问答题As the importance of recycling becomes more apparent, questions about it linger. Is it worth the effort? How does it work? Is recycling waste just going into a landfill in China? Here are some answers. It is an awful lot of rubbish. Since 1960 the amount of municipal waste being collected in America has nearly tripled, reaching 245m tonnes in 2005. According to European Union statistics, the amount of municipal waste produced in western Europe increased by 23% between 1995 and 2003, to reach 577kg per person. (So much for the plan to reduce waste per person to 300kg by 2000.) As the volume of waste has increased, so have recycling efforts. In 1980 America recycled only 9.6% of its municipal rubbish; today the rate stands at 32%. A similar trend can be seen in Europe, where some countries, such as Austria and the Netherlands, now recycle 60% or more of their municipal waste. Britain"s recycling rate, at 27%, is low, but it is improving fast, having nearly doubled in the past three years. Even so, when a city introduces a kerbside recycling programme, the sight of all those recycling lorries trundling around can raise doubts about whether the collection and transportation of waste materials requires more energy than it saves. "We are constantly being asked: Is recycling worth doing on environmental grounds?" says Julian Parfitt, principal analyst at Waste and although incinerators are not as polluting as they once were, they still produce noxious emissions, so people dislike having them around.) But perhaps the most valuable benefit of recycling is the saving in energy and the reduction in greenhouse gases and pollution that result when scrap materials are substituted for virgin feed-stock. "If you can use recycled materials, you don"t have to mine ores, cut trees and drill for oil as much," says Jeffrey Morris of Sound Resource Management, a consulting firm based in Olympia, Washington. Extracting metals from ore, in particular, is extremely energy-intensive. Recycling aluminium, for example, can reduce energy consumption by as much as 95%. Savings for other materials are lower but still substantial: about 70% for plastics, 60% for steel, 40% for paper and 30% for glass. Recycling also reduces emissions of pollutants that can cause smog, acid rain and the contamination of waterways.

问答题{{B}}The North-South Conflict{{/B}} The North-South conflict derives its name from the simple fact that, almost without exception, the wealthy nations of the world are in the Northern Hemisphere and the poorer nations lie to their south. Generally speaking, the North consists of the United States, Canada, Europe excluding Albania, Israel, Russia and the other newly independent former Soviet republics (although this is a matter of debate), Japan, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The remaining states of the world, numbering over 110, are the South. The South has been and is described by many terms -- the Third World, the Developing World, and the Less Developed Countries (LDCs), to name just a few. Again speaking in general terms the countries of the South share two attributes: they have had a colonial past dominated by European powers and they are poor. Despite obtaining formal independence, many Developing World states have discovered to their chagrin that they remain economically and politically dependent on their former colonial masters. Trade ties and investment patterns established during decades of colonial rule were rarely terminated by the attainment of political sovereignty. From the viewpoint of Developing World countries, this economic dependence carried with it unavoidable political subservience. Thus, even though a Developing World state may have sought to establish its own political-economic independence, it could not. Such a relationship between former colonial metropolises and their former colonies is termed neocolonialism. Although interpretations of neocolonialism differ on a case-by-case and region-by-region basis, a unifying thrust of the South is to escape this neocolonial relationship. In part, the Developing World's desire to escape political-economic dependency explains its hostility toward both the West and Western institutions such as the World Bank and multinational corporations. Developing states often resent the World Bank's insistence that they provide full disclosure of financial data, and having had numerous occasions to witness the linkage between economic strength and political power, governments of the less developed states often were skeptical of the claim promulgated by Western state actors and non-state actors alike that no political concessions would be sought if investment opportunities were awarded. The South, then, was on the horns of a dilemma as it sought to achieve political-economic independence. Full political and economic independence could be achieved only if Developing World states could strengthen their economic autonomy. In most cases, however, that required increased reliance on external sources of finance and expertise. To many Developing World countries, such external economic reliance implied continued political dependence. Above all else, Developing World counties see their plight of poverty and dependence as the result of past colonial exploitation and current economic inequities in international trade, pricing, and exchange mechanisms. As a result, the South seeks both expanded aid from the North and a restructuring of the existing international economic order. In short, the South desires a New International Economic Order (NIEO).

