单选题Introspection is kind of a drag. It requires unpleasant acts like "thinking" and "talking about emotions," and it can rarely be done while watching TV. But like it or not, more and more workers are taking time to reflect on what they do for a living, seeking jobs that aren"t just a means to a paycheck but the fulfilment of some form of calling. Can this supposedly enlightening feeling that your career is "a calling" be a bad thing? Teresa Cardador, an assistant professor in the school of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois recently co-authored a paper in the Journal of Career Assessment that reviewed research on people who find meaning and a sense of purpose in their work. "There has become this idealized notion of work," Cardador said. "A lot of books and stories in the popular press capture this idea of an idealized orientation toward work. But there"s increasing evidence that suggests that despite the perceived desirability, it"s not always beneficial." In a nutshell, what Cardador found is that people who view their work as a calling can get too wrapped up in the job, to the point where it becomes counterproductive. Some people burn out—it"s called "the fall from the call." Sometimes the person with the calling believes he or she is the only one qualified to handle the work, and that can cause strained relationships with co-workers. Also, the intense focus on work can be depleting, leaving a worker without enough energy to maintain good relationships outside the office. However, "callings can be healthy when individuals inspire and connect with others at work," Cardador said. Between constantly evolving technology and downsizing that requires more of individual workers, it"s critical that a worker accept the fact that her or his job tasks may not always be the same. We have to be flexible nowadays, even if certain tasks don"t fit our idealized vision of the job. The study said. "People with rigid work identities have a single way of viewing who they are and what they do at work and are unwilling or unable to bend this image to fit with the reality of their work situation. In so doing, they are less able to account for the needs and interests of others in the workplace." Just because you feel passionate about what you do doesn"t mean you can"t do other things that contribute to the greater good of your organization. You have to step back and examine how you"re handling your work, making sure, in the simplest of terms, that you"re not unwittingly being a selfish jerk. After all, we work, predominantly, because there are no money trees to harvest. The hope is that our labor lets us build the lives we want. If that comes with a feeling of fulfillment, fantastic.

单选题Most American politicians say they support marriage, but few do much about it, except perhaps to sound off about the illusory threat to it from gays. The public are divided. Few want to go back to the attitudes or divorce laws of the 1950s. But many at both ends of the political spectrum lament the fragility of American families and would change, at least, the way the tax code penalises many couples who marry. And some politicians want the state to draw attention to benefits of marriage, as it does to the perils of smoking. George Bush is one. Since last year, his administration has been handing out grants to promote healthy marriages. This is a less preachy enterprise than you might expect. Sidonie Squier, the bureaucrat in charge, does not argue that divorce is wrong: "If you"re being abused, you should get out." Nor does she think the government should take a view on whether people should have pre-marital sex. Her budget for boosting marriage is tiny: $100m a year, or about what the Defence Department spends every two hours. Some of it funds research into what makes a relationship work well and whether outsiders can help. Most of the rest goes to groups that try to help couples get along better, some of which are religiously-inspired. The first 124 grants were disbursed only last September, so it is too early to say whether any of this will work. But certain approaches look hopeful. One is "marriage education". The army already does this. About 35,000 soldiers this year will get a 12-hour course on how to communicate better with their partners, and how to resolve disputes without throwing plates. It costs about $300 per family. Given that it costs $50,000 to recruit and train a rifleman, and that marital problems are a big reason why soldiers quit, you don"t have to save many marriages for this to be cost-effective, says Peter Frederich, the chaplain in charge. Several studies have shown that such courses do indeed help couples communicate better and quarrel less bitterly. As to whether they prevent divorce, a meta-analysis by Jason Carroll and William Doherty concluded that the jury was still out. The National Institutes of Health is paying for a five-year study of Mr Frederich"s soldiers to shed further light on the issue. At the end of the day, says Ms Squier, the government"s influence over the culture of marriage will be marginal. Messages from movies, peers and parents matter far more. But she does not see why, for example, the government"s only contact with an unmarried father should be to demand that he pay child support. By not even mentioning marriage, the state is implying that no one expects him to stick around. Is that a helpful message?

