Wild claims on labels of worthless medicines are much less frequent than they were years ago. But some over-the-counter drugs are still being promoted by tall stories, sometimes told in booklets or through advertising, rather than on the label. One tall story is that every American today suffers from a vitamin or mineral deficiency and needs vitamin supplements. This isn't so. Vitamins and minerals are plentiful in our food supply. Eating a variety of foods makes it almost certain that you will get a full quota of these nutrients. Infants, pregnant women, the sick or convalescent, and those who are dieting may need special supplements. But the family physician is the best authority on what vitamin supplements are needed. If your doctor does recommend supplements, take the suggested dose—no more. Some people take or give vitamins on the principle that if a little is good, twice as much is better. Excessive doses of certain vitamins are known to be toxic. If you are overweight, don't fall for a formula that promises you a slim, trim figure without dieting or calorie counting. To reduce, you must consume fewer calories than you use up in daily living. If calories are not used in producing heat or energy, they are stored as fat. If you need to lose only a few pounds, you can probably work out your own diet. But if you need to lose many pounds, have your doctor plan a diet for you. Crash diets can break down your health, not your weight. Beware of cosmetics that make exaggerated claims or promises. There are no quick or easy cures for acne. Acne is a complex disease caused by a combination of factors. No creams from a drugstore can cure it. Don't trust any cream or gadget that promises to give you curves where you want them, or take them from where they are not wanted. Any cream that could do this would not be safe to use and there are no gadgets that are effective for spot reducing. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act protects the consumer by prohibiting any statements on labels or packages that are false or misleading.
The college board's recently announced changes to its SAT college entrance exam bring to mind the familiar phrase too little, too late. As the president of a selective liberal-arts college, I can state without much hesitation that the SAT is part hoax and part fraud. It needs to be abandoned and replaced. The College Board has successfully marketed its exams to parents, students, colleges and universities as arbiters of educational standards. The nation, however, needs fewer such exam schemes. They damage the high school curriculum and terrify both students and parents. The blunt fact is that high school grades, as long as they are adjusted to account for the curriculums and academic programs in the high school from which a student graduates, are a much better predictor of academic achievement in college than the SAT. The essential mechanism of the SAT—the multiple-choice test question—is a bizarre relic of long-outdated 20th century social-scientific assumptions and strategies. As every adult recognizes, knowing something, or knowing how to do something, in real life is never defined by being able to choose a "right" answer from a set of possible options(some of them intentionally misleading)put forward by faceless test designers. No scientist, engineer, writer, psychologist, artist or physician pursues his or her vocation by getting right answers from a set of prescribed alternatives that trivialize complexity and ambiguity. These tests actually violate the basic justification for any test. First, despite the changes, the SAT remains divorced from what is taught in high school and what ought to be taught in high school. Second, the test taker never really finds out whether he or she got any answer right or wrong—nor does he or she ever find out why. No baseball coach would train a team by accumulating an aggregate comparative numerical score of errors and well-executed plays by each player, rating the players and then sending them the results weeks later. What purpose is served by putting young people through an ordeal from which they learn nothing? The new changes to the SAT are harmless. But these modest reforms will do little to stem the rising tide against such testing. There is more and more resistance to pressuring students and parents into paying money to take a senseless exam that claims to be objective when, in fact, the most striking persistent statistical result from the SAT is the correlation between high income and high test scores. The richer one is, the better one does on the SAT. Nothing that is now proposed by the College Board breaks the fundamental role the SAT plays in perpetuating economic and therefore educational inequality. So why do we remain addicted to the College Board's near monopoly on tests? Why do they have an undue influence on college placement? We pretend that the SAT is an objective instrument that measures one's ability to succeed in college. But the truth is less principled. The SAT is used by selective institutions for a much more practical and cynical reason— to help them sort applicants and justify dismissing many from consideration. Of course, SAT scores also have become an integral part of another moneymaking racket: college rankings. Institutions can boost their scores by admitting more higher-scoring students. The victims in this unholy alliance between the College Board(a rather lucrative nonprofit)and our elite institutions of higher education are the students—and our nation's educational standards. What is needed is not minor so-called improvements to the SAT but an entirely new generation of testing instruments that use modern technology not only to measure the performance of our students but also to teach them. The truth is that the only legitimate test is one in which a question is put forward and an answer is required with no options or hints. The time has come for colleges and universities to join together with the most innovative software designers to fundamentally reinvent the college entrance examination system. We need to come up with one that puts applicants through a rigorous but enlightening process that reveals what they can and cannot do and what they know and do not know. Only then can we reverse the unacceptable low standard of learning among high school graduates that we now tolerate and inspire prospective college students with the joy of serious learning.
