Up until a few decades ago, our visions of the future were largely—though by no means uniformly— glowingly positive. Science and technology would cure all the ills of humanity, leading to lives of fulfillment and opportunity for all. Now Utopia has grown unfashionable, as we have gained a deeper appreciation of the range of threats facing us, from asteroid strike to epidemic flu to climate change. You might even be tempted to assume that humanity has little future to look forward to. But such gloominess is misplaced. The fossil record shows that many species have endured for millions of years—so why shouldn"t we? Take a broader look at our species" place in the universe, and it becomes clear that we have an excellent chance of surviving for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years. Look up Homo sapiens in the "Red List" of threatened species of the International Union for the Conversation of Nature(IUCN)and you will read: "Listed as Least Concern as the species is very widely distributed, adaptable, currently increasing, and there are no major threats resulting in an overall population decline." So what does our deep future hold? A growing number of researchers and organizations are now thinking seriously about that question. For example, the Long Now Foundation has its flagship project a mechanical clock that is designed to still be marking time thousands of years hence. Perhaps willfully , it may be easier to think about such lengthy timescales than about the more immediate future. The potential evolution of today"s technology, and its social consequences, is dazzlingly complicated, and it"s perhaps best left to science fiction writers and futurologists to explore the many possibilities we can envisage. That" s one reason why we have launched Arc, a new publication dedicated to the near future. But take a longer view and there is a surprising amount that we can say with considerable assurance. As so often, the past holds the key to the future: we have now identified enough of the long-term patterns shaping the history of the planet, and our species, to make evidence-based forecasts about the situations in which our descendants will find themselves. This long perspective makes the pessimistic view of our prospects seem more likely to be a passing fad. To be sure, the future is not all rosy. But we are now knowledgeable enough to reduce many of the risks that threatened the existence of earlier humans, and to improve the lot of those to come.

People were afraid to leave their houses, for although the police had been ordered to stand by in case of emergency, they were just as confused and helpless as anybody else.

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More than a hundred years ago, before the Civil War, a crew of cowboys stood outside a large horse corral. With them was their boss Bradford Grimes, a cattleman, who owned a large South Texas ranch near the Gulf of Mexico. Just then, Mrs. Grimes, the cattleman"s wife, came to the ranch house door and cried out, "Bradford! Bradford! Those Blacks are worth a thousand dollars apiece. One might get killed". The cowboys laughed, but they knew she was telling the truth. For they were all Black slaves. Bradford Grimes was their owner. Most of the first Black cowboys were slaves, brought by their masters from the old South. On the plantations in the South, the slaves cut cotton. On the ranches in Texas they had to learn a new trade—breaking horses and handling long-horns. Some were taught by Mexican vaqueros, some by Indiana who knew the ways of horses and cattle. Grimes was only one of hundreds of slave-owning ranchers who ran cattle in Texas. The ranchers had brought their families and slaves from Mississippi, Georgia, and other southern states. They came on horseback, on foot, and in wagons. Some ranchers settled near the Mexican border, but there they found that it was too easy for their slaves to escape. Even slaves as far north as Austin, the capital of Texas, came to think of Mexico as the Promised Land. As early as 1845, the year that Texas became a state, a Texas newspaper reported the escape of twenty-five Blacks. "They were mounted on some of the best horses that could be found, "the story said, "and several of them were well armed". Thousands of other Black slaves escaped in the same way. All-Black cattle crews were common throughout central and eastern Texas. There were even a few free Blacks who owned ranches before the Civil War. Aaron Ashworth was one of them, and he owned 2,500 cattle, as well as some slaves of his own. He employed a White schoolmaster to tutor his children. Black cowboys helped to tame and settle a wild country.

