Most human beings actually decide before they think. When any human being—executive, specialized expert, or person in the street—encounters a complex issue and forms an opinion, often within a matter of seconds, how thoroughly has he or she explored the implications of the various courses of action? Answer: not very thoroughly. Very few people, no matter how intelligent or experienced, can take inventory of the many branching possibilities, possible outcomes, side effects, and undesired consequences of a policy or a course of action in a matter of seconds. Yet, those who pride themselves on being decisive often try to do just that. And once their brains lock onto an opinion, most of their thinking thereafter consists of finding support for it. A very serious side effect of argumentative decision making can be a lack of support for the chosen course of action on the part of the "losing" faction. When one faction wins the meeting and the others see themselves as losing, the battle often doesn"t end when the meeting ends. Anger, resentment, and jealousy may lead them to sabotage the decision later, or to reopen the debate at later meetings. There is a better way. As philosopher Aldous Huxley said, "It isn"t who is right, but what is right, that counts." The structured-inquiry method offers a better alternative to argumentative decision making by debate. With the help of the Internet and wireless computer technology, the gap between experts and executives is now being dramatically closed. By actually putting the brakes on the thinking process, slowing it down, and organizing the flow of logic, it"s possible to create a level of clarity that sheer argumentation can never march. The structured-inquiry process introduces a level of conceptual clarity by organizing the contributions of the experts, then brings the experts and the decision makers closer together. Although it isn"t possible or necessary for a president or prime minister to listen in on every intelligence analysis meeting, it"s possible to organize the experts" information to give the decision maker much greater insight as to its meaning. This process may somewhat resemble a marketing focus group; it"s a simple, remarkably clever way to bring decision makers closer to the source of the expert information and opinions on which they must base their decisions.

Tames: I think I"ll have a steak meal. Kelly: I"m not that hungry.

A: I can"t believe it"s so hot. I think I"m dying from the heat. It"s not even noon yet. B: ______

A; Would you rather watch TV or go for a walk? B: The TV program is good today. ______ A: Cool. Let"s go.

In Guangzhou, capital of South China"s Guangdong Province, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport resumed its international flights to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations and regions early this month, said an airport official yesterday. And the airport"s flow of international passengers for July has reached 80 per cent of the figure for the corresponding month of the previous year. Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport had to cancel some international services to Southeast Asian nations and regions because of the outbreak of SARS beginning in April, the official said. The official predicted his airport"s international service would return to normal operation and handle even more international passengers in August. Currently, the Guangzhou airport is operating 22 international flights to 20 foreign metropolises. And nine foreign airlines have resumed their international flights to the airport.

Regular child care provided outside home or by someone other than the mother does not in itself undermine healthy emotional connections between mothers and their 15-month-old infants, according to a long-term national study. The finding holds even if care begins during the first 3 months after birth and runs for 30 hours or more per week. Among infants who receive unkind and unresponsive care from their mothers, however, the mother-child relationship may be damaged. "This research helps us put apart complexities regarding child care that have not previously been studied in detail", contends Jay Belsky, a psychologist. The investigation consists of 1,153 children and their families living in or near Boston. The youngsters, no more than I month old when they entered the study in 1991, will be tracked until the age of 7. Experimenters administered questionnaires to mothers in their homes and videotaped baby caretakers interacting with the kids at ages 1,6, and 15 months. Independent observers rated the quality of each child care efforts and noted infant nervousness. Unlike most previous studies, this one allows researchers to observe each caretaker"s personality at child nursing, and kids" emotional reaction by the equipment.

Woman: I’m new in town. Can you tell me how to get to the subway?Man: Turn left around the corner and then walk one block up. ___________.

We can see how the product life cycle works by looking at the introduction of instant coffee. When it was introduced, most people did not like it as well as "regular" coffee and it took several years to gain general acceptance (introduction stage). At one point, though, Instant coffee grew rapidly in popularity and many brands were introduced (stage of rapid growth). After a while people became attached to one brand and sales leveled off (stage of maturity). Sales went into a slight decline(衰退)when freeze-dried coffees were introduced (stage of decline). The importance of the product life cycle to marketers is this: Different stages in the product life cycle call for different strategies. The goal is to extend product life so that sales and profits do not decline. One strategy is called market modification. It means that marketing managers look for new users and market sections. Did you know, for example, that the backpacks that so many students carry today were originally designed for the military? Market modification also means searching for increased usage among present customers or going for a different market, such as senior citizens. A marketer may re-position the product to appeal to new market sections. Another product extension Strategy is called product modification. It involves changing product quality, features, or style to attract new users or more usage from present users. American auto manufacturers are using quality improvement as one way to recapture world markets. Note, also, how auto manufacturers once changed styles dramatically from year to year to keep demand from falling.

