What would happen to the U.S. economy if all its commercial banks suddenly closed their doors? Throughout most of American history, the answer would have been a disaster of epic proportions, akin to the Depression wrought by the chain-reaction bank failures in the early 1930s. But in 1993 the startling answer is that a shutdown by banks might be far from cataclysmic. Consider this: though the economic recovery is now 27 months old, not a single net new dollar has been lent to business by banks in all that time. Last week the Federal Reserve reported that the amount of loans the nation"s largest banks have made to businesses fell an additional $2.4 billion in the week ending June 9, to $274.8 billion. Fearful that the scarcity of bank credit might sabotage the fragile economy, the White House and federal agencies are working feverishly to encourage banks to open their lending windows. In the past two weeks, government regulators have introduced steps to make it easier for banks to lend. Is the government"s concern fully justified? Who really needs banks these days? Hardly anyone, it turns out. While banks once dominated business lending, today nearly 80% of all such loans come from non-bank lenders like life insurers, brokerage firms and finance companies. Banks used to be the only source of money in town. Now businesses and individuals can write checks on their insurance companies, get a loan from a pension fund, and deposit paychecks in a money-market account with a brokerage firm. "It is possible for banks to die and still have a vibrant economy", says Edward Furash, a Washington bank consultant. The irony is that the accelerating slide into irrelevance comes just as the banks racked up record profits of $43 billion over the past 15 months, creating the illusion that the industry is staging a comeback. But that income was not the result of smart lending decisions. Instead of earning money by financing America"s recovery, the banks mainly invested their funds—on which they were paying a bargain-basement 2% or so—in risk-free Treasury bonds that yielded 7%. That left bank officers with little to do except put their feet on their desks and watch the interest roll in. Those profits may have come at a price. Not only did bankers lose many loyal customers by withholding credit, they also inadvertently opened the door to a herd of non-bank competitors, who stampeded into the lending market. "The banking industry didn"t see this threat", says Furash. "They are being fat, dumb and happy. They didn"t realize that banking is essential to a modern economy, but banks are not".

With the start of BBC World Service Television, millions of viewers in Asia and America can now watch the Corporation's news coverage, as well as listen to it. And of course in Britain listeners and viewers can tune in to two BBC television channels, five BBC national radio services and dozens of local radio station. They are brought sport, comedy, drama, music, news and current affairs, education, religion, parliamentary coverage, children's programs and films for an annual license fee of ￡83 per household. It is a remarkable record, stretching back over 70 years—yet the BBC's future is now in doubt. The Corporation will survive as a publicly-funded broadcasting organization, at least for the time being, but its role, its size and its programs are now the subject of a nation-wide debate in Britain. The debate was launched by the Government, which invited anyone with an opinion of the BBC—including ordinary listeners and viewers—to say what was good or bad about the Corporation, and even whether they thought it was worth keeping. The reason for its inquiry is that the BBC's royal charter runs out in 1996 and it must decide whether to keep the organization as it is, or to make changes. Defenders of the Corporation—of whom there are many—are fond of quoting the American slogan. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The BBC "ain't broke", they say, by which they mean it is not broken (as distinct from the word "broke", meaning having no money) ,so why bother to change it? Yet the BBC will have to change, because the broadcasting world around it is changing. The commercial TV channels—ITV and Channel 4—were required by the Thatcher Government's Broadcasting Act to become more commercial, competing with each other for advertisers, and cutting costs and jobs. But it is the arrival of new satellite channels—funded partly by advertising and partly by viewers' subscriptions—which will bring about the biggest changes in the long term.

