I don"t think there is anything wrong with your blood. The key to your problem is that long nap after dinner. If you didn"t sleep for hours during the early part of the evening, you would be more ready to sleep at bedtime. If you didn"t nap after dinner, you would not want to stay up so late, and you would not feel the need to take a sleeping pill. The pill is still working in your system when you get up in the morning. This helps account for the fact that you feel tired all day. You should get out of the habit of sleeping during the evening. Right after your evening meal, engage in some sort of physical activity—a sport such as bowling, perhaps. Or get together with friends for an evening of cards and conversation. Then go to bed at your usual time or a little earlier, and you should be able to get a good night"s rest without taking a pill. If you can get into the habit of spending your evenings this way, I am sure you will feel less tired during the day. At first it may be hard for you to go to sleep without taking a pill. If so, get up and watch television or do some jobs around your house until you feel sleepy. If you fall asleep and then wake up a few hours later, get up but do net take a sleeping pill. Read a while or listen to the radio, and make yourself a few hours" sleep that night, you will feel better in the morning than you usually feel after taking a pill. The next night you will be ready to sleep at an earlier hour. The most important thing is to avoid taking that nap right after dinner and avoid taking pills.

Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, allowing us to do things more quickly and efficiently. But too often it seems to make things harder. This spiral of complexity, often called "feature creep," costs consumers time, but it also costs businesses money. Product returns in the U.S. cost a hundred billion dollars a year, and a recent study by Elke den Ouden, of Philips Electronics,found that at least half of returned products have nothing wrong with them. Consumers just couldn"t figure out how to use them. Companies now know a great deal about problems of usability and consumer behavior, so why is it that feature creep proves unstoppable? In part, feature creep is the product of the so-called internal-audience problem: the people who design and sell products are not the ones who buy and use them, and what engineers and marketers think is important is not necessarily what"s best for consumers. The engineers tend not to notice when more options make a product less usable. And marketing and sales departments see each additional feature as a new selling point, and a new way to lure customers. You might think, then, that companies could avoid feature creep by just paying attention to what customers really want But that"s where the trouble begins, because although consumers find overloaded gadgets unmanageable, they also find them attractive. It turns out that when we look at a new product in a store we tend to think that the more features there are, the better. It"s only once we get the product home and try to use it that we realize the virtues of simplicity. It seems odd that we don"t anticipate feature fatigue and thus avoid it But, as numerous studies have shown, people are not, in general, good at predicting what will make them happy in the future. As a result, we will pay more for more features because we systematically overestimate how often we"ll use them. We also overestimate our ability to figure out how a complicated product works. The fact that buyers want bells and whistles but users want something clear and simple creates a peculiar problem for companies. A product that doesn"t have enough features may fail to catch our eye in the store. But a product with too many features is likely to annoy consumers and generate bad word of mouth, as BMWs original iDrive system did.

