问答题What"s your earliest childhood memory? Can you remember learning to walk? Or talk? The first time you heard thunder or watched a television program? Adults seldom recall events much earlier than the year or so before entering school, just as children younger than three or four rarely retain any specific, personal experiences. A variety of explanations have been proposed by psychologists for this "childhood amnesia"(儿童失忆症). One argues that the hippocampus, the region of the brain which is responsible for forming memories, does not mature until about the age of two. But the most popular theory maintains that, since adults do not think like children, they cannot reflect childhood memories. Adults think in words, and their life memories are like stories or narratives—one event follows another as in a novel or film. But when they search through their mental files for early childhood memories to add to this verbal life story, they don"t find any that fits the pattern It"s like trying to find a Chinese word in an English dictionary. Now psychologist Annette Simms of the New York State University offers a new explanation for childhood amnesia. She argues that there simply aren"t any early childhood memories to recall. According to Dr. Simms, children need to learn to use someone else"s spoken description of their personal experiences in order to turn their own short-term, quickly forgotten impressions of them into long-term memories. In other words, children have to talk about their experiences and hear others talk about theirs—Mother talking about the afternoon spent looking for seashells at the beach or Dad asking them about their day at Ocean park. Without this verbal reinforcement, says Dr. Simms, children cannot form permanent memories of their personal experiences.

问答题For all the fevered work being done, however, science is still far away from the Brave New World vision of engineering a perfect human or even a perfect tomato. Much more research is needed before gone therapy becomes commonplace, and many diseases will take decades to conquer, if they can be conquered at all. In the short run, the most practical way to use the new technology will be in genetic screening. Doctors will be able to detect all sorts of flaws in DNA long before they can be fixed. In some cases the knowledge may lead to treatments that delay the onset of the disease or soften its effects. Someone with a genetic predisposition to heart disease, for example, could follow a low-fat diet. And if scientists determine that a vital protein is missing because the gone that was supposed to make it is defective, they might be able to give the patient an artificial version of the protein. But in other instances, almost nothing can be done to stop the ravages brought on by genetic mutations.

问答题In man"s early days, competition with other creatures must have been critical. But this phase of our development is now finished. Indeed, we lack practice and experience nowadays in dealing with primitive conditions. 11 I am sure that, without modern weapons, I would make a very poor show of disputing the ownership of a cave with a bear, and in this I do not think that I stand alone. The last creature to compete with man was the mosquito. But even the mosquito has been subdued by attention to drainage and by chemical sprays. 12 Competition between ourselves, person against person, community against community, still persists, however; and it is as fierce as it ever was. But the competition of man against man is not the simple process envisioned in biology. 13 It is not a simple competition for a fixed amount of food determined by the physical environment, because the environment that determines our evolution is no longer essentially physical. Our environment is chiefly conditioned by the things we believe. Morocco and California are bits of the Earth in very similar latitudes, both on the west coasts of continents with similar climates, and probably with rather similar natural resources. 14 Yet their present development is wholly different, not so much because of different people even, but because of the different thoughts that exist in the minds of their inhabitants. This is the point I wish to emphasize. The most important factor in our environment is the state of our own minds. 15 It is well known that where the white man has invaded a primitive culture the most destructive effects have come not from physical weapons but from ideas. Ideas are dangerous. The Holy Office knew this full well when it caused heretics to be burned in days gone by. Indeed, the concept of free speech only exists in our modem society because when you are inside a community you are conditioned by the conventions of the community to such a degree that it is very difficult to conceive of anything really destructive.

问答题To travel by Greyhound is easy, cheap and convenient, though not so fast as travelling by plane or so comfortable as by train.

问答题He saw a once-in-a-life chance to grab a gold medal.

问答题He continued to search through the Bahamian Cays down to Cuba, a place name which suggested Cipangu (Japan), and then eastward to the island he named Espanola.

问答题People all over the world today are beginning to hear and learn more and more about, the problem of pollution. 21 Pollution is caused either by the released by man of completely new and often artificial substances into the environment, or by releasing greatly increased amounts of a natural substance, such as oil from tankers into the sea. 22 The whole industrial process which makes many of the goods and machines we need and use in our daily lives, is bound to create a number of waste products to upset the environment balance, or the ecological balance as it is also known. Many of these waste products can be prevented or disposed of sensibly, but clearly while more and more new goods are produced and made complex, there will be new, dangerous wastes to be disposed of, for example, the waste products from nuclear power stations. Many people, therefore, see pollution as only part of a larger and more complex problem, that is, the whole process of industrial production and consumption of goods. 23 Others again see the problem mainly in connection with agriculture, where new methods are helping farmers grow more and more on their land to feed our ever-increasing populations. However, the land itself is gradually becoming worn out as it is being used, in some cases, too heavily, and artificial fertilizers cannot restore the balance. 24 Whatever its underlying reasons, there is no doubt that much of the pollution cause could be controlled if only companies, individuals and governments would make more efforts. In the home there is an obvious need to control litter and waste. Food comes wrapped up three or four times in packages that all have to be disposed of; drinks are increasingly sold in bottles or tins which cannot be reused. This not only causes a litter problem, but also is a great waste of resources, in terms of glass, metals and paper. 25 Advertising has helped this process by persuading many of us not only to buy things we neither want nor need, but also throw away much of what we do buy. Pollution and waste combine to be problem everyone call help to solve by cutting out unnecessary buying, excess consumption and careless disposal of the products we use in our daily lives.

