Political controversy about the public-land policy of the United States began with the America Revolution. (1)_____, even before independence from Britain was (2)_____, it became clear that (3)_____ the dilemmas surrounding the public domain might prove necessary to (4)_____ the Union itself. At the peace negotiation with Britain, Americans obtained a western (5)_____ at the Mississippi River. Thus the new nation secured for its birthright a vast internal empire rich in agricultural and mineral resources. But (6)_____ their colonial charters, seven states claimed (7)_____ of the western wilderness. Virginia"s claim was the largest, (8)_____ north and west to encompass the later states. The language of the charters was (9)_____ and their validity questionable, but during the war Virginia reinforced its title by sponsoring Colonel Georgia Rogers Clark"s 1778 (10)_____ to Vicennes and Kaskaskia, which (11)_____ America"s trans-Appalachian pretensions at the peace table. The six states holding no claim to the transmontane region (12)_____ whether a confederacy in which territory was so unevenly apportioned would truly prove what it claimed to be, a union of equals. Already New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Isaland, and Maryland were (13)_____ the smallest and least populous of the states. (14)_____ they levied heavy taxes to repay state war debts, their larger neighbors might retire debts out of land-sale proceeds. (15)_____ by fresh lands and low taxes, people would desert the small states (16)_____ the large, leaving the former to fall (17)_____ bankruptcy and eventually into political subjugation. All the states shared in the war effort, how then could half of them "be left no sink under an (18)_____ debt, whilst others are enabled, in a short period, to (19)_____ all their expenditures from the hard earnings of the whole confederacy?" As the Revolution was a common endeavor, (20)_____ ought its fruits, including the western lands be a common property.

Studythefollowingphotocarefullyandwriteanessayinwhichyoushould1)describethephotobriefly,2)interpretthemeaningreflectedbyit,and3)offerarelevantexample.Youshouldwrite160-200words.YoushouldwriteneatlyonANSWERSHEET2.(20points)

【F1】 The evolution of intelligence among early large mammals of the grasslands was due in great measure to the interaction between two ecologically synchronized groups of these animals, the hunting carnivores and the herbivores that they hunted. The interaction resulting from the differences between predator and prey led to a general improvement in brain functions; however, certain components of intelligence were improved far more than others. 【F2】 The kind of intelligence favored by the interplay of increasingly smarter catchers and increasingly keener escapers is defined by attention—that aspect of mind carrying consciousness forward from one moment to the next. It ranges from a passive free floating awareness to a highly focused, active fixation, the range through these states is mediated by the arousal system, a network of tracts converging from sensory systems to integrating centers in the brain stem. From the more relaxed to the more vigorous levels sensitivity to novelty is increased.【F3】 The organism is more awake more vigilant, this increased vigilance results in the apprehension of ever more subtle signals as the organism becomes more sensitive to its surroundings. The processes of arousal and concentration give attention to its direction. Arousal is at first general with a flooding of impulses in the brain stem; then gradually the activation is channeled. Thus begins concentration, the holding of consistent images. One meaning of intelligence is the way in thigh these images and other alertly searched information are used in the context of previous experience. Consciousness links past attention to the present and permits the integration of details with perceived ends purposes. The elements of intelligence and consciousness come together marvelously to produce different styles in predator and prey. Herbivores and carnivores develop different kinds of attention related to escaping or chasing.【F4】 Although in both kinds of animal arousal stimulates the production of adrenaline and norepinephrine by the adrenal glands the effect in herbivores is primarily fear, whereas in carnivores the effect is primarily aggression. For both, arousal attunes the animal to what is ahead. Perhaps it does not experience forethought as we know it but the animal does experience something like it. The predator is searchingly aggressive inner directed, used by the nervous system and the adrenal hormones, but aware in a sense closer to human consciousness than, say, a hungry lizard" s instinctive snap at a passing beetle. The large mammal predator is working out a relationship between movement and food, sensitive to possibilities in cold trails and distant sounds and yesterday"s unforgotten lessons. The herbivore bray is of a different mind.【F5】 Its mood of wariness rather than searching and its attitude of general expectancy instead of anticipating are silk thin veils of tranquility over an explosive endocrine system.

