阅读理解Like almost anything else, television has its good and its bad sides. One should surely thank its (47)______ for the joy and the interest that they have brought in the lives of the old, the sick, and the (48)______. Without it, all those people would have no (49)______ and no window on the world. In truth, television has opened windows in everybody''s life. No newspaper has ever reached so many people and shown so (50)______ what was happening right now in their own country and everywhere else. TV has (51)______ information, it not only gives the news (52)______. it also shows it in pictures which are more powerful than words. It can be said that TV has brought reality to the public. Unfortunately, TV''s influence has been (53)______ harmful to the young. Children do not have enough experience to realize that TV shows (54)______ an unreal world; that commercials lie in order to sell products that are sometimes bad or (55)______. They believe and want to (56)______ what they see. They do believe that the violence they see is normal and acceptable. WORD BANK A) instantly B) present C) show D) useless E) transformed F) clearly G) lonely H) inventors I) viewers J) imitate K) extremely L) pleasure M) decent N) acceptance O) breakthrough

阅读理解Engineering students are (47) to be examples of practicality and rationality, but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course, any (48) students with my aims would have chosen a college with a large engineering department, famous reputation and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that''s not what I did. I chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts (文科) university that doesn''t even offer a (49) in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice; I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with (50) and a value system to guide me in my career. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by interacting with people who weren''t studying science or engineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a sensible choice. They told me I was wise and (51) beyond my 18 years, and I believed them. I headed off to college sure I was going to have a (n) (52) over those students who went to engineering "factories" where they didn''t care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: (53) genius and sensitive humanist (人文学者) all in one. Now I''m not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideals crashed into reality, as all noble ideals eventually do. After three years of (54) to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal-arts courses, I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try to reconcile (协调) engineering with liberal-arts courses in college. The (55) that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don''t mix as easily as I assumed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways; together they (56) to confuse. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult. WORD BANK A) advantage B) struggling C) flexibility D) mature E) technical F) reality G) electrical H) reputation I) major J) assumed K) supposed L) sensitive M) sensible N) balance O) threaten

阅读理解The World Health Organization says as many as 10 million persons worldwide may have the virus (病毒) that causes AIDS. Experts believe about 350 thousand persons have the disease. And one million more may get it in the next five years. In the United States, about 50,000 persons have died with AIDS. The country''s top medical official says more than 90 percent of all Americans who had the AIDS virus five years ago are dead. There is no cure for AIDS and no vaccine (疫苗) medicine to prevent it. However, researchers know much more about AIDS than they did just a few years ago. We now know that AIDS is caused by a virus. The virus invades healthy cells including white blood cells that are part of our defense system against disease. It takes control of the healthy cell''s genetic (遗传的) material and forces the cell to make a copy of the virus. The cell then dies. And the viral particles move on to invade and kill more healthy cells. The AIDS virus is carried in a person''s body fluids. The virus can be passed sexually or by sharing instruments used to take intravenous (静脉内的) drugs. It also can be passed in blood products or from a pregnant woman with AIDS to her developing baby. Many stories about the spread of AIDS are false. You cannot get AIDS by working or attending school with someone who has the disease. You can not get it by touching, drinking glasses or other objects used by such persons. Experts say no one has gotten AIDS by living with, caring for or touching an AIDS patient. There are several warning signs of an AIDS infection. They include always feeling tired, unexplained weight loss and uncontrolled expulsion of body wastes (大小便失禁) . Other warnings are the appearance of white areas on the mouth, dark red areas of skin that do not disappear and a higher than normal body temperature.

阅读理解What contribution can industrial scientists make when they come to teach in a university?

