King Juan Carlos of Spain once insisted "kings don't abdicate, they die in their sleep." But embarrassing scandals and the popularity of the republican left in the recent Euro-elections have forced him to eat his words and stand down. So, does the Spanish crisis suggest that monarchy is seeing its last days? Does that mean the writing is on the wall for all European royals, with their magnificent uniforms and majestic lifestyles? The Spanish case provides arguments both for and against monarchy. When public opinion is particularly polarised, as it was following the end of the Franco regime, monarchs can rise above "mere" politics and "embody" a spirit of national unity. It is this apparent transcendence of politics that explains monarchs, continuing popularity as heads of state. And so, the Middle East excepted, Europe is the most monarch-infested region in the world, with 10 kingdoms (not counting Vatican City and Andorra). But unlike their absolutist counterparts in the Gulf and Asia, most royal families have survived because they allow voters to avoid the difficult search for a non-controversial but respected public figure. Even so, kings and queens undoubtedly have a downside. Symbolic of national unity as they claim to be, their very history—and sometimes the way they behave today—embodies outdated and indefensible privileges and inequalities. At a time when Thomes Piketty and other economists are warning of rising inequality and the increasing power of inherited wealth, it is bizarre that wealthy aristocratic families should still be the symbolic heart of modern democratic states. The most successful monarchies strive to abandon or hide their old aristocratic ways. Prince and princesses have day-jobs and ride bicycles, not horses (or helicopters). Even so, these are wealthy families who party with the international 1%, and media intrusiveness makes it increasingly difficult to maintain the right image. While Europe's monarchies will no doubt be smart enough to survive for some time to come, it is the British royals who have most to fear from the Spanish example. It is only the Queen who has preserved the monarchy's reputation with her rather ordinary (if well-heeled) granny style. The danger will come with Charles, who has both an expensive taste of lifestyle and a pretty hierarchical view of the world. He has failed to understand that monarchies have largely survived because they provide a service—as non-controversial and non-political heads of state. Charles ought to know that as English history shows, it is kings, not republicans, who are the monarchy's worst enemies. According to the first two paragraphs, King Juan Carl of spain

Directions: Write an essay of 160-200 words based on the following drawing. In your essay

Penny-pinching consumers and fierce price wars are bad news for the travel industry. Bad, that is, for everyone except the booming on line travel giants. Consider the sharp rebound of such on-line players as Travelocity and Expedia. While they suffered in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks, with bookings off as much as 70% in the weeks that followed, business has snapped back. "The speed with which those businesses bounced back surprised even the people most bullish about the sector," says Mitchell J. Rubin, a money manager at New York-based Baron Capital, an investor in on-line travel stocks. The travel industry's pain is often the on-line industry's gain, as suppliers push more discounted airline seats and hotel rooms to win back customers. And many of those deals are available only on dine. At the same time, on-line agencies rely primarily on leisure travelers, where traffic has rebounded more quickly than on the business side. The two biggest players, Travelocity Com. Inc. and Expedia Inc. , are locked in combat for the top spot. Both sold some $ 3 billion worth of travel last year, though Expedia topped Travelocity in the fourth quarter in gross bookings. And thanks in part to a greater emphasis on wholesale deals with suppliers, Expedia is more profitable. For the quarter ended in December, Expedia posted its first net profit, $ 5.2 million, even with noncash and nonrecurring charges, compared with Travelocity's $ 25 million loss. The airlines' latest cost cutting moves may only spur the on-line stampede. Major carriers are eliminating travel agent commissions in the U. S.. That could lead to growing service charges for consumers at traditional agencies, driving still more travelers to the Web. Jupiter Media Metrix is predicting that on line travel sales in the U. S. will jump 29%0, to $ 31 billion this year, and to $ 50 billion by 2005. About half of that is from airlines' and other suppliers' own Web sites, but that still leaves plenty of room for the online agents. This growing market is drawing plenty of competition and new players. Hotel and car rental franchiser Cendant Corp. snapped up Cheap Tickets last October. Barry Diller's USA Networks Inc. bought a controlling stake in Expedia. And a group of hotels, including Hilton Hotels and Hyatt Corp. , are launching their own business this summer to market hotel rooms on the Net. Is the field too crowded? Analysts and on-line agencies aren't worried, figuring that there's plenty of new business to go around. But, for now, the clear winners are consumers, who can count on finding better services and better deals on line. We can learn from the beginning that the competition in the travel industry revolves chiefly around ______.

