoretical knowledge and learning: doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, chemical engineers. But the most striking growth will be in "knowledge technologists" ~ computer technicians, software designers, analysts in clinical labs, manufacturing technologists, paralegals. These people are as much manual workers as they are knowledge workers; in fact, they usually spend far more time working with their hands than with their brains. But their manual work is based on a substantial amount of theoretical knowledge which can be acquired only through formal education, not through an apprenticeship. They are not, as a rule, much better paid than traditional skilled workers, but they see themselves as "professionals" . Just as unskilled manual workers in manufacturing were the dominant social and political force in the 20th century, knowledge technologists are likely to become the dominant social--and perhaps also political--force over the next decades.
The new protectionism
Structurally, too, the next society is already diverging from the society almost all of us still live in. The 20th century saw the rapid decline 'of the sector that had dominated society for 10,000 years: agriculture. In volume terms, farm production now is at least four or five times what it was before the First World War. But in 1913 farm products accounted for 70% of world trade, whereas now their share is at most 17%. In the early years of the 20th century, agriculture in most developed countries was the largest single contributor to GDP; now in rich countries its contribution has dwindled to the point of becoming marginal. And the farm population is down to a tiny proportion of the total.
Manufacturing has traveled a long way down the same road. Since the Second World War, manufacturing output in the developed world has probably tripled in volume, but inflation adjusted manufacturing prices have fallen steadily, whereas the cost of prime knowledge products-health care and education-has tripled, again adjusted for inflation. The relative purchasing power of manufactured goods against knowledge products is now only one-fifth or one-sixth of what it was 50 years ago. Manufacturing employment in America has fallen from 35% of the workforce in the 1950s to less than half that now, without causing much social disruption. But it may be too much to hope for an equally easy transition in countries such as Japan or Germany, where blue-collar manufacturing workers still make up 25--30% of the labor force.
The decline of farming as a producer of wealth and of livelihoods has allowed farm protectionism to spread to a degree that would have been unthinkable before the Second World War. In the same way, the decline of manufacturing will trigger an explosion of manufacturing protectionism-even as lip service continues to be paid to free trade. This protectionism may not necessarily take the form of traditional tariffs, but of subsidies, quotas and regulations of all kinds. Even more likely, regional blocks will emerge that trade freely internally but are highly protectionist externally. The European Union, NAFFA and Mercosur already point in that direction.
The future of the corporation
Statistically, multinational companies play much the same part in the world economy as they did in 1913. But they have become very different animals. Multinationals in 1913 were domestic firms with subsidiaries abroad, each of them self-contained, in charge of a politically defined territory, and highly autonomous. Multinationals now tend to be organized globally along product or service lines. But like the multinationals of 1913, they are held together and controlled by ownership. By contrast, the multinationals of 2025 are likely to be held together and controlled by strategy. There will still be ownership, of course. But alliances, joint ventures, minority stakes, know-how agreements contracts will increasingly be the building blocks of a confederation. This kind of organization will need a new kind of top management.
In most countries, and even in a good many large and complex companies, top management is still seen as an extension of operating management. Tomorrow's top management, however, is likely to be a distinct and separate organ: it will stand for the company. One of the most important jobs ahead for the top management of {he big company of tomorrow, and especially of the multinational, will be to balance the conflicting demands on business being made by the need for both short-term and long-term results, and by the corporation's various constituencies: customers, shareholders, knowledge employees and communities.
1. The new society will be much more important than the new economy only in the developed countries.
2. In another 25 years people will have to keep working as full-time employees until their mid- 70s if health permits.
3. Nowadays in China, because of the population policy, the birth rate has decreased.
4. In developed countries, the issue of immigration will become important politically.
5. The dominant part in the next society's work force is
6. ______ makes knowledge spread rapidly and available to everyone.
7. ______ had dominated society for 10,000 years but declined rapidly in the 20th century.
8. In order to adjust for inflation, the cost of ______ which are the main knowledge products was tripled.
9. Multinationals in 1913 were composed of a domestic firms and its self-contained and autonomous
10. Top management in the Next society will be a ______ organ.
Passage2:
Rain forests
Tropical rainforests are the most diverse ecosystem (生态系统) on Earth, and also the oldest. Today, tropical rainforests cover only 6 percent of the Earth's ground surface, but they are home to over half of the planet’s plant and animal species.
What Is a Rainforest?
Generally speaking, a rainforest is an environment that receives high rainfall and is dominated by tall trees. A wide range of ecosystems fall into this category, of course. But most of the time when people talk about rainforests, they mean the tropical rainforests located near the equator.
These forests receive between 160 and 400 inches of rain per year. The total annual rainfall is spread pretty evenly throughout the year, and the temperature rarely dips below 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
This steady climate is due to the position of rainforests on the globe. Because of the orientation of the Earth's axis, the Northern and Southern hemispheres each spend part of the year tilted away from the sun. Since rainforests are at the middle of the globe, located near the equator, they arc not especially affected by this change. They receive nearly the same amount of sunlight, and therefore heat, all year. Consequently, the weather in these regions remains fairly constant.
The consistently wet, warm weather and ample sunlight give plant life everything it needs to thrive. Trees have the resources to grow to tremendous heights, and they live for hundreds, even thousands, of years. These giants, which reach 60 to 150 ft in the air, form the basic structure of the rainforest. Their top branches spread wide in order to capture maximum sunlight. This creates a thick canopy (树冠) level at the top of the forest, with thinner greenery levels underneath. Some large trees grow so tall that they even tower over the canopy layer.
As you go lower, down into the rainforest, you find less and less greenery. The forest floor is made up of moss, fungi, and decaying plant matter that has fallen from the upper layers. The reason for this decrease in greenery is very simple the overabundance of plants gathering sunlight at the top of the forest blocks most sunlight from reaching the bottom of the forest, making it difficult for robust plants to thrive.
The, Forest for the Trees
The ample sunlight and extremely wet climate of many tropical areas encourage the growth of towering trees with wide canopies. This thick top layer of the rainforest dictates the lives of all other plants in the forest. New tree seedlings rarely survive to make it to the top unless some older trees die, creating a "hole" in the canopy. When this happens, all of the seedlings on the ground level compete intensely to reach the sunlight.
Many plant species reach the top of the forest by climbing the tall trees. It is much easier to ascend this way, because the plant doesn't have to form its own supporting structure.
Some plant species, called epiphytes, grow directly on the surface of the giant trees. These plants, which include a variety of orchids and ferns, make up much of the understory, the layer of the rainforest right below the canopy. Epiphytes are close enough to the top to receive adequate light, and the runoff from the canopy layer provides all the water and nutrients(养分)they need, which is important since they don't have access to the nutrients in the ground.
Stranglers and Buttresses
Some epiphytes eventually develop into stranglers. They grow long, thick roots that extend down the tree trunk into the ground. As they continue to grow, the roots form a sort of web structure all around the tree. At the same time, the strangler plant's branches extend upward, spreading out into the canopy. Eventually, the strangler may block so much light from above, and absorb such a high percentage of nutrients from the ground below, that the host tree dies.
Competition over nutrients is almost as intense as competition for light. The excessive rainfall rapidly dissolves nutrients in the soil making it relatively infertile except at the top layers. For this reason, rainforest tree roots grow outward to cover a wider area, rather than downward to lower levels. This makes rainforest trees somewhat unstable, since they don't have very strong anchors in the ground. Some trees compensate for this by growing natural buttresses. These buttresses are basically tree trunks that extend out from the side of the tree and clown to the ground, giving the tree additional support.
Rainforest trees are dependent on bacteria that are continually producing nutrients in the ground. Rainforest bacteria and trees have a very close, symbiotic (共生的) relationship. The trees provide the bacteria with food, in the form of fallen leaves and other material, and the bacteria break this material down into the nutrients that the trees need to survive.
One of the most remarkable things about rainforest plant life is its diversity. The temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest are mainly composed of a dozen or so tree species. A tropical rainforest, on the other hand, might have 300 distinct tree species.
All Creatures, Great and Small
Rainforests are home to the majority of animal species in the world. And a great number of species who now live in other environments, including humans, originally inhabited the rainforests. Researchers estimate that in a large rainforest area, there may be more than 10 million different animal species.
Most of these species have adapted for life in the upper levels of the rainforest, where food is most plentiful. Insects, which can easily climb or fly from tree to tree, make up the largest group (ants are the most abundant animal in the rainforest). Insect species have a highly symbiotic relationship with the plant life in a rainforest. The insects move from plant to plant, enjoying the wealth of food provided there. As they travel, the insects may pick up the plants' seeds, dropping them some distance away. This helps to disperse the population of the plant species over a larger area.
The numerous birds of the rainforest also play a major part in seed dispersal. When they eat fruit from a plant, the seeds pass through their digestive system. By the time they excrete (排泄) the seeds, the birds may have flown many miles away from the fruit-bearing tree.
There are also a large number of reptiles and mammals in the rainforest. Since the weather is so hot and humid during the day, most rainforest mammals are active only at night, dusk or dawn. The many rainforest bat species are especially well adapted for this lifestyle. Using their sonar, bats navigate easily through the mass of trees in the rainforest, feeding on insects and fruit.
While most rainforest species spend their lives in the trees, there is also a lot of life on the forest floor. Great apes, wild pigs, big cats and even elephants can all be found in rainforests. There are a number of people who live in the rainforests, as well. These tribes--which, up until recently, numbered in the thousands--are being forced out of the rainforests at an alarming rate because of deforestation.
Deforestation
In the past hundred years, humans have begun destroying rainforests at an alarming rate. Today, roughly 1.5 acres of rainforest are destroyed every second. People are cutting down the rainforests in pursuit of three major resources:
· land for crops
· lumber for paper and other wood products
· land for livestock pastures
In the current economy, people obviously have a need for all of these resources. But almost all experts agree that, over time, we will suffer much more from the destruction of the rainforests than we will benefit.
The world's rainforests are an extremely valuable natural resource, to be sure, but not for their lumber or their land. They are the main cradle of life on Earth, and they hold millions of unique life forms that we have yet to discover. Destroying the rainforests is comparable to destroying an unknown planet we have no idea what we're losing. If deforestation continues at its current rate, the world's tropical rainforests will be wiped out within 40 years.
1. Virtually all plant and animal species on Earth can be found in tropical rainforests.
2. There is not much change in the weather in the tropical rainforests all the year round.
3. The largest number of rainforests in the world are located on the African continent.
4. Below the canopy level of a tropical rainforest grows an overabundance of plants.
5. New tree seedlings will not survive to reach the canopy level unless ______.
6. Epiphytes, which form much of the understory of the rainforest, get all their water and nutrients from ______.
7. Stranglers are so called because they ______ by blocking the sunlight and competing for the nutrients.
8. Since rainforest bacteria and trees depend on each other for life, the relationship they form is termed ______.
9. Plant species are dispersed over a large area with the help of ______.
10. As we are still ignorant of millions of unique life forms in the rainforest, deforestation can be compared to the destruction of ______.
Passage3:
Some Notes on Gender-Neutral Language
General
The practice of assigning masculine gender to neutral terms comes from the fact that every language reflects the prejudices of the society in which it evolved, and English evolved through most of its history in a male-centered, patriarchal society. Like any other language, however, English is always changing. One only has to read aloud sentences from the 19th century hooks assigned for this class to sense the shifts that have occurred in the last 150 years. When readers pick up something to read, they expect different conventions depending on the time in which the material was written. As writers in 1995, we need to be not only aware of the conventions that our readers may expect, but also conscious of the responses our words may elicit. In addition, we need to know how the shifting nature of language can make certain words awkward or misleading.