You are going to read an article which is followed by a list of examples or headings. Choose the most suitable one from the list A-F for each numbered position(41-45). There may be certain extra which you do not need to use. (10 points) To resolve a dispute means to turn opposing positions into a single outcome. The two parties may choose to focus their attention on one or more of three basic factors. They may seek to (1) reconcile their interests, (2) determine who is right, and/or (3) determine who is more powerful. (41) Disagreement of interests Interests are needs, desires, concerns, fears—the things one cares about or wants. They pro-vide the foundation for a person"s or an organization"s position in a dispute. In a dispute, not only do the interests of one party not coincide with those of the other party, but they are in conflict. For example, the director of sales for an electronics company gets into a dispute with the director of manufacturing over the number of TV models to produce. (42) Methods of settling conflicting interests Reconciling such interests is not easy. It involves probing for deeply rooted concerns, devising creative solutions, and making trade-offs and compromises where interests are opposed. The most common procedure for doing this is negotiation, the act of communication intended to reach agreement. (43) The use of negotiation for different dispute types By no means do all negotiations (or mediations) focus on reconciling interests. Some negotiations focus on determining who is right, such as when two lawyers argue about whose case has the greater merit. (44) Handling rights-based disputes There are often different—and sometimes contradictory—standards that apply to rights. Reaching agreement on rights, where the outcome will determine who gets what, can often be so difficult that the parties frequently turn to a third party to determine who is right. The most typical rights procedure is adjudication, in which disputants present evidence and arguments to a neutral third party who has the power to make a decision that must be followed by both disputants. (In mediation, by contrast, the third party does not have the power to decide the dispute.) Public adjudication is provided by courts and administrative agencies. Private adjudication is provided by arbitrators. (45) The role of power in settling disagreements A third way to resolve a dispute is on the basis of power. We define power, somewhat narrowly, as the ability to pressure someone to do something he would not otherwise do. In relationships of mutual dependence, such as between labor and management or within an organization or a family, the question of who is more powerful turns on who is less dependent on the other. If a company needs the employees" work more than employees need the company"s pay, the company is more dependent and hence less powerful. How dependent one is turns on how satisfactory the alternatives are for satisfying one"s interests. The better the alternative, the less dependent one is. If it is easier for the company to replace striking employees than it is for striking employees to find new jobs, the company is less dependent and thereby more powerful. Determining who is the more powerful party without a decisive and potentially destructive power contest is difficult because power is ultimately a matter of perceptions.A. Another interests-based procedure is mediation, in which a third party assists the disputants, the two sides in the dispute, in reaching agreement.B. Other negotiations locus on determining who is more powerful, such as when quarrelling meighbours or nations exchange threats and counter threats. Often negotiations involve a mix of all three—some attempts to satisfy interests, some discussion of rights, and some references to relative power.C. We often encounter disputes. If we don"t deal with it property, it will bring unexpected out-come to us.D. The director of sales wants to produce more models because her interest is in selling TV sets; more models mean more choice for consumers and hence increased sales. The director of manufacturing, however, wants to produce fewer models. His interest is in decreasing manufacturing costs and more models mean higher costs.E. Exercising power typically means imposing costs on the other side or threatening to do so. The exercise of power takes two common forms: acts of aggression, such as physical attack, and withholding the benefits that derive from a relationship, as when employees stop working in a strike.F. It is often complicated to attempt to determine who is right in a dispute. Although it is usually straightforward where rights are formalized in law, other rights take the form of unwritten but socially accepted standards of behavior, such as reciprocity, precedent, equality, and seniority.

Students'BreakfastandTheirHealthConditionsA.Studythefollowingchartcarefullyandwriteanessayof160-200words.B.Youressayshouldcoverthesethreepoints:1)therelationshipbetweenstudents'breakfastandtheirhealthconditions2)possiblereasons3)yoursuggestions

You are applying for a position as an English teacher. Write a letter to the Head of Foreign Languages Department to 1) introduce yourself, 2) give an account of your job experience, and 3) ask for a job interview. You should write about 100 words and do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. You do not need to write the address.

You will soon be leaving the university at which you have studied for several years. Write a farewell speech to your fellows that expresses: 1) your regret at having to leave, 2) your appreciation of their friendship and help over the years, 3) your promise to keep in touch with them in the future. You should write about 100 words. (10 points)

It would do a great deal of good if we started using the term "advisers" instead of "teachers" for those who try to help people to learn foreign languages. It would emphasize that what learners need is individual attention. It would also remind everyone that the responsibility for learning is basically the student"s. What the students needs is somebody who can do two things: (1) show her or him how to learn a foreign language; (2) answer questions about the language. Those questions must be thought of by the students. (46) If students do not find questions to ask—whole streams of questions—it is a sign that either they are not really interested enough to do the thinking for themselves that is crucial, or they do not know how to. The spirit that language learns need before anything else is curiosity. If they do not have that, they are wasting their time. (47) This means, in turn, that their guides do not need training in linguistic or educational theory, or in pedagogy, or in any techniques of stimulating interest, keeping students entertained. If students need to have their interest stimulated, something is very wrong. (48) One of the main reason for the emphasis on the skills of Leaching is doubtless that teachers are faced with the ridiculous task of finding things to do with groups of students who it is pretended all need exactly the same instruction. What a language guide does need, though, is a thorough and practical knowledge of hoe the language works, a conscious knowledge that she or he can articulate in a way the ordinary native speaker cannot. (49) Students should be able to sense that their guides have a genuine interest in the language, and that they have found out about it by thinking for themselves, not by mere uncritical memorizing of text books or lectures. It is only through such critical awareness and interest the guides can develop the ability to explain any given aspect of the language in varied ways so as to suit the particular needs and modes of thought of any individual student. One of the most misguided principles of modern pedagogy is the "Structures lessons". This is just what should be avoided, even in classes as well as private lessons. A good language guide is completely flexible, and can respond instantaneously at any moment to any need of the students that arises. Those with this capacity never need—never should—spend long hours planning and preparing lessons; but the corollary is that guides need to really "know their stuff". (50) The best place to develop the sort of the ability I have just outlined is "on the job", through an apprenticeship with experienced, sympathetic and encouraging colleagues, in good conditions of work.

