翻译题Innocent Presumption

翻译题Diabetes is a leading cause of poor eyesight and blindness worldwide

翻译题廉政公署

翻译题总结一年来的工作， 我们清醒地看到， 经济社会发展中还存在不少问题和困难

翻译题有罪推定

翻译题(46) The value which society places on work has traditionally been closely associated with the value ofindividualism and as a result it has had negative effects on the development of social security

翻译题The House of Commons

翻译题At first glance the patriarchy appears to be thriving

翻译题朝阳小学创建于1866年(清同治五年)，历经140余年的风风雨雨。从办学之初“正本清源，以资教化，使土司端而民风正”到今日“培养知礼仪、有爱心、会创造、会交往的高素质公民”，无不以促进社会文明进步为己任。一代又一代朝阳人辛勤耕耘，传承创新，创造了丰硕的教育教学业绩，积淀了宝贵的精神财富。 成就学校的，是“未来教育”的办学思想。即站在未来社会对人才需求的高度和视野来思考今天的教育。学校以“优化学校系统，建构未来教育办学模式”为办学理念，以“热爱生命、关爱学生、注重发展、开发智慧”的可持续发展教育思想为指导，进行了“建构21世纪教育办学模式”的探索实践。

翻译题The lives of most men are determined by their environment

翻译题在这样一个世界里， 如何才能保持自己的特征呢？ 民族主义还没来得及完成它征服敌人的使命， 转瞬间已经过时

翻译题Forests are one of the main elements of our natural heritage

翻译题Translate the following passage into Chinese: (60 points) Population ageing has become a world-wide phenomenon. Moreover, it has not only come to stay but, especially in the developing countries, it will become more felt and acute with the passage of time. Its repercussions are so wide-ranging and manifold that they can only be ignored at a tremendous cost to society. The growing rate of population ageing poses many challenges which have to be faced realistically. A number of decisions have to be taken with the cooperation of every social institution, be it the State, Non-Governmental Organizations, the community, the family members and last but not least, the older persons themselves. Each has a very important role to play in ensuring a sustainable development for the elderly population. Governments and civil society including organisations of older persons, academia, community-based organisations and the private sector need to help in capacity building on ageing issues. As the Shanghai Implementation Strategy points out, “A life-course and inter-sectoral approach to health and well-being is the best approach to ensure that both current and future generations of older persons remain healthy and active”. The gap between the projected increases of the older population and the consequently required services, combined with the parallel development of the personnel needed to carry out these services, creates a pressing and urgent need to train appropriate staff. Training programmes have to be tailored to the nature of the participants, the work they are doing and the needs entailed. Though the basic issues dealt with might often be the same, the approach differs. It will be important in the not too distant future to explore innovative ways of providing education and training in rural and remote areas and to apply, as much as possible, the new and emerging communication technologies to facilitate and enhance these programmes. Every member of society should realize that aging is a process. Consequently, older persons are to be seen as equal citizens of any society, sharing the same rights like other citizens. Any form of discrimination is to be eradicated.

