We already know that gender balanced senior teams are not only better for business, the economy and society, but also crucial to women's continuing success in the workplace. The visibility of women at the top demonstrates to other women that it is possible for them to get there too. For this reason, senior women are often presented as role models to inspire others to follow in their footsteps.
Having said this, I believe it is important to recognise that role models and visibility are not one and the same. Role models tend to be more personal, while visibility has a more widespread effect when it comes to changing working culture. It isn't fair to put the pressure of being a perfect role model on the women who have made it to the top of their field. Most female employees are more inspired by realistic, relatable and attainable traits—not just seniority. When women are asked to describe their ideal role model, they often reveal a wide variety of sought-after characteristics, traits and behaviours. From being decisive, intelligent and confident to warm, approachable and inclusive, what makes an ideal role model is often personal and might change over time.
We must work instead to normalise gender-balanced leadership, shifting away from the preoccupation with role models. Once we achieve this, the gender of role models becomes redundant anyway: we will simply see them all around. The visible balance of power between women and men sends a clear message to women and girls of all ages that they can climb the career ladder too.
This visibility of women in traditionally male-dominated roles and industries cannot be underestimated. This is beautifully illustrated by photographer Leonora Saunders in her series "10%. . . and rising" , which challenges preconceptions of what women can or can't do in the world of work. Once girls and boys see people like themselves employed in all industries, their choices in life will be much greater— and employers will benefit from their capability and talent, not their gender.
We need to focus increasingly on visible, balanced leadership at the highest levels of business. This is not to say that senior level women can't be role models to other women in their organisation, but that true role models should be found at all levels, in line managers or even junior staff.
Perhaps in time, when it becomes normal to see as many women as men in senior roles, the search for role models will be less about gender and will simply
celebrate
good leadership—whatever that may look like.
ShortlyafterTheEconomistwenttopress,about25,000peoplewereexpectedtoturnupattheLondonArtFair.Yourcorrespondentvisitedjustbefore,as128whiteboothswerebeingfilledwithmodernpaintingsandsculptures.Dealersclutchedmobilephonestotheirearsorgatheredinsmallgroups.Theyseemednervous—aswelltheymightbe."Icanearnayear'slivinginonefair,"saidoneharrieddealerwhilestringingupasetoflights.Before1999Londonhadjustoneregularcontemporaryartfair,remembersWillRamsay,bossoftheexpandingAffordableArtFair.Thisyeararound20willbeheldinBritain,mostlyinthecapital.Roughly90willtakeplaceworldwide.ThesuccessoflargereventssuchasFrieze,whichstartedinLondon,hasstimulatedthegrowthofsmallerfairsspecialisingincraftwork,ceramicsandotherthings.Artl4,whichstartedlastyear,specialisesinlesswell-knowninternationalgalleries,showingartfromSub-SaharanAfrica,SouthKoreaandHongKong.Oneexplanationfortheboomistheoverallgrowthofthemodern-artmarket.Four-fifthsofallartsoldatauctionworldwidelastyearwasfromthe20thor21stcentury,accordingtoArtprice,adatabase.InNovemberanauctioninNewYorkofmodernandcontemporaryartmade$691m,easilybreakingthepreviousrecord.Asolderartbecomeshardertobuy—muchofitislockedupinmuseums—demandforrecentworksisrising.London'sartmarketinparticularhasbeenboostedbyaninfluxofrichimmigrantsfromRussia,ChinaandtheMiddleEast."WhenIstarted23yearsagoIhadnotasinglenon-Westernforeignbuyer,"saysKennySchachter,anartdealer."It'sadifferentworldnow."AndLondon'snewrichbuyartdifferently.Theyoftenspendlittletimeinthecapitalanddonotknowitwell.Traipsingaroundindividualgalleriesisinconvenient,particularlyasgallerieshavemovedoutofcentralLondon.Themall-likeset-upofafairismuchmoresuitable.CommercialgalleriesusedtorelyonregularvisitsfromrichBritonsseekingtofurnishtheirstatelyhomes.Manywerefamilyfriends.Thenewartbuyershavenosuchloyalty.Peoplenowvisitgalleriesmainlytogotoeventsandtobeseen,saysAlanCristea,agalleryowneronCorkstreetinMayfair.Fairs,andthepartiesthatspringuparoundthem,aremuchbetterplacestobespotted.Somegalleriesarefeelingsqueezed.BernardJacobsonrunsagalleryoppositeMrCristea.Thechangingartmarketremindshimofhisfather,achemist,whowaseclipsedbyapharmaceuticalchain,inthe1960s.SevengalleriesinCorkStreetrelocatedthismonthtomakewayforaredevelopment;fivemoremayfollowlaterthisyear.Yettheriseofthefairsmeansgalleriesnolongerrequireprimerealestate,thinksSarahMonkoftheLondonArtFair.Withaninternationalclientele,manycanworkonlineorfromhome.Althoughsomeartfairsstillrequiretheirexhibitorstohaveagalleryspace,increasinglythesearesmallplacesoutsidecentralLondonorbeyondthecityaltogether.OnegalleryownersaysfewrichcustomersevervisithisshopinsouthLondon.Hemakesallhiscontactsattheboothshesetsupatfairs,whichmightbetwicethesizeofhisstore."It'salittlelikefishing,"heexplains."Youmovetowherethepikeis."
