问答题A study from the UK indicates that people who post too many "selfies" (photos of themselves) on Facebook and similar social networks risk damaging their real-life relationships. The research report from Birmingham University analyzed the impact of those photos on the relationships of 508 participants. The study found that excessive photo sharing and sharing certain types of photos make almost everyone like you less. Head researcher Dr. David Houghton said, "People, other than very close friends and relatives, don"t seem to relate well to those who constantly share photos of themselves." IN terms of the rise in popularity of selfies, Wikipedia says, "In December 2012, Time magazine noted that selfie was among its top 10 popular words of 2012." Therefore, many people who post selfies will be surprised, perhaps "shocked," by the Birmingham research. It is explained that the appeal of selfies comes from the control they give self-photographers over how they present themselves. Many selfies are intended to present a flattering image of the person, especially to friends whom the photographer expects to be supportive. The research may suggest the exact opposite is true.

问答题为了实现发展目标，中国根据本国国情和时代要求明确了自己的发展理念，这就是树立和贯彻以人为本、全面协调可持续发展的科学发展观，统筹城乡发展、统筹区域发展、统筹经济社会发展、统筹人与自然和谐发展、统筹国内发展和对外开放，更加注重解决民生问题，更加注重克服发展的不平衡性，更加注重解决发展中存在的突出矛盾，致力于走科技含量高、经济效益好、资源消耗低、环境污染少、人力资源优势得到充分发挥的新型工业化道路，推进经济建设、政治建设、文化建设、社会建设协调发展，努力实现生产发展、生活富裕、生态良好的文明发展格局。

问答题When President Obama took the stage here Wednesday to address a community—and a nation—traumatized by Saturday"s shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona, it invited comparisons to President George W. Bush"s speech to the nation after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the memorial service President Bill Clinton led after the bombing of a federal office building killed 168 people in Oklahoma City in 1995. But Mr. Obama"s appearance presented a deeper challenge, reflecting the tenor of his times. Unlike those tragedies-which, at least initially, united a mournful country and quieted partisan divisions—this one has, in the days since the killings, had the opposite effect, inflaming the divide. It was a political reality Mr. Obama seemed to recognize the moment he took the stage. He directly confronted the political debate that erupted after the rampage, asking people of all beliefs not to use the tragedy to turn on one another. He called for an end to partisan recriminations, and for a unity that has seemed increasingly elusive as each day has brought more harsh condemnations from the left and the right. It was one of the more powerful addresses that Mr. Obama has delivered as president, harnessing the emotion generated by the shock and loss from Saturday"s shootings to urge Americans "to remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together."

问答题Hackers never were part of the mainstream establishment, but their current reputation as villains of cyberspace is a far cry from the early days when, first and foremost, they were seen as ardent if quirky programmers, capable of near-miraculous, unorthodox feats of machine manipulation. True, their dedication bordered on fanaticism, and their living habits bordered on the unsavory. But the shift in popular perception to hackers as deviants and criminals is important not only because it affects the hackers themselves and the extraordinary culture that has grown around them (fascinating as a subject in its own right), but because it reflects shifts in the development, governance, and meaning of the new information technology. These shifts should be questioned and resisted. They unfairly cast hackers in a disreputable light and, more important, they deny the rest of us a political opportunity. In the early decades- 1960s and 1970s- although hacker antics and political ideology frequently led to skirmishes with the authorities, hackers were generally tolerated with grudging admiration. Even the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the funding agency widely credited for sponsoring invention of the Internet, not only turned a blind eye to unofficial hacker activities but indirectly sponsored some of them. Eric Raymond, prolific philosopher of the Open Source movement, suggests that for DARPA "the extra overhead was a small price to pay for attracting an entire generation of bright young people into the computing field."