Passage B French toys: One could not find a better illustration of the fact that the adult Frenchman sees the child as another self. All the toys one commonly sees are essentially a microcosm of the adult world; they are all reduced copies of human objects, as if in the eyes of the public the child was, all told, nothing but a smaller man, a homunculus to whom must be supplied objects of his own size. Invented forms are very rare : a few sets of blocks, which appeal to the spirit of do-it-yourself, are the only ones which offer dynamic forms. As for the others, French toys always mean something, and this something is always entirely socialized, constituted by the myths or the techniques of modern adult life: the army, broadcasting, the post office, medicine (miniature instrument-cases, operating theaters for dolls), school, hair styling (driers for permanent-waving), the air force (parachutists), transport (trains, Citroens, Vedettes, Vespas, petrol stations), science (Martian toys). The fact that French toys literally prefigure the world of adult functions obviously cannot but prepare the child to accept them all, by constituting for him, even before he can think about it, the alibi of a Nature which has at all times created soldiers, postmen, and Vespas. Toys here reveal the list of all the things the adult does not find unusual: war, bureaucracy, ugliness, Martians, etC. It is not so much, in fact, the imitation which is the sign of an abdication, as its literalness: French toys are like a Jivaro head, in which one recognizes, shrunken to the size of an apple, the wrinkles and hair of an adult. There exist, for instance, dolls which urinate; they have an esophagus, one gives them a bottle, they wet their nappies; soon, no doubt, milk will turn to water in their stomachs. This is meant to prepare the little girl for the causality of housekeeping, to "condition" her to her future role as mother. However, faced with this world of faithful and complicated objects, the child can only identify himself as owner, as user, never as creator; he does not invent the world, he uses it: There are, prepared for him, actions without adventure, without wonder, without joy. He is turned into a little stay-at-home householder who does not even have to invent the mainsprings of adult causality; they are supplied to him ready-made: He has only to help himself, he is never allowed to discover anything from start to finish. The merest set of blocks, provided it is not too refined, implies a very different learning of the world : Then, the child does not in any way create meaningful objects, it matters little to him whether they have an adult name; the actions he performs are not those of a user hut those of a demiurge. He creates forms which walk, which roll, he creates life, not property: Objects no, act by themselves, they are no longer an inert and complicated material in the palm of his hand. But such toys are rather rare : French toys are usually based on imitation, they are meant to produce children who are users, not creators. The bourgeois status of toys can be recognized not only in their forms, which are all functional, but also in their substances. Current toys are made of a graceless material, the product of chemistry, not of nature. Many are now molded from complicated mixtures; the plastic material of which they are made has an appearance at once gross and hygienic, it destroys all the pleasure, the sweetness, the humanity of touch. A sign which fills one with consternation is the gradual disappearance of wood, in spite of its being an ideal material because of its firmness and its softness, and the natural warmth of its touch. Wood removes, from all the forms which it supports, the wounding quality of angles which are too sharp, the chemical coldness of metal. When the child handles it and knocks it, it neither vibrates nor grates, it has a sound at once muffled and sharp. It is a familiar and poetic substance, which does not sever the child from close contact with the tree, the table, the floor. Wood does not wound or break down; it does not shatter, it wears out, it can last a long time, live with the child, alter little by little the relations between the object and the hand. If it dies, it is in dwindling, not in swelling out like those mechanical toys which disappear behind the hernia of a broken spring. Wood makes essential objects, objects for all time. Yet there hardly remain any of these wooden toys from the Yosges, these fretwork farms with their animals, which were only possible, it is true, in the days of the craftsman. Henceforth, toys are chemical in substance and color; their very material introduces one to a coenaesthesis of use, not pleasure. These toys die in fact very quickly, and once dead, they have no posthumous life for the child.

