阅读理解Cancer researchers are learning to read genes like a crystal ball to predict how patients will respond to cancer therapy, who will suffer the worst side effects and what treatments may be best for a particular patient. Foreseeing the outcome of treatment, and knowing with certainty which drugs are best for individual patients, have long been the goals of cancer researchers.
For at least 40 years, oncologists have puzzled over why some patients respond so well to chemotherapy while others obtain modest benefits or none at all. The discovery decades ago that linked a chromosome abnormality to one form of leukemia paved the way for the development of the drug Gleevec by Druker and the ability to identify the patients most likely to benefit. More recently, with the wealth of knowledge from the Human Genome Project, researchers have been able to develop even more specific tools to create genetic profiles of tumors and match those profiles with the right drugs. The tools also help determine which patients are most likely to experience the worst side effects of specific types of chemotherapy and guide them to other treatments.
Researchers from the University of Chicago studied alterations of the UGT1A1 gene, associated with an increased chance of chemotherapy side effects. Mark Ratain and his team studied 61 colon cancer patients receiving irinotecan and learned that patients with alterations of the gene labeled as 7/7 were most likely to suffer severe losses of white blood cells. Patients with the 6/7 alteration type had intermediate side effects, and patients with the 6/6 type had none.
Scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital examined genes that normally have the ability to repair damage to DNA in cells called XPD and XRCC1. The number of variations in these genes indicate how long a patient is likely to survive. Sarada Gurubhagavatula and her team studied variations of these genes in 103 patients diagnosed with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. Patients with a total of three variations in the genes survived a median of 6. 8 months; those with two variations survived 11 months; patients with one variation survived 16.6 months; and those with no variations survived 20.4 months. Gurubhagavatula says the variations could be identified and those with the worst predicted outcomes put on chemotherapy regimens that offer better odds of survival.
Scientists at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center and Genomic Health Inc. have developed a way to test lung tumors for genetic profiles associated with responses to the new lung cancer drug Iressa. The drug has been shown to shrink tumors in 10% to 12% of patients with advanced lung cancer. David Agus at Cedar-Sinai found a pattern of 185 genes that are turned off and on in a manner that correlates with response to Iressa or to a lack of response. When used commercially, the test will target patients most likely to benefit and will allow patients to make other choices if the negative profile is found.
阅读理解I''d like to propose that for sixty to ninety minutes every evening fight after the early evening news, all television broadcasting in America be prohibited by law.
Let us take a serious, reasonable look at what the results might be if such a proposal were accepted. Families might use the time for a real family hour. Without the distraction of TV, they might sit around together after dinner and actually communicate with one another. It is well known that many of our problems ― everything, in fact, from the generation gap to the high divorce rate to some forms of mental illness― are caused at least in part by failure to communicate. We do not tell each other what makes us feel disturbed. The result is emotional difficulty of one kind or another. By using the quiet family hour to discuss our problems, we might get to know each other better, and to like each other better.
On evenings when such talk is unnecessary, families could rediscover more active pastimes. Freed from TV, forced to find their own activities, they might take a ride together to watch the sunset, or they might take a walk together (remember feet) and see the neighborhood with fresh, new eyes.
With free time and no TV, children and adults might rediscover reading. There is more entertainment in a good book than in a month of typical TV programming. Educators report that the generation growing up with television can barely write an English sentence, even at the college level. Writing is often learned from reading. A more literate new generation could be a product of the quiet hour.
A different form of reading might also be done, as it was in the past: reading aloud. Few hobbies bring a family closer together than gathering around and listening to mother or father read a good story. The quiet hour could become the story hour. When the quiet hour ends, the TV networks form our newly discovered activities.
At first glance, the idea of an hour without TV seems radical. What will parents do without the electronic baby-sitter? How will we spend the time? But it is not radical at all. It has been only twenty-five years since television came to control American free time. The people who are thirty-five and older can remember childhood without television, spent partly with radio― which at least involved the listener''s imagination― but also with reading, learning, talking, playing games, inventing new activities. It wasn''t that difficult. Honest. The truth is that we had a ball.
阅读理解In the traditional(传统的)marriage, the man worked at a job to earn money for the family , Most men worked in an office , a factory, or some other place away from the home
阅读理解Recently housing is recognized as a "socially determinant variable". In France, housing is the main item of expenditure in the family budget ( accounting for an average of 29 percent), and many families would be unable to find decent housing without help from the State. For a long time, the main problem was the housing shortage but in recent years the deterioration of housing conditions has been giving even greater cause for concern.
