Global LanguageI. WHAT? Learned and spoken internationally 【T1】______:【T1】______- the number of native and second language speakers-【T2】_____ distribution【T2】______- the use in international organizations and in【T3】_____【T3】______ Lingua franca: spoken by those who wield powere.g.【T4】_____ in the Roman Empire【T4】______ A global language- the political power of its native speakers- the economic power to maintain and expand its positionII. WHY? The modern global village Modern【T5】_____【T5】______ Globalized trade 【T6】_____【T6】______ The emergence of large international bodiesIII. GOOD OR NOT? Global language vs. minority languages- A direct threat in areas where the global languageis the【T7】_____ language【T7】______- Galvanize and strengthen movements to support and protectminority languages e.g. Welsh in Wales,【T8】_____【T8】______ Natural speakers of the global language may be at an unfair advantageover【T9】_____ speakers【T9】______ The exclusion of other languages may be a threat tothe ideas of【T10】_____【T10】______ Linguistic complacencyIV. ENGLISH? The most widely spoken language in the fields ofa)businessb)academicsc)educationd)politicse)sciencef)【T11】_____, etc.【T11】______- The UN- 85% of international organizations: one of official languages-【T12】_____ of international organizations: English only【T12】______-【T13】_____ among Asian: English only【T13】______ Reasons- Initiation: British【T14】_____ and industrial power【T14】______between the 17th and 20th Centuries- Consolidation: American dominance in economy and【T15】_____【T15】______

A folk culture is small isolated, cohesive, conservative, nearly self-sufficient group that is homogeneous in custom and race with a strong family or clan structure and highly developed rituals.

[此试题无题干]

When the Viaduct de Millau opened in the south of France in 2004, this tallest bridge in the world won worldwide compliments. German newspapers described how it "floated above the clouds" with "elegance and lightness" and "breathtaking" beauty. In France, papers praised the "immense concrete giant". Was it mere coincidence that the Germans saw beauty where the French saw heft and power? Lera Boroditsky thinks not. A psychologist at Stanford University, she has long been intrigued by an age-old question whose modern form dates to 1956, when linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf asked whether the language we speak shapes the way we think and see the world. If so, then language is not merely a means of expressing thought, but a constraint on it, too. Although philosophers, anthropologists, and others have weighed in, with most concluding that language does not shape thought in any significant way, the field has been notable for a distressing lack of empiricism—as in testable hypotheses and actual data. That's where Boroditsky comes in. In a series of clever experiments guided by pointed questions, she is amassing evidence that, yes, language shapes thought. The effect is powerful enough, she says, that "the private mental lives of speakers of different languages may differ dramatically," not only when they are thinking in order to speak, "but in all manner of cognitive tasks," including basic sensory perception. "Even a small fluke of grammar"—the gender of nouns—"can have an effect on how people think about things in the world," she says. As in that bridge, in German, the noun for bridge, Brucke, is feminine. In French, pont is masculine. German speakers saw female features; French speakers, masculine ones. Similarly, Germans describe keys (Schlussel) with words such as hard, heavy, jagged, and metal, while to Spaniards keys (Haves) are golden, intricate, little, and lovely. Guess which language interprets key as masculine and which as feminine? Language even shapes what we see. People have a better memory for colors if different shades have distinct names—not English's light blue and dark blue, for instance, but Russian's goluboy and sinly. Skeptics of the language-shapes-thought claim have argued that that's a trivial finding, showing only that people remember what they saw in both a visual form and a verbal one, but not proving that they actually see the hues differently. In an ingenious experiment, however, Boroditsky and colleagues showed volunteers three color swatches and asked them which of the bottom two was the same as the top one. Native Russian speakers were faster than English speakers when the colors had distinct names, suggesting that having a name for something allows you to perceive it more sharply. Similarly, Korean uses one word for "in" when one object is in another snugly (a letter in an envelope), and a different one when an object is in something loosely (an apple in a bowl). Sure enough, Korean adults are better than English speakers at distinguishing tight fit from loose fit. In Australia, the Aboriginal Kuuk Thaayorre use compass directions for every spatial cue rather than right or left, leading to locutions such as "there is an ant on your southeast leg. " The Kuuk Thaayorre are also much more skillful than English speakers at dead reckoning, even in unfamiliar surroundings or strange buildings. Their language "equips them to perform navigational feats once thought beyond human capabilities," Boroditsky wrote on Edge.org. Science has only scratched the surface of how language affects thought. In Russian, verb forms indicate whether the action was completed or not—as in "she ate (and finished)the pizza." In Turkish, verbs indicate whether the action was observed or merely rumored. Boroditsky would love to run an experiment testing whether native Russian speakers are better than others at noticing if an action is completed, and if Turks have a heightened sensitivity to fact versus hearsay. Similarly, while English says "she broke the bowl," even if it smashed accidentally (she dropped something on it, say), Spanish and Japanese describe the same event more like "the bowl broke itself. "" When we show people video of the same event," says Boroditsky, " English speakers remember who was to blame even in an accident, but Spanish and Japanese speakers remember it less well than they do intentional actions. It raises questions about whether language affects even something as basic as how we construct our ideas of causality. "

