The four girls in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" make a pact. (46) Having found the magic every woman dreams of, a pair of jeans that fits all four of them perfectly, they vow to share them long-distance during their first summer apart. The jeans must be magic, because the girls" shapes couldn"t be more different. Petite Lena (Alexis Bledel) is allergic to boys who see her as a beautiful face. Witty Carmen (America Ferrera) is too curvy to fit into the bridesmaid"s gown ordered for her by Lydia (Nancy Travis), the Southern bride-to-be of her divorced father (Bradley Whitford). Bridget (Blake Lively), a lanky star athlete, has never come to terms with her mother"s suicide. (47) And Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) is a blue-haired cynic whose summer job at a superstore named Wallman"s is paying for video equipment to make her first film. (48) The girls pass the jeans around to bring them luck when they are separated: Lena with relatives on Santorini where Kostas (Michael Rady) changes her mind about men; Carmen with the father she never sees, whose new family is a shock; Bridget in a Mexican soccer camp, where she sets her sights on Eric(Mike Vogel), forbidden fruit because he"s a coach; and Tibby videotaping her co-workers. "A documentary", says one interview subject. "That"s like a movie, only boring?" Delia Ephron and Elizabeth Chandler"s screenplay is nicely served by the direction of a comedy veteran, Ken Kwapis.(49) He creates a fairytale summer world where the girls grapple with real issues: love and family, death, losing your virginity for the wrong reasons, divorce, racism and having an unfashionable body type. (50) The magic, of course is in the girls, as they help each other achieve insights that few of their elders could manage gently sprinkled sprinkled with tears. Ann Brashares, who wrote the novel on which the film is based, has written two more books about the Sisterhood. If this one clicks, Warner Bros may find itself the proud owner of the first summer film franchise for teenage girls.

The willingness of doctors at several major medical centers to apologize .to patients for harmful errors is a promising step toward improving the rather disappointing quality of a medical system that kills tens of thousands of innocent patients a year inadvertently. For years, experts have lamented that medical malpractice litigation is an inefficient way to deter lethal or damaging medical errors. What they noticed, simply put it, is that most victims of malpractice never sue, and there is some evidence that many patients who do sue were not harmed by a physician"s error but instead suffered an adverse medical outcome that could not have been prevented. The details of what went wrong are often kept secret as part of a settlement agreement. What is needed, many specialists agree, is a system that quickly brings an error to light so that further errors can be headed off and that compensates victims promptly and fairly. Many doctors, unfortunately, have been afraid that admitting and describing their errors would only invite a costly lawsuit. Now, as described by Kevin Sack in The Times, a handful of prominent academic medical centers have adopted a new policy of promptly disclosing errors, offering earnest apologies and providing fair compensation. It appears to satisfy many patients, reduce legal costs and the litigation burden and, in some instances, helps reduce malpractice premiums. Here are some examples from colleges of the United States: at the University of Illinois, of 37 cases where the hospital acknowledged a preventable error and apologized, only one patient filed suit; at the University of Michigan Health System, existing claims and lawsuits dropped from 262 in August 2001 to 83 in August 2007, and legal costs fell by two-thirds. To encourage greater candor, more than 30 states have enacted laws making apologies for medical errors inadmissible in court. That sounds like a sensible step that should be adopted by other states or become federal law. Such laws could help bring more errors to light. Patients who have been harmed by negligent doctors can still sue for malpractice, using other evidence to make their case. Admitting errors is only the first step toward reforming the health care system so that far fewer mistakes are made. But reforms can be more effective if doctors are candid about how they went astray. Patients seem far less angry when they receive an. honest explanation, an apology and prompt, fair compensation for the harm they have suffered.

Writeanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthefollowingdrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,andthen3)giveyourcomments.YoushouldwriteneatlyonANSWERSHEET2.(20points)