Institutions of higher learning must move, as the historian Walter Russell Mead puts it, from a model of "time served" to a model of "stuff learned." Because increasingly the world does not care what you know. Everything is on Google. The world only cares, and will only pay for, what you can do with what you know. And therefore it will not pay for a C-plus in chemistry, just because your state college considers that a passing grade and was willing to give you a diploma. We 're moving to a more competency-based world, where there will be less interest in how you acquired the competency and more demand to prove that you mastered the competency.
Therefore, we have to get beyond the current system of information and delivery—the professorial "sage on the stage" and students taking notes, followed by a superficial assessment, to one in which students are asked and empowered to master more basic material online at their own pace, and the classroom becomes a place where the application of that knowledge can be honed through lab experiments and discussions with the professor.
There seemed to be a strong consensus that this "blended model" combining online lectures with a teacher-led classroom experience was the ideal. Last fall, San Jose State used the online lectures and interactive exercises of MIT' s introductory online Circuits and Electronics course. Students would watch the MIT lectures and do the exercises at home. Then in class, the first 15 minutes were reserved for questions and answers with the San Jose State professor, and the last 45 were devoted to problem-solving and discussion. Preliminary numbers indicate that those passing the class went from nearly 60 percent to about 90 percent.
We demand that plumbers and kindergarten teachers be certified to do what they do, but there is no requirement that college professors know how to teach.
No more
. The world of MOOCs(Massive Open Online Courses)is creating a competition that will force every professor to improve his or her pedagogy or face an online competitor.
Bottom line: There is still huge value in the residential college experience and the teacher-student and student-student interactions it facilitates. But to thrive, universities will have to nurture even more of those unique experiences while blending in technology to improve education outcomes in measurable ways at lower costs. We still need more research on what works, but standing still is not an option.
The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it is trying to track down as many as 386 piglets that may have been genetically engineered and wrongfully sold into the U.S. food supply. The focus of the FDA investigation is pigs raised by researchers at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. They engineered the animals with two genes: One is a cow gene that increases milk production in the sow. The other, a synthetic gene, makes the milk easier for piglets to digest. The goal was to raise bigger pigs faster. There has been no evidence that either genetically altered plants or animals actually trigger human illness, but critics warn that potential side effects remain unknown. University officials say their tests showed the piglets were not born with the altered genes, but FDA rules require even the offspring of genetically engineered animals to be destroyed so they don't get into the food supply. The FDA, in a quickly arranged news conference Wednesday prompted by inquiries by USA TODAY, said the University of Illinois will face possible sanctions and fines for selling the piglets to a livestock broker, who in turn sells to processing plants. Both the FDA and the university say the pigs that entered the market do not pose a risk to consumers. But the investigation follows action by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in December to fine a Texas company that contaminated 500 000 bushels of soybeans with corn that had been genetically altered to produce a vaccine for pigs. Critics see such cases as evidence of the need for more government oversight of a burgeoning area of scientific research. "This is a small incident, but it's incident like this that could destroy consumer confidence and export confidence, "says Stephanie Childs of the Grocery Manufacturers of America. "We already have Europe shaky on biotech. The countries to whom we export are going to look at this." The University of Illinois says it tested the DNA of every piglet eight times to make sure that the animal hadn't inherited the genetic engineering of its mother. Those piglets that did were put back into the study. Those that didn't were sold to the pig broker. "Any pig who's tested negative for the genes since 1999 has been sent off to market, "says Charles Zukoski, vice chancellor for research. But FDA deputy commissioner Lester Crawford says that under the terms of the university's agreement with the FDA, the researchers were forbidden to remove the piglets without FDA approval. "The University of Illinois failed to check with FDA to see whether or not the animals could be sold on the open market. And they were not to be used under any circumstance for food." The FDA is responsible for regulating and overseeing transgenic animals because such genetic manipulation is considered an unapproved animal drug.