"Man"
Man once was a truly generic word referring to all humans, but has gradually narrowed in meaning to become a word that refers to adult male human beings. Anglo-Saxons used the word to refer to all people. One example of this occurs when an Anglo-Saxon writer refers to a seventh-century English princess as "a wonderful man". Man paralleled the Latin word homo, "a member of the human species." not vir, "an adult male of the species." The Old English word for adult male was waepman and the old English word for adult woman was wifman. In the course of time, wifman evolved into the word "woman." "Man" eventually ceased to be used to refer to individual women and replaced waepman as a specific term distinguishing an adult male from an adult female. But man continued to be used in generalizations about both sexes.
By the 18th century, the modern, narrow sense of man was firmly established as the predominant one. When Edmund Burke, writing of the French Revolution, used men in the old, inclusive way, he took pains to spell out his meaning: "Such a deplorable havoc is made in the minds of men (both sexes) in France..." Thomas Jefferson did not make the same distinction in declaring that "all men are created equal" and "governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." In a time when women, having no vote, could neither give nor withhold consent, Jefferson had to be using the word men in its principal sense of "males," and it probably never occurred to him that anyone would think otherwise. Looking at modern dictionaries indicate that the definition that links "man' with males is the predominant one. Studies of college students and school children indicate that even when the broad definitions of "msn" and "men" are taught, they tend to conjure up images of male people only. We would never use the sentence "A girl grows up to be a man," because we assume the narrower definition of the word man.
The Pronoun Problem
The first grammars of modern English were written in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were mainly intended to help boys from upper class families prepare for the study of Latin, a language most scholars considered superior to English. The male authors of these earliest English grammars wrote for male readers in an age when few women were literate. The masculine-gender pronouns(代词) did not reflect a belief that masculine pronouns could refer to both sexes. The grammars of this period contain no indication that masculine pronouns were sex-inclusive when used in general references. Instead these pronouns reflected the reality of male cultural dominance and the male-centered world view that resulted.
"He" started to be used as a generic pronoun by grammarians who were trying to change a long-established tradition of using "they" as a singular pronoun. In 1850 an Act of Parliament gave official sanction(批准)to the recently invented concept of the "generic" he. In the language used in acts of Parliament, the new law said, "words importing the masculine gender shall be deemed and taken to include females." Although similar language in contracts and other legal documents subsequently helped reinforce this grammatical edict in all English-speaking countries, it was often conveniently ignored. In 1879, for example, a move to admit female physicians to the all-male Massachusetts Medical Society was effectively blocked on the grounds 'that the society's by-laws describing membership used the pronoun he.
Just as "man" is not truly generic in the 1990s, "he" is not a true generic pronoun. Studies have confirmed that most people understand "he" to refer to men only. Sentences like "A doctor is a busy person; he must be able to balance a million obligations at once" imply that all doctors are men. As a result of the fact that "he" is read by many as a masculine pronoun, many people, especially women, have come to feel that the generic pronouns excludes women. This means that more and more people find the use of such a pronoun problematic.
Solving the Pronoun Problem
They as a Singular -Most people, when writing and speaking informally, rely on singular they as a matter of course: "If you love someone, set them free" (Sting). If you pay attention to your own speech, you'll probably catch yourself using the same construction yourself. "It's enough to drive anyone out of their senses" (George Bernard Shaw). "I shouldn't like to punish anyone, even ii they'd done me wrong" (George Eliot). Some people are annoyed by the incorrect grammar that this solution necessitates, but this construction is used more and more frequently.
He or She---Despite the charge of clumsiness, double-pronoun constructions have made a comeback: "To be black in this country is simply too pervasive an experience for any writer to omit from her or his work," wrote Samuel R. Delany. Overuse of this solution can be awkward, however.
Pluralizing-A writer can often recast material in the plural. For instance, instead of "As he advances in his program, the medical student has increasing opportunities for clinical work," try "As they advance in their program, medical students have increasing opportunities for clinical work"
Eliminating Pronouns--Avoid having to use pronouns at all; instead of "a first grader can feed and dress himself," you could write, "a first grader can eat find get dressed without assistance."
Further Alternatives--he she or s/he, using one instead of he, or using a new generic pronoun (thon, co, E, try, hash, hit).
1. "Man" could be used to refer to female human being in the past.
2. In "all men are created equal" in Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, the word "men" refer to both males and females whether they have vote right or not.
3. In 1879, Massachusetts Medical Society refused to admit more than ten female physicians because the society's by-laws describing membership used the pronoun he.
4. The first grammars of modern English were written in order to help boys from the upper class prepare for the study of Latin.
5. "Man" paralleled the Latin word "homo" 'which means ______.
6. Studies show that even when students are taught the broad definition of "man" and "men", they think of ______.
7. Grammarians started to use "he" as a generic pronoun because they were trying to change a tradition of using "they" as ______.
8. When most people read the word "he", they would understand it to rater to ______.
9. Although some people are annoyed by ______ of singular they, this construction is used more and more frequently to solve the pronoun problem.
10. Another way of solving the pronoun problem is to use ______ instead of the singular.
Passage4:
Soichiro Honda
The founder of Honda, Soichiro Honda was a mechanical engineer with a passion for motorcycle and automobile racing. Honda started his company in 1946 by building motorized bicycles with small, war-surplus engines. Honda would grow to become the world's leading manufacturer of motorcycles and later one of the leading automakers. Following its founder's lead, Honda has always been a leader in technology, especially in the area of engine development.
Soichiro Honda was described as a maverick(特立独行的人) in a nation of conformists. He made it a point to wear loud suits and wildly colored shirts. An inventor by nature who often joined the work on the floors of his factories and research laboratories, Honda developed engines that transformed the motorcycle into a worldwide means of transportation.
Born in 1906, Honda grew up in the town of Tenryu, Japan. The eldest son of a blacksmith who repaired bicycles, the young Soichiro had only an elementary school education when, in his teens, he left home to seek his fortune in Tokyo. An auto repair company hired him in 1922, but for a year he was forced to serve as a baby-sitter for the auto shop's owner and his wife. While employed at the auto shop, however, Honda built his own racing car using an old aircraft engine and handmade parts and participated in racing. His racing career was short lived, however. He suffered serious injuries in a 1936 crash.
By 1937, Honda had recovered from his injuries. He established his own company, manufacturing piston rings, but he found that he lacked a basic knowledge of casting. To obtain it, he enrolled in a technical high school, applying theories as he learned them in the classrooms to his own factory. But he did not bother to take examinations at the school. Informed that he would not be graduated, Honda commented that a diploma was "worth less than a movie theater ticket. A ticket guarantees that you can get into the theater. But a diploma doesn't guarantee that you can make a living."
Honda's burgeoning company mass produced metal propellers during WW Ⅱ, replacing wooden ones. Allied bombing and an earthquake destroyed most of his factory and he sold what was left to Toyota in 1945.
In 1946, he established the Honda Technical Research Institute to motorize bicycles with small, war-surplus engines. These bikes became very popular in Japan. The institute soon began making engines. Renamed Honda Motor in 1948, the company began manufacturing motorcycles. Business executive Takeo Fujisawa was hired to manage the company while Honda focused on engineering.
In 1951, Honda brought out the Dream Type E motorcycle, which proved an immediate success thanks to Honda's innovative overhead valve design, The smaller F-type cub (1952) accounted for 70% of Japan's motorcycle production by the end of that year. A public offering and support from Mitsubishi Bank allowed Honda to expand and begin exporting. The versatile C100 Super Cub, released in 1958, became an international bestseller.
In 1959, the American Honda Motor was founded and soon began using the slogan, "You meet the nicest people on a Honda," to offset the stereotype of motorcyclists during that period. Though the small bikes were dismissed by the dominant American and British manufacturers of the time, the inexpensive imports brought new riders into motorcycling and changed the industry forever in the United States.
Ever the racing enthusiast, Honda began entering his company's motorcycles in domestic Japanese races during the 1950s. In the mid-1950s, Honda declared that his company would someday win world championship events--a declaration that seemed unrealistic at the time.
In June 1959, the Honda racing team brought their first motorbike to compete in the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy race, then the world's most popular motorcycle race. This was the first entry by a Japanese team. With riders Naomi Taniguchi, who finished sixth, Teisuke Tanaka, who finished eighth, and Kiyoshi Kawashima, who would later succeed Soichiro as Honda Motor president, as team manager, Honda won the manufacturer's prize.
However, they were not pleased with their performance. Kawashima remembers: "We were clobbered. Our horsepower was less than half that of the winner."
Learning from this experience, Soichiro and his team worked even harder to make rapid progress in their motorsports activities. Two years after their first failure, they were the sensation at the TT by capturing the first five places in both the 125ce and 250cc classes. The upstart Japanese had outclassed all their rivals. As a result of the team's stellar performance, the Honda name became well known worldwide, and its export volume rose dramatically. Soichiro seemed to have foreseen the future of Japan, which, twenty years later, was to become one of the world's leading economies.
Honda would become the most successful manufacturer in all of motorcycle racing. Honda has since won hundreds of national and world championships in all forms of motorcycle competition.
While Honda oversaw a worldwide company by the early-1970s (Honda entered the automobile market in 1967), he never shied away from getting his hands greasy. Sol Sanders, author of a Honda biography, said Honda appeared "almost daily" at the research lab where development work was being done. Even as president of the company, "he worked as one of the researchers,' Sanders quoted a Honda engineer as saying. "Whenever we encountered a problem, he studied it along with us."
In 1973, Honda, at 67, retired on the 25th anniversary of Honda's founding. He declared his conviction that Honda should remain a youthful company. "Honda has always moved ahead of the times, and I attribute its success to the fact that the firm possesses dreams and youthfulness," Honda said at the time.
Unlike most chief executive officers in Japan, who step down to become chairmen of their firms, Honda retained onty the title of "supreme adviser". In retirement, Honda devoted himself to public service and frequent travel abroad. He received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, first class, the highest honor bestowed by Japan's emperor. He also received the American auto industry's highest award when he was admitted to the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1989. Honda was awarded the AMA's highest honor, the Dud Perkins Award, in 1971.
Honda died on August 5, 1991 from liver failure at 84. His wife, Sachi, and three children survived him.
1. Soichiro Honda was a man who preferred to wear plain clothes.
2. When enrolled in a technical high school to obtain basic knowledge of casting, Soichiro Honda finally got the diploma after attending the examinations.
3. Like most chief executive officers in Japan, Soichiro Honda Stepped down to become chairmen of Honda after his retirement.
4. Even as the president of a worldwide company, Soichiro Honda would work at the research lab with the employees.
5. Following its founder's lead, Honda has always been a leader in technology, especially in the area of ______.
6. After WW Ⅱ, Honda mounted ______ on bicycles and these motorized bicycles sold rapidly in Japan.
7. A public offering and support from ______ allowed Honda to expand his business and begin to invade the international market.
8. In 1959, the American Honda Motor used the slogan," ______" to change the negative image of motorcyclists in America.
9. In 1959 with their first motorbike Honda racing team participate in ______ race, which was the most popular motorcycle race at that time.
10. According to Honda, ______ are, the major factors that led to the success of Honda company.
Passage5:
A Brief History of Clock
Clocks
At best, historians know that 5,000-6,000 years ago, great civilizations in the Middle East and North Africa started to examine forms of clock-making instead of working with only the monthly and annual calendar. Little is known on exactly how these forms worked or indeed the actual deconstruction of the time, but it has been suggested that the intention was to maximize time available to achieve more as the size of the population grew. Perhaps such future periods of time were intended to benefit the community by allotting specific lengths of time to tasks. Was this the beginning of the working week?