In Australia, reports about Aboriginal people often make for depressing reading. Just a few days ago, the latest official report oh the community documented increases in child abuse, and【C1】______ than that of other Australians. But on a pair of remote islands off 【C2】______ the continent, Aboriginal life is very different. From the outside, the church【C3】______. It was built in the 1930s and its white timber walls dazzle in the tropical sunshine.【C4】______ and ancient mango trees provide shade at one end. At the top of【C5】______ is the front door. It's only when you enter that you realise this is no ordinary place of worship. 【C6】______ is decorated with an extraordinary array of Aboriginal art work. The walls are covered in【C7】______, and above them is a parade of animals—stingrays, crocodiles, turtles and pelicans. There's a painting of【C8】______ being held aloft by a bearded tribesman flanked by two【C9】______. The warrior wears a head dress and a red loincloth. In front of that is a tabernacle made of【C10】______. The most unusual of churches is the focal point of the tiny town of Nguiu, on Bathurst Island. Bathurst and neighbouring Melville are together known as the Tiwi islands. They lie【C11】______, the capital of the Northern Territory. "My people have lived on the islands forever," John Munkara, 【C12】______, tells me. "We were isolated for so long that we're different to the Aborigines 【C13】______." So different, in fact, that the Tiwis knew neither the didgeridoo nor the boomerang,【C14】______ believed they were the only people on earth. In the past, the only contact the Tiwis had with the tribes across the water was when they【C15】______ and carried out raids to steal women. These days relations are a bit more genial, but the two and a half thousand Tiwis are still very different from their mainland cousins.【C16】______ as soon as you set foot on the islands. In a lot of Aboriginal communities there's【C17】______. You can hardly blame them—crime, domestic violence, unemployment and poor health are huge problems for many indigenous people. On the Tiwis, though, people smile as soon as they see you.【C18】______, adults wave and there's a real warmth in the welcome. Part of the reason is that the supply of alcohol is strictly controlled. The only place you can get a drink is the town's social club. The other reason for the【C19】______ is their isolation. They have a long history of repelling outsiders—first Macassan traders who【C20】______, or beche-de-mer, and then Dutch explorers. The British established a settlement here in the 1820s but disease, the heat and the hostility of the locals drove them away after five years.
{{B}}Part B Listening ComprehensionDirections: In this part of the test there will be some short talks and conversations. After each one, you will be asked some questions. The talks, conversations and questions will be spoken ONLY ONCE. Now listen carefully and choose the right answer to each question you have heard and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.{{/B}}
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BB: Listening Comprehension/B
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How is urbanization negatively affecting our society? The answer to this question is not a simple one. Urbanism【C1】______, political instability, crime and aggressive behavior. Rapid population growth in urban areas【C2】______. In the United States, the breaking of 【C3】______is an issue that has become increasingly noticeable in recent years, particularly in urbanized areas. The【C4】______ and children are rarely seen in the inner cities any more. There is 【C5】______, and declining social family significance as America has transferred industrial, educational and recreational activities to 【C6】______outside the home. It is depriving families of their most characteristic, 【C7】______. The variations of people give rise to【C8】______by race, religious practices, ethnic heritage, as well as economic and social status. Segregation often【C9】______between social groups. This can cause【C10】______to individuals or society. People will choose their【C11】______according to many different ideals and needs, for example, what fits their budget. The government 【C12】______for development attempting to meet rapidly increasing demands for education, housing, agriculture and industrial development, transportation and employment. The government budget is 【C13】______ mainly due to differentiation in areas. Areas with higher income will obviously have【C14】______to work with. Urban areas are usually lacking【C15】______. Therefore they are not able to repair all the problems in these areas, such as【C16】______. Due to the overpopulation, the rising divorce rate and the lack of employment opportunity, 【C17】______will continue to increase in urban areas. These children grow up in poverty and usually look at crime as 【C18】______. The problems in urban areas are far more serious than can be handled 【C19】______. We can only hope to contain them, and attempt to make sure that no more problems【C20】______.