"Europe needs to import to export. " That is the slogan of the European Commission"s new strategy for securing its economic place in the world, unveiled this week by Peter Mandelson, the European Union"s commissioner for trade. The soundbite, of course, gets the economics precisely backwards: exports are the price a country must pay for its imports; Europeans toil away making stuff for others to consume only so they can in turn get their hands on the fruits of foreign labours. But the slogan does capture two awkward truths European exporters must now confront. First, only by offering to open its own markets can the EU hope to persuade foreign countries to open theirs. But with the collapse of the Doha round of trade talks, it is not obvious to whom the Europeans should make their offers. Second, European companies are now part of elaborate global supply chains. Clumsy efforts to protect some of them from foreign competition deprive others of the cheap inputs they need to thrive in world markets. The new trade strategy looks at both of these dilemmas, among others. Though Mr Mandelson insists that he remains wedded to multilateral negotiations at"the World Trade Organisation, he also fancies pursuing a bit on the side with other willing trade partners. The EU will pick its partners according to three criteria: do they offer a big, growing market? Are they cutting deals with America or Japan? And are they guilty of deterring European companies, either repelling them at the border with high tariffs, or bogging them down in cumbersome rules and regulations? The strategy names ASEAN, South Korea, India and Russia as priorities, as well as two regional blocks, Mercosur and the Gulf Co-operation Council, that it is already courting. The EU will reveal its plans for China at the end of the month. The strategy also proposes to look again at how the EU protects its own borders, because its favored weapons are prone to backfire. For example, EU ministers decided this week to slap antidumping duties on leather shoes from Vietnam and China, which threaten shoemakers in Italy, Portugal and Spain. But the duties are opposed by Europe"s own retailers and some of its sportswear makers. Letting Asian workers stitch and glue sports shoes makes it possible for such firms to employ Europeans to design and market them. Mr Mandelson presented his strategy as a way to help the EU become more competitive. Opening up to foreign rivals is, of course, an excellent way to foster competition in cloistered domestic industries. A pity then that most of his concrete proposals were about conquering markets abroad, and that the EU is still so ready to raise its defences at home.

You have an appointment next Friday with your supervisor about your thesis but you are unable to keep it bemuse something unexpected has happened: Write a letter to him according to the following outline: 1) express your apology for your inability to keep it; 2) give your reasons for it; 3) suggest other remedies. You should write about i00 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Xin" instead. You do not need to write the address.

Studythefollowingphotocarefullyandwriteanessayinwhichyoushould1)describethephotobriefly,speculatingaboutwhatsheisthinkingof,2)statedifferentviewsonpart-timejobs,and3)giveyourownopinion.Youshouldwriteabout160—200wordsneatly.大学生可以打工吗？

As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology, it passes the point of supplying all the basic essentials of life—food, shelter, clothes, and warmth. (46) Then we either raise our standard of living above the necessary for comfort and happiness or leave it at this level and work shorter hours. Mankind has probably chosen the latter alternative. Men will be working shorter and shorter hours in their paid employment. And the great majority of the housewives will wish to be relieved completely of the routine operations of the home such as washing the clothes or washing up. (47) By far the most logical step to relieve the housewife of routine is to provide a robot slave which can be trained to meet the requirements of a particular home and can be programmed to carry out half a dozen or more standard operations, when so switched by the housewife. (48) It will be a machine having no more emotions than a car, but having a memory for instructions and a limited degree of instructed or built-in adaptability according to the positions in which it finds various types of objects. It will operate other more specialized machines, for example, the vacuum cleaner or clothes-washing machine. There are no problems in the production of such a domestic robot to which we do not have already the glimmering of a solution. When I have discussed this kind of device with housewives, some 90 per cent of them have the immediate reaction, "How soon can I buy one?" The other 10 per cent have the reaction, "I would be terrified to have it moving about my house." (49) But when one explains to them that it could be switched off or unplugged or stopped without the slightest difficulty, or made to go and put itself away in a cupboard at any time, they quickly realize that it is a highly desirable object. (50) Now it is generally recognized that there is no greater pleasure than to go to bed in the evening and know that the washing up is being done downstairs after one is asleep. Most families are now delighted, no doubt, to have a robot slave doing all the downstairs housework after they were in bed at night. Notes: glimmering 迹象

The gap between those who have access to computers and the Internet and those who couldn"t spell trouble not only for classroom learning today, but in turn for producing the kind of students who are ready to compete for the jobs of tomorrow. By the year 2000, 60 percent of all jobs will require high-tech computer skills. Over the next seven years, according to Bureau of Labor statistics, computer and technology related jobs will grow by an astounding 70 percent. "We as a nation are missing the opportunity of a lifetime", insists Riley. "The ability of all students to learn at the highest levels with the greatest resources and have the promise of a future of real opportunity-this is the potential of technology". Riley proposes dosing the gaps in technology access by providing discounted services for schools and libraries. The 1996 Telecommunications Act called for providing all K-12 public and nonprofit private schools, as well as libraries, with discounts-an Education Rate, or E-Rate for telecommunication services, in May 1997, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted to provide $2.25 billion a year in discounts ranging from 20 to 90 percent on a sliding scale, with the biggest discounts for the poorest schools. (The E-Rate covers Internet access and internal school connections, but not computers or software.) The first round of applications for the discounts ended in April 1998 with more than 30,000 received, in time for the beginning of the school year. With the E-Rate in place, it was hoped that most U.S. classrooms would be connected to the Internet (up from 44 percent now), including almost every classroom in the nation"s 50 largest school districts. However, criticism from Congress and the telecommunications industry led the FCC in Jurm to reduce the amount available for 1998 to $1.3 billion. Still, the importance of connecting our schools to this vast and potentially powerful learning tool called the Internet is taking hold. In a June commencement address at MIT, the first by a sitting president to be broadcast on the Internet, President Clinton firmly emphasized the need to eliminate the digital divide. "Until every child has a computer in the classroom and the skills to use it, until every student can tap the enormous resources of the Internet, until every high tech company can find skilled workers to fill its high-tech jobs, America will miss the full promise of the Information Age", he noted. "The choice", he said, "is simple. We can extend opportunity today to all Americans or leave me behind. We can erase lines of inequity or etch them indelibly. We can accelerate the most powerful engine of growth and prosperity the world has ever known, or allow the engine to stall".

