There is something wrong with the computer. It won't______today.

Cheap long distance, the ability to spoof caller ID(来电显示)and the credit crisis are being used to facilitate a scam called vishing. Although telephone(telemarketing)scams are nothing new, the term vishing probably came about because advances in telephone technology are being used to depart unsuspecting people of their hard-earned money. The term fishing was coined from the word phishing. Internet scammers phish the waters of the Internet using spam e-mail as bait. Once a person falls for their "too good to be true" lure, personal and financial information is stolen using social engineering(trickery)or malicious software designed to data-mine the information right off the infected machine. The personal and financial information is then used to commit financial crimes, which is often referred to as identity theft. In the past week, I've received several calls where a computerized voice informs me that the offer to lower my interest rate is almost over. It then says to press " 1" if I want to lower my interest rate. I went ahead and pressed the number "1" to see what this "too good to be true" offer was all a-bout. After a few seconds, a female voice came on and asked me if I was interested in lowering my interest rate. I told her I was and she asked me for the 800 number of my financial institution so she could verify my eligibility. Since this is public information. I went ahead and gave one to an institution I no longer do business with. While I was digging up the number on the Internet, she made a lot of inquires about how many lines of credit I was behind on. After providing her with the 800 number , she asked me to give her all the credit card numbers that I wanted to lower the interest rate on. At this point, I had very little doubt I was dealing with a scam designed to steal credit card numbers. At no point did she identify a financial institution—and besides that—no financial institution would make a cold call and ask for credit card numbers. Additionally, when was the last time a financial institution offered to lower an interest rate to an existing customer unless they were being bailed out by the government(taxpayer)? I asked if she felt good about ripping people off and if I could speak to her supervisor. Of course, I was never referred to a supervisor and after cursing at me, she hung up. Trust me, from the vulgar language that was expressed, this call was not being recorded for training purposes! Comment 1 : I've been getting this call for a while now. Today, I actually pushed one and when I asked the guy if he worked for capital one he said no and called me stupid that capital one was a bank, then continued to be ugly, finally hanging up on me. I tried to get more information but to no avail, thus the search on google. Thanks for blogging about this. Comment 2: Yes, just today I received that call to reduce my interest rate, she asked me for the 188# on the back of my credit card, when I said she can call me back after I get her credentials she hung up on me very abruptly end of that. Comment 3: We are getting the same calls but they say press 9 and it connects you to an operator. They just hang up on you if you sound too smart. This last one I tried to follow along with the scam but still got hung up on. Have reported it to the "do not call" website perhaps they will find them one day and can use the complaints to arrest them. Comment 4: Thanks for blogging about this. I received this call too, they hung up on me when I asked them to take me off the list. This happened right after opening a very official looking scam letter about property tax reassessment(return address of PO Box 25519 in LA, CA). Scams are on the rise indeed!

A. Sounds like an ideal approach.B. What style will the ads use?C. They'll have some proposals ready by the end of the week.D. We've decided to use a variety of media for full coverage. A: So, what's the status of our advertising campaign?B: As I mentioned before, it'll be a national campaign starting next month.【D7】______First, we'll have 30-second spots on television once a day for 3 weeks. At the same time, we'll do 15-second radio commercials 3 times a day in selected cities with large populations. Finally, we'll have some outdoor ads using billboards near main entrances to big cities.A:【D8】______B: We're focusing on slice of life, showing how you can beat the summer heat by biting into a cool ice-cream sandwich. We will tell everyone reasons for why we recommend the products through hyping our choices of flavors and show everyone they're not stuck with just vanilla.A:【D9】______Will we have a new slogan?B: Definitely. The advertising agency's working on that right now.【D10】______A: Sounds like we'll have a winner on our hands!

Forests are delicate systems that, if disturbed, can be permanently destroyed.

Complete silence is found only in laboratories called anechoic rooms. The wails and ceilings, made of blocks of special sound-sucking materials, are more than three feet thick, while floor coverings are six-foot layers of feathers or cotton wool. Silence here can be as painful to the ears as the din (continuous loud noise) of a steelworks or a rocket blast-off, yet scientists get used to this and stay in these silent rooms for hours at a time, using microphones and electronic equipment to test the various materials being developed to make the world a less noisy place. Architects have used scientific discoveries to solve noise problems in a number of ways. Walls are hollowed (having empty space inside) and then filled with sound-sucking materials similar to cotton wool. Extra-thick carpets cover the floors, and thick woolen curtains cover the windows. Air conditioning and heating channels are made less noisy by sound-sucking materials. Unfortunately, these techniques and others often work too well in some buildings. Noise-proof rooms become almost anechoic and people living in them are disturbed by the lack of sound. One way of handling this problem is to use what they call "sound perfume"—artificial (similarly produced, made by man) noise is piped to rooms through small loudspeakers. Scientists use anechoic room for ______.