问答题上世纪四十年代以来，我国的人口增长了200%。

问答题Artificial intelligence and virtual reality are two computer-related technologies that may cast a large shadow on education. Much of school planning may be done not by human agents but by programs created by human agents; and much of what was once accomplished by textbooks and occasional field trips will now be performed in virtual reality. One can ask: what is the truth value of materials prepared entirely by non-human entities? In a turnabout from previous trends, the acquisition of credentials may become less important. Individuals will be able to educate themselves (largely if not wholly) and to exhibit their mastery in a simulated setting. Why pay $120,000 to go to law school, if one can "read law" as in earlier times and then demonstrate one"s legal skills via computer simulation? Or learn to fly a plane by similar means, for that matter? Technology has revolutionized the world in which schools operate. Now it"s time for education to catch up to change.

问答题Last Friday an advisory panel to the European Environment Agency issued an extraordinary scientific opinion: The European Union should suspend its goal of having 10 percent of transportation fuel made from biofuel by 2020. The European Union"s biofuel targets were increased and extended from 5.75 percent by 2010 to 10 percent by 2020 just last year. Still, Europe"s well-meaning rush to biofuels, the scientists concluded, had produced a slew of harmful ripple effects—from deforestation in Southeast Asia to higher prices for grains. In a recommendation released last weekend, the 20-member panel, made up of some of Europe"s most distinguished climate scientists, called the 10 percent target "overambitious" and an "experiment" whose "unintended effects are difficult to predict and difficult to control." "The idea was that we felt we needed to slow down, to analyze the issue carefully and then come back at the problem," Laszlo Somlyody, the panel"s chairman and a professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, said in a telephone interview. He said that part of the problem was that when it set the targets, the European Union was trying desperately to solve the problem of rising transportation emissions "in isolation," without adequately studying the effects of other sectors like land use and food supply. "The starting point was correct: I"m happy that the European Union took the lead in cutting greenhouse gasses and we need to control traffic emissions," Somlyody said. "But the basic problem is it thought of transport alone, without considering all these other effects. And we don"t understand those very well yet." The panel"s advice is not binding and it is not clear whether the European Commission will follow the recommendation. It has become increasingly clear that the global pursuit of biofuels—encouraged by a rash of targets and subsides in both Europe and the United States—has not produced the desired effect. Investigations have shown, for example, rain forests and peat swamp are being cleared to make way for biofuel plantations, a process that produces more emissions than the biofuels can save. Equally concerning, land needed to produce food for people to eat is planted with more profitable biofuel crops, and water is diverted from the drinking supply. In Europe and the United States, food prices for items like pizza and bread have increased significantly as grain stores shrink and wheat prices rise. The prices of wheat and rice are double those of a year ago, and corn is a third higher, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said this week. "Food price inflation hits the poor hardest, as the share of food in their total expenditures is much higher than that of wealthier populations," said Henri Josserand of the Food and Agriculture Organization. For example, the European Environment Agency advisory panel suggests that the best use of plant biomass is not for transport fuel but to heat homes and generate electricity. To be useful for vehicles, plant matter must be distilled to a fuel and often transported long distances. To heat a home, it can often be used raw or with minimal processing, and moved just a short distance away.

问答题Tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

问答题The importance of agriculture cannot be overstated. Mom than 50 percent of the world's labor force is employed in agriculture. The distribution in the early 1980s ranged from 67 percent of those employed in Africa to less than 5 percent in North America. In Western Europe, the figure was about 16 percent; in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, about 32 percent; and in Asia, about 68 percent. Farm size varies widely from region to region. Recently the average for Canadian farms was about 186 ha (about 460 acres) per farm, and for U.S. farms, about 175 ha (about 432 acres). The average size of a single landholding in the Philippines, however, may be somewhat less than 3.6 ha (less than 9 acres), and in Indonesia, a little less than 1.2 ha (less than 3 acres). Size also depends on the purpose of the farm. Commercial farming, or production for cash, is usually done on large holdings. The plantations of Latin America are large, privately owned estates worked by tenant labor. Single-crop plantations produce tea, rubber, cocoa. Wheat farms are most efficient when they comprise some thousands of hectares and can be worked by teams of people and machines. Australian sheep stations and other livestock farms must be large to provide grazing for thousands of animals. Individual subsistence farms or small-family mixed-farm operations are decreasing in number in developed countries but are still numerous in the developing countries of Africa and Asia. A "back- to-the-land" movement in the U.S. reversed the decline of small farms in New England and Alaska in the decade from 1970 to 1980. The conditions that determine what will be raised in an area include climate, water supply, and terrain. Over the 10,000 years since agriculture began to be developed, peoples everywhere have discovered the food value of wild plants and animals and domesticated and bred them. The most important are cereals such as wheat, rice, barley, com and rye. Agricultural income is also derived from non-food crops such as rubber, fiber plants, tobacco, and oilseeds used in synthetic chemical compounds. Money is also derived from raising animals for pelt. Much of the foreign exchange earned by a country may be derived from a single commodity; for example, Sri Lanka depends on tea, Denmark specializes in dairy products, Australia in wool, and New Zealand and Argentina in meat products. In the U.S., wheat has become a major foreign exchange commodity in recent years. The importance of an individual country as an exporter of agricultural products depends on many variables. Among them is the possibility that the country is too little developed industrially to produce manufactured goods in sufficient quantity or technical sophistication. Such agricultural exporters include Ghana with cocoa, and Myanmar with rice. On the other hand, an exceptionally well-developed country may produce surpluses not needed by its own population; this has been true of the U.S., Canada, and some of the West European countries.