A Though many distinct cultures are prevalent around the world today, those that are the most dominant have origins in one of a few areas called "culture hearths." These are the heartlands of various cultures and historically, there are seven main locations from which the most dominant cultural ideas have spread. The seven original culture hearths are: 1) The Nile River Valley, 2) The Indus River Valley, 3) The Wei-Huang Valley, 4) The Ganges River Valley, 5) Mesopotamia, 6) Mesoamerica, and 7) West Africa. These regions are considered culture hearths because such things as religion, the use of iron tools and weapons, highly organized social structures, and the development agriculture started and spread from these areas. In terms of religion for example, the area around Mecca is considered the culture hearth for the Islamic religion and the area from which Muslims initially traveled to convert people to Islam. The spread of tools, social structures, and agriculture spread in a similar manner from the culture hearths. B Also important to the development of early culture centers are culture regions. These are areas that contain dominant cultural elements. Though not everyone in the culture region has the same culture traits, they are often influenced by it in some way. Within this system, there are four components of influence : 1) the Core, 2) the Domain, 3) the Sphere, and 4) the Outlier. The Core is the heart of the area and shows the most strongly expressed culture traits. It is usually the most heavily populated and, in the case of religion, features the most famous religious landmarks. The Domain surrounds the Core and though it has its own cultural values, it is still strongly influenced by the Core. The Sphere then surrounds the Domain and the Outlier surrounds the Sphere. C Cultural diffusion is the term used to describe the spread of cultural ideas from the Core (in the ease of culture regions) and the culture hearth. Cultural diffusion was first used by Franz Boas (1858-1942), a German geographer and physicist. From his archaeological fieldwork in the American Northwest, Boas decided that the two concepts of diffusion and modification explained many cultural phenomena, such as how Native American culture and religion was affected by their location and proximity to other cultures. Alfred L. Kroeber, Boas"s student and the co-founder of Berkeley"s anthropology department in 1901, came up with the term and would later popularize it within a larger academic circle. D Theories that involve the concept of cultural diffusion often stir up controversy in anthropological circles. This is because they often contradict theories on mass migration. This opposition between cultural diffusion and mass migration can be found in theories regarding similar human burial sites involving the skulls of eave bears around the Arctic Circle on the continents of North America, Europe, and Asia. Nevertheless, many anthropologists prefer to consider theories based on cultural diffusion, or the borrowing of traits between cultures, as they commonly describe it. Scholars of cultural diffusion, including J. P. Mallory and Clark Wissler, developed distinctions between theories of cultural diffusion. Heliocentric diffusion proposes that all cultures originated from a single civilization. Anthropologist Peter J. Hugill proposed the theory of evolutionary diffusion when a specific innovation coincides across all cultures, to explain how an idea or innovation has somehow happened simultaneously in multiple cultures. E Throughout human and pre-human history, cultures have never been or remained completely isolated from each other. Even in the isolationist culture of feudal Japan, the religious philosophy of Buddhism was able to spread from India and China, where it originated by traveling monks. This is an example of how cultural diffusion can take place on a grand scale. This type of cultural diffusion happens today. When considering cultural diffusion, there are three major forms. F The first is called direct diffusion and occurs when two distinct cultures are very close together. Over time, direct contact between the two leads to an intermingling of the cultures. Historically this occurred through trade, intermarriage, and sometimes warfare became members of the various cultures interacted with each other for long periods. An example today would be the similar interest in soccer in some areas of the United States and Mexico. Forced diffusion or expansion diffusion is the second method of cultural diffusion and takes place when one culture defeats another and forces its beliefs and customs onto the conquered people. An example here would be when the Spanish took over lands in the Americas and later forced the original inhabitants to convert to Roman Catholicism in the 16th and 17th Centuries. The term ethnocentrism is often applied to forced diffusion because it refers to the idea of looking at the world only from one"s own cultural vantage point. As a result, people participating in this form of diffusion often believe that their cultural beliefs are superior to those of other groups and in turn force their ideas upon those they conquer. In addition, cultural imperialism is usually placed into the category of forced diffusion as it is the practice of actively promoting cultural characteristics such as language, food, religion, etc., of one nation in another. This practice is normally within forced diffusion because it frequently occurs through military or economic force. H The final form of cultural diffusion is indirect diffusion. This type happens when cultural ideas are spread through a middleman or even another culture. An example here would be the popularity of Italian food throughout North America. Technology, mass media, and the Internet are both playing a huge role in promoting this type of cultural diffusion around the world today. Another example would be when an African receives a Mickey Mouse T-shirt from a visitor and wears it even though he has never been to Disneyland. I Because cultures develop over time, new dominant areas of dominant culture have done so as well. Today"s modem culture hearths are places such as the United States and world cities like London and Tokyo. Areas such as these are considered modem culture hearths because of the prevalence of their cultural aspects now present throughout much of the world. Take for instance the popularity of sushi in Los Angeles, California and Vancouver, British Columbia or the presence of Starbucks in places like France, Germany, Moscow, and even in China"s Forbidden City. J Direct diffusion has certainly played a role in this new spread of cultural values and products, and people are now moving around frequently because of today"s ease of travel. Physical barriers such as mountain ranges also no longer hinder people"s movement and the resultant spread of cultural ideas. It is indirect diffusion though which has had the largest impact on the spread of ideas from places like the United States to the rest of the world. The Internet and advertising through the many forms of mass media have allowed people worldwide to see what is popular in the U. S. and as a result, blue jeans and Coca-Cola products can be found even in remote Himalayan villages. H However cultural diffusion occurs now or in the future, it has happened many times throughout history and will continue to do so as new areas grow in power and pass on their cultural traits to the world. The ease of travel and modern technology will only aid in speeding up the process of modern cultural diffusion. Summarize the information about cultural diffusion as discussed in the passage. Complete the table below by matching the appropriate statements to the three forms of cultural diffusion with which they are associated. TWO of the statements will NOT be used. Statements A. A native African may spend holidays in Disneyland. B. Indians were compelled to adopt the English language. C. People in two cultures are interested in the same sport. D. This occurs when cultures are situated close enough to interact. E. The Buddhist ideas spread from India to Japan in early period. F. This occurs when Americans enslaved Africans. G. This occurs when an artifact or item moves through an intermediary. H. Skulls of cave bears were found near the Arctic Circle. I. Starbucks can be found in many places outside America.

