填空题[A] Knight acknowledges the challenge. "We have to be beautiful as well as big. It's no mean feat," says Scott Bedbury, former global ad chief for Nike. "The worst ease scenario would be to become Microsoft," says Kevin Keller, a marketing professor at Duke. Best ease: be like Coea-Cola. "They're everywhere, but no one seems to resent them for it. " [B] One answer is to play down the Swoosh, and some Nike watchers say it will do just that. Nike is marketing new products, including its ACG (All Condition Gear) line for hiking and outdoor styles. [C] Last week was particularly glum at Nike's headquarters in suburban Portland. Managers had warned of layoffs but hadn't revealed any names. On Wednesday, 250 employees were told to pack up their desks, while stunned colleagues looked on. [D] Phil Knight doesn't speak in public very often. And when you hear from him these days, he doesn't sound happy. Talking to Wall Street analysts from his Oregon headquarters last week, the founder and head of Nike Inc. didn't mince words: "This is a dark day around these halls. " [E] Yet Nike is now facing a marketing conundrum: can you be big and cool? When Teenage Research Unlimited did its latest survey, 40 percent of kids named Nike as one of the " coolest" brands, down from 52 percent just six months ago. Kim Hostetler of Paper, a New York magazine, says that the coolest things around now are brilliantly colored suede sneakers by New Balance. Even Adidas, torpedoed by Nike and Reebok in the [980s, is staging a comeback. [F] Knight's problems would worry any CEO: a stock price that has slid to the bottom from the top, a plunge in profits and warehouses lull of shoes that aren't selling. But most critical is a price war that has sliced U. S. sales and is a sign that Nike's lock as the champion of "cool" may be weakening. Although Nike prides itself on technical innovation, losing its cool would be tantamount to losing the game. [G] At most corporate offices, that scene, though painful, wouldn't be cataclysmic, but for Knight and his employees, even a setback bears the agony of defeat. Nike rose about as high and fast in the 1990s as any company can. It took on a new religion of brand consciousness and broke advertising sound barriers with its indelible Swoosh, "Just Do It" slogan and deified sports figures. Nike managed the deftest of marketing tricks: to be both anti-establishment and mass market, to the tune of $ 2 billion in sales last year. Order: [D]→41. ______ →42. ______ →43. ______ →44. ______→45. ______→[B]

填空题(41)Conflicts: If you do get a place in the student dormitory, it is likely that you will have to share your living space with one other student. While having an American roommate will help you to learn more about American ways, there will probably be many times that discomfort or conflict will arise due to cultural differences.(42) Sex: With regard to sex in general, American behavior is quire different from the norms found in China.(43) Relationship Between Teachers & Students: On the campus, particularly where classes are small. I found a strange informality that characterized the relationship between students and their professors.(44)Gifts: In my interaction with American friends. I noticed that the concept of a gift is quite different here. Many things we give to each other in China are not called "gifts" but are considered to be a reflection of ordinary duties and mutual obligations. Accustomed as we are to using the word "gift" to refer to something valuable given on special occasions, it comes as a surprise to see how often the word is used in America. In the United States. "gifts", given on many different occasions, are only services.(45) Social Intercourse: When you do enter American homes, you will have an opportunity to observe different ways of greeting people. On the whole. Americans tend to be far more physical than we in their greetings: [A] I was astonished, for example, when a friend told me that he was offering to care for his younger brother and sister so that his father could take a vacation for his birthday this was a gift to him. For us this would be considered duty rather than a gift. Even between friends gestures of this sort might be considered "gifts" here.[B] While many students do call their professors, "Professor" so and so or "Dr." so and so. some professors prefer to be called familiarly by their first names. And in the spirit of informality, many professors may invite students to their homes or can be seen chatting with students over a meal or a cup of coffee in the school cafeteria. A good number of instructors even request that students fill our class evaluation forms which assess the content and presentation of the course.[C] My roommate was very sociable and had many boyfriends who came to visit often very late. One night, after midnight, I had to stay in the bathroom for an extra 40 minutes because I had heard a man's voice in my room. My roommate did not realize how awkward I would feel meeting a man while I was in my nightgown. You see. American students tend to be much more casual about these matters.[D] On many occasions, for instance, close friends or sometimes even casual acquaintances embrace or kiss each other on the cheeks in greeting or bidding farewell. It may even happen that where couples are close friends, the two husbands will kiss the other man's wife![E] In the United States. for example, if a student wants to invite his teacher to a dinner party, the invitation should be sent a week or so before the party date. If the invitation is extended only three or four days before the party date. the teacher will feel he is not highly regarded.[F] For example, many American students seem to like to listen to popular and sometimes loud music while studying in their rooms. Sometimes they will even leave the music on when they leave the room. For some reason, many will tell you, music helps them to relax and concentrate, an idea which other foreign students and I found very strange and disturbing. We'd like to study quietly without any disturbance.