问答题该大学拥有一支高水平的师资队伍，既有富有开拓精神的年轻研究者，又有成果卓著、闻名遐迩的老年学者。

问答题我们要炸鱼，他们却给了我们炖鱼。

问答题He took a seat opposite Catherine, who kept her gaze fixed on him as if she feared he would vanish were she to remove it.

问答题1．我们所有人必须首先完成旨在实现平衡预算的计划，然后方可着手减少国家债务。 2．此外，我们必须进一步采取措施永久性地控制政府税收和开支的权力。 3．我们应当规定，联邦政府的开支额如果超出收入额，就属于违反宪法的行为。 4．然而，我们的基本目标是要减少依赖性，并提高弱者和被剥夺了基本权利的人的自尊心。 5．在建立一个美国全体公民都具有高度的尊严和各种机会的道路上，我们决心不会出现倒退或犹豫。

问答题After the light was turned off, the rat had to wait a short time before it was released from its cage,

问答题Britain's largest manufacturing industry is the iron and steel industry and Britain remains one of the world's major steel-producing nations.

问答题由于西藏地处“世界屋脊”，自然条件恶劣，也由于几百年落后的封建农奴制社会形成的各种社会历史条件的限制，西藏在全国还属于不发达地区。但是， 50年的发展已经极大地改变了其昔日贫穷落后的面貌，西藏人民生活质量大大提高。社会经济的发展极大地丰富了人民的物质文化生活。2000年，西藏全区各族人民已基本摆脱贫困，实现温饱。部分群众生活达到了小康水平。随着人民生活逐步富裕，冰箱、彩电、洗衣机、摩托车、手表等消费品进入了越来越多寻常百姓家。下少富裕起来的农牧民盖起了新房，有的还购买了汽车。西藏门前的人均居住面积处于全国首位。广播、电视、通信、互联网等现代信息传递手段已深入到人民群众的日常生活。绝大多数地区的百姓能够通过收听收看广播、电视，了解全国和全世界各地的新闻。当地百姓能够通过电话、电报、传真或互联网等手段获取信息资料，并与全国和全世界各地取得联系。由于缺医少药状况得到根本改变，人民群众的健康水平大幅度提高。西藏人均预期寿命由二十世纪五十年代的35.5岁增加到现在的67岁。

问答题Wars have never stopped polluting the earth.

问答题With point you could make a line; with lines, planes; with planes, solids.

问答题1．在许多形式因素当中，我将挑选出这些：这个国家优秀的小学教育；欢迎新技术的领导者们；奖励发明者的做法；而且最重要的是美国人在对那些技术性事物的非言语的、“空间性的”思考方面的天赋。 2．经过了6个月的争论以及最后16个小时激烈的议会辩论，澳大利亚北部地区成了世界上第一个允许医生终止希望死去的绝症病人生命的立法当局。 3．一些机构终于松了一口气，但是其他一些机构，包括教堂、倡导生命之权的团体和澳大利亚医学协会，尖锐地抨击这个法案，指责法案的通过过于匆忙。但是大势已定，不可逆转。 4．当然，例外是存在的。在美国，心胸狭窄的官员、粗鲁的侍者和没有礼貌的出租车司机也并不少见。然而人们常常得出这样的观察意见，这使得它值得被讨论一下。 5．他狂妄地认为自己总是正确的。任何人在最无足轻重的问题上露出丝毫的异议，都会激起他的谴责。他可能会一连好几个小时滔滔不绝，千方百计地证明自己如何如何正确。有了这种使人耗尽心力的雄辩本事，听者最后都被他弄得头昏脑涨，耳朵发聋，为了图个清净，只好同意他的说法。

