Two Cultural DimensionsCulture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another. There are four cultural dimensions as defined in Hofstede's research, two of which are talked about.I. Power Distance Definition: the extent to which subordinates can【T1】_____ with【T1】______bosses or managers Oriental Culture: high power distanceA "Power-oriented culture": superiors are entitled more【T2】_____【T2】______— Typical countries: Malaysia, Japan, China and IndiaB. "The【T3】_____ culture": subordinates respect superiors【T3】______— Advantage: an easy managing system— Disadvantage: not favorable for【T4】_____ employees to work well【T4】______ Western Culture: low power distanceA. "The【T5】_____ culture": each higher level has a clear and【T5】______demonstrable function of holding together the level beneath itB. Leadership style: hierarchy and【T6】_____【T6】______C. Advantage: explore all the【T7】_____ of employees【T7】______D. Typical countries: Germany,【T8】_____【T8】______ Suggestion: managers and subordinates work together efficientlyand more【T9】_____【T9】______II. Uncertainty avoidance Definition: the extent to which one feels either uncomfortableor comfortable in【T10】_____ situations【T10】______ Uncertainty avoiding cultures: minimize the possibility of such situationsA By strict【T11】_____, safety and security measures【T11】______B. By a belief in【T12】_____【T12】______ High uncertainty avoidance: Japan, ChinaA Prefer job【T13】_____【T13】______B. Team work instead of independent work Low uncertainty avoidance: USA Denmark, SingaporeA High Job【T14】_____【T14】______B. Risk-taking Suggestion: pay attention to【T15】_____ set between【T15】______different uncertainty avoidance

For years, nonprofit hospitals have shied away from quantifying the amount of charitable care they provide communities. Hospital officials argue that it's almost impossible toput a dollar value on charity and doing so would take valuable【M1】______time and resources away from actually serving the need.【M2】______ The charity question is significant because nonprofit hospitals get major tax breaks. Also, because of loopholes in state laws, nonprofit hospitals are often permitted to make huge profits. Tocomplicate things further, the 2005 Government Accountability【M3】______Office study concluded that, when it comes to charity care, the "differences between nonprofit and for-profit groups were oftenbig." To make up for this, nonprofit hospitals tend to arrange deals【M4】______with city and state governments to provide "payment in lieu oftaxes"(also known as PILOT programs). But for these payments【M5】______often don't equate the hospitals' overall tax benefit and are【M6】______perceived as acts of good faith to show that hospitals are playing nice with their communities. Recent economic downturns, therefore, have shined a【M7】______detective's spotlight on the amount of charity care hospitals provide. Investigative reports have shown up in Atlanta, East Bayand Boston newspapers question charity care policies. The Boston【M8】______Globe report calculated that Boston's "10 leading hospital companies benefited from an estimated $638 million in federal,state, and local tax breaks as well state discounts on borrowing in【M9】______2007, which accounts to $264 million more than the value of【M10】______care for the poor and other charity work."

I came to Africa with one purpose: I wanted to see the world outside the perspective of European egocentricity. I could have chosen Asia or South America. I ended up in Africa because the plane ticket there was cheapest. I came and I stayed. For nearly 25 years I have lived off andon Mozambique. Time has passed, and I'm no longer young; in【M1】______fact, I'm approaching to old age. But my motive for living this【M2】______straddled existence, with one foot in African sand and the another【M3】______in European snow, in the melancholy region of Norrland inSweden that I grew up, has to do with wanting to see clearly, to【M4】______understand. The simplest way to explain what I've learned from my life in Africa is through a parable about why human beings have two earsand only one tongue. Why is this? Probably so that we have to【M5】______listen twice as much as we speak. In Africa listening is a guided principle. It's a principle that【M6】______has lost in the constant chatter of the Western world, where no one【M7】______seems to have the time or even the desire to listen to anyone else. From my own experience, I've noticed how much faster I have toanswer a question during a TV interview than what I did 10,【M8】______maybe even 5, years ago. It's as if we have complete lost the【M9】______ability to listen. We talk and talk, and we end up frightening by【M10】______silence, the refuge of those who are at a loss for an answer.

