Historians may well look back on the 1980s in the United States as a time of rising affluence side by side with rising poverty. The growth in affluence is attributable to an increase in professional and technical jobs, along with more two career couples whose combined incomes provide a" comfortable living". Yet simultaneously, the nation' s poverty rate rose between 1973 and 1983 from 11.1 percent of the population to 15.2, or by well over a third. Although the poverty rate declined somewhat after 1983, it was still held at 13.5 percent in 1987, comprising a population of 32:5 million Americans. The definition of poverty is a matter of debate. In 1795, a group of English magistrates decided that a minimum in come should be "the cost of a gallon loaf of bread, multiplied by three, plus an allowance for each dependent". Today the Census Bureau defines the threshold of poverty in the United States as the minimum amount of money that families need to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet, assuming they use one third of their income for food. Using this definition, roughly half the American population was poor in the aftermath of the Great Depression of the 1930s. By 1950, the proportion of the poor had fallen to 30 percent and by 1964, to 20 percent. With the adoption of the Johnson administration ' s antipoverty programs, the poverty rate dropped to 12 percent in 1969. But since then, it has stopped falling. Liberals contend that the poverty line is too low because it fails to take into account changes in the standard of living. Conservatives say that it is too high because the poor receive other forms of public assistance, including food stamps, public housing subsidies, and health care. In which of the following years did the poor people constitute the largest proportion of the American population?

1 He is one of the truly great war correspondents

What would you rather lose: your house or your car? In America, where a car is usually essential to get to work, many borrowers would sooner lose their house, which explains why in the years after the crisis, mortgages were more likely to go bad than car loans. It also explains why auto loans, unlike mortgages, are booming. New loans reached 371 billion in the year to June, up 7.4% from the previous year and 64% since 2009. Subprime auto loans, made to the riskiest borrowers, have grown even faster, by 93% since 2009. This growth is due to rising car sales and ample credit as banks, finance companies and carmakers' financing arms compete to lend to consumers, either directly or via car dealers. Those loans are then packaged into securities for yield-hungry investors. Experian, a credit-scoring agency, reckons 85% of new and 54% of used cars are now bought with loans, compared to 79% and 52% in 2007. A car loan is a complex transaction that hinges not just on the price of a car, but also on its trade-in value, extras such an extended guarantee or rust proofing, and most important, the interest rate. A dealer typically selects a quote from a bank or finance company via his computer and marks it up. The higher the markup, the greater the payment he receives from the lender. Consumer advocates fret that this process leaves the unsophisticated—as subprime customers tend to be—at the mercy of unscrupulous dealers. They may be charged a higher rate despite qualifying for a lower one, sold unneeded or overpriced extras, or even told, a few days after they drive off with the car, that their loan was turned down and they must pay a higher rate. "None of the prices are fixed, and each unfixed price is a potentially abusive negotiating point," says Tom Domonoske, a lawyer who represents aggrieved buyers. Consumer advocates would like markups replaced with a flat fee. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a new watchdog agency set up after the financial crisis, is also worried that lots of borrowers get a raw deal. It has told banks and finance companies that it holds them responsible for the behaviour of the dealers they work with, and that it considers dealers' discretion over markups an invitation to discrimination. Dealers are fuming at the CFPB's muscle-flexing. Competition, they say, ensures that customers get the best rate; dealers need discretion to compete. By raising costs, stricter regulation may actually reduce the amount of credit available. We can infer from the text that ______.

For the past several years

Jurcik

Whatever happened to the death of newspapers

Does the language we speak determine how healthy and rich we will be? New research by Keith Chen o