问答题Keeping the intricacies and complexities out of the picture, let us take the binary opposites of the rich and the poor in the global system.

问答题Large, multinational corporations may be the companies whose ups and downs seize headlines. 21 But to a far greater extent than most Americans realize, the economy"s vitality depends on the fortunes of tiny shops and restaurants, neighborhood services and factories. Small businesses, defined as those with fewer than 100 workers, now employ 60 percent of the workforce and are expected to generate haft of all new jobs between now and the year 2,000. Some 1.2 million small firms have opened their doors over the past 6 years of economic growth, and 1989 will see an additional 200,000 entrepreneurs striking off on their own. Too many of these pioneers, however, will blaze ahead unprepared. Idealists will overestimate the clamor for their products or fail to factor in the competition. Nearly everyone will underestimate, often fatally, the capital that success requires. 22 Midcareer executives, forced by a takeover or a restructuring to quit the corporation and find another way to support themselves, may savor(欣赏) the idea of being their own boss but may forget that entrepreneurs must also, at least for a while, be bookkeepers and receptionists, too. According to Small Business Administration data, 24 of every 100 businesses starting out today are likely to disappear in two years, and 27 more will have shut their doors four years from now. By 1995, more than 60 of those 100 start-ups will have folded. A new study of 3,000 small businesses, sponsored by American Express and the National Federation of Independent Business, suggests slightly better odds: three years after start-up, 77 percent of the companies surveyed were still alive. 23 Most credited their success in large part to having picked a business they already were comfortable in. Eighty percent had worked with the same product or service in their last jobs. Thinking through an enterprise before the launch is obviously critical. But many entrepreneurs forget that a firm"s health in its infancy may be little indication of how well it will age. You must tenderly monitor its pulse. In their zeal to expand, small business owners often ignore early warning signs of a stagnant market or of decaying profitability. 24 They hopefully pour more and more money into the enterprise, preferring not to acknowledge eroding profit margins that means the market for their ingenious service or product has evaporated, or that they must cut the payroll or vacate their lavish offices. Only when the financial well runs dry do they see the seriousness of the illness, and by then the patient is usually too far gone to save. Frequent checks of your firm"s vital signs will also guide you to a sensible rate of growth. 25 To snatch opportunity, you must spot the signals that it is time to conquer the new markets, add products or perhaps franchise your hot ideas.