Tom Burke recently tried to print out a boarding pass from home before one of the frequent/lights he takes. He couldn"t. His name, or one similar to it, is now on one of the Transportation Security Administration"s terrorist watch lists. Every day, thousands of people like Burke find themselves unable {o do things like print a boarding pass and are pulled aside for extensive screening because their name, or a name that sounds like theirs, is on one of the watch lists. From the TSA"s perspective, the screening is just one of the many new layers of increased security that are designed to prevent terrorist activity. The inconvenience is regrettable, but a price that society has to pay for security. And for national security reasons, the FBI and other government agencies responsible for supplying names to the lists will not disclose the criteria they use. They say that would amount to tipping their hands to the terrorists. But civil libertarians are more concerned about the long-term consequence of the current lists. On Sept. 11, 2001, the no-fly list contained 16 names. Now, the combined lists are estimated to have as many as 20,000. Internal FBI memos from agents referred to the process as "really confused" and "not comprehensive and not centralized." Burke and others contend that such comments axe disturbing, because it was during the first year after the attacks that the watch lists grew exponentially. "The underlying danger is not that Tom. Burke can no longer get a boarding pass to get on an air line," says a lawyer. "It"s that the Tom Burkes in the world may forever more be associated (with the terrorist watch list)." Burke says they do know that the lists axe frequently updated and distributed internationally, but they don"t know how the old lists are destroyed. They also hope to ensure that sometime in the future a person whose name is on the list, but is not a terrorist, does not run into further trouble if, say, law enforcement in another country that they"re visiting comes across their name on one of the old lists. In addition, airlines are concerned that the lists are not updated frequently enough. "We"ve been encouraging the TSA to work with all of the other federal law-enforcement agencies to get a regular re view of the names that they submit to TSA, because there have been reports that these agencies have said that if there was a review, many of the names could be removed," says Diana Cronin of the Air Transport Association.

The economist George Akerlof found himself faced with a simple task: mailing a box of clothes from India, where he was living, to America. The clothes belong to his friend and colleague Joseph Stieglitz, Akerlof was eager to send the box off. But he delayed dealing with it, week after week. This went on for more than eight months and it was only shortly before Akerlof himself returned to America that he managed to mail this box: another friend happened to be sending some things back to the U.S., and Akerlof was able to add the box to the shipment. Given the vagaries of intercontinental mail, it is possible that Akerlof made it back to the United States before Stieglitz' s shirt. Even Nobel-winning economists procrastinate ! Akerlof saw this familiar experience as mysterious. He actually intended to send the box to his friend, yet, as he wrote in a paper called "procrastination and obedience", "each morning for over eight months I woke up and decided that the next morning would be the day to send the Stieglitz box.", but act never arrived. He realized that procrastination might be more than just a bad habit, and it might be something important about the limits of human rational thinking and that it could teach useful lessons about phenomena as substance abuse and savings habits. Since his essay about procrastination was published, it became a buzz word among the academia, like philosophers, psychologists and economists: academies and college students may be especially prone to putting things off. But the study of this subject isn't just a case of eggheads rationalizing their slacking. From another angle, this issue illustrates the fluidity of human identity and the complicated relationship human beings have to time. A central figure in this subject argues that dragging our heels is as fundamental as the shape of time and could well be called basic human impulse, but the anxiety about dragging seems to have emerged in early modern era, as early as eighteenth century. Procrastination is also a surprisingly costly one. Each year, Americans waste hundreds of millions of dollars because they don't file their taxes on time. 70% of patients suffering from glaucoma risk of blindness because they don't use their eye-drops regularly. Procrastination also inflicts major costs on businesses and governments. The recent crisis of the euro was aggravated by the German government's hesitation. And the decline of the American auto industry, exemplified by the bankruptcy of G.M., was due in part to executives' inclination for delaying tough decisions.