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Internet data shows that American younger adults have become the primary group mad about altering their personal appearance. Once the realm of the well-to-do female in her fifties, plastic surgery has become the attraction of the least rich【C1】______of younger Internet users. Search data【C2】______this phenomenon. One of the most popular sites visited from the search【C3】______"plastic surgery" is the【C4】______site of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Over 25% of visitors to the site fell【C5】______the 18- to 24-year-old demographic—that"s up from 19.6% two years【C6】______. Looking at other health related sites visited by 18- to 24-year-olds,【C7】______just how mad this age group is about appearance.【C8】______their older counterparts who visit sites related to【C9】______and keeping healthy, younger Internet users【C10】______to sites that dwell on personal appearance, such as those【C11】______on bodybuilding, weight loss and skincare. And【C12】______plastic surgery. But if we track the trend in searches on topics such as "breast implants" or "plastic surgery," there has been a steep【C13】______in all plastic surgery topics over the last year. What"s【C14】______this downturn? It may very well be related to the failing U.S. economy and the【C15】______income group of visitors to cosmetic surgery sites—U.S. households that【C16】______less than $30,000 per year. In fact, if we look at the search patterns around popular surgeries, over the last year the term "cost" is the most【C17】______appearing qualifier. We see more searches such as "breast implant cost" and "plastic surgery cost".【C18】______older demographics continue to search for information on procedures such as face-lifts, it"s the younger Internet users who in tough【C19】______times are focusing on improving their outer beauty, although at a(n) 【C20】______price.

Like the look of our website? Whatever the answer, the chances are you made your mind up within the first twentieth of a second. A study by researchers in Canada has shown that the snap decisions Internet users make about the quality of a web page have a lasting impact on their opinions. We all know that first impressions count, but this study shows that the brain can make flash judgments almost as fast as the eye can take in the information. "My colleagues believed it would be impossible to really see anything in less than 500 milliseconds", says Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in Ottawa. Instead they found that impressions were made in the first 50 milliseconds of viewing. Lindgaard and her team presented volunteers with the briefest glimpses of web pages previously rated as being either easy on the eye or particularly unpleasant, and asked them to rate the websites on a sliding scale of visual appeal. Even though the images flashed up for just 50 milliseconds, roughly the duration of a single frame of standard television shot, their decisions tallied well with judgments made after a longer period of examination. In the crowded and competitive world of the web, companies hoping to make millions from e-commerce should take notice". Unless the first impression is favorable, visitors will be out of your site before they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors", Lindgaard warns. For a typical commercial website, 60% of traffic comes from search engines such as Google. This makes a user"s first impression even more critical. The lasting effect of first impressions is known to psychologists as the "halo effect": if you can snare people with an attractive design, they are more likely to overlook other minor faults with the site, and may rate its actual content more favorably. This is because of "cognitive bias". People enjoy being right, so continuing to use a website that gave a good first impression helps to "prove" to themselves that they made a good initial decision. "It"s awfully scary stuff, but the tendency to jump to conclusions is far more widespread than we realize". These days, enlightened web users want to see a "puritan" approach. It"s about getting information across in the quickest, simplest way possible. For this reason, many commercial websites now follow a fairly regular set of rules. For example, westerners tend to look at the top-left corner of a page first, so that"s where the company logo should go. And most users also expect to see a search function in the top right. Of course, the other golden rule is to make sure that your web pages load quickly, otherwise your customers might not stick around long enough to make that coveted first impression. "That can be the difference between big business and no business".