If planning offers so many tangible benefits, why do many professionals resist it? Some are more comfortable with acting, rather than "idle thinking," and therefore don"t want to devote so much time to it, or they think their circumstances are so likely to change that planning is futile. Other people complain that things are going so well(or so badly)that there"s no point in planning. Finally, some people don" t make strategic plans because they can"t recognize the difference between strategic and short-term, operational planning—how to get where you"ve already decided to go. Circumstances do change, and it"s certainly legitimate to wonder about the value of planning when things are changing so rapidly. But the plans we are talking about are not set in concrete. They are adaptable frameworks, goals, that can conform to changing circumstances. There"s nothing wrong with changing direction, if we know what we"re doing and understand our own reasoning. A plan gives us a foundation from which we can make appropriate digressions as needed. Why plan if things are going fine? Won"t they continue like this? Won"t the skills we now use always be in demand? Probably not—especially in science and technology. Being prepared for new situations is a cardinal reason for having a strategic plan in the first place. Even if we cannot anticipate everything that will affect our path, we have a better chance of dealing with it effectively if we"ve thought ahead. Things are going terribly, and I can"t bother planning because survival is the name of the game right now. Good reasoning. If it seems that it"s going to be a close call just to reach that contracted goal , don " t worry about initiating a new overall strategy. But most of us often think things are worse than they truly are. If you are continually moving from one crisis to another, you may need to take some time off to understand why. Are you really heading where you want to go? Is your personal style suited to your circumstances? What changes in direction could prevent some of these crises in the first place? So, spend some time thinking about your future, outline your plans, and discuss them with people close to you. Strategic planning takes work, but it pays off. It"s an exciting way to create the future rather than just coast into it.

Washington, June 22—More than three decades after the Endangered Species Act gave the federal government tools and a mandate to protect animals, insects and plants threatened with extinction, the landmark law is facing the most intense efforts ever by the White House, Congress, landowners and industry to limit its reach. (46) More than any time in the law"s 32-year history, the obligations it imposes on government and, indirectly, on landowners are being challenged in the courts, reworked in the agencies responsible for enforcing it and re-examined in Congress. In some cases, the challenges are broad and sweeping, as when the Bush administration, in a legal battle over the best way to protect endangered salmon, declared Western dams to be as much. a part of the landscape as the rivers they control. (47) In others, the actions are deep in the realm of regulatory bureaucracy, as when a White House appointee at the Interior Department sought to influence scientific recommendations involving the sage grouse(松鸡), a bird whose habitat includes areas of likely oil and gas deposits. Some environmentalists readily concede that the law has long overemphasized the stick(处罚) and provided fewer carrots(奖励) for private interests than it might. But some of them also fear that the law"s defects will be used as a justification for a wholesale evisceration(修改法案使之失去效力). "There"s an alignment of the planets of people against the Endangered Species Act in Congress, in the White House and in the agencies", said Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife, a lobbying group based in Washington. (48) On the opposite side, Robert D. Thornton, a lawyer for developers and Indian tribes in Southern California, has argued for years that the government goes too far to protect threatened species and curtails(剥夺) people"s ability to use their own land. "I"ve raised a child and sent him through college waiting for Congress to amend the Endangered Species Act", he said. "But I do think that a lot of forces are joining now". (49) The Endangered Species Act of 1973 set out a goal that, polls show, is still widely admired: ensuring that species facing extinction be saved and robust populations be restored. Currently 1,264 species are considered threatened or endangered. Some, like the bighorn sheep of the Southern California mountains, have obvious popular appeal and a constituency, while others, like the Kretschmarr Cave mold beetle in South Texas, are an acquired taste. But in the past 30 years lawsuits from all sides have proliferated. (50) And more private land, particularly in the West, has been designated critical habitat for species, potentially subjecting it to federal controls that could limit construction, logging, fishing and other activities. A "critical habitat" designation gives the federal government no direct authority to regulate private land use, but it does require federal agencies to take the issue into account when making regulatory decisions about private development. The conflicts are becoming sharper as the needs of newly recognized endangered species are interfering more often with the demands of exurban development.