High fuel prices will probably keep Americans closer to home this summer. A recent poll by AOL and Zogby found that 30% of Americans have changed their vacation plans because of high fuel prices. On websites like Ecomodder and Daily Fuel Economy Tip, drivers are learning how to save by driving smarter, hunting down deals, finding alternative modes of transportation or—at worst—finding creative reasons to spend less time behind the wheel and more time relaxing. "People aren"t canceling their trips outright," says Marie Dodds, a spokeswoman for American Automobile Association, "but they are definitely looking into other options." 【C1】Means to make the trip cheaper: For many American families, even a road trip can feel like a luxury when it costs $75 to fill the fuel tank. 【C2】Drive less, save more: The most obvious way to save gas is simply to drive less. For some, that means changing the destination. 【C3】A different way of camping: Even camping—that mainstay of penny-pincher vacations—might look different this year, thanks to gas prices. State parks in New York, Maine and Vermont have all reported an increase of 10% to 15% in camping reservations over last year. But more campers will be arriving not by gassy recreational vehicle but by car—or even motorbike. Campgrounds have become more motorcycle-friendly in recent years to cater to that growing market. 【C4】More advice on gas-saving: What about Americans who can"t resist the call of a summer road trip? Benjamin Jones, known for extreme gas-saving stunts like covering the underside of a car with corrugated plastic to reduce drag and coasting in neutral with the engine off instead of hitting the brakes, gives them some advice. 【C5】Staycation becomes popular: Some families, though, are simply taking more vacation closer to or at home. Americans are used to tough economic times and challenging environments in which to travel. "They"ve become ever-increasingly resilient," one governmental officer said. "Although Americans consider their vacations sacrosanct, they are being more discreet. Americans will continue to travel; they"re just going to change the way they travel." A. Brad Smith of Portland, Ore., is taking his two kids, ages 7 and 8, on a three-day bike ride along the southern Oregon coast sponsored by a nonprofit group called Cycle Oregon. Smith, 45, says exercising as a family is a new priority. Bonus: "I can have a beer at the end of the day, and I don"t feel guilty about it." B. That"s why Ronelle Scardina, 39, scrapped plans to drive 400 miles to Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., this July and decided instead to rent a cabin on a lake just two hours from her home in San Rafael. "Prices are going up on everything, and we have a mortgage and a family to support," says the working mom, who expects to scrimp even more by packing her family of four into her 1994 Honda Civic instead of taking her roomier—but gas-slurping—SUV. C. Scardina got a family pool pass to her local community center, which she can walk to, and plans to carpool to the beach with friends. She"ll also take her kids, ages 5 and 6, to local puppet shows, an African dance festival and live music at a nearby outdoor amphitheater. This summer there may be no better way to save money than to stay home. D. For ordinary drivers, he recommends avoiding stop-and-go driving and idling, which depletes up to a gallon of gas per hour. Driving 55 m.p.h. instead of 80 saves 20% of gas over the same distance, he says. E. Doug and Cheryl Ludwig of Frederick, Md., recently canceled an 18,000-mile trip to Alaska that they had been planning to take in their recreational vehicle, which gets just 10 m.p.g. Instead, they"ll be heading to Amish country in nearby Pennsylvania. F. Chris Rhie, 23, says he plans to ride his new Suzuki motorcycle—which gets 50 m.p.g.—from San Francisco to Yosemite for a camping trip with his girlfriend this summer.

Have you ever wondered what our future is like? Practically all people【C1】______a desire to predict their future【C2】______. Most people seem inclined to【C3】______this task using causal reasoning. First we【C4】______recognize that future circumstances are【C5】______ caused or conditioned by present ones. We learn that getting an education will【C6】______how much money we earn later and that swimming beyond the reef may bring an unhappy【C7】______ with a shark. Second, people also learn that such【C8】______of cause and effect are probabilistic in nature. That is, the effects occur more often when the causes occur than when the causes are【C9】______, but not always. Thus, students learn that studying hard【C10】______good grades in most instances, but not every time. Science makes these concepts of causality and probability more【C11】______and provides techniques for dealing【C12】______then more accurately than does causal human inquiry. In looking at ordinary human inquiry, we need to 【C13】______between prediction and understanding. Often, even if we don"t understand why, we are willing to act 【C14】______the basis of a demonstrated predictive ability. Whatever the primitive drives 【C15】______motivate human beings, satisfying them depends heavily on the ability to【C16】______ future circumstances. The attempt to predict is often played in a 【C17】______ of knowledge and understanding. If you can understand why certain regular patterns 【C18】______. you can predict better than if you simply observe those patterns. Thus, human inquiry aims【C19】______answering both "what" and "why" question, and we pursue these【C20】______ by observing and figuring out.

You have received an invitation from a good friend for dinner, but you are not able to-accept it. So write a letter to apologize:1. apologizing for not attending;2. tell the reason;3. ask to accept apology. You should write about 100 words, do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Jack" instead. You do not need to write the address.