As the internet and social media become increasingly embedded in how we connect with and understand the world around us, so does the language we use to access that experience. Today the UN argues that speakers of non-dominant languages need to be able to express themselves online in culturally meaningful ways, and urges governments to develop comprehensive language-related policies that support and facilitate online linguistic diversity and multilingualism. "The internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow," said Bill Gates. But if the vast majority of the world's languages don't have a digital future, what will speakers have to sacrifice to be heard in the "digital town square"? Closing the digital divide clearly has huge potential to empower individuals around the world.
BPart ADirections: Write a composition/letter of no less than 100 words on the following information./B
BSection III Writing/B
Suppose your roommate Ken is moving to another dorm room this weekend. Write him a letter to 1) offer your help, and 2) send him a little gift. You should write about 100 words. Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write your address.
Warren Buffett, who on May 3rd hosts the folksy extravaganza that is Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholders' meeting, is an icon of American capitalism. At 83, he also embodies a striking demographic trend: for highly skilled people to go on working well into what was once thought to be old age. Across the rich world, well-educated people increasingly work longer than the less-skilled. Some 65% of American men aged 62-74 with a professional degree are in the workforce, compared with 32% of men with only a high-school certificate. This gap is part of a deepening divide between the well-educated well-off and the unskilled poor that is slicing through all age groups. Rapid innovation has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. Those at the top are working longer hours each year than those at the bottom. And the well-qualified are extending their working lives, compared with those of less-educated people. The consequences, for individuals and society, are profound. But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the idle old misses a new trend, the growing gap between the skilled and the unskilled. Employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people, whereas older skilled folk are working longer. The divide is most extreme in America, where well-educated baby-boomers are putting off retirement while many less-skilled younger people have dropped out of the workforce. Policy is partly responsible. Many European governments have abandoned policies that used to encourage people to retire early. Rising life expectancy, combined with the replacement of generous defined-benefit pension plans with stingier defined-contribution ones, means that even the better-off must work longer to have a comfortable retirement. But the changing nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated, and those people continue to reap rich rewards into old age because these days the educated elderly are more productive than their predecessors. Technological change may well reinforce that shift: the skills that complement computers, from management expertise to creativity, do not necessarily decline with age. This trend will benefit not just fortunate oldies but also, in some ways, society as a whole. Government budgets will be in better shape, as high earners pay taxes for longer. Rich countries with lots of well-educated older people will find the burden of ageing easier to bear than other places. At the other end of the social scale, however, things look grim. Nor are all the effects on the economy beneficial. Wealthy old people will accumulate more savings, which will weaken demand. Inequality will increase and a growing share of wealth will eventually be transferred to the next generation via inheritance, entrenching the division between winners and losers still further.
You are going to take part in MBA exam. Write a letter of inquiry to the dean of Management School to inquire about: 1) the subjects to be examed; 2) the number of students to be enrolled; 3) other things you should pay attention to. You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET. Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address. (10 points)
Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingpiecharts.Inyouressay,youshould1)interpretthepiechartsand2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteatleast150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.(15points)
A young consultant"s life is tiring. A typical week starts before dawn on Monday, with a rush to the airport and a flight to wherever the client is based. A typical brain-for-hire can expect to stay in hotels at least three nights a week, texting a distant lover. " It"s quite normal to spend a year living out of a suitcase," sighs one London-based consultant. An ex-McKinseyite in New York adds that 15 to 18-hour weekdays are normal and six to eight-hour Saturdays and Sundays common. It can be draining, she admits.
So the job appeals to "
insecure over-achievers
"—a phrase widely used in the industry—"who are always worried that they haven"t done enough work," jokes a former employee of Bain except enough sleep.