The U.S. Supreme Court"s decision Monday to let stand a ruling in an online defamation case will make it more difficult to determine correct legal jurisdictions in other Internet cases, legal experts said. By opting not to take the case, the high court effectively endorsed a lower court"s decision that a Colorado company that posts ratings of health plans on the Internet could be sued for defamation in a Washington court. The lower court ruling is one of several that makes it easier for plaintiffs to sue Web site operators in their own jurisdictions, rather than where the operators maintain a physical presence. The case involved a defamation suit filed by Chehalis, Wash.-based Northwest Healthcare Alliance against Lakewood, Colo.-based Healthgrades.com The Alliance sued in Washington federal court after Healthgrades.com posted a negative ranking of Northwest Healthcare"s home health services on the Internet. Healthgrades.com argued that it should not be subject to the jurisdiction of a court in Washington because its publishing operation is in Colorado. Observers said the fact that the Supreme Court opted not to hear the case only clouds the legal situation for Web site operators. Geoff Stewart, a partner at Jones Day in Washington, D.C., said that the Supreme Court eventually must act on the issue, as Internet sites that rate everything from automobile dealerships to credit offers could scale back their offerings to avoid lawsuits originating numerous jurisdictions. Online publishers also might have to worry about being dragged into lawsuits in foreign courts, said Dow Lohnes & Albertson attorney Jon Hart, who has represented the Online News Association. "The much more difficult problems for U.S. media companies arise when claims are brought in foreign countries over content published in the United States", Hart said. Hart cited a recent case in which an Australian court ruled that Dow Jones must appear in a Victoria, Australia court to defend its publication of an article on the U.S.—based Walt Street Journal Web site. According to Hart, the potential chilling effect of those sorts of jurisdictional decisions is substantial. "I have not yet seen publishers holding back on what they otherwise publish because they"re afraid they"re going to get sued in another country, but that doesn"t mean it won"t happen if we see a rash of U.S. libel cases against U.S. media companies being brought in foreign countries", he said. Until the high court decides to weigh in directly on this issue, Web site operators that offer information and services to users located outside of their home states must deal with a thorny legal landscape, said John Morgan, a partner at Perkins Coie LLP and an expert in Internet law.

Culture is activity of thought, and receptiveness to beauty and humane feeling. Scraps of information have【B1】______ to do with it. A【B2】______ well-informed man is the most useless bore on God's earth. What we should aim at【B3】______ is men who possess both culture and expert knowledge in some【B4】______ direction. Their expert knowledge will give them the ground to start【B5】______, and their culture will【B6】______ them as deep as philosophy and as high as art. We have to remember that the【B7】______ intellectual development is self-development, and that it【B8】______ takes place between the ages of sixteen and thirty. As to training, the most important part is given by mothers【B9】______ the age of twelve. In training a child to activity of thought,【B10】______ all things we must be【B11】______ of what I will call "inert ideas" — that is to say, ideas that are merely【B12】______ into the mind without being utilized, or tested, or thrown into【B13】______ combinations. In the history of education, the most striking phenomenon is that schools of learning, which at one epoch are【B14】______ with a craze for genius, but in a succeeding generation exhibit merely【B15】______. The reason is that they are overladen with inert ideas.【B16】______ at rare intervals of intellectual motivation, education in the past has been radically infected with inert ideas. That is the reason why uneducated clever women, who have【B17】______ much of the world, are in middle life so much the most cultured part of the community. They have been【B18】______ from this horrible burden of inert ideas. Every intellectual revolution which has【B19】______ stirred humanity into greatness has been a passionate protest【B20】______ inert ideas.

Every two weeks a language disappears. By 2100 nearly half of the 6,000 spoken today may be gone. Migration, either between countries or from the countryside to cities, is one reason; though new arrivals generally stick with their mother tongue, at least at home, their children rarely do. The dominance of English is another. But one tongue against the trend is Romani, spoken by 4m of the roughly 11m Roma people worldwide. Its health attests to the importance of language in shaping identity. Unlike most languages, Romani has no country to call home. Its roots lie in India, but since the 10th century its speakers have scattered and kept moving. One result is that they are everywhere a linguistic minority. Another is that 150 different dialects are in use. "Anglo-Romani", spoken in Britain, differs widely from dialects in France, Bulgaria and Latvia. One Roma man in New Zealand speaks a dialect previously only heard in Wales. The 290,000 native Swedish speakers in Finland show no signs of dropping their language—but it is their country's second official one, compulsory in all schools and spoken by 9. 5m Swedes next door. Irish hangs on partly because of government spending on translating road signs and documents, broadcasting, teaching and extra marks for brave students who use the tongue in their final school exams. But without a government to champion it, Romani is used mostly in the home. Academics and linguists have written it down and tried to standardise it, but many of those who speak it do not read it. America printed a Romani guide to its 2000 census form, but that is a rarity; it almost never features in official documents. The lack of texts complicates attempts to teach it formally. Roma Kulturklass, a Swedish Romani-language school, is one of a handful in the world. Its 35 pupils study everything except Swedish and English in both Romani and Swedish. But with few textbooks, says Angelina Dimiter Taikon, the head teacher, staff must make do with their own translations.

