单选题When public schooling began to expand access to education in the 19th century, literacy was mainly about learning to read, a set of technical skills that individuals would acquire once for a lifetime in order to process a fairly established body of coded knowledge. For most, though not all, individuals in the industrialized world, those technical reading skills can now largely be taken for granted. But literacy requirements have shifted toward reading for learning—the capacity to identify, understand, interpret, create, and communicate knowledge, using written materials associated with varying situations in changing contexts. These skills have now become an almost universal requirement for success in the industrialized world. This shift in the concept of literacy is perhaps best illustrated with statistics on skill utilization in the labor force. It is no longer manual skills but routine cognitive skills that see the steepest decline in labor-market demand in advanced economies. Computers can replace humans for tasks involving processing of information through inductive or deductive rules. Routine cognitive skills are easier to outsource to foreign producers than other kinds of work: When a task can be reduced to rules, the process needs to be explained only once, so communicating with foreign producers is much simpler than for non-rules-based tasks where each piece of work is a special case. The reproduction of a fixed body of knowledge, acquired with technical reading skills, is therefore no longer sufficient. Individuals need the capacity to infer from what they know, to use knowledge in new ways or situations, and to generate new knowledge. Ensuring that assessments are comparable across countries is critical. Another challenge relates to external validity, verifying that literacy assessments measure what they set out to measure and that those skills are predictive for future outcomes of individuals. Adult literacy surveys show that competencies in major educational, training and work transitions are generally better predictors for earnings and employment status than the level of formal educational qualification that individuals had attained. Important aspects of the "new literacy" concept, especially elements of creating and communicating information, remain beyond the scope of large-scale comparative assessment. The long-term future lies with multi-layered assessment systems that extend from classrooms to schools to regional to national to international levels, that measure not just what students know but also how students progress, that are largely performance-based, that make students' thinking visible, and that allow for divergent thinking. Also, these assessments must generate data that teachers, administrators, and policymakers can act upon.

单选题The business practices of America will have you in the office from nine in the morning to five in the evening, if not longer. Much of the world, though, prefers to take a nap. And research presented to the AAAS (American Academy of Arts and Sciences) meeting in San Diego suggests it may be right to do so. Matthew Walker and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that they probably have better memory, too. A post-meal snooze, Dr Walker has discovered, sets the brain up for learning. The role of sleep in consolidating memories that have already been created has been understood for some time. Dr Walker has been trying to extend this understanding by looking at sleep's role in preparing the brain for the formation of memories in the first place. He was particularly interested in a type of memory called episodic memory, which relates to specific events, places and times. This contrasts with procedural memory, of the skills required to perform some sort of mechanical task, such as driving. The theory he and his team wanted to test was that the ability to form new episodic memories deteriorates with increasing wakefulness, and that sleep thus restores the brain's capacity for efficient learning. They asked a group of 39 people to take part in two learning sessions, one at noon and one at 6pm. On each occasion the participants tried to memorize and recall 100 combinations of pictures and names. After the first session they were assigned randomly to either a control group, which remained awake, or a nap group, which had 100 minutes of monitored sleep. Those who remained awake throughout the day became worse at learning. Those who napped, by contrast, actually improved their capacity to learn, doing better in the evening than they had at noon. These findings suggest that sleep is clearing the brain's short-term memory and making way for new information. The benefits to memory of a nap, says Dr Walker, are so great that they can equal an entire night's sleep. He warns, however, that napping must not be done too late in the day or it will interfere with night-time sleep. Moreover, not everyone awakens refreshed from a nap. The dazedness that results from an unrefreshing nap is termed "sleep inertia". Sara Mednick, from the University of California, San Diego, suggests that non-habitual nappers suffer from this more often than those who snooze regularly. It may be that those who have a tendency to wake up dazed are choosing not to nap in the first place. Perhaps, though, as in so many things, it is practice that makes perfect.