填空题[A]Butsoonthesettlerswantedbiggerfarmsandmorelandforthemselvesandtheirfamilies.MoreandmoreimmigrantswerecomingfromEuropeandallthesepeopleneededland.SotheEuropeansstartedtotakethelandfromtheIndians.TheIndianshadtomovebackintothecenterofthecontinentbecausethesettlersweretakingalltheirland.[B]By1857theIndianshadlostthefight:theywerelivinginspecialplacescalled"reservations".ButevenheretheWhiteMantooklandfromthem--perhapshewantedthewood,orperhapsthelandhadimportantmineralsinit,orheevenwantedtomakenationalparksthere.SoevenontheirreservationstheIndianswerenotsafefromtheWhiteMan.Between1500and1900theIndianpopulationoftheareathatisnowtheUnitedStatesdeclinedfromcloseto1,000,000to300,000.andforthoseremained,theagonywasgreat.Manywereforcedtotakelandinnewandstrangeplaces.Theywereintroducedtonewtools,implementsandtechniques.Theywereforcedtoabandontheiroldwayoflife.[C]In1960s,Indiansmovedingreatnumberstothenation'scities.ManyIndiansmovedintopovertyrows.Itwashardforthemtofindjobs.Itwashard--almostimpossible--tocompetewiththeWhiteManinthewhiteman'sworld.ManyIndiansreturnedtothereservations.Butifthereservationshadbeenbrokenuptherewasnoplacetogo.ThegapbetweenIndianAmericanandwhiteAmericanwasgrowingwider.[D]ThenativeAmericans,thepeoplewecallthe"Indians",hadbeeninAmericaformanythousandsofyearsbeforeChristopherColumbusarrivedin1492.ColumbusthoughthehadarrivedinIndia,sohecalledthenativePeople"Indians".TheIndianswerekindtotheearlysettlers.Theywerenotafraidofthemandtheywantedtohelpthem.Theyshowedthesettlersthenewworldaroundthem;theytaughtthemaboutthelocalcropslikesweetpotatoes,cornandpeanuts;theyintroducedtheEuropeanstochocolateandtotheturkey;andtheEuropeansdidbusinesswiththeIndians.[E]TheIndianscouldn'tunderstandthis.TheyhadaverydifferentideaoflandfromtheEuropeans.FortheIndians,theland,theearth,wastheirmother,everythingcamefromtheirmother,theland,andeverythingwentbacktoit.Thelandwasforeveryoneanditwasimpossibleforonemantoownit.HowcouldtheWhiteMandividetheearthintoparts?Howcouldheputfencesroundit,buyitandsellit?Naturally,whentheWhiteManstartedtakingalltheIndians'land,theIndiansstartedtofightback.Theywantedtokeeptheirland,theywanttostoptheWhiteMantakingitallforhimself.ButtheWhiteManwasstrongerandclever.SlowlyhepushedtheIndiansintothosepartsofthecontinentthathedidn'twant--thepartswhereitwastoocoldortoodryortoomountainoustolivecomfortably.[F]MeanwhiletheIndianshavebeenworkinghardintheirowninterests.Theyarebuildingnewcommunities,establishingnewindustries,anderectingnewschools.Theyaredevelopingmotelsandotherrecreationalschemesonthereservations.ThereisagrowingPan-IndianGovernment.Indianshavebecomeactiveinwritingandpublishing.Sometribeshavebenefitedthroughsettlementoftheirlandorotherclaimsagainstthegovernment.Theyareusingthefundsfortheirowndevelopment.PerhapsanewdayhasalreadydawnedfortheAmericanIndians.[G]Manyoftheirtribeswereresettledonreservationsinthewest.ThelandbelongedtotheUnitedStatesGovernmentbutwasreservedtax-freefortheIndians.Thefederalgovernmentprovidedthetribeswithrations,tools,andequipment.Boardinganddayschoolsweresetup.Inmanycasesresponsibleagentsweresenttoadministerthereservations.ButthechangefromafreelifetotherestrictedlifeofreservationsbroughttheIndiansneardespair.Theydidnotchangeeasily.

