阅读理解Low-level slash-and-burn farming doesn''t harm rainforest. On the contrary, it helps farmers and improves forest soils. This is the unorthodox view of a German soil scientist who has shown that burnt clearings in the Amazon, dating back more than 1,000 years, helped create patches of rich, fertile soil that farmers still benefit from today. Most rainforest soils are thin and poor because they lack minerals and because the heat and heavy rainfall destroy most organic matter in the soils within four years of it reaching the forest floor. This means topsoil contains few of the ingredients needed for long-term successful farming. But Bruno Glaser, a soil scientist of the University of Bayreuth, has studied unexpected patches of fertile soils in the central Amazon. These soils contain lots of organic matter. Glaser has shown that most of this fertile organic matter comes from "black carbon" -- the organic particles from camp fires and charred (烧成炭的) wood left over from thousands of years of slash-and-burn farming. "The soils, known as Terra Preta, contained up to 70 times more black carbon than the surrounding soils," says Glaser. Unburnt vegetation rots quickly, but black carbon persists in the soil for many centuries. Radiocarbon dating shows that the charred wood in Terra Preta soils is typically more than 1,000 years old. "Slash-and-burn farming can be good for soils provided it doesn''t completely burn all the vegetation, and leaves behind charred wood," says Glaser. "It can be better than manure (粪肥). "Burning the forest just once can leave behind enough black carbon to keep the soil fertile for thousands of years. And rainforests easily regrow after small-scale clearing. Contrary to the conventional view that human activities damage the environment, Glaser says: "Black carbon combined with human wastes is responsible for the richness of Terra Preta soils." Terra Preta soils turn up in large patches all over the Amazon, where they are highly prized by farmers. All the patches fall within 500 square kilometers in the central Amazon. Glaser says the widespread presence of pottery (陶器) confirms the soil''s human origins. The findings add weight to the theory that large areas of the Amazon have recovered so well from past periods of agricultural use that the regrowth has been mistaken by generations of biologists for "virgin" forest. During the past decade, researchers have discovered hundreds of large earth works deep in the jungle. They are up to 20 meters high and cover up to a square kilometer. Glaser claims that these earth works, built between AD 400 and 1400, were at the heart of urban civilizations. Now it seems the richness of the Terra Preta soils may explain how such civilizations managed to feed themselves.

阅读理解In 1854 my great-grandfather, Morris Marable

阅读理解What can we learn about Macy’s during the holiday season?

阅读理解Taking charge of yourself involves putting to rest some very prevalent myths. At the top of the list is the notion that intelligence is measured by your ability to solve complex problems; to read, write and compute at certain levels; and to resolve abstract equations quickly. This vision of intelligence asserts formal education and bookish excellence as the true measures of self-fulfillment. It encourages a kind of intellectual prejudice that has brought with it some discouraging results. We have come to believe that someone who has more educational merit badges, who is very good at some form of school discipline is "intelligent". Yet mental hospitals arc filled with patients who have all of the properly lettered certificates. A truer indicator of intelligence is an effective, happy life lived each day and each present moment of every day. If you are happy, if you live each moment for everything it''s worth, then you are an intelligent person. Problem solving is a useful help to your happiness, but if you know that given your inability to resolve a particular concern you can still choose happiness for yourself, or at a minimum refuse to choose unhappiness, then you are intelligent. You are intelligent because you have the ultimate weapon against the big N. B. D. -- Nervous Break Down. "Intelligent" people do not have N. B. D. ''s because they are in charge of themselves. They know how to choose happiness over depression, because they know how to deal with the problems of their lives. You can begin to think of yourself as truly intelligent on the basis of how you choose to feel in the face of trying circumstances. The life struggles are pretty much the same for each of us. Everyone who is involved with other human beings in any social context has similar difficulties. Disagreements, conflicts and compromises are a part of what it means to be human. Similarly, money, growing old, sickness, deaths, natural disasters and accidents are all events which present problems to virtually all human beings. But some people are able to make it, to avoid immobilizing depression and unhappiness despite such occurrences, while others collapse or have an N. B. D. Those who recognize problems as a human condition and don''t measure happiness by an absence of problems are the most intelligent kind of humans we know; also, the most rare.