Smog has been a national fixation of China. The government has declared "war" on air pollution. However, economic growth means more production and consumption of energy, which means more emission of gases related to the pollution. What measures should be taken to improve the air quality is under heated discussion. The following is a report about the cost of clean air. Read the excerpt carefully and write your response in about 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the news report; 2. give your comment. Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks. The Cost of Clean Air Measures to combat air pollution are biting hard in industrial areas already hit by an economic slowdown. Last year on a typically smoggy day in Beijing, Chinese government declared "war" on air pollution—a problem that has become a national fixation. Smog remains a grave danger in most Chinese cities, but environmental measures are beginning to show teeth. Regulators in the most polluted provinces are ordering mass closures of offending enterprises. In some areas officials are being punished for failing to control pollution. Policymakers are placing less emphasis on GDP growth—long an obsession of officials at all levels of government—and talking up greenness. The transformation will be painful. China's new toughness on polluting quarries, mills and factories coincides with an economic slowdown that will make it harder to create new jobs for those laid off. Slower growth is in line with the government's efforts to curb wasteful investment, and with it a dangerous buildup of debt. The slowdown also happens to be helpful in curtailing pollution; China's consumption of coal, a huge contributor to smog as well as to climate-change emissions, fell slightly in 2014 after 14 years of growth. The war is especially bloody in Hebei, which is blamed for much of the smog in Beijing. Keeping the air of the capital clean is a political priority. Dutifully, Hebei, which surrounds Beijing, has been trying to clean up. Since the beginning of 2013 it has reported closing down 18,000 polluting factories. In January Hebei Daily, a state-run newspaper, said that in Mancheng county, to which Shijing township belongs, 37 rock quarries and rubble pits had been shut. Hebei's economy has suffered. Until 2014 real GDP growth in the province had outpaced national GDP growth for all but one year since 2000. But as China's GDP growth slowed from 7.7% in 2013 to 7.4% last year, Hebei's fell much more sharply, from 8.2% to 6. 5% , according to official figures. The slowdown in Hebei's industrial sector last year was particularly severe, from 10% growth in 2013 to just 5.1% last year, compared with a much gentler decline nationwide from 9.7% to 8. 3%. The closures may be having some effect. The environmental ministry reported that in the region encompassing Beijing, Hebei and the city of Tianjin the average level in the air of PM2. 5 , the smallest measured particles which are most harmful to health, was 93 micrograms per cubic metre last year, down from 106 in 2013. In Beijing itself the level dropped by 4%, to 85. 9 micrograms per cubic metre. A daily level above 35 micrograms per cubic metre is considered unsafe. Beijing's is sometimes above 500. Farther from Beijing, in places where the anxieties of leaders in the capital are felt less keenly, some officials have been trying to shift attention away from the polluting industries that keep people in work. In November a senior planning official said China would have clear skies by 2030, when carbon emissions are also expected to reach their peak. But public resentment will be slow to ebb. Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.