Much of the American anxiety about old age is a flight from the reality of death. One of the striking qualities of the American character is the unwillingness to face either the fact or meaning of death. In the more somber tradition of American literature—from Hawthorne and Melville and Poe to Faulkner and Hemingway—one finds a tragic depth that disguises the surface thinness of the ordinary American death attitudes. By an effort of the imagination, the great writers faced problems that the culture in action is reluctant to face—the fact of death, its mystery, and its place in the back-and-forth shuttling of the eternal recurrence. The unblinking confrontation of death in Greek time, the elaborate theological patterns woven around it in the Middle Ages, the ritual celebration of it in the rich, peasant cultures of Latin and Slavic Europe and in primitive cultures; these are difficult to find in American life. Whether through fear of the emotional depths, or because of a drying up of the floodgates of religious intensity, the American avoids dwelling on death or even coming to terms with it; he finds it morbid and moves back from it, surrounding it with word avoidance (Americans never die; they "pass away") and various taboos of speech and practice. A "funeral parlor" is decorated to look like a bank; everything in a funeral ceremony is done in hushed tones, as if it were something secret, to be concealed from the world; there is so much emphasis on being dignified that the ceremony often loses its quality: of dignity. In some of the primitive cultures, there is difficulty in under-standing the causes of death; it seems puzzling and even unintelligible. Living in a scientific culture, Americans have a ready enough explanation of how it comes, yet they show little capacity to come to terms with the fact of death itself and with the grief that accompanies it. "We jubilate over birth and dance at weddings," writes Margaret Mead, "but more and more deal with the death off the scene without ceremony, without an opportunity for young and old to realize that death is as much a fact of life as is birth." And one may add, even in its hurry and brevity, the last stage of an American"s life m the last occasion of this relation to his society—is as standardized as the rest.

More than two centuries after Benjamin Franklin used one to study lightning, a team of atmospheric scientists has found that kites are a potent research tool for studying air conditions at high altitudes. Ben Balsley and John Briks at the University of Colorado have developed a kite and instrument package to sample the atmosphere up to 3.5 kilometers high, for up to two days at a time. The kite is cheaper and more flexible than balloons and aircraft, the traditional vehicles for atmospheric research. Within two years the team expects to fly kites up to 10 kilometers high, and Briks hopes to use these to measure carbon dioxide and methane emissions over the Brazilian rainforest and the transport of air pollutants over the Atlantic Ocean. The kite is a 15-square-meter Para foil made of Mylar, which "is not only strong, but unlike nylon, Joes not absorb water. The kite "string" is made of Kevlar, famous for its use in bullet-proof vests, which is so strong that 6 kilometers of it weighs just 18 kilograms, yet can withstand a loading of 430 kilograms. The most innovative component of the system is the TRAM, or Tethered Rover for Atmospheric Measurements, which can move the sampling instruments "up and down the tether while the kite maintains a constant altitude. "Our instruments measure such things as temperature, pressure, humidity, and concentrations of ozone and other air pollutants," Beasley explains. "We need to get continuous measurements, over the course of days, from various altitudes. Conventional free balloon methods can sample such parameters, but they cannot stay in any one position, and are limited to altitudes of two kilometers. Aircraft can sample at any altitude, but they are very expensive to operate, and cannot remain in one position for more than four hours." The TRAM, which is actually a kite-like aerofoil connected by small wheels to the kite"s tether, can be operated from the ground. It will move up and down the tether, or maintain a given altitude while the instruments sample the air. "An important cost of balloon sampling is the instrument package, which typically costs about $1000, and is always lost." Basely says "Now we can use the instruments on the TRAM, and not only get more data, but reuse it again and again," The TRAM with its instruments, including the radiotelemetry link to the scientists on the ground, weighs 6 kilograms, including batteries that can power it for two days. Basely and his colleagues are continuing to improve the kite and TRMA, and expand its capacities, but Basely notes that it does have its limitations: "The kite can only lift about 10 kilograms, and this means the equipment"s power requirements must be low, too. We need locations with steady, relatively strong winds, and must also avoid air traffic."

