Whether he comes or not doesn 't make any difference.

A good marriage means growing as a couple but also growing as individuals. This isn"t easy, marriage has always been difficult. Why then are we seeing so many divorces at this time? Yes, our modern social fabric is thin, and yes the permissiveness of society has created unrealistic expectations and thrown the family into disorder. But divorce is so common be-cause people today are unwilling to exercise the self-discipline that marriage requires. They expect easy joy, like the entertainment on TV, the thrill of a good party. Marriage takes some kind of sacrifice, net dreadful self-sacrifice of the soul, but some level of compromise. Some of one"s fantasies, some of one"s legitimate desires have to be given up for the value of the marriage itself. "While all marital partners feel shackled at times, it is they who really choose to make the marital ties into confining chains or supporting bends", says Dr. Whitaker. Marriage requires sexual, financial and emotional discipline. A man and a woman cannot follow every impulse, cannot allow themselves to stop growing or changing. A divorce is not an evil act. Sometimes it provides salvation(拯救) for people who have grown hopelessly apart or were frozen in patterns of pain or mutual unhappiness. Divorce can be like the first cut of the surgeon"s knife, a step toward new health and a good life. On the other hand, if the partners can stay past the breaking up of the romantic myths into the development of real love and intimacy, they have achieved a work as amazing as the greatest cathedrals(教堂) of the world. Marriages that do not fail but improve, that persist despite imperfections, are not only rare these days but offer a wondrous shelter in which the face of our mutual humanity can safely show itself.

When recruiting at British universities, PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the Big Four auditing firms with its headquarters in the New York City, presents candidates with an unusual exercise. They are asked to build a tall and sturdy tower using the smallest possible number of snap-together Lego bricks. Similarly, at Google Games, a recruiting event first staged by the search-enginegiant in April, candidates are invited to build Lego bridges—the stronger the better. In each case, the company is trying to convey the idea that it offers a creative, fun working environment. "It was as much advertising as a way of trying to get recruits," says Brett Daniel, a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who built the Google Games" weakest bridge. A Danish firm, based in Billund, Denmark, has embraced the corporate use of its colored plastic bricks. As part of a scheme called "Serious Play" it is certifying a growing number of professional Lego consultants, now present in 25 countries. They coach managers by getting them to build "metaphorical abstractions" of such things as corporate strategy, says Lego"s Jesper Jensen, who runs the scheme. Hisham El-Gamal of Quest, a management consultancy based in Cairo that offers Serious Play workshops, says demand for the two-day, $7,000 courses is booming. Firms in crisis, such as those corrupted by scandal or in the pains of a takeover, tend to be most receptive to the idea of Lego workshops, says Francois de Boissezon of Imagics, a consultancy based in Brussels. The results can be embarrassing, particularly for senior managers. Tsai Yu-Chen of UGene Mentor, a Serious Play consultancy based in Taipei, says a common exercise is modeling, but not naming, "the people you hate most". One chief executive was modeled as a figure so fat that he blocked a hallway, suggesting he was clogging up the company. Lego workshops are effective because child-like play is a form of instinctive behavior not regulated by conscious thought, says Lucio Margulis of Juego Serio, a consultancy in Buenos Aires. This produces "Eureka" moments: a perfectionist who realizes the absurdity of frustration over an imperfect Lego construction; the owner of a firm with dismal customer relations who models headquarters as a fort under siege; or an arrogant boss who depicts his staff as soldiers headed into battle. Even in the office, it seems, Lego has a part to play.