Despite extensive construction programs, the problem of housing for the most underprivileged population groups has not been solved. According to the so-called Petrequin Report, between 2 and 3 million families had serious difficulties meeting their housing costs and were living in precarious and uncomfortable conditions.
Policies designed to address the housing problem have shifted over the past few decades from a macroeconomic approach promoting construction to housing subsidies. The reasons for this shift agree with the determination to limit public spending and to avoid some of the perverse effects of macroeconomic policies. The State has to some extent ceased to finance housing, especially the construction of new projects, with the result that the cost is now chiefly and directly borne by the family budget. Many underprivileged families, which were excluded from low-rent housing for various reasons (selection of tenants, saturation of existing capacity, insolvency), had no alternative but to purchase their own home and were encouraged to do so without restraint by the easy terms of housing loans. The housing sector thus contributed to the development of the "economy of indebtedness". It should indeed be emphasized that "widespread home ownership through resource to borrowing could only be to the detriment of low-income families".
In Belgium, the quality of housing, considered the prime indicator of housing deprivation, heaves much to be desired. Low-rent housing projects have been cut back as part of the austerity policy pursued by the national and regional governments, and low-income households are finding it increasingly difficult to find somewhere to live. The number of homeless has also taken on alarming proportions. An estimated 3,000 persons spend the night in refuges, but the figure is probably much higher. Moreover, the number of homeless women and young persons is increasing.
阅读理解Auctions are public sales of goods, conducted by an officially approved auctioneer. He asks the crowd assembled in the auction room to make offers or "bids", for the various items on sale. He encourages buyers to bid higher prices, and finally names the highest bidder as the buyer of the goods. This is called "knocking down" the goods, for the bidding ends when the auctioneer bangs a small hammer on a table behind which he stands. This is often set on a raised platform called a rostrum.
Practically all goods whose qualities vary are sold by auction. Among these are coffee, hides, skins wool, tea coca, furs, spices, fruit and vegetables and wines. Auctions sales are also usual for land and property, antique furniture, pictures, rare books, old china and similar works of art. The auction rooms at Christie''s and Sotheby''s in London and New York are world-famous.
An auction is usually advertised beforehand and with full particulars of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by prospective buyers. If the advertisement can not give full details, catalogues are printed, and each group of goods to be together, called a "lot", is usually given a number. The auctioneer need not begin with lot 1 and continue in numerical order; he may wait until he registers the fact that certain dealers are in the room and then produce the lots they are likely to be interested in. The auctioneer''s services are paid in the form of a percentage of a price the goods are sold for. The auctioneer therefore has a direct interest in pushing up the bidding as high as possible.
The auctioneer must know fairly accurately the current market values of the goods be is selling, and he should be acquainted with regular buyers of such goods. He will not waste time by starting the bidding too low. He will play on the rivalries among his buyers and succeed in getting a high price by encouraging two business competitors to bid against each other. It is largely on his advice that a seller will fix a "reserve" price, that is, a price below which the goods cannot be sold. Even the best auctioneers, however, find it difficult to stop a "knock-out", whereby dealers illegally arrange before-hand not to bid against each other, but nominate one of themselves as the only bidder, in the hope of buying goods at extremely low price. If such a "knock-out" comes off, the real auction sales take place privately afterwards among the dealers .
阅读理解Children start out as natural scientists, instinctively eager to investigate the world around them. Helping them enjoy science can be easy ― there is no need for a lot of scientific terms or expensive lab equipment. You only have to share your children''s curiosity. Firstly, listen to their questions. I once visited a classroom of seven-year-olds to talk about science as a career. The children asked me "textbook questions" about schooling, salary and whether I liked my job. When I finished answering , we sat facing one another in silence. Finally I said, "Now that we''ve finished your lists, do you have questions of your own about science?
After a long period of pause, a boy raised his hand, "Have you ever seen a grasshopper eat? When I try eating leaves like that, I get a stomachache. Why?"
This caused a series of questions and discussions that lasted nearly two hours.
Secondly, give them time to think. Studies over the past three decades have shown that, after asking a question, adults typically wait only one second or less for a response, no time for a child to think. When adults increase their "wait time" to three seconds or more, children respond with more logical, complete and creative answers.
