单选题There were some consistent patterns among the heavier readers: For the younger children—ages 6 to 11—being read aloud to regularly and having restricted online time were correlated with frequent reading; for the older children—ages 12 to 17—one of the largest predictors was whether they had time to read on their own during the school day. The finding about reading aloud to children long after toddlerhood may come as a surprise to some parents who read books to children at bedtime when they were very young but then tapered off. Last summer, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced a new policy recommending that all parents read to their children from birth. "A lot of parents assume that once kids begin to read independently, that now that is the best thing for them to do," said Maggie McGuire, the vice president for a website for parents operated by Scholastic. But reading aloud through elementary school seemed to be connected to a love of reading generally. According to the report, 41 percent of frequent readers ages 6 to 10 were read aloud to at home, while only 13 percent of infrequent readers were being read to. Of course, children who love to read are generally immersed in households with lots of books and parents who like to read. So while parents who read to their children later in elementary school may encourage those children to become frequent readers on their own, such behavior can also result from "a whole constellation of other things that goes on in those families," said Timothy Shanahan, a past president of the International Reading Association. There is not yet strong research that connects reading aloud at older ages to improved reading comprehension. But some literacy experts said that when parents or teachers read aloud to children even after they can read themselves, the children can hear more complex words or stories than they might tackle themselves. "It"s this idea of marinating children in higher-level vocabulary," said Pare Allyn, founder of LitWorld.Org, a nonprofit group that works to increase literacy among young people. "The read-aloud can really lift the child." Other literacy experts say the real value of reading to children is helping to develop background knowledge in all kinds of topics as well as exposure to sophisticated language.

单选题 I had an experience some years ago which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One january, I had to officiate at two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community. Both had died "full of years," as the bible would say; both yielded to the normal wearing out of the body after a long and full life. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence (吊唁) calls on the two families on the same afternoon. At the first home, the son of the deceased (已故的) woman said to me, "if only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold snow, she would be alive today. It's my fault that she died. " At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, "if only I hadn't insisted on my mother's going to Florida, she would be alive today. That long airplane ride, the abrupt change of climate, was more than she could take. It's my fault that she's dead. " When things don't turn out as we would like them to, it is very tempting to assume that had we done things differently, the story would have had a happier ending. Priests know that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out badly, they believe that the opposite course-keeping mother at home, postponing the operation—would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse? There seem to be two elements involved in our readiness to feel guilt. The first is our pressing need to believe That the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens. That leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds. The second element is the notion that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believing that every disaster is our fault. The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood. Psychologists speak of the infantile myth of omnipotence (万能). A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to its tasks. He cries, and someone comes to attend to him. When he is hungry, people feed him, and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely outgrow that infantile notion that our wishes cause things to happen.

单选题Latino youths need better education for Arizona to take full advantage of the possibilities their exploding population offers. Arizona"s fast-growing Latino population offers the state tremendous promise and a challenge. Even more than the aging of the baby boomers, the Latino boom is fundamentally reorienting the state"s economic and social structure. Immigration and natural increase have added 600,000 young Latino residents to the state"s population in the past decade. Half of the population younger than 18 in both Phoenix and Tucson is now Latino. Within 20 years, Latinos will make up half of the homegrown entry-level labor pool in the state"s two largest labor markets. What is more, Hispanics are becoming key economic players. Most people don"t notice it, but Latinos born in Arizona make up much of their immigrant parents" economic and educational, deficits. For example, second-generation Mexican-Americans secure an average of 12 grades of schooling where their parents obtained less than nine. That means they erase 70 percent of their parents" lag behind third-generation non-Hispanic Whites in a single generation. All of this hands the state a golden opportunity. At a time when many states will struggle with labor shortages because of modest population growth, Arizona has a priceless chance to build a populous, hardworking and skilled workforce on which to base future prosperity. The problem is that Arizona and its Latino residents may not be able to seize this opportunity. Far too many of Arizona"s Latinos drop out of high school or fail to obtain the basic education needed for more advanced study. As a result, educational deficits are holding back many Latinos—and the state as well. To be sure, construction and low-end service jobs continue to absorb tens of thousands of Latino immigrants with little formal education. But over the long term, most of Arizona"s Latino citizens remain ill-prepared to prosper in an increasingly demanding knowledge economy. For the reason, the educational uplift of Arizona"s huge Latino population must move to the center of the state"s agenda. After all, the education deficits of Arizona"s Latino population will severely cramp the fortunes of hardworking people if they go unaddressed and could well undercut the state"s ability to compete in the new economy. At the entry level, slower growth rates may create more competition for low-skill jobs, displacing Latinos from a significant means of support. At the higher end, shortages of Latinos educationally ready to move up will make it much harder for knowledge-based companies staff to get high-skill positions.