阅读理解Insurance in respect of the property will be carried out by the Society in accordance with the rules and the mortgage conditions with such insurance companies as the Society may determine. The Society has a wide experience of insurance companies and of the terms offered by their policies, and places insurance with many companies who are able to provide the cover which the Society considers necessary. You may like the Society to insure with a particular company, and if so please contact immediately the Branch Office to which you submitted your application for loan, and so long as that company and its terms are acceptable to the Society the cover(保险) will be arranged accordingly. If you should suggest a company and it is not one with which the Society does business you will be informed and offered a choice of other companies. You may request change of insurance company at any time during the life of the mort- gage. If your mortgage is under the endowment (资助) scheme or supported by an insurance guarantee or if the documents of title specify the company to be used it may not be possible to accept your choice. The initial sum insured will be the figure shown under the heading "Amount of Property Insurance'''' in the Details of Loan. This figure is the amount recommended by the Society''s value, as his estimate of the replacement cost of the building at the date of valuation, unless some other amount has been agreed in writing between you and the Society. No warranty is given or implied that the amount of insurance will cover complete loss. You are reminded that the market value of your property bears no relationship to the cost of replacement. The amount for which the property is insured should therefore not be less than the cost, at the time of repair or replacement, of rebuilding all the property covered in the same materials, form, style and condition as when it is new. It should also include any architects'', surveyors'' and legal fees which may be payable, and any costs which may be subjected in complying with the requirements of the Local Authority and in removing debris, etc. The term "property" includes domestic outbuilding, garages, walls, landlords'' fixtures and fittings, etc., but excludes the value of the land. The market value of a house is therefore likely to be less than the cost of rebuilding, especially if the property is elderly. Even if the property is recently built, the work involved in rein- statement (修复) will be more expensive than the building cost which can be achieved by a builder building on an estate basis.