Thirdly, watch your language. Once you have a child engaged in a science discussion, don''t jump in with "That''s right" or "Very good". These words work well when it comes to encouraging good behavior. But in talking about science, quick praise can signal that discussion is over. Instead, keep things going by saying, "That''s interesting" or " I''d never thought of it that way before," or coming up with more questions or ideas.
Never urge a child to think. It doesn''t make sense, as children are always thinking, without your telling them to. What''s more, this can turn a conversation into a performance. The child will try to find the answer you want, in as few words as possible, so he will be a smaller target for your disapproval.
Lastly, show, don''t tell. Real-life impressions of nature are far more impressive than any lesson children can extract from a book or a television program. Let them look at their fingertips through a magnifying glass, and they''ll understand why you want them to wash before dinner. Rather than saying that water evaporates, set a pot of water to boil and let them watch the water level drop. Thus, children will get a better comprehension of what they have observed.
阅读理解Opportunities for rewarding work become fewer for both men and women as they grow older. After age 40, job hunting becomes even more difficult. Many workers stay at jobs they are too old for rather than face possible rejection. Our youth-oriented, throw-away culture sees little value in older people. In writer Lilian Hellman''s words, they have "the wisdom that comes with age that we can''t make use of. "
Unemployment and economic need for work is higher among older women, especially minorities, than among younger white women. A national council reports these findings: Though unemployed longer when seeking word, older women job-hunting harder, hold a job longer with less absenteeism, perform as well or better, are more reliable, and are more willing to learn than men or younger women. Yet many older women earn poor pay and face a future of poverty in their retirement years. When
"sexism meets ageism, poverty is no longer on the doorstep——it moves in" , according to Tish Sommers, director of a special study on older women for the National Organization for Women.
Yet a 1981 report on the White House Conference in Aging shows that as a group, older Americans are the " wealthiest, best fed, best housed, healthiest, most self-reliant older population in our history. " This statement is small comfort to those living below the poverty line, but it does explode some of the old traditional beliefs and fears. Opportunities for moving in and up in a large company may shrink but many older people begin successful small businesses, volunteer in satisfying activities, and stay active for many years. They have few role models because in previous generations the life span was much shorter and expectations of life were fewer. They are ploughing new ground.
Employers are beginning to recognize that the mature person can bring a great deal of stability and responsibility to a position. One doesn''t lose ability and experience on the eve of one''s 65th or 70th birthday any more than one grows up instantly at age 21.
阅读理解In an interview last month, Frank Church, chairman of the Senate committee which is investigating the CIA, issued an oblique but impassioned warning, that the technology of eavesdropping had become so highly developed that Americans might soon be left with "no place to hide". That day may have arrived. Newsweek has learned that the country''s most secret intelligence operation, the National Security Agency, already possesses the computerized equipment to monitor nearly all overseas telephone calls and most domestic and international printed messages.
The agency''s devices monitor a great deal of telephone circuits, cable lines and the microwave transmissions that carry an increasing share of both spoken and written communications. Computers are programmed to watch for "trigger" words or phrases indicating that a message might interest intelligence analysis, when the trigger is pulled, entire messages are tape-recorded or printed out.
That kind of eavesdropping is, however, relatively simple compared with the breakthroughs that lie ahead in the field of snoopery. Already it is technically feasible to "bug" an electric typewriter by picking up its feeble electronic emissions from a remote location and then change them into words. And some scientists believe that it may be possible in the future for remote electronic equipment to intercept and "read" human brain waves.
Where such capabilities exist, so too does the potential for abuse. It is the old story of technology rushing forward with some new wonder, before the man who supposedly control the machines have found how to prevent the machines from controlling them.
阅读理解Unemployment(失业)rose from 7
阅读理解The Internet raises major issues and challenges for education, not just in China but all over the world. Yet it simply cannot be ignored in terms of the opportunities and resources that it can offer.
We can divide the main issues facing education systems into three groups ― access, quality and responsibility. Let us consider the Internet in relation to each of them.
First, access. Through the Internet, practically the whole world can be brought into your classroom. Using e-mail makes it possible to have a class whose members are spread all over the world and who may never meet either the teacher or each other face to face. It can put students in different countries in easy contact.
The information resources available are almost limitless. With the Internet, students and teachers can access the wisdom, experience, skills, and even guidance of others in a way that was only possible for a very privileged few.