Passage D Nearly a century ago, biologists found that if they separated an invertebrate animal embryo into two parts at an early stage of its life, it would survive and develop as two normal embryos. This led them to believe that the cells in the early embryo are undetermined in the sense that each cell has the potential to develop in a variety of different ways. Later biologists found that the situation was not so simple. It matters in which plane the embryo is cut. If it is cut in a plane different from the one used by the early investigators, it will not form two whole embryos. A debate arose over what exactly was happening. Which embryo cells are determined, just when do they become irreversible committed to their fates, and what are the "morphogenetic determinants" that tell a cell what to become? But the debate could not be resolved because no one was able to ask the crucial questions in a form in which they could be pursued productively. Recent discoveries in molecular biology, however, have opened up prospects for a resolution of the debate. Now investigators think they know at least some of the molecules that act as morphogenetic determinants in early development. They have been able to show that, in a sense, cell determination begins even before an egg is fertilized. Studying sea urchins, biologist Paul Gross found that an unfertilized egg contains substances that function as morphogenetic determinants. They are located in the cytoplasm of the egg cell; i.e., in that part of the cell's protoplasm that lies outside of the nucleus. In the unfertilized egg, the substances are inactive and are not distributed homogeneously. When the egg is fertilized, the substances become active and, presumable, govern the behavior of the genes they interact with. Since the substances are unevenly distributed in the egg, when the fertilized egg divides, the resulting cells are different from the start and so can be qualitatively different in their own gene activity. The substances that Gross studied are maternal messenger RNA's—products of certain of the maternal genes. He and other biologists studying a wide variety of organisms have found that these particular RNA's direct, in large part, the synthesis of histones, a class of proteins that bind to DNA. Once synthesized, the histones move into the cell nucleus, where sections of DNA wrap around them to form a structure that resembles beads, or knots, on a string. The beads are DNA segments wrapped around the histones; the string is the intervening DNA. And it is the structure of these beaded DNA strings that guides the fate of the cells in which they are located.