Yoga, the ancient practice of postures, breathing and meditation, is gaining a lot of attention from the material world that its serious practitioners are trying to escape. Yoga practitioners aretrying to keep themselves away from the material world. But no【S1】______wonder Americans who practice yoga are often well-educated, havehigher-than-average household incomes and are willing to spend a【S2】______bit more on so-called " green" purchases seen as benefited the【S3】______environment or society. "It's kind of growing out of the crunchy stage of yoga to theStarbucks stage," said Bill Harper, a publisher of Yoga Journal.【S4】______"From the videos and the clothes and the toe socks... people arepursuing after this market with a vengeance. "【S5】______ A glance through recent issues of his month magazine, whose【S6】______readership has doubled in the past four years to 325,000, illustrate【S7】______the point. There are four-color ads from the like of Asics athletic【S8】______shoes, Eileen fisher apparel and Ford Motor Co. Yoga Journal is now licensing a Russian edition and preparing to expand in other international markets. Americans spend some $2. 95 billion a year for yoga classes,【S9】______equipment, clothing, holidays, videos and more, according to a study commissioned by the magazine, fuelled in part by aged baby boomers seeking less aggressive ways to stay fit. Roughly 16. 5 million people were practising yoga in the United States early lastyear, in studios, gyms or home, up 43 percent from 2002, the【S10】______study found. Established sellers of yoga gear such as Hugger Mugger and Gaiam have been flooded with competition in the market for yoga mats, incense, clothing and fancy accoutrements ranging from designer yoga bags to eye pillows.

Being able to choose the sex of children in advance is nothing new—parents undergoing IVF treatment for infertility have been able to cherry-pick male or female embryos for implantation at US clinics for some time. However, there is a ban on sex selection in many countries. Stephen Wilkinson, Professor of Bioethics at Keele University, illustrates his viewpoint on the issue in the following article. Read it carefully and write your response in NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly Wilkinson's opinion; 2. give your comment. For millennia, people have sought to influence the gender of their offspring and there are numerous folk myths about, for example, the effect of different sexual positions or foods on your baby's sex. Nowadays there are some much more reliable methods, like preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). This involves creating several embryos outside the body and implanting only male or female ones. Another option is sperm sorting, which involves dividing a sperm sample into "male" and "female" subgroups. I believe that we should allow sex selection in the UK within the context of our carefully regulated reproductive medicine sector. In some other parts of the world, sex selection is available on demand, provided that you are able and willing to pay for it. In the UK, it is not. Available evidence suggests that, in Western Europe, the number of parents preferring boys is roughly the same as the number preferring girls. As well as concerns about population sex ratio, people often cite moral objections to sex selection, like saying children should be regarded as "gifts" meaning there should be no attempt by parents to pick and choose their characteristics. Others say sex selection is sexist and that allowing it here would make it harder for countries where a ban on sex selection may well be justified to resist All of these arguments can be countered. Firstly, should parents regard their children as "gifts"? Children are not literally gifts, or if they are, from God perhaps, then they are no more gifts than other positive things in life.Yet we don't, in general, say that it's wrong to attempt to shape life's positive things by, for example, choosing a career, or a house, or a partner. Secondly, sex selection is not necessarily sexist. While there are no doubt some prospective parents who think that men are superior to women (or vice versa), for most the choice is just a preference. A pertinent example here is what's called family balancing—where a family that already has three boys wants to add a girl to even things up. Finally, the fear that allowing sex selection here would open the floodgates elsewhere is unfounded. Considering that sex selection in other countries is already happening on a grand scale anyway, despite the fact that the UK does not allow "social" sex selection. Our "setting a good example" by prohibiting sex selection does not seem to be making much difference. So, while I am not a sex selection enthusiast, and certainly don't think that it should be encouraged or paid for by the NHS (except to avoid sex-linked disease) the arguments for prohibiting it are not as strong as they may at first appear. There is real cost and harm attached to the ban: some people are distressed by not being able to have the family of their choice, while others are forced to turn to seeking treatment overseas. I believe that we should allow sex selection in the UK within the context of our carefully regulated reproductive medicine sector.