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问答题Every fall the professors at Beloit College publish their Mindset List, a dictionary of all the deeply ingrained cultural references that will make no sense to the bright-eyed students of the incoming class. It's a kind of time travel, to remind us how far we' ve come. This year's freshmen were typically born in 1991. That means, the authors explain, they have never used a card catalog to find a book; salsa has always outsold ketchup; women have always outnumbered men in college. There has always been blue Jell-O. In 1991 we were fighting a war in Iraq, and still are; health care needed reforming, and still does. But before despairing that some things never change, consider how much has. In 1991 the world watched a black motorist named Rodney King be beaten by L. A. cops, all of whom were acquitted; a majority of whites still disapproved of interracial marriage. Ask yourself, Would the people we were then have voted for a mixed-race President and a black First Lady? That year, apartheid was repealed, the Soviet Union collapsed, the Dow broke 3000. The next year, the first commercial text message was sent; now there are more transmitted every day than there are people on the planet. In the time it took for toddlers to turn into teenagers, we decoded the human genome and everyone got a cell phone, an iPod, a GPS and a DVR. As the head-spinning viral video "Did You Know" informs us, the top 10 jobs in demand in 2010 did not exist six years ago, so "we're preparing kids for jobs that don't yet exist using technologies we haven't yet invented. " We have managed, rather gracefully, far more change than we predicted would come; it turns out that our past's vision of the future was not visionary enough. This is often the case. reality puts prophecy to shame. "Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote," declared Grover Cleveland in 1905. Harry Truman, in his 1950 State of the Union address to mark the midcentury, predicted that "our total national production 50 years from now will be four times as much as it is today. " It turned out to be more than 33 times as large. "It will be gone by June," promised Variety in 1955--talking about rock'n' roll. "It will be years--not in my time--before a woman will become Prime Minister," declared Margaret Thatcher in 1969. Leaders rely on the future as a vaccine against the present. The Soviets have put a man in space? "I believe we should go to the moon," President Kennedy announces. "I have a dream," the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. declares as the world around him burns. Maybe the promise is realized, even surpassed; maybe it keeps receding, pulling us along. "The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time," Abraham Lincoln supposedly observed. Which is true for those in charge of creating it but maybe not for the rest of us. When we pause and look back, we get to see the past's future, know how the story turned out. Did we rise to the occasion? Did we triumph? Did we blink? The past's power comes from experience, the lessons it dares us to dismiss on the grounds that maybe things will be different this time. The future's power is born of experiment, and the endless grudge match between fear and hope. We are having a dozen simultaneous conversations right now about change, in our institutions, our culture, our treatment of the planet and of one another. It's tempting to just stand stock-still and squeeze your eyes shut and wait for the moment to pass, or else hoard canned goods and assume the worst. This has been an awfully ugly summer of argument, and you'd be forgiven for concluding that we've lost our will to face or fix anything. We'll just dance with the devils we know, thank you. But if you look past Washington, past Wall Street, turn down the volume and go outside and walk around, you'll find the parcels of grace, of in genuity and enterprise-people riding change like a skateboard, speeding off a ramp, twisting, flipping, somehow landing with a rush of a wind and wheels--and wonder that it somehow hasn't killed us yet. When members of the freshman class of 2027 look back at our future, what's likely to surprise them most? Will they marvel that gays were once not allowed to marry--or that they ever were? That we waited while the planet warmed, or that we acted to save it? That we protected the poor, or empowered them, or ignored them? That we lived within our means, or beyond them? We'll make our choices one day at a time, but our kids will judge our generation for what we generate, and what we leave undone.1.Why does the author introduce the Mindset List published by professors at Beloit College at the beginning of the passage?

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问答题What is a "Hear Music media bar"? Why is media bar so far not successful?

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问答题据说，上海男人是最好的丈夫。他们总是知道该如何讨妻子的欢心，从而避免了矛盾，一家人其乐融融。所以从某种程度上讲，上海男人是社会安定和谐的象征。当妻子快乐时，他也快乐，因而整个城市也充满了快乐气氛。 虽然上海男人被戏谑为“妻管严”，但他并不屈从于妻子。在与妻子有争议时，他要么保持沉默，要么一笑置之。有时候他会发火，但事后不久，他也会毫不迟疑地道歉。最终他妻子发现，她还是按照他的想法行事。 上海男人聪明、务实，有时也相当圆滑。最令人印象深刻的是，上海男人在事业上有进取心，对家庭有很强的责任感，而且尊重女性。

问答题It is no coincidence that the relationship between our countries has accompanied a period of positive change. China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty--an accomplishment unparalleled in human history--while playing a larger role in global events. And the United States has seen our economy grow. There is a Chinese proverb: "Consider the past, and you shall know the future. " Surely, we have known setbacks and challenges over the last 30 years. Our relationship has not been without disagreement and difficulty. But the notion that we must be adversaries is not predestined--not when we consider the past. Indeed, because of our cooperation, both the United States and China are more prosperous and more secure. We have seen what is possible when we build upon our mutual interests, and engage on the basis of mutual respect. And yet the success of that engagement depends upon understanding--on sustaining an open dialogue, and learning about one another and from one another. For just as that American table tennis player pointed out--we share much in common as human beings, but our countries are different in certain ways.

