What are the two speakers talking about? What are the two speakers talking about?

Some years ago, Pioneer Hi-bred International, where I was employed, purchased Norand Corporation. Pioneer' s sales representatives used Norand hand-held terminals to upload daily sales information and download new price and sales incentive information. Pioneer bought so many of these hand-held terminals, the economics made the purchase of Norand look interesting. 【T1】Owning Norand also allowed Pioneer to explore high-technology markets outside agriculture. But after several years, the emerging laptop PC technology made the hand-held units out-of-date. Pioneer sold Norand at a loss. 【T2】Pioneer always took a given percent of the annual profits to divide equally among all employees, so our profit-sharing checks were lower than if Pioneer had not purchased Norand. Additionally, my Pioneer stock was lower than it had been before the purchase of Norand. I was not pleased. 【T3】The CEO of Pioneer, Tom Urban, made annual formal visits to each of the Pioneer divisions to talk about the state of the business and to listen to employees' concerns. When he went into the meeting room for his first visit after the sale of Norand, he acknowledged the group, removed his jacket and neatly folded it across the back of the chair. He loosened his tie, undid his collar and rolled up his sleeves. What he said next was the last thing I ever expected to hear a CEO say. He said, "I made a mistake buying Norand and I am sorry. I am sorry your profit-sharing was lower because of the purchase, and I am sorry your stock was hurt by the purchase. I will continue to take risks, but I am a bit smarter now, and I will work harder for you. "The room was quiet for a moment before he asked for questions. A great man and leader stood before us that day. 【T4】As I sat listening to him, I knew I could trust him, and that he deserved every bit of loyalty I could give to him and to Pioneer. I also knew I could take risks in my own job. 【T5】In the brief moment of silence before the questions started, I recalled thinking that I would follow him into any battle.

Bill Gates, the billionaire Microsoft chairman without a single earned university degree, is by his success raising new doubts about the worth of the business world' s favorite academic title: the MBA(Master of Business Administration). The MBA, a 20th century product, always has borne the mark of lowly commerce and greed on the tree-lined campuses ruled by purer disciplines such as philosophy and literature. But even with the recession apparently cutting into the hiring of business school graduates, about 79,000 people were expected to receive MBAs in 1993. This is nearly 16 times the number of business graduates in 1960, a testimony to the widespread assumption that the MBA is vital for young men and women who want to run companies some day. " If you are going into the corporate world it is still a disadvantage not to have one, " said Donald Morrison, professor of marketing and management science. "But in the last five years or so, when someone asks, ' Should I attempt to get an MBA?' The answer a lot more is: ' It depends. ' " The success of Bill Gates and other non-MBAs, such as the late Sam Walton of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , has helped inspire self-conscious debates on business school campuses over the worth of a business degree and whether management skills can be taught. The Harvard Business Review printed a lively, fictional exchange of letters to dramatize complaints about business degree holders. The article called MBA hires "extremely disappointing" and said " MB As want to move up too fast, they don' t understand politics and people, and they aren' t able to function as part of a team until their third year. But by then, they' re out looking for other jobs. " The problem, most participants in the debate acknowledge, is that the MBA has acquired an image of future riches and power far beyond its actual importance and usefulness. Enrollment in business schools exploded in the 1970s and 1980s and created the assumption that no one who pursued a business career could do without one. The growth was fueled by a drive against the anti-business values of the 1960s and by the women' s movement. Business people who have hired or worked with MB As say those with the degrees often know how to analyze systems but are not so skillful at motivating people. " They don' t get a lot of grounding in the people side of the business", said James Shaffer, vice-president and principal of the Towers Perrin Management Consulting Firm.

What is Einstein' s greatest contribution to human beings? What is Einstein' s greatest contribution to human beings?