The story of Nokia's transformation from an obscure Finnish conglomerate into the world's largest maker of mobile phones is an object lesson in the virtue of specialisation. A sprawling business that once made everything from tyres to toilet paper to televisions, Nokia switched its focus to mobile phones in the 1990s under its visionary chief executive, Jorma Ollila. Under his leadership, the company overtook Motorola, its American rival, to become the world's largest handset-maker—a position it has clung to ever since. As Mr. Ollila steps down on June 1st, however, he hands his successor, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the difficult task of leading Nokia into new markets as the distinction between mobile phones and other consumer-electronics devices becomes increasingly blurred. Mr. Kallasvuo, a member of the tight-knit group that has run Nokia since the early 1990s, will inherit a company in excellent shape. Nokia has a renewed spring in its step, having recovered from a stumble in early 2004, when a lackluster product line-up caused its market share to drop below 30% for the first time in years. A pioneer in design, Nokia lost its edge when it failed to anticipate the popularity of slim "clam-shell" phones. It fought back, first by cutting prices and then by revamping its designs. Its market share is now at around 35%. The mood at the company is buoyant: in addition to the satisfaction of having bounced back so convincingly, Nokia's strong financial performance meant big bonuses for many employees. "If you look at the portfolio, I think we have regained leadership," says Mr. Kallasvuo. "The foundation is there, so that we can concentrate on what is next." And what is that? As the leader in mobile phones, Nokia now has to take a broader view of the market, he believes. "Comparison with our own industry is not adequate any more," he says. "We need to look at this in a much wider way." The rise of the camera-phone means that Nokia now sells more cameras than anyone else does, for example, and advanced handsets often also include music-playing, video-recording and computing (including e-mail). Mr. Kallasvuo does not mention names, but his drift is clear: rather than just comparing itself with rival handset-makers such as Motorola or Samsung, Nokia now considers its competitors to be Apple, Sony, Canon and other consumer-electronics firms. "The convergence of internet and media content is happening in the way everyone predicted four or five years ago," he says. "We are more and more competing against other people, against new types of competitors. We are all converging." Nokia has responded by launching a range of advanced handsets, called the Nseries, which focus on specific features in addition to being phones. The N73 camera-phone, for example, is aimed at people who maintain photo blogs, and includes software for uploading images to Flickr, a popular image-sharing website. Similarly, the N91 phone doubles as an iPod-style music player with a built-in hard disk; the N92 is a mobile television; and the N93 is a video camera. Perhaps most surprising, however, is Nokia's 770 Internet Tablet, a hand-held computer that does not contain a mobile phone at all. Instead, it supports web-browsing, e-mail and voice-over-internet calls (using Google Talk software) via short-range Wi-Fi technology. "It is the best possible illustration of convergence," says Mr. Kallasvuo. It also highlights Nokia's willingness to step outside its usual market. That sounds a pretty ambitious expansion strategy. But Mr. Kallasvuo also wants more from traditional markets. Nokia may strive to emulate Apple with its most expensive phones, but the core of its business, with its efficient logistics and huge volumes, has more in common with Dell. (Of the 900 million mobile phones that will be sold this year, 320 million of them will be made by Nokia.) Around 70% of the industry's growth this year will come in the developing economies, and Nokia's cheapest handsets are doing well in China, India and Latin America. Some critics argue that Nokia ought to focus solely on high-margin products such as the Nseries, but Mr. Kallasvuo disagrees. "With our volumes, our economies of scale, we want to be in all of these markets," he says. Even Nokia's cheapest handsets are profitable, he points out. And if your first handset is a Nokia, you are more likely to stay with the brand when moving upmarket—"so being strong at the low end has strategic importance." One market in which Nokia could plainly do better is North America. It has been weak mere, because many networks use a different wireless standard (called CDMA) rather than the GSM technology used in Europe. Nokia has devoted a lot of effort to raising its profile in North America in the past two years and has recently formed a joint venture with Sanyo of Japan to produce fancy CDMA handsets. Tellingly, Mr. Kallsvuo plans to spend one week a month in America, which is important not just as a big market but also because it is where trendsetting products, such as Apple's iPod, often appear first. The breadth of Mr. Kallasvuo's ambition—more convergence, more China, more America, more everything—looks potentially overwhelming, particularly as Nokia moves into a new and fiercely competitive market—consumer electronics. Managing the complexity of converged devices is difficult, Mr. Kallasvuo concedes, but it also provides scope for differentiation, "and overall that's an opportunity." Another danger is that Nokia may alienate wireless operators, its main customers, by helping consumers get round their proprietary networks and instead supporting open, internet-based services such as Google Talk in its devices. But the rise of Internet standards means the industry's old rules no longer apply. "We will need to be agnostic enough to make pragmatic decisions," says Mr. Kallasvuo. "Natural evolution is happening in the marketplace, and we need to act accordingly."
