阅读理解 Come on—Everybody's doing it. That whispered message, half invitation and half forcing, is what most of us think of when we hear the words peer pressure. It usually leads to no good— drinking, drugs and casual sex. But in her new book Join the Club, Tina Rosenberg contends that peer pressure can also be a positive force through what she calls the social cure, in which organizations and officials use the power of group dynamics to help individuals improve their lives and possibly the word. Rosenberg, the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, offers a host of examples of the social cure in action: In South Carolina, a state-sponsored antismoking program called Rage Against the Haze sets out to make cigarettes uncool. In South Africa, an HIV-prevention initiative known as loveLife recruits young people to promote safe sex among their peers. The idea seems promising, and Rosenberg is a perceptive observer. Her critique of the lameness of many public-health campaigns is spot-on: they fail to mobilize peer pressure for healthy habits, and they demonstrate a seriously flawed understanding of psychology. "Dare to be different, please don't smoke!" pleads one billboard campaign aimed at reducing smoking among teenagers— teenagers, who desire nothing more than fitting in. Rosenberg argues convincingly that public-health advocates ought to take a page from advertisers, so skilled at applying peer pressure. But on the general effectiveness of the social cure, Rosenberg is less persuasive. Join the Club is filled with too much irrelevant detail and not enough exploration of the social and biological factors that make peer pressure so powerful. The most glaring flaw of the social cure as its presented here is that it doesn't work very well for very long. Rage Against the Haze failed once state funding was cut. Evidence that the loveLife program produces lasting changes is limited and mixed. There's no doubt that our peer groups exert enormous influence on our behavior. An emerging body of research shows that positive health habits—as well as negative ones—spread through networks of friends via social communication. This is a subtle form of peer pressure: we unconsciously imitate the behavior we see every day. Far less certain, however, is how successfully experts and bureaucrats can select our peer groups and steer their activities in virtuous directions. It's like the teacher who breaks up the troublemakers in the back row by pairing them with better-behaved classmates. The tactic never really works. And that's the problem with a social cure engineered from the outside: in the real world, as in school, we insist on choosing our own friends.

阅读理解 "THE SERVANT" (1963) is one of those films that it is impossible to forget. The servant exploits his master' s weaknesses until he turns the tables: the story ends with the a cringing master ministering to a lordly servant. It is hard to watch it today without thinking of another awkward relationship—the one between business folk and their smartphones. Smart devices are sometimes empowering. They put a world of information at our fingertips. But for most people the servant has become the master. Not long ago only doctors were on call all the time. Now everybody is. Bosses think nothing of invading their employees' free time. Work invades the home far more than domestic chores invade the office. Hyperconnectivity exaggerates the decline of certainty and the general cult of flexibility. Smart-phones make it easier for managers to change their minds at the last moment. Employees find it ever harder to distinguish between "on-time" and "off-time"—and indeed between real work and make-work. None of this is good for businesspeople' s marriages or mental health. It may be bad for business, too. When bosses change their minds at the last minute, it is hard to plan for the future. How can we reap the benefits of connectivity without becoming its slaves? One solution is dig ital dieting. Banning browsing before breakfast can reintroduce a small amount of civilization. Banning texting at weekends or, say, on Thursdays, can really show the iPhone who is boss. The problem with this approach is that it works only if you live on a desert island or at the bottom of a lake. Leslie Perlow of Harvard Business School argues that for most people the only way to break the 24/7 habit is to act collectively rather than individually. One of the world' s most hardworking organisations, the Boston Consulting Group, introduced rules about when people were expected to be offline, and encouraged them to work together to make this possible. Eventually it forced people to work more productively while reducing burnout. Ms Perlow' s advice should be taken seriously. The problem of hyperconnectivity will only get worse, as smartphones become smarter and young digital natives take over the workforce. But ultimately it is up to companies to outsmart the smartphones by insisting that everyone turn them off from time to time.