阅读理解Estimates of campus violence range widely due to both the (47)______ official statistics and the use of different definitions and data collection methods in surveys. Existing data indicate, however, that a substantial minority of college students experience some type of violence and related consequences. According to one nationally representative survey of college students, (48)______ 17 percent of students reported experiencing some form of violence in the previous year. Common forms of campus violence include sexual and interpersonal violence. A 1997 national telephone survey found that 1.7 percent of college women had experienced a completed rape and 1.1 percent an attempted rape in the seven months (49)______ the survey. Projecting these figures over an entire calendar year, the survey''s authors concluded that nearly 5 percent of college women might be victimized annually and that (50)______ 25 percent might be assaulted by the end of their college years. In the same study, 13 percent of college women reported they had been threatened during the seven-month period. Other studies, using varying definitions, estimate that from 20 to 50 percent of students experience dating violence by the end of college. In addition, 13.2 percent of college students report having been in a physical fight in the past 12 months, 8.5 percent report carrying a (51)______ in the past 30 days, and 4.3 percent report "having a firearm with them at college." Hazing (被凌辱, 恃强凌弱)is also a common concern. Of the 25 percent of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes who responded to a 1999 Alfred University survey, 79 percent had experienced some form of hazing, and 51 percent of respondents had been required to participate in drinking contests or alcohol-related hazing. Approximately 20 percent of the (52)______ reported what the authors called "unacceptable and potentially illegal" hazing. Hate and bias crimes occur all too (53)______ on campus. A 1998 study estimated that an average of 3.8 hate crimes per campus occurred that year, 80 percent of them (54)______ by the victim''s race or sexual orientation. In a study of gay and lesbian students, 42 percent reported experiencing some level of physical (55)______ due to their sexual orientation. Victims of violence experience a wide variety of physical and emotional (56)______, often leading to social and academic difficulties. Violence can lower the quality of life for all campus members, who may become fearful and restrict their activities out of concern for safety. In addition, violence affects colleges administration by increasing costs on security that could otherwise be used to further the academic mission. Word Bank A) incredible B) inadequate C) respondents D) approximately E) motivated F) discovery G) prior to H) aggression I) exchange J) up to K) weapon L) absolutely M) consequences N) commission O) frequently

阅读理解Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage. In families with two working parents, fathers may have more impact on a child’s language development than mothers, a new study suggests. Researchers _47_ 92 families form 11 child care centers before their children were a year old, interviewing each to establish income, level of education and child care arrangements. Overall, it was a group of well-class families, with married parents both living in the home. When the children were 2, researchers videotaped them at home in free-play sessions with both parents, _48_ all of their speech. The study will appear in the November issue of The Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. The scientists measured the _49_ number of utterance (话语) of the parents, the number of different words they used, the complexity of their sentences and other _50_ of their speech. On average, fathers spoke less than mothers did, but they did not differ in the length of utterances or proportion of questions asked. Finally, the researchers _51_ the children’s speech at age 3, using a standardized language test. The only predictors of high scores on the test were the mother’s level of education, the _52_ of child care and the number of different words the father used. The researchers are _53_ why the father’s speech, and not the mother’s, had an effect. “It’s well _54_ that the mother’s language does have an impact,” said Nadya Pancsofar, the lead author of the study. It could be that the high-functioning mothers in the study had _55_ had a strong influence on their children’s speech development, Ms. Pancsofar said, “or it may be that mothers are _56_ in a way we didn’t measure in the study.”

阅读理解For an increasing number of students at American universities, Old is suddenly in. The reason is obvious: the graying of America means jobs. Coupled with the aging of the baby-boom (生育高峰) generation, a longer life span means that the nation''s elderly population is bound to expand significantly over the next 50 years. By 2050, 25 percent of all Americans will be older than 65, up from 14 percent in 1995. The change poses profound questions for government and society, of course. But it also creates career opportunities in medicine and health professions, and in law and business as well. "In addition to the doctors, we''re going to need more sociologists, biologists, urban planners and specialized lawyers, " says Professor Edward Schneider of the University of Southern California''s (USC) School of Gerontology (老年学). Lawyers can specialize in "elder law", which covers everything from trusts and estates to nursing-home abuse and age discrimination (歧视). Businessmen see huge opportunities in the elder market because the baby boomers, 74 million strong, are likely to be the wealthiest group of retirees in human history. "Any student who combines an expert knowledge in gerontology with, say, an MBA or law degree will have a license to print money," one professor says. Margarite Santos is a 21-year-old senior at USC. She began college as a biology major but found she was "really bored with bacteria". So she took a class in gerontology and discovered that she liked it. She says, "I did volunteer work in retirement homes and it was very satisfying."