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{{B}}SECTION A MINI-LECTUREIn this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the mini-lecture, please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may use the blank sheet for note-taking.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.{{/B}}

As we have seen, there is nothing about language as such that makes linguistic identity coextensive with national identity. "If hespeaks French, he is by any means necessarily French." French is【M1】______not the private property of Frenchmen, as English of English【M2】______people. This should be obvious when one reflects that English is the mother-tongue in Canada, the United States, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and many other areas of the world. Yet many of usstill half-consciously feel that when anyone no other than an【M3】______Englishman uses English, we have a special right to criticise hisusage because he has privileged to handle something that is in the【M4】______Englishman's gift. We feel that he must necessarily look us for a【M5】______"standard", because it is "our" language. It is reasonable to regard【M6】______any language as the property of a particular nation,and with no language is it more irrational than with English. This is not to saythat English is used by a great number of speakers than any other【M7】______language: it is easily outnumbered in this respect with Chinese.Whereas it is the most international of languages.【M8】______ To people in Africa or Pakistan or Chile, English is the obvious foreign language to master, not merely because it is the native language in Great Britain and the United States, but because itprovides a readiest access to the cream of world scholarship and to【M9】______the bulk of world trade. It is understanding more widely than any【M10】______other language.

Supreme Court justices seemed reluctant on Wednesday to disallow a type of agreement between employers and unions that has become increasingly important to the labor movement as it tries to grow its ranks. The case involves neutrality agreements, which a union lawyer told the court are commonly used in organizing hotel and casino workers. Under such an agreement, an employer might remain neutral during the organizing campaign and even grant the union access to company grounds or lists of employees. In return, the union might agree to give up the right to strike or throw its support to a matter important to the company. "Many employers and unions find agreements such as this useful to avoid conflict during organizing campaigns," lawyer Richard G. McCracken told the court at Wednesday's arguments. He represents Unite Here, a union seeking to represent employees of a Hollywood, Fla., greyhound track and casino. "They are efficient. They avoid the hard feelings that come in many contested organizing campaigns and thereby create a good environment for collective bargaining," McCracken said. But some business organizations and right-to-work groups say businesses often are bullied into entering into such agreements. The case before the court resulted from a lawsuit brought by Martin Mulhall, who worked for the Florida Company Mardi Gras Gaming. While other federal appeals courts have upheld such agreements, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit said the neutrality agreement at issue violated a section of the Labor Management Relations Act. It forbids an employer to "pay, lend, or deliver any money or other thing of value" to a labor union seeking to organize the company's workers. In this case, the casino allowed the union access to its employees and agreed to election rules allowing employees to vote by checking a card in front of others rather than by secret ballot. The union made concessions as well and also agreed to spend $ 100,000 to support a 2006 referendum to allow slot machines at the casino. The labor act bans employer payments to unions to discourage bribes and corruption. McCracken argued that the "thing of value" language wasn't meant to cover what are routine matters of collective bargaining. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said access to company grounds would seem like a thing of value. And Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said he did not see how the employer's agreement to a "card-check" election rather than secret ballot could not be seen as a benefit. "The union organizer comes up to you and says, 'Well, here's a card. You can check I want to join the union, or two, I don't want a union. Which will it be?' And there's a bunch of your fellow workers gathered around as you fill out the card." Roberts said. Deputy Solicitor General Michael R. Dreeben, arguing for the government on behalf of Unite Here, said the court had decided in previous cases that card-check elections are legitimate. William L. Messenger, a lawyer for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation representing Mulhall, received tougher questioning. Messenger said it should be clear that the casino had given the union a thing of value. "If the employer gives this assistance and the union gives something in return—for example, here the $100,000 political campaign and agreement not to strike—then it becomes a payment, because the consideration shows payment," he said. But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the 11th Circuit's decision was not that neutrality agreements necessarily violated the law. It wanted a lower court to discern whether the specific agreement was corrupt. Justice Elena Kagan led Messenger through a series of accommodations she said were accepted practice in labor negotiations that he would find objectionable in a neutrality agreement. Kagan asked, did he think "the National Labor Relations Act prohibits employers from providing access to their premises, from granting a union a list of employees, or from declaring itself neutral as to a union election"? When he answered, "Yes, with caveats," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy asked Messenger if he acknowledged that his answer "is contrary to years of settled practices and understandings." Still, both liberal and conservative justices questioned the union's pledge to spend $100,000 on the slot machine referendum. "That $ 100,000 is troubling to me because I think what the circuit was saying is if the $100,000 bought the peaceful recognition provisions, then that's corrupt, and that is outside the exemptions that the law provides," said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. McCracken said the money was not given to Mardi Gras, but spent in an effort to make sure the company was successful and there would be more jobs. "It was actually the union's own exercise of its speech and petition rights as it campaigned for the passage of the initiative that would allow the company to get into business in the first place as a casino," he said.