Greg Focker, played by Ben Stiller, represents a generation of American kids (1)_____ in the 1980s on the philosophy that any achievement, however slight, (2)_____ a ribbon. (3)_____ replaced punishment; criticism became a dirty word. In Texas, teachers were advised to (4)_____ using red ink, the colour of (5)_____. In California, a task force was set up to (6)_____ the concept of self worth into the education system. Swathing youngsters in a (7)_____ shield of self-esteem, went the philosophy, would protect them from the nasty things in life, such as bad school grades, underage sex, drug abuse, dead-end jobs and criminality. (8)_____ that the ninth-place ribbons are in danger of strangling the (9)_____ children they were Supposed to help. America"s (10)_____ with self-esteem—like all developments in psychology, it gradually (11)_____ its way to Britain—has turned children who were (12)_____ with (13)_____ into adults who (14)_____ at even the mildest brickbats. Many believe that the feel-good culture has risen at the (15)_____ of traditional education, an opinion espoused in a new book, Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can"t Read, Write, or Add, by the conservative commentator Charles Sykes. Not only that, but the foundations (16)_____ which the self-esteem industry is built are being (17)_____ as decidedly shaky. Roy Baumeister, professor of psychology at Florida State University and once a self-esteem enthusiast, is now (18)_____ a revision of the populist orthodoxy. "After all these years, I"m sorry to say, my recommendation is this: forget about self-esteem and (19)_____ more on self-control and self-discipline," he wrote recently. "Recent work suggests this would be good for the individual and good for society—and might even be able to (20)_____ some of those promises that self-esteem once made but could not keep."

It is often observed that the aged spend much time thinking and talking about their past lives, rather than about the future. These reminiscences are not simply random or trivial memories, (1)_____ is their purpose merely to make conversation. The old person"s recollections of the past help to (2)_____ an identity that is becoming increasingly fragile: (3)_____ any role that brings respect or any goal that might provide (4)_____ to the future, the individual mentions their (5)_____ as a reminder to listeners, that here was a life (6)_____ living (7)_____, the memories form part of a continuing life (8)_____, in which the old person (9)_____ the events and experiences of the years gone by and (10)_____ on the overall meaning of his or her own almost completed life. As the life cycle (11)_____ to its close, the aged must also learn to accept the reality of their own impending death. (12)_____ this task is made difficult by the fact that death is almost a (13)_____ subject in the United States. The mere discussion of death is often regarded as (14)_____. As adults, many of us find the topic frightening and are (15)_____ to think about it and certainly not to talk about it (16)_____ the presence of someone who is dying. Death has achieved this taboo (17)_____ only in the modern industrial societies. There seems to be an important reason for our reluctance to (18)_____ the idea of death. It is the very fact that death remains (19)_____ our control; it is almost the only one of the natural processes (20)_____ is so.Notes: reminiscence n.回忆。fragile adj.脆弱的。impending adj.即将发生的。

Every newborn baby is dealt a hand of cards which help to determine how long he or she will be allowed to play the game of life. Good cards will help those who have them to have a long and healthy existence, while bad cards will bring to those who have them terrible diseases like high blood pressure and heart disease. Occasionally, cards are dealt out that doom their holders to an early death. In the past, people never knew exactly which cards they had been dealt. They could guess at the future only by looking at the kind of health problems experienced by their parents or grandparents. Genetic testing, which makes it possible to find dangerous genes, has changed all this. But, until recently, if you were tested positive for a bad gene you were not obliged to reveal this to anyone else except in a few extreme circumstances. This month, however, Britain became the first country in the world to allow life insurers to ask for test results. So far, approval has been given only for a test for a fatal brain disorder known as Huntington"s disease. But ten other tests (for seven diseases) are already in use and are awaiting similar approval. The independent body that gives approval, the Department of Health"s genetics and insurance committee, does not have to decide whether the use of genetic information in insurance is ethical. It must judge only whether the tests are reliable to insurers. In the case of Huntington"s disease the answer is clear-cut. People unlucky enough to have this gene will die early, and cost life insurers dearly. This is only the start. Clear-cut genetic answers, where a gene is simply and directly related to a person"s risk of death, are uncommon. More usually, a group of genes is associated with the risk of developing a common disease, dependent on the presence of other genetic or environmental factors. But, as tests improve, it will become possible to predict whether or not a particular individual is at risk. In the next few years researchers will discover more and more about the functions of individual genes and what health risks — or benefits — are associated with them.