填空题A computer model has been developed that can predict what word you are thinking of. (41) Researchers led by Tom Mitchell of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, "trained" a computer model to recognize the patterns of brain activity associated with 60 images, each of which represented a different noun, such as "celery" or "aeroplane". (42) . Words such as "hammer", for example, axe known to cause movement-related areas of the brain to light up; on the other hand, the word "castle" triggers activity in regions that process spatial information. Mitchell and his colleagues also knew that different nouns are associated more often with some verbs than with others--the verb "eat", for example, is more likely to be found in conjunction with "celery" than with "aeroplane". The researchers designed the model to try and use these semantic links to work out how the brain would react to particular nouns. They fed 25 such verbs into the model. (43) . The researchers then fed the model 58 of the 60 nouns to train it. For each noun, the model sorted through a trillion-word body of text to find how it was related to the 25 verbs, and how that related to the activation pattern. After training, the models were put to the test. Their task was to predict the pattern of activity for the two missing words from the group of 60, and then to deduce which word was which. On average, the models came up with the right answer more than three-quarters of the time. The team then went one step further, this time training the models on 59 of the 60 test words, and then showing them a new brain activity pattern and offering them a choice of 1 001 words to match it. The models performed well above chance when they were made to rank the 1001 words according to how well they matched the pattern. The idea is similar to another "brain-reading" technique. (44) . It shouldn't be too difficult to get the model to choose accurately between a larger number of words, says John-Dylan Haynes. An average English speaker knows 50 000 words, Mitchell says, so the model could in theory be used to select any word a subject chooses to think of. Even whole sentences might not be too distant a prospect for the model, saysMitchell. "Now that we can see individual words, it gives the scaffolding for starting to see what the brain does with multiple words as it assembles them," he says. (45) Models such as this one could also be useful in diagnosing disorders of language or helping students pick up a foreign language. In semantic dementia, for example, people lose the ability to remember the meanings of things--shown a picture of a chihuahua, they can only recall "dog", for example--but little is known about what exactly goes wrong in the brain. "We could look at what the neural encoding is for this," says Mitchell. [A] The team then used functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to scan the brains of 9 volunteers as they looked at images of the nouns [B] The study can predict what picture a person is seeing from a selection of more than 100, reported by Nature earlier this year [C] The model may help to resolve questions about how the brain processes words and language, and might even lead to techniques for decoding people's thoughts [D] This gives researchers the chance to understand the "mental chemistry" that the brain does when it processes such phrases, Mitchell suggests [E] This research may be useful for a human computer interface but does not capture the complex network that allows a real brain to learn and use words in a creative way [F] The team started with the assumption that the brain processes words in terms of how they relate to movement and sensory information [G] The new model is different in that it has to look at the meanings of the words, rather than just lower-level visual features of a picture

填空题I strongly agree with the contention that absence of choice is a rare circumstance, primarily because this contention accords with common sense and our everyday experience as human beings. Besides, the reverse claim-that we do not have free choice-serves to undermine the notions of moral accountability and human equality, which are critical to the survival of any democratic society. 41. The role of free will of humans in choice Common sense dictates that humans have free will, and therefore the true absence of choice is very rare. The only possible exceptions would involve extreme and rare circumstances such as solitary imprisonment or a severe mental or physical deficiency—any of which might potentially strip a person of his or her ability to make conscious choices. Yet, even under these circumstances, a person still retains choices about voluntary bodily functions and movement. Thus, the complete absence of choice would seem to be possible only in a comatose state or in death. 42. The nature of absence of choice People often claim that life's circumstances leave them with "no choice." One might feel trapped in a job or a marriage. Under financial duress a person might claim that he or she has "no choice" but to declare bankruptcy, take a demeaning job, or even lie or steal to obtain money. The fundamental problem with these sorts of claims is that the claimants are only considering those choices that are not viable or attractive. That is, people in situations such as these have an infinite number of choices; it's just that many of the choices are unappealing, even self-defeating. 