BPart ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D./B

AMERICA"S central bank sent a clear message this week. For the second consecutive meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank"s policy-making committee, left short term interest rates unchanged at 1.75%. But it said that the risks facing the economy had shifted from economic weakness to a balance between weakness and excessive growth. This shift surprised no one. But it has convinced many people that interest rates are set to rise again—and soon. Judging by prices in futures markets, investors are betting that short-term interest rates could start rising as early as May, and will be 1.25 percentage points higher by the end of the year. That may be excessive. Economists at Goldman Sachs, who long argued that the central bank would do nothing this year, now expect short-term rates to go up only 0.75% this year, starting in June. But virtually everyone reckons some Fed tightening is in the offing. The reason? After an unprecedented 11 rate-cuts in 2001, short term interest rates are abnormally low. As the signs of robust recovery multiply, analysts expect the Fed to take back some of the rate-cuts it used as an "insurance policy" after the September 11th terrorist attack. They think there will be a gradual move from the Fed"s current "accommodative" monetary stance to a more neutral policy. And a neutral policy, many argue, ultimately implies short term interest rates of around 4%. Logical enough. But higher rates could still be further off, particularly if the recovery proves less robust than many hope. Certainly, recent economic indicators have been extraordinarily strong: unemployment fell for the second consecutive month in February and industrial production rose in both January and February. The manufacturing sector is growing after 18 months of decline. The most optimistic Wall Streeters now expect GDP to have expanded by between 5% and 6% on an annual basis in the first quarter. But one strong quarter does not imply a sustainable recovery. In the short term, the bounce-back is being driven by a dramatic restocking of inventories. But it can be sustained only if corporate investment recovers and consumer spending stays buoyant. With plenty of slack capacity around and many firms stuck with huge debts and lousy profits, it is hard to see where surging investment will come from. And, despite falling unemployment, America"s consumers could disappoint the bulls. These uncertainties alone suggest the central bank will be cautious about raising interest rates. Indeed, given the huge pressure on corporate profits, the Federal Reserve might be happy to see consumer prices rise slightly. In short, while Wall Street frets about when and how much interest rates will go up. The answer may well be not soon and not much.

Could a hug a day keep the doctor away? The answer may be a resounding " yes!" 【B1】______helping you feel close and【B2】______to people you care about, it turns out that hugs can bring a【B3】______of health benefits to your body and mind. Believe it or not, a warm embrace might even help you【B4】______getting sick this winter. In a recent study【B5】______over 400 healthy adults, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania examined the effects of perceived social support and the receipt of hugs【B6】______the participants' susceptibility to developing the common cold after being【B7】______to the virus. People who perceived greater social support were less likely to come【B8】______with a cold, and the researchers【B9】______that the stress-reducing effects of hugging【B10】______about 32 percent of that beneficial effect. 【B11】______among those who got a cold, the ones who felt greater social support and received more frequent hugs had less severe【B12】______ " Hugging protects people who are under stress from the【B13】______risk for colds that' s usually【B14】______with stress," notes Sheldon Cohen, a professor of psychology at Carnegie. Hugging "is a marker of intimacy and help【B15】______the feeling that others are there to help【B16】______difficulty. " Some experts【B17】______the stress-reducing, health-related benefits of hugging to the release of oxytocin, often called "the bonding hormone"【B18】______it promotes attachment in relationships, including that between mothers and their newborn babies. Oxytocin is made primarily in the central lower part of the brain, and some of it is released into the bloodstream. But some of it【B19】______in the brain, where it【B20】______mood, behavior and physiology.

President Barack Obama claimed progress Wednesday in his second-term drive to combat climate change but said more must be done to address a generational problem. One year after unveiling an aggressive plan, Obama said new【C1】______limits on power plants, renewable energy projects and new【C2】______for green technology have cleared the way for further action in the U.S. and abroad, despite steadfast【C3】______from much of Congress. "When you take those first steps, even if they're【C4】______, and even if there are politics sometimes, you start【C5】______momentum and you start mobilizing larger and larger communities," Obama said. Obama's【C6】______served as a progress report for his climate plan, which the president【C7】______out last June. Twelve months later, much of the plan is in【C8】______, although the most ambitious steps are still up in the air and will take years to be【C9】______realized. Change won't be instantaneous, Obama【C10】______. "There's no silver bullet" Indeed, many of the steps he's taking are【C11】______, limited in scope by hostility from both parties to putting a【C12】______on carbon pollution, which would require new laws from Congress. Still, Obama said he's seeking to【C13】______the problem but cutting it up into smaller pieces. "We're moving, and it's making a【C14】______," he told a supportive crowd at the League of Conservation Voter's annual dinner. The environmental group【C15】______Obama early in his 2008 campaign.【C16】______on the international front, momentum has been obscure.【C17】______global climate talks next year in Paris, there are fresh【C18】______that some countries are urging others to resist【C19】______moves to curb carbon. That could discourage even bigger polluters from【C20】______.