单选题Amazon today unveiled Dash Buttons, an easy way for customers to 1 select bulk goods 2 an internet-connected button, and yesterday 3 Home Services, an on-demand installation and handyman service. Combined, they show that the e-commerce giant has a clear understanding of how the Internet-of-things will 4 its business. And it isn"t going to be shy about capitalizing on connectivity to build its bottom line. Dash Buttons are an adaptation of Amazon"s 5 -controlled Dash ordering system that lets people speak to order new 6 items. So 7 Amazon has is a retrofit strategy for connecting smart appliances to its e-commerce operations and a future-facing strategy for the coming flood of 8 devices. And all of this is geared around making buying products from Amazon as easy as possible. The 9 of one-button tasks are appealing, 10 it could lead to a 11 of packages ending up at people"s doors if Amazon doesn"t try to 12 waste on its end, by grouping shipments together when possible. People on Twitter seem mostly 13 about pets and small children playing with the Dash Buttons and ordering multiples of their Kraft Macaroni and Cheese boxes, although Amazon notes that 14 the button is pressed more than once, the order doesn"t go 15 on the second time, and you"ll get a smartpbone notification about it. Amazon also recently launched Home Services, following up on last year"s opening of a home automation e-store devoted to connected gadgets for the home—many of which require a 16 in staller. So now Amazon can sell these devices along with the person who can install them. It also is 17 on maintenance, via a network of service providers that it can call 18 for its network of suppliers or for its own planned connected home play. With Dash, it"s 19 an offensive play to 20 up more sales as devices come online. With Amazon Home Services, it"s making a defensive play as other large companies try to become more vertically integrated.

单选题 It looked just like another aircraft from the outside. The pilot told his young passengers that it was built in 1964.But appearances were deceptive, and the 13 students from Europe and the USA who boarded the aircraft were in for the flight of their lives. Inside, the area that normally had seats had become a long white tunnel. Heavily padded (填塞) from floor to ceiling, it looked a bit strange. There were almost no windows, but lights along the padded walls illuminated it. Most of the seats had been taken out, apart from a few at the back, where the young scientists quickly took their places with a look of fear. For 12 months, science students from across the continents had competed to win a place on the flight at the invention of the European Space Agency. The challenge had been to suggest imaginative experiments to be conducted in weightless conditions. For the next two hours, the flight resembled that of an enormous bird which had lost its reason, shooting upwards towards the heavens before rushing towards Earth. The invention was to achieve weightlessness for a few seconds. The aircraft took off smoothly enough, but any feelings that I and the young scientists had that we were on anything like a scheduled passenger service were quickly dismissed when the pilot put the plane into a 45—degree climb which lasted around 20 seconds. Then the engines cut out and we became weightless. Everything became confused and left or right, up or down no longer had any meaning. After ten seconds of free-fall descent (下降) the pilot pulled the aircraft out of its nosedive. The return of gravity was less immediate than its loss, but was still sudden enough to ensure that some students came down with a bump. Each time the pilot cut the engines and we became weightless, a new team conducted its experiment. First it was the Dutch who wanted to discover how it is that cats always land on their feet. Then the German team who conducted a successful experiment on a traditional building method to see if it could be used for building a future space station. The Americans had an idea to create solar sails that could be used by satellites. After two hours of going up and down in the lane doing their experiments, the predominant feeling was one of excitement rather than sickness. Most of the students thought it was an unforgettable experience and one they would be keen to repeat.