BSection III Writing/B

I won"t be modest. I am gratified to discover that a paper I penned on inequality made its way into Matt Miller"s Washington Post column last week. Mr Miller asks why rising inequality has not【C1】______America"s least-favored classes to agitate for a【C2】______He agrees with my verdict: that access to【C3】______goods among the least well-off has ensured that material inequality is not as【C4】______as income inequality. 【C5】______modem conveniences have taken some of the【C6】______out of a relatively small income. This in turn has【C7】______the drive to seek causes of and cures for【C8】______"s discomfort. So the gap between rich and poor is sometimes less【C9】______, even if it is great and growing. Day-to-day experience is mostly a matter of our【C10】______circumstances, and if those are【C11】______enough, a widening gap in income, consumption or wealth is【C12】______to come often to our attention. Even if the abstract fact of rising inequality does come across our radar, it may【C13】______our sense of justice only if we"ve become convinced that inequality itself is【C14】______, or if we face related catastrophes. When I wrote the paper, official measures of income inequality had increased a good deal over the past few decades【C15】______consumption inequality seemed to have remained【C16】______New research suggests that consumption inequality has been increasing with income inequality【C17】______This may be true, but it seems【C18】______to the question of why America"s poor aren"t storming the barriers. The consumption data concerns how much we【C19】______, not how we experience what we buy, and that"s the real issue. Even if we could agree that inequality in real standards of living is rising, this is not something we actually experience unless we are hungry, or【C20】______with the entertainments of our leisure.

Suppose you are Li Ming. During the week-long holiday, you joined a package tour organized by a travel agency to the city of Beijing. But when you got there, you found the services provided for you rather disappointing. Then you decided to writer a letter to the General Manager to 1) state your purpose of writing, 2) complain about the services, and 3) make some suggestions. You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address.

When one uses the scientific method to study or investigate nature or the universe, one is practicing scientific thinking. All scientists practice scientific thinking, of course, since they are actively studying nature and investigating the universe by using the scientific method. But scientific thinking is not reserved solely for scientists.【F1】 Anyone can "think like a scientist" who learns the scientific method and, most importantly, applies its precepts, whether he or she is investigating nature or not. 【F2】 When one uses the methods and principles of scientific thinking in everyday life—such as when studying history or literature, investigating societies or governments, seeking solutions to problems of economics or philosophy, or just trying to answer personal questions about oneself or the meaning of existence—one is said to be practicing critical thinking. Critical thinking is thinking correctly for oneself that successfully leads to the most reliable answers to questions and solutions to problems. In other words, critical thinking gives you reliable knowledge about all aspects of your life and society, and is not restricted to the formal study of nature. Some professionals in the humanities, social sciences, jurisprudence, business, and journalism practice critical thinking as well as any scientist, but many, alas, do not.【F3】 Scientists must practice critical thinking to be successful, but the qualifications for success in other professions do not necessarily require the use of critical thinking, a fact that is the source of much confusion, discord, and unhappiness in our society. The scientific method has proven to be the most reliable and successful method of thinking in human history, and it is quite possible to use scientific thinking in other human endeavors. For this reason, critical thinking is being taught in schools throughout the United States, and its teaching is being encouraged as a universal ideal.【F4】 The important point is this: critical thinking is perhaps the most important skill a student can learn in school and college, since if you master its skills, you know how to think successfully and reach reliable conclusions, and such ability will prove valuable in any human endeavor, including the humanities, social sciences, commerce, law, journalism, and government, as well as in scholarly and scientific pursuits. 【F5】 Since critical thinking and scientific thinking are, as I claim, the same thing, only applied for different purposes, it is therefore reasonable to believe that if one learns scientific thinking in a science class, one learns, at the same time, the most important skill a student can possess—critical thinking. This, to my mind, is perhaps the foremost reason for college Students to study science, no matter what one"s eventual major, interest, or profession.

Writeanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthefollowingdrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1.describethedrawingbriefly,2.explainitsintendedmeaning,andthen3.stateyourpointofview.YoushouldwriteneatlyontheANSWERSHEET.(20points)

Reading and writing have long been thought of as complementary skills: to read is to recognize and interpret language that has been written; to write is to plan and produce language (1)_____ it can be read. It is therefore widely (2)_____ that being able to read implies being able to writer, at least, being able to spell. Often, children are taught to read but (3)_____ no formal tuition in spelling; it is felt that spelling will be "(4)_____ up". The attitude has its (5)_____ in the methods of 200 years ago, when teachers carefully taught spelling, and assumed that reading would (6)_____ automatically. Recent research into spelling errors and "slips of the pen" has begun to show that matters are (7)_____ so simple. There is no necessary link between reading and writing: good readers do not always (8)_____ good writers. Nor is there any necessary link between reading and spelling: there are many people who have no (9)_____ in reading, but who have a major persistent (10)_____ in spelling—some researchers have estimated that this may be as (11)_____ as 2% of the population. With children, too, there is (12)_____ that knowledge of reading does not automatically (16)_____ to spelling. If there (14)_____ a close relationship, children should be able to read and spell the (15)_____ words: but this is not so. It is (16)_____ to find children who can read (17)_____ better than they can spell. More surprisingly, the (18)_____ happens with some children in the early stages of reading. One study (19)_____ children the same list of words to read and spell: several (20)_____ spelled more words correctly than they were able to read correctly.