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What to do now? School officials around the country are asking that question following a Supreme Court decision rejecting racial integration plans in Seattle and Louisville, Ky. The 5-4 ruling prohibited those district plans but didn't entirely shut the door on using race as a factor when making decisions about what schools should look like. The ruling brought complaints that it allegedly betrayed the Supreme Court's most acclaimed ruling—the 53-year-old Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawing segregated schools. Justice Anthony Kennedy went along with the court's four most conservative members in rejecting the Louisville and Seattle plans. However, he stopped short of saying race can never be a component of school efforts to achieve diversity. "A district may consider it a compelling interest to achieve a diverse student population," Kennedy said. "Race may be one component of that diversity." But Kennedy's opinion had some proponents of the integration plans cheering. "My overall view is that we dodged a bullet," said William Taylor, chairman of the Washington-based Citizens Commission on Civil Rights, who added that he expected a much more sweeping rejection of race as a factor in school district decision making. Kennedy suggested race could be a factor in deciding where to build a new school and how to draw school attendance boundaries. He also said districts should be able to find creative ways to achieve their goals without relying on widespread racial classification. One idea gaining ground is for school officials to use family income as a way to integrate schools economically. Since minorities are often more likely to be poorer then their white peers, this can produce racial integration, said Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a liberal-leaning think tank in Washington. Importantly, he added, it wouldn't be scrutinized legally so long as it didn't rely on race. "That's bulletproof," Kahlenberg said. "Using economic status is perfectly legal." About 40 school districts use income levels to make school assignments and that number is expected to rise following the court's ruling, Kahlenberg said. Income isn't the only alternative to race that educators are considering using in hopes of creating more diverse schools. In San Francisco, for example, school officials have used students' addresses and achievement levels when making school assignments as a way to create diversity. In all, there are an estimated 1,000 school districts—or one in 15 nationwide—that have racial integration programs that are comprehensive and use race to make assignments like the ones ruled unconstitutional Thursday, said Amy Stuart Wells, a professor of sociology and education at Columbia University. The court ruling appears to allow schools to try to bring about racial balance by building new schools in racially and ethnically mixed neighborhoods or in areas that border several neighborhoods in hopes of drawing in a diverse population. But Wells said neighborhoods change over time and white families tend to leave schools when they become the minority group. "The minute the white parents perceive a school is 'too black', they move or they put their kids in private schools," she said. Wells said integration led to higher test scores for black students in the 1970s and into the 1980s, narrowing the achievement gap between black and white students. She said that gap then widened when integration efforts slowed. Proponents of racially integrated schools say they are motivated for reasons beyond academics. "We know that there are benefits of diversity. Those benefits are social and academic," said Vanderbilt University education researcher Claire Smrekar. "We know kids who attend racially integrated schools are far more likely to live in integrated neighborhoods and be employed in integrated workplaces." But Ross Wiener, vice president of program and Policy at Education Trust, which advocates for poor and minority children, said even inside integrated schools segregation exists. Wiener referred to a tendency for minorities to be more likely to attend special education classes, vocation classes and classes for limited English speakers than their white peers. They also are less likely to be placed in gifted or Advanced Placement courses. "There's no question that racially diverse schools provide positive educational opportunities, but the fact is we've rarely taken advantage of those opportunities," he said. "In both integrated and racially isolated schools, Black and Hispanic students too often get assigned to weaker teachers and dumbed-down coursework."