单选题 As a wise man once said, we are all ultimately alone. But an increasing number of Europeans are choosing to be so at an ever earlier age. This isn't the stuff of gloomy philosophical contemplations, but a fact of Europe's new economic landscape, embraced by sociologists, real-estate developers and ad executives alike. The shift away from family life to solo lifestyle, observes a French sociologist, is part of the "irresistible momentum of individualism" over the last century. The communications revolution, the shift form a business culture of stability to one of mobility and the mass entry of women into the workforce have greatly wreaked havoc (扰乱) Europeans' private lives. Europe's new economic climate has largely fostered the trend toward independence. The current generation of home-aloners came of age during Europe's shift form social democracy to the sharper, more individualistic climate of American-style capitalism. Raised in an era of privatization and increased consumer choice, today's tech-savvy (精通技术的) workers have embraced a free and temperamentally independent enough to want to do so. Once upon a time, people who lived alone tended to be those on either side of marriage-twenty something professionals or widowed senior citizens. While pensioners, particularly elderly women, make up a large proportion of those living alone, the newest crop of singles are high earners in their 30s and 40s who increasingly view living alone as a lifestyle choice. Living alone was conceived to be negative— dark and cold, while being together suggested warmth and light. But then came along the idea of singles. They were young, beautiful, strong ! Now, young people want to live alone. The booming economy means people are working harder than ever. And that doesn't leave much room for relationships. Pimpi Arroyo, a 35-year-old composer who lives alone in a house in Paris, says he hasn't got time to get lonely because he has too much work. "I have deadlines which would make life with someone else fairly difficult. " Only an Ideal Woman would make him change his lifestyle, he says. Kaufann, author of a recent book called "The Single Woman and Prince Charming", thinks this fierce new individualism means that people expect more and more of mates, so relationships don't last long—if they start at all. Eppendorf, a blond Berliner with a dee tan teaches grade school in the mornings. In the afternoon she sunbathes or sleeps, resting up for going dancing. Just shy of 50, she says she'd never have wanted to do what her mother did—give up a career to raise a family. Instead, "I've always done what I wanted to do: live a self-determined life. "

单选题As a wise man once said, we are all ultimately alone. But an increasing number of Europeans are choosing to be so at an ever earlier age. This isn"t the stuff of gloomy philosophical contemplations, but a fact of Europe"s new economic landscape, embraced by sociologists, realestate developers and ad executives alike. The shift away from family life to solo lifestyle, observes a French sociologist, is part of the "irresistible momentum of individualism" over the last century. The communications revolution, the shift from a business culture of stability to one of mobility and the mass entry of women into the workforce have greatly wreaked havoc on Europeans private lives. Europe"s new economic climate has largely fostered the trend toward independence. The current generation of home-aloners came of age during Europe"s shift from social democracy to the sharper, more individualistic climate of American-style capitalism. Raised in an era of privatization and increased consumer choice, today"s tech-savvy workers have embraced a free market in love as well as economics. Modem Europeans are rich enough to afford to live alone, and temperamentally independent enough to want to do so. Once upon a time, people who lived alone tended to be those on either side of marriage twenty something professionals or widowed senior citizens. While pensioners, particularly elderly women, make up a large proportion of those living alone, the newest crop of singles are high earners in their 30s and 40s who increasingly view living alone as a lifestyle choice. Living alone was conceived to be negative—dark and cold, while being together suggested warmth and light. But then came along the idea of singles. They were young, beautiful, strong! Now, young people want to live alone. The booming economy means people are working harder than ever. And that doesn"t leave much room for relationships. Pimpi Arroyo, a 35-year-old composer who lives alone in a house in Paris, says he hasn"t got time to get lonely because he has too much work. "I have deadlines which would make life with someone else fairly difficult." Only an Ideal Woman would make him change his lifestyle, he says. Kaufmann, author of a recent book called "The Single Woman and Prince Chaming" thinks this fierce new individualism means that people expect more and more of mates, so relationships don"t last long—if they start at all. Eppendorf, a blond Berliner with a deep tan, teaches grade school in the mornings. In the afternoon she sunbathes or sleeps, resting up for going dancing. Just shy of 50, she says she"d never have wanted to do what her mother did—give up a career to raise a family. Instead, "I"ve always done what I wanted to do: live a self-determined life."