No two economic crises are identical

Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle viewed laughter as “a bodily exercise precious to health.” But 1 some claims to the contrary, laughing probably has little influence on physical fitness Laughter does 2 short-term changes in the function of the heart and its blood vessels, 3 heart rate and oxygen consumption But because hard laughter is difficult to 4 , a good laugh is unlikely to have 5 benefits the way, say, walking or jogging does. 6 ，instead of straining muscles to build them, as exercise does, laughter apparently accomplishes the 7 , studies dating back to the 1930's indicate that laughter 8 muscles, decreasing muscle tone for up to 45 minutes after the laugh dies down. Such bodily reaction might conceivably help 9 the effects of psychological stress. Anyway, the act of laughing probably does produce other types of 10 feedback, that improve an individual’s emotional state. 11 one classical theory of emotion, our feelings are partially rooted 12 physical reactions. It was argued at the end of the 19th century that humans do not cry 13 they are sad but they become sad when the tears begin to flow. Although sadness also 14 tears, evidence suggests that emotions can flow 15 muscular responses. In an experiment published in 1988,social psychologist Fritz Strack of the University of würzburg in Germany asked volunteers to 16 a pen either with their teeth-thereby creating an artificial smile-or with their lips, which would produce a(n) 17 expression. Those forced to exercise their smilling muscles 18 more exuberantly to funny catoons than did those whose months were contracted in a frown, 19 that expressions may influence emotions rather than just the other way around 20 , the physical act of laughter could improve mood.

Directions: Your Mend Wang Yu, who you have not seen for quite some time

The biggest danger facing the global airline industry is not the effects of terrorism, war, SARS and economic downturn. It is that these blows, which have helped ground three national flag carriers and force two American airlines into bankruptcy, will divert attention from the inherent weaknesses of aviation, which they have exacerbated. As in the crisis that attended the first Gulf War, many airlines hope that traffic will soon bounce back, and a few catastrophic years will be followed by fuller planes, happier passengers and a return to profitability. Yet the industry's problems are deeper—and older—than the trauma of the past two years implies. As the centenary of the first powered flight approaches in December, the industry it launched is still remarkably primitive. The car industry, created not long after the Wright Brothers made history, is now a global industry dominated by a dozen firms, at least half of which make good profits. Yet commercial aviation consists of 267 international carriers and another 500-plus domestic ones. The world's biggest carrier, American Airlines, has barely 7% of the global market, whereas the world's biggest carmaker, General Motors, has (with its associated firms) about a quarter of the world's automobile market. Aviation has been incompletely deregulated, and in only two markets: America and Europe. Everywhere else, governments dictate who flies under what rules. These aim to preserve state-owned national flag-carriers, run for prestige rather than profit. And numerous restrictions on foreign ownership impede cross-border airline mergers. In America, the big network carriers face barriers to exit, which have kept their route networks too large. Trade unions resisting job cuts and Congressmen opposing route closures in their territory conspire to block change. In Europe, liberalization is limited by bilateral deals that prevent, for instance, British Airways (BA) flying to America from Frankfurt or Paris, or Lufthansa offering transatlantic flights from London's Heathrow. To use the car industry analogy, it is as if only Renaults were allowed to drive on French motorways. In airlines, the optimists are those who think that things are now so bad that the industry has no option but to evolve. Frederick Reid, president of Delta Air Lines, said earlier this year that events since the September llth attacks are the equivalent of a meteor strike, changing the climate, creating a sort of nuclear winter and leading to a "compressed evolutionary cycle". So how, looking on the bright side, might the industry look after five years of accelerated development? According to the author, the deeper problems of aviation industry______.

Among the annoying challenges facing the middle class is one that will probably go unmentioned in the next presidential campaign: What happens when the robots come for their jobs? Don't dismiss that possibility entirely. About half of U. S. jobs are at high risk of being automated, according to a University of Oxford study, with the middle class disproportionately squeezed. Lower-in-come jobs like gardening or day care don't appeal to robots. But many middle-class occupations—trucking, financial advice, software engineering—have aroused their interest, or soon will. The rich own the robots, so they will be fine. This isn't to be alarmist. Optimists point out that technological upheaval has benefited workers in the past. The Industrial Revolution didn't go so well for Luddites whose jobs were displaced by mechanized looms, but it eventually raised living standards and created more jobs than it destroyed. Likewise, automation should eventually boost productivity, stimulate demand by driving down prices, and free workers from hard, boring work. But in the medium term, middle-class workers may need a lot of help adjusting. The first step, as Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee argue in The Second Machine Age, should be rethinking education and job training. Curriculums—from grammar school to college— should evolve to focus less on memorizing facts and more on creativity and complex communication. Vocational schools should do a better job of fostering problem-solving skills and helping students work alongside robots. Online education can supplement the traditional kind. It could make extra training and instruction affordable. Professionals trying to acquire new skills will be able to do so without going into debt. The challenge of coping with automation underlines the need for the U. S. to revive its fading business dynamism: Starting new companies must be made easier. In previous eras of drastic technological change, entrepreneurs smoothed the transition by dreaming up ways to combine labor and machines. The best uses of 3D printers and virtual reality haven't been invented yet. The U. S. needs the new companies that will invent them. Finally, because automation threatens to widen the gap between capital income and labor in come, taxes and the safety net will have to be rethought. Taxes on low-wage labor need to be cut, and wage subsidies such as the earned income tax credit should be expanded: This would boost incomes, encourage work, reward companies for job creation, and reduce inequality. Technology will improve society in ways big and small over the next few years, yet this will be little comfort to those who find their lives and careers upended by automation. Destroying the machines that are coming for our jobs would be nuts. But policies to help workers adapt will be indispensable. Who will be most threatened by automation?