In my view

The domestic economy in the United States expanded in a remarkably vigorous and steady fashion. The revival in consumer confidence was reflected in the higher proportion of incomes spent for goods and services and the marked increase in consumer willingness to take on installment debt. A parallel strengthening in business psychology was manifested in a stepped-up rate of plant and equipment spending and a gradual pickup in expenses for inventory. Confidence in the economy was also reflected in the strength of the stock market and in the stability of the bond market. For the year as a whole, consumer and business sentiment benefited from the ease in East-West tensions. The bases of the business expansion were to be found mainly in the stimulative monetary and fiscal policies that had been pursued. Moreover, the restoration of sounder liquidity positions and tighter management control of production efficiency had also helped lay the groundwork for a strong expansion. In addition, the economic policy moves made by the President had served to renew optimism on the business outlook while boosting hopes that inflation would be brought under more effective control. Finally, of course, the economy was able to grow as vigorously as it did because sufficient leeway existed in terms of idle men and machines. The United States balance of payments deficit declined sharply. Nevertheless, by any other test, the deficit remained very large, and there was actually a substantial deterioration in our trade account to a sizable deficit, almost two-thirds of which was with Japan. While the overall trade performance proved disappointing, there are still good reasons for expecting the delayed impact of devaluation to produce in time a significant strengthening in our trade picture. Given the size of the Japanese component of our trade deficit, however, the outcome will depend importantly on the extent of the corrective measures undertaken by Japan. Also important will be our own efforts in the United States to fashion internal policies consistent with an improvement in our external balance. The underlying task of public policy for the year ahead--and indeed for the longer run-- remained a familiar one.- to strike the right balance between encouraging healthy economic growth and avoiding inflationary pressures. With the economy showing sustained and vigorous growth, and with the currency crisis highlighting the need to improve our competitive posture internationally, the emphasis seemed to be shifting to the problem of inflation. The Phase Three program of wage and price restraint can contribute to reducing inflation. Unless productivity growth is unexpectedly large, however, the expansion of real output must eventually begin to slow down to the economy's larger run growth potential if generalized demand pressures on prices are to be avoided. The author mentions increased installment debt in the first paragraph in order to show ______.

Albert Einstein

Though your parents probably meant your name to last a lifetime, remember that the hopes and dreams they cherished when they chose it may not match yours. If your name no longer seems to 1 you, don't despair; you aren't 2 with the label. Screen stars 3 tailor their names, and with some determination, you can, too. Legal rules are more 4 in this matter than you might expect. How many newlyweds, 5 , are aware that no law requires a woman to 6 her husband's name? Not only that, but in most states parents can give their children any name they wish, 7 it's not that of either parent. Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, for example, named their son Tony Garrity. If you do wish to 8 a new name, you don't need an attorney to make the switch official. 9 common law, all that's necessary is to start using the name of your choice. Remember, 10 , that you must use it everywhere-even 11 your mother-for it to become your 12 name. You must also change all your identification papers and 13 . Your Social Security number will remain the same; just fill 14 form SS-5 at your local Social Security office, and they'll 15 the Internal Revenue Service. Be sure to practice your new signature until you write it naturally and 16 Getting friends to call you Leah instead of Lola may be harder than any paperwork 17 , but you'll probably encounter official resistance, too. Be assured that no law should 18 you from using whatever name you've established for any transaction, 19 it's not for purposes of fraud, unfair competition, or to otherwise 20 any illegal activity.

The process by which academics check the work of their colleagues before it goes to print—peer review—is nearly as old as scientific publishing itself. But like every human 1 , it is full of human failing and the process can be 2 in a variety of ways. 3 , and as with many other aspects of publishing, peer review is the 4 of much experimentation. Peer review's current practice took 5 in the middle of the 20th century: authors submit a 6 to a publisher, who then seeks out academics suitable to 7 on it; they then submit critiques anonymously to the authors, who 8 the work to reflect the critiques. The system nearly 9 . The reasons for anonymity are varied, but that information asymmetry often causes trouble, with reviewers shooting 10 rival's work, stealing ideas, or just plain 11 their feet. There are a few green shoots of 12 in the field, though. One idea is to remove the 13 and carry out peer review publicly. Faculty of 1000, an online biology and medicine publisher, has taken this 14 with em>F1000 Research/em>, its flagship journal. 15 it is taking the idea further. Michael Markie, an associate publisher for em>F1000 Research/em>, believes that a 16 to change must also come from authors and reviewers. Mr. Markie 17 a kind of oath and a set of guidelines to encourage even-handed and helpful behaviours for reviewers. All of this may sound a bit 18 . But the truth is that there is no peer-review training. Marcia McNutt, editor-in-chief of em>Science/em>, is concerned that some publishers 19 assume that reviewers are aware of an appropriate 20 of conduct. That is not the case, which is why the simple-sounding oath is better than no guidance at all.