43. Choice is beyond our control Besides, the contention that we are almost invariably free to choose is far more appealing from a sociopolitical standpoint than the opposite claim. A complete tack of choice implies that every person's fate is determined, and that we all lack free will. According to the philosophical school of "strict determinism," every event, including human actions and Choices, that occurs is physically necessary given the laws of nature and events that preceded that event or choice. In other words, the "choices" that seem part of the essence of our being are actually beyond our control. 44. The logical result of strict determinism and of the new "scientific determinism" However, the logical result of strict determinism and of the new "scientific determinism" is that we are not morally accountable for our actions and choices, even those that harm other individuals or society. Moreover, throughout history monarchs and dictators have embraced determinism, at least ostensibly, to bolster their claim that certain individuals are preordained to assume positions of authority or to rise to the top levels of the socioeconomic infrastructure. Finally, the notion of scientific determinism opens the door for genetic engineering, which poses a potential threat to equality in socioeconomic opportunity, and could lead to the development of a so-called "master race." Admittedly, these disturbing implications neither prove nor disprove the determinists' claims. 45. Insistence of tree will I would concede that science might eventually disprove the very notion of free will. However, until that time I'll trust my strong intuition that free will is an essential part of our being as humans and, accordingly, that humans are responsible for their own choices and actions.[A] For example, almost every person who claims to be trapped in a job is simply choosing to retain a certain measure of financial security. The choice to forego this security is always available, although it might carry unpleasant consequences.[B] Our collective life experience is that we make choices and decisions every day on a continual basis.[C] However, the dilemma seams to be unavoidable which gives people a lot of Painfully experience with it.[D] In sum, despite the fact that we all experience occasional feelings of being trapped and having no choice, the statement is fundamentally correct.[E] Recent advances in molecular biology and genetics lend some credence to the determinists' position that as physical beings our actions are determined by physical forces beyond our control. New research suggests that these physical forces include our own individual genetic makeup.[F] Assuming that neither free will nor determinism has been proven to be the correct position, the former is to be preferred by any humanist and in any democratic society.

填空题Monday's Supreme Court decision to block a class-action sex-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart was a huge setback for as many as 1.6 million current and former female employees of the world's largest retailer. But the decision has consequences that range far beyond sex discrimination or the viability of class-action suits. The underlying issue, which the Supreme Court has now ratified, is Wal-Mart's authoritarian style, by which executives pressure store-level management to squeeze more and more from millions of clerks, stockers and lower-tier managers. (41) ______. In the 1950s and '60s, northwest Arkansas, where Wal-Mart got its start, was poor, white and rural, in the midst of a wave of agricultural mechanization that generated a huge surplus of unskilled workers. To these men and women, the burgeoning chain of discount stores founded by Sam Walton was a godsend. The men might find dignity managing a store instead of a hardscrabble farm, while their wives and daughters could earn pin money clerking for Mr. Sam. "The enthusiasm of Wal-Mart associates toward their jobs is one of the company's greatest assets," declared the firm's 1973 annual report. (42) ______. Wal-Mart attorneys have argued, and the Supreme Court agreed this week, that even if sex discrimination was once part of the company's culture, it is now ancient history: if any store managers are guilty of bias when it comes to promoting women, they are at odds with corporate policy. Wal-Mart is no longer an Ozark company; it is a cosmopolitan, multinational operation. But that avoids the more essential point, namely that Wal-Mart views low labor costs and a high degree of workplace flexibility as a signal competitive advantage. It is a militantly anti-union company that has been forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to current and former employees for violations of state wage and hour laws. There are tens of thousands of experienced Wal-Mart women who would like to be promoted to the first managerial rung, salaried assistant store manager. (43) ______. Why? Because, for all the change that has swept over the company, at the store level there is still a fair amount of the old communal sociability. Recognizing that workers steeped in that culture make poor candidates for assistant managers, who are the front lines in enforcing labor discipline, Wal-Mart insists that almost all workers promoted to the managerial ranks move to