For the first time in decades, doctors have begun making major changes in the treatment of lung cancer, based on research proving that chemotherapy can significantly lengthen life for many patients for whom it was previously thought to be useless. The shift in care applies to about 50,000 people a year in the United States who have early cases of the most common form of the disease, non-small-cell lung cancer, and whose tumors are removed by surgery. (46) Many of these patients, who just a few years ago would have been treated with surgery alone, are now being given chemotherapy as well, just as it is routinely given after surgery for breast or colon(结肠) cancer. The new approach has brightened a picture that was often bleak. "The benefit is at least as good, and maybe better than in the other cancers", said Dr. John Minna, a lung cancer expert and research director at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He said new discoveries were helping to eliminate doctors" "nihilistic" attitudes about chemotherapy for lung cancer. "The standard of care has changed", said Dr. Christopher G. Azzoli, a lung cancer specialist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. (47) A major impetus for the change came a year ago, when two studies presented at a cancer conference showed marked increases in survival in patients who received adjuvant(辅助的) chemotherapy, meaning the drugs were given after surgery. In one study of 482 patients in Canada and the United States, led by Dr. Timothy Winton, a surgeon from the University of Alberta, 69 percent of patients who had surgery and chemotherapy were still alive five years later, as compared with 54 percent who had just surgery. The patients were given a combination of two drugs, cisplatin and vinorelbine, once a week for 16 weeks. In the world of lung cancer research, a survival difference of 15 percentage points is enormous. (48) Overall, the patients given chemotherapy lived 94 months, versus 73 months in those who had only surgery—also a huge difference in a field in which a treatment is hailed as a success if it gives patients even three or four extra months. A second study, also announced at the conference last year, had similar findings, and so did a third, presented just a month ago at the annual meeting of the same cancer group, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, At major medical centers, doctors quickly began to put the results into practice. (49) "The findings were so stunning from these studies a year ago that they began to change the standard of care", said Dr. Pasi Janne, a lung cancer specialist at the-Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. "Over the last year, the number of patients we"ve had referred here for adjuvant chemotherapy has gone up steadily". (50) But some doctors hesitated to make changes, Dr. Winton said, wanting first to see the studies published in a medical journal, which would mean the data had stood up to the scrutiny(仔细的检查) of editors and expert reviewers. Now, his study has become the first of the three to pass that test. It is being published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, along with an editorial by Dr. Katherine M.S. Pisters, a lung cancer specialist at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The mental health movement in the United States began with a period of considerable enlightenment. Dorothea Dix was shocked to find the mentally ill in jails and almshouses and crusaded for the establishment of asylums in which people could receive humane care in hospital-like environments and treatment which might help restore them to sanity. By the mid-1800s 20 states had established asylums. But during the late 1800s and early 1900s, in the face of economic depression, legislatures were unable to appropriate sufficient funds for decent care. Asylums became overcrowded and prison-like. Additionally, patients were more resistant to treatment than the pioneers in the mental health field had anticipated, and security and restraint were needed to protect patients and others. Mental institutions became frightening and depressing places in which the fights of patients were all but forgotten. These conditions continued until after World War II. At that time, new treatments were discovered for some major mental illnesses considered untreatable (penicillin for syphilis of the brain and insulin treatment for schizophrenia and depressions), and a succession of books, motion pictures, and newspapers called attention to the plight of the mentally ill. Improvements were made, and Dr. David Vail"s Humane Practices Programme is a beacon for today. But changes were store in coming until the early 1960s. At that time, the Civil Rights Movement led lawyers to investigate America"s prisons, which were disproportionately populated by blacks, and they in turn followed prisoners into the institutions that were worse than the hospitals for the criminally insane. The prisons were filled with angry young men who, encouraged by legal support, were quick to demand their fights. The hospitals for the criminally insane, by contrast, were populated with people who were considered "crazy" and who were often kept obediently in their place through the use of severe bodily restraints and large dose of major tranquillizers. The young cadre of public interest lawyers liked their role in the mental hospitals. The lawyers found a population that was both passive and easy to champion. These were, after all, people who, unlike criminals, had done nothing wrong. And in many states, they were being kept in horrendous institutions, an injustice, which, once exposed, was hound to shock the public and, particularly, the judicial conscience. Judicial interventions have had some definite positive effects, but there is growing awareness that courts cannot provide the standards and the review mechanisms that assure good patient care. The details of providing day-to-day care simply cannot be mandated by a court, so it is time to take from the courts the responsibility for delivery of mental heath care and assurance of patient fights and return it to the state mental health administrators to whom the mandate was originally given. Though it is a difficult task, administrators must undertake to write rules and standards and to provide the training and surveillance to assure that treatment is given and patient rights are respected.