阅读理解 Forget Cyclists, Pedestrians are Real DangerWe are having a debate about this topic. Here are some letters from our readers.- Yes, many cyclists behave dangerously. Many drivers are disrespectful of cyclists. But pedestrians are probably the worse offenders.People of all ages happily walk along the pavement with eyes and hands glued to the mobile phone, quite unaware of what is going on around them. They may even do the same thing while crossing a road at a pedestrian crossing or elsewhere. The rest of us have to evade them or just stand still to wait for the unavoidable collision.The real problem is that some pedestrians seem to be, at least for the moment, in worlds of their own that are, to them, much more important than the welfare of others. —Michael Horan- I love the letter from Bob Brooks about cyclists (Viewpoints, May 29). I am afraid they seem to think they own the roads.I was walking across Altrincham Road one morning when a cyclist went round me and on being asked what he was doing he shouted at me.The government built a cycle lane on the road but it is hardly used.The police do nothing. What a laugh they are!The cyclists should all have to be made to use the cycle lanes and wear helmets, fluorescent jacket and lights at night and in the morning, they should pay some sort of tax and be fined for not wearing them. —Carol Harvey- Cyclists jump on and off pavements (which are meant for pedestrians), ride at speed along the pavements, and think they have a special right to go through traffic lights when they are on red.I was almost knocked down recently by a cyclist riding on the pavement when there was a cycle lane right next to him.Other road users, including horse riders, manage to obey the rules so why not cyclists?It's about time they had to be registered and insured, so when they do hit a pedestrian or a vehicle, or cause an accident, at least they can be treated and there might be an opportunity to claim. —JML Write to Viewpoints of the newspaper.

阅读理解 For Chen Hua, 28, an automobile engineer in Shanghai, reading out English text aloud after taking pronunciation lessons on a mobile app has become an evening routine. Chen might skip dinner, but wouldn't trade even one language class delivered by the app for anything. Not having been using English much since leaving college, Chen feels the pressure to pick it up using spare time. The "pressure" arises from a constant fear of being left behind as English-proficient peers appear to get ahead. Academic circles refer to this as "middle-class anxiety", which is grasping some sections of China's population. In a report released by leading online recruiter Zhaopin in January, one-fourth of surveyed white-collar workers said they feel more stressed than inspired, citing reasons from unstable paychecks to gloomy career prospects. Most important of all, many people worry that the worth and utility of their knowledge and qualifications could erode due to thriving technological progress, globalism and entrepreneurship. "Intensified peer pressure, especially at workplaces, is one factor that fuels our business," said Wang Yi, CEO of Liulishuo, an English-learning app that Chen uses every day. Wang, a Princeton computer science graduate and former product manager at Google Inc, launched the app over five years ago with the intention to disrupt China's hidebound brick-and-mortar language schools. Liulishuo—it is Chinese for "speaking fluently" —brings social media and gaming elements to the genre. Wang said that unlike pre-school or K12 education, the adult-learning market is characterized by an inherent desire for self-improvement. Students of online adult education courses feel the fee is money well spent. To personalize offerings, Liulishuo has introduced big data and algorithms to quantify multiple dimensions of speech, as well as automatically tailor courses so that the courses could walk a fine line between challenging the students and discouraging them to the extent that they quit learning. Actually, this is not just confined to language courses. China's growing learners have shown they will spend time on the right educational programs.

阅读理解 What would you do with $ 590m? This is now a question for Gloria MacKenzie, an 84-year-old widow who recently emerged from her small, tin-roofed house in Florida to collect the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history. If she hopes her new-found fortune will yield lasting feelings of fulfilment, she could do worse than read Happy Money by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton. These two academics use an array of behavioral research to show that the most rewarding ways to spend money can be counterintuitive. Fantasies of great wealth often involve visions of fancy cars and extravagant homes. Yet satisfaction with these material purchases wears off fairly quickly. What was once exciting and new becomes old-hat: regret creeps in. It is far better to spend money on experiences, say Ms. Dunn and Mr. Norton, like interesting trips, unique meals or even going to the cinema. These purchases often become more valuable with time—as stories or memories— particularly if they involve feeling more connected to others. This slim volume is packed with tips to help wage slaves as well as lottery winners get the most "happiness bang for your buck". It seems most people would be better off if they could shorten their commutes to work, spend more time with friends and family and less of it watching television (something the average American spends a whopping two months a year doing, and is hardly jollier for it). Buying gifts or giving to charity is often more pleasurable than purchasing things for oneself, and luxuries are most enjoyable when they are consumed sparingly. This is apparently the reason McDonald's restricts the availability of its popular McRib—a marketing trick that has turned the pork sandwich into an object of obsession. Readers of Happy Money are clearly a privileged lot, anxious about fulfilment, not hunger. Money may not quite buy happiness, but people in wealthier countries are generally happier than those in poor ones. Yet the link between feeling good and spending money on others can be seen among rich and poor people around the world, and scarcity enhances the pleasure of most things for most people. Not everyone will agree with the authors' policy ideas, which range from mandating more holiday time to reducing tax incentives for American homebuyers. But most people will come away from this book believing it was money well spent.