单选题Individuals and businesses have legal protection for intellectual property they create and own. Intellectual property【C1】______creative flunking and may include products,【C2】______processes, and ideas. Intellectual property is protected【C3】______misappropriation. Misappropriation is taking the intellectual property of others without【C4】______compensation and using it for monetary gain. Legal protection is provided for the【C5】______of intellectual property. The three common types of legal protection are patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Patents provide exclusive use of inventions. If the U.S. Patent Office【C6】______a patent, it is confirming that the intellectual property is【C7】______. The patent prevents others from making, using, or selling the invention without the owner's【C8】______for a period of 20 years. Copyrights are similar to patents【C9】______that they are applied to artistic works. A copyright protects the creator of an【C10】______artistic or intellectual work, such as a song or a novel. A copyright gives the owner exclusive rights to copy,【C11】______, display, or perform the work. The copyright prevents others from using and selling the work. The【C12】______of a copyright is typically the lifetime of the author【C13】______an additional 70 years. Trademarks are words, names, or symbols that identify the manufacturer of a product and【C14】______it from similar goods of others. A servicemark is similar to a trademark【C15】______is used to identify services. A trademark prevents others from using the【C16】______or a similar word, name, or symbol to take advantage of the recognition and【C17】______of the brand or to create confusion in the marketplace.【C18】______registration, a trademark is usually granted for a period of ten years. It can be【C19】______for additional ten-year periods indefinitely【C20】______the mark's use continues.

单选题Don't look now, but they're all around you. They're standing by the copy machine, hovering by the printer, answering the phone. Yes, they're the overworked, underappreciated interns: young, eager and not always paid. And with just 20% of the graduating class of 2011 gainfully employed, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, there are more and more of them each day. It seems the importance of internships for securing full-time work has dramatically increased over the years. Intern, previously used in the medical profession to define a person with a degree but without a license to practice, became a term for a physician in training following World War I, when medical school was no longer seen as preparation enough for practice. Later, the word migrated to politics as an alternative to the term apprentice as a reference to those interested in learning about careers in government. Meanwhile, co-op programs, in which students would work at a company for an extended period during college, emerged. From 1970 to 1983, the number of colleges and universities offering the programs increased from 200 to 1,000. Sure, it took an extra year to earn a B.A., but for three months each school year, students worked for companies they were interested in, tried out careers they weren't sure about and earned money to help cover tuition. Internship programs have produced several successes: Bill Gates was once a congressional page, and Oprah Winfrey worked at a CBS affiliate during her college years, just to name a few. Of course, Monica Lewinsky was a 22-year-old White House intern when she engaged in an intimate relationship with President Clinton, a scandal that still taints both offices. Today's interns are not limited to summer jobs at their local businesses. Some programs provide dorm housing in cities like New York and Washington, allowing students from around the country to work for the nation's biggest companies. Many popular cities even have Facebook groups devoted to providing social outings and networking opportunities for the thousands of interns who descend each summer. Though internships were formerly praised as an opportunity for students to explore career options, doing so now comes with a price. Some experts argue that internships punish those who might decide later than age 18 what they want to do with their life. More important, they can favor wealthier students, who can afford to not make any money during the summer, over the less privileged. Still, with pressure increasing on students to find work, the passion for internships is only growing. To land that first job, career advisers now say, applicants should have two or more internships under their belt. Anyone who takes a summer to simply explore might be too late.

单选题Air pollution triggers more heart attacks than using cocaine and poses as high a risk of sparking a heart attack as alcohol, coffee and physical exertion. The findings, published in The Lancet journal, suggest population-wide【C1】______like polluted air should be【C2】______more seriously when looking at heart risks, and should be put into context beside higher but relatively【C3】______risks like drug use. Researchers combined data【C4】______36 separate studies and calculated the relative risk【C5】______by a series of heart attack triggers. They found that of the triggers for heart attack studied, cocaine is the most【C6】______to trigger an event in an individual,【C7】______traffic has the greatest population effect as more people are【C8】______to it. A report published late last year found that air pollution in many major cities in Asia【C9】______the WHO's air quality guidelines and that toxic cocktails of pollutants【C10】______more than 530,000 premature deaths a year. While【C11】______smoking was not included in this study, the researchers said the effects of second-hand smoke were likely to be【C12】______to that of outdoor air pollution, and noted previous research which found that bans on smoking in public places have significantly【C13】______heart attack rates. British researchers said last year that a ban on smoking in public places in England【C14】______to a swift and significant drop in the number of heart attacks,【C15】______the health service 8.4 million pounds in the first year. 【C16】______, what triggers the heart attack should be considered the "last straw." The【C17】______of heart disease that lead to a heart attack are【C18】______down over many years. If someone wants to【C19】______a heart attack they should focus on not smoking, exercising, eating a healthy diet and【C20】______their ideal weight.