Next, quality. The Internet does pose serious problems of quality for education systems. Obviously, there is a lot of material on the Internet that no one would want children or students to have uncontrolled access to, but there are other problems which are very difficult to solve.
The first is how to handle the sheer quantity of information available, and how to make it manageable.
Because anyone can put information on the Internet, and there are no limits on quantity, it can be almost impossible to find exactly the information that one wants. Teachers and students cannot afford to waste time on unsuccessful searching.
How can we identify the information which will be most useful without overloading ourselves and our students with unnecessary information? How do we select the best information from all that is available?
This raises the issue of responsibility. There are few editors or quality controllers on the Internet. The ultimate responsibility for selection and judgment falls to the user, whether teacher or student. Teachers, and still less students, are not experts in every field; what we select may not be what we really want, perhaps is old, even wrong.
Any profession must take some collective responsibility in resolving these problems. Conscious and deliberate efforts have to be made to share information between teachers about useful sites and about the best way to use them.
Those who have found something useful or of high quality should not keep the information to themselves, but share it as widely as possible.
There are many professional discussion groups active on the Internet which aim to do this. Access to them by teachers should be actively encouraged. This will require investment by institutions in giving easy access to the Internet and email to all teachers. Without this investment, educators ― and ultimately students ― will be deprived of a vital resource for the development of education in the future.
阅读理解Classical physics defines the vacuum as a state of absence :a vacuum is said to exist in a region of space if there is nothing in it. In the quantum field theories that describe the physics of elementary particles, the vacuum becomes somewhat more complicated. Even in empty space, particles can appear spontaneously as a result of fluctuations of the vacuum. For example, an electron and a positron, or antielectron, can be created out of the void(空间).Particles created in this way have only a fleeting existence; they are annihilated(消亡) almost as soon as they appear, and their presence can never be detected directly. They are called virtual particles in order to distinguish them from real particles, whose lifetimes are not constrained in the same way, and which can be detected. So it is still possible to define the vacuum as a space that has no real particles in it.
One might expect that the vacuum would always be the state of lowest possible energy for a given region of space. If an area is initially empty and a real particle is put into it, the total energy, it seems, should be raised by at least the energy equivalent of the mass of the added particle. A surprising result of some recent theoretical investigations is that this assumption is not invariably tree. There are conditions under which the introduction of a real particle of finite mass into an empty region of space can reduce the total energy. If the reduction in energy is great enough, an electron and a positron will be instantly created. Under these conditions the electron and positron are not a result of vacuum fluctuations but are real particles, which exist indefinitely and can be detected. In other words, under these conditions the vacuum is an unstable state and can decay(衰变)into a state of lower energy; that is one in which real particles are created.
The necessary condition for the decay of the vacuum is the presence of an intense electric field. As a result of the decay of the vacuum, the space permeated by such a field can be said to obtain an electric charge, and it can be called a charged vacuum. The particles that materialize in the space make the charge vacuum is likely to be found in only one place: in the immediate vicinity of a super heavy atomic nucleus(原子核) ,one with about twice as many protons as the heaviest natural nuclei known. A nucleus that large cannot be stable, but it might be possible to assemble one next to a vacuum for long enough to observe the decay of the vacuum. Experiments attempting to achieve this are now under way.
阅读理解The statement that best summarizes the text is
阅读理解What can his pension enough to pay for?
阅读理解The building crane, which has become the most striking feature of the urban landscape in Switzerland, is beginning to alter the mountain landscape as well. Districts of the Swiss Alps, which up to now have consisted of only a few disconnected small communities content with selling cheese and milk, perhaps a little lumber and seed potatoes, are today becoming parts of planned, developing regions. The new highway, the new skylift, the new multi-nationally-owned hotel will diversify the economy and raise the standard of living in the mountain areas, or so many Swiss regional planners and government officials hope.
The mountainous area of Switzerland, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of the total area of the country and only 12% of the total population, has always been the problem area. According to the last census in 1970, 750,000 people lived in the Swiss mountains. Compared with the rest of the country, incomes are lower, services are fewer, employment opportunities are more limited and populations are decreasing. In fact, in only one respect do mountain districts come out ahead. They have more farmers, which many people do not consider to be an advantage. 17% of the Swiss mountain population works in primary occupations, in contrast to only 8% of the total population of the country.