Donald: Let"s eat out, shall we? Mason: I"m broke. I"ve gone through my paycheck for the week already. Donald: Don"t worry. ______.

Friend A: This meal is on me. Friend B: Thanks, ______ but isn"t it my turn to treat you?

Humanity uses a little less than half the water available worldwide. Yet occurrences of shortages and droughts(干旱) are causing famine and distress in some areas, and industrial and agricultural by-products are polluting water supplies. Since the world"s population is expected to double in the next 40 years, many experts think we are on the edge of a widespread water crisis. But that doesn"t have to be the outcome. Water shortages do not have to trouble the world—if we start valuing water more than we have in the past. Just as we began to appreciate petroleum more after the 1970s oil crises, today we must start looking at water from a fresh economic perspective. We can no longer afford to consider water a virtually free resource of which we can use as much as we like in any way we want. Instead, for all uses except the domestic demand of the poor, governments should price water to reflect its actual value. This means charging a fee for the water itself as well as for the supply costs. Governments should also protect this resource by providing water in more economically and environmentally sound ways. For example, often the cheapest way to provide irrigation(灌溉) water in the dry tropics is through small-scale projects, such as gathering rainfall in depressions(凹地) and pumping it to nearby cropland. No matter what steps governments take to provide water more efficiently, they must change their institutional and legal approaches to water use. Rather than spread control among hundreds or even thousands of local, regional, and national agencies that watch various aspects of water use, countries should set up central authorities to coordinate water policy.

Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as "all too human", with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it all too monkey, as well The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys. They look cute. They are good-natured, co-operative creatures, and they share their food tardily. Above all, like their female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of "goods and services" than males. Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr. Brosnan"s and Dr. Dewaal"s study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for slices of eucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in sepa rate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their became markedly different. In the world of capuchins grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to; accept the slice of cu cumber indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (without an actual monkey to eat it) was enough to reduce resentment in a female capuchin. The researches suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a co-operative, groupliving species. Such co-operation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation, it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems form the common ancestor that the species had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.

James: You"re kidding. Dick Stevens asked you out? Jane: You bet. We are going out for dinner tonight. James: Great.______.

Mum: Let"s go and see grandma some time during the break. Daughter: Great. What time? Mum:______

The ocean bottom a region nearly 2.5 times greater than the total land area of the Earth is a vast frontier that even today is largely unexplored and uncharted. Until about a century ago, the deep-ocean floor was completely inaccessible, bidden beneath waters averaging over 3,600 meters deep. Totally without light and Subjected to intense pressures hundreds of times greater than at the Earth"s surface, the deep-ocean bottom is a hostile environment to humans, in some ways as forbidding and remote as the void of outer space. Although researchers have taken samples of deep-ocean rocks and sediments for over a century, the first detailed global investigation of the ocean bottom did not actually start until 1968, with the beginning of the National Science Foundation"s Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). Using techniques first developed for the offshore oil and gas industry, the DSDP"s drill ship, the Glomar Challenger, was able to maintain a steady position on the ocean"s surface and drill in very deep waters, extracting samples of sediments and rocks from the ocean floor. The Glomar Challenger completed 96 voyages in a 15-year research program that ended in November 1983. During this time, the vessel logged 600,000 kilometers and took almost 20,000 core samples of seabed sediments and rocks at 624 drilling sites around" the world. The Glomar Challenger"s core samples have allowed geologists to reconstruct what the planet looked like hundred of millions of years ago and to calculate what it will probably look like millions of years in the future. Today, largely on the strength of evidence gathered during the Glomar Challenger"s voyages, nearly all earth scientists agree on the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift that explain many of the geological processes that shape the Earth. The cores of sediment drilled by the Glomar Challenger have also yielded information critical to understanding the world"s past climates. Deep-ocean sediments provide a climatic record stretching back hundreds of millions of years, because they are largely isolated from the mechanical erosion and the intense chemical and biological activity that rapidly destroy much land-based evidence of past climates. This record has already provided insights into the patterns and causes of past climatic change information that may be used to predict future climates.