Cross Cultural AdvertisingA successful cross cultural advertising campaign largely depends on effective cross cultural communication, which requires a deep understanding of a particular culture. There are several areas of cross cultural differences that are important to advertising.I. Language in cross cultural advertisinga)【T1】_____ of company or product names and slogans【T1】______Ford's introduction of "Pinto" in【T2】_____【T2】______b)Cultural【T3】_____ must also be analysed【T3】______II. 【T4】______in cross cultural advertising【T4】______a)Aim: potential customers can【T5】______the ads【T5】______b)Examples:【T6】_____: USA【T6】______— Assume that listeners are【T7】_____ background information【T7】______Implicit communicator Japan— Assume that listeners are well informedIII. Colours, numbers and images in cross cultural advertising1. Colours:a)Lucky colours: red in Chinab)Unlucky colours:【T8】_____ in Japan【T8】______c)Colours having【T9】_____:【T9】______Green in IslamColours with tribal associations in Africa2. Numbers:a)13 is unlucky in USA or UKb)【T10】_____ are unlucky in Japan【T10】______3. Images:— Bikinis are commonplace in London but【T11】_____in Middle East【T11】______IV. 【T12】______in cross cultural advertising【T12】______a)【T13】_____【T13】______b)【T14】_____ society【T14】______— Stress the word "I"c)【T15】_____ and hierarchical societies【T15】______— Avoid rebelliousness or lack of respect for authorityd)Political or economic ideology

A recent article indicated that business schools were going to encourage the study of ethics as part of the curriculum. If graduate schools have to discover ethics, then we are truly in serious trouble. I no more believe that ethics can be taught past the age of 10 than I believe in the teaching of so-called creative writing. There are some things that you are born with, or they are taught by your parents, your priest or your grade-school teacher, but not in college or in graduate school. I believe that businesses should go back to basics in recruiting, should forget about the business schools and recruit the best young liberal arts students we can find. The issue of ethics, both in business and in politics, takes on a sharper focus in the money culture of a service economy than in our earlier industrial days. For the businessmen and the politicians, virtually the only discipline that can be applied is ethical. Financial scandals are not new, nor is political corruption. However, the potential profit, and the ease with which they can be made from insider trading, market manipulation, conflict-of-interest transactions and many other illegal or unethical activities are too great and too pervasive to be ignored. At the same time, those institutions that historically provided the ethical basis to the society—the family, the church and the primary school—are getting weaker and weaker. Hence, our dilemma. The application of ethics, as well as overall judgment, is made even more difficult by the increasing application of rapidly changing technology to major problems in our society. How does a layman deal with the questions raised by "Star Wars", genetic engineering, AIDS and the myriad issues relating to the availability and affordability of life-saving drugs and other medical technology? It is clear that one cannot abdicate to the technocrats the responsibility of making judgment on these issues. Two important risks accompany the discarding of our value system when dealing with a money culture and high technology. The first risk is that more people will turn to radical religion and politics. People always search for frameworks that provide a certain amount of support. If they do not find it in their family, in their school, in their traditional church or in themselves, they will turn to more absolute solutions. The second risk is the polarization of society. We have created hundreds of paper millionaires and quite a few billionaires. But alongside the wealth and glamour of Manhattan and Beverly Hills, we have seen the growth of a semipermanent or permanent underclass. The most important function of higher education is to equip the individual with the capacity to compete and to fulfill his or her destiny. A critically important part of this capacity is the ability to critically evaluate a political process that is badly in need of greater public participation. This raises the issue of teaching ethics in graduate schools. Ethics is a moral compass. Ideally, it should coincide with enlightened self-interest, not only to avoid jail in the short run but to avoid social upheaval in the long run. It must be embedded early, at home, in grade school, in church. It is highly personal. I doubt it can be taught in college. Yet what is desperately needed in an increasingly complex world dominated by technicians is the skepticism and the sense of history that a liberal arts education provides. History, philosophy, logic, English, and literature are more important to deal with today's problems than great technical competence. These skills must combine with an ethical sense acquired early in life to provide the framework needed to make difficult judgments. We most certainly need the creativity of great scientific minds. But all of us cannot be technical experts, nor do we need to be. In the last analysis, only judgment, tempered by a sense of history and a healthy skepticism of cant and ideology will give us the wherewithal to make difficult choices.