Chronic insomnia is a major public health problem. And too many people are using 1 therapies, even while there are a few treatments that do work. Millions of Americans 2 awake at night counting sheep or have a stiff drink or 3 an pill, hoping it will make them sleepy. 4 experts agree all that self-medicating is a bad idea, and the causes of chronic insomnia remain 5 . Almost a third of adults have trouble sleeping, and about 10 percent have 6 of daytime impairment that signal true insomnia. But 7 the complaints, scientists know surprisingly little about what causes chronic insomnia, its health consequences and how best to treat it, a panel of specialists 8 together by the National Institutes of Health concluded Wednesday. The panel called 9 a broad range of research into insomnia, 10 that if scientists understood its 11 causes, they could develop better treatments. Most, but not all, insomnia is thought to 12 other health problems, from arthritis and depression to cardiovascular disease. The question often is whether the insomnia came first or was a result of the other diseases and how trouble sleeping in 13 complicates those other problems. Other diseases 14 , the risk of insomnia seems to increase with age and to be more 15 among women, especially after their 50s. Smoking, caffeine and numerous 16 drugs also affect sleep. The NIH is spending about $200 million this year on sleep-related research, some 17 to specific disorders and others 18 the underlying scientific laws that control the nervous system of sleep. The agency was 19 the pane's review before deciding what additional work should be 20 at insomnia.

A. "There is now such creativity of new and very sophisticated financial instruments..

Americans' pride and faith of their economic system, 1 that it provides opportunities for all citizens to have good lives, are 2 by the 3 that poverty persists in many parts of the country. Government anti-poverty efforts have made some progress but have not eradicated the problem. 4 , periods of strong economic growth, which bring more jobs and higher wages, have 5 poverty but have not 6 it entirely. The federal government 7 poverty line as a minimum 8 of income 9 for basic maintenance of a family of four. This amount may fluctuate 10 the cost of living and the location of the family. In 1998, a family of four with an annual income below $16,530 was classified 11 living in poverty. The percentage of people living below poverty line dropped from 22.4 percent in 1959 to 11.4 percent in 1978. But 12 , it has fluctuated in a fairly narrow range. In 1998, it stood at 12.7 percent. 13 , the overall figures mask much more severe pockets of poverty. In 1998, more than one- quarter of all African-Americans lived in poverty; though 14 high, that figure did represent an improvement from 1979 when 31 percent of blacks were officially classified as poor. There are 15 estimations on the accuracy of official poverty figures. Some analysts have suggested that the official poverty figures 16 the real 17 of poverty because they measure only cash income and exclude certain government assistance programs such as Food Stamps. Others point out, however, that these programs 18 cover all of a family's food or health care needs. 19 others point out that people at the poverty line sometimes receive cash income from 20 work and in the underground sector of economy which is never recorded in official statistics.

I came across an old country guide the other day

Life, at least for a seed

Directions: em>Write an essay of 160-200 words based on the following drawing. In your essay

In some ways

Directions: Write an essay of 160-200 words based on the following picture. In your essay

The world has more than enough labour

It is difficult for outsiders to gauge people's sense of well-being, simply by viewing their lives. And yet despite the difficulty, economists seem increasingly determined to do just that, by trying to wrestle life's intangibles into measurable data. Forty years after the Gross National Happiness index was invented by the King of Bhutan, happiness is finally gaining attraction as a serious national indicator. Last week, economists at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which represents 34 major economies, told a packed auditorium in Paris that they hoped their Better Life Index—launched a year ago—would persuade governments to focus as much on factors like environment and community cohesiveness, as on GDP measurements like productivity and income. "The index of material conditions is still extremely important," the OECD's chief statistician Martine Durand told the audience of about 350 people, including economists and officials from around the world. "But what we are saying is that there is more to life than just money." Now several countries seem to have taken note. The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services is working on a national happiness index for Americans (whose "pursuit of happiness," The Washington Post noted, is fundamental to the country) that the U. S. would then track, much as it does income and working hours. And last year, in the midst of massive spending cuts, Britain's Office of National Statistics began a Well-Being Index, at a cost of $ 3 million a year, collecting statistics on people's levels of anxiety and confidence. Surprisingly, the first index showed Brits being generally happy with life, with older people being happiest of all. But no effort seems to match the ambition and scope of the OECD's Better Life Index. Launched in May last year, it collates statistics in 36 countries (Russia and Brazil signed on this month) on 24 indicators; as of this year, those include gender and inequality. There are factors on the list that seem tricky to quantify, like "work-life balance," and "life satisfaction," as well as the more obvious ones like education, health, and income. Having worked for years to design the index, OECD statisticians then confronted the complexities of measuring factors which were subjective and vague. So they launched an online tool called "Your Better Life Index," allowing people anywhere to rank how important each factor on the list is to them, and then compare how their ideal stacks up against real-life statistics. In effect, the Better Life Index is now whatever each person decides it should be. If education is the most important thing to you, go live in Finland, not Mexico; if work-life balance is most important, Denmark is your place, while the U. S. ranks near bottom. By "more to life" (Line 8, Para. 2), Chief statistician Martine Durand suggests ______.

1 Conflicts: If you do get a place in the student dormitory

The end of the early shift