BSection I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D./B

You have a friend who is about to enter university, and he wants you to give him some advice on which major to choose: history, in which he is interested in or computer science, which indicates better job prospects. Write a letter with no less than 100 words to tell him your opinion and explain the reasons. Write it neatly and do not sign your own name at the end of the letter; use "Li Ming" instead. You do not need to write the address.

HowtoPreventHypertension?Writeanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthedrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,andthen3)giveyourcomments.

Dieting, according to an old joke, may not actually make you live longer, but it sure feels that way. Nevertheless, evidence has been accumulating since the 1930s that calorie restriction—reducing an animal"s energy intake below its energy expenditure—extends lifespan and delays the onset of age-related diseases in rats, dogs, fish and monkeys. Such results have inspired thousands of people toput up with constant hunger in the hope of living longer, healthier lives. They have also led to a search for drugs that mimic the effects of calorie restriction without the pain of going on an actual diet. Amid the hype (intensive publicity), it is easy to forget that no one has until now shown that calorie restriction works in humans. That omission, however, changed this month, with the publication of the initial results of the first systematic investigation into the matter. This study, known as CALERIE (Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy), was sponsored by America"s National Institutes of Health. It took 48 men and women aged between 25 and 50 and assigned them randomly to either a control group or a calorie-restriction regime. Those in the second group were requir ed to cut their calorie intake for six months to 75% of that needed to maintain their weight. The CALERIE study is a landmark in the history of the field, because its subjects were either of normal weight or only slightly overweight. Previous projects have used individuals who were clinically obese, thus confusing the unquestionable benefits to health of reducing obesity with the possible advantages of calorie restriction to the otherwise healthy. At a molecular level, CALERIE suggests these advantages are real. For example, those on restricted diets had lower insulin resistance and lower levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. They showed drops in body temperature and blood-insulin levels—both phenomena that have been seen in long-lived, calorie-restricted animals. They also suffered less oxidative damage to their DNA. Eric Ravussin, of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, who is one of the study"s authors, says that such results provide support for the theory that calorie restriction produces a metabolic adaptation over and above that which would be expected from weight loss alone. Nevertheless, such metabolic adaptation could be the reason why calorie restriction is associated with longer lifespans in other animals—and that is certainly the hope of those who, for the past 15 years, have been searching for ways of triggering that metabolic adaptation by means other than semi-starvation.

The study by researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland found that even in the absence of moonlight, participants slept less deeply and for shorter periods during the full moon than at other lunar phases. It is a phenomenon already known in other organisms as the " circalunar rhythm ", but has never before been shown in humans. The brain pattern, eye movements and hormone secretion of volunteers were studied while they slept. Participants were also asked for subjective assessments of their sleep quality. The results, published in Current Biology , showed that around the full moon, subjects" brain activity associated with deep sleep decreased by 30%. They took 5 minutes longer to fall asleep, had 20 minutes less sleep overall and lower levels of melatonin—a hormone known to regulate sleep. These findings correlated with the volunteers" own perception that sleep quality was poorer during the full moon. Previous research has found no association between the phases of the moon and human physiology or behaviour. "I think one issue in the past was that they compared a lot of people by mixing different laboratories, different devices, and including data from patients, so the entire thing was not standardised," Cajochen said. "The advantage here is that we really had a standardised protocol. " The data was taken from a previous study that was not originally looking at the moon" s influence. Participants were kept in a very controlled environment, with artificial lighting, regulated temperature and no way of checking the time. This ensured that internal body rhythms could be investigated independently of external influences. "The only disadvantage with such a standardised procedure is that we could only investigate 33 people," said Cajochen. "What I would like to do in the future is to increase the number of subjects and then to follow up each person through the entire moon cycle. " But such a study would have problems of its own, he added. "If you"re actually going to tell people you"re investigating the influence of the moon, then you may trigger some expectation or sensitivity in them. Sleep is also a psychological thing, of course. " If true, the mechanisms responsible for the phenomenon are unknown. Malcolm von Schantz, a molecular neurobiologist at Surrey University, said: "Essentially it could be either two things: the moon itself has a gravitational pull which somehow affects our physiology. I find that very unlikely as the gravitational pull of the moon is fairly weak. It doesn"t cause tides in lakes for example, only in large oceans. In fact, if you"re sitting within 15 inches of the wall right now then the wall has a stronger gravitational pull on you than the moon does. So I don"t think we have a sort of mini-tide in ourselves. " "The alternative is that there is a "counter", a mechanism which keeps track somehow of the phases of the moon. " Marine animals are already known to follow a circalunar rhythm and some believe it is tightly intertwined with the circadian rhythm—the other internal clock that many organisms, humans included, have which is entrained to the sun. Other researchers have wondered why a human circalunar clock should exist in the first place. Michael Hastings, a neuroscientist studying circadian rhythms at Cambridge University, said: "In evolutionary terms, it sounds plausible to me at least. " If you were a hunter gatherer, you"d want to be out there on a full moon, not a new moon. It might be that there"s something about suppression of sleep under those circumstances because you should be out hunting.