单选题With the debt crisis and the weakening economy fresh on their minds, most Americans have probably concluded that government, as a rule, cannot manage money responsibly. But it can. Just look at Montana. For six years it has been one of the only states in America with a budget surplus: this year it is a record of $433 million, proportionally equivalent to a federal surplus of $858 billion. Thus we"ve been able to cut taxes, invest in education and infrastructure and keep essential services intact. We recently got our first bond rating upgrade in 26 years. How do we accomplish what most states and the federal government cannot? I like to say we run government like a ranch. In ranching, you either pinch pennies or go bankrupt. We do the same in government. For one thing, we challenge every expense. If it isn"t absolutely necessary, we eliminate it. Little things added up: we renegotiated state contracts, cut our energy consumption by 20 percent, auctioned off state vehicles and canceled building projects and computer upgrades. The federal budget contains thousands of similar line items. A government serious about tightening its belt would eliminate them all. But we don"t just cut costs. Like good ranchers, we also leave some grain in the barn in case of drought. When times were good, we stored away cash in a special savings account. The account proved to be a big help in getting us through the recession in solid financial shape. I cannot recall the federal government"s ever banking surplus funds in a protected account, even during the surplus-laden 1990s. If Washington ever digs out of the current hole and runs a cash balance, Congress should likewise put some grain in the barn. And even as we"ve cut costs and stored away money, we"ve followed another ranching principle: treat your ranch hands with respect. Like other states, we"ve had to freeze employee pay and reduce the work force. But as in any good organization, many of the best solutions for cutting costs come from state employees. Some look at payroll as a burden; we look at it as human capital, and we work hard to keep up morale in tough times. So when we cut the state payroll, I cut my own salary. Sadly, many politicians, especially in Washington, seem to take advantage of the opportunity to trash government workers. This is just cheap and ugly scapegoating. More to the point, it does nothing to produce bottom-line results. Finally, we don"t spend money until we"ve found the lowest price. When the real estate market softened, we told commercial landlords who rented space to the state that if we didn"t see rent reductions, we"d move to cheaper premises when our leases were up. There are savings to be found everywhere in government. Now that federal spending is the country"s top issue, Washington should try doing what any rancher or family household does.

单选题The outbreak of swine flu that was first detected in MEXICO was declared a global epidemic on June, 11, 2009. It is the first worldwide epidemic 1 by the World Health Organization in 41 years. The heightened alert 2 an emergency meeting with flu experts in Geneva that assembled after a sharp rise in cases in Australia, and rising 3 in Britain, Japan, Chile and elsewhere. But the epidemic is " 4 " in severity, according to Margaret Chan, the organization"s director general, 5 the overwhelming majority of patients experiencing only mild symptoms and a full recovery, often in the 6 of any medical treatment. The outbreak came to global 7 in late April 2009, when Mexican authorities noted an unusually large number of hospitalizations and deaths 8 healthy adults. As much of Mexico City shut down at the height of a panic, cases began to 9 in New York City, the southwestern United States and around the world. In the United States, new cases seemed to fade 10 warmer weather arrived. But in late September 2009, officials reported there was 11 flu activity in almost every state and that virtually all the 12 tested are the new swine flu, also known as (A) HIN1, not seasonal flu. In the U.S., it has 13 more than one million people, and caused more than 600 deaths and more than 6, 000 hospitalizations. Federal health officials 14 Tamiflu for children from the national stockpile and began 15 orders from the states for the new swine flu vaccine. The new vaccine, which is different from the annual flu vaccine, is 16 ahead of expectations. More than three million doses were to be made available in early October 2009, though most of those 17 doses were of the FluMist nasal spray type, which is not 18 for pregnant women, people over 50 or those with breathing difficulties, heart disease or several other 19 . But it was still possible to vaccinate people in other high-risk groups, health care workers, people 20 infants and healthy young people.