[A] The first and more important is the consumer' s growing preference for eating out: the consumption of food and drink in places other than homes has risen from about 32 percent of total consumption in 1995 to 35 percent in 2000 and is expected to approach 38 percent by 2005. This development is boosting wholesale demand from the food service segment by 4 to 5 percent a year across Europe, compared with growth in retail demand of 1 to 2 percent. Meanwhile, as the recession is looming large, people are getting anxious. They tend to keep a tighter hold on their purse and consider eating at home a realistic alternative. [B] Retail sales of food and drink in Europe' s largest markets are at a standstill, leaving European grocery retailers hungry for opportunities to grow. Most leading retailers have already tried e-commerce, with limited success, and expansion abroad. But almost all have ignored the big, profitable opportunity in their own backyard: the wholesale food and drink trade, which ap-pears to be just the kind of market retailers need. [C] Will such variations bring about a change in the overall structure of the food and drink market? Definitely not. The functioning of the market is based, on flexible trends dominated by potential buyers. In other words, it is up to the buyer, rather than the seller, to decide what to buy. At any rate, this change will ultimately be acclaimed by an ever-growing number of both domestic and international consumers, regardless of how long the current consumer pattern will take hold. [D] All in all, this clearly seems to be a market in which big retailers could profitably apply their gigantic scale, existing infrastructure, and proven skills in the management of product ranges, logistics, and marketing intelligence. Retailers that master the intricacies of wholesaling in Europe may well expect to rake in substantial profits thereby. At least, that is how it looks as a whole. Closer inspection reveals important differences among the biggest national markets, especially in their customer segments and wholesale structures, as well as the competitive dynamics of individual food and drink categories. Big retailers must understand these differences before they can identify the segments of European wholesaling in which their particular abilities might unseat smaller but entrenched competitors. New skills and unfamiliar business models are needed too. [E] Despite variations in detail, wholesale markets in the countries that have been closely examined—France, Germany, Italy and Spain—are made out of the same building blocks. Demand comes mainly from two sources; independent mom-and-pop grocery stores which, unlike large retail chains, are too small to buy straight from producers, and food service operators that cater to consumers when they don' t eat at home. Such food service operators range from snack machines to large institutional catering ventures, but most of these businesses are known in the trade as "horeca" : hotels, restaurants, and cafes. Overall, Europe' s wholesale market for food and drink is growing at the same sluggish pace as the retail market, but the figures, when added together, mask two opposing trends. [F] For example, wholesale food and drink sales came to $268 billion in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom in 2000—more than 40 percent of retail sales. Moreover, average overall margins are higher in wholesale than in retail; wholesale demand from the food service sector is growing quickly as more Europeans eat out more often; and changes in the competitive dynamics of this fragmented industry are at last making it feasible for wholesalers to considerate. [G] However, none of these requirements should deter large retails (and even some large food producers and existing wholesalers) from trying their hand, for those that master the intricacies of wholesaling in Europe stand to reap considerable gains. Order:

What hasn' t Devorah Day involved in? What hasn' t Devorah Day involved in?

U. S. health officials are increasing surveillance measures at doctors' offices and international borders to guard against the spread of swine flu. Washington also has begun dispersing medicine from a federal stockpile. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there have been only mild cases of swine flu in the United States, but experts remain on guard. Acting agency director, Richard Besser, says the epidemic in Mexico prompted U. S. doctors to begin monitoring actively for possible infections. "We are asking doctors when they see someone who has flu-like illness who has traveled to an affected region, to do a culture, take a swab in the nose and send it to the lab so we can see: is it influenza, is it this type?" he said. Speaking Sunday at the White House, Besser said the extra detection efforts have enabled officials to find more infections than under normal circumstances. He also says he expects the number of infections will rise and the illness will spread to other U. S. regions, as doctors continue to monitor the problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it does not recommend people travel to Mexico, where the outbreak of swine flu is centered and more than 100 deaths have been reported. But officials have not ordered a travel ban to the country. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says, instead, airlines have the option of screening passengers on flights from Mexico. "We are letting air carriers and our employees at the gates on those flights make sure that they are asking people if they are sick; and if they are sick, that they should not board the plane, " she said. Denise Korniewiez, an infectious disease expert at the University of Miami, says officials should take bolder steps to screen passengers at international borders, as Japan and other Asian nations are doing. "We have a very transient population here. And Japan has taken a lot of precautions. What Japan is doing is they are making everyone take a temperature when they get off the airplane, " she said. "As far as I am concerned, I think that is a good idea. U. S. officials say they are holding off on more aggressive actions because the outbreak has been limited in the United States and they do not want to cause a health scare. Korniewicz says around the country health centers are putting in place emergency response measures aimed at limiting disease outbreaks.

How does a whale keep itself warm? How does a whale keep itself warm?

What is the most fundamental difference between plants and animals? What is the most fundamental difference between plants and animals?