单选题Like a tired marriage, the relationship between libraries and publishers has long been reassuringly dull. E-books, however, are causing heartache. Libraries know they need digital wares if they are to remain valuable, but many publishers are too wary of piracy and lost sales to co-operate. Among the big six, only Random House and HarperCollins license e-books with most libraries. The others have either denied requests or are reluctantly experimenting. In August, for example, Penguin will start a pilot with public libraries in New York. Electronic borrowing is awfully convenient. Unlike printed books, which must be checked out and returned to a physical library miles from where you live, electronic book files can be downloaded at home. Digital library catalogues are often browsed at night, from a comfy sofa. The files disappear from the device when they are due (which means no late fees, nor angst about lost or damaged tomes). E-lending is not simple, however. There are lots of different and often incompatible e-book formats, devices and licences. Most libraries use a company called OverDrive, a global distributor that secures rights from publishers and provides e-books and audio files in every format. Some 35 million titles were checked out through OverDrive in 2011, and the company now sends useful data on borrowing behavior to participating publishers. Yet publishers and libraries are worried by Over-Drive"s market dominance, as the company can increasingly dictate fees and conditions. Publishers were miffed when OverDrive teamed up with Amazon, the world"s biggest online bookseller, last year. Owners of Amazon"s Kindle e-reader who want to borrow e-books from libraries are now redirected to Amazon"s website, where they must use their Amazon account to secure a loan. Amazon then follows up with library patrons directly, letting them know they can "Buy this book" when the loan falls due. So publishers keep tweaking their lending arrangements in search of the right balance. Random House raised its licensing prices earlier this year, and HarperCollins limits libraries to lending its titles 26 times. Penguin plans to keep new releases out of libraries for at least six months, and each book will expire after a year. Hachette is engaged in some secret experiments, and the others are watching with bated breath. In Britain the government will soon announce a review of the matter. The story of the library e-book is a nail-biter.

单选题Directions: There are 20 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices marked A, B, C or D on the right side of the paper. You should choose the ONE that best fits into the passage. Research on animal intelligence always makes me wonder just how smart humans are. {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}the fruit-fly experiments described in Carl Zimmer's piece in the Science Times on Tuesday. Fruit flies who were taught to be smarter than the average fruit fly {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}to live shorter lives. This suggests that {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}bulbs burn longer, that there is an {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}in not being too terrifically bright. Intelligence, it {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}, is a high-priced option. It takes more upkeep, burns more fuel and is slow {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}the starting line because it depends on learuing—a {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}process—instead of instinct. Plenty of other species are able to learn, and one of the things they've apparently learned is when to {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}. Is there an adaptive value to {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}intelligence? That's the question behind this new research. I like it. Instead of casting a wistful glance, {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}at all the species we've left in the dust I. Q. -wise, it implicitly asks what the real {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}of our own intelligence might be. This is {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}the mind of every animal I've ever met. Research on animal intelligence also makes me wonder what experiments animals would {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}on humans if they had the chance. Every cat with an owner, {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}, is running a small-scale study in operant conditioning. We believe that {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}animals ran the labs, they would test us to {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}the limits of our patience, our faithfulness, our memory for terrain. They would try to decide what intelligence in humans is really {{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}, not merely how much of it there is. {{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}, they would hope to study a {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}question: Are humans actually aware of the world they live in? {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}the results are inconclusive.

单选题Anonymity is not something which was invented with the Internet. Anonymity and pseudonymity has occurred throughout history. For example, William Shakespeare is probably a pseudonym, and the real name of this 1 author is not known and will probably never be known. Anonymity has been used for many purposes. A well-known person may use a pseudonym to write messages, where the person does not want people"s 2 of the real author 3 their perception of the message. Also other people may want to 4 certain information about themselves in order to achieve a more 5 evaluation of their messages. A case in point is that in history it has been 6 that women used male pseudonyms, and for Jews to use pseudonyms in societies where their 7 was persecuted. Anonymity is often used to protect the 8 of people, for example when reporting results of a scientific study, when describing individual cases. Many countries even have laws which protect anonymity in certain circumstances. For instance, a person may, in many countries, consult a priest, doctor or lawyer and 9 personal information which is protected. In some 10 , for example confession in catholic churches, the confession booth is specially 11 to allow people to consult a priest, 12 seeing him face to face. The anonymity in 13 situations is however not always 100%. Ira person tells a lawyer that he plans a 14 crime, some countries allow or even 15 that the lawyer tell the 16 . The decision to do so is not easy, since people who tell a priest or a psychologist that they plan a crime, may often do this to 17 their feeling more than their real intention. Many countries have laws protecting the anonymity of tip-offs to newspapers. It is regarded as 18 that people can give tips to newspapers about abuse, even though they are dependent 19 the organization they are criticizing and do not dare reveal their real name. Advertisement in personal sections in newspapers are also always signed by a pseudonym for 20 reasons.