Cyberspace, data superhighways

"My expectations and my happiness all got destroyed, that was the minute that it happened." So testified Sony Sulekha, one of the plaintiffs in the largest human-trafficking case ever brought in America. He and around 500 other Indians had been recruited to work in the Signal International shipyard in Mississippi. Each had paid at least $10,000 to a local recruiter working for Signal, expecting a well-paid job and help in getting a green card. Instead they laboured in inhumane conditions, lived in a crowded camp under armed guard and were given highly restricted work permits. Bonded labour is also common in parts of Pakistan, Russia and Uzbekistan—and rife in Thailand's seafood industry. A recent investigation by Verité, an NGO, found that a quarter of all workers in Malaysia's electronics industry were in forced labour. But the focus is now widening to the greater number of people in other forms of bonded labour—and the proposed solutions are changing. Campaign groups and light-touch laws, backed up by the occasional high-profile prosecution, aim to shame multinationals into policing their own supply chains. The Global Fund to End Slavery, which is reported to have substantial seed money from Andrew Forrest, an Australian mining magnate, will seek grants from donor governments and part-fund national strategies developed by public-private partnerships in countries in which bonded labour is common. The Freedom Fund finances research into ways to reduce bonded labour. The Freedom Fund's first schemes include assessments of efforts to free bonded labour in the Thai seafood industry, the clothing industry in southern India and—a harder problem, since the customers are rarely multinationals—in brick kilns in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Arguably, the lack of evidence about what works is the main obstacle to reducing the prevalence of modem slavery. America made human trafficking illegal in 2000, after which it started to publish annual assessments of other countries' efforts to tackle it. But it has only slowly turned up the heat on offenders within its borders. Australia and Britain have recently passed light-touch laws along the lines of a law requiring transparency in supply chains that was adopted by California in 2010. This requires manufacturers and retailers that do business in the state and have global revenues of at least $100m to list the efforts they are taking to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking from their supply chains. Ending bonded labour will require economic as well as legal measures. Those desperate enough to get into debt for the chance of a job need better options, and long-standing recruitment practices must change. It can be inferred from Paragraph 1 that ______.

An official report

A. Created 150 years ago

Narrative crept back into art through a side door marked fashion photography. In April 1967, French em>Vogue/em> published a spread by Bob Richardson, the American photographer, that soon became a legend. Informally christened "the Greek trip" by Richardson's admirers, the spread featured Donna Mitchell, a striking brunet model, hanging out on the Aegean island of Rhodes with a male companion. Of course, narrative never disappeared—it just went to the movies, and stayed, and stayed. But what had caused stories to be exiled from high art? The idea of essence, and the equation of essence with goodness. Can you imagine? Visual art is essentially composed of form, color, materials. Anything to do with content is extraneous and therefore to be associated with badness; therefore to be eliminated. Moreover, content, says this line of thought, is controlling. This means that a rose is the Virgin Mary (depending on what the meaning of "is" is). And art, like society, must be liberated from such hierarchically imposed values. What this argument overlooked, of course, is that narrative is a form in itself, not just a vehicle for content. Indeed, the ideology of formalism originated, in Soviet Russia, with the analysis of old folk tales. Narrative form, the analysis went, typically proceeds from an initial state of equilibrium through a series of destabilizing episodes, concluding with a heightened state of equilibrium at the end. Think Indiana Jones. You can plug whatever content you want in there as long as it creates the form. Each episode simply has to do with the work of creating disequilibrium. A narrative does not, in other words, tell a story. A story is told to give listeners the pleasure of the narrative form. If you were to isolate the form of disequilibrium from the specifics of plot, you might arrive at something resembling the collected work of Cindy Sherman. Initially modeled after movie stills, Sherman's pictures are not, of course, abstract. Over the years, in fact, their content has become increasingly elaborate. I see this as a form of generosity as well as a sign of advanced technical skills. Not since Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593), perhaps, has an artist contrived to turn the human figure into a more bountiful cornucopia for the eye. Yet even the most visually splendid of Sherman's images are minimalist, in that they reduce the narrative down to the precise moment when the center of gravity shifts. Perhaps some unheard word is spoken. A floorboard squeaks. From upstairs comes a thump. And a tentative state of equilibrium gives way to anxiety or dread. That moment, too, represents essence. What more do you need to know? According to the author, "narrative" is to "story" what ______.