阅读理解The Debate over Genetically Modified Foods --Rice with built-in Vitamin A that can help prevent blindness in 100 million children suffering from Vitamin A deficiency --A tomato (hat softens more slowly, allowing it to develop longer on the vine and keep longer on the shelf --Potatoes that absorb less fat when fried, changing the ever-popular French fries from junk food into a more nutritional food --Strawberry crops that can survive frost These are some of the benefits promised by biotechnology. The debate over its benefits and safety, however, continues. Do we really need to fear mutant (突变体) weeds, killer tomatoes, and giant corn and will the benefits be delivered? Conventional Breeding Versus Genetically Modified (GM) Crops For thousands of years farmers have used a process of selection and cross breeding to continually improve the quality of crops. Even in nature, plants and animals selectively breed, thus ensuring the optimum gene pool for future generations. Traditional breeding methods are slow, requiring intensive labor: While trying to get a desirable trait in a bred species, undesirable traits will appear and breeders must continue the process over and over again until all the undesirables are bred out. In contrast, organisms acquire one specific gene or a few genes together through genetic modification, without other traits included and within a single generation. However, this technology too is inherently unpredictable and some scientists believe it can produce potentially dangerous results unless better testing methods are developed. Traditional breeding is based on sexual reproduction between, like organisms. The transferred genes are similar to genes in the cell they join. They are conveyed in complete groups and in a fixed sequence that harmonizes with the sequence of genes in the partner cell. In contrast, bioengineers isolate a gene from one type of organism and splice (接合) it haphazardly into the DNA of a dissimilar species, disrupting its natural sequence. Further, because the transplanted gene is foreign to its new surroundings, it cannot adequately function without a big artificial boost. One of the main differences between conventional and genetically modified crops is that the former involves crosses either within species or between very closely related species. GM crops can have genes either from closely related species or from distant species, even bacteria and viruses. Benefits: One Side of the Debate --Economical benefits GM supporters tell farmers that they stand to reap enormous profits from growing GM crops. Initially, the cost is expensive but money is saved on pesticides. To produce the GM crops, modern biotechnology is used which requires highly skilled people and sophisticated and expensive equipment. Large companies need considerable investments in laboratories, equipment and human resources, hence the reason why GM crops are more expensive for farmers than traditional crops. GM crops, farmers are told, are a far better option. It takes a shorter time to produce the desired product. It is precise and there are no unwanted genes. --Herbicide-Resistant Crops So what other advantages do GM crops hold for farmers? GM crops can be produced to be herbicide-resistant. This means that farmers could spray these crops with herbicide and kill the weeds, without affecting the crops. In effect, the amount of herbicide used in one season would be reduced, with a subsequent reduction in costs for farmers and consumers. For Ingard cotton, pest-resistance was built into the cotton, hence reducing and even removing the use of pesticides, which are not only expensive but, more importantly, harmful to the environment. Biotechnology companies are even experimenting with crops that can be genetically modified to be drought- and salt-tolerant, or less reliant on fertilizer, opening up new areas to be farmed and leading to increased productivity. However, the claims of less herbicide usage with GM crops have till now not been independently supported by facts. --Better Quality Foods Even animals can be genetically modified to be leaner, grow faster, and consume less food. They could be modified to have special characteristics, such as greater milk production in cows. These modifications again lead to improved productivity for farmers and ultimately lower costs for the consumer. Modified crops could perhaps prevent outbreaks such as foot and mouth disease, which has devastated many farmers and local economies. No such products have been released to date; however, some are under consideration for release. For example, GM salmon, capable of growing almost 30 times faster than natural salmon, may soon be approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the U.S. for release into open waters without a single study on the impact on human health or the environment. Risks: the Other Side of the Debate The major concerns of those who oppose GM foods center on the following: --Environmental Damage The problem with GM crops is that there is little known about what effect they will have in, say, 20 years time. The genetic structure of any living organism is complex and GM crop tests focus on short-term effects. Not all the effects of introducing a foreign gene into the intricate genetic structure of an organism are tested. Will the pests that a crop was created to resist eventually become resistant to this crop? Then there is always the possibility that we may not be able to destroy GM crops once they spread into the environment. --Risk to Food Web A further complication is that the pesticide produced in the crop may unintentionally harm creatures. GM crops may also pose a health risk to native animals that eat them. The animals may be poisoned by the built-in pesticides. Tests in the U.S. showed that 44% of caterpillars of the monarch butterfly died when fed large amounts of pollen (花粉) from GM corn. --Cross-Pollination(授粉) Cross-pollination is a concern for both GM crops and conventional breeding, especially with the more serious weeds that are closely related to the crops. With careful management this may be avoided. Genetic modification to herbicide-resistant crops could insert the gene that prevents the problem. The number of herbicide-tolerant weeds has increased over the years from a single report in 1978 to the 188 herbicide-tolerant weed types in 42 countries reported in 1997. They are an ever-increasing problem and genetic engineering promises to stop it. But will genes from GM plants spread to other plants, creating superweeds and superbugs we won''t be able to control? --GM Mix-Ups Humans can inadvertently eat foods that contain GM products meant as animal feed, i.e., crops modified for increased productivity in animals. This happened in the U.S., where traces of a StarLink GM crop, restricted to use only in feed, were found in taco shells. Apparently no one became ill, but other such occurrences may lead to health problems. --Disease Another concern is disease. Since some crops are modified using the DNA from viruses and bacteria, will we see new diseases emerge? What about the GM crops that have antibiotic-resistant marker genes? Marker genes are used by scientists to determine whether their genetic modification of a plant was successful. Will these antibiotic-resistant genes be transferred to microorganisms that cause disease? We already have a problem with ineffective antibiotics. How can we develop new drugs to fight these new bugs? Conclusion Proponents of GM crops claim that advantages may be many, such as: --improved storage and nutritional quality --pest- and disease-resistance --selective herbicide-tolerance --tolerance of water, temperature and saline extremes --improved animal welfare --higher yields and quality However, until further studies can show that GM foods and crops do not pose serious threats to human health or the world''s ecosystems, the debate over their release will continue. Living organisms are complex and tampering with their genes may have unintended effects. It is in our common interest to support scientists and organizations concerned, such as Friends of the Earth who demand "mandatory labeling of these food products, independent testing for safety and environmental impacts, and liability for harm to be assumed by biotech companies".

阅读理解What do we learn about designers of American sportswear?