The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. You are required to reorganize these paragraphs into a coherent article by choosing from the list A—I. Some paragraphs have been placed for you in boxes. (10 points)A. THINGS have not been going well for Sony lately. Last month senior executives at the Japanese electronics giant issued an unprecedented apology after discovering that 9.6m laptop batteries, supplied to other computer-makers, were faulty and would have to be recalled at a cost of $436m. Sony"s Blue-ray high-definition technology, launched this summer, has suffered from delays and component shortages. "They really need some good news", says Paul Jackson of Forrester, a consultancy.B. In gaming, Sony faces far stronger competition than it did when it launched the PlayStation 2 in 2000. The PS2 went on to sell over 100m units, giving Sony 70% of the market. But gaming is a cyclical business, and success in one round does not guarantee success in the next. Microsoft has already sold over 6m of its Xbox 360 consoles, launched a year ago, and expects to have sold 10m by the end of 2006. Manufacturing problems delayed the PS3"s launch from May and meant that only 93000 consoles were available for the Japanese launch, Sony hopes to sell 2m by the end of the year, but even if it does so, it will start the race in third place.C. Yet it will be some time before it is possible to tell whether the PS3 can rescue Sony. Beneath the short-term troubles, the company is playing a long game. Sony is betting that the PS3"s advanced technology will sustain the company for a decade by extending the PlayStation franchise beyond gaming.D. Finally, the PS3 is a litmus test for Sir Howard"s turnaround effort, one of the aims of which is to get Sony"s various divisions to co-operate more fully. Sony has improved margins in its electronics business and reduced headcount by 10,000 ahead of schedule. Sir Howard even suggested this week that the battery fiasco had helped by making it easier for him to convince doubters within Sony of the need to change.E. Sony needs the PS3 to succeed for three reasons: to maintain its lucrative dominance of the games industry; to seed the market for Blue-ray and establish Sony in the emerging market for internet video downloads; and to demonstrate that the turnaround being led by Howard Stringer, who took over as chief executive in 2005, is working and that Sony"s gaming, electronics and content divisions really can work together. Despite the enthusiasm of the PS3"s early buyers, success in each of these areas is far from assured.F. American regulators began investigating the company last month as part of an inquiry into allegations of price-fixing in the memory-chip market. And having brag been the world"s most valuable electronics firm by stockmarket value, Sony"s market capitalisation has fallen to less than half that of Samsung, its South Korean rival.G. So a lot is riding on the PlayStation 3 (PS3), the latest incarnation of Sony"s industry-leading games console, which was launched with much fanfare in Japan on November 11th. At the Yurakucho flagship store of Bic Camera, one of Japan"s largest electronics retailers, hundreds of garners queued through a cold night. Ken Kutaragi, who runs Sony"s gaming division, was there to welcome them in the morning.H. The PS3 is also meant to ensure that Blue-ray triumphs over HD-DVD as the high-definition successor to the DVD video format. The idea is that millions of PS3s bought by garners will seed the market for Blue-ray, providing it with critical mass and ensuring that Hollywood studios, which are reluctant to back two rival standards, plump for Blue-ray over HD-DVD. But instead of riding the PS3 as a Trojan horse, Blue-ray has instead hobbled it by increasing its price and delaying its introduction.I. So a few teething problems in the early days are nothing to worry about; besides, the PS2 was also criticised for being expensive, over-engineered and unreliable when it first appeared. But having achieved 70% market share last time around, Sony is certain to lose ground this time. The only question is how much.Order: A is the first paragraph, H is the fifth and I is the last.

The mass media is a big part of our culture, yet it can also be a helper, adviser and teacher to our young generation. The mass media affects the lives of our young by acting as a(n) 【C1】______for a number of institutions and social contacts. In this way, it 【C2】______a variety of functions in human life. The time spent in front of the television screen is usually at the 【C3】______of leisure: there is less time for games, amusement and rest. 【C4】______ by what is happening on the screen, children not only imitate what they see but directly【C5】______ themselves with different characters. Americans have been concerned about the 【C6】______of violence in the media and its【C7】______ harm to children and adolescents for at least forty years. During this period, new media【C8】______, such as video games, cable television, music videos, and the Internet. As they continue to gain popularity, these media, 【C9】______television, 【C10】______public concern and research attention. Another large societal concern on our young generation【C11】______by the media, is body image. 【C12】______forces can influence body image positively or negatively. 【C13】______ one, societal and cultural norms and mass media marketing【C14】______our concepts of beauty. In the mass media, the images of 【C15】______beauty fill magazines and newspapers, 【C16】______from our televisions and entertain us【C17】______the movies. Even in advertising, the mass media【C18】______on accepted cultural values of thinness and fitness for commercial gain. Young adults are presented with a 【C19】______defined standard of attractiveness, a (n) 【C20】______that carries unrealistic physical expectations.