单选题For the past several years, I have been immersed in the study of friendship, and among the many things I have learned, one idea stands out: If you truly want to change some aspect of your life, developing friendships with people who aspire to the same goals as you do can lead to more successful endeavors than embarking on solitary efforts. Shortly after we make a decision to change our behavior, we often sense a softening of what at first felt like ironclad conviction. We chastise ourselves for our inability to summon motivation and return to the poor habits we're trying to break to comfort us, actively undermining our goals. What a disheartening cycle. But research shows that having friends with the same goal can interrupt that cycle. Researchers James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis have demonstrated that weight loss (and gain) spreads through friend groups, most likely via a process of altered norms. It's not that you'll necessarily adopt your friend's new habits right away, but the seed will be planted. If you want to continue to feel close to her, you might even start adjusting your own routines (perhaps unconsciously) to align them more with hers. Friends can help you reinforce individual willpower. In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg recommends replacing the cues that trigger, and the rewards that follow, bad behaviors with new, healthier ones. The cue and reward of a real person knocking on your door for a joint jog, and a stimulating talk over coffee afterwards, is a particularly alluring replacement for whatever previously sucked you into sedentary TV watching. In a recent New York Times column, "How People Change," David Brooks noted that, "There's a research suggesting that it's best to tackle negative behaviors indirectly, by redirecting attention toward different, positive ones." Investing in fulfilling friendships with those who have the values and habits you admire will lift you up to those friends' level more easily. The desire to be with, be like, and be liked by friends is primal. We're all built to seek out strong bonds with friends on whom our very survival might have once been dependent. While we don't necessarily need friends to help hunt or fight off predators these days, most of us probably still feel like we can't live without them. Tap into that deep-down social motivation and you'll not only be primed for success, you'll take pleasure in the proverbial journey.

单选题What happens when you combine product design skills, high-powered market research techniques, and abundant customer data? Too often, the result is devices that suffer from "feature creep" or the return of billions of dollars' worth of merchandise by customers who wanted something different after all. That kind of waste is bad enough in normal times, but in a downturn it can take a fearsome toll. The trouble is that most customer-preference rating tools used in product development today are blunt instruments, primarily because consumers have a hard time articulating their real desires. Asked to rate a long list of product attributes on a scale of 1 ("completely unimportant") to 10 ("extremely important"), customers are apt to say they want many or even most of them. To solve that problem, companies need a way to help customers sharpen the distinction between "nice to have" and "gotta have." Some companies are beginning to pierce the fog using a research technique called "Maxdiff" (Maximum Difference Scaling), which was pioneered in the 1990s. It requires customers to make a sequence of explicit trade-offs. Researchers begin by amassing a list of product or brand attributes that represent potential benefits. Then they present respondents with sets of four or so attributes at a time, asking them to select which attribute of each set they prefer most and least. Subsequent rounds of mixed groupings enable the researchers to identify the standing of each attribute relative to all the others by the number of times customers select it as their most or least important consideration. A popular restaurant chain recently used MaxDiff to understand why its expansion efforts were failing. In a series of focus groups and preference surveys, consumers agreed about what they wanted: more healthful meal options and updated decoration. But when the chain's heavily promoted new menu was rolled out, the marketing team was dismayed by the results. Customers found the complex new choices confusing, and sales were sluggish in the more contemporary new outlets. The company's marketers decided to cast the range of preferences more broadly. Using MaxDiff, they asked customers to compare eight attributes and came to a striking realization. The results showed that prompt service of hot meals and a convenient location were far more important to customers than healthful items and modern furnishings. The ability to predict how customers will behave can be extremely powerful. Companies planning cross-border product rollouts need a tool that is free of cultural bias. And as customer tastes fragment, product development teams need reliable techniques for drawing bright lines between customer segments based on the features that matter most to each group. Companies are starting to apply MaxDiff analysis to those issues as well.

单选题What is making the world so much older? There are two long-term causes that will continue to show up in the figures for the next few decades. The first of the big causes is that people everywhere are living far longer than they used to, and this trend started with the industrial revolution and has been slowly gathering pace. In 1900 average life expectancy at birth for the world as a whole was only around 30 years, and in rich countries under 50. The figures now are 67 and 78 respectively, and still rising. A second, and bigger, cause of the ageing of societies is that people everywhere are having far fewer children, so the younger age groups are much too small to counterbalance the growing number of older people. This trend emerged later than the one for longer lives, first in developed countries and now in poor countries too.