单选题Cars account for half the oil consumed in the U.S., about half the urban pollution and one fourth the greenhouse (温室) gases. They take a similar toll of (损耗) resources in other industrial nations and in the cities of the developing world. As vehicle use continues to increase in the coming decade, the U.S. and other countries will have to deal with these issues or else face unacceptable economic, health-related and political costs. It is unlikely that oil prices will remain at their current low level or that other nations will accept a large and growing U.S. contribution to global climatic change. Policymakers and industry have four solutions: reduce vehicle use, increase the efficiency and reduce the emissions of conventional gasoline-powered vehicles, switch to less harmful fuels, or find less polluting driving systems. The last of these—in particular the introduction of vehicles powered by electricity—is ultimately the only sustainable option. The other alternatives are attractive in theory but in practice are either impractical or offer only marginal improvements. For example, reduced vehicle use could solve traffic problems and a host of social and environmental problems, but evidence from around the world suggests that it is very difficult to make people give up their cars to any significant extent. In the U.S., mass-transit ridership and carpooling (合伙用车) have declined since World War Ⅱ. Even in Western Europe, with fuel prices averaging more than $1 a liter (about $4 a gallon) and with easily accessible mass transit and dense populations, cars still account for 80 percent of all passenger travel. Improved energy efficiency is also appealing, but automotive fuel economy has barely made any progress in 10 years. Alternative fuels such as natural gas, burned in internal-combustion engines, could be introduced at relatively low cost, but they would lead to only marginal reductions in pollution and greenhouse emissions (especially because oil companies are already spending billions of dollars every year to develop less polluting types of gasoline).

单选题Once inside the retail location, the shopper receives continuous messages at three levels. Store atmosphere is the overall setting of the store, its design, lighting, fixture, color, and sound. These are developed to convey a mood or feeling that separates the store from others that sell similar merchandise. The more similar the product offerings of competitors, the more important it is to create a unique environment. By going into any large shopping mall and walking from one clothing store to another, a shopper can easily experience atmosphere differences. One store will be brightly lit with colorful plastic racks and wails. Another will be in seeming disarray, with loud rock music and strobe lights (闪光灯). A third will have a wood décor, soft lights, and soft music. Each type of atmosphere is aimed at a particular target market, and each serves as a screen to tell shoppers whether or not they will feel comfortable in the store and what type of merchandise they might expect. "Establishing a mood of shopping ambiance has never been more important than it is now," says Lois Patrich, vice president of sales promotion and advertising with Carson Pirie Scott ＆ Co., a Chicago-based retailer. "Department stores have always had an advantage of merchandise that you can get at any store. How then does a retail get a customer to buy at his store? By creating a shopping atmosphere that will motivate him to buy and one that he wants to come back to." Store layout is the arrangement of merchandise to facilitate shopping. The layout tells consumers how to proceed through the store and what pace is expected. An open layout invites shoppers to browse. A cluttered layout sends a signal of business and rushing. An effective layout maximizes customer exposure to merchandise and keeps the customer in the store longer. Studies show that the longer the customer is in the store, the more money is spent. The layout also should have the high-margin merchandise in the high-traffic areas and the most desired merchandise in the back so that consumers must walk past many other goods. In a supermarket, for example, the meats, dairy products, and produce have the greatest constant demand and are placed at the perimeters so shoppers will need to pass other products to get to them. Merchandise display refers to the organization of goods at a specific place in the store"s layout. Displays communicate at still another level to attract attention to the product, enhance product appeal, and increase the shopper"s propensity to purchase. While the tasks might lead the display design in one direction, the display also needs to be consistent with the store"s atmosphere.

单选题Kelly Sortino had a tough time recalling what she"d accomplished at the end of each busy workday. Her job as head of the upper school for the Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough, Calif., often 1 working 12-hour days, including weekends and evenings. She enjoyed the 2 but worried that she wasn"t accomplishing everything she needed to. "I felt as if I wasn"t really having the time to do more of the strategic and 3 work to make those larger changes at the school." says Ms. Sortino. She decided to 4 a workshop at Stanford University on how to simplify work processes and reduce waste. She learned, 5 , to block out her time more efficiently and minimize distractions. She also 6 herself to systematically completing her daily task list and to completely clearing her email inbox and workspace on a regular 7 . The changes 8 a marked improvement in her time management. Ms. Sortino 9 works on weekends, but only as needed. It"s a tough time to be productive. Globalization, increased competition and the jarring immediacy of technology have made it difficult for modern employees to 10 on top of their growing workloads while maintaining a good work-life balance. 11 , experts say small adjustments to how employees 12 work can have a big impact on their workplace efficiency. Learn to prioritize and to commit yourself to working in 13 blocks of time throughout the day. A 2009 Stanford University study found that multitasking is less productive than single-tasking and that many self-proclaimed multitaskers have difficulty 14 out irrelevant information, further 15 their performance. It"s especially important to 16 what motivates the decisions your boss makes. Most subordinates have an employee-centric view 17 their managers, which tends not to be accurate. A better understanding of your boss can help you to "sell" the advice about 18 changes that can benefit the department and company. 19 with your boss to prioritize important work and eliminate unproductive tasks. Employees may think changing job functions is risky, 20 being proactive can impress your boss.