问答题One of the biggest decisions Andy Blevins has ever made, and one of the few he now regrets, never seemed like much of a decision at all. It just felt like the natural thing to do. In the summer of 1995, he was moving boxes of soup cans, paper towels and dog food across the floor of a supermarket warehouse, one of the biggest buildings here in southwest Virginia. The heat was brutal. The job had sounded impossible when he arrived fresh off his first year of college, looking to make some summer money, still a skinny teenager with sandy blond hair and a narrow, freckled face. But hard work done well was something he understood, even if he was the first college boy in his family. Soon he was making bonuses on top of his $6.75 an hour, more money than either of his parents made. His girlfriend was around, and so were his hometown buddies. Andy acted more outgoing with them, more relaxed. People in Chilhowie noticed that. It was just about the perfect summer. So the thought crossed his mind: maybe it did not have to end. Maybe he would take a break from college and keep working. He had been getting C's and D's, and college never felt like home, anyway. "I enjoyed working hard, getting the job done, getting a paycheck," Mr. Blevins recalled. "I just knew I didn't want to quit." So he quit college instead, and with that, Andy Blevins joined one of the largest and fastest-growing groups of young adults in America. He became a college dropout, though nongraduate may be the more precise term. Many people like him plan to return to get their degrees, even if few actually do. Almost one in three Americans in their mid-20's now fall into this group, up from one in five in the late 1960's, when the Census Bureau began keeping such data. Most come from poor and working-class families. That gap had grown over recent years. "We need to recognize that the most serious domestic problem in the United States today is the widening gap between the children of the rich and the children of the poor," Lawrence H. Summers, the president of Harvard, said last year when announcing that Harvard would give full scholarships to all its lowest-income students. "And education is the most powerful weapon we have to address that problem." Andy Blevins says that he too knows the importance of a degree. Ten years after trading college for the warehouse, Mr. Blevins, 29, spends his days at the same supermarket company. He has worked his way up to produce buyer, earning $35,000 a year with health benefits and a 401(k) plan. He is on a path typical for someone who attended college without getting a four-year degree. Men in their early 40's in this category made an average of $42,000 in 2000. Those with a four-year degree made $65,000. Mr. Blevins says he has many reasons to be happy. He lives with his wife, Karla, and their year-old son, Lucas, in a small blue-and-yellow house in the middle of a stunningly picturesque Appalachian valley. "Looking back, I wish I had gotten that degree," Mr. Blevins said in his soft-spoken lilt. "Four years seemed like a thousand years then. But I wish I would have just put in my four years." Why so many low-income students fall from the college ranks is a question without a simple answer. Many high schools do a poor job of preparing teenagers for college. Tuition bills scare some students from even applying and leave others with years of debt. To Mr. Blevins, like many other students of limited means, every week of going to classes seemed like another week of losing money. "The system makes a false promise to students," said John T. Casteen Ⅲ, the president of the University of Virginia, himself the son of a Virginia shipyard worker.

问答题The government has finally grown sick of claims that GCSEs and A-levels are being dumbed down, it seems. In his speech to the Labour Party conference on September 26th, Ed Balls, the schools secretary, said he would create a new watchdog to oversee exams. The current regulator is to be broken in two, with one bit continuing to develop new syllabuses and qualifications and reporting to ministers. The other bit, independent of government and reporting directly to Parliament, is to guard against grade inflation. Mr. Balls draws parallels with Gordon Brown"s first big step when he became chancellor in 1997. Relinquishing the Treasury"s power to set interest rates to an independent body is still, ten years later, regarded as his finest hour. Mr. Balls, as his chief economic adviser at the time, was one of the architects of that decision. Both men hope that the new exams watchdog will lead to similar plaudits. Britain"s secondary-school exam results have every reason to be upwardly mobile. The government wants voters to believe their children are getting a good education, so it is keen on high grades. Schools respond by shopping around among exam boards for the easiest syllabuses and tests, and directing pupils towards the softest subjects. Exam boards navigate between losing the trust of universities and losing the patronage of schools. And the individuals setting and marking exams know that harshness may mean fewer candidates in future. The new arrangements may ensure that, in schools at least, bad exams do not drive out good. But they will have no effect on universities, where grade inflation is also rife. Three-fifths of all students now get at least an upper second, and between 2002 and 2006 the proportion of first-class honours degrees crept up from 9.7% to 11%. There are also signs that the value of English degrees is being eroded on the international market. On September 25th the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), a think-tank, published the results of a survey of 15,000 English undergraduates. It turns out that they spend much less time studying than those elsewhere in Europe. The average English student puts in 26 hours a week: 14 taught hours and the rest on independent study, compared with 29 hours in Spain and 41 in Portugal. Nor is it that English students are skimping on their studies to run to paid jobs; students in other countries work harder outside university, too. HEPI"s director, Bahram Bekhradnia, cautions against a simplistic interpretation. Hours taught do not equal hours spent learning, he says, pointing out that tailored tutorials for small groups are likely to transmit more knowledge than the lectures in enormous amphitheatres that are routine at some continental universities. But neither can the results be brushed away, he says. Foreign students may go elsewhere if they think an English undergraduate degree is content-light and poor value for money. This would spell financial disaster for many cash-strapped English universities. In 2004-05, the last year for which figures are available, they received? 1.7 billion in foreign students" fees. At first sight the results of the third National Student Survey, published on September 12th, make more cheerful reading. That found that four-fifths of all English students considered their university experience satisfactory. But Graham Gibbs of Oxford University puts a gloomy spin on even this. What these students may be satisfied with, he says, "is an education that makes comparatively low demands on them". That is perhaps understandable: most undergraduates are not known for their work ethic. But it is short-sighted, both for them and their universities. After all, a currency can only trade for so long on its reputation.

问答题人们一直将儿童肥胖和过激行为的日益增多归咎为看电视太多，但是，关于看电视对儿童学习的影响到底有多大，目前还没有定论。