Despite its name, Smugglers" Gulch is one of the toughest places to sneak into America The narrow valley near San Diego is divided by a steel wall and watched day and night by agents of the border patrol, who track would-be illegal immigrants with the help of helicopters and underground pressure sensors. Rafael, a cement worker, has already been caught jumping over the fence five times. Yet he still wanders on the Mexican side of the fence, waiting for nightfall and another chance to cross. How much longer will he keep trying? "Until I get through," he says. Last week the Senate tried, and failed, to deal with the problem of illegal immigration. After much debate it abandoned a bill that would have provided more money for border security but also allowed many illegal immigrants to obtain visas. Yet the collapse of the Senate bill does not mean illegal immigration will go away, either as a fact or as an urgent political issue. Indeed, one likely consequence will be an outbreak of ad hoc law-making in cities and states. One such place is Arizona, where the governor, signed a bill this week imposing rigid penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants. Those who are caught once will have their licenses suspended; a second offence will put them out of business. Even the governor admits the bill is too broadly drawn and will be hard to enforce. She signed it, she explained, because the federal government has shown itself to be incapable of dealing with illegal immigration. One in ten workers in Arizona is illegal, according to the Pew Hispanic Centre. So the law, if rigorously enforced, could disrupt the state"s economy, which suggests it will not be. One landscape gardener in Scottsdale who worked illegally for three decades and now pays illegal workers $7 an hour thinks the measure is ridiculous. "Who else is going to pick lettuces and trim trees in this heat?" he asks, pointing to the sun on a 47°C day. He has no plans to change his ways, and says he will simply move if he is caught. Laws such as Arizona"s will make life more unpleasant and unpredictable for illegal workers. But they will not curtail either illegal immigration or illegal working as much as supporters claim. In any case, the border has been so porous for so long that people now have plenty of reasons to steal across it other than work. Of five aspiring immigrants who spoke to the correspondent in Smugglers" Gulch earlier this week, three were trying to join their families.

An analysis of workplace trends shows that employee perks, a reliable indicator of job market strength, are beginning to make a comeback. While not as Extravagant as those offered in the late 1990s, companies clearly are shifting their focus from workforce reduction to workforce retention. Firms realize that they require a foundation of experienced, trained, and motivated workers. These employers are improving and/ or adding perks to prevent an exodus of workers that could occur as the economy continues improving. They also may be looking further down the road when severe labor shortages are expected to return. An analysis of perks offered in today"s workplace shows that many of the 1990s-style benefits, such as game rooms and luxury car leases, have been abandoned. The perks that remain popular with employers and employees are those that help workers stay healthy, career focused, and financially stable. Perhaps the most appreciated are those that help individuals maintain work-life balance. Work-life balance is just one part of the growing concern companies have about the overall emotional and physical health of their workers. Employees who are stressed out or depressed because they do not feel as if they are giving enough attention to the nonwork aspects of their lives ultimately are unproductive. More and more companies also are learning that workers desire the opportunity to grow professionally in the workplace. HewlettPackard, for instance, has boosted its employee education and development budget by 20%. Nationwide Insurance, based in Columbus, Ohio, established a career-planning website in 2003. The site provides information on company job opportunities, career development, and an in-house mentoring program. Nationwide also is helping to educate its employees in financial matters, acknowledging that workers distracted by such issues on the job are not giving their full attention to the company"s priorities. It is adding classes and seminars on personal finance issues and 401(k) investments. Sometimes perks simply are about keeping employee morale elevated. Knowing that an improving economy might prompt valued employees to seek new opportunities, the owner of Ticketcity. com has lavished his best performers with tickets to the Masters golf tournament(锦标赛), access to country clubs, and invitations to a management retreat in Sedona, Ariz. Moreover, even companies that cannot afford to institute costly perks can find ways to make sure current employees are happy. Doug Dorman, vice president of human resources for the Greenville (S.C.) Hospital System explains that there is a definite sense of urgency when it comes to employee retention, knowing that labor shortages are returning. Dorman notes, however, that they have not focused on perks, "but rather on creating a culture of recognition and appreciation. Employees stay when they have good two-way communication with management and are truly appreciated and recognized for their contributions".