阅读理解During the last three years, many speculated high about the possible intrusions concerning the corporate computing systems and global computing ''infrastructure. Fortunately, such and many other frightening predictions did not come true. Surely, technology is the prime reason for this achievement but at the core lies the work environment and the human factor. We have seen that IT leaders in almost all areas have enormously reduced their expenses by adopting winning solutions provided by today''s security vendors. Does this mean technology a lone is sufficient to deliver? No, in the truest sense, policies, their enforcement, along with education and training provide a winning combination to secure corporate computing. As far as technology is concerned, due credit goes to security vendors and service providers for shielding users in many ways, from desktop antivirus software to integrated security appliances. Also, myths about the role played by operating systems in security have finally died out. Almost all OS(计算机操作系统)vendors(供应商) such as Microsoft, IBM, Sun, Red Hat, etc. have earned trust and recognition with their installed systems, suggesting that security is not a feature of an operating system. The recently conducted 2003 Info World Security Survey of more than 500 IT executives and strategists reveals that around 49 percent of reader respondents felt confidence in their systems-performance with 52 percent observing fewer than 100 attempts against their, networks in the past year. This highlights the role of policies, enforcement, and positive culture in shielding away security breaches. In today''s IT culture, playing a black-hat is no longer desirable; rather it leads to quick apprehension and strict punishment with years to be spent behind the bars. Alternatively, one can earn both career and recognition by helping out the industry with ways and means of fighting security breaches and hostile attacks -- this way of looking into the matter is rapidly gaining support by many. Training is another important concern for IT leaders-it includes training to avert human error and improve overall security practices. Unfortunately, a large part, 79 percent, of InfoWorld 2003 Security Survey respondents felt their corporation employees and users underestimated the importance of adhering to their company''s security policies. It''s critical not to underestimate the role of sound security practices since employees and users shape the needs for enterprise services. Two other elements must also be kept in consideration: rigorous education and awareness of security requirements and significant number of staff to monitor and enforce security practices in the enterprise, the need for which is stronger than ever since many enterprises today handle security internally. All this underscores greater demand for training and education for security related workers.

阅读理解By education, I mean the influence of the environment upon the individual to produce a permanent change in the habits of behavior, of thought and of attitude. It is in being thus susceptible to the environment that man differs from the animals, and the higher animals from the lower. The lower animals are influenced by the environment but not in the direction of changing their habits. Their instinctive responses are few and fixed by heredity. When transferred to an unnatural situation, such an animal is led astray by its instincts. Thus the ant-lion whose instinct implies it to bore into loose sand by pushing backwards with abdomen, goes backwards on a plate of glass as soon as danger threatens, and endeavors, with the utmost exertions to bore into it. It knows no other mode of flight or if such a lonely animal is engaged upon a chain of actions and is interrupted it either goes on vainly with the remaining actions (as useless as cultivating an unsown field) or dies in helpless inactivity. Thus a net-making spider which digs a burrow and rims it with a bastion of gravel and bits of wood, when removed from a half finished home, will not begin again, though it will continue another burrow, even one made with a pencil. Advance in the scale of evolution along such lines as these could only be made by the emergence of creatures with more and more complicated instincts. Such beings we know in the ants and spiders. But another line of advance was destined to open out a much more far-reaching possibility of which we do not see the end perhaps even in man. Habits? instead of being born ready-made (when they are called instincts and not habits at all) were left more and more to the formative influence of the environment, of which the most important factor was the parent who now cared for the young animal during a period of infancy in which vaguer instincts than those of the insects were molded to suit surroundings which might be considerably changed without harm. This means, one might at first imagine, that gradually heredity becomes less and environment more important. But this is hardly the truth and certainly not the whole truth. For although fixed automatic responses like those of the insect-like creatures are no longer inherited, although selection for purification of that sort is no longer going on, yet selection for educability is very definitely still of importance. The ability to acquire habits can conceivably inherit just as much as can definite responses to narrow situations. Besides, since a mechanism-is now, for the first time, created by which the individual (in contradiction to the species) can be fitted to the environment, the latter becomes, in another sense, less not more important. And finally, less not the higher animals that possess the power of changing their environment by engineering feats and the like, a power possessed to some extent even by the beaver, and preeminently by man. Environment and heredity are in no case exclusive but always supplementary factors.

阅读理解What should the government do about the current economy according to the author?