French toys: one could not find a better illustration of the fact that the adult Frenchman sees the child as another self. All the toys one commonly sees essentially a microcosm of the adult world: they are all reduced copies of human objects, as if in the eyes of the public the child was, all told, nothing but a smaller man, a homunculus to whom must be supplied objects of his own size. Invented forms are very rare: a few sets of blocks, which appeal to the spirit do-it- yourself, are the only ones which offer dynamic forms, as for the others. French toys always mean something, and this something is always entirely socialized, constituted by the myths or the techniques of modern adult life: the army, broadcasting, the post office, medicine (miniature instrument-cases, operating theaters for dolls), school, hair styling ( driers for permanent-waving ), the air force ( parachutists ), transport (trains, Citroens, Vedettes, Vespas, petrol stations), science(Martian toys). The fact that French toys literally prefigure the world of adult functions obviously cannot but prepare the child to accept them all, by constituting for him, even before he can think about it, the alibi of a Nature which has at all times created soldiers, postmen, and Vespas. Toys here reveal the list of all the things the adults does not find unusual: war, bureaucracy, ugliness, Martians, etc. It is not so much, in fact, the imitation which is the sigh of an abdication, as its literalness: French toys are like a Jivaro head, in which one recognizes, shrunken to the size of an apple, the wrinkles and hair of an adult. There exist, for instance, dolls which urinate; they have an esophagus, one gives them a bottle, they wet their nappies; soon, no doubt, milk will turn to water in their stomachs. This is meant to prepare the little girl for the causality of housekeeping, to "condition" her to her future role as a mother. However, faced with this world of faithful and complicated objects, the child can only identify himself as owner, as user, never as creator; he does not invent the world, he uses it : There are, prepared for him, actions without adventure, without wonder, without joy. He is turned into a little stay-at-home householder who does not even have to invent the mainsprings of adults causality; they are supplied to him ready-made: He has only to help himself, he is never allowed to discover anything from start to finish. The merest set of blocks, provided it is not too refined, implies a very different learning of the world: Then, the child does not in any way create meaningful objects, it matters little to him whether they have an adult name; the actions he performs are not those of a user hut those of a demiurge. He creates forms which walk, which roll, he creates life, not property: Objects no, act by themselves, they are no longer than inert and complicated material in the palm of his hand. But such toys are rather rare ~ French toys are usually based on imitation, they are meant to produce children who are users, not creators. The bourgeois status of toys can be recognized not only in their forms, which are all functional, but also in their substances. Current toys are made of a graceless material, the product of chemistry, not of nature. Many are now molded from complicated mixtures; the plastic material of which they are made has an appearance at once gross and hygienic, it destroys all the pleasure, the sweetness, the humanity of touch. A sign which fills one with consternation is the gradual disappearance of wood, in spite of its being an ideal material because of its firmness and its softness, and the natural warmth of its touch. Wood removes, from all the forms which it supports, the wounding quality of angles which are too sharp, the chemical coldness of metal. When the child handles it and knocks it, it neither vibrates nor grates, it has a sound at once muffled and sharp. It is a familiar and poetic substance, which does not sever the child from close contact with the tree, the table, the floor. Wood does not wound or break down: it does not shatter, it wears out, it can last a long time, live with the child, alter little by little the relations between the object and the band. If it dies, it is in dwindling, not in swelling out like those mechanical toys which disappear behind the hernia of a broken spring. Wood makes essential objects, objects for all time. Yet there hardly remain any of these wooden toys from the Yoseges, these fretwork farms with their animals, which were only possible, it is true, in the days of the craftsman. Henceforth, toys are chemical in substance and color; their very material introduces one to a coenaesthesis of use, not pleasure. These toys die in fact very quickly, and once dead, they have no posthumous life for the child. Choose the most appropriate from the four choices to complete the sentence.