As one works with color in a practical or experimental way, one is impressed by two apparently unrelated facts. Color as seen is a mobile, changeable thing (1)_____ to a large extent on the relationship of the color (2)_____ other colors (3)_____ simultaneously. It is not (4)_____ in its relation to the direct stimulus which (5)_____ it. On the other hand, the properties of surfaces that give (6)_____ to color do not seem to change greatly under a wide variety of illumination color, usually (but not always) looking much the same in artificial light as in daylight. Both of these effects seem to be (7)_____ in large part to the mechanism of color (8)_____. When the eye is (9)_____ to a colored area, there is an immediate readjustment of the (10)_____ of the eye to color in and around the area (11)_____. This readjustment does not promptly affect the color seen but usually does affect the next area to which the (12)_____ is shifted. The longer the time of viewing, the higher the (13)_____, and the larger the area, the greater the effect will be (14)_____ its persistence in the (15)_____ viewing situation. As indicated by the work of Wright and Schouten, it appears that, at (16)_____ for a first approximation, full adaptation takes place over (17)_____ time if the adapting source is moderately bright and the eye has been in (18)_____ darkness just previously. Also, (19)_____ of the persistence of the effect if the eye is shifted around from one object to another, all of which are at similar brightness or have similar colors, the adaptation will tend to become (20)_____ over the whole eye.

[A]Thatworldisnotyetonoffer.Butasemblanceofitmightbeoneday.Senescence:,thegeneraldwindlingofprowessexperiencedbyallastimetakesitstoll,iscomingunderscrutinyfromdoctorsandbiologists.Suspendingitisnotyetonthecards.Butslowingitprobablyis.Averagelifespanshaverisenalotoverthepastcentury,butthatwasthankstobetterfood,housing,publichealthandsomemedicines.This,optimistsclaim,willextendlifeformanypeopletotoday'sceilingof120orso.Butitmaybejustthebeginning.Inthenextphasenotjustaveragelifespansbutmaximumlifespanswillrise.Ifabodypartwearsout,itwillberepairedorreplacedaltogether.DNAwillbeoptimisedforlonglife.Addinanti-ageingdrugs,andcentenarianswillbecometwoapenny.[B]Oneconcernisthatlonglifewillexacerbateexistingsocialandeconomicproblems.Themostchallengewillbeaccesstoanti-senescencetreatment.Iflongerlifeisexpensive,whogetsitfirst?Already,incomeisoneofthebestpredictorsoflifespan.Wideningthegapwithtreatmentsinaccessibletothepoormightdeependivisionsthatarealreadystrainingdemocracies.[C]Imagineasaworldinwhichgettingfittedwithanewheart,liverorsetofkidneys,allknownfromyourownbodycells,wasascommonplaceaskneeandhipreplacementsarenow.Oroneinwhichyoucelebratedyour94thbirthdaybyrunningamarathonwithyourschoolfriends.Imagine,inotherwords,aworldinwhichageinghadbeenabolished.[D]Longevityisknowntoruninfamilies,whichsuggeststhatparticularvarietiesofgenesprolonglife.Someareinvestigatingthis,withthethoughtthatmoderngene-editingtechniquesmightonedaybeusedtomakecrucial,life-extendingtweakstotheDNAofthosewhoneedthem.Fromanindividual'sviewpoint,thisallsoundsverydesirable.Fromsocietyasawhole,though,itwillhaveprofoundeffects.Mostofthemwillbegood,butnotall.[E]Suchspeculationisfun,andmostlyoptimistic.Thepromiseofalongerlife,welllived,wouldroundapersonout.Butthisvisionofthefuturedependsononething—thatalongexistenceisalsoahealthyone.HumanitymustavoidthetrapfallenintobyTithonus,amythicalTrojanwhowasgrantedeternallifebythegods,butforgottoaskalsoforeternalyouth.Eventually,hewitheredintoacicada.[F]Willolderworkersbediscriminatedagainst,asnow,orwillnumbersgivethemthewhiphandovertheyoung?Willbossesclingon,hamperingthecareersoftheirunderlings,orwilltheygrowbored,quitanddosomethingelseentirely?Andwouldallthoseoldpeopleceasetoconsiderthemselveselderly,retainingyouthfullyvigorousmentalattitudesaswellasphysicalones—orinsteadmakesocietymoreconservative(becauseoldpeopletendtobe)?[G]Tothisend,manyhopefulrepairmenarenowsettingupshop.Someofthemwanttoupgradeworn-outtissuesusingstemcells(precursorstoothersortsofcell).Suchbio-renovationisthebasisofanunproven,almostvampiric,treatmentinvogueinsomecircles:transfusionintotheoldofthebloodoftheyoung.Thebusinessofgrowingorgansfromscratchisalsoproceeding.Atthemoment,these"organoids"aresmall,imperfectandusedmainlyfordrugtesting.Butthatwillsurelychange.Order:

The destruction of our natural resources and contamination of our food supply continue to occur largely because of the extreme difficulty in affixing legal responsibility on those who continue to treat our environment with reckless abandon. Attempts to prevent pollution by legislation, economic incentives and friendly persuasion have been met by law-suits, personal and industrial denial and long delays not only in accepting responsibility, but more importantly, in doing something about it. It seems that only when, government decides it can afford tax incentives or production sacrifices is there any initiative for change. Where is industry"s and our recognition that protecting mankind"s great treasure is the single most important responsibility? If ever there will be time for environmental health professionals to come to the frontlines and provide leadership to solve environmental problems, that time is now. We are being asked, in fact, the public is demanding that we take positive action. It is our responsibility as professionals in environ mental health to make the difference. Yes, the ecologists, the environmental activists and the conservationists serve to communicate, stimulate thinking and promote behavioral change. However, it is those of us who are paid to make the decisions to develop, improve and enforce environmental standards, I submit, who must lead the charge. We must recognize that environmental health issues do not stop at city limits, county lines, state or even federal boundaries. We can no longer afford to the tunnel-visioned in our approach. We must visualize issues from every perspective to make the objective decisions. We must express our views clearly to prevent media distortion and public confusion. I believe we have a three-part mission for the present. First, we must continue to press for improvements m the quality of life that people can make for themselves. Second, we must investigate and understand the link between environment and health. Third, we must be able to communicate technical information in a form that citizens can understand. If we can accomplish these three goals in this decade, maybe we can finally stop environmental degradation, and not merely hold it back. We will then be able to spend pollution dollars truly on prevention rather than on bandages.

Sharks have gained an unfair reputation for being fierce predators of large sea animals. Humanity"s unfounded fear and hatred of these ancient creatures is leading to a worldwide slaughter that may result in the extinction of many larger, coastal shark species. The shark is the victim of a warped attitude of wildlife protection: we strive only to protect the beautiful, nonthreatening parts of our environment. And, in our efforts to restore only nonthreatening parts of our earth, we ignore other important parts. A perfect illustration of this attitude is the contrasting attitude towards another large sea animal, the dolphin. During the 1980s, environmentalists in the U.S.A. protested the use of driftnets for tuna fishing in the Pacific Ocean since these nets also caught dolphins. The environmentalists generated enough political and economic pressure to prevent tuna companies from buying tuna that had been caught in driftnets. In contrast to this effort, the populations of sharks in the Pacific Ocean have decreased to the point of extinction and there has been very little effort by the same environmentalists to save this important species, of marine wildlife. Sharks are among the oldest creatures on earth, having survived in the seas for more than 350 million years. They are extremely efficient animals, feeding on wounded or dying animals, thus performing an important role in nature of weeding out the weaker animals in a species. Just the fact that species such as the Great White Shark have managed to live in the oceans for so many millions of years is enough proof of their efficiency and adaptability to changing environments. It is time for humans, who may not survive another 1000 years at the rate they are damaging the planet, to east away their fears and begin considering the protection of sharks as creatures that may provide us insight into our own survival.