The mountain farmers are a special breed of men. They work at least twelve hours a day in topographical and weather conditions which kill most crops and which only a few animals will tolerate. About half of them work at some other jobs as well, leaving their wives and children to do the bulk of the farm work. In the Rhone Valley in the canton of Valais in south-western Swizerland nearly four-fifths of the farmers commute daily from their mountain farms to the large factories in the valley. In other parts of Switzerland this pattern of life is not as common, but almost everywhere non-farm wintertime employment is the rule.
With all the difficulties inherent in working in the Swiss mountains, why should anyone resist any extension of the mountain economy? The answer, as Andress Werthemann, editor of the Swiss mountain agriculture magazine Alpwirtschaftliche Monatsblatter states, is that " when tourism becomes too massive, farming disappears". And basically there are three reasons why Switzerland needs its mountain farmers: they contribute to the food supply, they preserve the landscape, and they represent the Switzerland of nostalgia and holiday dreams.
But in the real world, and especially in highly industrialized Switzerland where mountain farmers are aware of the "benefits" of city living, is it possible to maintain mountain agriculture and still solve the problems of mountain communities? The Swiss government has come to the conclusion that other kinds of employment in addition to farming must be emphasized. Yet whether it is possible to create other jobs that will not completely destroy agriculture is unknown.
阅读理解Benjamin Barber''s Fear''s Empire presents a case against the recent unilateral impulses in U. S. foreign policy. According to Barber, empire is not inherent in U. S. dominance but is, rather, a temptation—one to which the Bush administration has increasingly succumbed. In confronting terrorism , Washington has vacillated between appealing to law and undermining it. Barber''s thesis is that by invoking a right to unilateral action, preventive war, and regime change, the United States has undermined the very framework of cooperation and law that is necessary to fight terrorist anarchy. A foreign policy oriented around the use of military force against rogue states, Barber argues, reflects a misunderstanding of the consequences of global interdependence and the character of democracy. Washington cannot run a global order driven by military action and the fear of terrorism. Simply put, American empire is not sustainable.
For Barber, the logic of globalization trumps the logic of empire: the spread of McWorld undermines imperial grand strategy. In most aspects of economic and political life, the United States depends heavily on other states. In an empire of fear, the United States attempts to order the world through force of arms. But this strategy is self-defeating: it creates hostile states bent on overturning the imperial order, not obedient junior partners.
Barber proposes instead a cosmopolitan order of universal law rooted in human community: "Lex humana works for global comity within the framework of universal rights and law, conferred by multilateral political, economic, and cultural cooperation—with only as much common military action as can be authorized by common legal authority; whether in the Congress, in multilateral treaties, or through the United Nations. " Terrorist threats, Barber concludes, are best confronted with a strategy of "preventive democracy"—democratic states working together to strengthen and extend liberalism.
Barber''s overly idealized vision of cosmopolitan global governance is less convincing, however, than his warnings about unilateral military rule. Indeed, he provides a useful cautionary note for liberal empire enthusiasts in two respects. First, the two objectives of liberal empire—upholding the rules of the international system and unilaterally employing military power against enemies of the American order—often conflict. Second, the threats posed by terrorism and weapons of mass destruction are not enough to legitimate America''s liberal empire. During the Cold War, the United States articulated a vision of community and progress within a U. S. -lead free world, infusing the exercise of U. S. power with legitimacy. It is doubtful, however, that the war on terrorism, in which countries are either "with us or against us" , has an appeal that can draw enough support to justify a U. S. -dominated order.
阅读理解It can be inferred that
阅读理解When the vote was finally taken, it was 3:45 in the morning. After six months of arguing and a final 16 hours of hot parliamentary debates, Australia''s Northern Territory became the first legal authority in the world to allow doctors to take the fives of incurably ill patients who wish to die. The measure was passed by the convincing vote of 15 to 10.Almost at the same time word flashed on the Internet and was picked up, half a world away, by John Hofsess, executive director of the Right to Die Society of Canada. He sent it on through the group''s on-line service, Death NET. Says Hofsess: "We posted bulletins all day long, because of course this isn''t just something that happened in Australia. It''s world history."
The full import may take a while to sink in. The NT Rights of the Terminally Ill law has left physicians and citizens alike trying to deal with its moral and practical implications. Some have breathed sighs of relief; others ,including churches, right-to-life groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the bill and the haste of its passage. But the tide is unlikely to turn back. In Australia ― where an aging population, life-extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their part ― other states are going to consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia. In the America and Canada, where the right-to-die movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling.