A Today, like most other kinds of theater and music, the musical drama of opera enjoys a myriad of different forms and interpretations. Operas can exhibit both comical moods as well as the most tragic ones while the actors may be of the highest caliber of simply part-time novices. But it has not always been this way. Since its beginning in Italy around the year 1600, the opera has experienced a number of shifts and trends. In the beginning, it was heavily influenced by classical Greek drama and attempted to adhere to its heroic subject matter and theme. Yet, by the eighteenth century, two distinct forms were beginning to branch out from the original operatic base in Italy. Italian audiences were able to witness two fundamental styles: one was the serious, tragedy-like type known as opera seria, while the other, a lighter, often more earthy and comic style, was called opera buffa. Their distinct styles reflected the social mentality of the era and its ability to change and grow in a new direction, which later influenced further alterations in modem opera. B The first half of the eighteenth century was dominated by the opera seria, which most closely resembled the earliest form of the opera. The opera seria, which first arose in the cities of Naples and Venice, had taken on a clear, practically inflexible form by around 1720. In its very essence, as both the libretti and the musical composition demonstrate, the opera seria was a product of the philosophical movement that arose in the late 1600"s, the famous Enlightenment, that seized all of Europe and affected so many different aspects of life. The philosophers of the Enlightenment, when they turned their ideas to opera, maintained that this musical-dramatic form should reflect the new ideals of clarity and unity, which were based primarily off of ancient Greek philosophical treatises. Therefore, its characteristics were heavily influenced by the Enlightenment which put human reason at the forefront of thought. In turn, clarity and structure became the foundation of the opera seria. In many ways, simplicity and rational thought, which were further major characteristics of the opera seria, go hand in hand. It scorned imagination and improvisation in favor of familiar storylines, most often Greek, which was easier on the audience and did not tax their mental capacities too much. Thus, write Grout and Palisca, Italian opera seria "aimed to be clear, simple, rational, faithful to nature, of universal appeal, and capable of giving pleasure to its audiences without causing them unnecessary mental fatigue." However, some operagoers felt slighted by the fact that the operas failed to challenge them, and though it remained a popular form of entertainment, it displayed a number of other limitations. C One of the early forms of impetus for these changes in opera came from the scholars at the Arcadian Academy in Rome, led primarily by Gian Vincenza Gravina. These reformers wanted above all to subject the Italian opera to the guidelines of Greek tragedy; in other words, they aimed to purge the older Baroque operas of their extravagant characterization and complex plots, as well as to take away the comic elements and to regulate the opera"s composition, both musically and structurally. In so doing, these reforms led in essence to "the restriction of the music"s role in dramatic developments," claims Sadie, and left the part of explaining occurrences and events in the story to the rather dry and unaccompanied recitatives. D Some members of the audience found further difficulties with the opera seria. First, the organization of the opera never deviated from the usual norm. It was always composed of three acts, and, within each act were its fundamental components: the recitatives and the arias. Recitatives are the singing of the cast, which pushes the action of the opera forward. Arias usually followed as a climax and revealed the emotion or internal conflict of the actors. The main issue was that such a rigid structure made the opera monotonous and at times predictable. If there had been more flexibility, the operas would have been more vivid and alive, yet the composers were bound by the predominant philosophical constraints of the early 1700s. A frequent problem for composers of opera stria was that, due to the rather structured forms of almost all ingredients of the music, it was difficult to achieve much contrast, in either action or music. In essence, then, the opera stria, in the hands of most composers, was little more than a mere stringing together of many different arias and recitatives. For the more daring, and in many ways more skilled composers, however, there were ways to avoid this strict rigidity. The ritornello, or the instrumental interlude, of the da capo aria, for instance, could be dropped, as was noted before, or could be changed just enough to give variation. Also, although often criticized, each singer"s ornamental improvisation and final cadenza (i. e. the elaborate, ornamental melodic flourish interpolated into an aria) did provide another means of contrast, as did, somewhat later in the century, the emergence of more variation in the orchestral parts and in dynamic contrasts, as well as the increasing use of ensembles and other pieces; eventually even dance numbers and ballets came to be included in opera seria. Even the meter and keys, which for the most part were standardized, could be varied ever so slightly, and gained more freedom as time went on. E After around 1770, the arias had also achieved some flexibility, due to the possibility of using forms other than the da capo, even, under French influence, the use of the rondo aria. These newer arias, as stated, had become much longer, but had retained their simple melodic lines, as well as "a certain blandness of rhythm and harmony." On the whole, in the period after 1770, the increasing diffusion and freedom in opera seria can be seen, and this phenomenon eventually led to its abandonment as a pure and strict dramatic form. F The stage, then, was ripe for change in the form of the opera buffa, which was beginning to manifest itself within the opera seria itself through the intermezzo. The intermezzo was already an integral part of the opera seria in that it was a short performance break between acts and was less predictable than the major production. Later, toward the turn of the century, these performances grew to be of a larger size and greater importance, and they were eventually performed as opera in their own right, no longer intermixed with the serious opera. The later intermezzi typically had two or three short acts, each consisting of one or two arias for each main role, and usually ending in a duet. Over time, the style of the intermezzo caught on and was eventually put on separately, eventually being dubbed the opera buffa. This type of opera was characterized by a light, even comic, motif. More importantly, it was less constrained and displayed elements of free emotion and subject matter that mirrored everyday life, not, for example, heroes from Greek tragedies. Further, music began to play a greater role in the opera, was spontaneous, and often mirrored the emotions of the characters. Because the themes were more true to life, the audience could relate more closely with the opera buffa. As it developed, the opera buffa also began to take on more serious subject matter yet retained its free flowing manner. G By the late 1700s, the influence of the Enlightenment was beginning to lose its luster, and the two predominant forms of opera began to merge into one. The opera seria started to display more elasticity in its form and structure and even included some dancing in its performances. Likewise, the opera buffa began to engage in more sophisticated themes. By the end of the century, even the most sensitive opera enthusiast could hardly distinguish between the two. More importantly, as each form changed, they were able to provide the audience with the best of both worlds and a more complete opera experience, as they were composed with intellectual integrity, stimulation sprinkled with lightheartedness, and humor. From this, the modern form of opera was born. Summarize the information about operas as discussed in the passage. Match the appropriate statements to the type of opera with which they are associated. You are required to select three statements for the opera seria and two for the opera buffa. A. Its main structure was always composed around three acts. B. It allowed emotions to be expressed more freely by the actors. C. It developed out of a short intermission type of production. D. It was the predominant form of opera in Italy during the early 1700s. E. It contained climactic arias, which helped move the plot forward. F. It was constructed around rational thought and simplicity. G. It was popular because of its light subject matter in the seventeenth century. Opera seria