单选题Women are moody. By evolutionary design, we are hard-wired to be sensitive to our environments, empathic to our children"s needs and intuitive of our partners" intentions. This is basic to our survival and that of our offspring. Some research suggests that women are often better at articulating their feelings than men because as the female brain develops, more capacity is reserved for language, memory, hearing and observing emotions in others. These are observations rooted in biology, not intended to mesh with any kind of pro- or anti-feminist ideology. But they do have social implications. Women"s emotionality is a sign of health, not disease; it is a source of power. But we are under constant pressure to restrain our emotional lives. We have been taught to apologize for our tears, to suppress our anger and to fear being called hysterical. The pharmaceutical industry plays on that fear, targeting women in a barrage of advertising on daytime talk shows and in magazines. More Americans are on psychiatric medications than ever before, and in my experience they are staying on them far longer than was ever intended. Sales of an tidepressants and antianxiety meds have been booming in the past two decades, and they"ve recently been outpaced by an antipsychotic, Abilify, that is the No. 1 seller among all drugs in the United States, not just psychiatric ones. At least one in four women in America now takes a psychiatric medication, compared with one in seven men. Women are nearly twice as likely to receive a diagnosis of depression or anxiety disorder than men are. For many women, these drugs greatly improve their lives. But for others they aren"t necessary. The increase in prescriptions for psychiatric medications, often by doctors in other specialties, is creating a new normal, encouraging more women to seek chemical assistance. Whether a woman needs these drugs should be a medical decision, not a response to peer pressure and consumerism. Obviously, there are situations where psychiatric medications are called for. The problem is too many genuinely ill people remain untreated, mostly because of socioeconomic factors. People who don"t really need these drugs are trying to medicate a normal reaction to an unnatural set of stressors: lives without nearly enough sleep, sunshine, nutrients, movement and eye contact, which is crucial to us as social primates.

单选题Our culture has caused most Americans to assume not only that our language is universal but that the gestures we use are understood by everyone. We do not realize that waving good-bye is the way to summon a person from the Philippines to one"s side, or that in Italy and some Latin-American countries, curling the finger to oneself is a sign of farewell. Those private citizens who sent packages to our troops occupying Germany after World War Ⅱ and marked them GIFT to escape duty payments did not bother to find out that "Gift" means poison in German. Moreover, we like to think of ourselves as friendly, yet we prefer to be at least 3 feet or an arm"s length away from others. Latins and Middle Easterners like to come closer and touch, which makes Americans uncomfortable. Our linguistic and cultural blindness and the casualness with which we take notice of the developed tastes, gestures, customs and languages of other countries, are losing us friends, business and respect in the world. Even here in the United States, we make few concessions to the needs of foreign visitors. There are no information signs in four languages on our public buildings or monuments; we do not have multilingual guided tours. Very few restaurant menus have translations, and multilingual waiters, bank clerks and policemen are rare. Our transportation systems have maps in English only and often we ourselves have difficulty understanding them. When we go abroad, we tend to cluster in hotels and restaurants where English is spoken. The attitudes and information we pick up are conditioned by those natives—usually the richer—who speak English. Our business dealings, as well as the nation"s diplomacy, are conducted through interpreters. For many years, America and Americans could get by with cultural blindness and linguistic ignorance. After all, America was the most powerful country of the free world, the distributor of needed funds and goods. But all that is past. American dollars no longer buy all good things, and we are slowly beginning to realize that our proper role in the world is changing. A 1979 Harris poll reported that 55 percent of Americans want this country to play a more significant role in world affairs; we want to have a hand in the important decisions of the next century, even though it may not always be the upper hand.