问答题{{B}}农业加工业帮助提升中国农业发展{{/B}} 过去二十年，农产品加工业始终是中国农业发展的引擎，它使农民的腰包鼓了起来。 在改革开放的年代中，尤其是在20世纪最后五年，农业加工在国民经济中的重要性一直在稳步上升。 国家统计局数字显示，农产品加工业已成为最具活力的产业，其增长率名列国民经济中各产业之首。 过去十年中，农产品加工业平均年增长达到9.2%，高出当前国民经济的增长，该产业的增加值攀升到84.6%。 国家经贸委副主任欧新黔说，农业加工业的高速发展推动了中国农产品市场，促进了农业的总体进步。他还说，该产业的巨大进步成为推进国民经济发展的力量源泉。 加工农产品也给中国农民带来了更多的收入。越来越多的乡镇企业正在建立一种与当地农民利益共享的关系，这种关系不仅确保利润收入，而且同时降低了农业生产者的风险。 到目前为止，农业加工业已为全国农民创造了超过1500万个就业机会。 与此同时，该产业也正在加速中国农业的结构重组。 中国农业部部长杜青林指出，中国政府的目标在于建立一个安全可靠的农产品供应体系，一个加工产业体系，一个质量控制和安全体系，一个技术革新体系和一个符合WTO规则的政策支持体系。 杜部长说中国必须依靠这5个体系来拓展农业改革和农村经济的结构重组。 根据农业部乡镇企业局局长刘增胜的分析，建立以上五个体系将有助于逐步改变加入WTO后中国农业面临的严峻形势，并且提高中国农产品的竞争力。 我们相信，到2005年，农产品加工业将在国民经济中发挥更加重要的作用，随着区域资源的不断优化，中国一定能够以新的活力参与国际竞争。

问答题{{B}}Power and Cooperation: An American Foreign Policy for the Age of Global Politics{{/B}} The age of geopolitics in American foreign policy is over; the age of global politics has begun. Throughout the twentieth century, traditional geopolitics drove U. S. thinking on foreign affairs: American security depended on preventing any one country from achieving dominion over the Eurasian landmass. That objective was achieved with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now the United States finds itself confronting a new international environment, one without a peer competitor but that nonetheless presents serious threats to American security. The terrorists who struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon neither represented a traditional state-based threat nor were fled to a specific geographical location. Nevertheless, nineteen people with just a few hundred thousand dollars succeeded in harming the most powerful nation on earth. For more than three centuries, the dynamics of world politics was determined by the interplay among states, especially the great powers. Today, world politics is shaped by two unprecedented phenomena that are in some tension with each other. One is the sheer predominance of the United States. Today, as never before, what matters most in international politics is how -- and whether -- Washington acts on any given issue. The other is globalization, which has unleashed economic, political, and social forces that are beyond the capacity of any one country, including the United States, to control. American primacy and globalization bring the United States great rewards as well as great dangers. Primacy gives Washington an unsurpassed ability to get its way in international affairs, while globalization enriches the American economy and spreads American values. But America's great power and the penetration of its culture, products, and influence deep into other societies breed intense resentment and grievances. Great power and great wealth do not necessarily produce greater respect or greater security. American leaders and the American people are now grappling with the double-edged sword that is the age of global politics.

问答题突尼卡县(Tunica)曾经是密西西比州最贫苦的县，现在它却拥有八个赌场和一个大型娱乐中心。

问答题 1 The increase in international business and in foreign investment has created a need for executives with knowledge of foreign languages and skills in cross-cultural communication. Americans, however, have not been well trained in either area and, consequently, have not enjoyed the same level of success in negotiation in all international arena as have their foreign counterparts. Negotiating is the process of communicating back and forth for the purpose of reaching an agreement. 2 It involves persuasion and compromise, but in order to participate in either one, the negotiators must understand the ways in which people are persuaded and how compromise is reached within the culture of the negotiation. In many international business negotiations abroad, Americans are perceived as wealthy and impersonal. 3 It often appears to the foreign negotiator that the American represents a large multimillion-dollar corporation that can afford to pay the price without bargaining further. The American negotiator"s role becomes that of an impersonal surveyor of information and cash. In studies of American negotiators abroad, several traits have been identified that may serve to confirm this stereotypical perception, while undermining the negotiator"s position. 4 Two traits in particular that cause cross-cultural misunderstanding are directness and impatience on the part of the American negotiator. Furthermore, American negotiators often insist on realizing short-term benefits. Foreign negotiators, on the other hand, may value the relationship established between negotiators and may be willing to invest time in it for long-term benefits. 5 In order to solidify the relationship, they may opt for indirect interactions without regard for the time involved in getting to know the other negotiator. Clearly, perceptions and differences in values affect the outcomes of negotiations and the success for negotiators. For Americans to play a more effective role in international business negotiations, they must put forth more effort to improve cross-cultural understanding.

问答题Everybody has a responsibility to the society of which he is a part and through this to mankind.