In recent years, it is not uncommon that a college degree can not earn a college graduate a decent job while skilled workers from vocational schools are gaining in popularity with employers. The following is an article about this issue. Read it carefully and write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize the article briefly, and then 2. express your opinion towards whether university education should be vocation-oriented. I saw an interview with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz where he announced that the company would pay for most employees to get a degree online from Arizona State University. This seems like a benefit few of the company's employees would need. Aren't most of their baristas (咖啡师) already people with worthless degrees? The type I've described as Generation U (unemployed and underemployed). But it seems that Mr. Schultz is just echoing a sentiment that suggests that a college degree is required for most people to have a good career. This starts at the very top in America — the White House's education imperative states that "Earning a post-secondary degree or credential is a prerequisite for 21st century jobs." But the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS) estimates that only 27 percent of jobs in the U.S. economy currently require a college degree. By comparison, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that 47 percent of workers today have an associate degree or higher. But the BLS projects that the proportion of jobs requiring a college degree will barely change — increasing to only 27.1 percent by 2022. Even the most optimistic projection — a study from Georgetown University, projects that at most 35 percent of jobs will require a college degree by 2020. While we're pushing more people to get college degrees, we're also facing a worsening shortage of skilled workers in many categories that don't require a college degree. In manufacturing, as many as 600,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs remained vacant across the U.S. due to shortages of skilled workers, according to the Manufacturing Institute's most recent "skills gap" report. This situation exists across all categories of trades. A study by Manpower Group shows that the hardest segment of the workforce for employers to staff with skilled talent are the skilled trades — the welders, electricians, etc. who are so prevalent in manufacturing and construction. The hourly pay for a manufacturing worker is almost $24, compared to about $9 for a barista at Starbucks. Given that spread, one would think more people would seek work in manufacturing than settle for a job making coffee. But we've managed to create a culture where a college degree is supposedly a magical ticket to the good life, while vocational education is something to be sneered at. Consequently we now have the average college grad carrying a debt of almost $30,000 upon graduation and outstanding student loans of over a trillion dollars. Even among those opting for college about a third pick majors that have very poor job prospects, including social sciences (11 percent), education (6 percent), psychology (7 percent), and visual and performing arts (6 percent). By contrast, only 2.4 percent pick computer science, 5 percent choose engineering, ;and 1.4 percent graduate with degrees in the physical sciences. Yet, we do everything possible to encourage people to go to college. The federal Pell Grant program in the U.S. intended to help low and moderate-income students finance college — costs over $35 billion annually, though almost 40 percent of Pell Grant recipients never graduate.

(1)"Masterpieces are dumb." wrote Flaubert. "They have a tranquil aspect like the very products of nature, like large animals and mountains." He might have been thinking of War and Peace, that vast, silent work, unfathomable and simple, provoking endless questions through the majesty of its being. Tolstoy's simplicity is "overpowering," says the critic Bayley, "disconcerting," because it comes from "his casual assumption that the world is as he sees it"; like other 19th century Russian writers he is "impressive" because he "means what he says." But he stands apart from all others and from most Western writers in his identity with life, which is so complete as to make us forget he is an artist. He is the center of his work, but his egocentricity is of a special kind. "Goethe, for example," says Bayley, "cared for nothing but himself." Tolstoy was nothing but himself. (2)For all his varied modes of writing and the multiplicity of characters in his fiction, Tolstoy and his work are of a piece. The famous "conversion" of his middle years, movingly recounted in his Confession, was a culmination of his early spiritual life, not a departure from it. The apparently fundamental changes that led from epic narrative to dogmatic parable, from a joyous, buoyant attitude toward life to pessimism and cynicism, from War and Peace to The Kreutzer Sonata, came from the same restless, impressionable depths of an independent spirit yearning to get at the truth of its experience. "Truth is my hero." wrote Tolstoy in his youth, reporting the fighting in Sebastopol. Truth remained his hero—his own, not others' truth. Others were awed by Napoleon, believed that a single man could change the destinies of nations, adhered to meaningless rituals, formed their tastes on established canons of art. Tolstoy reversed all preconceptions, and in every reversal he overthrew the "system", the "machine", the externally ordained belief, the conventional behavior in favor of unsystematic, impulsive life, of inward motivation and the solutions of independent thought. (3)In his work the artificial and genuine are always exhibited in dramatic opposition: the supposedly great Napoleon and the truly great, unregarded little Captain Tushin, or Nicholas Rostov's actual experience in battle and his later account for it. The simple is always pitted against the elaborate. Knowledge gained from observation against assertions of borrowed faiths. Tolstoy's magical simplicity is a produce of these tensions; his work is a record of the questions he put to himself and of his fiction exemplify this search, and their happiness depends on the measure of their answer. Tolstoy wanted happiness, but only hard-won happiness, that emotional fulfillment and intellectual clarity which could come only as the price of all-consuming effort. He scorned lesser satisfaction.