Sun Clocks
With the disappearance of any ancient civilization, such as the Sumerian culture, knowledge is also lost. Whilst we can only hypothesize on the reasons of why the equivalent to the modern wristwatch was never completed, we know that the ancient Egyptians were next to layout a system of dividing the day into parts, similar to hours.
"Obelisks" (tall four-sided tapered monuments) were carefully constructed and even purposefully geographically located around 3500 BC. A shadow was east as the Sun moved across the sky by the obelisk, which it appears was then marked out in sections, allowing people to clearly see the two halves of the day. Some of the sections have also been found to indicate the "year"s longest and shortest days, which it is thought were developments added later to allow identification of other important time subdivisions.
Another ancient Egyptian "shadow clock" or "sundial" has been discovered to have been in use around 1500 BC, which allowed the measuring of the passage of "hours". The sections were divided into ten parts, With two "twilight hours" indicated, occurring in the morning and the evening. For it to work successfully then at midday or noon, the device had to be turned 180 degrees to measure the afternoon hours.
Water Clocks
"Water clocks" were among the earliest time keeping devices that didn't use the observation of the celestial bodies to calculate the passage of time. The ancient Greeks, it is believed, began using water clocks around 325 BC. Most of these clocks were used to determine the hours of the night, but may have also been used during daylight. An inherent problem with the water clock was that they were not totally accurate, as the system of measurement was based on the flow of water either into, or out of, a container which had markers around the sides. Another very similar form was that of a bowl that sank during a period as it was filled of water from a regulated flow. It is known that water clocks were common across the Middle East, and that these were still being used in North Africa during the early part of the twentieth-century.
Mechanical Clocks
In 1656, "Christian Huygens' (Dutch scientist), made the first "Pendulum(钟摆) clock", with a mechanism using a "natural" period of oscillation(振幅). "Galileo Galilei" is credited, in most historical books, for inventing the pendulum as early as 1582, but his design was not built before his death. Huygens' clock, when built, had an error of "less than only one minute a day". This was a massive leap in the development of maintaining accuracy, as this had previously never been achieved. Later refinements to the pendulum clock reduced this margin of error to "less than 10 seconds a day".
The mechanical clock continued to develop until they achieved an accuracy of "a hundredth-of- a-second a day", when the pendulum clock became the accepted standard in most astronomical observatories.
Quartz Clocks
The running of a "Quartz clock" is based on the piezoelectric property of the quartz crystal. When an electric field is applied to a quartz crystal, it actually changes the shape of the crystal itself, If you then squeeze it or bend it, an electric field is generated. When placed in an appropriate electronic circuit, this interaction between the mechanical stress and the electrical field causes the crystal to vibrate, generating a constant electric signal which can then be used for example on an electronic clock display. The first wrist-watches that appeared in mass production used "LED", "Light Emitting Diode" displays. By the 1970's these were to be replaced by a "LCD", "Liquid Crystal Display".
Quartz clocks continue to dominate the market because of the accuracy and reliability of the performance, also being inexpensive to produce on mass scale. The time keeping performance of the quartz clock has now been surpassed by the "Atomic clock".
Atomic Clocks
Scientists discovered some time ago that atoms and molecules have "resonances" and that each chemical element and compound absorbs and emits "electromagnetic radiation" within its own characteristic "frequencies". This we are told is highly accurate even over "Time and Space".
The development of radar and the subsequent experimentation with high frequency radio communications during the 1930s and 1940s created a vast amount of knowledge regarding "electromagnetic waves", also known as "microwaves". which interact with the atoms. The development of atomic clocks focused firstly on microwave resonances in the chemical Ammonia and its molecules. In 1957. "NIST". the "National Institute of Standards and Technology", completed a series of tests using a "Cesium Atomic Beam" device, followed by a second program of experiments by NIST in order to have something for comparison when working at the atomic level. By 1960, as the outcome of the programs, "Cesium Time Standards" were incorporated as the official time keeping system at NIST.
The "Natural frequency" recognized currently is the measurement of time. used by all scientists, defines the period of "one second" as exactly "9,192,631,770 Oscillations" or "9,192,631,770 Cycles of the Cesium Atom's Resonant Frequency". From the "Macrocosm", or "Planetary Alignment", to the "Microcosm", or "Atomic Frequency", the cesium now maintains accuracy with a degree of error to about "one-millionth of a second per year".
Much of modern life has come to depend on such precise measurements of time. The day is long past when we could get by with a timepiece(钟)accurate to the nearest quarter hour. Transportation, financial markets, communication, manufacturing, electric power and many other technologies have become dependent on super-accurate clocks. Scientific research and the demands of modern technology continue re drive our search for ever more accuracy, The next generation of Cesium Time Standards is presently under development at NIST's "Boulder Laboratory" and other laboratories around the world.
Something to Remember
The only thing that should be remembered during all this technological development is that we should never lose the ability to tell the time approximately by natural means and the powers of deduction without requiring crutches(拐杖)to lean on.
Our concept of TIME and using it together with TECHNOLOGY still has room for radical reassessment in terms of man's evolutionary thinking regarding our view of the past, our onward journey into the future and our concept of time in relationship to universe.
1. It is suggested that 5,000-6,000 years ago people in the Middle East and North Africa started to allot specific lengths of time to tasks.
2. Ancient Egyptian "shadow clock" or "sundial" discovered around 1500 BC, could measure passage of "hours" automatically and continuously.
3. "Water clocks" was the first device that didn't use the observation of the celestial bodies to calculate the passage of time.
4. Galileo Galilei built the first "pendulum clock" as early as 1656.
5. Water clocks were mostly used to determine ______.
6. Huygens' clock, a mechanical one, had an error of "less than only one minute a day", which was a massive leap in the development of ______.
7. Since Quartz clocks are both inexpensive to produce in mass scale and ______ in performance, they continue to dominate the market.
8. Scientific research and the ______ continue to drive our search for ever more accuracy in time.
9. Of all the clocks introduced in the passage, the one with the most accuracy is ______.
10. No matter how advanced the technology of measuring time will be we should never lose the ability to tell the time approximately by ______.
Passage6:
It's Never Too Late to Start Exercise
Researchers Find Great Rewards When Mild Exercise Programs Are Started Late In Life.
May 13, 2003--You know the benefits of exercise programs. And if you've been inactive, you may have also felt them--with sore muscles and bruised motivation to continue. But a new study in women shows that the old adage is true--it's never too late to start when it comes to exercise programs. So now what can you do to jump on the exercise bandwagon (乐队花车)?
WebMD got exercise tips from the experts.
"There certainly seems to be something here to suggest that women can start exercising later in life and still reap the rewards," lead researcher and CDC epidemiologist Edward W. Gregg, PhD, tells WebMD. His findings are published in the May 16 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers tracked 9,500 women for 12 years, starting when they were at least age 66. In that time, they found that those who went from doing little or nothing to walking just a mile a day slashed(减少) their risk Of death from all causes and from cancer by nearly half. Their risk of heart disease also fell by more than a third. In fact, they enjoyed nearly as much protection as women who were physically active before the study began and remained so.
During the study, he and his colleagues surveyed the women on their exercise levels at the start of the trial and again up to six years later. Years later, the researchers tracked their rates of death and disease.
The new information we found is that older women who went from being sedentary(少活动的) or walking about two miles a week to "walking eight miles a week between the two visits had significant life improvements," says another study researcher, Jane A. Cauley, DrPH, of the University of Pittsburgh.
"We're talking about women with an average age of 77 at the second visit," she tells WebMD. "And we're talking about their engaging in very mild exercise--and not running marathons."
But if the only workout(运动)you've been getting lately involves the TV remote, here's how to avoid those walks around the block from making your body feel as if it just tackled Boston Marathon's infamous "Heartbreak Hill".
Get a checkup before a workout.
A visit to your doctor is wise for anyone beginning an exercise program, but it's crucial for the elderly or others who have been inactive because of health problems. In addition to the obvious-- checking your heart and lungs--your doctor can help determine if your regimen(养生法) needs to consider other medical conditions, and the drugs you take for them.
"People can sometimes control conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure with weight loss and exercise so they don't need to continue their medications," says William A. Banks, MD, professor of geriatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. It's important to let your doctor know about your new exercise program in case your medication doses need to be changed.
"A doctor can also help facilitate the best type of exercise if you have a disability or impairment. For instance, many of my patients have bad knees, so I tell them that if they start running or even walking, they're going tohave problems that will likely impact their ability to continue," he tells WebMD. "So I try to steer them to another activity, such as swimmings which is especially good for people with joint problems or obesity(肥胖)."
Start slow.
Once you get the green light, the key to avoiding fatigue and muscle pain is to pull out of the gate very slowly. "You hear so much about the importance of getting 30 minutes of exercise a day, but those recommendations should not be viewed as goals if you've been sedentary--even if you're healthy," Banks says. "Initially, you should actually shoot below your comfort level.
"Too often, people-especially those who are older overdo it in the beginning and hurt themselves to the point where they need two weeks to recover. It's better to walk for a few minutes a days every day, than do 10 minutes your first day and then not be able to walk for the rest of the week."
Go more often.
Of course, those few minutes of your exercise program can be done several times a day. First, try to do some activity for a few minutes several times a day. Then slowly increase the time spent in each session. But don't worry about going faster until you've exercised regularly for at least one month. A key to intensity= Ideally, you want to be aerobic(需要氧气的)enough so you can utter a few words or syllables in each sentence, but not so little that you're speaking in complete sentences or too much so you can barely talk, advises Banks.
Don't go solo.
Although there is no evidence that people are fitter when they exercise with others, they are more likely to stick to an exercise program, or anything else, with the buddy system. "We're always better in the company of others," says Banks.
Another benefit to group activities: Organized exercise programs, like those available for low or no cost at the YMCA or local hospitals, often include professional guidance--especially useful [or those with conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and arthritis. "There are exercise therapists or physiologists who can expertly guide you to the proper way to increase your endurance and intensity without risking injury or fatigue," says Gregg.
Do what you enjoy.
While Gregg's study and others have focused on walking because it's among the easiest and most popular forms of exercise, you should pick an activity you like, so you continue it. ]t could be gardening, swimming, tennis, or the old favorite, walking. "If you absolutely hate exercise, like me, I recommend exercise machines," says Banks. "Since I hate to exercise, I run on a treadmill(踏车) while watching TV. I'm especially fond of working out while watching the cartoon Pinky and the Brain."
1. It is suggested that women should not do exercises if they are over sixty.
2. According to Edward W. Gregg, it's never too late for women to start exercise.
3. All the 9,500 women who participated in the research would have little exercises or would only walk just a mile a day before the research.
4. Another benefit of group activities is that professional guidance in the group can help cure obesity, diabetes, and arthritis.
5. Since exercises may control conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, some old people don't need to ______ if they begin an exercise program.
6. As is suggested by William A. Banks, ______ is especially good for people with joint problems or obesity.
7. For those who just start to exercise, the best way to avoid fatigue and muscle pain is to ______.
8. For the exerciser, a simple method in checking the intensity of the exercise is to see that whether one can ______ while having the exercise.
9. In organized exercise programs, exercise therapists or physiologists can expertly guide an exerciser to the proper way to increase his or her ______ without risking injury or fatigue.
10. It is recommended that the exerciser should pick up an activity he/she likes so that he/she may ______.
Passage7:
Preparing for Weight Loss Surgery
For those who consider weight loss surgery, they are at the end of their ropes. Traditional methods of diet and exercise have had no effect, and this procedure is a last resort. But by no means is the leap from thinking about weight loss surgery to the operating table a short one.