Children live in a world in which science has tremendous importance. During their lifetimes it will affect them more and more. In time, many of them will work at jobs that depend heavily on science—for example, concerning energy sources, pollution control, highway safety, wilderness conservation, and population growth, and population growth. As taxpayers they will pay for scientific research and exploration. And, as consumers, they will Be bombarded(受到轰击) by advertising, much of which is said to be based on science. Therefore, it is important that children, the citizens of the future, become functionally acquainted with science—with the process and spirit of science, as well as with its facts and principles. Fortunately, science has a natural appeal for youngsters. They can relate it to so many things that they encounter—flashlights, tools, echoes, and rainbows. Besides, science is an excellent medium for teaching far more than content. It can help pupils learn to think logically, to organize and analyse ideas. It can provide practice in communication skills and mathematics. In fact, there is no area of the curriculum to which science cannot contribute, whether it is geography, history, language arts, music, or art! Above all, good science teaching leads to what might be called a "scientific attitude". Those who possess it seek answers through ohserving, experimenting, and reasoning, rather than blindly accepting the pronouncements of others. They weigh evidence carefully and reach conclusions with caution. While respecting the opinions of others, they expect honesty, accuracy, and objectivity and are on guard against hasty judgments and sweeping generalizations. All children should be developing this approach to solving problems, but it cannot be expected to appear automatically with the mere acquisition of information. Continual practice, through guided participation, is needed.

Don"t put off till tomorrow ______ you can do today.

Imagine a world in which children would be the rulers and could decide not only the outcome of each and every occurrence, but also dictate the very structure and form of the environment. In this world, a child"s wildest thoughts would become reality, limited only by the extent of his or her imagination. While such a world might sound both fantastic and frightening, at least from a logical, adult perspective, it does exist. What"s more, it has been in existence for some time and is populated by hundreds of thousands of children who spend hours within its boundaries experimenting and learning. This world is not real. at least not in the traditional sense, but exists within a computer and is generated by an educational programming language called LOGO. Unlike other computer languages and programs that are designed to test children and provide applications that formally dispense information, LOGO allows children, even preschool children, to be in total control. Children teach the computer to think and as a result develop and sharpen their own reasoning abilities.

"I promise." "I swear to you it"ll never happen again." "I give you my word." "Honestly. Believe me." Sure, I trust. Why not? I teach English composition at a private college. With a certain excitement and intensity, I read my students" essays, hoping to find the person behind the pen. As each semester progresses, plagiarism (剽窃) appears. Not only is my intelligence insulted as one assumes I won"t detect a polished piece of prose from an otherwise-average writer, but I feel a sadness that a student has resorted to buying a paper from a peer. Writers have styles like fingerprints and after several assignments, I can match a student"s work with his or her name even if it"s missing from the upper left-hand corner. Why is learning less important than a higher grade-point average (GPA)? When we"re threatened or sick, we make conditional promises. "If you let me pass math I will…" "Lord, if you get me over this before the big homecoming game I"ll…" Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises. Human nature? Perhaps, but we do use that cliché(陈词滥调) to get us out of uncomfortable bargains. Divine interference during distress is asked; gratitude is unpaid. After all, few fulfill the contract, so why should anyone be the exception. Why not? Six years ago, I took a student before the dean. He had turned in an essay with the vocabulary and sentence structure of a PhD thesis. Up until that time, both his out-of-class and in-class work were borderline passing. I questioned the person regarding his essay and he swore it was his own work. I gave him the identical assignment and told him to write it in class, and that I"d understand this copy would not have the time and attention an out-of-class paper is given, but he had already a finished piece so he understood what was asked. He sat one hour, then turned in part of a page of unskilled writing and faulty logic. I confronted him with both essays. "I promise …, I"m not lying. I swear to you that I wrote the essay. I"m just nervous today." The head of the English department agreed with my findings, and the meeting with the dean had the boy"s parents present. After an hour of discussion, touching on eight of the boy"s previous essays and his grade-point average, which indicated he was already on academic probation (留校查看), the dean agreed that the student had plagiarized. His parents protested, "He"s only. a child" and we instructors are wiser and should be compassionate. College people are not really children and most times would resent being labeled as such… except in this uncomfortable circumstance.