阅读理解Women''s rights around the world is an important indicator of understanding global well-being. In the past few months, women have been elected the leaders of Germany, Liberia and Chile. Throughout the world, women are taking steps to improve their rights and increase their freedom. Yet, they have also suffered problems in their struggle for equality. Many may think that women''s rights is only an issue in countries where religion is law, such as many Muslim countries. Or even worse, some people may think this is no longer an issue at all. The fact is that in many parts of the world, women have almost no voice in politics and government. Their human rights are also denied. Sexual attack, violence in the home, even murder are crimes that women in many parts of the world face daily. The international community has taken steps to protect and enforce the rights of women. More than twenty-five years ago, the United Nations approved a treaty called the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The nineteen seventy-nine treaty is considered a bill of rights for women. To date, one hundred eighty nations have approved the treaty. But, women in many of these countries are still treated as unequal citizens. The U.N. estimates half a million women die every year while having babies. The number of women and girls in the world infected with HIV and AIDS is growing. Often this is the result of sexual attacks. And, violence against women, forced labor and human trafficking of young females continue. Janet Walsh is an official of the organization Human Rights Watch. She says many nations that approved the treaty accept mistreatment of women as normal. "These governments," she says, "see human rights violations against women as private family or cultural issues." Experts point to Russia as one example. A report by the human rights group Amnesty International says about nine thousand women in Russia are killed each year by a husband, partner or other family member. Amnesty International worker Friederike Behr says Russian officials are doing little to solve the problem. She says they do not recognize violence in the family as a serious crime. Ms Behr says that Russia needs to pass criminal laws that recognize violence against women as a violation of human rights. Experts say violence against women in their homes is a serious problem in Pakistan as well. Such domestic violence is considered culturally acceptable and a personal issue. Human Rights Watch says that Pakistani women struggle in other ways as well. Girls are forced into marriages, young women are kept out of school, and men have complete control over their families. Experts say hundreds of Pakistani women are murdered every year by their families. They are victims of so-called honor killings. They are suspected of doing something to dishonor their families, such as having a sexual relationship. The women are either killed or injured so severely that they are forced to leave their families. The Pakistani government has declared honor killings a crime punishable by death. It has also taken steps to protect women who marry against their parents'' wishes. Human rights activists in Pakistan have also launched a campaign against a severe Islamic law known as the Hudood Ordinance. Under this law, women who fail to prove that they have been raped face criminal charges. Women''s rights activists say the law protects rapists and punishes victims. They say the law has sent more than twenty thousand mostly innocent women to prison. However, religious groups in Pakistan oppose any changes to the law. They say it protects traditional Islamic values. Islamic traditions have influenced women''s rights in the Middle East as well. For example, Sheikha Yousef Hasan Al Gerifi was campaigning for city council in Qatar. Her family refused to let her put pictures of herself in campaign information. Most Qatari women cover themselves, including their faces, when they appear in public. But she won her election anyway. However, most women in Arab nations have a very hard time getting elected. In Bahrain, for example, thirty-nine women ran for local and national office in two thousand two. Not a single woman was elected. Political scientist Hala Mustafa at the Al-Ahram Foundation in Egypt says few Arab countries have a sizeable number of women in government. But, small changes are beginning. In Egyptian parliamentary elections last year, only four female candidates were elected. President Hosni Mubarak increased the total number of women in parliament by giving them five of the ten appointed seats after the election. In Kuwait, women were given the right to vote for the first time in May. Their first election will be next year. Women''s rights activists say they are excited that women''s voices will finally be heard through their votes. Yet, they say they do not expect much to come of it. Change is also starting to happen in Jordan. Two years ago, the government approved a measure to guarantee that at least six women were elected to parliament. Morocco and Algeria have high numbers of women in parliament compared to other countries in the area. The fight for a political voice and equal rights for women in Africa is also gaining strength. In January, Liberia swore in its first elected female leader. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf says one of her goals is to guarantee that men who sexually attack women are punished. Liberia''s temporary parliament took steps in this direction recently by passing a rape law. It calls for sentences of between seven years and life in jail depending on the seriousness of the crime. Rape is also a serious problem in refugee camps in other countries, including Ivory Coast. Women''s rights activists there say the camps are not secure. So women become victims of sexual crimes in the one place they are seeking safety. In Kenya and Uganda, the lives of women are linked to their husbands. Laws in these countries give women the right to own and control land and property. Yet, tradition and custom often prevent them from receiving what is rightfully theirs. When a woman''s husband dies, his relatives often seize the land and possessions. The woman is forced to leave her home. In cases when a marriage ends, joint property is not evenly divided. Often, the man claims everything. Women''s activists in Africa are trying to change this. Women in the United States have an easier time owning property. They also have more educational, professional and political choices than in the past. Yet, they still face struggles in the fight for equality. Susan Scanlan heads the National Council of Women''s Organizations. She says the average American woman has a high school education but did not go to college. She owns a house with her husband and has a job to help support her family. In addition to working away from her home, she is also the main caregiver of children at home. The average woman in the United States often cannot pay for health insurance. She is also concerned about having enough money to live after she retires. American women are generally paid less than men. Sociology Professor Robert Jackson of New York University has written on women''s issues. He says that American women have more legal rights and a better chance to succeed now than in the late nineteenth century. Considerable progress was made during the women''s movement in the nineteen sixties. At that time, more and more females entered college and started jobs. Professor Jackson believes that pressure from increasingly educated and skilled women now will lead to more equality in the United States. But around the world, the struggle for women''s rights and equality is progressing slowly. Women are about half the population in the world. But experts wonder if they will ever have social, financial, legal, political and professional equality with men.