单选题Organised volunteering and work experience has long been a vital companion to university degree courses. Usually it is left to【C1】______to deduce the potential from a list of adventures outside the classroom on a graduate's resume,【C2】______now the University of Bristol has launched an award to formalize the achievements of students who【C3】______time to activities outside their courses. Bristol PLuS aims to boost students in an increasingly【C4】______job market by helping them acquire work and life skills alongside【C5】______qualifications. "Our students are pretty active, but we found that they didn't【C6】______appreciate the value of what they did【C7】______the lecture hall," says Jeff Goodman, director of careers and employability at the university. "Employers are much more【C8】______than they used to be. They used to look for【C9】______and saw it as part of their job to extract the value of a candidate's skills. Now they want students to be able to explain why those skills are【C10】______to the job." Students who【C11】______the award will be expected to complete 50 hours of work experience or【C12】______work, attend four workshops on employability skills, take part in an intensive skills-related activity【C13】______, crucially, write a summary of the skills they have gained.【C14】______efforts will gain an Outstanding Achievement Award. Those who【C15】______best on the sports field can take the Sporting PLuS Award which fosters employer-friendly sports accomplishments. The experience does not have to be【C16】______organised. "We're not just interested in easily identifiable skills," says Goodman "【C17】______, one student took the lead in dealing with a difficult landlord and so【C18】______negotiation skills. We try to make the experience relevant to individual lives. " Goodman hopes the【C19】______will enable active students to fill in any gaps in their experience and encourage their less-active【C20】______to take up activities outside their academic area of work.

单选题There is no more fashionable answer to the woes of the global recession than "green jobs." Leaders of great nations have all gotten behind what Ban Ki-moon has called a "green New Deal"—pinning their hopes for future growth and new jobs on creating clean-technology industries. It all sounds like the ultimate win-win deal: beat the worst recession in decades and save the planet from global warming, all in one spending plan. So who cares how much it costs? And since the financial crisis and recession began, governments, environmental nonprofits, and even labor unions have been busy spinning out reports on just how many new jobs might be created from these new industries—estimates that range from the tens of thousands to the millions. The problem is that history doesn't bear out the optimism. As a new study from McKinsey consulting points out, clean energy is less like old manufacturing industries that required a lot of workers than it is like new manufacturing and service industries that don't. The best parallel is the semiconductor industry, which was expected to create a boom in high-paid high-tech jobs but today employs mainly robots. Clean-technology workers now make up only 0.6 percent of the American workforce, despite the government subsidies, tax incentives, and other supports that already exists. The McKinsey study, which examined how countries should compete in the post-crisis world, figures that clean energy won't command much more of the total job market in the years ahead. "The bottom line is that these 'clean' industries are too small to create the millions of jobs that are needed right away," says James Manyika, a director at the McKinsey Global Institute. Although they might not create those jobs, yet they could help other industries do just that: they did create a lot of jobs, indirectly, by making other industries more efficient. McKinsey and others say that the same could be true today if governments focus not on building a "green economy," but on greening every part of the economy using cutting-edge green products and services. Stop betting government money on particular green technologies that may or may not pan out, and start thinking more broadly. As McKinsey makes clear, countries don't become more competitive by slightly changing their "mix" of industries but by outperforming in each individual sector. Taking care of the environment at the broadest levels is often portrayed as a political red herring that will weaken competitiveness in the global economy. In fact, the future of growth and job creation may depend on it.

单选题Bankruptcy rates in the U.S. have been growing for more than two decades despite generally rising levels of personal income. The most prominent explanation puts the blame directly on credit cards, which became vastly more popular in the past 30 years. University of Pennsylvania law professor David A. Skeel notes that a 1978 Supreme Court decision allowed credit-card companies to charge the interest rate allowed in their state of incorporation. As a result, many incorporated in the high-rate states of Delaware and South Dakota. Being able to charge high rates throughout the country, they could afford to issue cards to those with limited ability to repay. Many high-risk cardholders, overburdened with debt, filed for bankruptcy. Skeel also notes that the impersonality of credit-card borrowing may have helped weaken the moral imperative to repay debts: in the 1960s a prospective borrower met face-to-face with a bank lending officer, but today the borrower gets credit by responding to a junk-mail offer. Other developments also fueled the rise in bankruptcy, including medical bills. A Harvard University study found that about a quarter of filers cited illness or injury as the specific reason for their troubles. Loss of jobs probably also drove some credit-card holders into bankruptcy. Other possible contributors include the growth of the gambling industry in recent years and the Supreme Court's 1977 decision to allow lawyers to advertise directly to the general public. Changes in bankruptcy law apparently have had little effect on filings. The Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 was designed to make it easier for consumers to pay off debts and start anew. As under previous acts, penniless debtors could file for complete discharge of debts under Chapter 7, and debtors with substantial assets could arrange for partial repayment under Chapter 13. Most filers opted for the more generous provisions of Chapter 7. During the six years following implementation of the act, filings rose substantially. The act was amended in 1984 to curb opportunistic petitions. However, filings went in the opposite direction than expected. Evidently, easy credit and other debt-creating forces have been more powerful. The latest legal effort is the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, which went into effect in October. The new act lays down far more strict standards for debtors, including a test to qualify for Chapter 7 relief. Despite the new restrictions, bankruptcy experts tend to be skeptical or noncommittal about the effectiveness in reducing filings.