"People need to be aware, in great detail, of the risk and benefits of weight loss surgery so they understand what it is all about," says Harvey J. Sugerman, president of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery. "The procedure is not without risk, and there is a great deal of anxiety that comes with it, so it takes considerable preparation."
From checking on insurance coverage to psychological exams to support groups, preparing for this life-changing procedure takes time, physical and mental readiness, and most of all, commitment.
First Steps
"From the time a person first thinks about having weight loss surgery, to the time they make the commitment to have it done is typically about two years," says James Kolenich, a bariatric surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Horizon. "Most people don't rush into this, they talk to family and friends, they talk to the hospital, they go home and they think about it more; it's usually a very thoughtful approach."
More than 60 million obese people are living in the U. S. , according to the American Obesity Association (AOA), and about 9 million are severely obese. Weight loss surgery, also called bariatric surgery, can be successful when diet and exercise have failed, and a person's health is on the line. Overweight is the second leading cause of preventable death, after smoking, in the U. S. , according to the AOA.
"The first thing a person should do is contact his insurance company to learn if he is covered for the surgery, and he should contact his primary care doctor to find out if there is documentation of his struggle with obesity," says Kolenich. "Many insurance companies want to know that a primary care doctor has tried to help the patient lose weight with psychological counseling, diet, and an exercise plan for five years, and for many patients, this is a big road block."
While there are other options, such as personally financing the procedure, they are costly: The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases web site states that this procedure can run from $ 20,000 to $ 35,000.
With such a hefty price tag on weight loss surgery, it pays to ensure that your doctor documents your battle with obesity early on, to open up options down the road. When you've crossed all your is and dotted all your is in the insurance category, it is time to find a hospital or center, and a surgeon, which are first-rate.
Finding a Batiatric Surgeon
"When you're looking for a surgeon, ask if he or she is board-certified by the American Board of Surgery," says Kotenich. "Is he a member of the American Society of Bariatrie Surgeons? What is the mortality rate of the surgeon, the morbidity rate, the success rate?"
Clearly, the surgeon you find should be well experienced in the area of weight loss surgery.
"Make sure the surgeon you choose is an experienced and qualified bariatrie surgeon," says Daniel Herren, chief of bariatric surgery at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. "It's clear that the more experienced the surgeon, the lower the risk of mortality. Ideally, you would prefer to find a surgeon who has performed at least 100 of these procedures."
What you are looking for doesn't stop with numbers and statistics--you will also need a support system, Look for a center or hospital that offers educational seminars to those who are just beginning the process so you can learn more about the actual procedure, the benefits, and the risks. Also look for support groups, that can be utilized pre- and post-operatively.
Preparing for Weight Loss Surgery
"The single most important factor is that they have to realize the surgery is not a cure for obesity," says Herren. "It's a very powerful tool used in the fight against obesity. It needs to be considered as part of a process, and a lifelong commitment to follow up with physicians, a regular exercise program, and healthy eating. If a person doesn't understand that this is a lifelong commitment, that it's net a quick fix, then he or she is not a good candidate."
From a physical standpoint, the preparation for weight loss surgery involves meeting with doctors--a lot of them.
A person also needs to meet with a nutritionist, to begin to better understand the elements of healthy eating, and how eating habits need to change before and after the surgery. "By getting into a proper nutritional mindset before surgery, such as learning to eat smaller portions, eating Slowly, paying closer attention to the nutritional make-up of meals, a person is better adapted for the major changes in their lifestyle after the surgery," says Herron.
Understanding the Risks
Understanding the possible outcomes of weight loss surgery, including the risks, is an important part of preparing for the procedure. "Education is a tremendously important part of the preoperative process," says Herron. "There is no question that there are major risks associated with the operation. However, those risks can be minimized by having a thorough preoperative workup so there aren't surprises during the procedure, and by making sure the surgeon is experienced and qualified."
Nonetheless, dealing with the emotional toll of this procedure can be difficult, especially when considering the possibility of death. "There have been good studies looking at the risk of dying after weight loss surgery, showing that although there is a risk of death with surgery, the overall survival rate is improved with surgery compared to not having the surgery at all, and living with obesity," says Herron.
It helps that most centers and hospitals and insurance companies, require psychological evaluations prior to the allowing the procedure--which benefits both patient and doctor. "You have to fill your mind with as much optimism and positive thinking as possible," says Joe De Simone, PhD, a psychiatrist in private practice in N. Y., who works with patients preparing for weight loss surgery. "Basically, the preparation is to become more conscious of what you are thinking and feeling, and start preparing yourself to think of food and your life in a different way. This is a courageous step for people to take, and it's not just about weight changing--it's about life changing."
Pest-Op Expectations
While weight loss surgery does have a major impact on a person's life, it requires, like any surgical procedure, some recovery time. "The recovery period is quite variable," says Herron. "I have some patients who take a week off and are back full time, and others who take three to four weeks to recover. While it's certainly physically possible to be back to 90% of capacity after a week, most people take longer to adjust to the new lifestyle."
New techniques have also helped to lessen recovery time. Today, the procedure can be performed minimally invasively via small incisions. In a few centers around the country it can even be done on an outpatient basis.
Patients also need to remember weight loss surgery is not a cure. "It's not a magic bullet, but is an amazingly powerful weight-loss tool," says Herron. "A person will find they will lose about a pound per day for the first month or so. Then they'll lose between 50%-75% of their excess body weight typically during the first 12 months after surgery." What follows is dedication to a healthy diet and exercise regimen, continual follow-up with doctors to monitor progress, and commitment to a new life.
1. Weight loss surgery is one of the traditional ways of losing weight.
2. Many people have weight loss surgery possibly because overweight may give rise to death. 3. After having the weight loss surgery, a person will not suffer from obesity any more.
4. A person also might be required to quit smoking to improve the outcome of the operation.
5. It is advisable that a patient have his/her operation covered by the insurance company because weight loss surgery is usually ______.
6. A person who thinks about having weight loss surgery should find ______ bariatric surgeon.
7. Eating smaller portions, eating slowly, paying attention to the nutritional ______ of meals are examples of healthy eating habits.
8. During the preparing procedure, one important part is to help the candidates understand the possible outcomes and ______.
9. According to Herron, after having the surgery, the recovery time ______ from person to person.
10. With the development of ______, the recovery period may become shorter and shorter.
Passage8:
Bird Brains
Cracking Walnuts
The scene: a traffic light crossing on a university campus in Japan. Carrion crows and humans line up patiently, waiting for the traffic to halt. When the lights change, the birds hop in front of the cars and place walnuts, which they picked from the adjoining trees, on the road. After the lights turn green again, the birds fly away and vehicles drive over the nuts, cracking them open. Finally, when it's time to cross again, the crows join the pedestrians and pick up their meal.
Biologists already knew the corvine family--it includes crows, ravens, rooks, magpies and jackdaws--to be among the smartest of all birds. But this remarkable piece of behavior would seem to be a particularly acute demonstration of bird intelligence. Researchers believe they probably noticed cars driving over nuts fallen from a walnut tree overhanging a road. The crows already knew about dropping clams from a height on the seashore to break them open, but found this did not work for walnuts because of their soft green outer shell.
Other birds do this, although not with quite the same precision. In the Dardia Mountains of Greece, eagles can be seen carrying tortoises up to a great height and dropping them on to rocks below.
Do Birds Have Intelligence?
Scientists have argued for decades over whether wild creatures, including birds, show genuine intelligence. Some still consider the human mind to be unique, with animals capable of only the simplest mental processes. But a new generation of scientists believes that creatures, including birds, can solve problems by insight and even learn by example, as human children do. Birds can even talk in a meaningful way.
Good Memory
Some birds show quite astonishing powers of recall. A type of North American crow may have the animal world's keenest memory. It collects up to 30,000 pine seeds over three weeks in November, and then carefully buries them for safe keeping across over an area of 200 square miles. Over the next eight months, it succeeds in retrieving over 90 percent of them, even when they are covered in feet of snow.
Making and Using Tools
On the Pacific island of New Caledonia, the crows demonstrate a tool-making, and tool using capability comparable to Paleolithic man's. Dr Gavin Hunt, a New Zealand biologist, spent three years observing the birds. He found that they used two different forms of hooked "tool" to pull grubs from deep within tree trunks. Other birds and some primates have been seen to use objects to forage. But what is unusual here is that the crows also make their own tools. Using their beaks as scissors and snippers, they fashion hooks from twigs, and make barbed, serrated rakes or combs from stiff leathery leaves. And they don't throw the tools away after one use--they carry them from one foraging place to another.
Scientists are still debating what this behavior means. Man's use of tools is considered a prime indication of his intelligence, is this a skill acquired by chance? Did the crows acquire tool making skills by trial and error rather than planning? Or, in its ability to adapt and exploit an enormous range of resources and habitats, is the crow closer to humans than any other creature?
Dr Hunt said this of his research: "There are many intriguing questions that remain to be answered about crows' tool behavior. Most important would be whether or not they mostly learn or genetically inherit the know-how to make and use tools. Without knowing that it is difficult to say anything about their intelligence, although one could guess that these crows have the capability to be as clever as crows in general."
The woodpecker finch is another consummate toolmaker; It will snap off a twig, trim it to size and use it to pry insects out of bark. In captivity, a cactus finch learnt how to do this by watching the woodpecker finch from its cage. The teacher helped the pupil by passing a ready- made spine across for the cactus finch to use.
Communication Ability
Another sign of intelligence, thought to be absent in most non-human animals, is the ability to engage in complex, meaningful communication. The work of Professor Irene Pepperberg of the University of Arizona, Tucson, has now shown the general perception of parrots as mindless mimics to be incorrect.
The captive African grey parrot Alex is one of a number of parrots now believed to have the intelligence and emotional make-up of a 3 to 4 year old child. Under the tutelage of Professor Pepperherg, he acquired a vocabulary of over 100 words. He could say the words for colors and shapes and, apparently, use them meaningfully. He has learned the labels for more than 35 different objects; he knows when to use "no," and phrases such as "come here," "I want X," and "Wanna go Y."
A bird's ability to understand, or speak, another bird's language can be very valuable. New Zealand saddlebacks occupy the same territory for years. They have distinct song "dialects" passed on through the generations. New territory vacancies are hard to find, so young males are always on the look-out for new widows into whose territory they can move. While they wander around the forest, they learn the different dialect songs, just as we might learn a language or develop a regional dialect. As soon as a territory-owning male dies, a new young male may move in to take over within 10 minutes. He will immediately start singing the dialect of the territory he is in.
Possessing Abstract Concepts
Intelligence--if this is what scientists agree these birds possess--is not limited to the birds we always thought of as "bright." In recent experiments at Cardiff University in Britain, a pigeon identified subtle differences between abstract designs that even art students did not notice. It could even tell that a Picasso was not the same as a Monet. The experiment seems to show that pigeons can hold concepts, or ideas, in their heads. The visual concept for the pigeon is Picasso's painting style.
Social Necessity Makes Birds Smart.
Scientists believe it is not physical need that drives creatures to become smarter, but social necessity. The complexities of living together require a higher level of intelligence. Corvids and parrots, along with dolphins, chimps, and humans are all highly social--and smart--animals.
Some ravens certainly apply their intelligence for the good of the flock. In North America, they contact other ravens to tell them the location of a carcass(动物尸体). Ravens are specialized feeders on the carcasses of large mammals such as moose during the harsh winter months of North America. The birds roost together at night on a tree, arriving noisily from all directions shortly before sunset. The next morning, all the birds leave the roost as highly synchronized(同步地) groups at dawn, giving a few noisy caws, followed by honking. They may all be flying off in the direction taken by a bird, which had discovered a carcass the previous day. This bird leads the others to his food store, apparently sharing his finding with the rest of the flock.