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TV dating shows now have caused more controversies than praises. Inappropriate statements of materialism are often put out in these shows, which have led to a restriction and cutbacks on dating shows. The following article provides detailed information about this issue. Read it carefully and write your response in No Less Than 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the article, and then 2. express your opinion towards dating shows, especially whether we should restrict and even cut down the dating shows broadcast. China's TV Dating Shows: for Love or Money? For a small but increasingly high-profile number of young women in modern-day China, true love is all about the numbers. At least, that's the way things look if you watch Chinese television these days. Though China was slow to pick up on the reality-programming trend, a host of dating shows have emerged in recent years, capturing millions of viewers but angering critics who say the programs promote negative, non-traditional values among urban Chinese youth. The televised Smackdown swept the Internet and the resistance among young Chinese was especially severe, reflecting growing anxieties over the widening gap between rich and poor, shifting societal values and the difficulties of finding a mate in a country where men are expected to outnumber women by 24 million in a decade. "Yes, the world needs money, but your idea that money is the master of everything is not right." one netizen, Wang Xi Jie, wrote on the popular Internet forum Tianya.cn. Another blogger, Xie Yong, wrote on the Web portal Sohu.com: "The most controversial aspect of these programs is the value contestants place on money worshipping and rich people. These opinions are so contrary to traditional values. But we can't do anything if these people just like ugly things." In response to inappropriate statements of materialism, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) issued a harsh set of new rules for matchmaking programs. "Incorrect social and love values such as money worship should not be presented in the shows," the notice read. It also banned "morally provocative hosts and hostesses" and demanded that participants undergo stricter screening procedures and "be cautious before mouthing extreme remarks." Now the state is going after money worshippers and gold diggers. Liu Yunchao, a male contestant, was also condemned in the blogosphere for his arrogance after he bragged about having 6 million yuan in the bank and three sports cars. As disgusted as viewers have been by some of the contestants, however, they continue to watch religiously. "Audiences like the programs because they're honest. They show the current reality of Chinese society," says Yan Mu, one of the founders of Baihe.com, an online dating service. Young people are so focused on making money and building their careers these days, they have little time to devote to dating—and contestants speak to these difficulties on the shows, he says. "Many people feel pressure from their parents and peers," Yan adds. "It can be a struggle to find a partner." Money may not buy you love. But on China's reality shows, it can at least get you a date.

(1)As humankind moves into the third millennium, it can rightfully claim to have broken new ground in its age-old quest to master the environment. The fantastic achievements of modern technology and the speed at which scientific discoveries are translated into technological applications attest to the triumph of human endeavour. (2)At the same time, however, some of these applications threaten to unleash forces over which we have no control. In other words, the new technology Man now believes allows him to dominate this wider cosmos could well be a Frankenstein monster waiting to turn on its master. (3)This is an entirely new situation that promises to change many of the perceptions governing life on the planet. The most acute challenges facing the future are likely to be not only those pitting man against his fellow man, but those involving humankind's struggle to preserve the environment and ensure the sustainability of life on earth. (4)A conflict waged to ensure the survival of the human species is bound to bring humans closer together. Technological progress has thus proved to be a double-edged sword, giving rise to a new form of conflict: a clash between Man and Nature. (5)The new conflict is more dangerous than the traditional one between man and his fellow man, where the protagonists at least shared a common language. But when it comes to the reactions of the ecosystems to the onslaught of modern technology, there is no common language. (6)Nature reacts with weather disturbances, with storms and earthquakes, with mutant viruses and bacteria— that is, with phenomena having no apparent cause and effect relationship with the modern technology that supposedly triggers them. (7)As technology becomes ever more potent and Nature reacts ever more violently, there is an urgent need to rethink how best to deal with the growing contradictions between Man and Nature. (8)For a start, the planet, and hence all its inhabitants, must be perceived as an integral whole, not as a dichotomous mass divided geographically into the rich and developed and the poor and underdeveloped. (9)Today, globalization encompasses the whole world and deals with it as an integral unit. It is no longer possible to say that conflict has shifted from its traditional east-west axis to a north-south axis. The real divide today is between summit and base, between the higher echelons of the international political structure and its grassroots level, between governments and NGOs, between state and civil society, between public and private enterprise. (10)The mesh structure is particularly obvious on the Internet. While it is true that to date the Internet seems to be favouring the most developed sectors of the international community over the less developed, this need not always be the case. Indeed, it could eventually overcome the disparities between the privileged and the underdeveloped. (11)On the other hand, the macro-world in which we live is exposed to distortions because of the unpredictable side-effects of a micro-world we do not and cannot totally control. (12)This raises the need for a global system of checks and balances, for mandatory rules and constraints in our dealings with Nature, in short, for a new type of veto designed to manage what is increasingly becoming a main contradiction of our time: the one between technology and ecology. (13)A new type of international machinery must be set in place to cope with the new challenges. We need a new look at the harnessing of scientific discoveries, to maximize their positive effects for the promotion of humanity as a whole and to minimize their negative effects. We need an authority with veto powers to forbid practices conducive to decreasing the ozone hole, the propagation of AIDS, global warming, desertification—an authority that will tackle such global problems. (14)There should be no discontinuity in the global machinery responsible for world order. The UN in its present form may fall far short of what is required of it, and it may be undemocratic and detrimental to most citizens in the world, but its absence would be worse. And so we have to hold on to the international organization even as we push forward for its complete restructuring. (15)Our best hope would be that the functions of the present United Nations are gradually taken over by the new machinery of veto power representing genuine democratic globalization.