问答题News Report: Robots have not only led to the disappearance of some posts, but are forcing lower wages on human laborers. How can the challenges posed to human employment by robots be countered? Microsoft founder Bill Gates proposed to tax robots. He suggests that these tax revenues could be used to finance training programs that help those who have lost jobs to robots, so that they can acquire new skills and enter new industries. However, opponents argue that, if robots are to be taxed, does it mean that all kinds of products and machines that help improve productivity will be taxed? This will undoubtedly hamper industrial innovation and creativity. Topic: Is It Feasible to Levy a Tax on Robots? Questions for reference: 1. Do you agree, or disagree, that robots should be taxed? Why or why not? 2. What are the benefits, and (or) possible disadvantages, of artificial intelligence? 3. How should the relationship between robots and human laborers be correctly handled?

问答题Confidence is more than an attitude. It comes from knowing exactly where you are going and exactly how you are going to get there. It comes from acting with integrity and confidence. It comes from a strong sense of purpose. It comes from a strong commitment to take responsibility, rather than just letting life happen. Confidence is compassionate and understanding. It is not arrogant. Arrogance is born out of fear and insecurity, while confidence comes from strength and integrity. Anything can be achieved through focused, determined effort and self-confidence. If your life is not what you want it to be, you have the power to change it, and you must make the changes on a moment by moment basis. Live your priorities. Live with your goals and your plan of action. Live each moment with your priorities in mind. Act with your own purpose, and you will have the life you want.

问答题The year 2005 was an exceptionally dry one for the Amazon rainforest. Thousands of square kilometers of rainforest were destroyed. The level of the mighty Amazon river and its tributaries fell to the lowest levels since records began. Fish perished in the abnormally warm waters. Boats were grounded. Locals were forced to abandon their homes. It was the kind of drought that researchers would expect no more than once a century. But then came the drought of 2010. As a new research paper published in the journal Science today reveals, last year's drought was even more severe than 2005. So Brazil has experienced two "once in a century" climatic events in a decade. Unsurprisingly, scientists are beginning to suspect that something is amiss. A link between these crippling droughts and climate change cannot be proved. But increasingly common drought is consistent with what scientific models predict for a globally warmer world. Increasing Atlantic sea surface temperatures are expected to lead to lower rainfall in Brazil's great forest. There is another deeply worrying trend. The amount of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by our societies has fallen in recent years because of the global economic downturn. But the latest readings suggest that CO2 ievels in atmosphere still increased over that time. The fear is that this is being driven by a "feedback loop", whereby the impact of climate change itself accelerates climate change. In this case, as the climate heats up, rainforest trees fall and burn, releasing the carbon locked up in them. And this, in turn, accelerates warming further. Again, the existence of a feedback loop is difficult to prove. But it fits predictions. Normally, rainforests function like great carbon sinks, absorbing a large proportion of the CO2 that human activity produces. But in 2005, thanks to deforestation, the Amazon became a net emitter of carbon dioxide. In that year, the rainforest is estimated to have emitted some 5 billion tonnes of CO2, almost as much as the entire output of the United States. The pace of deforestation in the Brazilian rainforest appears to have slowed somewhat in recent years. But pressure on rainforests continues in equatorial regions elsewhere, from Congo to Indonesia. We need to preserve the world's existing arboreal lungs if we are to have any chance of avoiding runaway climate change. But human activity is still depleting this crucial natural asset, even as its role in climatic regulation shows ominous signs of breaking down. The only viable strategy for preserving the world’s rainforests that has been put forward is Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). This scheme would transfer money from high-income countries to developing countries, in order to dissuade them from cutting down their trees for profit. But to work, this will require an overarching global climate-change treaty, with mandatory emission limits for each country. Without such a framework fiscal transfers between high-income and developing countries witl never be substantial enough to affect behaviour in poor nations and the deforestation, by ranchers and loggers, will continue. Despite the great hopes, the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen in 2009 failed to deliver a binding global treaty. Last year's follow-up summit in Cancun was hailed by some environmentalists as a small step forward. But the hour is too late for small steps. The world needs massive action, beginning immediately, to reverse the existing trends on emissions and deforestation. We also need to pray that it is not already too late.1.What are the two "once in a century" climatic events? What do they tell us?