Ravens share information about their findings of food carcasses because dead animals are patchily(散落地) distributed and hard to find. Many eyes have a better chance of finding a carcass, and once one has been located, the information is pooled(共享的). Although the carcass now has to be shared between more individuals, the heavy snowfall and risk of mammal scavengers (食腐动物) taking the food mean that a single bird or a small group could not eat it all alone anyway.
Intelligence Inheritance
The level of intelligence among birds may vary. But no living bird is truly stupid. Each generation of bird's that leaves the protection of its parents to become independent has the inborn genetic information that will help it to survive in the outside world and the skills that it has learned from its parents. They would never have met the challenge of evolution without some degree of native cunning. It's just that some have much more than others.
1. The example of the Japanese carrion crows at the beginning of the passage is a demonstration of the ______.
A) kindness of people B) harmonious living conditions
C) ecological stability D) bird intelligence
2. ______ believe(s) that birds as well as some other non-human animals show intelligence.
A) Biologists
B) A new generation of scientists
C) Researchers of the University of Arizona
D) Only Dr Hunt and his colleagues
3. A type of North American crow can ______ most of the pine seeds it buried even they are in deep snow.
A) eat up B) retrieve C) crack D) lose
4. The writer compares the ability of the crows on the Pacific island of New Caledonia in making and using tools with that of ______.
A) Paleolithic man B) North American crow
C) the woodpecker finch D) carrion crows
5. People generally regard parrots' speaking human language as ______.
A) meaningful communication B) conveyance of feelings
C) mindless mimics D) ridiculous noises
6. A New Zealand saddleback learns the language of another saddleback in order to ______.
A) share information about food with it
B) beat it in the competition for a spouse
C) use the dialect to control the territory it just moves into
D) show that it has the ability to acquire different dialects
7. It is ______ that drives birds to become intelligent.
A) society necessity B) physical need
C) genetic information D) psychological request
8. Some birds, such as ______, may hold ideas in their heads.
9. Some ravens in North America apply their intelligence for the good of the flock by ______ the others to his food store.
10. Birds genetically inherit skills and abilities to meet the ______.
Passage9:
Television: The Cyclops That Eats Books
What is destroying America today is not the liberal breed of politicians, or the International Monetary Fund bankers, misguided educational elite, or the World Council of Churches. These are largely symptoms of a greater disorder. But if there is any single institution to blame, it is television.
Television, in fact, has greater power over the lives of most Americans than any educational system or government or church. Children particularly are easily influenced. They are fascinated, hypnotized(着迷的) and tranquilized by TV. It is often the center of their world. Even when the set is turned off, they continue to tell stories about what they've seen on it. No wonder, then, that when they grow up they are not prepared for the frontline of life; they simply have no mental defenses to confront the reality of the world.
The Truth About TV
One of the most disturbing truths about TV is that it eats books. Once out of school, nearly 60% of all adult Americans have never read a single book, and most of the rest read only one book a year. Alvin Kernan, author of The Death of Literature, says that reading books "is ceasing to be the primary way of knowing something in our society." He also points out that bachelor's degrees in English literature have declined by 33% in the last twenty years. American libraries, he adds, are in crisis, with few patrons to support them.
Thousands of teachers at the elementary, secondary and college levels can testify that their students' writing exhibits a tendency towards superficiality(肤浅) that wasn't seen, say, ten or fifteen years ago. It shows up not only in the students' lack of analytical skills but in their poor command of grammar and rhetoric. The mechanics of the English language have been tortured to pieces by TV. Visual, moving images can't be held in the net of careful language. They want to break out. They really have nothing to do with language. So language, grammar and rhetoric have become fractured.
Recent surveys by dozens of organizations also suggest that up to 40% of the American public is functionally illiterate. The problem isn't just in our schools or in the way reading is taught. TV teaches people not to rean. It makes them incapable of engaging in an art that is now perceived as strenuous(费力的) and active.
Passive as it la, television has invaded our culture so completely that you see its effects in every quarter, even in the literary world. It shows up m supermarket paperbacks, from Stephen King to pulp .fiction (低俗小说). These are really forms of verbal TV-literature that is so superficial that those who read it can revel, in the same sensations they experience when they are watching TV.
Even more importantly, the growing influence of television-has changed people's habits and values and affected their assumptions about the world. The sort of reflective, critical and value- laden thinking encouraged by cooks has been rendered out of date.
The Cyclops
In this context, we would do well to recall the Cyclops(独眼巨人)--the race of one-eyed giants in Greek myth. The following is Hamilton's description of the encounter between the adventurer Odysseus and Polyphemus, a Cyclops.
As Odysseus was on his way home, he and his crew found Polyphemus' cave. They stayed in it as a shelter and waited for the owner to come back. At last he came, hideous and huge, tall as a great mountain crag. Driving his flock before him he entered and closed the eave's mouth with a ponderous slab of stone. Then looking around he caught sight of the strangers. He roared out and stretched out his mighty arms and in each great hand seized one of the men and dashed his brains out on the ground. Slowly he feasted off them to the last shred, and then, satisfied, stretched himself out across the cavern and slept. He was safe from attack. None but he could roll back the huge stone before the door, and if the horrified men had been able to summon courage and strength enough to kill him they would have been imprisoned there forever.
What I find particularly appropriate about this myth as it applies today is that first, the Cyclops imprisons these men in darkness, and that, second, he beats their brains out before he devours them. It doesn't take much imagination to apply this to the effects of TV on us and our children.
TV's Effect on Learning
Quite literally, TV affects the way people think. In Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (1378), Jerry Mander quotes from the Emery Report that when we watch television "our usual processes of thinking and discernment (识别能力) are semi-functional at best." The study also argues that while television appears to have the potential to provide useful information to viewers, the technology of television and the inherent nature of the viewing experience actually inhibit learning as we usually think of it.
When we watch TV we think we are looking at a picture, or an image of something, but what we are actually seeing is thousands of dots of light blinking on and off in a strobe(屏闪)effect that is calculated to happen rapidly enough to keep us from recognizing the phenomenon. More than a decade ago, Mander and others pointed to instances of "TV epilepsy(癫痫症)," in which those watching this strobe effect overextended their capacities, and the New England Journal of Medicine recently honored this affliction with a medical classification: video game epilepsy.
Shadows on the Screen
Television also teaches that people aren't quite real; they are images or little beings who move in a medium no thicker than a sliver of glass. Unfortunately, the tendency is to start thinking of them in the way children think when they see too many cartoons, that people are merely objects that can be destroyed. Or that can fall over a cliff and be smashed to pieces and pick themselves up again. This violence of cartoons has no basis in reality. Actual people aren't images but substantial, physical, corporeal beings with souls. And, of course, the violence on television leads to violence.
TV：Eating Out Our Substance
TV eats books. It eats academic skills. It eats positive character traits. It even eats family relationships. How many families do you know that spend the dinner hour in front of the TV, seldom communicating with one another? How many have a television on while they have breakfast or prepare for work or school?
And what about school? I've heard college professors say of their students, "Well, you have to entertain them." One I know recommends using TV and film clips instead of lecturing, "throwing in a commercial every ten minutes or so to keep them awake." A teacher should teach. But TV eats the principles of people who are supposed to be responsible, transforming them into passive servants of the Cyclops.
TV eats our substance. What we see, hear, touch, smell, feel and understand about the world has been processed for us. TV teaches that all life-styles and all values are equal, and that there is no clearly defined right and wrong.
Muggeridge concluded: "There is a danger in translating life into an image, and that is what television is doing. In doing it, It is falsifying(窜改)life. Far from the camera's being an accurate recorder of what is going on, it is the exact opposite. It cannot convey reality, nor does it even want to."
1. Television doesn't help build up mental defenses for people to ______.
A) deal with violence B) face a sharp competition
C) compete with rivals D) confront the reality of the world
2. Television is ______ the English language.
A) destroying B) diffusing C) purifying D) standardizing
3. Television has ______ on people's character.
A) a positive effect B) a negative effect
C) no effect D) s beneficial effect
4. One of the most disturbing truths about TV is that it makes reading books cease to be ______ in our society.
A) the most popular recreation
B) the only method of acquiring literacy
C) the primary way of getting information
D) the financial resources
5. Television has invaded our culture so completely that that it even has effect on ______.
A) the literary world B) foreign countries
C) the highly-educated people D) those who don't watch TV at all
6. Television is compared to the Cyclops because ______.
A) it deprives us of our thinking ability before destroying us
B) it is also enormous in size
C) it is as cruel as the one-eyed giant
D) both TV and the Cyclops do harm To our children
7. In translating life into an image, television is ______ life.
A) recording B) imitating C) creating D) falsifying
8. When we watch TV, our ______ are semi-functional at best.
9. When children see TOO many cartoons they may regard people as ______ instead of substantial, physical, corporeal beings with souls.
10. It is stated in the conclusion that by translating life into ______, television is falsifying life.
Passage10:
You don't have to be 18: Going to college as an adult
Every so often, especially when I'm feeling down, I take out my old college notes, textbooks and diplomas, and take a little stroll down memory lane. I remember the fun I had in college, the people I met, the professors who taught me and the experiences that changed my life. And I'm glad I made the sacrifices.
After graduating high school, I thought college wasn't for me. I served a four-year stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, and then took a job with the postal service. In my na vet, I thought that moving up within the agency would be fairly easy. I was bright, knowledgeable, eager to learn new things and willing to put in the time needed to develop myself. But I ran into a brick wall. It seemed there was an inside track, and I was definitely not on it. After about a year and a half, I realized that my chances of advancement were nil, and it was time to do something about it.
I floated the idea of attending college to my coworkers and superiors and the response was mostly negative. But there were a few people who thought it was a good idea, and I did a Lot of thinking. I saw two choices: 1. Stay where I was, miserable in a low-level job. 2. Take a chance and give college a try. Since my job was Leading me nowhere, I decided to start college.
Overcoming the initial obstacles
When I started; I encountered a lot of resistance from people at work. The phrase "career student" was bandied about at me, as if I was learning nothing practical and basically trying to avoid growing up. Actually it was the other way around, I saw staying in my job as a way to avoid facing responsibilities, and college as a more real world—and an island of sanity in my life.
While it made little difference to me if my coworkers or bosses supported my decision to attend college, I did want my family behind me. The support was there-I didn't need any financial help, but I got a lot of moral support from my parents, as well as from friends and relatives.
Probably the biggest obstacle I faced, since I was plagued by doubts about my own intelligence and abilities, was just getting started. I decided to start close to home and do my first two years of college at Palm Beach Community College, which was on the way to work, and then transfer to Florida Atlantic University, which was more out of the way.
I had driven past the campus of Palm Beach Community College several times. In the spring of 1987, I finally worked up the nerve to go into the admissions office. For many people that first step is a big one, and it's easy to believe that one is stepping into an abyss, but PBCC was flexible enough for me. I had to take the American College Test and, after scoring well on that, was able to register for classes. My first class was introduction to the Social Sciences, and from the moment the professor began to lecture, I knew I had found a place where I could learn and grow.
Culture Shock
You might expect to experience culture shock in college after your day-to-day experiences. I found, instead, that most of the culture shock happens when you leave class and go back to work. For while your coworkers and bosses are not changing, you are.
You may find yourself colliding with the people at work. They may find that your new habits, like studying during breaks and lunch, and not going to the local bar to drink and gripe about work, are disturbing the status quo(当前的状况).
You may even be tempted to give up. Please don't. It may be difficult, you may be exhausted and you may have to tune out criticism, but I can tell you from experience that it's all worth it on the day you put on the cap and gown and receive your diploma.