... Finally, one of the primary purposes of art is to【T1】 1 at hand. Subject matter does not change all that much over time. Although new subject matter has been evolved, the human condition,【T2】 2, and events still continue to capture the attention of artists. The media used have changed relatively little: though new materials have appeared in this century, 【T3】 3 continue to be used. Nor can we say that the quality or artistic merit of art works has increased or lessened with time. However, throughout the course of history as society has changed, so also has the【T4】 4. A portrait executed in 1900s could rarely be confused with one done in the 1600s. Even landscape is reinterpreted in the context of a changing world. Each work is an expression of the subject in the context of【T5】 5, and events of its specific era. OK. I have briefly outlined some important and prevalent purposes of art for you. I am sure you now have a better understanding about art and its【T6】 6. Next time, we shall talk about art and... ... Finally, one of the primary purposes of art is to【T1】 7 at hand. Subject matter does not change all that much over time. Although new subject matter has been evolved, the human condition,【T2】 8, and events still continue to capture the attention of artists. The media used have changed relatively little: though new materials have appeared in this century, 【T3】 9 continue to be used. Nor can we say that the quality or artistic merit of art works has increased or lessened with time. However, throughout the course of history as society has changed, so also has the【T4】 10. A portrait executed in 1900s could rarely be confused with one done in the 1600s. Even landscape is reinterpreted in the context of a changing world. Each work is an expression of the subject in the context of【T5】 11, and events of its specific era. OK. I have briefly outlined some important and prevalent purposes of art for you. I am sure you now have a better understanding about art and its【T6】 12. Next time, we shall talk about art and... 【T1】

The fact that we are not sure what "intelligence" is, nor what is passed on does not prevent us from finding it a very useful working concept, and places a certain amount of reliance on tests which "measure" it.

Passage Four

Global LanguageI. WHAT? Learned and spoken internationally 【T1】______:【T1】______- the number of native and second language speakers-【T2】_____ distribution【T2】______- the use in international organizations and in【T3】_____【T3】______ Lingua franca: spoken by those who wield powere.g.【T4】_____ in the Roman Empire【T4】______ A global language- the political power of its native speakers- the economic power to maintain and expand its positionII. WHY? The modern global village Modern【T5】_____【T5】______ Globalized trade 【T6】_____【T6】______ The emergence of large international bodiesIII. GOOD OR NOT? Global language vs. minority languages- A direct threat in areas where the global languageis the【T7】_____ language【T7】______- Galvanize and strengthen movements to support and protectminority languages e.g. Welsh in Wales,【T8】_____【T8】______ Natural speakers of the global language may be at an unfair advantageover【T9】_____ speakers【T9】______ The exclusion of other languages may be a threat tothe ideas of【T10】_____【T10】______ Linguistic complacencyIV. ENGLISH? The most widely spoken language in the fields ofa)businessb)academicsc)educationd)politicse)sciencef)【T11】_____, etc.【T11】______- The UN- 85% of international organizations: one of official languages-【T12】_____ of international organizations: English only【T12】______-【T13】_____ among Asian: English only【T13】______ Reasons- Initiation: British【T14】_____ and industrial power【T14】______between the 17th and 20th Centuries- Consolidation: American dominance in economy and【T15】_____【T15】______