阅读理解 Soon after starting his job as superintendent of the Memphis, Tenn., public schools, Kriner Cash ordered an assessment of his new district's 104,000 students. The findings were depressing: nearly a third had been held back at least one academic year. The high school graduation rate had fallen to 67%. One in five dropped out. But what most concerned him was that the number of students considered "highly mobile" , meaning they had moved at least once during the school year, had ballooned to 34, 000, partly because of the home-foreclosure crisis. At least 1, 500 students were homeless—probably more. "I had a whole array of students who were angry, depressed, not getting the rest they needed," Cash says. It led him to consider an unusual proposition: What if the best way to help kids in impoverished urban neighborhoods is to get them out? Cash is now calling for Memphis to create a residential school for 300 to 400 kids whose parents are in financial distress, with a live-in faculty rivaling those of elite New England prep schools. If Cash's dream becomes a reality, it will probably look a lot like SEED, a charter school in Southeast Washington, which stands for Schools for Educational Evolution and Development. Its 320 students—seventh-to 12th-graders—should live on campus five days a week. They are expected to adhere to a strict dress code and keep their room tidy. There are computers in the dorm's common areas, and each student in grades 10 and above is given a desktop computer. At 11:30 every night, it's lights out. In his plan for Memphis, Cash wants even more time. Perhaps the most provocative aspect of his proposal is to focus on students in grades 3 through 5 for homelessness is growing sharply among kids at that critical age, when much of their educational foundation is set, Cash says. His aim: to prevent illiteracy and clear other learning roadblocks early, so the problem "won't migrate into middle and high school". Students will remain on campus year-round. The school would cost up to $50, 000 a day to operate—three times the cost of a traditional day school with more than twice as many students. "It sounds very exciting, but the devil is in the details," says Ellen Bassuk, president of the National Center on Family Homelessness in Newton, Mass.

阅读理解 Consumers are being confused and misled by the hodge-podge of environmental claims made by household products, according to a "green labeling" study published by Consumers International Friday. Among the report's more outrageous findings, a German fertilizer described itself as "earthworm friendly" a brand of flour said it was "non-polluting" and a British toilet paper claimed to be "environmentally friendlier". The study was written and researched by Britain's National Consumer Council (NCC) for lobby group Consumer International. It was funded by the German and Dutch governments and the European Commission. "While many good and useful claims are being made, it is clear there is a long way to go in ensuring shoppers are adequately informed about the environmental impact of products they buy," said Consumers International director Anna Fielder. The 10-country study surveyed product packaging in Britain. Western Europe, Scandinavia and the United States. It found that products sold in Germany and the United Kingdom made the most environmental claims on average. The report focused on claims made by specific products, such as detergent insect sprays and by some garden products. It did not test the claims, but compared them to labeling guidelines set by the International Standards Organization (ISO) in September, 1999. Researchers documented claims of environmental friendliness made by about 2,000 products and found many too vague or too misleading to meet ISO standards. "Many products had specially-designed labels to make them seem environmentally friendly, but in fact many of these symbols mean nothing," said report researcher Philip Page. "Laundry detergents made the most number of claims with 158. Household cleaners were second with 145 separate claims, while paints were third on our list with 73. The high numbers show how very confusing it must be for consumers to sort the true from the misleading." he said. The ISO labeling standards ban vague or misleading claims on product packaging, because terms such as "environmentally friendly" and "non-polluting" cannot be verified. "What we are now pushing for is to have multinational corporations meet the standards set by the ISO." said Page.