单选题What is the difference between Joe Six-Pack, Joe the Plumber and Joe Biden? One is vice president; the other two are not. Why? The answer depends on a host of interactive variables that must be factored into any equation of success: genes, parents, brothers and sisters, peers, teachers, practice, drive, culture, timing, legacy and luck. The rub for the scientist is determining the percentage of influence of each variable and its interactions, which requires sophisticated statistical models. Journalists, who are unrestricted by research terms, very quickly produce large quantities of self-help books that focus on select variables that interest them. Few do so better than Malcolm Gladwell, and in his book Outliers: The Story of Success, the New Yorker writer claims that successful people are not "self-made" but instead "are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Bill Gates, for example, may be smart, but Gladwell prefers to emphasize the fact that Gates's wealthy parents sent him to a private school that had a computer club with a teletype time-sharing terminal with a direct link to a mainframe computer in Seattle, and in 1968 this was very unusual. His good fortune to be born in the mid-1950s also meant that Gates came of age when the computer industry was ready to have someone of his experience start a software company. Similarly, Gladwell says, Mozart's father was a composer who mentored the young Wolfgang into greatness from age six until his early 20s, when his compositions changed from pleasantly melodious into masterful. The Beatles' lucky break came in Hamburg, Germany, where they were able to log in more than 1,200 live performances and thereby meet the well-known 10,000-hour rule for perfecting a profession. Asian wonder children are the product of "the tradition of wet-rice agriculture" that must be practiced year-round and that requires "the highest emphasis on effort and hard work," and that's why they study all summer while American students go to the mall. Such geniuses, Gladwell says, "are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy. Their success is not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky but all critical to making them who they are."

单选题If you know where to find a good plastic-free shampoo, can you tell Jeanne Haegele? Last September, the 28-year-old Chicago resident【C1】______to cut plastics out of her life. The marketing coordinator was concerned about【C2】______the chemicals coming out of some common types of plastic might be doing to her body. She was also worried about the damage all the plastic【C3】______was doing to the environment. So she【C4】______on her bike and rode to the nearest grocery store to see what she could find that didn't【C5】______plastic. "I went in and【C6】______bought anything," Haegele says. She did【C7】______some canned food and a box of milk—【C8】______discover later that both containers were【C9】______with plastic materials. "Plastic," she says, "just seemed like it was in everything." She's right. Back in the 1960s, plastic was well【C10】______its way to becoming a staple of American life. The U.S. produced 28 million tons of plastic waste in 2005—27 million tons of which【C11】______in waste dump. Our food and water come【C12】______in plastic. It's used in our phones and our computers, the cars we drive and the planes we ride in. But the【C13】______adaptable substance has its dark side. Environmentalists feel worried about the petroleum needed to make it. Parents worry about the possibility of【C14】______chemicals making their way from【C15】______plastic into children's bloodstreams. Which means Haegele isn't the only person trying to cut plastic out of her life—she isn't【C16】______the only one blogging about this kind of【C17】______. But those who've tried know it's【C18】______from easy to go plastic-free. "These things seem to be so common【C19】______it is practically impossible to avoid coming into【C20】______with them," says Frederick vom Saal, a biologist at the University of Missouri.

单选题For a quarter of a century, surveys of reading habits by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), a federally-funded body, have been favorite material for anyone who thinks America is dumbing down. Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason, for example, cites the 2007 NEA report that "the proportion of 17-year-olds who read nothing (unless required to do so for school) more than doubled between 1984 and 2004." So it is a surprise that this trend seems to have taken a turn for the better. This week the NEA reported that, for the first time since 1982 when its survey began, the number of adults who said they had read a novel, short story, poem or play in the past 12 months had gone up, rising from 47% of the population in 2002 to over 50% in 2008. The increase, modest as it is, has thrown educationalists into excitement. "It's just a temporary change," one professor said. It is certainly a snapshot. But it is not statistically insignificant. As the NEA's research director, Sunil Iyengar, points out, almost every ethnic group seems to be reading more. The increase has been most marked in groups whose reading had declined most in the past 25 years, African-Americans and Spanish Americans (up by 15% and 20% respectively since 2002). It has also been larger among people at lower levels of education: reading among college graduates was flat, but among those who dropped out of high school it rose from under a quarter to over a third. Most remarkable of all has been the rebound among young men. The numbers of men aged 18-24 who say they are reading books (not just online) rose 24% in 2002-08. Teachers sometimes despair of young men, whose educational performance has lagged behind that of young women almost across the board. But the reading gap at least may be narrowing. Dana Gioia, the NEA's outgoing chairman, thinks the reason for the turnaround is the public reaction to earlier reports which had sounded the alarm. "There has been a measurable change in society's commitment to literacy," he says. "Reading has become a higher priority." It may also be benefiting from the growing popularity of serious-minded leisure pursuits of many kinds. Museums, literary festivals and live opera transmissions into cinemas are all reporting larger audiences. Mr. Iyengar thinks the division between those who read a lot and those who don't is eroding. What has not changed, though, is America's "functional illiteracy" rate. Fully 21% of adult Americans did not read a book last year because they couldn't, one of the worst rates in the rich world.