Drinking water and water for domestic use often come from groundwater. In order to protect this water, local water authorities can apply to local administrative authorities to mark certain locations as water protection areas. The size of these areas is calculated in such a way that the quantity of groundwater taken from them corresponds to the actual rainfall going into them. In the water protection areas certain uses of the land and activities on the land are banned or restricted. Water protection areas fall into three zones. Zone 3 is the outermost zone with a diameter of 4 kilometers around the groundwater well. Here no chemical works or the use of pesticides (杀虫剂) are allowed. Zone 2 is determined around the so-called 50-day line. It is assumed that after 50 days in the groundwater harmful bacteria will have died off. Here settlements and fertilizer storage are forbidden. Zone 1 marks the ten-meter boundary around the well. Here, any use of the land, as well as access by unauthorized persons, is forbidden.
Until last year, Alan Felzer was an energetic engineering professor who took the stairs to his classes two steps at a time. Now the 64-year-old grandfather sits strapped to a wheelchair, able to move little but his left hand, his voice a near-whisper. Felzer suffers from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The fatal neurological disorder steals the body's ability to move, speak and ultimately to breathe. But rather than succumb to despair along with his illness, Felzer turned to the Web to become his own medical researcher—and his own guinea pig. Dozens of ALS patients are testing treatments on their own without waiting on the slow pace of medical research. They are part of an emerging group of patients willing to share intimate health details on the Web in hopes of making their own medical discoveries. Some doctors caution that such patient-led research lacks rigor and may lead to unreliable results, false hopes and harm to patients. "The Internet is a wonderful tool, but you know, it's buyer beware," said Dr. Edward Langston, immediate past chairman of the American Medical Association's board. In Felzer's case, the experiment's results illustrate the obstacles that stand between patients and self-discovered breakthroughs. The drug he tried did no good. But he and his family felt they had little time and little to lose in trying. "ALS is such a short illness," said Felzer's wife, Laura. She helps her husband communicate using sign language with his one good hand when his slow, halting words become difficult to understand. "You want to do what you can as fast as you can." The U. S. Food and Drug Administration has approved only one drug to treat ALS symptoms. It only works for some patients, and its effects are limited. As a result, Internet forums for ALS patients brim with links to the latest research offering any hint of promise. After Alan Felzer was diagnosed last year, his 33-year-old daughter, Karen, dived into the forums and found new hope. Working online, Karen Felzer and Macedo recruited nearly 200 patients worldwide to take a specific lithium dosage and answer standard surveys to gauge their symptoms. They began running their study through a Web site called PatientsLikeMe. com, using it to attract volunteers and track their progress. On the site, patients share detailed information about their symptoms and the drugs they are taking. The site focuses on conditions that have stubbornly resisted medical science, such as ALS, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis. The site's founders hope professional and amateur researchers alike will dip into the resulting pool of data and emerge with insights that lead to better treatments. "My ultimate frustration that drove this site into existence was an overall feeling that there was a lack of transparency and speed or urgency" by the medical system, said Jamie Heywood, who co-founded PatientsLikeMe months before his own brother died of AI.S.
BPart CDirections: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese./B
BPart CDirections: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese./B
It amazes me when people proclaim that they are bored. Actually, it amazes me that I am ever bored, or that any of us are. With so much to occupy us these days, boredom should be a relic of a bygone age—an age devoid of the internet, social media, multi-channel TV, 24-hour shopping, multiplex cinemas, game consoles, texting and whatever other myriad possibilities are available these days to entertain us.
Yet despite the
plethora
of high-iniensity entertainment constantly at our disposal, we are still bored. Up to half of us are "often bored" at home or at school, while more than two-thirds of us are chronically bored at work. We are bored by paperwork, by the commute and by dull meetings. TV is boring, as is Facebook and other social media.
There are a number of explanations for our ennui. This, in fact, is part of the problem—we are overstimulated. The more entertained we are the more entertainment we need in order to feel satisfied. The more we fill our world with fast-moving, high-intensity, ever-changing stimulation, the more we get used to that and the less tolerant we become of lower levels.
Our attention spans are now thought to be less than that of a goldfish ( eight seconds). We are hard-wired to seek novelty, which produces a hit of dopamine, that feel-good chemical, in our brains. As soon as a new stimulus is noticed, however, it is no longer new, and after a while it bores us. To get that same pleasurable dopamine hit we seek fresh sources of distraction.