Read the following text(s) and write an essay to 1) summarize the main points of the text(s), 2)make clear your own viewpoints, and 3) justify your stand. In your essay, make full use of the information provided in the text(s). If you use more than three consecutive words from the text(s), use quotation marks(" "). You should write 160 -200 words on the ANSWER SHEET. Plastic, it seems, is no longer fantastic. Even Hollywood, that factory of artifice, is demanding a return to reality when it comes to women's bodies. Disney Studio' s recent casting call for female extras for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film included a surprise announcement; "Must have real breasts. Do not submit if you have implants. " Surgically enhanced breasts might still be considered sexy or essential by airhead starlets and models, but the new buzzword in America is "authenticity". That' s why, for women in the public eye, having fake breasts is looking increasingly less like a career move and more like career suicide. Another indication that fake breasts are going bust is the fact that television shows such as Extreme Makeover and The Swan (TV which promised to nip and tuck ordinary women into goddesses) have been cancelled, while statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery show that the number of breast enlargements in America fell from 365,000 to 312,000 last year. In many surveys, research has shown that the larger the breasts, the more stupid a woman is considered to be. Other women, meanwhile, consider women with large breasts as a threat—so having a surgical enhancement is a lose-lose situation. Chantelle Houghton (from Big Brother remember her?) almost immediately regretted getting implants to boost her chest and admits that they were "taking over her life" , and she had to resort to physiotherapy to deal with the back pain they caused. Even Sharon Osborne, voted the queen of nip and tuck, said recently: "I wish I'd never had my breasts done. It's like having a waterbed on your chest. I hate them. I want to have the bags taken out—then I'll put them on eBay. " The more stories we hear like this the better, because then perhaps young women will realize that large breasts aren' t the assets they thinkthey are—or Hollywood has made them out to be.

More than 30,000 drivers and passengers who sit in the front of the vehicles are killed or seriously injured each year. At a speed of only 30 miles per hour it is the same as falling from a third-floor building. Wearing a seat belt saves lives: it reduces your chance of death or serious injury by more than a half. Therefore drivers or front seat passengers over 14 in most vehicles must wear a seat belt. If you do not, you will be fined up to ￡ 50. It will not be up to the drivers to make sure you wear your belt. But it will be the driver's responsibility to make sure that children under 14 do not ride in the front unless they are wearing a seat belt of some kind. However, when you're reversing your car, you do not have to wear a seat belt; or when you are making a local delivery or collection using a special vehicle; or if you have a valid medical certificate which excuses you from wearing it. Make sure these circumstances apply to you before you decide not to wear your seat belt. Remember that you may be taken to court for not doing so, and you may be fined if you cannot prove that you have been excused from wearing it.

In the 1960s the West Coast became an important center for rock music. Los Angeles and Southern California are famous for sunshine and surfing. There, a quieter kind of rock called surf rock became famous. The Beach Boys sang songs like "Surfin' U. S. A. " , "California Girls" and "Fun, Fun, Fun". These songs made people dream about the good life in California. San Francisco was a center for young people and rock music in the late 1960s. This was the time of the Vietnam War, student protest, hippies, and drugs. Hippies talked about love and peace. They wore brightly colored clothes and had long hair. They listened to rock and folk-rock music. Drugs were a serious problem during that time. The deaths of three young rock stars, Janis Jo-pling, Jim Morrison and the great guitar player Jimi Hendrix were all related to drugs. Not all of the rock musicians came from California or the U. S. A. . That was the time of the great British rock groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. British rock musicians had a very important place in the rock music of the 1960s in America. Another kind of softer rock music was created by the singers. Singers like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor wrote their own lyrics and their own music. Their songs were about love and friendship, good and bad times. In the 1960s big rock concerts were very welcomed by everyone. The most famous concert was Woodstock. In 1969 in New York State, a million young people came together to hear the rock stars. This peaceful Woodstock concert was the most important musical event of the 1960s. After World War II a great number of black people moved from the South to the big industrial cities like New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia. Many black people lived in poor parts of the city such as Harlem in New York. Musicians wrote and sang about life in the big cities. Life was difficult but music and dancing made it a little easier. Popular black music had a strong beat for dancing. At first this music was called rhythm and blues. The 1960s called it soul. In Detroit, a black musician named Berry Gordy set up an all black record company. It was called Motown. Motown or motor town is another name for Detroit, where cars are made. Most of the famous soul musicians like the Supremes, the Temptations, and the Jackson Five recorded with Motown.

"Intelligence"at best is an assumptive construct — the word' s meaning has never been clear. 【T1】There is more agreement on the kinds of behavior referred to by the term than there is on how to interpret or classify them. But it is generally agreed that a person who has high intelligence is one who can grasp ideas readily, make distinctions, reason logically, and use verbal and mathematical symbols in solving problems. An intelligence test is a rough measure of a child's capacity for learning, particularly for learning the kinds of things required in school. It does not measure character, social adjustment, physical endurance, manual skills, or artistic abilities. It is not supposed to — it was not designed for such purposes. 【T2】To criticize it for such failure is roughly comparable to criticizing a thermometer for not measuring wind velocity. The other thing we should notice is that the assessment of the intelligence of any subject is essentially a comparative affair. 【T3】Now since the assessment of intelligence is a comparative matter we must be sure that the scale with which we are comparing our subjects provides a "valid" or "fair" comparison. It is here that some of the difficulties which interest us begin. Any test performed involves at least three factors: the intention to do one's best, the knowledge required for understanding what you must do, and the intellectual ability to do it. 【T4】The first two must be equal for all who are being compared, if any comparison in terms of intelligence is to be made. In school populations in our culture these assumptions can be made fair and reasonable, and the value of intelligence testing has been proved thoroughly. Its value lies, of course, in its providing a satisfactory basis for prediction. Nobody is in the least interested in the marks a little child gets on his test; what we are interested in is whether we can conclude from his mark on the test that the child will do better or worse than other children of his age at tasks which we think require"general intelligence". 【T5】On the whole, such a conclusion can be drawn with a certain degree of confidence, but only if the child can be assumed to have had the same attitude towards the test as the other with whom he is being compared, and only if he was not punished by lack of relevant information which they possessed.