Humans not only love eating ice cream, they enjoy (1)_____ it to their pets. Market studies show that two thirds of all dog owners give ice cream to the dogs. (2)_____, says William Tyznik, an expert in animal nutrition at Ohio State University, ice cream is not good for dogs. "It has milk sugar in it," he says, "which dogs cannot (3)_____ very well." (4)_____ by that knowledge but aware of the desire of dog owners to (5)_____ their companions, Tyznik invented a new frozen treat for dogs that, he says, is more nutritious than ice cream—and as much (6)_____ to eat. The product, called Frosty Paws, is made of a liquid byproduct of cheese and milk with the sugar (7)_____. Frosty Paws also contains refined soy flour, water, vegetable oil, vitamins and minerals. It (8)_____ Tyznik, who has also invented a horse food (called Tizwhiz) and (9)_____ dog food (named Tizbits), three years to (10)_____ the Frosty Paws formulas, and two (11)_____ to commercialize it. After losing $25,000 trying to market the invention himself, Tyznik sold the rights to Associated Ice Cream of Westerville, Ohio, which makes the product and (12)_____ it in cups. Tyznik claims that Frosty Paws has been tested (13)_____ and that "dogs love it". Of 1,400 dogs that have been (14)_____ the product, he says, 89 percent took it on the first (15)_____. Three out of four (16)_____ it to Milk-Bone or sausages. The product, which will be (17)_____ in the ice cream section of supermarkets, comes in (18)_____ of three or four cups, costing about $1.79. What would happen (19)_____ a human should mistake Frosty Paws for real ice cream? Nothing, says Tyznik. It"s (20)_____, but frankly, he says, it won"t taste very good.

Study Home or Abroad? A. Title: Study Home or Abroad? B. Word limit: 160~200 words (not including the given opening sentence) C. Your composition should be based on the OUTLINE below and should start with the given opening sentence: "Nowadays more and more students choose to study in such developed countries as the U.S.A., the U.K., France, etc." OUTLINE: 1. The phenomenon that more and more students choose to study abroad 2. People's different views on this phenomenon 3. My opinion

You will have an English class next Friday, but you can"t attend the class. Write an application for leave to your English teacher, Mr. Wang, telling him: 1) why you ask for leave, 2) what you will do to make up for it. You should write about 100 words neatly. Do not sign your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead.

The output of coal has doubled.

The idea that women are hunting for rich husbands while men choose wives for their beauty is a long way from the truth, suggests a new study. While some celebrity marriages may fit this pattern, most men and women are seeking a mate who is similar to them in qualities such as income, beauty, and desire to have children. The new study flouts the traditionally accepted views that, to maximise our ability to reproduce, men are seeking young, attractive women who are likely to bear them children while women are seeking older, successful men who have the resources to support and protect their young. "Our results fly in face of these studies," says Stephen Emlen, a behavioural ecologist at Cornell University, who conducted the study with Peter Buston, now at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Buston and Emlen"s study suggests most men and women in Western society look for partners with qualities on a par with their own. Attractive females, for example, are much more likely to seek a similarly healthy and good-looking mate than a rich one. And wealthy males are more likely to seek a rich wife than a pretty one. Unions of "like" individuals are more advantageous from an evolutionary perspective, says Emlen, because they are more stable. This is beneficial because humans require long-term relationships both to produce a lot of children and to ensure that they survive to adulthood. The researchers gave questionnaires to almost 1000 men and women aged 18 to 24. The volunteers were first asked to rank the desirability of 10 attributes in a long-term partner, and then rank themselves on the same 10 attributes. Analysing the results, Buston and Emlen found a consistent match between the qualities ranked as highly desirable in a partner and in an individual themselves. The new study confirms that before setting out to search for a mate, people assess their own assets and then look for a mate "in their league". The implication, says Emlen, is that long and happy marriages are most likely for couples sharing similar values, education, physical appearance and intellectual interests. Choosing a partner with far superior qualities would risk a future breakup, because such a partner would eventually be tempted away by a higher quality mate. However, Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Liverpool, U. K. , warns against oversimplifying human mate choice. "It like a poker game," he says. "You have to balance your preferences against those of your partner and the other players in the game. "