It may turn out that the "digital divide"—one of the most fashionable political slogans of recent years is largely fiction. As you will recall, the argument went well beyond the unsurprising notion that the rich would own more computers than the poor. The disturbing part of the theory was that society was dividing itself into groups of technology "haves" and "have-nots" and that this segregation would, in turn, worsen already large economic inequalities. It is this argument that is either untrue or wildly exaggerated. We should always have been suspicious. After all, computers have spread quickly because they have become cheaper to buy and easier to use. Falling prices and skill requirements suggest that the digital divide would spontaneously shrink—and so it has. Now, a new study further discredits the digital divide. The study, by economists David Card of the University of California, Berkeley, challenges the notion that computers have significantly worsened wage inequality. The logic of how this supposedly happens is straightforward: computers raise the demand for high-skilled workers, increasing their wages. Meanwhile, computerization—by automating many routine tasks—reduces the demand for low skilled workers and, thereby their wages. The gap between the two widens. Superficially, wage statistics support the theory. Consider the ratio between workers near the top of the wage distribution and those near the bottom. Computerization increased; so did the wage gap. But wait, point out Card and DiNardo. The trouble with blaming computers is that the worsening of inequality occurred primarily in the early 1980s. With computer use growing, the wage gap should have continued to expand, if it was being driven by a shifting demand for skills. Indeed, Card and DiNardo find much detailed evidence that contradicts the theory. They conclude that computerization does not explain "the rise in U.S. wage inequality in the last quarter of the 20th century." The popular perception of computers" impact on wages is hugely overblown. Lots of other influences count for as much, or more. The worsening of wage inequality in the early 1980s, for example, almost certainly reflected the deep 1981 1982 recession and the fall of inflation. Companies found it harder to raise prices. To survive, they concluded that they had to hold down the wages of their least skilled, least mobile and youngest workers. The "digital divide" suggested a simple solution (computers) for a complex problem (poverty). With more computer access, the poor could escape their lot. But computers never were the source of anyone"s poverty and, as for escaping, what people do for themselves matters more than what technology can do for them.

Few men who find themselves cast as heroes early in life continue to command universal esteem till the end. Sir Edmund Hillary was one. To be the first to reach the top of the world"s highest mountain ensured international celebrity and a place in history, but the modesty of a slightly awkward New Zealand beekeeper never departed him. Nor was mountaineering, or indeed beekeeping, his only accomplishment. Two views are often expressed about his life. One is that conquering Everest was everything. No one would play down the role of Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who reached the peak with him, possibly even before him; their partnership was like that of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. But it was Sir Edmund who first struggled his way up a crack in the 12-metre (40-foot) rockface that had to be overcome after the south summit if the real one was to be achieved, and below which only oblivion awaited. News of the British-led expedition"s triumph on May 29th 1953 reached the world through a report in the London Times four days later. The Times, a sponsor of the expedition, had used an elaborate code to trick any rivals monitoring the radio waves. Its scoop was indeed a coup: June 2nd was the day of Queen Elizabeth"s coronation, at which her majesty was crowned. Sir Edmund was a man of action. After Everest came more expeditions in Nepal, a race to the South Pole and further adventures in the Antarctic, the Himalayas and India But for some onlookers neither these nor even the Everest expedition was especially remarkable: fitness and physical courage are all very well, they argued, but the world"s highest peak was simply waiting to be scaled, and a steady traffic nowadays makes its way to the top unnoticed, except for the litter it leaves. Both the indifferent and the awe-struck, however, agree that Sir Edmund"s other life was wholly admirable, and he himself said he was prouder of it than of anything else. This was his tireless work for the Sherpas, of whom he had become so fond. Through his efforts, and those of Tenzing, hospitals, clinics, bridges, runways and nearly 30 schools have been built in the Solo Khumbu region of Nepal just south of Everest. If New Zealand claimed Sir Edmund"s loyalty, Nepal, and especially its Sherpas, could surely claim his heart.