In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list (A、B、C、D、E、F、G……) to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are several extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. (10 points) While Americans have become ever more dependent upon electricity in their daily lives, a crucial part of the system that supports their way of life has not kept up. Yes, the country has built more power plants—enough to create a glut of power in most parts of the country. (41)______. California"s disastrous partial energy deregulation and the role played by Enron and other energy marketing companies in its power crisis have impeded changes in the national ability to deliver power. (42)______. Moreover, the deficiency also includes inadequate coordination among the regions in managing the flow of electricity. These interregional weaknesses are so far the most plausible explanation for the blackout on Thursday. (43)______. The problem is with the system of rules, organization, and oversight that governs the transmission networks. It was set up for a very different era and is now caught in a difficult transition. The transmission networks were built to serve a utility system based on regulated monopolies. In the old days, there was no competition for customers. Today, the mission is to connect buyers and sellers seeking the best deal, irrespective of political boundaries and local jurisdictions. (44)______. Yet the power industry is probably not even halfway there in its shift from regulation to the marketplace. The California power crisis and the power-trading scandals sent regulators back to the drawing board, slowing the development of new institutions, rules and investment to make competitive markets work. (45)______.A. Over all, for more than a decade, the power industry has been struggling with how to move from the old regulation to the new marketplace. This shift was driven by the view that half a century of state regulation had produced power prices that were too high and too varied among states. Factories and jobs were migrating from states with high electric power prices to those with lower prices.B. But the transmission system is caught in the middle of the stalled deregulation of the American electric power industry.C. As a result, the development of the regional transmission organizations is erratic. More than one-third of the power transmitted is not under the control of regional transmission organizations. Some states fear that their cheap power would be sucked away to other markets; others do not want to subordinate state authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.D. It was unclear when the waters would recede, never mind when life would return to normal. Power may not be restored for weeks. Looting, too. Began to spiral out of control. Mr. Nagin, who said the city might be uninhabitable for three months, was forced to order police to concentrate on stopping crime, not saving people.E. What"s preventing greater connection and coordination between regions? The technology exists, and is available; the economic benefits of relieving the bottlenecks between regions far exceeds the costs by many billions of dollars.F. Yet, despite claims in the wake of last week"s blackout that the nation has a "third world" power grid, the regional networks are first world. But in one critical aspect, the system has become increasingly vulnerable: in the interconnections among the different regions. Both the number and size of the wires on the borders between regions are inadequate for the rising flow of electricity. This missing part creates the worst bottlenecks in the system.G. Since entering the overseas power market in 1993, KEPCO has established several achievements through its distinguished international business strategies to promote electric power development of the world. Based on its long experience and advanced technology gained over 100 years in Korea, KEPCO continues to build up its out standing reputation as a leading utility company. Moreover, KEPCO embraces challenges and makes bold steps into wider markets in the world by its flair for dynamic activities, which is favorably received in the Philippines, China, Vietnam and Libya.

In 1939 two brothers, Mac and Dick McDonald, started a drive-in restaurant in San Bernadino, California. They care fully chose a busy comer for their location. They had run their own business for years, first a theater, then a barbecue(烤肉) restaurant, then another drive-in. But in their new operation, they offered a new, shortened menu: French fries, hamburgers, and sodas. To this small selection they added one new concept: quick service, no waiters or waitresses, and no tips. Their hamburgers sold for fifteen cents. Cheese was another four cents. Their French fries and hamburgers had a remarkable uniformity, for the brothers had developed a strict routine for the preparation of their food, and they insisted on their cooks" sticking to their routine. Their new drive-in became incredibly popular, particularly for lunch. People drove up by the hundreds during the busy noontime. The serf-service restaurant was so popular that the brothers had allowed ten copies of their restaurant to be opened. They were content with this modest success until they met Ray Kroc. Kroc was a salesman who met the McDonald brothers in 1954, when he was selling milkshake-mixing machines. He quickly saw the unique appeal of the brothers fast food restaurants and bought the right to franchise(特许经营)other copies of their restaurants. The agreement struck included the right to duplicate the menu. The equipment, even their red and white buildings with the golden arches. Today McDonald"s is really a household name. Its names for its sandwiches have come to mean hamburger in the decades since the day Ray Kroc watched people rush up to order fifteen-cent hamburgers. In 1976, McDonald"s had over $1 billion in total sales. Its first twenty-two years is one of the most incredible success stories in modem American business history.