"Two centuries ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Lois to explore the new lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, " George W. Bush said, announcing his desire for a program to send men and women to Mars. "They made that journey in the spirit of discovery... America has ventured forth into space for the same reasons. " Yet there are vital differences between Lewis and Clark"s expedition and a Mars mission. First, Lewis and Clark were headed to a place amenable to life; hundreds of thousands of people were already living there. Second, Lewis and Clark were certain to discover places and things of immediate value to the new nation. Third, the Lewis and Clark venture cost next to nothing by today"s standards. In 1989, NASA estimated that a people-to-Mars program would cost $ 400 billion, which inflates to $ 600 billion today. But the fact that a destination is tantalizing does not mean the journey makes sense, even considering the human calling to explore. And Mars as a destination for people makes absolutely no sense with current technology. Present systems for getting from Earth"s surface to low-Earth orbit are so fantastically expensive that merely launching the 1, 000 tons or so of spacecraft and equipment a Mars mission would require could be accomplished only by cutting health-care benefits, education spending or other important programs or by raising taxes. Absent some remarkable discovery, astronauts, geologists and biologists once on Mars could do little more than analyze rocks and feel awestruck beholding the sky of another world. It is interesting to note that when President Bush unveiled his proposal, he listed these recent major achievements of space exploration: pictures of the rings of Saturn and the outer planets, evidence of water on Mars and the moon of Jupiter, discovery of more than 100 planets outside our solar system and study of the soil of Mars. All these accomplishments came from automated probes or automated space telescopes. Bush"s proposal, which calls for "reprogramming" some of NASA"s present budget into the Mars effort, might actually lead to a reduction in such unmanned science, the one aspect of space exploration that"s working really well. Rather than spend hundreds of billions of dollars to hurl tons toward Mars using current technology, why not take a decade or two decades, or however much time is required researching new launch systems and advanced propulsion? If new launch systems could put weight into orbit affordably, and if advanced propulsion could speed up that long, slow transit to Mars, then the dreams of stepping onto the Red Planet might become reality. Mars will still be there when the technology is ready. The drive to explore is part of what makes us human, and exploration of the past has led to unexpected glories. Dreams must be tempered by realism, however. For the moment, going to Mars is hopelessly unrealistic.

People often wonder why historians go to so much trouble to preserve millions of books, documents and records of the past. Why do we have libraries? What (1)_____ are these documents and the (2)_____ books? Why do we (3)_____ and save the actions of men, the negotiations of statesmen and the (4)_____ of armies? Because, sometimes, the voice of experience can (5)_____ us to stop, look and listen. And because, sometimes, past records, (6)_____ interpreted, can give us (7)_____ of what to do and what not to do. If we are to create (8)_____ peace forever, we must seek (9)_____ origins in human experience and in the record of human (10)_____. From the story of the endurance, courage and (11)_____ of men and women, we create the inspiration of youth. From stories of the Christian men, right down to Budapest"s heroic men of today, history records the suffering, the self-denial, the loyalty and the heroic (12)_____ of men. Surely from these records there can come help to mankind in our (13)_____ and perplexities, and in our yearnings (14)_____ peace. The (15)_____ purpose of history is a better world. History gives a warning to those who would (16)_____ war. History (17)_____ inspiration to those who seek peace. (18)_____, history helps us learn. Yesterday"s records can keep us from (19)_____ yesterday"s mistakes. And from the pieces of mosaic assembled by historians come the great printings (20)_____ represent the progress of mankind.

Many people like to travel. The problem is getting your pet to the【C1】______. In recent years, transporting pets on flights has grown more【C2】______—and more expensive. All major carriers have【C3】______raised the fees that they【C4】______for bringing pets onboard, matching, or in some cases,【C5】______. the fee for children flying alone. Fees【C6】______depending on whether the pet flies under your seat, or as checked baggage, which【C7】______extra handling. Pet safety has also become a more【C8】______issue. Incidents of animals being lost, injured or dying have recently【C9】______. Thirty-nine animals died while flying aboard【C10】______jets last year, compared with 22 two years ago. 【C11】______those numbers are a small percentage of the hundreds of thousands of animals flown by the airlines each year, they expose the dangers that pets may face while traveling. Not that airlines don't【C12】______risks, but that some pets are liable to breathing problems or【C13】______illness. Delta, which reported several dog【C14】______last year, has changed its policy and now【C15】______some breeds from its planes. Despite the inconveniences, airlines say they are going out of their way to be pet【C16】______. Last year Frontier Airlines, in【C17】______to demand, began accepting pets in the passenger cabin for the first time【C18】______it had transported pets only as baggage. If you are considering putting your pet on a plane, here are a few tips to【C19】______the process. Don't wait until the last minute to book, for airlines limit the number of pets in the cabin. Placing your pet on the floor of the car beforehand so it can feel the【C20】______as it will on a plane.