Elephants who paint aren"t new. Paintings by Ruby, an Asian elephant who lived at the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona, sold for up to $5,000 in the late 1980s, said Dick George, a consultant with the zoo. "Ruby was about seven months old when she first came to the zoo", said George. "She lived with a goat and some chickens, but she didn"t have an elephant companion for a number of years. She spent a lot of time drawing in the dirt with a stick to make her days more stimulating. Her keeper bought her some art supplies". George said, ", Ruby was excited about painting right from the beginning". The elephants at the art academies in the Southeast Asia are taught to hold a paintbrush with the tip of their trunks. Initially, the keeper guides the elephant"s trunk over the canvas(画布) and offers rewards for good performance. "It only takes a few hours to a day to teach them", said Mia Fineman, an art historian whose book When Elephants Paint is an illustrated history of the Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project.

The bill is______at any time up to next Friday.

Americans today don"t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education—not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren"t difficult to find. "Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual", says education writer Diane Ravitch. "Schools could be a counterbalance". Razitch"s latest bock, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits. But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shortis, "We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society". "Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege", writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American life, a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book. Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children: "We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing". Mark Twain"s Huckleberry Firm exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized—going to school and learning to read so he can preserve his innate goodness. Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, reorder, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines. School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country"s educational system is in the grips of people who "joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise".

Our family______not to exchange Christmas gifts this year.

Because of its potential for cutting costs, the distribution step in the marketing process is receiving more attention. Distribution involves warehousing, transporting and keeping inventory of manufactured products. Take an everyday product like fabric softener. After it comes off the assembly line, it"s packed in cartons and trucked to warehouses around the country. When orders come in from retailers, the fabric softener is delivered to supermarket shelves. This is distribution. Probably the most crucial area for controlling costs is inventory. Companies don"t want to overproduce and have unsold stock of their product piled up in warehouses. Wholesale companies and large retail chains employ several techniques for inventory control. This is where the computer revolution really had an impact. Computerized information systems give precise and up-to-date accounts of inventory on hand. And the field of distribution offers good entry-level jobs for persons with training in computer programming or data processing. Overseeing the whole area of distribution is the distribution manager. This job is becoming increasingly important and can lead to an executive position.

A: Let me introduce myself. I am Henry. B: Henry. I am Peter Browr. ______ Call me Peter or Mr. Brown.

Friend A： Hi, Melissa. This is Brian. Friend B： Oh, hi, Brian. ______?Friend A: Actually, I"m calling you for a favor.

Time "talks" in the American culture and, for that matter, in many other cultures.【C1】______it says is crucial in our relations with others. Some societies take their promises to【C2】______deadlines seriously and keep appointments, and they impose penalties for being late or not completing a task in the【C3】______time. In the United States, being late repeatedly for class in schools may lead to suspension. Late papers may【C4】______as much as 10 percent reduction in the grade, or even a failing grade. Perhaps the most critical dimension in culture is the use of time. Each culture has its own concept of time. In Germanic cultures punctuality is a【C5】______of respect and politeness; being late is rude. Germans believe people should be【C6】______on time, neither too early nor too late. To the Indonesian, time is an endless pool; why be【C7】______or hurry? All cultures【C8】______their own time system for granted and believe other cultures operate with the【C9】______time frame. 【C10】______, misunderstandings are inevitable. To function in a foreign country, we must know its time system.

A: I"m looking for a white long-sleeved shin, size 38. B: ______.

Certainly, the most popular method of traveling used by Americans is the privately owned automobile. The vast majority of Americans have a car, and many families have two.【B1】during your visit to the United States, you may decide to rent a car to travel outside the city or to travel to other parts of the country. Car rental companies are【B2】in the telephone book and are located in most cities and towns.【B3】, there are usually rental cars at airports and train and bus stations. As is true everywhere in the world,, you can rent a car【B4】the day, week, or month. Some companies【B5】have special weekend rates that you may find especially interesting if you have only a limited【B6】of time to travel around the area you are visiting. Since each company has its own rules and rates, it is a good idea to【B7】prices among companies to get the best rates to suit your purposes. For example, most car rental costs【B8】how long you plan:to keep the car and how far you travel. However, some companies may include gasoline in their rates, but【B9】do not. Some companies require that you【B10】the car to its starting point; others will permit you to leave the car in another city.