Our increasing reliance on screentime is also to blame. We seem to live in a varied and exciting world with a wealth of entertainment at our fingertips, and many of these amusements are obtained in remarkably similar ways—via our fingers. On average we spend six to seven hours in front of our phone, tablet, computer and TV screens every day. The irony is that while our mobile devices should allow us to fill every moment, our means of obtaining that entertainment has become so repetitive and routine that it's a source of boredom in itself.
Research suggests that chronic boredom is responsible for a profusion of negative outcomes such as overeating, gambling, truancy, antisocial behaviour, drug use, accidents, risk taking and much more. We need less, not more, stimulation and novelty.
It seems paradoxical, but feeling bored in the short term will make us less bored in the long term.
It is the urban driver's most agonizing everyday experience: the search for an empty parking place. Circling, narrowly missing a spot, cleverly defeating other motorists to finally【C1】______into a space only to discover that it is【C2】______limits during working hours. In San Francisco, it is also a worrying traffic problem. Drivers【C3】______for parking spots generate 30 percent of all【C4】______traffic jam, city officials estimate. Now San Francisco proclaims that they have found a【C5】______—a phone app for spot-seekers that【C6】______information about areas with available spaces. The system, introduced last month, relies on wireless sensors【C7】______in streets and city garages that can tell【C8】______seconds if a spot has opened up.【C9】______the system could come with serious consequences. Safety advocates say that drivers on the search for parking could【C10】______focusing on their phones, not the road. "It could be really【C11】______," said Daniel Simons, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, where he studies the science of attention. And, he said, it could also be【C12】______: "Most people are looking for parking spaces in places that have a lot of traffic and a lot of【C13】______." City officials acknowledge the potential【C14】______. They are urging drivers to【C15】______before they pull up the city's iPhone app, or to do so before they leave home. But the spots can disappear quickly,【C16】______any circling driver knows, and for plugged-in motorists in the habit of texting or glancing at the GPS, the urge to use the parking app is certain to【C17】______as the frustration does. San Francisco has put sensors into 7,000 metered parking spots and 12,250 spots in city garages. If spaces in an area open up, the sensors communicate wirelessly with computers that in turn make the information【C18】______to app users within a minute. On the app, a map shows which blocks have lots of places (blue) and which are【C19】______(red). San Francisco's is by far the most widespread【C20】______that several cities, universities and private parking garages are experimenting with.
BPart CDirections: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese./B
The battle between Apple and law enforcement officials over unlocking a terrorist's smart-phone is the climax of
a slow turning of the tables
between the technology industry and the United States government.
On the one side, you have the United States government' s mighty legal and security apparatus fighting for data of the most sympathetic sort: the secrets buried in a dead mass murderer's phone. The action stems from a federal court order issued on Tuesday requiring Apple to help the F.B.I. unlock an iPhone used by one of the two attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif, in December.
In the other corner is the world' s most valuable company, whose chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, has said he will appeal the court' s order. Apple argues that it is fighting to preserve a principle that most of us who are addicted to our smartphones can defend: Weaken a single iPhone so that its contents can be viewed by the American government and you risk weakening all iPhones for any government intruder, anywhere.
There will probably be months of legal tussling, and it is not at all clear which side will prevail in court, nor in the battle for public opinion and legislative favor.
Yet underlying all of this is a simple dynamic: Apple, Google, Facebook and other companies hold most of the cards in this confrontation. They have our data, and their businesses depend on the global public' s collective belief that they will do everything they can to protect that data.
Any crack in that front could be fatal for tech companies that must operate worldwide. If Apple is forced to open up an iPhone for an American law enforcement investigation, what' s to prevent it from doing so for a request from the Chinese or the Iranians? Once armed with a method for gaining access to iPhones, the government could ask to use it proactively, before a suspected terrorist at tack—leaving Apple in a bind as to whether to comply or risk an attack and suffer a public-relations nightmare.
Yet it' s worth noting that even if Apple ultimately loses this case, it has plenty of technical means to close a backdoor over time. "If they're anywhere near worth their salt as engineers, I bet they're rethinking their threat model as we speak," said Jonathan Zdziarski, who studies the iPhone and its vulnerabilities.