Sir Richard Friend is a tough man to track down. Phone calls to his two labs at Cambridge University go unanswered, and so do e-mails. In the end, a reporter has to leave a note in his campus pigeonhole. The elusive Friend is the unlikely instigator of what may be a revolution in electronics: plastics. (46) Although most electronic devices make use of silicon chips, Friend sees a future in which mobile phones, TVs, watches, computers and other devices incorporate inexpensive plastic chips. (47) Friend"s vision is based on his own discoveries, back in the "80s and "90s, that plastics can be used to make transistors, the basic element of chips, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which glow when electricity passes through them. His work has already yielded a new generation of lighter, thinner, brighter, cheaper and more flexible electronic screens for everything from lightweight mobile phones to disposable "talking" electronic greeting cards. (48) Now he"s working on devices that might bring us talking cereal boxes or advertising posters that light up and speak as you walk by. The materials might even be spray-painted onto walls that change color with the weather, or go into pillboxes that tell you when to take your medication. It sounds farfetched, but the basic technology is already at hand, E-books with flexible screens that can be rolled up and put into your pocket should start appearing in the next few years. (49) And plastic chips, which can be laid onto almost any surface, could be printed—just as ink is printed onto paper—onto any number of flexible surfaces. General Electric is working with the Department of Energy—to create large flexible sheets that could illuminate a room. If you think everything is digital now, just wait. (50) "Products in your fridge tagged with a chip would automatically change color after their sell-by date", says Peter Harrop, chairman of market-research firm IDTechEx. For his Cambridge students, Sir Richard has one word of advice: plastics.

Do you remember all those years when scientists argued that smoking would kill us but the doubters insisted that we didn't know for sure? That the evidence was inconclusive, the science uncertain? That the antismoking lobby was out to destroy our way of life and the government should stay out of the way? Lots of Americans bought that nonsense, and over three decades, some 10 million smokers went to early graves. There are upsetting parallels today, as scientists in one wave after another try to awaken us to the growing threat of global warming. The latest was a panel from the National Academy of Sciences, enlisted by the White House, to tell us that the Earth' s atmosphere is definitely warming and that the problem is largely man-made. The clear message is that we should get moving to protect ourselves. The president of the National Academy, Bruce Alberts, added this key point in the preface to the panel' s report: "Science never has all the answers. But science does provide us with the best available guide to the future, and it is critical that our nation and the world base important policies on the best judgments that science can provide concerning the future consequences of present actions." Just as on smoking, voices now come from many quarters insisting that the science about global warming is incomplete, that it' s OK to keep pouring fumes into the air until we know for sure. This is a dangerous game: by the time 100 percent of the evidence is in, it may be too late. With the risks obvious and growing, a prudent people would take out an insurance policy now. Fortunately, the White House is starting to pay attention. But it's obvious that a majority of the president's advisers still don't take global warming seriously. Instead of a plan of action, they continue to press for more research—a classic case of " paralysis by analysis ". To serve as responsible stewards of the planet, we must press forward on deeper atmospheric and oceanic research. But research alone is inadequate. If the Administration won't take the legislative initiative, Congress should help to begin fashioning conservation measures. A bill by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, which would offer financial incentives for private industry, is a promising start. Many see that the country is getting ready to build lots of new power plants to meet our energy needs. If we are ever going to protect the atmosphere, it is crucial that those new plants be environmentally sound.

TwistedEducationWriteanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthedrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.