A folk culture is small isolated, cohesive, conservative, nearly self-sufficient group that is homogeneous in custom and race with a strong family or clan structure and highly developed rituals.

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When the Viaduct de Millau opened in the south of France in 2004, this tallest bridge in the world won worldwide compliments. German newspapers described how it "floated above the clouds" with "elegance and lightness" and "breathtaking" beauty. In France, papers praised the "immense concrete giant". Was it mere coincidence that the Germans saw beauty where the French saw heft and power? Lera Boroditsky thinks not. A psychologist at Stanford University, she has long been intrigued by an age-old question whose modern form dates to 1956, when linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf asked whether the language we speak shapes the way we think and see the world. If so, then language is not merely a means of expressing thought, but a constraint on it, too. Although philosophers, anthropologists, and others have weighed in, with most concluding that language does not shape thought in any significant way, the field has been notable for a distressing lack of empiricism—as in testable hypotheses and actual data. That's where Boroditsky comes in. In a series of clever experiments guided by pointed questions, she is amassing evidence that, yes, language shapes thought. The effect is powerful enough, she says, that "the private mental lives of speakers of different languages may differ dramatically," not only when they are thinking in order to speak, "but in all manner of cognitive tasks," including basic sensory perception. "Even a small fluke of grammar"—the gender of nouns—"can have an effect on how people think about things in the world," she says. As in that bridge, in German, the noun for bridge, Brucke, is feminine. In French, pont is masculine. German speakers saw female features; French speakers, masculine ones. Similarly, Germans describe keys (Schlussel) with words such as hard, heavy, jagged, and metal, while to Spaniards keys (Haves) are golden, intricate, little, and lovely. Guess which language interprets key as masculine and which as feminine? Language even shapes what we see. People have a better memory for colors if different shades have distinct names—not English's light blue and dark blue, for instance, but Russian's goluboy and sinly. Skeptics of the language-shapes-thought claim have argued that that's a trivial finding, showing only that people remember what they saw in both a visual form and a verbal one, but not proving that they actually see the hues differently. In an ingenious experiment, however, Boroditsky and colleagues showed volunteers three color swatches and asked them which of the bottom two was the same as the top one. Native Russian speakers were faster than English speakers when the colors had distinct names, suggesting that having a name for something allows you to perceive it more sharply. Similarly, Korean uses one word for "in" when one object is in another snugly (a letter in an envelope), and a different one when an object is in something loosely (an apple in a bowl). Sure enough, Korean adults are better than English speakers at distinguishing tight fit from loose fit. In Australia, the Aboriginal Kuuk Thaayorre use compass directions for every spatial cue rather than right or left, leading to locutions such as "there is an ant on your southeast leg. " The Kuuk Thaayorre are also much more skillful than English speakers at dead reckoning, even in unfamiliar surroundings or strange buildings. Their language "equips them to perform navigational feats once thought beyond human capabilities," Boroditsky wrote on Edge.org. Science has only scratched the surface of how language affects thought. In Russian, verb forms indicate whether the action was completed or not—as in "she ate (and finished)the pizza." In Turkish, verbs indicate whether the action was observed or merely rumored. Boroditsky would love to run an experiment testing whether native Russian speakers are better than others at noticing if an action is completed, and if Turks have a heightened sensitivity to fact versus hearsay. Similarly, while English says "she broke the bowl," even if it smashed accidentally (she dropped something on it, say), Spanish and Japanese describe the same event more like "the bowl broke itself. "" When we show people video of the same event," says Boroditsky, " English speakers remember who was to blame even in an accident, but Spanish and Japanese speakers remember it less well than they do intentional actions. It raises questions about whether language affects even something as basic as how we construct our ideas of causality. "