{{B}}SECTION 4 LISTENING TEST{{/B}}
BStatementsDirections: In this part of the test, you will hear several short statements. These statements will be spoken ONLY ONCE, and you will not find them written on the paper, so you must listen carefully. When you hear a statement, read the answer choices and decide which one is closest in meaning to the statement you have heard. Then write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET./B
We all have problems and barriers that block our progress or prevent us from moving into new areas. When that happens, consider the following three ways of dealing with a【B1】______. One way is to pretend it doesn't exist. 【B2】______it, deny it, and lie about it. However, this approach leaves the barrier【B3】______. A second approach is to fight the barrier. This often【B4】______the barrier's magnitude. The more one struggles, the【B5】______the problem gets. The third 【B6】______is to love the barrier. Accept it. Totally experience it. Tell the【B7】______about it. When you do this, the barrier【B8】______its power. Suppose one of your barriers is being afraid of【B9】______in front of a group. You can use any of these three approaches. First, you can【B10】______you're not afraid about speaking in public. The second way is to【B11】______the barrier. You could tell yourself, "I'm not scared," and then try to keep your knees from knocking. Generally, this doesn' t【B12】______. The third approach is to get up and look out into the【B13】______, and say to yourself, "Yup, I'm scared and that's OK. I'm going to【B14】______ this speech even though I'm scared. " And you might discover if you examine the fear, accept it, and totally【B15】______it, the fear itself also【B16】______. Remember two ideas: First, loving a problem is not necessarily the same as【B17】______it. Love in this sense means total and unconditional acceptance. Second, "unconditional acceptance" is not the same as unconditional 【B18】______. Often the most effective【B19】______come when we face a problem squarely—diving into it headfirst and getting to know it in【B20】______.
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The US economy should expand modestly in coming months as a healthy job market continues to trump weakness in housing prices, a gauge of future business activity showed on Thursday. The Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators rose a higher-than-expected 0.3 percent in May, boosted by rising stock prices, higher consumer expectations and the availability of jobs. Economists said that jobs should continue to be plentiful, despite an unexpected surge in jobless claims last week. The Labor Department reported Thursday that unemployment claims totaled 324,000 last week, up 10,000 from the previous week, to the highest level since mid-April. While the big increase was unexpected, analysts said it did not change their view that the labor market remains hardy. Even with the increase, analysts noted claims remain close to their average—319,000—over the first 5.5 months of the year. While the overall US economy grew at a lackluster 0.6 percent in the first three months of this year, many analysts believe the pace has picked up significantly in the spring. The Conference Board's upbeat report shows that the impact of the housing slump has been fairly contained so far, said Patrick Newport, an economist with Global Insight. "It just hasn't spilled over to the rest of the economy," he said. It also indicates the economy is doing better than last month's leading indicators report suggested, Newport said. May's increase reversed a revised 0.3 percent drop in April, down from the original 0.5 percent decline that economists blamed on soaring gas prices and a drop in building permits. The report, designed to forecast economic activity over the next three to six months, tracks 10 economic indicators. The advancing contributors in May, starting with the largest, were weekly unemployment insurance claims, stock prices, building permits, consumer expectations and vendor performance. The negative contributors, beginning with the largest, were real money supply, average weekly manufacturing hours and interest rate spread. With the latest report, the cumulative change in the index over the past six months has gone up 0.3 percent. Wall Street is fairly confident that falling home prices and rising mortgage defaults won't damage the broader economy. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday the housing slump is nearing an end and that the losses so far have been contained. But if mortgage rates keep rising, fewer people will want to buy homes and fewer homeowners will be able to refinance. If that happens, the residential real estate market's troubles could snowball and dampen consumer spending. The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee, which sets short-term interest rates, meets next week and is widely expected to leave rates unchanged as they have been for about a year. A pickup in the economy has raised worries about rising inflation, however. Stocks slipped on Thursday, after the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's report on manufacturing activity in its region jumped a stronger-than-expected 18 in June, up from 4.2 in May. In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell moderately, declining 36.66, or 0.27 percent, to 13,452.76 after dropping 146 points Wednesday on a surge in bond yields. Broader stock indicators moved sideways. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.71, or 0.11 percent, to 1,511.13 and the Nasdaq composite index advanced 1.48, or 0.06 percent, to 2,601.44. On Tuesday, the Commerce Department said construction of new homes fell in May as the nation's homebuilders were battered by the crisis in sub-prime lending and rising mortgage rates. Industry sentiment about the housing market fell in June to the lowest point in more than 16 years.Secondary effects from the housing downturn like layoffs and restrained consumer spending could also start surfacing, said Aaron Smith, an economist with Moody's Economy.com. But the overall drag on the economy from the housing industry should decline in coming months, he said. "Building permits cannot continue declining at the pace they have," Smith said.