阅读理解 People often complained about not getting "a good night's sleep", but sleep patterns differ from person to person. Most adults require six to eight hours of sleep to function well, while others survive on only a few hours. Still, most people today think of sleep as one continuous period of downtime. This is not the way people used to sleep. According to researchers in earlier times, people divided sleep by first sleep a few hours, waking up, then going back to sleep. Before the 18th century, people had no gas or electricity in their homes. Fire, candles, or oil lamps were the common forms of lighting. This lack of artificial lighting in homes contributed to people's sleep patterns. It made sense for people to go to bed early. If you live in this time period, you might be a hard-working farmer, and you would come home, eat and quickly fall into bed exhausted. You would probably go to sleep at 9:00 or 10:00 P.M. In this first period of sleep—called first sleep—you would typically sleep until midnight or shortly afterwards. Halfway through the night during a period some call the watch, or watching period. When you came out of first sleep, you would stay in bed and relax quietly. You might talk with a bedfellow, meditate on the day's events or the meaning of a dream, or just let your mind wander. If you enjoyed writing or drawing, you might get out of bed to write a poem or story or draw a picture. Then you would start to feel sleepy, so would return to bed and fall asleep again for your second sleep. This period would continue until early morning when daylight arrived. Again, with no artificial lighting in homes, people naturally woke up early to take advantage of sunlight. Today, human may consider divided sleep a strange habit, but sleep researchers say that it is actually a more natural sleep pattern. Dr. Thomas Wehr of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has studied human sleep. He thinks that modern sleep problems occur because the orderly, natural way of sleep is breaking through the more recent continuous sleep pattern. Wehr and other scientists believe that artificial lighting has altered the way people sleep. In a research study, he asked 15 adults to rest and sleep in darkness for 14 hours (from 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 A.M.). At first, the subjects took a few hours to get to sleep, and then slept 11 hours a night. Then overtime, they switched to divided sleep. They fell asleep for about 3 or 5 hours in the evening, stay awake for an hour of two and then slept again for four hours till early morning. Unlike the people in the study, we modern humans generally do not practice divided sleep. However, many of us have the experience of waking up in the middle of the night. We usually consider this a sleeping "problem", but perhaps we should look at it as natural behavior. Divided sleep may be the way we should all be sleeping. A first sleep followed by a relation period and a second period of sleep could help all of us to beat the stress of our fast-paced lives.

阅读理解 Every day 25 million U.S. children ride school buses. The safety record for these buses is much better than for passenger cars; but nevertheless, about 10 children are killed each year riding on large school buses, and nearly four times that number are killed outside buses in the loading zones. By and large, however, the nation's school children are transported to and from school safety. Even though the number of school bus casualties is not large, the safety of children is always of intense public concern. While everyone wants to see children transported safely, people are divided about what needs to be done particularly whether seat belts should be mandatory. Proponents of seat belts on school buses—many of them parents and medical organizations argue that seat belts are necessary not only to reduce fatality and injury, but also to teach children lessons about the importance of using them routinely in any moving vehicle. A side benefit, they point out, is those seats belts help keep children in their seats, away from the bus driver. Opponents of seat belt installation suggest that children are already well protected by the school buses that adhere to the Nation Highway Traffic Safety Administrations (NHTSA) safety requirements set in 1977. They also believe that many children won't wear seat belts anyway and that may damage the belts or use them as weapons to hurt other children. A new Research Council report on school bus safety suggests that there are alternate safety devices and procedures that may be more effective and less expensive. For example, the study committee suggested that raising seat backs four inches may have the same safety effectiveness as seat belts. The report sponsored by the Department of Transportation at the request of Congress, reviews seat belts extensively while taking a broader look at safety in and around school buses.