College life for adults
So you've gone and done it. You have been accepted for matriculation (注册入学) at a community college or university, and have been given a date and time to register,
Your biggest .worry may be about what things are like in the classroom. Does the professor take attendance? Some do, some don't, though all encourage perfect attendance and class participation. Is there a break? If the class is three hours long, there probably is. When you report to your first class, try to be there a little early. Get a good seat, preferably in the front of the classroom so you can see and hear the professor better.
Have all the required books for the class, and a notebook and pen. When class starts, the professor will hand out a syllabus, discuss it, talk about term papers and may then begin teaching.
You may be worried about how the professor will react to you. You needn't be that concerned. At the community college and university I attended, professors welcomed older students. We tended to be more focused on getting an education, had a lot to contribute to the class discussion because of our experience in the world and were less likely to argue over a grade.
As you get to know your classmates in the class, you may find yourself gravitating toward other students your age. There's nothing wrong with this, but if there's a group project, the professor will probably want the generations to work together. This is a good opportunity to broaden your horizons.
That doesn't mean you should just show up, take classes and take off. There may be a club or activity for your major on campus that can help you in your job search later on. You may even find that the company of other scholars will help you expand your intellectual horizons. And taking in a college sports event once in a while can be a fun way to meet other people.
The Big Time
Graduation from Palm Beach Community College was a milestone in my life. Against the odds, I had achieved something. I was "walking on sunshine," as the song goes, and had learned to let all the negativity go in one ear and out the other. I had made friends with the professors, and the students I had worked with were wonderful. In truth, I was addicted to the challenges that college provided.
I graduated from community college in December 1990, then started at Florida Atlantic University the following month. Florida Atlantic University was a whole new world awaiting discovery. My first time there, I had been scared. It was so big and seemingly impersonal. Sure, there would be some people from the community college on the same track as I was on, but still there were lots of strangers.
In April 1994, I had accumulated enough credits to graduate from FAU. It was a bittersweet occasion. I loved education and learning, but wanted to make my career change sooner rather than later. Two months after graduation I left the post office, diploma in hand, and embarked on a new career. It hasn't always been easy and it hasn't always been that much fun, but I've never regretted reinventing my life.
I am now a copy editor for a newspaper, with a few years of experience under my belt, and have also earned a computer networking certification along the way. Even now, I have grand plans that involve law school someday, and maybe an MBA.
A college degree opens doors. It might not be possible to see the doors when you are just starting out, but they are there if you have the patience and drive to pursue your dreams. Good luck in your future endeavors.
1. The writer decided to attend college because ______.
A) he could see no hope of moving up the ladder in the postal agency
B) he was eager to learn new things all his life
C) his relatives and friends urged him to receive further education
D) without a diploma he could not get 'promotion in his organization
2. How did the writer's colleagues react when they got to know his decision?
A) They offered him a lot of moral support.
B) They thought it was a good idea.
C) They refused to give him any financial help.
D) Their responses were mostly negative.
3. According to the writer, most of the culture shock happens when he ______.
A) went into the classroom after work
B) left class and went back to work
C) participated in a group project
D) took in a college sports event
4. In the writer's opinion, unlike what other people thought, ______ is a way to avoid facing responsibilities.
A) staying in his job B) being a "career student"
C) quitting jobs D) going back to college
5. For the writer, the biggest obstacle during the whole process of attending college was ______.
A) just getting started B) resistance from people at work
C) to pass the American College Test D) culture shock experienced in college
6. Career students usually contribute more to the class discussion because of their ______.
A) intelligence and abilities B) willingness to participate
C) agreeable personality D) experience in the world
7. The writer thought that one of the achievements he had was that ______.
A) he began to love learning
B) he was promoted in the postal office after getting the diploma
C) he had learned to ignore negative comments
D) he had no difficulty when he embarked on a new career
8. One of the advantages of campus life was that one may ______ in the company of other scholars.
9. By saying ______ the author meant that with a college degree, one can expect more chances of employment and success.
10. Looking back on his decision to go to college, the writer ______.
Passage11:
Suggestions for Improving Reading Speed
Improvement of Reading Rate
It is safe to say that almost anyone can double his or her speed of reading while maintaining equal or even better comprehension. In other words, you can improve the speed with which you get what you want from your reading.
The average college student reads between 250 and 350 words per minute on fiction and non-technical materials. A "good" reading speed is around 500 to 700 words per minute, but some people can read 1,000 words per minute or more on these materials.
What makes the difference? There are three main factors involved in improving reading speed: (1) the desire to improve, (2) the willingness to try new techniques and (3) the motivation to practice.
Learning to read rapidly and well presupposes that you have the necessary vocabulary and comprehension skills. When you have advanced on the reading comprehension materials to a level at which you can understand college-level materials, you will be ready to practice speed reading in earnest.
The Role of Speed in the Reading Process
Understanding the role of speed in the reading process is essential. Research shows a close relation between speed and understanding--although it is the opposite of what you might expect! Among thousands of individuals taking reading training, in most cases an increase in rate was accompanied by an increase in comprehension and a decrease in rate brought decreased comprehension with it. It appears that plodding or word-by-word analysis inhibits rather than increases understanding.
Most adults are able to increase their reading rate considerably and rather quickly without lowering their comprehension. These same individuals usually show a decrease in comprehension when they reduce their rate. Such results, of course are heavily dependent upon the method used to gain the increased rate. Simply reading more rapidly without actual improvement in basic reading habits usually results in lowered comprehension.
Factors that Reduce Reading Rate
Some of the factors which reduce reading rate:
1. Limited perceptual span (word-by-word reading);
2. Slow perceptual reaction time (slow recognition and response to the material)
3. Vocalization (reading aloud)
4. Faulty eye movements (including inaccuracy in placement of the page, in return sweep, in rhythm and regularity of movement, etc.);
5. Regression (needless or unconscious re-reading)
6. Faulty habits of attention and concentration (including simple inattention during the reading act and faulty processes of retention)
7. Lack of practice in reading--use it or lose it!
8. Fear of losing comprehension, causing the person to deliberately read more slowly;
9. Habitual slow reading, in which the person cannot read faster because he or she has always read slowly;
10. Poor evaluation of which aspects are important and which are unimportant;
11. The effort to remember everything rather than to remember selectively.
Since these conditions also tend to reduce comprehension, increasing the reading rate by eliminating them is likely to produce increased comprehension, too. This is entirely different from simply speeding up the rate of reading--which may actually make the real reading problem more severe. In addition, forced acceleration may destroy confidence in one's ability to read. The obvious solution, then, is to increase rate as a part of a total improvement of the whole reading process, as special training programs in reading do.
Basic Conditions for Increasing Reading Rate
A well-planned program prepares for maximum increase in rate by establishing the necessary conditions. Four basic conditions include:
1. Have your eyes checked. Often, very slow reading is related to uncorrected eye defects.
Before embarking on a speed reading program, make sure that any correctable eye defects you may have are taken care of.
2. Eliminate the habit of pronouncing words as you read. If you sound out words in your throat or whisper them, your reading rate is slowed considerably. You should be able to read most materials at least two or three times faster silently than orally, because you can get meaning from phrases without reading each word individually. If you are aware of sounding or "hearing" words as you read, try to concentrate on key words and meaningful ideas as you force yourself to read faster.
3. Avoid regressing (rereading). The average student reading at 250 words per minute regresses or rereads about 20 times per page. Rereading words and phrases is a habit which will slow your reading speed down to a snail's pace. Usually, it is unnecessary to reread words, for the ideas you want are explained and elaborated more fully later.
Furthermore, the slowest reader usually regresses most frequently. Because he reads slowly, his mind has time to wander and his rereading reflects both his inability to concentrate and his lack of confidence in his comprehension skills.
4. Develop a wider eye-span. This will help you read more than one word at a glance. Since written material is less meaningful if read word by word, this will help you learn to read by phrases or thought units.
Rate Adjustment
Poor results are inevitable if the reader attempts to use the same rate for all types of material and for all reading purposes. He must learn to adjust his rate to his purpose in reading and to the difficulty of the material. The fastest rate works on easy, familiar, interesting material or in reading to gather information on a particular point; A slower rate is better for material which is unfamiliar in content and language structure or which must be thoroughly digested. The effective reader adjusts his rater the ineffective reader always uses the same.
Rate may be adjusted overall for an entire article, or internally for parts of an article. As an analogy, imagine that you plan to take a 100-mile mountain trip. Since this trip will include hills, curves, and a mountain pass, you estimate it will take three hours for the total trip, averaging about 35 miles an hour. This is your overall rate adjustment. In actual driving, however, you may slow down to no more than 15 miles per hour on some curves and hills, while speeding up to 50 miles per hour or more on relatively straight and level sections. This is your internal rate adjustment. Similarly, there is no set rate which the good reader follows inflexibly in reading a particular selection, even though he has set himself an overall rate for the total job.
Reading rate should vary according to your reading purpose. To understand information, for example, skim or scan at a rapid rate. To determine the value of material or to read for enjoyment, read rapidly or slowly according to your feeling. To read analytically, read at a moderate pace to permit you to interrelated ideas.
The nature and difficulty of the material also calls for adjustments in rate. Obviously, level of difficulty depends greatly on the particular reader's knowledge. While Einstein's theories may be extremely difficult for most laymen, they would be very simple and clear to a professor of physics. Hence, the layman and the physics professor will read the same material at different rates. Generally, difficult material will entail a slower rater simpler material will permit a faster rate.
In general, decrease speed when you find the following:
1. Unfamiliar terminology. Try to understand it in context at that point; otherwise, read on and return to it later.
2. Difficult sentence and paragraph structure. Slow down enough to enable you to untangle them and get accurate context for the passage.
3. Unfamiliar or abstract concepts. Look for applications or examples of your own as well as studying those of the writer. Take enough time to get them clearly in mind.
4. Detailed, technical material. This includes complicated directions, statements of difficult principles, and materials on which you have scant background.
5. Material on which you want detailed retention.
In general, Increase speed when you meet the following:
1. Simple material with few ideas which are new to you. Move rapidly over the familiar ones; spend most of your time on the unfamiliar ideas.
2. Unnecessary examples and illustrations. Since these are included to clarify ideas, move over them rapidly when they are not needed.
3. Detailed explanation and idea elaboration which you do not need.
4. Broad, generalized ideas and ideas which are restatements of previous ones. These can be readily grasped, even with scan techniques.
1. A person with a good reading speed usually reads between 250 and 350 words per minute on fiction and non-technical materials.
2. If one attempts to remember everything rather than to remember selectively during reading, he/she may have a comparatively slow reading rate.
3. The writer proposes to use the same rate for all types of material and for all reading purposes.
4. Knowledgeable people read faster.
5. If one has the desire to improve his reading speed, the motivation to practice and, he may improve his reading speed.
6. A precondition for a reader to learn to read rapidly and well is that he must have the necessary ______.
7. Different from what most people expect, the research shows that an increase in reading rate may lead to ______.
8. To avoid destroying confidence in one's ability to read, one should speed up the rate of reading as apart of ______.
9. Rereading of a slow reader reflects both his ______ and his lack of confidence in his comprehension skills.
10. An effective reader usually adjusts his rate to his purpose in reading and to the difficulty of the material while an ineffective reader always ______.