In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list (A、B、C、D、E、F、G……) to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are several extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. (10 points) The acronym DINK—double income, no kids—originated in the US in the 1960s. (41)______. This choice was not irrational. After all, nowadays retired people can live on their pensions and savings, so they are no longer compelled to depend on their offspring in old age. And a child is undeniably an expensive proposition: so much time and money are required. Why bother having one? It is hard to condemn those who opt out of parenthood. (42)______. A baby enters the world with a mind like blank paper, and gradually he or she acquires the ability to think, to talk and finally to communicate easily. Isn"t there something magical about it? When you see the process happening before your very eyes, you feel a happiness like no other. A Chinese DINK said to me recently, "If you didn"t have three children, you could go to a bar or the cinema with your wife on weekends—how unrestrained and romantic that would be!" But I would say that no matter how wonderful Hollywood films or Broadway performances are, watching them is far less interesting than seeing my extrovert of a daughter sing and dance. If it"s true that there are rewards to be gotten from having children, then surely the happiness of seeing them grow up is the greatest. (43)______. But this is a happiness that can be felt only after you become a parent; there"s no appreciating it otherwise. However, who begets a child out of curiosity to see him or her grow up? None of my friends had this in mind when they or their wife got pregnant. For some the pregnancy was unexpected. (44)______. And some said that having a child can bring stability to a troubled marriage—but is that really true? I myself didn"t give it much thought. I just assumed it was the natural thing to do, and since my wife enjoyed big, cheerful, lively families, we went ahead and had three kids. No regrets. I know my words won"t change any minds. (45)______. No, raising a child is not easy. The happiness of seeing a child grow, in contrast, is largely in the mind of the parents, and other people cannot so readily perceive it. Little wonder, then, that so many people without children believe parenthood is all work and no fun.A. What DINKs say is obviously true: children really do require lots of parental energy and money. Just watch a mother bring a sick child to a hospital; you can see the tension, the worry, and all the self-control it takes to seem calm and reassuring.B. Another Chinese friend of mine complained: "I provided the funds for my child to go to college and then off to America for a master’s degree, but so far I haven’t gotten any rewards out of playing parent." To him I would say that the rewards were there all along—for any parent open to the wonder of seeing a child begin to speak, or surprise us with a new word used for the first time.C. Fearing that children might constrain their freedom, married working women began to avoid pregnancy; the result was many busy, prosperous young DINK couples.D. Each individual has his or her own reasons for wanting or not wanting children, and his or her own happiness to build. The saddest people are those who have children but come to regret it, for whatever reason. Regretful parents are usually closed to family happiness. And without the happiness, all that remain are the burdens.E. Yet few couples with children would agree that they were stupid to become parents. Most are very happy that they have had the experience of witnessing a child grow to maturity.F. My wife and I have three small children. Chinese friends often ask why three children, not one or none: Doesn"t raising three children limit my career in business and in my wife"s case, teaching?G. Others had parents eager to have grandchildren. A few said they had children because a person"s life would be incomplete without one. Some said that there were millions and millions of children in the world and they just wanted to see what theirs would be like.

You are to write in three paragraphs according to the topic sentences of each paragraph given below. 1. Noise is becoming more and more dangerous. 2. The noises can be very harmful. 3. Drastic action must be taken if we are to reduce noise. You should write about 160-200 words neatly.