问答题姑娘有点不好意思了，脸上泛着红潮。

问答题When a new movement in art attains a certain fashion, it is advisable to find out what its advocates are aiming at, for, however farfetched and unreasonable their principles may seem today, it is possible that in years to come they may be regarded as normal. With regard to Futurist poetry, however, the case is rather difficult, tor whatever Futurist poetry may be even admitting that the theory on which it is based may be right, it can hardly be classed as Literature. This, in brief, is what the Futurist says. Over one century, the life situation in the past had been changed rapidly. And now, we live in the world which is full of noise, violence and speed. Consequently, our feelings, thoughts and emotions have undergone a corresponding change. This speeding up of life, says the Futurist, requires a new form of expression. We must speed up our literature too, if we want to interpret modem stress. We must pour out a large stream of essential words, unhampered by stops, or qualifying adjectives, of finite verbs. Instead of describing sounds we must make up words that imitate them. We must use many sizes of type and different colored inks on the same page, and shorten or lengthen words at will. Certainly their descriptions of battles are confused. But it is a little upsetting to read in the explanatory notes that a certain line describes a fight between a Turkish and a Bulgarian officer on a bridge off which they both fall into the river and then to find that the line consists of the noise of their falling and the weights of the officers: "Pluff! Pluff! A hundred and eighty-five kilograms." This, though it fulfills the laws and requirements of Futurist poetry, can hardly be classed as Literature. All the same, no thinking man can refuse to accept their first proposition: that a great change in our emotional life calls for a change of expression. The whole question is really this: have we essentially changed?

问答题Amy settles into her seat, takes out her computer and reads over the agenda for the meeting to which she's traveling.

问答题{{B}}Green Gene Technology{{/B}} For the past 10,000 years humans have influenced the plants they use at first unknowingly, later by design. Today's crops have been created by a process of selection and classical breeding. More specific improvements in breeding will be possible in future. Science has cracked the genetic information code. Green gene technology is an effective tool in crop breeding, enabling us to develop new crops even more rapidly and specifically. We can make them more efficient, optimizing their contents and valuable substances to suit the wishes and requirements of customers and the processing industry. Their metabolism can be individually modified, making them produce starch, protein and fats with special properties. Through gene transfer plants can be made more resistant to viruses, bacteria, harmful fungi and insect pests. Genetically modified plants can be cultivated to possess improved stress behavior, with the result that they absorb water better in dry locations and can make more efficient use of soil nutrients. We can also optimize weed control. To do so, we make crops tolerant to environmentally sound and easily degradable herbicides. This is not as simple as it sounds. But we have been successful: Innovator has been on the Canadian market since 1995. This is the first oilseed rape variety to contain the glufosinate tolerance gene, facilitating the use of AgrEvo's broad-spectrurn herbicide liberty. We are committed to green gene technology, with which we aim to make crop breeding even more efficient and environmentally friendly. Before being brought on to the market these genetically modified plants are researched and tested for years until the questions posed regarding their safety have been answered. This is a great opportunity for us to realize our vision: the use of faster methods to breed varieties which will continue to provide us with sufficient food and raw materials in future. Our fossil reserves will soon be exhausted. Experts estimate that we only have enough oil for another 43 years and natural gas for less than 60. This means we must rethink and act accordingly, using new crop varieties to step up the move to replenishable sources of raw materials and energy. In other words, green gene technology is the key technology for sustainable agriculture.

问答题China's WTO entry makes it imperative for enterprises to increase their competitive power, and for industries to establish their comparative advantages.

问答题每个人一生中都该有个志向，否则他的精力便会浪费掉，每个青年人都力求成为一个有成就的人物。一个青年人只期望富有是不明智的，或只专心于求得权利与名望也是不对的。一个青年人希望做个有成就者，结果常常会实现。狄斯累里(Disraeli)的故事是个例证。狄斯累里开始过公众生活时渴望能成为一个学者及演说家。他在文学方面的成就比演说方面更为成功。起初他作为一个演说家时是完全失败的。不过，他认为有把握克服障碍，遂以不屈不挠的精神致力于这个目标的实现。他的一些朋友认为他这个念头是蠢的，甚至是古怪的，但他坚持目标不舍，最后终于成功，成为英国曾经产生的最有丰富知识的学者与最雄辩的演说家之一。这个故事并不是引来说明：只是大学者或演说家，或二者兼而有之者才是有成就的人物。除了做学者或演说家之外，还有许多同样高尚与可敬的事业。它只是用来说明一个青年人须志向高远，因为“宁可志高而达不到目标，也不要为了达到目标而志低。”