单选题A man walks into a conference room at the W hotel in downtown Austin. The setting, sleek and quiet, says business. The training shoes—red, puffy, and paired with a sports coat—add a wink: new business. "There are crazy awesome start-ups happening in every nook and cranny in this country," says Scott Case, the boss of a non-profit start-up, which helps inexperienced entrepreneurs by smoothing their access to private-sector money and mentoring. The idea is that as these young companies grow, they will create jobs—new jobs, good jobs—and related economic activity that enriches the entire community. Some of the start-ups may even be "gazelles", companies that grow by leaps and bounds. So people are keen to help. Obama announced a start-up initiative at the beginning of last year, and last month he renewed the call. Congress is considering a Start-up Act that could provide some regulatory exemptions. Regional economic development groups have taken up the idea of economic "gardening". The philosophy there is that regions should focus on core strengths and home-grown businesses, rather than squabbling with their neighbours in an effort to win a new car plant. This is mostly sensible. Many of the proposals for start-ups are generally sound. And some start-ups do turn out to be gazelles. Still, there is cause for caution. For one thing, there is some ambiguity over what sort of companies the policymakers are trying to promote. Mr. Obama talks about "start-ups and small businesses". Private-sector people, however, seem to have less interest in the latter. They would rather live in Silicon Valley than on Main Street. But high-tech concepts are not the only viable business ideas. Another issue is that the effects of start-ups on employment may be modest. Perhaps as a result of the recession, the number of new companies that actually employ people is declining. "What began as a small, two-person start-up working out of a pier in San Francisco has grown to a dozen employees," wrote Mike Krieger, the co-founder of America"s fastest-growing social mobile start-up. Even the bigger companies may not be labour-intensive. There is a danger that start-up jobs will be the next variant of "green jobs": worthwhile, but slightly overhyped .

单选题A union-backed campaign conducted scattered protests and employee walkouts at fast-food chains in 60 cities in an effort to ramp up pressure for increased wages while organizers are quietly working to create unions to represent fast-food workers. The impact and size of Thursday"s protests was difficult to gauge. Spokesmen for the protests" organizers estimated that they involved 1,000 fast-food outlets, and some other retailers, such as department stores, and claimed that walkouts shut down some restaurants. McDonald"s Corp. and Wendy"s Co. said the protests had minimal effects on operations and that they were unaware of any shutdowns. At midday Thursday in downtown Chicago, one of the cities targeted, several outlets of both chains seemed undisturbed. People protested outside one Chicago McDonald"s for about 45 minutes; a restaurant employee reached by phone, who didn"t want to be identified, said none of the protesters were employed there. Burger King Worldwide Inc. didn"t respond to requests for comment. Workers marching outside fast-food restaurants have called for the chains to increase wages to $15 an hour—wages now can be as low as the national minimum of $7.25 an hour and to allow a "fair process" to join a union. The restaurant companies say they pay fair and competitive wages and that increases of that size would force owners to cut staff. Previous strikes have targeted fast-food chains in more than a dozen cities from New York to Seattle. The chains have said those strikes also didn"t cause significant disruptions. But the momentum of demonstrations is unusual in an industry where organizing has been difficult because of high employee turnover. The protests come as the Service Employees International Union in recent months has helped establish a new union in at least six cities where the union and community advocacy groups have been organizing fast-food strikes, according to organizers and documents filed in recent months with the Labor Department. The cities include New York, Chicago and St. Louis. SEIU officials and members of nonunion community groups are listed as officers of those unions. "Fast-food workers need a union and we"re proud to help them get it started," said Kendall Fells, listed as president of a New York-based union called the Fast Food Workers Committee on documents filed with the Labor Department in February.

单选题 A deal is a deal-except, apparently, when Entergy is involved. The company, a major energy supplier in New England, provoked justified outrage in Vermont last week when it announced it was reneging on a longstanding commitment to abide by the strict nuclear regulations. Instead, the company has done precisely what it had long promised it would not challenge the constitutionality of Vermont's rules in the federal court, as part of a desperate effort to keep its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant running. It's a stunning move. The conflict has been surfacing since 2002, when the corporation bought Vermont's only nuclear power plant, an aging reactor in Vernon. As a condition of receiving state approval for the sale, the company agreed to seek permission from state regulators to operate past 2012. In 2006, the state went a step further, requiring that any extension of the plant's license be subject to Vermont legislature's approval. Then, too, the company went along. Either Entergy never really intended to live by those commitments, or it simply didn't foresee what would happen next. A string of accidents, including the partial collapse of a cooling tower in 2007 and the discovery of an underground pipe system leakage, raised serious questions about both Vermont Yankee's safety and Entergy's management-especially after the company made misleading statements about the pipe. Enraged by Entergy's behavior, the Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 last year against allowing an extension. Now the company is suddenly claiming that the 2002 agreement is invalid because of the 2006 legislation, and that only the federal government has regulatory power over nuclear issues. The legal issues in the case are obscure: whereas the Supreme Court has ruled that states do have some regulatory authority over nuclear power, legal scholars say that Vermont case will offer a precedent-setting test of how far those powers extend. Certainly, there are valid concerns about the patchwork regulations that could result if every state sets its own rules. But had Entergy kept its word, that debate would be beside the point. The company seems to have concluded that its reputation in Vermont is already so damaged that it has nothing left to lose by going to war with the state. But there should be consequences. Permission to run a nuclear plant is a public trust. Entergy runs 11 other reactors in the United States, including Pilgrim Nuclear station in Plymouth. Pledging to run Pilgrim safely, the company has applied for federal permission to keep it open for another 20 years. But as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reviews the company's application, it should keep it mind what promises from Entergy are worth.