阅读理解Statuses are marvelous human inventions that enable us to get along with one another and to determine where we "fit" in society. As we go about our everyday lives, we mentally attempt to place people in terms of their statuses. For example, we must judge whether the person in the library is a reader or a librarian, whether the telephone caller is a friend or a salesman, whether the unfamiliar person on our property is a thief or a meter reader, and so on. The statuses we assume often vary with the people we encounter, and change through our life. Most of us can, at very high speed, assume the statuses that various situations require. Much of social interaction consists of identifying and selecting among appropriate statuses and allowing other people to assume their statuses in relation to us. This means that we fit our actions to those of other people based on a constant mental process of appraisal and interpretation. Although some of us find the task more difficult than others, most of us perform it rather effortlessly. A status has been compared to ready-made clothes. Within certain limits, the buyer can choose style and fabric. But an American is not free to choose the costume (服装) of a Chinese peasant or that of a Hindu prince. We must choose from among the clothing presented by our society. Furthermore, our choice is limited to a size that will fit, as well as by our pocketbook (钱包). Having made a choice within these limits we can have certain alterations made, but apart from minor adjustments, we tend to be limited to what the stores have on their racks. Statuses too come ready made, and the range of choice among them is limited.

阅读理解The way people hold to the belief that a fun-filled, pain free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is true: more often than not, things that lead to happiness involve some pain. As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such tings as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment (承担的义务), self-improvement. Ask a bachelor (单身汉) why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment, for commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure, excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features. Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night''s sleep or a three-day vacation. I don''t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild. Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It deliberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes mat will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: We now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.

阅读理解Hat Dogs and Apple Pie America''s favorite foods Today we tell about some of the foods that Americans like best-America''s favorites. You may have heard that Americans like hot dogs and hamburgers best of all foods. Well, farmers and owners of public eating places might happily agree. So might the nation''s Meat Institute and the National Hot Dog version of a hot dog has no meat at all. It often contains tofu, made from soy plants. The hot dog is shaped like a tube. Many people say it looks like a Dachshund dog. It is served between two shaped pieces of bread called a bun. Americans often say they especially like hot dogs cooked over a hot fire in the open air. People at sports events buy plenty of hot dogs. For many people, it is not just the meat that tastes so good. These people enjoy colorful and tasty additions. For example, they include a yellow or yellow-brown thickened liquid called mustard. They may also put red catsup and pieces of a white or red, strong-smelling vegetable called onion on their hot dogs. Hot dog eaters often add pickle, a salty green vegetable. Some people place barbecue sauce on top of all this. Or they use a spice called horseradish. It gives the hot dog a pleasant bite. Hot Dog''s Story A hot dog is also known as a frankfurter or frank. That is because the city of Frankfurt-am-Main. Germany is often said to be the birthplace of this sausage. But the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says there are other ideas about where the hot dog began. One version of hot dog history says a butcher, or meat cutter, from the German city of Coburg was responsible. It says he invented the hot dog in the late sixteen hundreds. Vienna, Austria, also claims that it created the food. The council says butchers from several countries probably brought common European sausages to America. A street salesman sold hot dogs to people in New York City in the eighteen sixties. And, in eighteen seventy one, a hot dog stand opened at the Coney Island amusement park in New York City. Hamburgers Americans also eat lots of hamburgers. This ground meat comes from beef. It can be cooked in many ways. Like hot dogs, hamburgers are a favorite picnic food. Many public eating places in the United States say hamburgers are their most popular foods. People often eat them in places that serve quickly prepared, moderately priced food. Like hot dog experts, hamburger historians disagree about how their subject got started. The Egyptians and Romans apparently ate ancient versions of hamburgers. In more modern days, people in Hamburg, Germany, made something like a hamburger from pork and beef. First Modern Hamburger The small town of Seymour, Wisconsin, is among several American towns that claim to have created the first modern hamburger in the United States. In Seymour, a man named Charlie Nagreen tried to sell meatballs at a local fair in eighteen eighty-five. But as people walked around, it was hard for them to handle the round pieces of meat. So Nagreen flattened the ball of meat. Then he placed this meat patty between two pieces of bread. In two thousand one, people in Seymour cooked a hamburger that weighed more than three thousand kilograms. This creation reportedly fed thirteen thousand people. Like hot dogs, Americans like their hamburgers with additions. Things like mustard, catsup, horseradish, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, onion and perhaps a pickle. A hamburger with cheese melted on it is called a cheeseburger. Cooks make a "Sloppy Joe" by combining hamburger meat with tomato sauce. Many people eat the Sloppy Joe mixture on a bun. Without a bun, they may get more of the loose meat on them than inside them. For many people, eating both hot dogs and hamburgers does not seem right without potatoes. They eat French fries and potato chips with these meats. French fries are strips, or pieces, of potato cooked in oil. Potato chips are extremely thin, cooled pieces of potato. They usually are also cooked in oil. Pizza, Spaghetti and others Americans also buy or make large amounts of pizza. A basic pizza contains tomato sauce or cheese, or both, on a bread-like material. Food writer Linda Stradley tells about the history of pizza on her computer Web site, "What''s Cooking America". Ms Stradley says it could have been the Phoenicians, Greeks or Romans who invented pizza. Or, it could have been anyone who mixed flour with water and cooked it on a hot stone. Italians probably brought pizza to the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. In nineteen-oh-five, Gennaro Lombardi reportedly opened the first pizza store in New York City. In the nineteen thirties, he added tables to his pizza place. Lombardi also began serving spaghetti. Spaghetti is a traditional Italian favorite that also has become an American favorite. It is made from flour and water and sometimes eggs. This dough is pulled into lengths and boiled. Any kinds of foods can be added to both pizza and spaghetti to add to their taste. For example, people like these foods with different meats on top. Or they like toppings of small fish called anchovies, or vegetables called mushrooms. Some people like all the additions at once. Another favorite food, macaroni, is similar to spaghetti. Many Americans remember that their mothers made macaroni cooked with cheese on cold winter days. People sometimes call this dish "comfort food", because it makes them feel better. Others praise hot soups prepared in their childhood homes. Some people say chicken soup—chicken pieces in liquid—can cure anything. Still others say New England clam chowder helps them think. This soup contains the shellfish clams floating in a milky liquid. Another version of clam chowder has tomato sauce. It looks red. Chocolate To end a meal, or between meals, Americans often eat chocolate in some form. They eat millions and millions of kilograms of chocolate a year. Chocolate is produced from cocoa beans. It is used in sweet foods like candy, pies, puddings and cakes. Many people say chocolate makes them feel happier. People have praised chocolate for its taste for many years. Some studies have shown that it can help chase away mild feelings of sadness. But chocolate often has a large amount of fat. However, some experts now say a moderate amount of chocolate can be healthful. For example, the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center in Ohio notes that chocolate contains substances called antioxidants. Antioxidants are thought to help the body fight damage caused by natural processes and harmful substances in the environment. The Heart Center suggests choosing dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. And it warns that people should restrict themselves to a moderate amount. Pie Like people in many parts of the world, Americans love pie. These sweet dishes have fruit, nuts or some other filling in a crust. Some people say pies are the best comfort food ever. That can be debated. Pie can be the most inviting food ever. A red strawberry pie or a yellow Key lime pie can defeat the strongest resolution of people trying to lose weight. But apple pie may be a top American favorite. Over time, this dish has come to be strongly linked to the United States. When someone or something seems especially American, people say it is "as American as apple pie."