"My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas." Many American school children are taught this sentence to help them remember the order of the planets of the solar system. Soon though, this may change because, on July 29th, a team of astronomers announced the discovery of a very distant celestial body larger than Pluto. The researchers claim that the new body—which they are informally calling Xena—should be classified as a planet. The new body—temporarily named 2003UB313—orbits the Sun once every 560 years. It is currently over 14 billion kilometres away, about three times farther out than Pluto, making it the most distant object ever discovered in the solar system. The researchers think it is part of the Kuiper belt, a ring of rocky objects that extends beyond Neptune. Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology, Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory and David Rabino witz of Yale University discovered the object in data recorded at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego in October 2003, but its motion did not become apparent until they reanalysed the data in January 2005. The question of whether or not the new body should be considered a planet has rekindled the debate over what exactly counts as a planet. A handful of objects of similar size to, but smaller than, Pluto have been discovered in the Kuiper belt over the past few years. These have not been considered planets, mainly because they were smaller than Pluto. But 2003UB313 is larger than Pluto. If Pluto is a planet, shouldn't it be as well? The case is not so clear cut. Many astronomers argue that Pluto should not be considered a planet. It is more like a large asteroid, they hold. Meanwhile, Dr. Brown asserts that as Pluto has historically been considered a planet, anything larger should also be considered one. Ultimately, the International Astronomical Union, a group of professional astronomers, will end this existential anxiety. Dr. Brown expects the process to take months, and the team is not allowed to reveal its suggested name until then. Since most Greek and Roman names have already been used, he and his colleagues have previously drawn upon Native American and Inuit mythology for names. He will only hint that the new name comes from a different tradition altogether. Time will tell whether mother wilt be serving "nine polished xylophones", "nine pizzas" or just "noodles". The first sentence in Para. 1 is used by American school children because ______.

College graduates are now leaving school with not only a diploma, but also with more debt than in any other period in history. According to the College Board, average financial aid per full time equivalent student adjusted for inflation, has almost doubled in the last decade. Additionally, not only is the average student debt load higher, but also the number of loans originated increased by nearly fourfold. Thus student lending has increased in breadth as well as depth, doubly impacting the financial situations of those students who must depend on student loans to finance their education. Furthermore, these figures no doubt understate the true level of indebtedness incurred by students and their families since some undoubtedly finance part of their education and living expenses through the use of consumer loans, home equity loans or credit cards. Thus, the already huge burden of student loan debt incurred by students and their families is exacerbated by financial obligations from other sources. This situation is the outcome of a precarious combination of easy credit, thanks to card issuers who are eager to tap into this lucrative market, financial naiveté on the part of students, and a sense on both sides that, if worse comes to worse, mommy and daddy will step in and set things right. All combine to make credit a tempting lure to students strapped for cash. While credit still remain a virtual element for the financing of many students' education at expensive colleges, its implications must carefully weighed and considered, lest the cash-poor student find himself with more that he bargained for. Most students in the United States attend colleges whose tuition does not exceed $15,000, however. Nevertheless, rising prices, combined with stagnant income gains among low-and moderate-income families, have made it difficult if not impossible for a student from a family of such an income level, a student who has the most to gain from a college education, to attend college without significantly adding to the financial burden of his or her family. While student loans still remain a vital element for the financing of many students' education at expensive colleges, its implications must be carefully weighed and considered, lest the cash-poor student find himself with more than he bargained for. In Paragraph 1, "... the number of loans originated increased by nearly fourfold" means

In 1956, when the cold war was at its peak