The newspaper must provide for the reader the facts, unalloyed, unslanted(不歪曲的), objectively selected facts. But in the days of complex news it must provide more; it must supply interpretation, the meaning of the facts. This is the most important assignment confronting American journalism—to make clear to the reader the problems of the day, to make international news as understandable as community news, to recognize that the there is no longer any such thing as "local" news, bemuse any event in the international area has a local reaction in manpower draft, in economic strain, in terms, indeed, of our very Way of life. There is in journalism a widespread view that when you embark on interpretation, you are entering dangerous waters, the swirling tides of opinion. This is nonsense. The opponents of interpretation insist that the writer and the editor shall confine himself to the "facts". This insistence raises two questions: What are the facts? And: Are the bare facts enough? As to the first query, consider how a so-called "factual" story comes about. The reporter collects, say, fifty facts; out of these fifty, his space allotment being necessarily restricted, he selects the ten which he considers most important. This is Judgment Number One. Then he or his editor decides which of these ten facts shall constitute the lead of the piece. (This is an important decision bemuse many readers do not proceed beyond the first paragraph.) This is Judgments Number Two. Then the night editor determines whether the article shall be presented on page one, where it has larger impact, or on page twenty-four, where it has little, Judgment Number Three. Thus, in the presentation of a so-called "factual" or "objective" story, at least three judgments are involved. And they are judgments not at all unlike those involved in interpretation, in which reporter and editor, calling upon their research resources, their general background, and their "news neutralism" arrive at a conclusion as to the significance of the news. The two areas of judgment, presentation of the news and its interpretation, are both objective rather than subjective processes—as objective, that is, as any human being can be. (Note in passing: even though complete objectivity can never be achieved, nevertheless the ideal must always be the beacon on the murky news channels). If an editor is intent on slanting the news, he can do it in other ways and more effectively than by interpretation. He can do it by the selection of those facts that prop up(支持) his particular plea. Or he can do it by the play when he gives a story promoting it to page one or demoting it to page thirty.

On Mar. 14, when Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced its first foray into Japan, the Bentonville (Ark.) retailing giant placed a big bet that it could succeed where countless other foreign companies have failed. In the past five years, a number of famous Western brands have been forced to close up shop after failing to catch on in Japan, one of the world"s largest—but most variable—consumer markets. May Wal-Mart make a go of it where others have stumbled? One good sign is that the mass marketer is not rushing in blindly. It has taken an initial 6.1% stake in ailing food-and-clothing chain Seiyu Ltd., which it can raise to a controlling 33.4% by yearend and to 66.7% by 2007. That gives Wal-Mart time to revise its strategy—or run for the exits. The question is whether Wal-Mart can apply the lessons it has learned in other parts of Asia to Japan. This, after all, is a nation of notoriously finicky consumers—who have become even more so since Japan slipped into a decade-long slump. How will Wal-Mart bring to bear its legendary cost-cutting savvy in a market already affected by falling prices? Analysts are understandably skeptical. "It is uncertain whether Wal-Mart"s business models will be effective in Japan", Standard & Poor"s said in a Mar. 18 report. Much depends on whether Seiyu turns out to be a good partner. The 39-year-old retailer is a member of the reputed Seibu Saison retail group that fell on hard times in the early "90s. It also has deep ties to trading house Sumitomo Corp., which will take a 15% stake in the venture with Wal-Mart. Perhaps the best thing that can be said of Seiyu"s 400-odd stores is that they"re not as deeply troubled as other local retailers. Still, there"s a gaping chasm between the two corporate cultures. "We"ve never been known for cheap everyday pricing", says a Seiyu spokesman. Another potential problem is Sumitomo, which may not want to lean on suppliers to the extent that Wal-Mart routinely does. The clock is ticking. Wal-Mart executives say they need several months to "study" the deal with Seiyu before acting on it, but in the meantime a new wave of hyper-competitive Japanese and foreign rivals are carving up the market. If Wal-Mart succeeds, it will reduce its reliance on its home market even further and—who knows?—it may even revolutionize Japanese retailing in the same way it has in the U.S.

Who Should Teach Children: Parents or School?