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问答题Directions: Read the following passages and then answer IN COMPLETE SENTENCES the questions which follow each passage. Scientists are preparing to boot up the world's most powerful supercomputer, a machine with the power of 500,000 PCs and a thirst for electricity that will leave its owners with an annual bill of ￡25m. The computer, called Titan, will use graphics processors similar to those in PlayStation gaming consoles to tackle some of the toughest tasks in science. Until now most supercomputers have used normal processors souped-up versions of those in laptops and PCs. Decoding new flu strains—one of the most demanding jobs in computing—is one task that engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee might set Titan. The supercomputer could also design vaccines to stop the flu bugs before they can spread. Sumit Gupta, a senior engineer at Nvidia, the company that is making the Titan processors, said: "Computer simulations can explore lm different drug [vaccine] candidates within weeks or months." Titan will carry out 20,000 trillion calculations a second, about 4,000 trillion calculations a second faster than Sequoia, the world's current fastest computer, which is used to simulate nuclear explosions. A typical PC carries out 40 billion calculations a second. "Oak Ridge is in the race to have the fastest supercomputer in the world," the laboratory said in a statement. Supercomputing has been one of the fastest and most revolutionary of technological trends. As with ordinary computers, its history goes back to the 1930s and 1940s when the first digital computers were built, with the first transistor-based machine being produced in 1956. The development of supercomputers owes much to the work of Seymour Cray, an electrical engineer who realized the potential of linking processors together to create much faster machines. Experts differ on which of his machines should be called the first supercomputer but Cray-1, built in 1976, is commonly cited. Back then its ability to perform 160m calculations a second was seen as revolutionary. Nowadays that machine would have a fraction of the computing power of a smartphone. "Computers like these have revolutionized science," said Paul Calleja, director of the high-performance computing centre at Cambridge University. "In the past, researchers devised theories and then they carried out experiments. What supercomputers do is offer us a third way—computer modelling. We can devise a theory about, say, the way atoms and molecules or materials might behave, and then build a computer model to see if it works." Such approaches are now standard throughout science and engineering. In the aviation industry, for example, where engineers once tested the effects of bird strikes on aircraft by throwing or firing a dead chicken into a jet turbine, they now have vast databases on the composition of chickens and their behaviour when they hit spinning turbines. Similarly, car designers use computer models to test how vehicles will crumple in a crash and what injuries the occupants might sustain. In the past, such tests could be conducted only by using real cars occupied by dummies or even dead bodies. Computer modelling has sharply cut the need for such testing. Titan will be made available to scientists in various fields. One programme will tackle climate change and how rising greenhouse gas emissions might affect different parts of the world. Another will study the way fuel burns in diesel engines spinning thousands of times a minute, to find ways of boosting efficiency. "These types of calculations require massive computing power," said Calleja, whose own supercomputer at Cambridge has been used to design America's Cup sailing boats. "The pressure to build even more powerful machines is huge." Supercomputers are no longer the preserve of the military or academic establishments, however. Many high-street companies, from supermarkets to banks and insurance firms, own them. Tesco, for example, is investing in a ￡65m supercomputing system in Watford, Hertfordshire, to underpin its online retail and banking businesses. Such computing power, combined with data extracted from loyalty cards and other sources, means supermarkets can build models of consumer behaviour to predict what they will want to buy even before their customers know it. Walmart, the American owner of Asda, has been using a supercomputer for several years and has even combined it with weather forecasts to work out what products will be needed in stores when storms or other events arise. Researchers at Cambridge are now working on perhaps the most ambitious computing project of all—to build a machine 150 times faster than Titan to help search for planets capable of supporting life. The computer, capable of between 2m trillion and 3m trillion calculations a second, will be hooked up to the Square Kilometre Array, a giant radio telescope made up of thousands of radio dishes that is under construction across South Africa and Australia. Calleja said the supercomputer's key task would be to collate and analyse all the data captured by each dish. "It is the most ambitious project we have ever attempted," he said.

问答题Television has been called a source of information, a means of entertainment, and is especially by its severest critics, a plug-in and an electronic drug.