阅读理解The timing, route and point of origin of the first colonization of the Americas remains a most arguable topic in human (47)______. However, a new theory claimed that a "LOST TRIBE" that reached America from Australia may have been the first Native Americans. If proved by DNA evidence, the theory will shatter long (48)______ beliefs about the southerly (49)______ of people who entered America across the Bering Strait, found it empty and occupied it. On this theory rests the authority of Native Americans (previously known as Red Indians) to have been the first true Americans. To a European, this may seem like an academic (50)______, but to Americans it is a philosophical question about (51)______, Silvia Gonzales, of Liverpool John Moores University said. She argued that there were several migration waves into the Americas at different times by different human groups. Her claims are based on (52)______ found in the Baja California Peninsula of Mexico that have skulls quite unlike the broad Mongolian features of Native Americans. These narrow-skulled people have more in common with southern Asians, Aboriginal Australians and people of the South Pacific Rim. The bones, stored at the National Museum of Anthropology (人类学) in Mexico City, have been carbon-dated and one is 12,700 years old, which places it several thousand years before the arrival of people from the North. But comparisons based on skull shape are not considered (53)______ by anthropologists, so a team of Mexican and British scientists, backed by the Natural Environment Research Council, has also (54)______ to extract DNA from the bones. Dr Gonzales declined yesterday to say exactly what the results were, as they need to be checked, but indicated that they were (55)______ with an Australian origin. She believes that they arrived by boat, settled in what is now Mexico and at other points along the Pacific coast, and survived for thousands of years. The first Spanish colonists and missionaries (传教士) described the people they found in the area, the Pericue, as slim hunter-gatherers. They lacked much culture, but did have burial customs in which bodies were laid out in the sun before being painted with ochre and buried. The Spanish collected the people into their religious missions, where they (56)______ in the 18th century. Word Bank A) ancient B) skeletons C) dispute D) evolution E) research F) consistent G) liberty H) argument I) identity J) conclusive K) migration L) attempted M) properly N) established O) died out