In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 1-5, choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fit into each of the numbered blanks. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the blanks. Students apply to college online, e-mail their papers to their professors and, when they want to be cheeky, pass notes in class by text-messaging. But that doesn"t necessarily mean they have a high Internet IQ. 【C1】______ Or as Lorie Roth, assistant vice chancellor of academic programs at California State University puts it: "Every single one that comes through the door thinks that if you just go to Google and get some hits— you"ve got material for your research paper right there. " That"s why Cal State and a number of other colleges are working with ETS to create a test to evaluate Internet intelligence, measuring whether students can locate and verify reliable online information and whether they know how to properly use and credit the material. 【C2】______"If you don"t come to the university with it, you need to know that you are lacking some skills that educated people are expected to have. " A preliminary version of the new test, the Information and Communication Technology Literacy Assessment, was given to 3,300 Cal State students this spring to see how well it works, i. e. testing the test. 【C3】______ Next year, the test is expected to be available for students to take on a voluntary basis. Cal State is the lead institution in a consortium which includes UCLA, the University of Louisville, the California Community College System, the University of North Alabama, the University of Texas System and the University of Washington. Some of the institutions involved are considering using the test on incoming students to see if they need remedial classes, says Egan, ETS" project manager for the Information and Communication Technology Literacy Assessment. 【C4】______ Robert Jimenez, a student at Cal State-Fullerton who took the prototype test this spring, gives it a passing grade. " It was pretty good in that it allowed us to go ahead and think through real-life problems. " 【C5】______So, a question on bee sting remedies presents a choice of sites ranging from ads to a forum for herb treatments to(the correct answer)a listing from the National Institutes of Health, identifiable by having "nih" in the URL(site address)along with the ". gov" suffix that connotes an official government listing. High tech has been a fixture of higher ed for some years. A 2002 report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 79 percent of college Internet users thought the Internet had a positive impact on their academic experience. More than 70 percent used the Internet more than the library and 56 percent said e-mail improved their relationships with professors. [A]Sample questions include giving students a simulated page of Web search results on a particular subject and asking students to pick the legitimate sources. [B]Individual scores aren"t being tallied but campuses will be getting aggregate reports. [C]Which doesn"t necessarily mean they all "suddenly become fabulous information evaluators and seekers, but it gives them a little bit of an idea that this isn" t something that" s apart from learning". [D]"This test measures a skill as important as having mathematics and English skills when you come to the university," says Roth. [E]Other schools are thinking about giving the test as a follow up to communications courses to gauge curricula efficiency. [F]"They"re real comfortable instant-messaging, downloading MP3 files. They"re less comfortable using technology in ways that require real critical thinking," says Teresa Egan of the Educational Testing Service. [G]Roth notes that the bulk of the assessment focuses on critical thinking skills, being able to analyze the legitimacy of Web sites, and knowing the difference between properly cited research and plagiarism, things that "haven"t changed very much since I enrolled in college in 1969".

The idea of humanoid robots is not new, of course. They have been part of the imaginative landscape ever since Karl Capek, a Czech writer, first dreamed them up for his 1921 play "Rossum"s Universal Robots". (The word "robot" comes from the Czech word for drudgery, robota.) Since then, Hollywood has produced countless variations on the theme, from the sultry False Maria in Fritz Lang"s silent masterpiece "Metropolis" to the wittering C-3PO in "Star Wars" and the ruthless assassin of "Terminator". Humanoid robots have walked into our collective subconscious, colouring our views of the future. But now Japan"s industrial giants are spending billions of yen to make such robots a reality. Their new humanoids represent impressive feats of engineering: when Honda introduced Asimo, a four-foot robot that had been in development for some 15 years, it walked so fluidly that its white, articulated exterior seemed to conceal a human. Honda continues to make the machine faster, friendlier and more agile. Last October, when Asimo was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in Pittsburgh, it walked on to the stage and accepted its own plaque. At two and a half feet tall, Sony"s QRIO is smaller and more toy-like than Asimo. It walks, understands a small number of voice commands, and can navigate on its own. If it falls over, it gets up and resumes where it left off. It can even connect wirelessly to the Internet and broadcast what its camera eyes can see. In 2003, Sony demonstrated an upgraded QRIO that could run. Honda responded last December with a version of Asimo that runs at twice the speed. In 2004, Toyota joined the fray with its own family of robots, called Partner, one of which is a four-foot humanoid that plays the trumpet. Its fingers work the instrument"s valves, and it has mechanical lungs and artificial lips. Toyota hopes to offer a commercial version of the robot by 2010. This month, 50 Partner robots will act as guides at Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan. Despite their sudden proliferation, however, humanoids are still a mechanical minority. Most of the world"s robots are faceless, footless and mute. They are bolted to the floors of factories, stamping out car parts or welding pieces of metal, machines making more machines. According to the United Nations, business orders for industrial robots jumped 18% in the first half of 2004. They may soon be outnumbered by domestic robots, such as self-navigating vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers and window washers, which are selling fast. But neither industrial nor domestic robots are humanoid.