With Robert Laurent and William Zorach, direct carving enters into the story of modem sculpture in the United States. Direct carving—in which the sculptors themselves carve stone or wood with mallet and chisel—just be recognized as something more than just a technique. Implicit in it is an aesthetic principle as well: that the medium has certain qualities of beauty and expressiveness with which sculptors must bring their own aesthetic sensibilities into harmony. For example, sometimes the shape or veining in a piece of stone or wood suggests, perhaps even dictates, not only the ultimate form, but even the subject matter. The technique of direct, carving was a break with the nineteenth-century tradition in which the making of a clay model was considered the creative act and the work was then turned over to studio assistants to be cast in plaster or bronze or carved in marble. Neoclassical sculptors seldom held a mallet or chisel in their own hands, readily conceding that the assistants they employed were far better than they were at carving the finished marble. With the turn-of-the-century Crafts movement and the discovery of nontraditional sources of inspiration, such as wooden African figure and masks, there arose a new urge for hands-on, personal execution of art and an interaction with the medium. Even as early as the 1880"s and 1890"s, nonconformist European artists were attempting direct carving. By the second decade of the twentieth century, Americans—Laurent and Zorach most notably—had adopted it as their primary means of working. Born in France, Robert Laurent (1890-1970) was a prodigy who received his education in the United States. In 1905 he was sent to Paris as an apprentice to an art dealer, and in the years that followed he witnessed the birth of Cubism, discovered primitive art, and learned the techniques of woodcarving from a frame maker. Back in New York City by 1910, Laurent began carving pieces such as The Priestess, which reveals his fascination with African, pre-Columbian, and South Pacifican. Taking a walnut plank, the sculptor carved the expressive, stylized design. It is one of the earliest examples of direct carving in American sculpture. The plank"s form dictated the rigidly frontal view and the low relief. Even its irregular shape must have appealed to Laurent as a break with a long-standing tradition that required a sculptor to work within a perfect rectangle or square.

ExcessiveCareWriteanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthedrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.

By almost every measure, Paul Pfingst is an unsentimental prosecutor. Last week the San Diego County district attorney said he fully intends to try (1)_____ Charles Andrew Williams, 15, as an adult (2)_____ the Santana High School shootings. Even before the (3)_____ Pfingst had stood behind the controversial California law that (4)_____ treating murder suspects as young as 14 as adults. So nobody would have wagered that Pfingst would also be the first D.A.(district attorney) in the U.S. to (5)_____ his very own Innocence Project. Yet last June, Pfingst told his attorneys to go back over old murder and rape (6)_____ and see ff any unravel with newly developed DNA-testing tools. In other words, he wanted to revisit past victories—this time playing for the other team. "I think people misunderstand being conservative (7)_____ being biased", says Pfingst. "I consider myself a pragmatic guy, and I have no interest in putting (8)_____ people in jail". Around the U.S., flabbergasted defense attorneys and their jailed clients cheered his move. Among prosecutors, (9)_____, there was an awkward pause. (10)_____, each DNA test costs as much as $5,000. Then there"s the (11)_____ risk: if dozens of innocents (12, the D.A. will have indicted his shop. (13)_____ nine months later, no budgets have been busted or prosecutors ousted. Only the rare case merits review. Pfingst"s team considers convictions before 1993, when the city started (14)_____ DNA testing. They discard cases if the defendant has been released. Of the 560 (15)_____ files, they have re-examined 200, looking for cases with biological evidence and defendants who still (16)_____ innocence. They have identified three so far. The most compelling involves a man (17)_____ 12 years for molesting a girl who was playing in his apartment. But others were there at the time. Police found a small drop of saliva on the (18)_____ shirt—too small a (19)_____ to test in 1991. Today that spot could free a man. Test results are due any day. (20)_____ by San Diego, 10 other counties in the U.S. are starting DNA audits.