阅读理解Food-as-Medicine Movement Is Witnessing Progress [A] Several times a month, you can find a doctor in the aisles of Ralphs market in Huntington Beach, California, wearing a white coat and helping people learn about food

阅读理解Work and Life The pursuit of a better work-life balance is at the root of calls for flexible hours, affordable childcare and paid paternity (父亲身份) leave. More than ever before are we demanding choice in our working lives. Gemma Lavender of the TUC explores the pressures and challenges. The issue If you''re not careful, work can take over your life. People in Britain work longer hours than anywhere else in Europe. Too many workplaces are gripped by a long hours culture where everyone is expected to do hours of unpaid overtime every week. Astonishingly, people in Britain do ￡23 billion worth of unpaid overtime every year—that would be a ￡4,000 wages boost for the average long-hours worker. Hardly surprising, then, that there''s an epidemic of workplace stress. Contrary to some expectations, according to a recent TUC poll, Brits do actually enjoy their jobs. 85 per cent told us that they found their work enjoyable and fulfilling, yet slightly more than half said they also found it hard to cope with the pressure. Eight million people complain that pressure of work gives them headaches or migraines (偏头痛), 12 million say they get bad tempered and irritable (易怒的) at home, nearly three million need to take time off work and more than two-and-a-half million say they drink too much. That is why work-life balance is the slogan of the moment. Unions, good employers and the government are all concerned — but much more needs to be done. The pressures The core agenda with work-life balance issues is still the family. And despite all the improvements in equality between the sexes, this is still largely perceived as an issue for women rather than men. But times are changing. Mothers still take the greater responsibility for childcare but are also more likely to have paid jobs than ever before. Seven out of ten women of working age now have jobs, and half of mothers with children aged under five are in work. Today''s women are breadwinners. Men and women are both taking on multiple roles. Men are doing more of the care responsibilities (according to the Equal Opportunities Commission, a surprising 36% of couples say that the man is the main carer) and women are working more. Polls show that fathers feel they are missing out on time with their children. With people living longer, more workers are experiencing care demands on elderly relatives as well as children. The fact that women are now having children later in life means that they may end up facing caring responsibilities for both ends of the age spectrum. The attitude of female workers has also changed. Women are growing more ambitious as they become key players in the world of work, contributing to major company successes. Whether you''re a Martha Lane Fox or a Marjorie Scardino, the impact of the female boss is considerably more powerful than ever before. The pressure for women to achieve drives them to work harder and for longer, especially when wanting to prove themselves against their male counterparts (对等的人). Technology both helps and hinders. Email and the Internet give people the potential to work flexibly. Some now work for themselves or for their employer entirely from home. This doesn''t suit everyone — some find it far too isolating to be cut off from office networks, but working from home for part of the week can be a real help. However, technology can also increase work pressure. The overflowing email inbox and the constantly ringing phone can really step up the stress levels. Progress on work-life balance is likely to give individual employees much more choice about how and when they work. Research shows that the more control you have over your own work, the less stress you''re likely to get. But organisations, as a whole, need to tackle the issue — it can''t just be the sum of individual responses. And work-life balance issues are not just for carers. Everyone needs their personal space, and policies that only benefit parents or carers might cause antagonism (敌意) with other colleagues. The challenges Flexitime, working at home, and creches (托儿所) are available only to a minority, but they are on the increase. Falling unemployment in most parts of the country means that employers are having to put a bit more effort into retaining staff and providing good conditions designed to attract particular staff with skills and experience. While flexitime and home-working options are not appropriate for every type of job, there is still room for imaginative approaches to choosing working hours. The main obstacle is employer resistance. Too many think that progressive policies will cost them. Small companies, in particular, say it may be all right for big organisations but we don''t have the same options to be flexible. But the independent Institute of Employment Studies shows that some small and medium-sized businesses have saved up to ￡250,000 on their budget simply by using family-friendly work policies. This is mainly because people take less time off sick when they have a better balance in their life. The benefits Businesses benefit if they make the best use of their most valuable resource: their staff. The main advantage of balancing personal and professional life is that the workers are happier. If they are happy, they work better; if they work better, the company profits. And if staff are happy they will stay. In a tight labour market, employers need to retain and recruit good, hard-working, loyal staff, especially and increasingly women. Offering good working conditions cements (加强) the company''s reputation as an employer of choice and will attract the best candidates for the job. Workers are also holding companies more and more accountable for bad working conditions and inflexible practices. The pressure is growing on employers. Society demands choice in the 21st century. The choice to take the kids to school and then go to work, the choice to leave early to attend a language course or visit granny, the choice to return to work on a basis you want, the choice to take unpaid leave to travel somewhere new, to train, or to have more time to visit friends.