Passage Three

What is a symbol and how can you identify one in literature? A symbol typically encompasses both a【T1】______ and a figurative meaning. Unlike a【T2】______, a symbol is not necessarily a statement: a single word can evoke meaning and become a symbol. Being aware of【T3】______ in novels will increase your ability to read a work critically. Spring, for example, is often a symbol of【T4】______: conversely, winter often symbolizes a figurative death. Fitzgerald's short story Winter Dreams is heartbreakingly rendered from the outset by the symbolism of its title. We know that the harsh, symbolically loaded word "winter" offsets the fragility and hope of the word "dreams". Other common symbols include【T5】______, the Christian cross, the Star of David, and the Nazi swastika. The more symbols you are able to identify,【T6】______your critical interpretation will be.

The number of British universities offering specialist modern-language courses is in sharp decline. This collapse might be partly down to the rise of free translation software such as Google Translate. The following excerpt is about this issue. Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the article; 2. express your own opinion, especially whether automatic translation technology will eliminate foreign language learning. I hear more and more about automatic translation technology. Skype recently announced their Skype Translator Preview. This translation technology will make it possible for people to communicate via Skype across languages. Two people can speak two different languages, and the conversation is automatically translated for each person to hear in his or her own language. This technology is not surprising. Google Translate is already quite accurate for many languages, although not for all. The more closely related the languages are in vocabulary and structure, the more accurate the translations are. Recently, text-to-speech technology has greatly improved, enabling any text to be accurately voiced for someone to listen to. How is this likely to affect language learning? I recently did a Google search for articles on the subject and came across a blog post by a Benny the Irish Polyglot where he discusses a product called Vocre. Benny points out that these translations are not always reliable. To me, this is a minor problem. The quality of these translations can only improve over time, since they are based the accumulation of context examples of ever increasing quantity, and in this way the context based-accuracy improves. I already find that Google Translate is much better than it was, and usually serves my purpose. So I don't think that it is the accuracy of this technology that will be the main reason why it will not replace the need to learn languages. Rather it is because language learning is not just about learning to ask for directions and ordering beer. Language learning, in my opinion, is about connecting with a different language group, getting an insight into how these people think and getting exposure to their history and culture. This new automatic interpreting technology is helpful for situations like the ones that I will face in Myanmar and Vietnam as a tourist, where I don't speak the language, and very specific questions that I need to have answered. It is an interim communication tool. It is not a substitute for learning the language. On the contrary, if after visiting Vietnam and Myanmar, I find that one of these countries is sufficiently fascinating, I may very well want to learn the language in order to get closer to those people, their history and their culture. I may simply want to be able to interact naturally with speakers of those languages, not via some interpreting device. Just as the advent of the computer increased the consumption of paper, I tend to think that the introduction of this kind of technology will increase the interest of people in language learning, and not decrease it. It is a short-term bridge or crutch which enables communication across certain language barriers, but not a longer-term resource for really getting to know people and discovering other cultures. This new translation technology will again make our world smaller, bring people closer together, and as a result, people will want to take the next step in getting closer to people who share their world, and learn their language.

寂寞需要时间，也需要心情。面对生活节奏越来越快的现代人，寂寞似乎少有藏身之地。但是，寂寞却是深刻认识自我、凸现个性的必不可少的前提。不过，寂寞如酒，在长时间的封存和孤独中，不但没有消失它原有的火一般的烈性，反而增添了几分浓郁的芳香。它是人们心灵中的一粒生命旺盛的种子，在被世俗和骚动所忽视下，艰难而又坚强地、痛苦而又愉悦地孕育着生命的辉煌。

