单选题What impact can mobile phones have on their users' health? Many people worry about the supposed ill effects caused by radiation from handsets and base stations, despite the lack of credible evidence of any harm. But evidence for the beneficial effects of mobile phones on health is rather more abundant. Indeed, a systematic review carried out by Rifat Atun and his colleagues at Imperial College, London, rounds up 150 examples of the use of text-messaging in the delivery of health care. These uses fall into three categories: efficiency gains; public-health gains; and direct benefits to patients by incorporating text-messaging into treatment regimes. The study, funded by Vodafone, the world's largest mobile operator, was published this week. Using texting to boost efficiency is not rocket science, but big savings can be achieved. Several trials carried out in England have found that the use of tenet-messaging reminders reduces the number of missed appointments with family doctors by 26—39%, for example, and the number of missed hospital appoint ments by 33—50%. If such schemes were rolled out nationally, this would translate into annual savings of￡256m—364m. Text messages are also being used to remind patients about blood tests, clinics, scans and dental appointments. Similar schemes in America, Norway and Sweden have had equally satisfying results though the use of text-message reminders in the Netherlands, where non-attendance rates are low, at 40%, had no effect other than to annoy patients. Text messages can also be a good way to disseminate public-health information, particularly to groups who are hard to reach by other means, such as teenagers, or in developing countries where other means of communication are unavailable. Text messages have been used in India to inform people about the World Health Organisation's strategy to control tuberculosis, for example, and in Kenya, Nigeria and Mall to provide information about HIV and malaria. In Iraq, text messages were used to support a campaign to vaccinate nearly 5m children against polio. Finally, there are the uses of text-messaging as part of a treatment regime. These involve sending re- minders to patients to take their medicine at the right time, or to encourage compliance with exercise regimes or efforts to stop smoking. The evidence for the effectiveness of such schemes is generally anecdotal, however, notes Dr. Rifat. More quantitative research is needed—which is why his team also published three papers this week looking at the use of mobile phones in health care in more detail. One of these papers, written in conjunction with Victoria Franklin and Stephen Greene of the University of Dundee, in Scotland, reports the results of a trial in which diabetic teenagers' treatment was backed up with text messaging. Diabetes needs constant management, and requires patients to take an active role in their treatment by measuring blood-sugar levels and administering insulin injections. The most effective form of therapy is an intensive regime in which patients adjust the dose of insulin depending on what they eat. This is more onerous for the patient, but allows for a greater dietary variety. Previous studies have shown that intensive treatment is effective only with close supervision by doctors. Dr. Franklin and her colleagues devised a system called Sweet Talk, which sends patients personalised text messages reminding them of the treatment goals they have set themselves, and allowing them to send questions to doctors. The Sweet Talk system was tested over a period of 18 months with teenage patients receiving both conventional and intensive diabetes treatment. A control group received conventional treatment and no text messages. The researchers found that the use of text-messaging significantly increased "self-efficacy" (the effectiveness of treatment, measured by questionnaire). More importantly, among patients receiving intensive therapy, the level of haemoglobin HbAlc--an indicator of blood-glucose and hence of glycaemic control--was 14% lower than for those in the control group. Since even a 10% decline in HbAlc level is associated with a reduction in complications such as eye and kidney problems, this is an impressive result. It suggests that texting can cheaply and effectively support intensive therapy among teenagers, who often demonstrate poor compliance. Despite such promising results, Dr. Rifat notes, many of the medical uses of text-messaging have not yet been subjected to clinical trials, because they are so new. And eyen where the benefits are proven, the technology has not been systematically deployed on a large scale. But when it comes to improving outcomes and reducing costs, text messages would seem to be just what the doctor ordered.

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单选题 Police in the popular resort city Virginia Beach recently began operating video surveillance cameras with controversial face recognition technology. Virginia Beach and Tampa in Florida two cities in the United States acquired the technology, which cost them $197,000. "Before we switched it on, we went through an extensive public education process with hearings and the involvement of citizen groups and minority groups, who helped write the policies we are using," said deputy police chief Greg Mullen. A citizens' auditing committee has the fight to perform unannounced spot checks on police headquarters to make sure the technology is not being misused. Three of the city's 13 cameras are linked full time to the face recognition system, though the others can be activited as needed. The database of wanted people is updated every day. So far, the system has failed to produce a single arrest, though it has generated a few false alarms. It works by analyzing faces based on a series of measurements, such as the distance from the tip of the nose to the chin or the space between the eyes. Critics say it is highly inaccurate and can be easily fooled. Mullen, who sees the system eventually being linked to the databases of other city, state and federal law enforcement agencies to track criticals and suspected terrorists, said, "The system doesn't look at skin color or your hair or your gender. It takes human prejudices out of the equation. " "This technology has little or no effect on the crime rate but it does have an effect on people's behavior. People feel cowed," said Bruce Steinhardt, who directs the technology. Despite the fact that tests have shown faces recognition only works in around 30% cases, the ACLU is alarmed that the technology may soon spread to airports. The organization also fears it could potentially be used to monitor individual's political activities to harass law-abiding citizens. "This kind of surveillance should be subject to the same procedures as wiretaps. Law enforcement agencies should justify why they need it and it should be tightly limited, otherwise it will soon become a tool of social control," said Mihir Kshisagar of the Electronic Information Privacy Center. Nor does such criticism come exclusively from the political left. Lawyer John Whitehead, founder of the conservative Rutherford Institute, wrote in an editorial that the technology threatened the right of each U.S. citizen to participate in society. "After all, that is exactly what constant surveillance is—the ultimate implied threat of coercion," he wrote.