阅读理解In English business practice operations are characterized by an unusual devotion to democracy. (47)______ individual decision making is considered (48)______ , almost every decision is taken by (49)______ So much so that, (50)______ you try to get hold of an English business man or woman, you will invariably be told that he or she is " in a meeting". Here they will sit trying to reach consensus in preference to a decision. The popularly held (51)______ that the English work harder than other people (52)______ a hammering when a report showed that, on average, the Germans work 44. 9 hours a week, the Italians 42. 4 and the English 42. The English, of course, point out that both the Germans and the Italians have more holidays and that anyhow, it is not the (53)______ but the quality of work that counts. They also pride themselves fiercely on their ability to "muddle through (胡乱对付过去) " ,that is, to act (54)______ too much worry about discipline or (55)______ In the past this attitude has (56)______ them well, and the past holds all the lessons the English wish to learn. WORD BANK A) quantity B) belief C) Once D) took E) served F) dangerous G) without H) dismissing I) wherever J) committee K) planning L) Since M) decision N) whenever O) provided

阅读理解Make Stuff, Fail, And Learn While Youre At It A) Weve always been a hands-on, do-it-yourself kind of nation

阅读理解People and Organizations: the Selection Issue In 1991, according to the Department of Trade and Industry, a record 48,000 British companies went out of business. When businesses fail, the post-mortem analysis is traditionally undertaken by accountants and market strategists. Unarguably organizations do fail because of undercapitalization, poor financial backing, good product ideas and market acumen (敏锐) often underperform and fail to meet shareholders'' expectations. The complexity, degree and sustainment of organizational performance requires an explanation which goes beyond the balance sheet and the "paper conversation" of financial inputs into profit making outputs. A more complete explanation of "what went wrong" must consider the essence of what an organization actually is and that one of the financial inputs. The most important and often the most expensive, is people. An organization is only as good as the people it employs. Selecting the right person for the job involves more than identifying the essential or desirable range of skills, educational and professional qualifications necessary to perform the job and then recruiting the candidate who is most likely to possess these skills or at least is perceived to have the ability and predisposition (易患病的体质) to acquire them. This is a purely person/skills match approach to selection. Work invariably takes place in the presence and/or under the direction of others, in a particular organizational setting. The individual has to "fit" in with the work environment, with other employees, with the organizational climate, style of work, organization and culture of the organization. Different organizations have different culture (Cartwright 1992). Poor selection decision are expensive. For example, the costs of training a policeman are about ￡ 20,000 (approx, US $30,000). The costs of employing an unsuitable technician on an oil rig or in a nuclear plant could, in an emergency, result in millions of pounds of damage or loss of life. The disharmony of a poor person-environment fit (PE-fit) is likely to result in low job satisfaction, lack of organizational commitment and employee stress, which affect organizational outcomes i.e. productivity, high labour turnover and absenteeism, and individual outcomes i.e. physical, psychological and mental well-being. However, despite the importance of the recruitment decision and the range of sophisticated and more objective selection techniques available, including the use of psychometric tests (心理测量), assessment centers etc., many organizations are still prepared to make this decision on the basis of a single 30 to 45 minute unstructured interview. Indeed, research has demonstrated that a selection decision is often made within the first four minutes of the interview. In the remaining time, the interviewer then attends exclusively to information that reinforces the initial ''accept'' or ''reject'' decision. Research into the validity of selection methods has consistently demonstrated that the unstructured interview. Where the interviewer asks any questions he or she likes, is a poor predictor of future job performance and fares little better than more controversial methods like graphology (笔迹学) and astrology. In times of high unemployment, recruitment becomes a "buyer''s market" and this was the case in Britain during the 1980s. The future, we are told, is likely to be different. Detailed surveys of social and economic trends in the European Community show that Europe''s populations is falling and getting older. The birth rate in the Community is now only three-quarters of the level needed to ensure replacement of the existing population. By the year 2020, it is predicted that more than one in four Europeans will be aged 60 or more and barely one in five will be under 20. In a five-year period between 1983 and 1988 the Community''s female workforce grew by almost six million. As a result, 51 % of all women aged 14 to 64 are now economically active in the labour market compared with 78% of men. The changing demography will not only affect selection ratios. They will also make it increasingly important for organizations wishing to maintain their competitive edge to be more responsive and accommodating to the changing needs of their workforce if they are to retain and develop their human resources. More flexible working hours, the opportunity to work from home or job share, the provision of childcare facilities etc., with play a major role in attracting and retaining staff in the future.