Husband: Tell you what, dear. I just got promoted. Wife: Really? ______.

Theme-park-hound bargain seekers would be wise to spend some time surfing online before they get in line at the parks this summer. A growing number of these attractions now allow customers to print e-tickets at home with large discounts off the gate price, in part to spur attendance that has declined in recent years. After boom times in the late 1990s, theme park attendance began to decrease, with an overall decline of about 400% over the past few years at North America"s 50 most-visited establishments, says James Zoltak, editor of Amusement Business. "The boom was off the rose as we turned the comer into 2000, so there"s more discounting now", he says. Discounting isn"t new to an industry that has longer partnered with other commercial enterprises, such as soft drink companies, to offer deals. But e-ticketing adds a new opportunity that not only brings savings but convenience as well, since it allows visitors to avoid the line at the gate. "If you can get in early before the lines fill up, you"re getting more for your money", says Robert Niles of the website Theme Park Insider.

About one million tourists go to Barcelona every year, just to visit the Gaudi"s Church. This unusual church has a strange history. Gaudi was born in Spain in 1852. He had to work and study at the same time. He often missed classes because he had to work, but one day he designed a very unusual show-case for an exhibition in Paris. People began to give him work. He designed houses, offices and gardens. They were all very unusual. He was soon rich and famous. Then a rich bookseller said, "Will you build a church for the poor people of Barcelona? I will pay. I will build schools and workshops, too. They will help the people". "I will do it", said Guadi. He worked for forty years, but he could not finish the church. It was too big. He needed $10,000,000. He gave all his money to the church. He was poor again when he died in 1926, and only the front part of the church was finished. Now, architects, engineers and tourists from all over the world like to come and see the church, which is very strange, very modem and very revolutionary.

Student： Mrs. Kim, may I speak with you? Teacher： Hello, James. Please take a seat. ______?Student： I"m trying to figure out my schedule for spring semester. . .

A: Paul, I"d like to have a talk with you at tea break. B: ______Have what with me?

The fruit ______ more than half the country"s armual exports according to a recent report.

The fitness movement that began in the late 1960s and early 1970s centered around aerobic exercise(有氧操). Millions of individuals became engaged in a variety of aerobic activities, and literally thousands of health spas developed around the country to capitalize(获利) on this emerging interest in fitness, particularly aerobic dancing for females. A number of fitness spas existed prior to this aerobic fitness movement, even a national chain with spas in most major cities. However, their focus was not on aerobics, but rather on weight-training programs designed to develop muscular mass, strength, and endurance in their primarily male enthusiasts. These fitness spas did not seem to benefit financially from the aerobic fitness movement to better health, since medical opinion suggested that weight-training programs offered few, if any, health benefits. In recent years, however, weight training has again become increasingly popular for males and for females. Many current programs focus not only on developing muscular strength and endurance but on aerobic fitness as well. Historically, most physical-fitness tests have usually included measures of muscular strength and endurance, not for health-related reasons, but primarily because such fitness components have been related to performance in athletics. However, in recent years, evidence has shown that training programs designed primarily to improve muscular strength and endurance might also offer some health benefits as well. The American College of Sports Medicine now recommends that weight training be part of a total fitness program for healthy Americans. Increased participation in such training is one of the specific physical activity and fitness objectives of Healthy People 2000, National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives.

The project requires more labor than ______ because it is extremely difficult.

A Poster Just as the sun is starting to shine and the days are getting longer, the examination period begins! I"d like to wish all students the very best luck in your exams and with your dissertations. For those of you who will be leaving us this summer, I hope that you will take with you fond memories of Birmingham and that you keep in touch. If you are staying in Birmingham over the summer, do try to come along to our summer garden party on 18 June. Spouses and children are very welcome to join us too. Summer Garden Party Wednesday 18, June 2007 From 2 p. m.—5 p. m. Celebrate the end of exams and the end of term with a summer garden party in the beautiful grounds of Westmere on Edgbaston Park Road. All international students, their spouses and children are welcome to join us. We"ll have lots of party games as well as food and drink. What better way to mark the end of the academic year? If you would like to come along, please contact Mal Graham, international Student Assistant: 0121 414 2894 M. M. Graham@bham. ac. uk. We look forward to seeing many of you there. Have a great summer.