单选题What critics are really worried about?

单选题Comparisons were drawn between the development of television in the 20th century and the diffusion of printing in the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet much had happened (21) . As was discussed before, it was not (22) the 19th century that the newspaper became the dominant pre-electronic (23) , following in the wake of the pamphlet and the book and in the (24) of the periodical. It was during the same time that the communications revolution (25) up, beginning with transport, the railway, and leading (26) through the telegraph, the telephone, radio, and motion pictures (27) the 20th-century world of the motor car and the air plane. Not everyone sees that process in (28) . It is important to do so. It is generally recognized, (29) , that the introduction of the computer in the early 20th century, (30) by the invention of the integrated circuit during the 1960s, radically changed the process, (31) its impact on the media was not immediately (32) . As time went by, computers became smaller and more powerful, and they became "personal" too, as well as (33) , with display becoming sharper and storage (34) increasing. They were thought of, like people, (35) generations, with the distance between generations much (36) . It was within the computer age that the term "information society" began to be widely used to describe the (37) within which we now live. The communications revolution has (38) both work and leisure and how we think and feel both about place and time, but there have been (39) view about its economic, political, social and cultural implications. "Benefits" have been weighed (40) "harmful" outcomes. And generalizations have proved difficult.

单选题The story of Snow White is used to

单选题Why do working conditions generally remain bad?

单选题{{B}}Passage 4{{/B}} Some cities grow very large because of two important reasons. First, there may be important natural resources like wood, gas, oil, rivers or harbors near or in the city. Natural resources like wood or oil can be brought to the city and made into products to sell. Other resources, like rivers or harbors help to send the city's products to other places to be sold. Second, the city may be located in a place where roads and rivers come together. This makes these cities good places to buy and sell goods. Houston is a city that grew large because it has two important natural resources. They are oil and a good harbor. The oil can be brought to Houston, made into different products, and shipped out of the harbor to other parts of the world. Chicago is a city that grew very large because of its location at a place where roads, railways, and airways meet. In Chicago, goods can be brought together from all over the country and bought and sold. Then the goods can be loaded into trucks, trains or planes and sent to wherever they are needed. Because of Chicago's location, many people live and work there.

单选题Theodore Dreiser is old-he is very, very old. I do not know how many years he has lived, perhaps forty, perhaps fifty, but he is very old. Something gray and bleak and hurtful, that has been in the world perhaps forever, is personified in him. When Dreiser is gone men shall write books, many of them, and in the books they shall write there will be so many of the qualities Dreiser lacks. The new, the younger men shall have a sense of humor, and everyone knows Dreiser has no sense of humor. More than that, American prose writers shall have grace, lightness of touch, a dream of beauty breaking through the husks of life. Those who follow him shall have many things that Dreiser does not have. That is a part of the wonder and beauty of Theodore Dreiser, the things that others shall have because of him. Long ago, when he was editor of the Delineator, Dreiser went one day, with a woman friend, to visit an orphan asylum. The woman once told me the story of that afternoon in the big, ugly gray building, folding and refolding his pocket-handkerchief and watching the children-all in their little uniforms, trooping in. "The tears ran down his cheeks and he shook his head", the woman said, and that is a real picture of Theodore Dreiser. He is old in spirit and he does not know what to do with life, so he tells about it as he sees it, simply and honestly. The tears run down his cheeks and he folds and refolds the pocket-handkerchief and shakes his head. Heavy, heavy, the feet of Theodore. How easy to pick some of his books to pieces, to laugh at him for so much of his heavy prose. The feet of Theodore are making a path, the heavy brutal feet. They are tramping through the wilderness of lies, making a path. Presently the path will be a street, with great arches overhead and delicately carved spires piercing the sky. Along the street will run children, shouting "Look at me. See what I and my fellows of the new day have done"-forgetting the heavy feet of Dreiser. The follows of the ink-pots, the prose writers in America who follow Dreiser, will have much-to do that has never done. Their road is long but, because of him, those who follow will never have to face the road through the wilderness of Puritan denial, the road that Dreiser faced alone. Heavy, heavy, hangs over they head. Fine, or superfine?

单选题How does Green Peace try to stop people from dumping nuclear waste?

单选题Mugging are most likely to occur ______.

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单选题It can be inferred that before the introduction of television, political parties