Practically speaking, the artistic maturing of the cinema was the single-handed achievement of David W. Griffith (1875-1948). Before Griffith, photography in dramatic films consisted of little more than placing the actors before a stationary camera and showing them in full length as they would have appeared on stage. From the beginning of his career as a director, however, Griffith, because of his love of Victorian painting, employed composition. He conceived of the camera image as having a foreground and a rear ground, as well as the middle distance preferred by most directors. By 1910 he was using close-ups to reveal significant details of the scene or of the acting and extreme long shots to achieve a sense of spectacle and distance. His appreciation of the camera"s possibilities produced novel dramatic effects. By splitting an event into fragments and recording each from the most suitable camera position, he could significantly vary. the emphasis from camera shot to camera shot. Griffith also achieved dramatic effects by means of creative editing. By juxtaposing images and varying the speed and rhythm of their presentation, he could control the dramatic intensity of the events as the story progressed. Despite the reluctance of his producers, who feared that the public would not be able to follow a plot that was made up of such juxtaposed images, Griffith persisted, and experimented as well with other elements of cinematic syntax that have become standing ever since. These included the flashback, permitting broad psychological and emotional exploration as well as narrative that was not chronological, and the crosscut between two parallel actions to heighten suspense and excitement. In thus exploiting fully the possibilities of editing, Griffith transposed devices of the Victorian novel to film and gave film mastery, of time as well as space. Besides developing the cinema"s language, Griffith immensely broadened its range and treatment of subjects. His early output was remarkably eclectic: it includes not only the standard comedies, melodramas, westerns, and thrillers, but also such novelties as adaptations from Browning and Tennyson, and treatments of social issues. As his successes mounted, his ambitions grew, and with them the whole of American cinema. When he made Enoch Arden in 1911, he insisted that a subject of such importance could not be treated in the then conventional length or one reel. Griffith"s introduction of the American-made multireel picture began immense revolution. Two years later, Judith of Bethlia an elaborate historicophilosophical spectacie reached the unprecedented length of four reels, or one hour"s running time. From our contemporary viewpoint, the pretensions of this film may seem a trifle ludicrous, but at the time it provoked endless debate and discussion and gave a new intellectual respectability to the cinema.