【F1】 For more than two decades, U.S. courts have been limiting affirmative-action programs in universities and other areas. The legal rationale is that racial preferences are unconstitutional, even those intended to compensate for racism or intolerance. For many colleges, this means students can be admitted only on merit, not on their race or ethnicity. It has been a divisive issue across the U.S., as educators blame the prolonged reaction to affirmative-action for declines in minority admissions. Meanwhile, activists continue to battle race preferences in courts from Michigan to North Carolina. 【F2】 Now, chief executives of about two dozen companies have decided to plunge headfirst into this politically unsettled debate. They, together with 36 universities and 7 nonprofitable organizations, formed a forum that set forth an action plan essentially designed to help colleges circumvent court-imposed restrictions on affirmative action. The CEOs' motive: "Our audience is growing more diverse, so the communities we serve benefit if our employees are racially and ethnically diverse as well", says one CEO of a company that owns nine television stations. Among the steps the forum is pushing: finding creative yet legal ways to boost minority enrollment through new admissions policies; promoting admissions decisions that look at more than test scores; and encouraging universities to step up their minority outreach and financial aid.【F3】 And to counter accusations by critics to challenge these tactics in court, the group says it will give legal assistance to colleges sued for trying them." Diversity diminished by the court must be made up for in other legitimate, legal ways," says a forum member. One of the more controversial methods advocated is the so-called 10% rule.【F4】 The idea is for public universities—which educate three-quarters of all U.S. undergraduates—to admit students who are in the top 10% of their high school graduating class. 【F5】 Doing so allows colleges to take minorities who excel in average urban schools, even if they wouldn' t have made the cut under the current statewide ranking many universities use.

Europeans and Americans alike have certain romantic notions about Sweden. We imagine it as a land of liberal-minded people living in a bastion of equality—which, in many ways, it is. Sweden has the second highest number of female parliamentarians "in the world. Half its government ministers are women. Its wage gap is narrow, and females are well represented in the labor force. Both the United Nations and the World Economic Forum have rated it tops in the world for equality. But no paradise is without its paradoxes. In Sweden, the biggest one is this: while the government has done much to improve the lives of women, it has also created a glass ceiling for them that is thicker than that in many other European countries, as well as in the United States. While state funded child care and extremely long and cushy maternity benefits make it easy to be a working mother in Sweden, such benefits also have the effect of dampening female employment in the most lucrative and powerful jobs. In Sweden, more than 50 percent of women who work do so in the public sector—most as teachers, nurses, civil servants, home health aides or child minders, according to the OECD. Compare this to about 30 percent in the U.K. and 19.5 percent in America. "Private-sector employers are less willing to deal with the disruption caused by very long maternity leaves," says Manuela Tomei, a labor sociologist with the International Labor Organization in Geneva. "Gender discrimination in Sweden may be more subtle, but it is very much there." The link between family-friendly policies and female employment are a hot topic all over the developed world, as birthrates fall and a shortage of skilled labor looms. Europeans have looked to the Nordic countries as a model—longer maternity leaves and state-funded child care must make it easier for women to have careers, or so the conventional wisdom goes. And indeed the system does make it easier for women to hold lower-to-mid level jobs and have children. But as London School of Economics fellow Catherine Hakim notes, policies that raise the birthrate "don"t necessarily translate into complete gender equality, particularly in the private sector". Swedish women are unlikely to hold important managerial positions. A study by former ILO economist Richard Anker using data from 2000 found that while women in the United States held 45.3 percent of managerial positions, their Swedish counter-parts held only 29.2 percent (Britons held 33 percent, Germans 27 percent and Danes 23 percent). And, while the average wage gap between the genders in Sweden is narrow (about 15 percent), it can exceed 40 percent in high-end jobs. And while the gap is closing in other countries, it has held steady in Sweden for most of the last decade.