阅读理解Whatever their chosen method, Americans bathe zealously. A study conducted found that we take an average of 4.5 baths and 7.5 showers each week and in the ranks of non edible items purchased by store customers, bar soap ranks second, right after toilet paper. We spend more than $ 700 million annually on soaps, but all work the same way. Soap is composed of molecules that at one end attract water and at the other end attract oil and dirt, while repelling water. With a kind of pushing and pulling action, the soap loosens the bonds holding dirt to the skin. Unless you''re using a germicidal soap, it usually doesn''t kill the bacteria soap simply removes bacteria along with dirt and oil. Neither baths nor showers are all that necessary and unless you''re in a Third World country where infectious diseases are common, or you have open sores on your skin, the dirt and bacteria aren''t going to hurt. The only reason for showering or bathing is to feel clean and refreshed. There is a physiological basis for this relaxed feeling. Your limbs become slightly buoyant in bathwater, which takes a load off muscles and tension. Moreover, if the water is hotter than normal body temperature, the body attempts to shed heat by expanding the blood vessels near the surface of the skin, lessening the circulatory system''s resistance to blood flow, and dropping blood pres sure gently. A bath is also the most effective way to hydrate the skin. The longer you soak, the more water gets into the skin and because soap lowers the surface tension of the water, it helps you hydrate rapidly and remove dry skin flakes. However, in a bath, all the dirt and grime and the soap in which it''s suspended float on the surface. So when you stand up, it covers your body like a film. The real solution is to take a bath and then rinse off with a shower, however, after leaving a tub or freshly ex posed skin becomes a playground for microbes. In two hours, you probably have as many bacteria on certain parts of the body, such as the armpits, as before the bath.