单选题Texting has long been lamented as the downfall of the written word, "penmanship for illiterates," as one critic called it. To which the proper response is LOL. Texting properly isn't writing at all—it's actually more similar to spoken language. And it's a "spoken" language that is getting richer and more complex by the year. Historically, talking came first; writing is just an artifice that came along later. While talk is largely subconscious and rapid, writing is deliberate and slow. Over time, writers took advantage of this and started crafting sentences such as this one, from The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: "The whole engagement lasted above 12 hours, till the gradual retreat of the Persians was changed into a disorderly flight, of which the shameful example was given by the principal leaders and the Surenas himself." No one talks like that casually—or should. But it is natural to desire to do so for special occasions. In the old days, we didn't much write like talking because there was no mechanism to reproduce the speed of conversation. But texting and instant messaging do—and a revolution has begun. It involves the basic mechanics of writing, but in its economy, spontaneity and even vulgarity, texting is actually a new kind of talking. There is a virtual fashion of concision and little interest in capitalization or punctuation. The argument that texting is "poor writing" is analogous, then, to one that the Rolling Stones is "bad music" because it doesn't use violas. Texting is developing its own kind of grammar. Take LOL. It doesn't actually mean "laughing out loud" in a literal sense anymore. LOL has evolved into something much subtler and sophisticated and is used even when nothing is remotely amusing. Jocelyn texts "Where have you been?" and Annabelle texts back "LOL at the library studying for two hours." LOL signals basic empathy between texters, easing tension and creating a sense of equality. Instead of having a literal meaning, it does something—conveying an attitude—just like the "-ed" ending conveys past tense rather than "meaning" anything. LOL, of all things, is grammar. Civilization is fine—people banging away on their smartphones are fluently using a code separate from the one they use in actual writing, and there is no evidence that texting is ruining composition skills. Worldwide people speak differently from the way they write, and texting—quick, casual and only intended to be read once—is actually a way of talking with your fingers.

单选题When you get interrupted in the middle of something, it can be hard to regain your train of thought, which can be annoying. But when you're interrupted while measuring medication for patients, the consequences can be more serious. A new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that, perhaps unsurprisingly, when interrupted while dosing out medication, nurses are more likely to make mistakes. Researchers at the University of Sydney studied 98 nurses while they prepared and administered medications to more than 4,000 patients in almost 1.5 years. For a total of 505 hours during this period, investigators noted any interruptions that nurses encountered while dealing with medication, and also tracked two types of mistakes: procedural, which included things like not reading medication labels or failing to fully read a patient chart, and clinical, which included actually giving patients the wrong dose or wrong medication. For all administrations of medication studied, researchers noted that nurses were interrupted more than half the time (53%), and researchers noted procedural errors in nearly three quarters (74.4%) of administrations, and clinical errors in a quarter of all cases. The study authors also point out that the risk for major errors increased significantly the more when nurses were interrupted and that with no interruptions, the risk for a serious mistake was 2.3%. While it's understandable that some interruptions will, of necessity, take place during a nurse's work day, the authors suggest that such high levels of interruption and the resulting increase in errors associated with them point to a need for efforts to better enable nurses to focus on the task at hand. They write: "The converging evidence of the high rate of interruptions occurring during medication preparation and administration adds impetus to the need to develop and implement strategies to improve communication practices and to reduce unnecessary interruptions within ward environments." To that end, they suggest that simple measures such as installing white boards in hospital wards to prominently display commonly needed information or having nurses wear special "do not interrupt" vests while preparing or giving patients medication, could go some distance toward minimizing mistakes. They also suggest that reconsidering how the physical space of a hospital ward is organized could play a role in reducing errors. Whatever the potential solution, the authors say that this is indeed a problem, and one that requires additional research to solve.