Passage12:
The Interview
At the Demobilization Centre, after the usual round of medical inspection, return of service equipment, and issue of allowances and civilian clothing, I had been interviewed by an officer whose job was to advise on careers. On learning that I had a science degree and varied experience in engineering technology, he expressed the opinion that I would have no difficulty in finding a good civilian job. Industry was reorganizing itself for post - war production and there was already an urgent demand for qualified technologists, especially in the field of electronics, which was my special interest. I had been very much encouraged by this, as I had made a point of keeping up with new trends and developments by borrowing books through the Central Library System, and by subscribing to various technical journals and magazines, so I felt quite confident of my ability to hold down a good job. He had given me a letter of introduction to the Higher Appointments Office in Tavistock Square, London, and suggested that I call on them as soon as I had settled myself in "digs" and had enjoyed a short holiday...
Shortly after my return, I visited the Appointments Office, where I was interviewed by two courteous, impersonal men who questioned me closely on my academic background, service career and experience in industry. I explained that after graduating I had worked for two years as a Communication Engineer for the Standard Oil Company at their Aruba Refinery, earning enough to pay for postgraduate study in England. At the end of the interview they told me that I would be notified of any vacancies suitable to my experience and qualifications. Two weeks later I received a letter from the Appointments Office, together with a list of three firms, each of which had vacancies for qualified Communication Engineers. I promptly wrote to each one, stating my qualifications and experience, and soon received very encouraging replies, each with an invitation to an interview. Everything was working very smoothly and I felt on top of the world.
I was nervous as I stood in front of the Head Office in Mayfair; this firm had a high international reputation and the thought of being associated with it added to my excitement. Anyway, I reasoned, this was the first of the interviews, and if I failed here there were still two chances remaining. The uniformed attendant politely opened the large doors for me, and as I approached the receptionist's desk she smiled quite pleasantly.
"Good morning." Her brows were raised in polite enquiry.
"Good morning," I replied, "My name is Braithwaite. I am here for an interview with Mr. Symonds."
I had taken a great deal of care with my appearance that morning. I was wearing my best suit with the fight shirt and tie and pocket handkerchief; my shoes were smartly polished, my teeth were well brushed and I was wearing my best smile--all this had passed the very critical inspection of Mr. and Mrs. Belmont with whom I lived. I might even say that I was quite proud of my appearance. Yet the receptionist's smile suddenly disappeared. She reached for a large diary and consulted it as if to verify my statement, then she picked up the telephone and, cupping her hand around the mouthpiece as if for greater privacy, spoke rapidly into it, watching me stealthily the while.
"Will you come this way?" She set off down a wide corridor, her back straight and stiff with a disapproval which was echoed in the tap-tap of her high heels.
At the end of the corridor we entered an automatic lift; the girl maintained a silent hostility and avoided looking at me. At the second floor we stepped out into a passage on to which several rooms opened; pausing briefly outside one of them she said "In there," and quickly retreated to the lift. I knocked on the door and entered a spacious room where four men were seated at a large table.
One of them rose, walked around to shake hands with me and introduced his colleagues, and then indicated a chair in which I seated myself. After a brief enquiry into my place of birth and R. A.F. service experience, they began to question me closely on telecommunications and the development of electronics in that field. The questions were studied, deliberate, and suddenly the nervousness which had troubled me all the morning disappeared; now I was confident, at ease with a familiar subject. They questioned me on theory, equipment, circuits, operation; on my training in the U. S. A. , and on my experience there and in South America. They were thorough, but I was relaxed now; the years of study, field work and postgraduate research were about to pay off, and I knew that I was holding my own, and even enjoying it.
And then it was all over. Mr. Symonds, the gentleman who had welcomed me, leaned back in his chair and looked from one to another of his associates. They nodded to him, and he said:
"Mr. Braithwaite, my associates and I are completely satisfied with your replies and feel sure that in terms of qualification, ability and experience, you are abundantly suited to the post we have in mind. But we are faced with a certain difficulty. Employing you would mean placing you in a position of authority over a number of our English employees, many of whom have been with us a very long time, and we feel that such an appointment would unfavorably affect the balance of good relationship which has always obtained in this firm. We could not offer you that post without the responsibility, neither would we ask you to accept the one or two other vacancies of a different type which do exist, for .they are unsuitable for someone with your high standard of education and ability. So, I'm afraid, we will not be able to use you." At this he rose, extended his hand in the courtesy of dismissal.
I felt drained of strength and thought; yet somehow I managed to leave that office, navigate the passage, lift and corridor, and walk out of the building into the busy sunlit street. I had just been brought face to face with something I had either forgotten or completely ignored for more than six exciting years my black skin. It had not mattered when I volunteered for aircrew service in 1940; it had not mattered during the period of flying training or when I received my wings and was posted to a squadron; it had not mattered in the exciting uncertainties of operational flying, of living and loving from day to day, brothered to men who like myself had no tomorrow and could not afford to waste today on the absurdities of prejudice; it had not mattered when, uniformed and winged, I visited theatres and dance halls, pubs and private houses.
I had forgotten about my black face during those years. I saw it daily yet never noticed its colour. I was an airman in flying kit while on His Majesty's business, smiled at, encouraged, welcomed by grateful civilians in bars or on the street, who saw not me, but the uniform and its relationship to the glorious, undying Few. Yes, I had forgotten about my skin when I had so eagerly discussed my post-war prospects with the Careers Officer and the Appointments people; I had quite forgotten about it as I cheerfully entered that grand, imposing building...
Now, as I walked sadly away, I consciously turned my eyes away from the sight of my face reflected in the large plate-glass shopwindows. Disappointment and anger were a solid bitter lump rising inside me; I hurried into the nearest public lavatory and was violently sick.
1. The officer at the demobilization center thought it was hard for the author to find a job.
2. The author was good at computer.
3. Qualified technologists were in bad need of in the field of electronics.
4. The author had worked in the headquarters of Standard Oil Company.
5. The author was quite proud of ______ that morning of interview.
6. The author stepped out of the lift at ______.
7. Mr. Symonds and his associates were ______ with the author's replies.
8. The author had either forgotten or completely ignored ______ for more than six years.
9. The author was smiled at, encouraged and welcomed by civilians when he was in ______.
10. The author was violently sick because he felt ______.
Passage13:
The Science that Imitates Nature's Mechanisms
A European industrialist not long ago became very suspicious about American purposes and intentions in certain areas of scientific research. He learned by chance that the United States was signing contracts with scientists in England, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Australia, and other countries, calling for research into such matters as the function of the frog's eye and the learning ability of the octopus.
It seemed to the industrialist that such studies could not possibly have any practical value. He seriously believed that the United States was employing the foreign scientists to do meaningless work and occupy their time, while American scientists were busy in the really important areas of science. He was unaware of the fact that the United States was spending much more money at home than abroad for similar studies.
Nature does things better than people
Actually, the research he questioned involves a field of science so new that most people have never heard of it. Named bionics in 1960, this science is the study of living creatures, a study in search of principle applicable to engineering. Nature has operated a vast laboratory for two billion years, and bionics probes the secrets of the marvelous "special-purpose" mechanisms that have developed.
Take the frog's eye for example. A frog eats only live insects, and its eye instantly spots a moving fly within reach of its tongue. You can surround a frog with dead (therefore motionless) flies, and it will never know they are there.
If we can completely understand the mechanic of the frog's eye, we can develop a "map reading eye" for missiles and a "pattern--recognition eye" for our basic air defense system called SAGE (semi-automatic ground environment). SAGE is badly overworked. Its international network of radar "EYES" supplies a tremendous mass of unimportant details about meteorites, clouds, flights of ducks, geese, and friendly planes, and it sometimes gets confused. Until we can build a mechanical frog's eye into SAGE, it will remain somewhat inefficient.
Military and civilian uses
The frog's eye holds promise in civilian life, too. For example, at most major airports the airtraffic problem--with 20 million flights per year to handle--has reached a critical stage. We must develop better devices for monitoring and controlling air traffic.
Special-purpose mechanism as exciting as the frog's eye can be found throughout nature. The bat is under study because the bat's sonar is much more efficient than man-made sonar. By bouncing supersonic squeaks off objects around him, the bat flies about with remarkable skills. A bat can fly through a dark room strung with dozens of piano wires and never touch a single wire.
The mosquito is under study because we need to solve the problem of Static that lessens the efficiency of our communications systems. A mosquito, simply by vibrating its wings, can set up a hum that will cut through any interfering noise (man or nature can create loud whistles or thunder, for instance) and give a message to another mosquito 150 feet away.
Electrical system
Theoretically at least we should be able to copy these mechanisms found in nature, for all biological organisms-from mosquito to frog to man--are in part actually electrical systems. The sense organs that "connect" all animals to the outside world are merely transducers--instruments like a microphone, TV camera, or phonograph pickup arm--which convert one form of energy into another. A microphone, for example, converts sound into electrical signals which are carried to a loudspeaker and converted back into sound waves. Similarly, the nerve cells of a man's ear convert a cry for help into electrical pulses which are sped over his nervous system to the brain. The brain receives the signal, and then sends an answering electrical-pulse message to his legs, where it is convened into muscular energy when he starts running toward the cry.
We have been slow to profit from this close analogy between a biological organism and an electronic system. It was only in the early 1950's that we consciously began to unite biologists with physicists, chemists, electronic experts, mathematicians, and engineers in a team to solve the mysteries of biological machinery. The first formal bionics meeting--called by the U. S. Ak Force--was held in 1960. A year later there were 20,000 biologists at work in research laboratories in the United States more than double the number employed ten years earlier.
Electronic and nonelectronic
A bionicist can, of course, copy much in nature without resorting to electronics. For example, an airplane wing that gives unique stability to a small plane was introduced by the Cessna Company in 1960; the wing tips of a seabird served as the model. An artificial gill to extract oxygen from water and throw off carbon dioxide like a fish's gill is being studied by the Navy for use on submarines. For the Navy, too, the U. S. Rubber Company is making tests of a rubber "skin" for boats and submarine hulls, modeled on the elastic skin of a dolphin.
But the greatest advances in bionics unquestionably will be electronic in nature. Already an instrument laboratory has developed an "eye" that can peer through a microscope and distinguish certain kinds of diseased ceils from healthy cells. General Electric Company has an experimental eye, the Visilog, that operates on the principle used by the human eye in judging distance as a solid surface is approached.
We humans judge out rate of approach by the changed occurring in the texture of a surface as our eyes get closer and closer to it. This explains why we sometimes fail to see a glass door, but we always stop short of a brick wall. General Electric's eye calculates the rate of approach to any textured surface and contains a device to slow the approach speed. It is being developed, hopefully, to pemit a planned moon-probe rocket to make a soft landing on the moon's surface. A small variety of Visilog may be created for the blind.
Ears, nose, and brain
The owl's ears are fascinating to many bionicists, for the owl has uncanny directional hearing. He can hear a mouse chewing and fly down on it, even though it is hidden from sight under a pile of leaves. For those engaged in designing sensitive mechanic ears for listening to enemy sonar, owl research may indeed have value.
Nor is the nose being ignored. Many male creatures find their way to their mates by following an odor given off by the female. To explore mechanical scent detection, the Armor research Foundation has developed a synthetic nose which can, it is believed, detect scents in vapors at a ratio of one particle to a million. The Foundation thinks that it can be used in early detection of food spoilage, and to warn industrial and military personnel of the presence of poisonous vapors.
Finally, the bionicist is extremely interested in the one general mechanism that serves the entire animal kingdom--the brain. The brain makes all animals unimaginably efficient, like small-size computers. "Actually, though," says Dr. Warren S. Moculloch, one of our great computer-scientists, "computers are nothing more than stupid beasts, they haven't the brains of
an ant. And they can't do the job that must be done."
Hopefully, bionicist is extremely interested in the one general mechanism that mimics the brain. But as long as the tiny brain of a pigeon continuous to baffle science, there seems little likelihood of understanding the secrets of the human brain during this century. Yet, even if the bionicist never attains this goal, he will make many discoveries that once seemed impossible to us. Even in our lifetime he may be able to build machines that will be intelligent enough.