A. Title: WHERE TO LIVE—IN THE CITY OR THE COUNTRY? B. Time limit; 40 minutes C. Word limit; 120-150 words (not including the given opening sentence) D. Your composition should be based on the OUTLINE below and should start with the given opening sentence; " Many people appreciate the conveniences of the city. " E. Your composition must be written clearly in the ANSWER SHEET. (15 points) Outline: 1. Conveniences of the city 2. Attractions of the country 3. Disadvantages of both 4. My preference

Neuroscientists have long understood that the brain can rewire itself in response to experience—a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity. But until recently, they didn't know what causes gray matter to become plastic, to begin changing. Breakthrough research by a team at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory has documented one type of environmental feedback that triggers plasticity: success. Equally important and somewhat surprising: Its opposite, failure, has no impact. Earl Miller, the lead researcher on the study, says understanding the link to environmental feedback is crucial to improving how people teach and motivate because it's a big part of how we learn. But we absorb more from success than from failure, according to the study. Miller's researchers gave monkeys a simple learning task: They presented one of two pictures. If it was Picture A, the monkeys were supposed to look to the left; if Picture B, to the right. When the monkeys looked in the correct direction, they were rewarded with a drop of juice. All the while the team recorded brain function. "Neurons(cells specialized to conduct nerve impulses)in the prefrontal cortex and striatum, where the brain tracks success and failure, sharpened their tuning after success," says Miller. What's more, those changes lingered for several seconds, making brain activity more efficient the next time the monkey did the task. Thereafter, each success was processed more efficiently. That is, the monkey had learned. "But after failure," Miller points out, "there was little change in brain activity." In other words, the brain didn't store any information about what went wrong and use it the next time. The monkey just tried, tried again. Miller says this means that on a neurological level, success is actually a lot more informative than failure. If you get a reward, the brain remembers what it did right. But with failure(unless there is a clear negative consequence, like the shock a child feels when she sticks something in an electrical outlet), the brain isn't sure what to store, so it doesn't change at all. Does this research confirm the management tenet of focusing on your—and your team's—strengths and successes? Miller cautions against making too tidy a connection between his findings and an environment like the workplace, but he offers this suggestion: "Maybe the lesson is to know that the brain will learn from success, and you don't need to dwell on that. You need to pay more attention to failures and challenge why you fail."

Britain"s richest people have experienced the biggest-ever rise in their wealth, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. Driven by the new economy of Internet and computer entrepreneurs, the wealth of those at the top of the financial tree has increased at an unprecedented rate. The 12th annual Rich List will show that the collective worth of the country"s richest 1,000 people reached nearly 146 billion by January, the cut-off point for the survey. They represented an increase of 31 billion, or 27%, in just 12 months. Since the survey was compiled, Britain"s richest have added billions more to their wealth, thanks to the continuing boom in technology shares on the stock market. This has pushed up the total value of the wealth of the richest 1,000 to a probable 160 billion according to Dr. Philip Beresford, Britain"s acknowledged expert on personal wealth who compiles the Sunday Times Rich List. The millennium boom exceeds anything in Britain"s economic history, including the railway boom of the 1840s and the South Sea bubble of 1720. "It has made Margaret Thatcher"s boom seem as sluggish as Edward Heath"s three-day week," said Beresford. "We are seeing billions being added to the national wealth every week." William Rubinstein, professor of modem history at the University of Wales, Abe Ystwyth, confirmed that the growth in wealth was unprecedented. "Almost all of today"s wealth has been created since the industrial revolution, but even by those heady standards the current boom is extraordinary," he said. "There is no large-scale cultural opposition or guilt about making money. In many ways British business attitudes can now challenge the United States." Although the Britain"s richest are experiencing the sharpest surge in wealth, the rest of the population has also benefited from the stock market boom and rising house prices. Last year wealth rose by 16% to a record 4,267 billion, according to calculation by the investment bank Salomon Smith Barney. In real terms, wealth has increased by more than a third since the late 1980s. Much of the wealth of the richest is held in shares in start-up companies. Some of these paper fortunes, analysts agree, could easily be wiped out, although the wealth-generating effects of the interest revolution seem to be here to stay. A Sunday Times Young Rich List confirms that people are becoming wealthier younger. It includes the 60 richest millionaires aged 30 or under. At the top, on 600m, is the "old money" Earl of Iveagh, 30, head of the Guinness brewing family. In second place is Charles Nasser, also 30, who launched the Clara-NET Internet provider four years ago and is worth 300m. The remaining eight in the top 10 young millionaires made their money from computing and the Internet.