"We mustn"t delay any longer…, swallowing is difficult...and breathing, that"s also difficult. Those muscles are weakening too…, we mustn"t delay any longer." These were the words of Dutchman. Cees Van Wendel de Joode asking his doctor to help him die. Affected with a serious disease, Van Wendel was no longer able to speak clearly and he knew there was no hope of recovery and that his condition was rapidly deteriorating. Van Wendel"s last three months of life before being given a final, lethal injection by his doctor were filmed and first shown on television last year in the Netherlands. The programme has since been bought by 20 countries and each time it is shown, it starts a nationwide debate on the subject. The Netherlands is the only country in Europe which permits euthanasia, although it is not technically legal there. However, doctors who carry out euthanasia under strict guidelines introduced by the Dutch Parliament two years ago are usually not prosecuted. The guidelines demand that the patient is experiencing extreme suffering, that there is no chance of a cure, and that the patient has made repeated requests for euthanasia. In addition to this, a second doctor must confirm that these criteria have been met and the death must be reported to the police department. Should doctors be allowed to take the lives of others? Dr. Wilfred Van Oijen, Cees Van Wendel"s doctor, explains how he looks at the question: "Well, it"s not as if I"m planning to murder a crowd of people with a machine gun. In that case, killing is the worst thing I can imagine. But that"s entirely different from my work as a doctor. I care for people and I try to ensure that they don"t suffer too much. That"s a very different thing." Many people, though, are totally against the practice of euthanasia. Dr. Andrew Ferguson, Chairman of the organization Healthcare Opposed to Euthanasia, says that "In the vast majority of euthanasia cases, what the patient is actually asking for is something else. They may want a health professional to open up communication for them with their loved ones or family—there"s nearly always another question behind the question." Britain also has a strong tradition of hospices—special hospital which care only for the dying and their special needs. Cicely Saunders, president of the National Hospice Council and a founder member of the hospice movement, argues that euthanasia doesn"t take into account that there are ways of caring for the dying. She is also concerned that allowing euthanasia would undermine the need for care and consideration of a wide range of people: It"s very easy in society now for the elderly, the disabled and the dependent to feel that they are burdens, and therefore that they ought to opt out. I think that anything that legally allows the shortening of life does make those people more vulnerable." Many find this prohibition of an individual"s right to die paternalistic. Although they agree that life is important and should be respected, they feel that the quality of life should not be ignored. Dr. Van Oijen believes that people have the fundamental fight to choose for themselves if they want" to die: "What those people who oppose euthanasia are telling me is that dying people haven"t the right. And that when people are very ill, we are all afraid of their death. But there are situations where death is a friend. And in those cases, why not?" But "why not?" is a question which might cause strong emotion. The film showing Cees Van Wendel"s death was both moving and sensitive. His doctor was clearly a family friend; his wife had only her husband"s interests at heart. Some, however, would argue that it would be dangerous to use this particular example to support the-case for euthanasia. Not all patients would receive such a high level of individual care and attention.

For a long time, researchers have tried to nail down just what shapes us—or what, at least, shapes us most. And over the years, they"ve had a lot of finding moments. First it was our parents, particularly our mothers. Then it was our genes. Next it was our peers, who show up last but hold great sway. And all those ideas were good ones—but only as far as they went. The fact is once investigators had exposed all the data from those theories, they still came away with as many questions as answers. Somewhere, there was a sort of temperamental dark matter exerting an invisible gravitational pull of its own. More and more, scientists are concluding that this un explained force is our siblings. From the time they are born, our brothers and sisters are our collaborators and coconspirators, our role models and cautionary tales. They are our scolds, protectors, goads, tormentors, playmates, counselors, sources of envy, objects of pride. They teach us how to resolve conflicts and how not to; how to conduct friendships and when to walk away from them. Sisters teach brothers about the mysteries of girls; brothers teach sisters about the puzzle of boys. Our spouses arrive comparatively late in our lives; our parents eventually leave us. Our siblings may be the only people we"ll ever know who truly qualify as partners for life. "Siblings," says family sociologist Katherine Conger, "are with us for the whole journey." Within the scientific community, siblings have not been wholly ignored, but research has been limited mostly to discussions of birth order. Older sibs were said to be strivers; younger ones rebels; middle kids the lost souls. The stereotypes were broad, if not entirely untrue, and there the discussion mostly ended. But all that"s changing. At research centers in the U.S., Canada, Europe and elsewhere, investigators are launching a wealth of new studies into the sibling dynamic, looking at ways brothers and sisters steer one another into—or away from—risky behavior; how they form a protective buffer against family upheaval; how they educate one another about the opposite sex; how all siblings compete for family recognition and come to terms over such impossibly charged issues as parental favoritism. From that research, scientists are gaining intriguing insights into the people we become as adults. Does the manager who runs a congenial office call on the peacemaking skills learned in the family playroom? Do husbands and wives benefit from the inter-gender negotiations they waged when their most important partners were their sisters and brothers? All that is under investigation. "Sib lings have just been off the radar screen until now," says Conger. But today serious work is revealing exactly how our brothers and sisters influence us.