单选题The shorter growing seasons expected with climate change over the next 40 years will endanger hundreds of millions of already poor people in the global tropics, say researchers working【C1】______the world's leading agricultural organisations. The effects of climate change are likely to be seen across the entire tropical【C2】______but many areas previously considered to be【C3】______food secure are likely to become highly【C4】______to droughts, extreme weather and higher temperatures, say the researchers with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. Intensively farmed areas【C5】______northeast Brazil and Mexico are likely to see their【C6】______growing seasons fall below 120 days, which is critical for crops【C7】______corn to mature. Many other places in Latin America are likely to【C8】______temperatures that are too hot for bean【C9】______, a staple in the region. The impact could be【C10】______most in India and southeast Asia. More than 300 million people in south Asia are likely to be affected even with a 5% decrease in the【C11】______of the growing season. Higher peak temperatures are also expected to take a heavy【C12】______on food producers. Today there are 56 million crop-dependent people in parts of west Africa and India who live in areas where, in 40 years, maximum daily temperatures could be【C13】______than 30℃. This is【C14】______to the maximum temperature that beans can tolerate,【C15】______corn and rice yields suffer when temperatures【C16】______this level. "We are starting to see much more clearly【C17】______the effects of climate change on agriculture could【C18】______hunger and poverty," said research leader Patti Kristjanson "Farmers already【C19】______variable weather by changing their planting schedules. What this study suggests is that the speed of climate【C20】______and the magnitude of the changes required to adapt could be much greater."

单选题ThisweektheNewCommissionontheSkillsoftheAmericanWorkforcereleasesablueprintforrethinkingAmericaneducationtobetterpreparestudentstothriveintheglobaleconomy.Whilethatreportincludessomecontroversialproposals,thereisnonethelessaremarkableconsensusamongeducatorsandbusinessandpolicyleadersononekeyconclusion:weneedtobringwhatweteachandhowweteachintothe2lstcentury.Rightnowwe'reaimingtoolow.Competencyinreadingandmathisthemeagerminimum.Scientificandtechnicalskillsare,likewise,utterlynecessarybutinsufficient.Today'seconomydemandsnotonlyahigh-levelcompetenceinthetraditionalacademicdisciplinesbutalsowhatmightbecalled21stcenturyskills.Here'swhattheyare:Knowingmoreabouttheworld.Kidsareglobalcitizensnow,whethertheyknowitornot,andtheyneedtobehavethatway.MikeEskew,CEOofUPS,talksaboutneedingworkerswhoare"globaltradeliterate,sensitivetoforeigncultures,conversantindifferentlanguages"—notexactlystrongpointsintheU.S.,wherefewerthanhalfofhighschoolstudentsareenrolledinaforeign—languageclassandwherethesocial-studiescurriculumtendstofixateonU.S.history.Thinkingoutsidethebox.Jobsintheneweconomy—theonesthatwon'tgetoutsourcedorautomated—"putanenormouspremiumoncreativeandinnovativeskills,seeingpatternswhereotherpeopleseeonlychaos,"saysMarcTucker,aleadauthoroftheskills-commissionreport.That'saproblemforU.S.schools.Kidsalsomustlearntothinkacrossdisciplines,sincethat'swheremostnewbreakthroughsaremade.It'sinterdisciplinarycombinations—designandtechnology,mathematicsandart—"thatproduceYouTubeandGoogle,"saysThomasFriedman,thebest-sellingauthorofTheWorldIsFlat.Becomingsmarteraboutnewsourcesofinformation.Inanageofoverflowinginformationandproliferatingmedia,kidsneedtorapidlyprocesswhat'scomingatthemanddistinguishbetweenwhat'sreliableandwhatisn't."It'simportantthatstudentsknowhowtomanageit,interpretit,validateit,andhowtoactonit,"saysDellexecutiveKarenBruett.Developinggoodpeopleskills.EQ,oremotionalintelligence,isasimportantasIQforsuccessintoday'sworkplace."Mostinnovationstodayinvolvelargeteamsofpeople,"saysformerLockheedMartinCEONormanAugustine."Wehavetoemphasizecommunicationskills,theabilitytoworkinteamsandwithpeoplefromdifferentcultures."Canourpublicschools,originallydesignedtoeducateworkersforagrarianlifeandindustrial-agefactories,makethenecessaryshifts?TheSkillscommissionwillarguethatit'spossibleonlyifweaddnewdepthandrigortoourcurriculumandstandardizedexams,redeploythedollarswespendoneducation,reshapetheteachingforceandreorganizewhorunstheschools.Butwithoutwaitingforsucharevolution,enterprisingadministratorsaroundthecountryhavebeguntoupdatetheirschools,oftenwithideasandsupportfromlocalbusinesses.OrganizationsliketheBillandMelindaGatesFoundationarepouringmoneyandexpertiseintomodelprogramstoshowtheway.