The Internet can make the news more democratic, giving the public a chance to ask questions and seek out facts behind stories and candidates, according to the head of the largest U. S. online service. "But the greatest potential for public participation is still in the future," Steven Case, Chairman of America Online, told a recent meeting on Journalism and the Internet sponsored by the Freedom Forum(讨论会). However, some other experts often say the new technology of computers is changing the face of journalism, giving reporters access to more information and their readers a chance to ask questions and turn to different sources. "You don't have to buy a newspaper and be confined to the four corners of that paper any more," Sam Meddis, online technology editor at USA Today, observed about the variety of information available to computer users. But the experts noted the easy access to the Internet also means anyone can post information for others to see. "Anyone can say anything they want, whether it's right or wrong," said Case. Readers have to determine for themselves who to trust. " In a world of almost infinite voices, respected journalists and respected brand names will probably become more important, not less," Case said. " The Internet today is about where radio was 80 years ago, or television 50 years ago or cable 25 years ago," he said. But it is growing rapidly because it provides people fast access to news and a chance to comment on it.

The chairman of the board______on me the unpleasant job of dismissing good workers the firm can no longer afford to employ.

Mary sat at the table, looked at the plate and______her lips.

Born in 1863, Annie Fellows Johnston wrote stories for juveniles that became very popular and are still widely read.

A.all of that B. as if it were C.fresh water supply D. in this field A

Most religions are concerned with the worship of one or several deities as well as with ethical rules of conduct.

We can not______his failure in the English examination.

Although business slumped after the holidays, shop owners began to prepare for the next one.

The members of Duke University's computer programming team had solved only one problem in the world finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest. The winning team, from Saratov State University in Russia, solved six puzzles over the course of the grueling five-hour contest. Afterward, Duke coach Owen Astrachan tried to cheer up his team by pointing out that they were among "the best of the best" student programmers in the world. Edwards, 20, still distraught, couldn't resist a self-deprecating dig: "We're the worst of the best of the best. " For young Americans, a computing career isn't the draw even a few years ago. Never mind that experienced programmers make upwards of $ 100, 000 and that the brainiest of them are the objects of heated bidding wars. Students fear that if they become programmers they'll lose their jobs to counterparts in India and China. Analysts say those worries are overblown: Programmers with leadership and business skills will do just fine. But the message isn't getting through. Then there's the thrill factor, or lack thereof. Given the opportunity to make a mint on Wall Street or land a comfortable academic job, many math and science students are turning away from software. "I couldn't really get excited about sitting in front of a computer and just writing programs," says Duke junior Brandon Levin, who has taken computer courses but is majoring in math and plans a career in academia.

Ten years ago, when environmental lawyer Kassie Siegel went in search of an animal to save the world, the polar bear wasn't at all an obvious choice. Siegel and Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity in Joshua Tree, Calif., were looking for a species whose habitat was disappearing due to climate change, which could serve as a symbol of the dangers of global warming. Her first candidate met the scientific criteria—it lived in ice caves in Alaska's Glacier Bay, which were melting away—but unfortunately it was a spider. You can't sell a lot of T-shirts with pictures of an animal most people would happily step on. Next, Siegel turned to the Kittlitz's murrelet, a small Arctic seabird whose nesting sites in glaciers were disappearing. In 2001, she petitioned the Department of the Interior to add it to the Endangered Species list, but Interior Secretary Gale Norton turned her down. Elkhorn and staghorn coral, which are threatened by rising water temperatures in the Caribbean, did make it onto the list, but as iconic species they fell short insofar as many people don't realize they're alive in the first place. The polar bear, by contrast, is vehemently alive and comes the undeniable charisma of a top predator. And its dependence on ice was intuitively obvious: it lives on it most of the year. But it took until 2004 for researchers to demonstrate that shrinking sea ice was a serious threat to the bears'population. On Feb. 16, 2005—the day the Kyoto Protocol to curb greenhouse gas emissions took effect, without the participation of the United States—Siegel petitioned to list polar bears as endangered. Three years later her efforts met with equivocal(不明确的)success, as Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne designated the bears as "threatened"(not endangered), a significant concession from an administration that has stood almost alone in the world in its reluctance to acknowledge the dangers of climate change. The Endangered Species Act(ESA), whose odd lists of snails and bladderworts sometimes seemed stuck in the age of Darwin, had been thrust into the mainstream of 21st-century environmental politics. Break out the T-shirts!

A. great minds think alikeB. We could do it first thing tomorrow morningC. We still have to do about ten moreNancy: How many orders do we still need to pack, Gilbert? We've been packing all day.Gilbert:【D4】______Nancy: Well, I'm really tired of packing all of the stuff all day. And it's about time to clock out.Gilbert: I know. Maybe we can finish it tomorrow.Nancy: Why not! These orders are not urgent.【D5】______Gilbert: All right. Let's call it quits and go home.Nancy: See,【D6】______!

A product is to be regarded as being______when introduced into another country at less than its normal value.

I'm afraid there are people in the world who literally do not know how to boil water.

A. feel B. have C. byPhrases: A. but some people【T7】 1itB. light up a room just【T8】 2walking inC. consistently make people【T9】 3better about themselves Some people instantly make us feel important. Some people instantly make us feel special. Some people【T10】 4 We can't always define it,【T11】 5: They're naturally charismatic. Unfortunately, natural charisma quickly loses its impact. Familiarity breeds, well, familiarity. But some people are remarkably charismatic: They build and maintain great relationships, consistently influence(in a good way)the people around them,【T12】 6—they're the kind of people everyone wants to be around...and wants to be. Fortunately we can, because being remarkably charismatic isn't about our level of success or our presentation skills or how we dress or the image we project—it's about what we do. 【T7】

Teachers of elementary schools are giving more weight to nurturing a student's talent in China.