The use of heat pumps has been held back largely by skepticism about advertisers" claims that heat pumps can provide as many as units of thermal energy for each unit of electrical energy used, thus apparently contradicting the principle of energy conservation. Heat pumps circulate a fluid refrigerant that cycles alternatively from its liquid phase to its vapor phase in a closed loop. The refrigerant, starting as a low-temperature, low-pressure vapor, enters compressor driven by an electric motor. The refrigerant leaves the compressor as a hot, dense vapor and flows through a heat exchanger called the condenser, which transfers heat from the refrigerant to a body or air. Now the refrigerant, as a high-pressure, cooled liquid, confronts a flow restriction which causes the pressure to drop. As the pressure falls, the refrigerant expands and partially vaporizes, becoming chilled. It then passes through a second heat exchanger, the evaporator, which transfers heat from the air to the refrigerant, reducing the temperature of this second body of air. Of the two heat exchangers, one is located inside, and the other one outside the house, so each is in contact with a different body of air: room air and outside air, respectively. The flow direction of refrigerant through a heat pump is controlled by valves. When the refrigerant flow is reversed, the heat exchangers switch function. This flow-reversal capability allows heat pumps—either to heat or cool room air. Now, if under certain conditions a heat pump puts out more thermal energy than it consumes in electrical energy, has the law of energy conservation been challenged? No, not even remotely: the additional input of thermal energy into the circulating refrigerant via the evaporator accounts for the difference in the energy equation. Unfortunately, there is one real problem. The heating capacity of a heat pump decreases as the outdoor temperature falls. The drop in capacity is caused by the lessening amount of refrigerant mass moved through the compressor at one time. The heating capacity is proportional to this mass flow rate: the less the mass of refrigerant being compressed, the less the thermal load it can transfer through the heat-pump cycle. The volume flow rate of refrigerant vapor through the single-speed rotary compressor used in heat pumps is approximately constant. But cold refrigerant vapor entering a compressor is at lower pressure than warmer vapor. Therefore, the mass of cold refrigerant—and thus the thermal energy it carries—is less than if the refrigerant vapor were warmer before compression. Here, then, lies a genuine drawback of heat pumps: in extremely cold climates—where the most heat is needed—heat pumps are least able to supply enough heat.

【F1】 Most people know that awkward feeling when you shuffle into an elevator with other people and try not to make eye contact. 【F2】 But new research suggests it may be down to a subconscious power struggle being played out as you make your way up or down. A study found that people decide where they stand based on a micro social hierarchy, established within seconds of entering the lift. Rebekah Rousi, a Ph.D. student in cognitive science, conducted an ethnographic study of elevator behaviour in two of the tallest office buildings in Adelaide, Australia.【F3】 As part of her research, she took a total of 30 lift rides in the two buildings, and discovered there was an established order to where people tended stand. In a blog for Ethnography Matters, she writes that more senior men seemed to direct themselves towards the back of the elevator cabins. She said, "In front of them were younger men, and in front of them were women of all ages." She also noticed there was a difference in where people directed their gaze half way through the ride.【F4】 "Men watched the monitors, looked in the side mirrors(in one building)to see themselves, and in the door mirrors(of the other building)to also watch others. Women would watch the monitors and avoid eye contact with other users(unless in conversation)and the mirrors." She writes. 【F5】 The doctorate student concluded it could be that people who are shyer stand toward the front, where they can't see other passengers, whereas bolder people stand in the back, where they have a view of everyone else.