阅读理解"We are about to lay off approximately 300 well-qualified people in a broad range of engineering and support disciplines... If you are interested in reviewing the resumes of some of those affected, we invite you to send along a list of your requirements." This is part of a letter recently sent from a Philadelphia-based division of a General Electric (GE) company to 1,200 personnel managers across the United States. The GE division decided to lay off 300 professional and skilled workers because of decreased work contracts from government and private organizations. While GE could have simply laid off the workers, they also decided to help the workers get new jobs. Management developed a very comprehensive program "to help place its workers with other companies, to help them continue in jobs with other divisions of General Electric, or to begin entirely new careers." In addition to the mass mailings of letters to 1,200 nationally based personnel managers, other actions GE took were: 1) The following ad was placed in the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer: "A message to corporate recruiters seeking people skilled in a different disciplines," the ad headline read. "We invite you to match your company''s personnel needs to technical employees." 2) An employee placement representative was assigned to each "lack-of-work" employee to review his or her goals; help prepare a resume that best re-resented individual goals, talents, and experience; and provide assistance in seeking out and following through on employment opportunities. 3) Telephones were made available to all affected employees, and GE''s rational dial-comm telephone network provided long-distance service. 4) Copies of local and major out-of-town newspapers and other sources of job openings were sup- plied to give the job hunters additional targets for resumes.

阅读理解What is the finding of the studies about companies committed to environmental goals?

阅读理解Banking is about money; and no other familiar commodity arouses such excesses of passion and disgust. Nor is there any other about which more nonsense is talked. The type of thing that comes to mind is not what is normally called economic, which is inexact rather than senseless, and only in the same way as all sciences are at the point where they try to predict people''s behavior and its consequences. Indeed most social sciences and, for example, medicine could probably be described in the same way. However, it is common to hear assertions of the kind "if you were exiled to a desert island a few seed potatoes would be more useful to you than a million pounds" as though this proved something important about money except the undeniable fact that it would not be much use to anyone in a situation where very few of us are at all likely to find ourselves. Money in fact is a token, or symbolic object, exchangeable on demand by its holders for goods and services, its use for these purposes is universal except within a small number of primitive agricultural communities. Money and the price mechanism, i.e., the changes in prices expressed in money terms of different goods and services, are the means by which all modern societies regulate demand and supply for these things. Especially important are the relative changes in price of different goods and services compared with each other. To take random examples: the price of the house-building has over the past five years risen a good deal faster than that of domestic appliances like refrigerators, but slower than that of motor insurance or French Impressionist paintings. This fact has complex implications for students of the brick industry, trade unionism, town planning, insurance companies, fine-arts auctions, and politics. Unpacking these implications is what economics is about, but their implications for bankers are quite different. In general, in modern industrialized societies, prices of services or goods produced on a context requiring a high service-content(e, g., a meal in a restaurant) are likely to rise in price more rapidly than goods capable of mass-production on a large scale. It is also a characteristic of highly-developed economies that the number of workers employed in service industries tends to rise and that of workers employed in manufacturing to fall. The discomfort truth causes the big general trade unions as they contrast their own situation with that of the rapidly growing white- collar unions has been an important sources of tension in western political life for many years and is likely to remain so for many more.

阅读理解What does Mannaz say about the current management style?

阅读理解Many examples show the basic laws of imperial capitalism no longer apply in present-day America.

阅读理解Convenient academic schedules with more-focused, less-expensive degrees will be more attractive to .

阅读理解What can we infer from the last paragraph?