1. The United States was making research on the frog's eye and the learning ability.
2. The United States was employing the foreign scientists to do meaningless work to occupy their time.
3. Bionics is a study in search of principle applicable to engineering by studying of living creatures.
4. Bionics is now developed to a remarkable level.
5. We must develop better devices for monitoring and controlling air traffic because _____ has reached a critical stage.
6. A mosquito can give a message to another mosquito 150 feet away by _____.
7. Animals' sense organs are only _____ which convert energy from one form into another.
8. The U. S. Rubber Company is making tests of modeling the elastic skin of a dolphin for _____.
9. Owl research may have value in designing _____.
10. _____ is a general mechanism that serves the entire animal kingdom.
Passage14:
Intelligent Transport System
Today, there are many ways to travel around a large metropolitan area, for work or pleasure. You could walk, although the range is admittedly low. You could bicycle, but you still do a lot of work, and it's dangerous. You could drive a car, which takes concentration and sobriety and a license. You could ride a bus, and let someone else drive. You could take a train, and let a computer drive you. Or you could fly, and wait a long time for the plane to take off and land.
All modes of transportation have advantages, and disadvantages. However, in recent decades, the single system that has won over all others is the private automobile. This allows you to go from your starting point to your destination point, with your complete control, at a reasonable speed in a reasonable time. Unfortunately, apart from the pollutants created by the vehicle itself, the fact that so many other people seem to enjoy its perceived freedom causes major traffic jams, and the requirement for traffic control devices.
Too many people using too little road space at the same time causes traffic jams. It is most profound on large grade separated roads, that have limited access. There have been various solutions tried out, including high occupancy vehicle lanes, ramp metering, or road widening. Unfortunately, they simply don't solve the problem of lack of capacity.
Traffic control devices impose certain controls on the flow of traffic. Most common are traffic lights. These meter the flow of traffic between two or more roads so that at no time is any vehicle in conflict with any other. However, they also impose that traffic comes to a complete stop, requiring vehicles to stop and then start again. This not only slows vehicles down, but also is the prime cause of wasted energy in urban settings.
Unfortunately, cities are very reluctant to spend money. Therefore any future transport system has to be cheap for cities. This implies that current infrastructure is kept as much as possible, or improved. Using roads, the prime infrastructure available today would mean the form factor for vehicles would stay the same, but each individual vehicle could be made more intelligent.
So for tomorrow, we need to design a transport system that uses roads or a very slight improvement on roads to provide a high capacity system that provides service for everyone. This could be achieved by implementing the following eight systems, each of which provides more of a burden on the car manufacturer, but would eventually provide a system, which is automatic, safe and efficient.
Firstly, all cars should have intelligence brakes and cruise control. These would remove the driver from the responsibility of having to follow along behind somebody. By pressing a button, the driver would give control of the distance between his car and the car in front. If the car in front slowed down, you would not have to wait for the brake lights to light up, the driver to see them, Wen press the brake pedal the right amount, and continuously monitor the distance. Instead the car would be programmed to continuously monitor the distance to the car in front and instantly alter its speed to match and maintain the distance.
By speeding up the feedback circuit, you can close the distance of cars, and therefore increase the capacity. You also remove driver error so reducing the number of accidents. Also, cars could communicate locally with each other and ware ahead of time that following cars need to slow down.
Next, you need to remove the driver from the responsibility of steering the vehicle. Having complex vision systems on a car seems over the top as they not only dramatically increase the cost of the car, but also the complexity of the control software. Instead you could build detector into the front of the car that detect the middle of a lane of traffic. The car would try and keep the vehicle in that lane. Junctions could be built by having the centerline split. The operator or route planning software would decide which of the two or more signals to follow.
Separating lanes of automatic cars from those driven by humans especially on high speed highways, would give an incentive to not only purchase an automatic car but also to purchase the road space which it uses. Since these separate lanes would have not only fast moving traffic but also safer traffic, they could be marked and sold by cities to create a revenue stream to allow the building of more augmented roads.
Having a device in the car that does route planning is a great help for people who don't know the way around your city. But what if you lived in the city for many years? It's not going to be that much use, is it? By linking route planning with real time information on traffic levels in the city, you can quickly divert your journey to use the most efficient roads. This information could be relayed to vehicles using broadcast radio. Roadside sensors that determine the flow of traffic on a road would detect the speeds.
The ability to remove the parking requirements from near a building would allow more compact cities, which are better pedestrian environments. However, people don't like to walk from a parking structure that is a long way from their destination. The solution is to allow the car to drop off the passengers where required and then drive itself to the nearest parking structure that is known to have a space.
By automatically controlling the speed and location of all traffic, you can' make junctions work very efficiently. At the moment, some traffic has to stop, and when it resumes, the cars spread out into a large disperse volume. Instead you could move each group of cars as a packet, adjusting its speed so that it arrives at an intersection at just the right time so that it never has to stop. This could be achieved by changing the speed of a section of road so those cars slow down gradually. The speeds of road segments would be set by nearby junction computers each linked to the other. This would create a holistic traffic control system. If one section lost power, the system would revert to a normal junction.
When a group of people move from one location to another, it would make sense to allow them to travel together instead of having to each use a separate vehicle. On demand group transport would allow the request of a large vehicle which can automatically move people from one location to another. These vehicles would be stored at strategic locations, and then sent to the requesting site as quickly as possible. Vehicles could be booked in advance, and you pay by the time used in minutes, not the distance traveled or destination.
At the other end is the replacement of the taxi. This would be similar to the group transport but for smaller groups. Again these vehicles would be stored at strategic locations, so that people don't have to wait very long. Again they are hired by the minute of use. Since you are no longer required to own your own vehicle, the total number of vehicles required in the whole system is reduced, and therefore the number of parking spaces required. Given a fully demand driven transport system, you would never need to find another parking space in your life.
After the above is implemented, you have on demand private or group transport vehicles driving themselves from point to point without the need to stop at junctions, wait for traffic jams on freeways, or get lost along the way.
1. Riding a bicycle takes concentration, sobriety and a license.
2. Private automobile is the most important mode of transportation in recent decades.
3. Air pollution is the most serious problem caused by the exist of too many private automobiles.
4. Traffic lights are the most common traffic control devices.
5. Drivers can be free from the responsibility of having to follow along behind someone with the help of ______.
6. Having complex vision system will increase the cost of the car and increase ______.
7. You can have fast moving and safer traffic in ______.
8. To solve the problem of parking, we need the car to drive itself to the nearest parking structure after ______.
9. We have a request of a large vehicle which can automatically move people from one location to another to meet the demand of ______.
10. In order to be prompt, taxi for the transport of smaller groups should be stored at ______.
Passage15:
Planning and People
In all kinds of organizations--companies, schools, hospitals, etc. --decisions appear correct in theory but do not work in practice. There are many reasons for this. To illustrate the problems involved we will consider four cases where different decisions have to be taken.
Case No. 1
The manager of a shipping company was interested in using large metal containers for the company's cargo instead of conventional methods of loading and unloading. He discovered that the use of containers was less expensive and quicker than conventional methods. More cargo could be sent at one time and delays on the way were shorter. The only major disadvantage (apart from the initial cost of the containers) was that not all ships could take them. However, the manager believed that his company could find enough ships for their containers. His plan to use containers was adopted by the board of directors. Unfortunately, however, it was never put into practice. The dockers heard about the plan and did not like it. The reason was that the containers would make about a quarter of the dockers redundant. The plan was killed.
The comparison of containers with conventional methods is shown in the following table.
Advantages Disadvantages
Containers 1. less freight expenses
2. quicker delivery
3. more cargo can be sent at one time
4. shorter delays on the way 1. not all ships can take them
2. heavy initial cost
Conventional
methods 1. all ships can use them
2. no need to spend money on the containers 1. more freight expenses
2. slower delivery
3. less cargo can be sent at one time
4. longer delays on the way
Case No. 2
A solar pump was built in a small desert village. The pump used the desert's most common resource-sunlight, to increase its greatest necessity-water. Solar collectors were used to collect the sun's rays. Flat collectors can be stationary and do not have moving parts which can be broken in sand storms. The system used the 20 degree centigrade temperature difference between the solar collectors and the ground water to work a gas expansion engine which pumped water from under the ground.
Some of the social effects of the new pumps were planned for. Children aged 6 to15 used to bring the water from wells, where they met the old men of the village and received informal education from them. In order to replace this, a school was also included in the project. But the project had not considered the traditional power structure of the village. As soon as the foreign experts left, the two richest men in the village took control of the pump and started selling water to everyone else. The result was that the majority of people were poorer than before.
Case No. 3
In 1946 there was a program in the Rio Grande valley to substitute hybrid corn for the native corn. The native corn was of poor nutritional quality and gave a poor quantity of grain while the hybrid corn was of excellent quality and gave about three times as large a crop as the native variety. In the first year half of the 84 farmers in the village planted hybrid corn and doubled the corn production. Three years later, however, only three farmers planted hybrid corn. The others were planting the traditional variety. At the beginning of the project the program leader studied the ecology of the area and showed films demonstrating the superiority of the new corn. The farmers agreed that the hybrid corn had great advantages. The size of the crop confirmed these advantages. Why did they stop planting it? The answer was simple: their wives did not like it. They complained that it wasn't good for cooking and they didn't like the flavor.
Case No. 4
The manager of a large office building had received many complaints about the lift service in the building. He engaged a group of engineers to study the situation and make recommendations for improvement. The engineers suggested two alternative solutions:
1. adding more lifts of the same types;
2. replacing the existing lifts by faster ones.
The manager decided that both alternative solutions were too expensive. So the firm's psychologist offered to study the problem. He noticed that many people arrived at their offices feeling angry and impatient. The reason they gave was the length of time they had to wait for the lift. However, the psychologist was impressed by the fact that they had only had to wait a relatively short time. It occurred to him that the reason for their annoyance was the fact they had to stand by the lifts inactive. He suggested a simple, inexpensive solution to the manager. This was adopted and complaints stopped immediately. The solution was to place a large mirror next to the lifts.
Three of these cases show failure, and one success. What conclusions can be made about the decision involved? First, in any decision, some considerations are more relevant than others. It is a mistake to attempt to, solve a problem in engineering terms when the problem is a psychological one. Similarly, it is wrong to concentrate on the social effects of a new invention if it is mechanically inadequate. It is a mistake to attempt to improve one part of a system if the whole system has to be changed.
Secondly, there is a more fundamental question. A solution may be technically very crude but will work because people are enthusiastic about it. Some projects predict negative human reactions but are unable to persuade people that the project is right. Other projects fail because of indifference--people neither like it nor dislike it-they just do not think it is necessary. A project will be successful only if the people involved believe that it is necessary and valuable for their own lives.
Some people believe that in these cases the plans are right but the people are wrong. History, however, has shown this belief to be dangerous.
1. There are shorter delays on the way if containers are used.
2. The plan of the manager of a shipping company to use containers was rejected by the board of directors because the plan was strongly opposed by the dockers.
3. Using the containers to transport can keep the goods clean.
4. Sunlight is the desert's most common resource while fresh air is the desert's greatest necessity.
5. Children can receive ______ from the old men when brought water from wells in the desert.
6. Compared with the hybrid corn, the native corn is poor in ______.
7. The disadvantage of the hybrid corn is that it was ______ and poor in flavor.
8. The psychologist found that many people felt ______ when they arrived at their office.
9. If the problem is a psychological one, we can't attempt to ______.
10. History was shown that the belief that ______ is dangerous.