(1)I cry easily. I once burst into tears when the curtain came down on the Kirov Ballets "Swan Lake". I still choke up every time I see a film of Roger Bannister breaking the "impossible" four-minute mark for the mile. I figure I am moved by witnessing men and women at their best; but they need not be great men and women, doing great things. (2)Take the night, some years ago, when my wife and I were going to dinner at a friend's house in New York city. It was sleeting. As we hurried toward the house, with its welcoming light, I noticed a car pulling out from the curb. Just ahead, another car was waiting to back into the parking space—a rare commodity in crowded Manhattan. But before he could do so another car came up from behind, and sneaked into the spot. That's dirty pool, I thought; while my wife went ahead into our friend's house. I stepped into the street to give the guilty driver a piece of my mind. A man in work clothes rolled down the window. (3)"Hey," I said, "this parking space belongs to that guy," I gestured toward the man ahead, who was looking back angrily. I thought I was being a good Samaritan, I guess—and I remember that the moment I was feeling pretty manly in my new trench coat. (4)"Mind your own business!" me driver told me. (5)"No," I said. "You don't understand. That fellow was waiting to back into this space." Things quickly heated up, until finally he leaped out of the car. My God, he was colossal. He grabbed me and bent me back over the hood of his car as if I was a rag doll. The sleet stung my face. I glanced at the other driver, looking for help, but he gunned his engine and hightailed it out of there. (6)The huge man shook his rock of a fist of me, brushing my lip and cutting the inside of my mouth against my teeth. I tasted blood. I was terrified. He snarled and threatened, and then told me to beat it. Almost in a panic, I scrambled to my friend's front door. As a former Marine, as a man, I felt utterly humiliated. Seeing mat I was shaken, my wife and friends asked me what had happened. All I could bring myself to say was that I had had an argument about a parking space. They had me sensitivity to let it go at that. (7)I sat stunned. Perhaps half an hour later, the doorbell rang. My blood ran cold. For some reason I was sure that the bruiser had returned for me. My hostess got up to answer it, but I stopped her. I felt morally bound to answer it myself. (8)I walked down the hallway with dread. Yet I knew I had to face up to my fear. I opened the door. There he stood, towering. Behind him, the sleet came down harder than ever. (9)"I came back to apologize," he said in a low voice. "When I got home, I said to myself, what right I have to do that? I'm ashamed of myself. All I can tell you is that the Brooklyn Navy Yard is closing. I've worked there for years. And today I got laid off. I'm not myself. I hope you'll accept my apology." (10)I often remember that big man. I think of the effort and courage it took for him to come back to apologize. He was man at last. (11)And I remember that after I closed die door, my eyes blurred, as I stood in the hallway for a few moments alone.

我认为教师的待遇不好。

重庆，地处中国内陆之西南，属中亚热带季风气候，夏日阳光炽烈，故称“火炉”，城市依山而建，人谓“山城”，冬春云轻雾重，又号“雾都”。1937年，抗日战争爆发，南京失陷，国民政府西迁重庆，又把这里定为“陪都”。由于第二次世界大战中重庆在反法西斯战争中的重要地位，联合国总部那幅巨大的世界地图上，中国版图仅标出四座城市：北京、上海、南京、重庆。

In many countries, it is quite common that universities would assign students to share a dorm room. The following article discusses the roommate selection system in some universities in the US. Read it carefully and write your response in NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the author's opinion and then 2. express your opinion on whether college students should be allowed to choose their own roommates. College Housing Selection Process Should Let Students Choose Roommates Many college students have faced a roommate problem at some point in their lives. Why some universities would prohibit self-selection of roommates or assign roommates in order to get students "out of their comfort zone" is beyond me. University administrators need to be aware of the unintended consequences of such policies. Not allowing students to choose roommates interferes with the natural social relationships people build during their college years. According to a recent USA TODAY report, Stanford University students can't choose roommates nor do they learn who their roommates will be until move-in day. Entering freshmen who might know people going to Palo Alto in the fall are forced to make friends with random people when they move in, possibly negatively impacting their freshman year experience. Choosing roommate combinations that place different sorts of people together, can result in awkward living situations and unintended results. Most people like to choose the kinds of people they befriend. To pretend this does not continue after college in the "real world" is naive at best and somewhat dangerous. The tragic incident of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide just days after his roommate spied on him and bullied him, helps to prove the point that some people just don't get along with certain others. Forcing such people to coexist for at least a year can be harmful to both parties, and this policy should be pursued with caution. While creating combinations of students with different backgrounds might be what universities want, the students' preferences should still come first. Look at it this way: the student is a paying customer, using certain facilities and services—the university—with the expectation his or her experience will be an enjoyable one. Why sacrifice this in the name of artificial and forced cultural exposure? Students who like to be taken out of their comfort zones will definitely seek out opportunities to do this on their own. I believe Tech's roommate selection process is decent Students can choose specific roommates even as incoming freshmen. Students can also choose random roommates, within certain basic criteria such as a student's smoking habits and preferences of visitation hours. This works well enough, but could improve with the help of more selection factors. Rochester Institute of Technology will begin use a software program in order to match students with those who they are most compatible with. This approach ensures compatible people will have a chance to room together, making for, if nothing else, a more predictable freshman year.