During McDonald"s early years French fries were made from scratch every day. Russet Bur-bank potatoes were【C1】______, cut into shoestrings, and fried in its kitchens. 【C2】______the chain expanded nationwide, in the mid-1960s, it sought to【C3】______labour costs, reduce the number of suppliers, and【C4】______that its fries tasted the same at every restaurant. McDonald"s began 【C5】______to frozen French fries in 1966—and few customers noticed the difference. 【C6】______the change had a profound effect【C7】______the nation"s agriculture and diet A familiar food had been transformed into a highly processed industrial【C8】______. McDonald"s fries now come from huge【C9】______plants that can process two million pounds of potatoes a day. The expansion of McDonald"s and the【C10】______of its low-cost, mass-produced fries changed the way Americans eat The【C11】______of McDonald"s French fries played a【C12】______ role in the chain"s success-fries are much more profitable than hamburgers—and was long【C13】______by customers, competitors, and even food critics. Their distinctive taste does not【C14】______the kind of potatoes that McDonald"s【C15】______ the technology that processes them, or the restaurant equipment that fries them: other【C16】______use Russet Burbank, buy their French fries from the same large processing companies, and have【C17】______ fryers in their restaurant kitchens. The taste of a French fry is【C18】______determined by the cooking oil. For decades McDonald"s cooked its French fries in a【C19】______of about 7 per cent cottonseed oil and 93 per cent beef fat The mixture gave the fries their【C20】______ flavour.

Studythefollowingpicturecarefullyandwriteanessayofabout160—200words.Youressaymustbewrittenclearlyandshouldmeettherequirementsbelow:1.Interpretthepicture,2.Deducethepurposeofthedrawerofthepicture,3.Andsuggestcounter-measures.

Roger Michell describes his potent new film as "a thriller about love". Adapted from Ian McEwan"s novel, Enduring Love, stars Daniel Craig as Joe, a peevish and splendidly irritating social anthropologist, and Rhys Ifans as the scruffy, puppy-like God bothered who, after an accident with a hot-air balloon, becomes obsessed with him. "As soon as Rhys" character says, "Let"s sit down and pray"," chuckles the director, "you know there"s bad news ahead. In the book he is a more happy-clappy evangelist, but we toned it down." Although clearly drawn to such eccentric characters, Michell himself is thoroughly down-to-earth. "I"m one of those boring people who knew what I wanted to do from an early age," he explains. "I started acting as a child but was completely hopeless so started directing little plays in school." He went on to direct around 15 plays while reading English at Cambridge, directed his first professional play in a pub in Brighton, and then assisted both John Osborne and Samuel Beekett at the Royal Court Theatre. By 1985 he was the resident director of the Royal Shakespeare Company but moved to TV in the early 1990s, when he took charge of Hanif Kureishi"s landmark series The Buddha of Suburbia. Michell"s television career continued to flourish with a gloriously restrained dramatisation of Jane Austen"s Persuasion and an adaptation of his Royal Court success, My Night With Reg. That led to his big break. "The script for Notting Hill just plopped through my letterbox one morning; My Night With Reg had apparently prompted them to offer me the job." Notting Hill alerted Hollywood to Michell"s ability to get the best out of a cast. "I love actors and spend a lot of time with them working and hanging out, and I do proper rehearsals because I have a theatre background." Michell"s next project, Changing Lanes, produced Ben Affleck"s best performance and played big at the American box of flee. With Hollywood at his feet, Michell surprised many people by returning to London to make The Mother, an explicit twist on May-December sexual relations written by his old friend Kureishi, and starring Craig. Why did he do it? "I just couldn"t see a cigar-chomping studio executive saying, "Yes, I want to do a film about an old woman being tupped by a very young man!" So I came here to do it. But, apart from that, I"m English. I want to live in London with my kids and tell European stories. I feel odd about America at the moment because of what they"re doing around the world and would much prefer to make the films I want to make here." Wherever he goes, though, his most famous film will continue to haunt him. "By the director of Notting Hill", screams the poster for Enduring Love. How does that feel? "I can"t be responsible for the posters, but I"m sure a lot of the audience will be a bit taken aback," reflects Michell. "They"ll be asking: "Where are the jokes? Where"s Hugh Grant?" I do hope they"re not too disappointed."