单选题Will the European Union make it? The question would have sounded strange not long ago. Now even the project's greatest cheerleaders talk of a continent facing a "Bermuda triangle" of debt, population decline and lower growth. As well as those chronic problems, the EU face an acute crisis in its economic core, the 16 countries that use the single currency. Markets have lost faith that the euro zone's economies, weaker or stronger, will one day converge thanks to the discipline of sharing a single currency, which denies uncompetitive members the quick fix of devaluation. Yet the debate about how to save Europe's single currency from disintegration is stuck. It is stuck because the euro zone's dominant powers, France and Germany, agree on the need for greater harmonization within the euro zone, but disagree about what to harmonies. Germany thinks the euro must be saved by stricter rules on borrow spending and competitiveness, marked by quasi-automatic sanctions for governments that do not obey. These might include threats to freeze EU funds for poorer regions and EU mega-projects and even the suspension of a country's voting rights in EU ministerial councils. It insists that economic co-ordination should involve all 27 members of the EU club, among whom there is a small majority for free-market liberalism and economic rigour; in the inner core alone, Germany fears, a small majority favour French interference. A "southern" camp headed by French wants something different: "European economic government" within an inner core of euro-zone members. Translated, that means politicians intervening in monetary policy and a system of redistribution from richer to poorer members, via cheaper borrowing for governments through common Eurobonds or complete fiscal transfers. Finally, figures close to the France government have murmured, euro-zone members should agree to some fiscal and social harmonization: e. g. , curbing competition in corporate-tax rates or labour costs. It is too soon to write off the EU. It remains the world's largest trading block. At its best, the European project is remarkably liberal: built around a single market of 27 rich and poor countries, its internal borders are far more open to goods, capital and labor than any comparable trading area. It is an ambitious attempt to blunt the sharpest edges of globalization, and make capitalism benign.

单选题If you know exactly what you want, the best route to a job is to get specialized training. A recent survey shows that companies like the graduates in such fields as business and health care who can go to work immediately with very little on-the-job training. That"s especially true of booing fields that are challenging for workers. At Cornell"s School of Hotel Administration, for example, bachelor"s degree graduates get an average of four or five job offers with salaries ranging from the high teens to the low 20s and plenty of chances for rapid advancement. Large companies, especially, like a background of formal education coupled with work experience. But in the long run, too much specialization doesn"t pay off. Business, which has been flooded with MBAs, no longer considers the degree an automatic stamp of approval. The MBA may open doors and command a higher salary initially, but the impact of a degree washes out after five years. As further evidence of the erosion (销蚀) of corporate faith in specialized degrees, Michigan State"s Scheetz cites a pattern in corporate hiring practices. Although companies tend to take on specialists as new hires, they often seek out generalists for middle and upper-level management. "They want someone who isn"t constrained by nuts and bolts to look at the big picture," says Scheetz. This sounds suspiciously like a formal statement that you approve of the liberal-arts graduate. Time and again labor-market analysts mention a need for talents that liberal-arts majors are assumed to have: writing and communication skills, organizational skills, open-mindedness and adaptability, and the ability to analyze and solve problems. David Birch claims he does not hire anybody with an MBA or an engineering degree, "I hire only liberal-arts people because they have a less-than-canned way of doing things," says Birch. Liberal-arts means an academically thorough and strict program that includes litera-ture, history, mathematics, economics, science, human behavior—plus a computer course or two. With that under your belt, you can feel free to specialize, "A liberal-arts degree coupled with an MBA or some other technical training is a very good combination in the marketplace," says Scheetz.