阅读理解 When it comes to airline travel, perhaps nothing has revolutionized the passenger experience more than airline apps. Indeed, they're becoming so ubiquitous that more than 50 percent of U.S travelers have at least one airline app installed on their smart device, according to travel industry research firm Phocuswright. Maybe that's because apps make travel easier, and often are more functional than a kiosk or even an airline's own website. Passengers report that they're often more quickly informed of a flight cancellation or gate change than an airline employee. Not all airline apps are created equal, but in general you can use an app to check in for a flight, change seats, and request and pay for an upgrade. Road warriors in particular appreciate mobile boarding passes and the ability to track their flights. Many airlines now offer free onboard streaming entertainment via apps. The Delta Air Lines app even allows users to track their bags, from check-in to carousel, while the Air France app lets passengers download magazines and newspapers from the airline's library 30 hours prior to departure. But what if you are traveling extensively on more than one airline? Global airline alliances have their own apps that allow you to view flights for all member airlines and their affiliates, including code share flights. In general, you can find flight schedules for all member airlines and track member airline flights. Airport information is available, as are details about local weather at the destination. Where's the nearest airport lounge? The app will locate it for you. The Sky Team airline alliance app goes a step further by letting its SkyPriority members (SkyTeam Elite Plus members and customers with first and business-class tickets) find out exactly which SkyPriority services—including priority check in and baggage drop off, as well as access to priority security lanes and boarding lanes—are available at individual airports. You'll find that some alliance app features are available through multiple channels of communication. For example, Sky Team members have formed their own online community by sharing traveler tricks and airport tips accessible through a variety of channels, including the app, Sky Team's website, Facebook page and a dedicated tips site. Sky Team's YouTube page features travel tips from regional celebrities. Just as airlines seem to have conquered social media, another method of communicating with travelers has just arrived. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the first carrier to sign up for Facebook's Messenger chat app. KLM flyers can automatically receive itineraries, flight updates, check-in notifications, boarding passes and rebook flights and communicate with customer service, all from Facebook Messenger. Messenger for Business was launched so that customers—in this case, passengers—can transact business over the messaging app in a single communication thread. Roughly 80 percent of passengers on planes traveling within the U.S. have the Messenger app installed on their smartphones, according to Facebook. Clearly, mobile apps and social media have transformed our digital lives. Airlines favor apps and other technologies because they get customers out of airport lines and off phone lines. Through their smart devices, travelers now have untethered access to travel information. A few quick taps can supply individuals with information never dreamed possible even a decade ago. And with more people using smartphones as their primary computing device, and as more people own cell phones globally, people expect technology-driven methods of communication and convenience to accelerate. Whether you're high-tech or not, you must admit that having immediate access to the information you need sure beats getting a busy signal on a toll-free phone line.

阅读理解 One of the world's first videogames, Tetris, has turned thirty years old, and its brand is anything but old school. But what's kept people swiping and clicking to ensure each row of blocks stays aligned and disappears into the virtual world since its development in 1984 Soviet Russia? A combination of new platforms and an attracting psychological appeal. Maya Rogers, the CEO of Blue Planet Software, the sole agent of the Tetris brand, said the protection of the game's core over the last three decades has aided its longevity. As mobile and social become two of the largest sources for gaming these days, Tetris isn't showing any signs of losing its appeal. Currently appearing on over 50 different gaming platforms, from the 1983 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to smartphones, Tetris is sold on over 425 million mobile devices. More than 20 billion games of Tetris Battle have been played on Facebook, too. There's something psychologically entrancing about the game, that's kept people hooked through the years. "Play a game of Tetris," said Rogers, "and satisfy your craving to create order out of chaos." Plus, there's the added quality of playing Tetris and never feeling wholly fulfilled. "There's no correct move that you can make," said Neubauer, a loyal player of the game who work as a senior analyst at Saibus Research, an independent research and advisory firm, "The quest for the perfect move never ends." Tom Stafford, a professor of cognitive development and psychology at Sheffield University in the U.K., says that Tetris has been around so long because it transports gamers into a different realm when they play. "It's a world of perpetually generating uncompleted tasks," he said. As he's said in the past, too, "Tetris is the granddaddy of puzzle games like Candy Crush saga—the things that keep us puzzling away for hours, days and weeks." "Tetris is pure game: there is no benefit to it, nothing to learn, no social or physical consequence," he added. "It is almost completely pointless, but keeps us coming back for more."