How long does a master' s degree take in Switzerland? How long does a master' s degree take in Switzerland?

Parents now have a popular belief that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, greatly different ideas about how to teach it or how much priority(优先)it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is that how to encourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing without holding him back with the complexities of spelling. If spelling becomes the only focal point of his teacher's interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to "play safe". He will be prone to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to a-void adventurous language. That's why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability. I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience : " This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling errors and your writing is illegible(难以辨认的). "It may have been a sharp criticism of the pupil's technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had omitted to read the essay, which included some beautiful expressions of the child's deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centred on the child's ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more motivation(动力)to seek improvement.

Some doctors are taking an unusual new approach to communicate better with patients—they are letting【C1】______read the notes that physicians normally share only with each other. After meeting with patients, doctors typically jot【C2】______notes on a range of topics, from musings about possible diagnoses to observations about【C3】______ a patient is getting a- long with a spouse. The notes are used to justify the bill, and may be audited. But the main idea is to have a written record【C4】______insights into the patient' s condition for the next visit or for other doctors to see. A study currently under way,【C5】______the OpenNotes project, is looking at what happens【C6】______doctors-notes become available for a patient to read, usually【C7】______e- lectronic medical records. In a report on the early stages of the study, published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers say that inviting patients to review the【C8】______can improve patients understanding of their own health and get them to stick to their treatment regimens【C9】______closely. But researchers also point to possible downsides: Patients may panic if their doctor speculates 【C10】______writing about cancer or heart disease, leading to a flood of follow-up calls and emails. And doctors say they worry that some medical terms can be taken the【C11】______way by patients. For instance,【C12】______phrase "the patient appears SOB"【C13】______ to shortness of breath, not a derogatory designation. And OD is short for oculus dexter, or right eye,【C14】______for overdose. Medical providers have been stepping up efforts to improve doctor-patient communication, in part【C15】______studies show it can result in better patient outcomes. The introduction of electronic medical records in recent years has helped to achieve that.

I remember the way the light touched her hair. She turned her head, and our eyes met, a momentary awareness in that raucous fifth grade classroom. I felt as though I' d been struck a blow under the heart. Thus began my first love affair. Her name was Rachel, and I mooned my way through the grade and high school, stricken at the mere sight of her, tongue-tied in her presence. Does anyone, anymore, linger in the shadows of evening, drawn by the pale light of a window—her window—like some hapless summer insect? That delirious swooning, asexual but urgent and obsessive, that made me awkward and my voice crack, is like some impossible dream now. I would catch sight of her, walking down an aisle of trees to or from school, and I' d become paralyzed. She always seemed so poised, so self-possessed. At home, I' d relive each encounter, writhing at the thought of my inadequacies. We eventually got acquainted and socialized as we entered our adolescence, she knew I had a case on her, and I sensed her affectionate tolerance for me. "Going steady" implied a maturity we still lacked. Her Orthodox Jewish upbringing and my own Catholic scruples imposed an inhibited grace that made even kissing a distant prospect, however fervently desired. I managed to hold her once at a dance-chaperoned, of course. Our embrace made her giggle, a sound so trusting that I hated myself for what I'd been thinking. At any rate, my love for Rachel remained unrequited. We graduated from high school, she went on to college, and I joined the Army. When World War II engulfed us, I was sent overseas. For a time we corresponded, and her letters were the highlight of those grinding endless years. Once she sent me a snapshot of herself in a bathing suit, which drove me to the wildest of fantasies. I mentioned the possibility of marriage in my next letter, and almost immediately her replies became less frequent, less personal. Her Dear John letter finally caught up with me while I was awaiting discharge. She gently explained the impossibility of a marriage between us. Looking back on it, I must have recovered rather quickly, although for the first few months I believed I didn’t want to live. Like Rachel, I found someone else, whom I learned to love with a deep and permanent commitment that has lasted to this day.