Bosses say "yes" to homework Rising costs of office space, time lost to stressful commuting, and a slow recognition that workers have lives beyond the office - all are strong arguments for letting staff work from home. For the small business, there are additional benefits too - staff are more productive, and happier, enabling firms to keep their headcounts and their recruitment costs to a minimum. It can also provide competitive advantage, especially when small businesses want to attract new staff but don't have the budget to offer huge salaries. While company managers have known about the benefits for a long time, many have done little about it, sceptical of whether they could trust their employees to work to full capacity without supervision, or concerned about the additional expenses teleworking policies might incur as staff start charging their home phone bills to the business. Yet this is now changing. When communications provider Inter-Tel researched the use of remote working solutions among small and medium sized UK businesses in April this year, it found that 28% more companies claimed to be practising flexible working practices than a year ago. The UK network of Business Links confirms that it too has seen a growing interest in remote working solutions from small businesses seeking its advice, and claims that as many as 60-70% of the businesses that come through its doors now offer some form of remote working support to their workforces. Technology advances, including the widespread availability of broadband, are making the introduction of remote working a no-brainer. "If systems are set up properly, staff can have access to all the resources they have in the office wherever they have an internet connection," says Andy Poulton, e-business advisor at Business Link for Berkshire and Wiltshire. "There are some very exciting developments which have enabled this." One is the ubiquity of broadband, which now covers almost all of the country (BT claims that, by July, 99.8% of its exchanges will be broadband enabled, with alternative plans in place for even the most remote exchanges). "This is the enabler," Poulton says. Yet while broadband has come down in price too, those service providers targeting the business market warn against consumer services masquerading as business-friendly broadband. "Broadband is available for as little as ∈15 a month, but many businesses fail to appreciate the hidden costs of such a service," says Neff Stephenson, sales and marketing director at Onyx Internet, an internet service provider based in the north-east of England. "Providers offering broadband for rock-bottom prices are notorious for poor service, with regular outages and heavily congested networks. It is always advisable for businesses to look beyond the price tag and look for a business-only provider that can offer more reliability, with good support." Such services needn't break the bank - quality services can be found for upwards of ∈30 a month. The benefits of broadband to the occasional home worker are that they can access email in real time, and take full advantage of services such as internet-based backup or even internet-based phone services. Internet-based telecoms, or VolP (Voice over IP) to give it its technical title, is an interesting tool to any business supporting remote working. Not necessarily because of the promise of free or reduced price phone calls (which experts point out is misleading for the average business), but because of the sophisticated voice services that can be exploited by the remote worker - facilities such as voicemail and call forwarding, which provide a continuity of the company ← image for customers and business partners. By law, companies must "consider seriously" requests to work flexibly made by a parent with a child under the age of six, or a disabled child under 18. It was the need to accommodate employees with young children that motivated accountancy firm Wright Vigar to begin promoting teleworking recently. The company, which needed to upgrade its IT infrastructure to provide connectivity with a new, second office, decided to introduce support for remote working at the same time. Marketing director lack O'Hern explains that the company has a relatively young workforce, many of whom are parents: "One of the triggers was when one of our tax managers returned from maternity leave. She was intending to work part time, but could only manage one day a week in the office due to childcare. By offering her the ability to work from home, we have doubled her capacity - now she works a day a week from home, and a day in the office. This is great for her, and for us as we retain someone highly qualified." For Wright Vigar, which has now equipped all of its fee-earners to be able to work at maximum productivity when away from the offices (whether that's from home, or while on the road), this strategy is not just about saving on commute time or cutting them loose from the office, but enabling them to work more flexible hours that fit around their home life. O'Hern says: "Although most of our work is client-based and must fit around this, we can't see any reason why a parent can't be on hand to deal with something important at home, if they have the ability to complete a project later in the day." That staff can do this without needing a fixed telephone line provides even more efficiency savings. "With Wi-Fi [fast, wireless internet connections] popping up all over the place, even on trains, our fee-earners can be productive as they travel, and between meetings, instead of having to kill time at the shops," he adds. The company will also be able to avoid the expense of having to relocate staff to temporary offices for several weeks when it begins disruptive office renovations soon. It has enabled the company to dispense with its business premises altogether, following the realisation that it just didn't need them any more. "The main motivation behind adopting home working was to increase my own productivity, as a single mum to an 11-year-old," says Hargreaves. "But I soon realised that, as most of our business is done on the phone, email and at off-site meetings, we didn't need our offices at all. We're now saving ∈16,000 a year on rent, plus the cost of utilities, not to mention what would have been spent on commuting."