a new store, often hundreds of miles away. (44) ______. (45) ______. Not unexpectedly, some managers think women with family responsibilities would balk at such demands. For a time it seemed as if the class-action lawsuit might be a partial substitute for the role of union. By drastically limiting how a class-action suit can be brought, the Supreme Court leaves millions of service-sector workers with few avenues to escape the grinding work life and limited opportunities that so many now face. [A] But Wal-Mart makes it impossible for many of them to take that post, because its ruthless management style structures the job itself as one that most women, and especially those with young children or a relative to care for, would find difficult to accept. [B] The obstacles to women's advancement do not stop there. The workweek for salaried managers is around 50 hours or more, which can surge to 80 or 90 hours a week during holiday seasons. [C] Indeed. the sex discrimination at Wal-Mart that drove the recent suit is the product not merely of managerial bias and prejudice, but also of a corporate culture and business model that sustains it, rooted in the company's very beginnings. [D] Especially in recent years, Wal-Mart's same-store sales have declined. Workers of both sexes pay the price, but women, who constitute more than 70 percent of hourly employees, pay more. [E] A patriarchal (男性统治或者主宰的) ethos was written into the Wal-Mart DNA. And that corporate culture was "the single most important element in the continued, remarkable success of Wal-Mart," asserted Don Soderquist, the company's chief operating officer in the 1990s. [F] There used to be a remedy for this sort of managerial authoritarianism: it was called a union, which bargained over not only wages and pensions but also the kind of qualitative issues, including promotion and transfer policies. [G] For middle-aged women caring for families, this corporate reassignment policy amounts to sex discrimination. True, Wal-Mart is hardly alone in demanding that rising managers sacrifice family life, but few companies make relocation such a fixed policy.

填空题[A] Extensive applications of haptic technology. [B] Possibilities rendered by haptic mechanisms. [C] The feasibility of extending our senses and exploring abstract universes. [D] An example of the progress in science of haptics. [E] Bringing the potential of our senses into full play. [F] Will haptics step into a bright future? "OOOF!" Using your mouse, you heave a data file across the screen--a couple of gigabytes of data weigh a lot. Its rough surface tells you that it is a graphics file. Having tipped this huge pile of data into a hopper that sends it to the right program, you examine a screen image of the forest trail you'll be hiking on your vacation. Then, using a gloved hand, you master its details by running your fingers over its forks and bends, its sharp rises and falls. Later you send an E-mail to your beloved, bending to the deskpad to attach a kiss. 41. __________. The science of haptics (from the Greek haptesthai, "to touch") is making these fantasies real. A few primitive devices are extending human-machine communication beyond vision and sound. Haptic joysticks and steering wheels for computer games are already giving happy players some of the sensations of piloting a spaceship, driving a racing car or firing weapons. In time, haptic interfaces may allow us to manipulate single molecules, feel clouds and galaxies, even reach into higher dimensions to grasp the subtle structures of mathematics. 42. __________. Most of our senses tire passive. In hearing and vision, for example, the sound or light is simply received and analyzed. But touch is different: we actively explore and alter reality with our hands, so the same action that gathers information can also change the world--to model a piece of clay or press a button, for example. In providing direct contact between people, touch carries emotional impact. And in providing direct contact with the world, it is the sure sign of reality, as in "pinch me--am I dreaming?" 43. __________. Some small steps have even been taken towards whole-body haptics. Touch Technology of Nova Scotia, Canada, has built a haptic chair. It looks like a full-length lounge chair in a family den, but its surface is studded with 72 "tactors" -pneumatic piston rods, covered with rounded buttons, that can extend about an inch, and can be driven under computer control in any desired sequence and pattern. It could be programmed to imitate a real massage or to function in time to music. According to the manufacturer, that provides a powerful blending of sen-sations--a long-term goal of virtual reality. 44. __________. Even at its present crude level, however, haptics can make tangible what once could not be touched or even pictured. To investigate the world of the very small, researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, have developed the nanoManipulator. This adds touch to the technique of scanning probe microscopy, which can image a single atom by monitoring either the electrical current flowing between an extremely fine probe and a surface or the force between them. With the nanoManipulator, researchers can see and manipulate a universe a million times smaller than their own, to study viruses and tiny semiconducting devices. If the force feedback can be made sensitive enough, it may be possible to push molecular keys into specific molecular locks, to custom-design drugs or assemble silicon parts into intricate nanomachines. With other interfaces, there is no reason we shouldn't also be able to touch the very large-clouds, ocean currents, mantle flows, mountains, galaxy clusters. Or the very strong--with a suitable force scaling, new ceramics or alloys could be squeezed and twanged to test their engineering properties. Or the physically extreme and inaccessible--such as ultra hot plasma flows in fusion machines. 