阅读理解 Every year, the Nobel Prize is given to outstanding work in six fields: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economics, and work in peace. These prizes are named after Alfred Nobel, who asked for the Nobel Foundation to be made in his will. He was an inventor and businessman. Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1883. His father, Immanuel Nobel has periods of success building bridges and periods of not making any money. Immanuel sent Alfred to study chemistry in Paris. Alfred met Ascanio Sobrero, who found the liquid nitroglycerine, a liquid that explodes very easily. Alfred thought about making use of nitroglycerine in the construction of bridges and tunnels. An accident happened during the experiment with the liquid, causing an explosion, which killed and injured several people, including his brother. He continued looking for ways to make this liquid not explode so easily. Nobel was successful in finding a safe way to store the liquid and in 1864 began producing huge amounts of it. He found that mixing it with kind of sand would turn the liquid into a paste. He then wanted to shape the paste into rods that would make it easy to blow up rock when building a tunnel. In 1867, he patented the material as dynamite. This patent greatly reduced the costs of blasting rock and drilling tunnels. As a businessman, Nobel set up laboratories that made dynamite in 90 locations in more than 20 countries. Although dynamite was useful in construction, many people used it as a weapon in war. At age 43, the wealthy and lonely businessman put an ad in the newspaper for a secretary though he was really looking for a wife. Bertha Kinsky worked as his secretary for a short time, but married another man and became Bertha von Suttner. Bertha and Alfred remained friends and wrote letters many years later. She most likely influenced him to strive for peace. She published a novel "Lay Down Your Arms!" in 1889 and became a leading figure in the peace movement. For these reasons, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905.

阅读理解 If you come to Australia, leave your naughty habits at the door. If you live here, get back in your box. The Australian government announced in the Federal Budget on Tuesday that it will be slogging smokers top dollar for a pack of ciggies. Right now, they cost on average A$25 ($18.91) to A$30 for a packet of 20 or 25 cigarettes, which would already seem like highway robbery to anyone living in any other country on earth. Now, the government will be increasing the cost of cigarettes by 12.5% annually for four years. The increase will smack smokers in September each year. If you work off a packet costing A$25 today, by 2020 it will set you back a hefty A$40. So unless you are living in a life of luxury, it is probably going to break the bank. Must be time to read the "How to stop smoking" book your old neighbor Dave recommended in 2012. If you think you'll just bring the cigarettes in through the duty free back door, think again. The government is reducing the amount of cigarettes you can bring into the county from 50 cigarettes to 25 cigarettes. Not 25 packs, 25 individual cigarettes. That's one packet. This price hike will earn the government A$4.7 billion and it will take the tax excise on cigarettes to almost 69% of the average price of a cigarette currently. This is in line with recommendations from the World Health Organization, which advised governments to increase tax by 70% so that it becomes unaffordable. "These changes will improve the health of Australians by reducing their exposure to tobacco products and will ensure that tobacco products consumed domestically are fully taxed and comply with Australian regulations." the government noted in the budget papers. This increase will see Australia remaining easily the most expensive place in the world for smokers. In 2015, cigarettes in the city of Melbourne cost 142% more than in New York. Cigarettes in Sydney were 130% more, according to a Deutsche Bank report. Australia already has plain packaging laws, which see cigarettes wrapped in generic mould green color and slapped with a photograph of a dying baby. No more sneaky ciggies for you, casual smoker!

阅读理解 Consumers are being confused and misled by the hodge-podge of environmental claims made by household products, according to a "green labeling" study published by Consumers International Friday. Among the report's more outrageous findings, a German fertilizer described itself as "earthworm friendly" a brand of flour said it was "non-polluting" and a British toilet paper claimed to be "environmentally friendlier". The study was written and researched by Britain's National Consumer Council (NCC) for lobby group Consumer International. It was funded by the German and Dutch governments and the European Commission. "While many good and useful claims are being made, it is clear there is a long way to go in ensuring shoppers are adequately informed about the environmental impact of products they buy," said Consumers International director Anna Fielder. The 10-country study surveyed product packaging in Britain. Western Europe, Scandinavia and the United States. It found that products sold in Germany and the United Kingdom made the most environmental claims on average. The report focused on claims made by specific products, such as detergent insect sprays and by some garden products. It did not test the claims, but compared them to labeling guidelines set by the International Standards Organization (ISO) in September, 1999. Researchers documented claims of environmental friendliness made by about 2,000 products and found many too vague or too misleading to meet ISO standards. "Many products had specially-designed labels to make them seem environmentally friendly, but in fact many of these symbols mean nothing," said report researcher Philip Page. "Laundry detergents made the most number of claims with 158. Household cleaners were second with 145 separate claims, while paints were third on our list with 73. The high numbers show how very confusing it must be for consumers to sort the true from the misleading." he said. The ISO labeling standards ban vague or misleading claims on product packaging, because terms such as "environmentally friendly" and "non-polluting" cannot be verified. "What we are now pushing for is to have multinational corporations meet the standards set by the ISO." said Page.