Under the new Northern Territory law, an adult patient can request death ― probably by a deadly injection or pill ― to put an end to suffering. The patient must be diagnosed as terminally ill by two doctors. After a "cooling off" period of seven days, the patient can sign a certificate of request. 48 hours later, the wish for death can be met. For Lloyd Nickson, a 54-year-old Darwin resident suffering from lung cancer, the NT Rights of Terminally Ill law means he can get on with living without the haunting fear of his suffering: a terrifying death from his breathing condition. "I''m not afraid of dying from a spiritual point of view, but what I was afraid of was how I''d go, because I''ve watched people die in the hospital fighting for oxygen and clawing at their masks." he says.
阅读理解Most of us think that, work is the central, dominating fact of life. We spend more than half our conscious hours at work, preparing for work, commute to and from work. What we do there largely determines our standard of living and to a great extent the status we are accorded by our fellow citizens as well. It is sometimes said that because leisure has become more important, the indignities and injustices of work can be pushed into a corner, that because most work is pretty intolerable, the people who do it should compensate for its boredom, frustrations and humiliations by concentrating their hopes on the other parts of their lives. I desperately reject that. For the foreseeable future the material and psychological rewards which work can provide, and the conditions in which work is done, will continue to play an essential part in determining the satisfaction that life can offer. Yet only a small minority can control the pace at which they work or the conditions in which their work is done; only for a small minority does work offer scope for creativity, imagination, or initiative.
Inequality at work and in work is still one of the cruelest and most glaring forms of inequality in our society. We cannot hope to solve the more obvious problems of industrial life, many of which arise directly or indirectly from the frustrations created by inequality at work, unless we tackle it head-on. Still less can we hope to create a decent and human society.
The most glaring inequality is that between managers and the rest. For most managers, work is an opportunity and a challenge. Their jobs engage their interest and allow them to develop their abilities. They are constantly learning; they can exercise responsibility; they have a considerable degree of control over their own ― and others''― working lives. The most important thing is that they have opportunity to initiate. By contrast, for most manual workers, and for a growing number of white-collar workers, work is a boring, dull, even painful experience. They spend all their working lives in conditions which would be regarded as intolerable ― for themselves ― by those who make the decisions which let such conditions continue. The majority have little control over their work; it provides them with no opportunity for personal development. Often production is so designed that workers are simply part of the technology. In offices, many jobs are so routine that workers justifiably feel themselves to be mere cogs in the bureaucratic machine. As a direct consequence of their work experience, many workers feel alienated from their work and their firm, whether it is in public or in private ownership.
阅读理解In general, our society is becoming one of giant enterprises directed by a bureaucratic management in which man becomes a small, well-oiled cog in the machinery. The oiling is done with higher wages, well-ventilated factories and piped music, and by psychologists and " human-relations" experts; yet all this oiling does not alter the fact that man has become powerless, that he does not wholeheartedly participate in his work and that he is bored with it. In fact, the blue-and the white-collar workers have become economic puppets who dance to the tune of automated machines and bureaucratic management.
The worker and employee are anxious, not only because they might find themselves out of a job; they are anxious also because they are unable to acquire any real satisfaction or interest in life. They live and die without ever having confronted the fundamental realities of human existence as emotionally and intellectually independent and productive human beings.
Those higher up on the social ladder are no less anxious. Their lives are no less empty than those of their subordinates. They are even more insecure in some respects. They are in a highly competitive race. To be promoted or to fall behind is not a matter of salary but even more a matter of self-respect. When they apply for their first job, they are tested for intelligence as well as for the right mixture of submissiveness and independence. From that moment on they are tested again and again — by the psychologists, for whom testing is a big business, and by their superiors, who judge their behavior, sociability, capacity to get along, etc. This constant need to prove that one is as good as or better than one''s fellow-competitor creates constant anxiety and stress, the very causes of unhappiness and illness.
Am I suggesting that we should return to the preindustrial mode of production or to 19th century "free enterprise" capitalism? Certainly not. Problems are never solved by returning to a stage which one has already outgrown. I suggest transforming our social system from a bureaucratically managed industrialism in which maximal production and consumption are ends in themselves into a humanist industrialism in which man and full development of his potentialities — those of love and of reason — are the aims of all social arrangements. Production and consumption should serve only as means to this end, and should be prevented from ruling man.
阅读理解I found myself facing a dry-cleaning store which had once been one of the best restaurants in New York