单选题The digital attack from e-books and Amazon-style online retailers have put bookstores in an existential dilemma. Digital books are said to sell better than print titles by 2020 in Britain, and even sooner in America. With the closedown of HMV, that music-retailing giant, still fresh in everyone's minds, real bookstores appear to be on borrowed time. So, what is the future of the bookstore? This was the burning questions on everyone's lips at a recent event at Foyles's flagship bookshop on Charing Cross Road in London. For a bookstore to remain successful, it must improve "the experience of buying books," says Alex Lifschutz, an architect whose London-based practice is designing the new Foyles. He suggests an array of approaches: "small, quiet spaces isolated by books; larger spaces where one can dwell and read; other larger but still intimate spaces where one can hear talks from authors about books, literature, science, travel and cooking." The atmosphere is vital, he adds. Exteriors must buzz with activity, entrances must be full of eye-catching presentations and a bar and cafe is essential. There are plenty of ways to delight the bookstore customer, but few are easily converted into money. The consensus is that bookstores need to become cultural destinations where people are prepared to pay good money to hear a concert, see a film or attend a talk. The programming will have to be intelligent and the space comfortable. Given how common it is for shoppers to browse in shops only to buy online later, some wonder whether it makes sense to charge people for the privilege. But forcing people to pay for the privilege of potentially paying for goods could discourage shoppers altogether. A more attractive idea might be a membership scheme like those offered by museums. Unlike reward cards, which offer discounts and other nominal benefits, a club membership could provide priority access to events (talks, literary workshops, retreats) and a private lounge where members can eat, drink and meet authors before events. Different memberships could tailor to the needs of children and students. To survive and thrive, bookstores should celebrate the book in all its forms: rare, second-hand, digital, self-printed and so on. Readers should have the option of buying e-books in-store, and budding authors should have access to self-printing book machines. The latter have been slower to take off in Britain, but in America bookstores are finding them to be an important source of revenue. The bookstore of the future will have to work hard. Service will be knowledgeable and personalised, the inventory expertly selected, spaces well-designed and the cultural events attractive. Whether book stores, especially small independents are up to the challenge, is not clear. The fate of these stores is a cliff-hanger.

单选题Brothers and sisters fight, but when the bickering evolves into physical or emotional abuse, it's bullying. Ordinary arguments over toys and who gets the front seat are one thing, but a recent study from researchers at the University of New Hampshire reports that aggression between siblings can escalate into bullying, and that young victims can be harmed in the same way as those who are threatened by peers on the playground. In fact, the study authors say, being bullied by a brother or sister was linked to worse mental-health outcomes for kids and adolescents, similar to those associated with being bullied by unrelated kids in the schoolyard. The new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, involved thousands of children and adolescents throughout the U.S. and found that those who were physically assaulted, had their toys stolen or broken or endured emotional abuse that made them feel frightened or unwanted by their sibling had higher levels of depression, anger and anxiety than those without these experiences. In order to study any differences between the effects of sibling bullying and those of being threatened by an unrelated bully, the researchers compared the effects of aggressive behaviors, such as physical violence, breaking or taking toys or belongings, and abuse, like name-calling or mocking, originating from siblings with those coming from children's unrelated peers. They concluded that as far as mental-health effects are concerned, the relationship that the victims had with their bullies didn't seem to matter. The findings showed that sibling bullying had the same association with increased anxiety, depression and trauma as peer aggression. That's an eye-opening result since most parents—not to mention the public—have a higher tolerance for fighting and even threatening behavior among siblings than they do for other social relationships. Sibling fighting is often dismissed, seen as something that's normal or harmless. Some parents even think it's beneficial, as training for dealing with conflict and aggression in other relationships. But when does that normal quarreling evolve into something more? Parents may unknowingly play a role in escalating some sibling fighting into abuse, John V. Caffaro, a clinical psychologist and co-author of Sibling Abuse Trauma, told the New York Times. If parents allow children to continuously fight and confront each other in aggressive ways without intervening, or if they play favorites and label children as "the smart one" or the "the quiet one," that may lead to more unhealthy competitiveness between siblings that develops into abuse. Caffaro said that since violence between siblings is one of the most common types of familial violence, aggression with the intent to physical hurt or humiliate a brother or sister should be taken seriously, and quashed.