阅读理解 As regards social conventions, we must say a word about the well-known English class system. This is an embarrassing subject for English people, and one they tend to be ashamed of, though during the present century class-consciousness has grown less and less, and the class system less rigid. But it still exists below the surface. Broadly speaking, it means there are two classes, the "middle class" and the "working class". (We shall ignore for a moment the old "upper class", including the hereditary aristocracy, since it is extremely small in numbers; but some of its members have the right to sit in the House of Lords, and some newspapers take surprising interest in their private life.) The middle class consists chiefly of well-to-do businessmen and professional people of all kinds. The working class consists chiefly of manual and unskilled workers. The most obvious difference between them is in their accent. Middle-class people use slightly varying kinds of "received pronunciation" which is the kind of English spoken by BBC announcers and taught to overseas pupils. Typical working-class people speak in many different local accents which are generally felt to be rather ugly and uneducated. One of the biggest barriers of social equality in England is the two-class education system. To have been to a so-called "public school" immediately marks you out as one of the middle class. The middle classes tend to live a more formal life than working-class people, and are usually more cultured. Their midday meal is "lunch" and they have a rather formal evening meal called "dinner", whereas the working man's dinner, if his working hours permit, is at midday, and his smaller, late-evening meal is called supper. As we have said, however, the class system is much less rigid than it was, and for a long time it has been government policy to reduce class distinctions. Working-class students very commonly receive a university education and enter the professions, and working-class incomes have grown so much recently that the distinctions between the two classes are becoming less and less clear. However, regardless of one's social status, certain standards of politeness are expected of everybody, and a well-bred person is polite to everyone he meets, and treats a laborer with the same respect he gives an important businessman. Servility inspires both embarrassment and dislike. Even the word "sir", except in school and in certain occupations (e. g. commerce, the army, etc.) sounds too servile to be commonly used.

阅读理解 The mythology of a culture can provide some vital insights into the beliefs and values of that culture. By using fantastic and sometimes incredible stories to create an oral tradition by which to explain the wonders of the natural world and teach lessons to younger generations, a society exposes those ideas and concepts held most important. Just as important as the final lesson to be gathered from the stories, however, are the characters and the roles they play in conveying that message. Perhaps the epitome of mythology and its use as a tool to pass on cultural values can be found in Aesop's Fables, told and retold during the era of the Greek Empire. Aesop, a slave who won the favor of the court through his imaginative and descriptive tales, almost exclusively used animals to fill the roles in his short stories. Humans, when at all present, almost always played the part of bumbling fools struggling to learn the lesson being presented. This choice of characterization allows us to see that the Greeks placed wisdom on a level slightly beyond humans, implying that deep wisdom and understanding is a universal quality sought by, rather than stealing from, human beings. Aesop's fables illustrated the central themes of humility and self-reliance, reflecting the importance of those traits in early Greek society. The folly of humans was used to contrast against the ultimate goal of attaining a higher level of understanding and awareness of truths about nature and humanity. For example, one notable fable features a fox repeatedly trying to reach a bunch of grapes on a very high vine. After failing at several attempts, the fox gives up, making up its mind that the grapes were probably sour anyway. The fable's lesson, that we often play down that which we can't achieve so as to make ourselves feel better, teaches the reader or listener in an entertaining way about one of the weaknesses of the human psyche. The mythology of other cultures and societies reveal the underlying traits of their respective cultures just as Aesop's fables did. The stories of Roman gods, Aztec ghosts and European elves all served to train ancient generations those lessons considered most important to their community, and today they offer a powerful looking glass by which to evaluate and consider the contextual environment in which those culture existed.

应用题学生管理的特点是什么？

应用题简述说课的作用。

应用题操作技能的培训要求有哪些？

应用题简述教育对政治经济制度的影响作用。