Deviance is defined as any act, belief or action that results in the disapproval of any members of society. Much of the scorn that people face in society today is a result of situational deviance(that which is regarded as regular in one community may be considered deviant in another). It is because of situational deviance that literally every person could be labeled a deviant by some. With so many different value and belief systems occurring simultaneously throughout the planet, systems that often conflict with one another, it is impossible for anyone to be considered "normal" in every society on earth. Take this example: a member of a street gang assisting in an armed robbery with fellow gang members. This act is seen as deviant within most cultures and organizations throughout the planet, but fellow criminals or members of the gang may scorn those who do NOT participate in such acts, as they are viewed as cowards or fools. This proves that regardless of how a person acts or what beliefs they hold they are destined to face scorn from some members of the population, which makes everyone deviant to some extent. You might be asking why: if everyone is considered deviant to some extent, only a small portion of the population is punished by the law. Many times laws reflect the values of the majority of a population. This means that as long as an act is considered to be acceptable by most of the local population, this will most likely be reflected in the laws of the community. This is not always the case, as sometimes laws are simply reflective of the values of those in power and do not reflect the beliefs of the majority of the population(euthanasia and homosexual marriage are two controversial laws). This is not to say that all acts that are deemed deviant are criminal. Many non-criminal acts are considered by many to be deviant, while some acts that are against the law may be seen as legitimate by a majority of society. Many people view the legal activity of purchasing pornography as deviant, while many more consider mercy killing(or euthanasia)to be acceptable or even commendable despite the fact that this act is often illegal. Virtually every human being on the face of the earth has been scorned or stigmatized at one point or another. This is simply the result of an ever changing, diverse, and multicultural planet, and it is humanity"s beliefs and values that separate the human race from other animals.

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

The Way to Success Write a short essay entitled The Way to Success by commenting on Abraham Lincoln"s famous remark, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." You should write 160-200 words.

Prices are sky high, with profits to match. But looking further ahead, the industry faces wrenching change, says an expert of energy. "The time when we could count on cheap oil and even cheaper natural gas is clearly ending. That was the gloomy forecast delivered in February by Dave O"Reilly, the chairman of Chevron Texaco, to hundreds of oilmen gathered for a conference in Houston. The following month, Venezuela"s President Hugo Chavez gleefully echoed the sentiment: "The world should forget about cheap oil." The surge in oil prices, from $10 a barrel in 1998 to above $50 in early 2005, has prompted talk of a new era of sustained higher prices. But whenever a "new era" in oil is hailed, scepticism is in order. After all, this is essentially a cyclical business in which prices habitually yo-yo. Even so, an unusually loud chorus is now joining Messrs O"Reilly and Chavez, pointing to intriguing evidence of a new "price floor" of $30 or perhaps even $40. Confusingly, though, there are also signs that high oil prices may be caused by a speculative bubble that could burst quite suddenly. To see which camp is right, two questions need answering: why did the oil price soar? And what could keep it high? To make matters more complicated, there is in fact no such thing as a single "oil price": rather, there are dozens of varieties of crude trading at different prices. When newspapers write about oil prices, they usually mean one of two reference crudes: Brent from the North Sea, or West Texas Intermediate (WTI). But when ministers from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC discuss prices, they usually refer to a basket of heavier cartel crudes, which trade at a discount to WTI and Brent. All oil prices mentioned in this survey are per barrel of WTI. The recent volatility in prices is only one of several challenges facing the oil industry. Although at first sight Big Oil seems to be in rude health, posting record profits, this survey will argue that the western oil majors will have their work cut out to cope with the rise of resource nationalism, which threatens to choke off access to new oil reserves. This is essential to replace their existing reserves, which are rapidly declining. They will also have to respond to efforts by governments to deal with oil"s serious environmental and geopolitical side-effects. Together, these challenges could yet wipe out the oil majors.