You have all heard it repeated that men of science work by means of induction and deduction, that by the help of these operations, they, in a sort of sense, manage to extract from Nature certain natural laws, and that out of these, by some special skill of their own, they build up their theories.

Chronic insomnia is a major public health problem. And too many people are using【C1】______therapies, even while there are a few treatments that do work. Millions of Americans【C2】______awake at night counting sheep or have a stiff drink or【C3】______a pill, hoping it will make them sleepy.【C4】______experts agree all that self-medicating is a bad idea, and the causes of chronic insomnia remain【C5】______. Almost a third of adults have trouble sleeping, and about 10 percent have【C6】______of daytime impairment that signal true insomnia. But【C7】______the complaints, scientists know surprisingly little about what causes chronic insomnia, its health consequences and how best to treat it, a panel of specialists were【C8】______together by the National Institutes of Health concluded Wednesday. The panel called【C9】______a broad range of research into insomnia, 【C10】______that if scientists understood its【C11】______causes, they could develop better treatments. Most, but not all, insomnia is thought to【C12】______other health problems, from arthritis and depression to cardiovascular disease. The question often is whether the insomnia came first or was a result of the other diseases and how trouble sleeping in【C13】______complicates those other problems. Other diseases【C14】______, the risk of insomnia seems to increase with age and to be more【C15】______among women, especially after their 50s. Smoking, caffeine and numerous【C16】______drugs also affect sleep. The NIH is spending about $200 million this year on sleep-related research, some【C17】______to specific disorders and others【C18】______the underlying scientific laws that control the nervous system of sleep. The agency was【C19】______the panel' s review before deciding what additional work should be【C20】______at insomnia.

We tend to think of the decades immediately following World War II as a time of prosperity and growth, with soldiers returning home by the millions, going off to college on the G. I. Bill and lining up at the marriage bureaus. But when it came to their houses, it was a time of common sense and a belief that less could truly be more. During the Depression and the war, Americans had learned to live with less, and that restraint, in combination with the postwar confidence in the future, made small, efficient housing positively stylish. Economic condition was only a stimulus for the trend toward efficient living. The phrase "less is more" was actually first popularized by a German, the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who like other people associated with the Bauhaus, a school of design, emigrated to the United States before World War II and took up posts at American architecture schools. These designers came to exert enormous influence on the course of American architecture, but none more so than Mies. Mies" s signature phrase means that less decoration, properly organized, has more impact than a lot. Elegance, he believed, did not derive from abundance. Like other modern architects, he employed metal, glass and laminated wood—materials that we take for granted today but that in the 1940s symbolized the future. Mies" s sophisticated presentation masked the fact that the spaces he designed were small and efficient , rather than big and often empty. The apartments in the elegant towers Mies built on Chicago"s Lake Shore Drive, for example, were smaller—two-bedroom units under 1,000 square feet—than those in their older neighbors along the city"s Gold Coast. But they were popular because of their airy glass walls, the views they afforded and the elegance of the buildings" details and proportions, the architectural equivalent of the abstract art so popular at the time. The trend toward "less" was not entirely foreign. In the 1930s Frank Lloyd Wright started building more modest and efficient houses—usually around 1,200 square feet—than the spreading two-story ones he had designed in the 1890s and the early 20th century. The "Case Study Houses" commissioned from talented modern architects by California Arts & Architecture magazine between 1945 and 1962 were yet another homegrown influence on the "less is more" trend. Aesthetic effect came from the landscape, new materials and forthright detailing. In his Case Study House, Ralph Rapson may have mispredicted just how the mechanical revolution would impact everyday life—few American families acquired helicopters, though most eventually got clothes dryers—but his belief that self-sufficiency was both desirable and inevitable was widely shared.