阅读理解Two Words Is a Minute Description of a Human Need Famous for citing website design mistakes, Jakob Nielsen, the web''s original usability guru (指导者) , explains why search has taken over, why adverts aren''t working, and how to make browsing better. Technology Guardian: The hype is everywhere about Web 2. 0. How do things like Ajax fit into the guidelines you''ve been espousing (支持) ? Jakob Nielsen: It''s always been good usability to make interfaces reactive, to have as fast response times as possible. Many of these Web 2. 0 things are tricks to provide it in a faster way. In that sense it works well, it''s just a programming technique for achieving these goals. I used to say that I don''t like a lot of functionality inside a web browser, but now you can view the browser more like a programming system or a programming language almost, and therefore your browser can become a support platform. The question then becomes "is that the best way of doing these applications" , or is it still best to download them and use them as a full-featured application which sucks in small amounts of data. But it''s all a continuum (统一体): at one end you have pure data and information on the web, and on the other the full applications. Most things exist in the middle. Information-only websites have are still useful, and then something like Microsoft Office has rich interaction styles that are still easier to do on the desktop. TG: Are there problems with the way people approach web businesses? JN: There is a misunderstanding of internet advertising. There is some advertising that is working and funneling money back to the search engines. But because most advertisements work so poorly on the web, the advertisers are yelling more and more loudly and they are getting more garish(俗气的) and being deceptive. Those are really big problems, and they cause users to feel like the internet is a less welcoming place. It''s like being in the bad part of town, with people insulting you. It backfires because it damages credibility; they assign the blame partly to the advertiser and partly to the website. TG: How irritating is it that people still aren''t getting your message? JN: It''s very annoying. There are many new and interesting things to talk about, but it''s baffling that we have to continue talking about these old findings. But we have to. Business-to-business websites still live in the 90s in terms of interacting with customers online. The sites may look good, but there''s no clear-cut information — just slogans. TG: Have you seen any significant changes in the way people use the web? JN: General behavior is very search-dominated. You go to your favorite search engine, type in two words and click on the first few results. Users spend one or two minutes and then decide where to do their business. That has been a big change. Search has changed from being something that''s somewhat useful to being something that works surprisingly well. People do tend to only type in two words, and two words is a very minute and impoverished description of a human need. But search engines can — most of the time—pick four or five sites that you actually want. Because people have experienced that it works, this has become their number one behavior. TG: People either love or hate you. Have your methods helped you? JN: There probably are some people who are beyond reach because they don''t want to listen. It''s kind of like being an astronomer and you''re looking up at the sky and saying that it looks like the earth is revolving around the sun, not the sun revolving around the earth. You can report it and the Pope can like it or not, but it doesn''t change what''s going on. It''s the same here: I''m reporting what average people find when they visit a website. If you don''t listen your users will suffer and your business will suffer. You have to fight for the people. These new technologies aren''t just for the technological elite. Remember that the average user is not there when a company or design team has a meeting about what to do on our website. TG: There''s a perception that you are the guy who comes to the party and tells them to turn the music down. Do you enjoy that reaction? JN: I have my own techno-enthusiasm, I like advanced fancy stuff too. If you''re only doing something that''s targeting a few thousand web designers, then you can make it challenging because those users would find it engaging and fun. But the average user doesn''t find it engaging and fun to struggle against technology. You have to acknowledge the way the real world works. You shouldn''t design for designers, or design for your boss. Good design is about problem-solving under constraints—design has to have a goal of achieving some purpose. TG: Sites like MySpace are hugely populated by savvy younger people still developing a sense of design. Do you feel that sites directed towards young users are failing to teach them best practice? JN: If a teenager is just making a page for their three best friends, then these guidelines aren''t relevant. You can put a pulsating heart on the page, make it play your favorite song — these atrocities would be the kiss of death for a mainstream website, but here it''s a case of personal expression. It is OK for somebody''s MySpace pages to contradict everything we know about usability because they''re purely self-expression. We have to get through to them that the way you communicate among yourselves is different from the way you communicate with other people. This goes back to the school system, which needs to explain the different ways of communicating in different media. If you wrote a job application like your MySpace pages, you''d be out of work. TG: So is there room for talking about these issues in the classroom? JN: There was a study done at the Open University found that in elementary schools, for every ￡ 100 spent on books, students grades improved by 1. 5%—and for every ￡ 100 spent on computers, grades improved by 0. 7%. So books are twice as good as computers for this, so it''s not necessarily that I should study history by clicking on some web pages, but that we should teach about these electronic media forms and how to use them. The value of that education would be immense.

阅读理解What does the author say about people's views of an ideal romantic relationship?

阅读理解It is not surprising that a philosophy borrowed from business should see its principal focus within education as the furthering of the connection with business and industry. Moreover, when a philosophy is implemented at governmental level by people, the majority who learnt their understanding of life within this environment, it is not surprising that they should picture education as feeding this goal. In an age when the US is seen as being in desperate, almost cut-throat competition with industrial neighbors, it becomes an article of faith that to maintain present standards of living, education must increasingly focus upon training the youth of the country to compete in such markets. This demand is, of course, nothing new. A number of factors come together to provide the motive force for making education the handmaiden of the job market. For those with economic blinkers, such concentration makes good sense, but for those who take a wider view of the purposes of education, this appears narrow and damaging, even, in the long term, to the economic good health of the country. It is possible to argue for the ultimate purposes of education from different standpoints. The one that appears to be the motive force in much educational decision-making at the present time values knowledge that is conducive to the furtherance of the national economic well being. It sees the child as a being to be trained to fit into this economic machine. Initiative and activity are encouraged only as far as these dovetail with ultimate occupational destinations. The teacher, therefore, is seen as a trainer, a constructor, a transmitter. However, there are many who value knowledge which is perceived as part of that country''s cultural heritage while other child-centred advocates see the curriculum as based on each individual child''s experiences and interests, each being active, involved, unique constructors of their own reality. Others see schools as being essentially concerned with pressing social issues which need to be resolved, and therefore the curriculum takes the form of being top ic or problem based. Such sketches do not begin to do justice to the complexity and richness of argument, which may be contained in differing educational ideologies. However, if they at the very least convey the profound conflicting views, these descriptions suggest that there is truth in each of them, but none must have the stage to itself.