ExtracurricularActivitiesandtheTimeSpentonThemA.Studythefollowingchartscarefullyandwriteanessayof160-200words.B.Youressayshouldcoverthesethreepoints:1)themainextracurricularactivitiesstudentstakepartinandthetimetheyspendonthem2)possiblereasons3)yoursuggestions

Investment in the public sector, such as electricity, irrigation, public services and transport (excluding vehicles, ships and planes) increased by about 10%, although the emphasis moved to the transport and away from the other sectors mentioned. Trade and services recorded a 16%～17% investment growth, including a 30% increase in investment in business premises. Industrial investment is estimated to have risen by 8%. Although the share of agriculture in total gross in vestment in the economy continued to decline, investment grew 9% in absolute terms, largely spurred on by a 23% expansion of investment in agricultural equipment. Housing construction had 12% more invested in it in 1964, not so much owing to increased demand, as to fears of new taxes and limitation of building. Total consumption in real terms rose by close on 11% during 1964, and per capital personal consumption by under 7%, as in 1963. The undesirable trend towards a rapid rise in consumption, evident in previous years, remained unaltered. Since at current prices consumption rose by 16% and disposable income by 13%, there was evidently a fall in the rate of saving in the private sector of the economy. Once again consumption patterns indicated a swift advance in the standard of living. Expenditure on food declined in significance, although consumption of fruit increased. Spending on furniture and household equipment, health, education and recreation continued to increase. The greatest proof of altered living standards was the rapid expansion of expenditure on transport(including private cars) and personal services of all kinds, which occurred during 1964. The progressive wealth of large sectors of the public was demonstrated by the changing composition of durable goods purchased. Saturation point was rapidly being approached for items such as the first household radio, gas cookers, and electric, refrigerators, whereas increasing purchases of automobiles and television sets were registered.

You are going to read a text about The Big Melt, followed by a list of examples. Choose the best example from the list A—F for each numbered subheading (41—45). There is one extra example which you do not need to use. Say goodbye to the world"s tropical glaciers and ice caps. Many will vanish within 20 years. When Lonnie Thompson visited Peru"s Quelccaya ice cap in 1977, he couldn"t help noticing a school-bus-size boulder that was upended by ice pushing against it. Thompson returned to the same spot last year, and the boulder was still there, but it was lying on its side. The ice that once supported the massive rock had retreated far into the distance, leaving behind a giant lake as it melted away. Foe Thompson, a geologist with Ohio State University"s Byrd Polar Research Center, the rolled-back rock was an obvious sign of climate change in the Andes Mountains. "Observing that over 25 years personally really brings it home", he says. "You don"t have to be a believer in global warming to see what"s happening". (41) Thawed ice caps in the tropics. Quelccaya is the largest ice cap in the tropics, but it isn"t the only one that is melting, according to decades of research by Thompson"s team. No tropical glaciers are currently known to be advancing, and Thompson predicts that many mountaintops will be completely melted within the next 20 years. (42) Situation in areas other than the tropics. The phenomenon isn"t confined to the tropics. Glaciers in Europe, Russia, New Zealand, the United States, and elsewhere are also melting. (43) The worsening effects of global warming. For many scientists, the widespread melt-down is a clear sign that humans are affecting global climate, primarily by raising the levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. (44) Receding ice caps. That"s not to say that glaciers, currently found on every continent except Australia, haven"t melted in the past as a result of natural variability. These rivers of ice exist in a delicate balance between inputs (accumulating snow and ice) and outputs (melting and "calving" of large chunks of ice). Over time, the balance can tilt in either direction, causing glaciers to advance or retreat. What"s different now is the speed at which the scales have tipped. "We"ve been surprised at how rapid the rate of retreat has been", says Thompson. His team began mapping one of the main glaciers flowing out of the Quelccaya ice cap in 1978, using satellite images and ground surveys. (45) Thinning ice cores. And its" not just the margin of the ice cap that is melting. At Quelccaya and Mount Kilimanjaro, the researchers have found that the ice fields are thinning as well. Besides mapping ice caps and glaciers, Thompson and his colleagues have taken core samples from Quelccaya since 1976, when the ice at the drilling location was 154 meters thick. Thompson and his colleagues have also drilled ice cores from other locations in South America, Africa, and China. Trapped within each of these cores is a climate record spanning more than 8,000 years. It shows that the past 50 years are the warmest in history. The 4-inch-thick ice cores are now stored in freezers at Ohio State. On the future, says Thompson, that may be the only place to see what"s left of the glaciers of Africa and Peru.A. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, prepared by hundreds of scientists and approved by government delegates from more than 100 nations, states. "There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities". The report, released in January, says that the planet"s average surface temperature increased by about 0.6℃ during the 20th century, and is projected to increase another 1.4℃ to 5.8℃ by 2100. That rate of warming is "with-out precedent during at least the last 10,000 years", says the IPCC.B. Alaska"s massive Bering and Columbia Glaciers located in nontropical regions, for example, have receded by more than 10 kilometers during the past century. And a study by geologists at the University of Colorado at Boulder predicts that Glacier National Park in Montana, under the influence of melting, will lose all of its glaciers by 2070.C. For example, about 97 per cent of the planet"s water is seawater. Another 2 per cent is locked in icecaps and glaciers. There are also reserves of fresh water under the earth"s surface but these are too deep for us to use economically.D. For example, Africa"s Mount Kilimanjaro in tropical areas has lost 82 percent of its ice field since it was first mapped in 1912. That year, Kilimanjaro had 12.1 square kilometers of ice. By last year, the ice covered only 2.2 square kilometers. At the current rate of melting, the snows of Kilimanjaro that Ernest Hemingway wrote about will be gone within 15 years, Thompson estimates. "But it probably will happen sooner, because the rate is speeding up".E. "I fully expect to be able to return there in a dozen years or so and see the marks on the rock where our drill bit punched through the ice", says Thompson. If that happens, it will mean that a layer of ice more than 500 feet thick has vanished into thin air.F. The glacier, Qori Kalis, was then retreating by 4.9 meters per year. Every time the scientists returned, Qori Kalis was melting faster. Between 1998 and 2000, it was retreating at a rate of 155 meters per years (more than a foot per day), 32 times faster than in 1978. "You can almost sit there and watch it move", says Thompson.