It is known that the brain shrinks as the body ages, but the effects on mental ability are different from person to person: Interestingly, in a study of elderly men and women, those who had more education actually had more brain shrinkage. "That may seem like bad news," said study author Dr. Edward Coffey, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. However, he explained, the finding suggests that education allows people to withstand more brain-tissue loss before their mental functioning begins to break down. The study is the first to provide biological evidence to support a concept called the "reserve" hypothesis, according to the researchers. In recent years, investigators have developed the idea that people who are more educated have greater cognitive reserves to draw upon as the brain ages; in essence, they have more brain tissue to spare. Examining brain scans of 320 healthy men and women ages 66 to 90, researchers found that for each year of education the subjects had, there was greater shrinkage of the outer layer of the brain known as the cortex. Yet on tests of cognition and memory, all participants scored in the range indicating normal. "Everyone has some degree of brain shrinkage," Coffey said. "People lose 2.5 percent per decade starting in adulthood." There is, however, a "remarkable range" of shrinkage among people who show no signs of mental decline, Coffey noted. Overall health, he said, accounts for some differences in brain size. Alcohol or drag use, as well as medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, contribute to brain-tissue loss throughout adulthood. In the absence of such medical conditions, Coffey said, education level helps explain the range of brain shrinkage exhibited among the mentally-fit elderly. The more-educated can withstand greater loss. Coffey and colleagues gauged shrinkage of the cortex by measuring the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain. The greater the amount of fluid, the greater the cortical shrinkage. Controlling for the health factors that contribute to brain injury, the researchers found that education was related to the severity of brain shrinkage. For each year of education from first grade on, subjects had an average of 1.77 milliliters more cerebrospinal fluid around the brain. For example, Coffey"s team reported, among subjects of the same sex and similar age and skull size, those with 16 years of education had 8 to 10 percent more cerebrospinal fluid compared with those who had four years of schooling. Of course, achieving a particular education level is not the definitive measure of someone"s mental capacity. And, said Coffey, education can be "a proxy for many things" More-educated people, he noted, are often less likely to have habits, such as smoking, that harm overall health. But, Coffey said that people should strive throughout life to keep their brains alert by exposing themselves to new experiences. Traveling is one way to stimulate the brain, and a less adventuresome way is to do crossword puzzles.

Rarely has a national security issue of major importance become a subject of distortion and spin like the debate over the intelligence reform bill on Capitol Hill—the outcome of which will determine how US intelligence agencies and their military function for a generation to come. This is particularly true of the heated debate now taking place over how much power should be given to a new director of national intelligence. Along with House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, one of the most respected defense experts on Capitol Hill, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other elements within the Defense Department have raised serious questions about the far-reaching authority granted to the intelligence director under the Senate version of the bill. Specifically, Mr. Hunter believes that the Senate bill would interfere with the military"s access to intelligence on the battlefield. Right now, Mr. Hunter points out, Army units, Marines and US special forces use intelligence gleaned from overhead satellites to target enemy troops. In order to do this, they need to work closely with combat support agencies like the National Security Agency and National Reconnaissance Office. It is essential that there be a well-functioning chain of command between the American troops on the ground, the Defense Department and the people who operate the satellites. This was particularly critical during the recent fighting in Fallujah, where American troops relied on satellite photos to watch the terrorists they were seeking to kill. Although President Bush has agreed to the Senate proposal, administration officials acknowledge there is real concern that its version of the bill could undercut a system that is working well. As one official told this newspaper on Monday, the Senate measure could produce the following scenario: Every time the generals want to move a satellite to help a commander quickly obtain overhead images of the enemy or intercepted communications, they would have to get the approval of the new director of national intelligence. Noting the Fallujah experience, Mr. Hunter adds that the Senate bill "translates into ineffectiveness on the battlefield and, at worse, combat casualties". When asked to give his opinion on the Senate bill and an alternative measure proposed by Mr. Hunter that would preserve the current chain of command, Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, endorsed the California Republican lawmaker"s version. So, too, have the heads of the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy. The truth is that the very idea of shifting control of defense intelligence agencies away from the Pentagon (as embodied in the Senate bill) is a proposal to "fix" a non-existent problem, When Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, chairman and vice chairman of the September 11 commission, testified on Capitol Hill, both acknowledged in response to a question from Mr. Hunter their panel had come across no specific instance of a failure or negligence on the part of a Department of Defense agency. Unfortunately, the response from some senators and some sectors of the press to Mr. Hunter"s substantive concerns has been to portray him as undermining national security in order to preserve his bureaucratic turf. At one level, these charges are slanderous, given that Mr. Hunter"s son, a Marine, just completed a tour of duty in Iraq. Chairman Hunter is trying to protect his son, and all other young heroes—not his turf. If supporters of the Senate bill have substantive arguments to make that would explain why they are right and the Joint Chiefs and Mr. Hunter are wrong, they should make them. If not, they should accede to the House position. If the Senate refuses to budge, then the best course of action would be to re-visit the issue next year.