45. __________. Haptic technology could even make abstract ideas tangible. Many scientific concepts occupy spaces of more than three dimensions, string theory, for' example, asserts that we live in a 10 or 11-dimensional Universe. As it is impossible to visualise such a space, we explore these ideas' through mathematical expressions or two dimensional sketches on paper. But probing these unfamiliar geometries with touch may be more effective. And for blind people, haptics offers a new way to grasp information even in three dimensions. A group at the University of Delaware has developed an environment where a person can feel a mathematical function. Using a PHAN-TOM, the user "walks" along the surface of the figure. Like a hiker following mountainous terrain, the user feels where the function is steep, where it is level, and where its peaks and valleys lie. Other haptic systems could help blind people to browse the Internet, feeling images as well as words. The future of haptics is bright, but the only sensual relationship it will be sustaining any time soon is between you and your computer.

填空题Though hardly as unwelcome as death or taxes, college entrance exams are just as inevitable and almost as dreaded by high school students. As the testing dates loom for juniors and seniors for the SAT (formerly called the Scholastic Assessment Test) and the American College Test, or ACT, most students are looking for an edge, any edge, in the competition. And as the number of homes with computers continues to rise, test publishers and software developers have been quick to recognize a growing niche. With the market for test preparation materials at all levels estimated at $540 million annually, they have jumped on the tech bandwagon to produce computerized tutorials that promise to boost scores. (41) " We believe that it's important for a student to be prepared to take the tests, " notes Don Powers, a research scientist at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N. J. , the organization that administers the SAT for the College Board. " It's important to know how to take the test so that you won't get a score that's lower than you deserve. " But, he adds, " none of the rigorous scientific evidence that we have seen supports these promises" to raise test scores. (42)Several points, however, do weigh in favor of software as opposed to traditional test-preparation. Cost is a big one. (43)Convenience is another, as the College Board points out in touting its new sofware. A few points to remember when evaluating various test-prep software packages: (44)The exams, though they may seem mystical to the test taker, are not magic and certainly not random. There is little variation in the strategies the programs use to boost test scores because there is little variation in how the test are developed. Largely, what differentiates one program from another is the computer interface, which can make the software more—or less—user-friendly, and such features as automated tracking of student progress. (45)A crash course with test prep software is never an alternative to careful, long-term preparation for taking the exams. Some students are better equipped to respond to the self-paced, self-motivated approach software offers than others, Powers notes. Although parents may be in the market for what they consider " serious " study aids, their children, who are the ones taking the tests, may appreciate the programs that offer a little humor. Finally, as programs frequently point out, the SAT and ACT, while important to college admissions officers, are only one element of a successful college application. [A] A test prep course with a live instructor can cost as much as $700. Test-prep software costs $30 to $80. [B] Most of the programs, in fact, emphasize the importance of " guessing strategies " and eliminating unlikely answers to improve scores. Many students often succeed in exams in this way. [C] Unlike many programs, this one can give you a quick, easy and comfortable way to achieve a high score. Such programs can turn your dream passing exams into reality. [D] " I would rather use the program than take a preparation course, because I could do this on my own time and in my own home, " notes one student in the College Board materials. [E] Although at least one of the test programs asks you how long you have to prepare to take the examination in order to customize the learning curve, all recommend spending a period of weeks, not hours, using the software. [F] But though many programs offer money-back guarantees, professional test writers tend to scoff at those claims. In their mind, such programs overemphasize its functions. [G] SAT and ACT is popular with the international students, especially Asian students. Many Asian students chase their dream through SAT and ACT.