I once attended a Downing Street reception where Tony Blair invited questions from leading magazine editors. One woman, from a big consumer title, asked if New Labour had plans to tax one-use plastic bags that were destroying the environment. Blair pulled a mock-baffled "Hey, guys, I'm busy running the country here" face and answered in a tone of purest condescension. This was around 2005, a few years after Ireland, with little fuss at all, had introduced a small charge for plastic bags. Within a year, everyone had learnt to keep a jute sack or string shopper under their desk, and this young, adaptable, upbeat nation had cut the number of bags cluttering Irish hedgerows by 94 %. It is such an easy, clever bit of nudge politics, which has already worked right across northern Europe.(Is it not strange that we each use 158 plastic bags a year but a Dane only four?)And yet here we are in England—four years after Wales, two after Northern Ireland, a year after Scotland— bringing it in at last on Monday. And unlike the devolved nations, England can't just keep it simple and charge 5p for bags in all stores, but only those with more than 250 employees. Corner shops in Aberdeen have coped, yet those in London can't. The light from an explosion in deep space can take billions of years to be seen on Earth. And the gap between a social ill being identified, backed by irrefutable scientific evidence, and parliament changing the law, is often almost as long. That cigarettes are poisonous and young lungs fragile have been beyond doubt since the 1950s, yet it only became illegal for smokers to inflict their fumes upon children in cars this week. Even now, some libertarians grumble that enjoying an après school pick-up fag is every parent's right and, besides, haven't the police got better things to do? Yes, they have. But, still, progress is worth defending. And improvements in our lives are rarely brought about by vast, sweeping changes but by small, incremental shifts. Those simple life-savers, the Clean Air Acts, seatbelt and motorcycle helmet legislation: all regarded as quirky and inconvenient in their time. Every generation looks upon the unthinking habits of its parents and asks: why the hell did you do that? In Mad Men Don Draper is shown taking a last swig of his beer in a picnic, then lobbing the bottle deep into the forest. According to creator Matthew Weiner this was the show's most controversial scene: horrified young people would ask him if their grandparents were really so crass? But in early-1960s America there was little stigma in dumping your trash. Back in the 1970s being capable of driving when lashed was a prized adult skill, we let our dogs defile parks and would have thought anyone who scooped up still-warm poop in little bags totally mad. And maybe we will look back at the plastic bag era in similar terms. How could these people use up all the oil, choke turtles and block flood defences, just to make carrying shopping home easier? A non-brand plastic bag flapping about on a tree, too high up to reach, is the ensign of our age. It is the saddest, most hopeless manifestation of a disposable age built upon laziness and greed. In the film American Beauty the misfit Ricky videos a bag dancing in the wind: the peculiar poignancy comes from seeing the most unloved, worthless object on Earth appearing to express joy. "Do you need a bag?" I've come to resent that question. Because I don't want to say "yes". But my handbag is small. I don't want to crease this book I've bought as a present. And sometimes a purchase without nice packaging feels less of a treat. But usually I say "no". Ten virtue points for that. Twenty for remembering to carry my bags-for-life from the car. It is irksome to forget, then watch the checkout lady unfurl dozens from the roll, pull each one open with a flourish: all that waste just to get my shopping home. Really this is just pretence of virtue. The 5p charge may reduce bags, and in Scotland usage has declined by 80 % in a year: that' s 147 million fewer. But the oceans are already clogged with every other type of plastic: vast islands of detritus, micro-particles of broken-up Evian bottles and biscuit wrappers absorbed by sea life and then, in due course, us. But sometimes laws are there as much for society to declare intent as to have an effect. With smoking in cars I wonder if it is not a proxy for more sweeping legislation that would forbid low-life mums in supermarkets screaming swear words at their sobbing toddlers or pouring Coke in a baby's tippy cup. It is a way of saying, we are watching, we have standards: your parenting is being judged. We'd like to police your home: but we can't, so let's start with your car. Likewise, the plastic bag law is a displacement activity for the bigger, dreary, ecological changes that are too daunting for us to make. Those five pences are tithes to the Church of Green. And dragging home our hessian totes of virtue we can feel less hopeless. The world is broken: but don't blame me.