If you"ve gotten used to smoke-free bars, here"s a new concept to wrap your mind around: smoke-free cigar lounges. This innovation comes to us by courtesy of Washington state"s voters, who recently approved an initiative that bans smoking in nearly every indoor location except for private residences. The ban makes no exception for businesses whose raison d"etre is tobacco consumption, even if they have ventilation systems that whisk smoke away as soon as it"s produced. By forbidding smoking within 25 feet of entrances and windows, it even threatens to eliminate sidewalk smoking sections and quick outdoor cigarette breaks. As these provisions suggest, the real motivation behind government-imposed smoking bans is not to shield customers and employees from secondhand smoke, although that rationale is popular with the general public. For the activists and government officials who push the bans, the main point is to discourage smoking by making it inconvenient and socially unacceptable, transforming it into a shameful vice practiced only in privacy and isolation. That doesn"t mean everyone who voted for the Washington ban, which will be the most restrictive state law of its kind in the country when it takes effect on December 8, is eager to save smokers from themselves. By and large, I"m sure, the ban"s supporters simply wanted to avoid tobacco smoke without having to make any sacrifices. For example, they did not want to have to choose between tolerating smoke and passing over otherwise appealing bars and restaurants that allow smoking. Instead they decided to force the owners of those establishments to change their policies by threatening to fine them and take away the licenses on which their livelihoods depend. Mow much courage does it take, in a state where nonsmokers outnumber smokers by four to one, to declare that the minority"s desires should count for nothing, even when business owners want to accommodate them? How admirable is it, in a state where 80 percent of restaurants already are smoke free, to insist that the rest follow suit? The employee protection excuse does not make this demand any more reasonable. As a nonsmoking Seattle bartender told The Seattle Times, "You know what you"re getting into when you work in a bar. If I had a problem with smoke, I"d get another job. " Secondhand smoke is, in any case, not the main concern of those who promote smoking bans in the name of "public health". Laws like Washington"s are "one of the most effective ways to provide the strong incentive often needed to get smokers to quit", according to John Banzhaf, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health.