阅读理解Mario DeLiberty had been living a small businessman''s dream. Twenty-one years ago he opened up the Westgate Pub in Havertown, Pennsylvania, after buying a seedy (破烂的) bar—"a real trash can, everything covered in grease and nicotine," he says—and turning it into a spiffy (整洁的) family restaurant. But one day last year DeLiberty opened his mail and learned he was being sued. A group called the American Disability Institute said DeLiberty''s pub failed to comply with the federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires that businesses be accessible to the handicapped. Some of the alleged violations at the Westgate Pub were laughable: a toilet that was supposed to hang 18 inches from a wall was only 17 inches away, for instance. Others were off the mark. The suit complained that Westgate''s parking lot had no handicapped space—but DeLiberty says the lot is run by the local township. Meanwhile, he had served handicapped patrons for years, letting one customer regularly bring in his Seeing Eye dog, and never heard a complaint. Moreover, DeLiberty would have been willing to make any necessary changes if given the chance. He wasn''t. The message of the letter, he says, was clear: "We will close you down." There was one possible way out, though. DeLiberty could settle the case for $2,100. Worried about an expensive legal battle, he bargained down to $1,600 and paid up. And that was it. "I never heard from them again," he says. Before long, DeLiberty learned he was one of dozens of local businesses targeted this way. The founder of the American Disability Institute, who is a retired dentist, told the local newspaper that he planned to file more than 5,000 similar suits, potentially reaping millions of dollars in settlements. "They throw fear into you," DeLiberty says. "The fear that all the blood, sweat and tears you''ve put into your business is going to go down the drain." Welcome to one of the seediest (肮脏的) legal ruses (花招) going. In recent years, a number of profiteers have used the ADA to blindside (攻其无防备之处) thousands of small businesses nationwide. They demand four-or five-figure settlements over problems that may cost a few hundred dollars to fix. The targeted businesses often receive no warning, and once the lawyers have been paid, they can disappear as fast as they came. Some say that it''s little more than a slick protection racket (非法勾当). The scheme works because business owners are scared of litigation (诉讼). It takes deep pockets to fight back, as actor Clint Eastwood discovered when he faced an ADA suit against his inn in Carmel, California. In the end, a jury decided he didn''t owe the complainant a cent, yet Eastwood''s costly defense took close to four years. The shameful thing is mat money-hungry attorneys are corrupting a law meant to help the most vulnerable among us. The ADA was enacted in 1990 to protect America''s 50 million disabled people from job discrimination and to require efforts to make public places accessible to them. But the access part of the law is extremely complicated—many would say over the top—detailing everything from countertop heights to mirror placement. Bathrooms alone may have to meet dozens of specifications. Even the most diligent person can fail to follow every rule, thereby inviting shakedown (勒索) artists to ply their trade. Just last year, the Pennsylvania law firm of Brodsky & Smith filed more than 100 ADA suits mere and in New Jersey. In Florida, the Miami firm Fuller, Mallah & Associates racked up more than 700 lawsuits from 1998 to 2001. Another Florida lawyer, Robert Bogdan, helped start an outfit called Citizens Concerned About Disability Access before unleashing his own slew (许多) of lawsuits. No business, from a mom-and-pop store to a big chain, is safe. One suit in Lake Worth, Florida, named a wheelchair store whose owners are disabled. Another targeted a strip club whose private lap-dance room was up a flight of stairs. And the list is growing, with suits springing up in at least 29 states. The ADA-lawsuit king may be George Louie of Oakland, California, who claims to have filed 300 in one two-week period in 2002. A typical Louie settlement offer demands up to $10,000—enough to break the back of a small business owner. According to Walter K. Olson, writing in City Journal, some of Louie''s settlements have totaled as much as $100,000. Louie has no sympathy for the businesses he targets, saying they''ve had years to comply with ADA rules. "You know that if you go in and rob a bank you can''t claim ignorance of the law," he argues. Bank robbery? Exactly who is robbing whom? Because the ADA''s rules can be so complex, "small businesses might not be aware of the requirements," says Mariana Nork of the 80,000-member American Association of People With Disabilities. "We advocate giving them a chance, telling them what the right thing to do is." But for ambush-artists like Louie, fair warning might mean no profit. "I call it drive-by litigation," says Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida. "They''re not looking for compliance, just a financial settlement. " Foley is now pushing a bill to require 90 days'' advance notice before any ADA lawsuit. They can''t crack down soon enough for DeLiberty. "This is legalized extortion (敲诈)," he says. "These guys are just thieves with suits on. "

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