(1) On July 7th, I was traveling in London. I was having breakfast at a hotel very near Liverpool Street Station when the first explosion was detonated. Hearing the sirens and seeing London's emergency personnel respond to the bombings brought back vivid memories of the events of Sept. 11, 2001. (2) People have not forgotten Sept. 11, 2001. Americans can still recall exactly where they were and what they were doing on that fateful day. But it's understandable that some remember it as historical fact, lacking the painful impact and immediacy they originally felt. If we allow a dimming of purpose—to eliminate terrorism—these terrorist attacks in London serve as another chilling reminder that we're still at war. (3) Something constructive emerges from these tragic, horrible and unexplainable attacks. It is the message that we must remain vigilant in opposing an enemy who intentionally targets innocent civilians. (4) Since Sept. 11, 2001, the civilized nations of the world have remained mostly united in opposing these despicable, wanton acts of terror. We have had some great successes in that effort. We have arrested perpetrators and plotters, and we have foiled planned attacks. We have reduced the power and scope of those who despise freedom and democracy. (5) The effort must continue. As we learned Thursday—and in Madrid and Bali—the enemies of freedom have not lost their resolve. We must not lose ours. (6) Ultimately, the only real defense from terrorist attacks; is being able to find out about them in advance. Intelligence gathering has improved but needs to be even stronger, including consistently improving human intelligence and patrol. Police and ordinary citizens must be alert and encouraged to convey information. (7) Once a terrorist incident does occur, there's no such thing as a perfect response. By definition, a terrorist attack means people are being hurt or killed. But by studying the response to past attacks, we can better prepare to handle those in the future. (8) London is one of the most secure cities in the world, steeped in years of dealing with terrorism. The city's preparation and resolve was evident on Thursday. I am very impressed by London's reaction to the bombings. Both the emergency personnel and the citizens seemed prepared. The first responders were rapid, well-directed, organized and professional, in accordance with obviously well-tested plans. (9) As for the citizens, at least a dozen people told me in one way or another, "We knew this was going to happen; it was just a question of when." (10) That is not only a realistic assessment; it also is a mindset that just might save lives. Political, business and community leaders are sometimes reluctant to talk about terrorism or stage drills to prepare their response because they don't want to frighten or upset people. But that's a mistake. People react to emergencies more effectively when they're not shocked by them. (11) Tony Blair and London Mayor Ken Livingstone have made preparedness a priority, and their efforts clearly paid off during Thursday's response to the attacks. (12) There's another benefit to preparing for terrorism in advance. Part of the damage the terrorists hope to inflict is the emotional reaction in the wake of the destruction. The reason it's called "terrorism" is that they want fear and its debilitating effects to linger long after the smoke has cleared. (13) By preparing citizens for the possibility of a terrorist attack, leaders can help minimize the emotional response in the wake of the destruction. (14) Finally, Thursday's attacks demonstrate that we must remain committed to confronting and eliminating terrorism. There are those who assert that the efforts to eliminate terror are somehow provoking the terrorists. That is wrong. The terrorists have been attacking innocent people long before Sept. 11, 2001, or the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq. (15) Seeing Prime Minister Blair speak so forcefully, with President Bush, President Jacques Chirac and other world leaders right behind him, was encouraging. Let's remember the unity the world shared after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. (16) Free nations can and will disagree. But let us always remember that free people must be steadfast and resilient in defending our way of life.

When overall exports exceed imports, a country said to have a trade surplus.