单选题Sport is heading for an indissoluble marriage with television and the passive spectator will enjoy a private paradise. All of this will be in the future of sport. The spectator (the television audience) will be the priority and professional clubs will have to readjust their structures to adapt to the new reality: sport as a business. The new technologies will mean that spectators will no longer have to wait for broadcasts by the conventional channels. They will be the ones who decide what to see. And they will have to pay for it. In the United States the system of the future has already started: pay-as-you-view. Everything will be offered by television and the spectator will only have to choose. The review Sports Illustrated recently published a full profile of the life of the supporter at home in the middle of the next century. It explained that the consumers would be able to select their view of the match on a gigantic, flat screen occupying the whole of one wall, with images of a clarity which cannot be foreseen at present; they could watch from the trainer"s bench, from the stands just behind the batter in a game of baseball or from the helmet of the star player in an American football game. And at their disposal will be the same options the producer of the recorded program has: to select replays, to choose which camera to use and to decide on the sound-whether to hear the public, the players, the trainer and so on. Many sports executives, largely too old and too conservative to feel at home with the new technologies, will believe that sport must control the expansion of television coverage in order to survive and ensure that spectators attend matches. They do not even accept the evidence which contradicts their view: while there is more basketball than ever on television, for example, it is also certain that basketball is more popular than ever. It is also the argument of these sports executives that television is harming the modest team. This is true, but the future of those teams is also modest. They have reached their ceiling. It is the law of the market. The great events continually attract larger audience. The world is being constructed on new technologies so that people can make the utmost use of their time and, in their home, have access to the greatest possible range of recreational activities. Sport will have to adapt itself to the new world. The most visionary executives go further. Their philosophy is: rather than see television take over sport, why not have sports take over television?

单选题It"s true that high-school coding classes aren"t essential for learning computer science in college. Students without experience can catch up after a few introductory courses, said Tom Cortina, the assistant dean at Carnegie Mellon"s School of Computer Science. However, Cortina said, early exposure is beneficial. When younger kids learn computer science, they learn that it"s not just a confusing, endless string of letters and numbers—but a tool to build apps, or create artwork, or test hypotheses. It"s not as hard for them to transform their thought processes as it is for older students. Breaking down problems into bite-sized chunks and using code to solve them becomes normal. Giving more children this training could increase the number of people interested in the field and help fill the jobs gap, Cortina said. Students also benefit from learning something about coding before they get to college, where introductory computer-science classes are packed to the brim, which can drive the less-experienced or -determined students away. The Flatiron School, where people pay to learn programming, started as one of the many coding bootcamps that"s become popular for adults looking for a career change. The high-schoolers get the same curriculum, but "we try to gear lessons toward things they"re interested in," said Victoria Friedman, an instructor. For instance, one of the apps the students are developing suggests movies based on your mood. The students in the Flatiron class probably won"t drop out of high school and build the next Facebook. Programming languages have a quick turnover, so the "Ruby on Rails" language they learned may not even be relevant by the time they enter the job market. But the skills they learn—how to think logically through a problem and organize the results—apply to any coding language, said Deborah Seehorn, an education consultant for the state of North Carolina. Indeed, the Flatiron students might not go into IT at all. But creating a future army of coders is not the sole purpose of the classes. These kids are going to be surrounded by computers—in their pockets, in their offices, in their homes—for the rest of their lives. The younger they learn how computers think, how to coax the machine into producing what they want—the earlier they learn that they have the power to do that—the better.

单选题Whether mobile phones can cause cancer remains an open question. But they are also accused by some of causing pain. A growing number of people around the world claim to be "electrosensitive", in other words physically responsive to the electromagnetic fields that surround phones and the other electronic devices that clutter the modern world. Indeed, at least one country, Sweden, has recognized such sensitivity as a disability, and will pay for the dwellings of sufferers to be screened from the world"s electronic smog. The problem is that, time and again, studies of those claiming to be electrosensitive show their ability to determine whether they are being exposed to a real electric field or a sham one is no better than chance. So, unless they are lying about their symptoms, the cause of those symptoms needs to be sought elsewhere. Michael Landgrebe and Ulrich Frick, of the University of Regensburg, in Germany, think that the "elsewhere" in question is in the brain and, in a paper presented recently to the Royal Society in London, they describe an experiment which, they think, proves their point. Dr. Landgrebe and Dr. Frick used a body scanner called a functional magnetic-resonance imager to see how people"s brains react to two different kinds of stimulus. Thirty participants, half of whom described themselves as electrosensitive, were put in the imager and told that they would undergo a series of trials in which they would be exposed either to an active mobile phone or to a heating device called a thermode, whose temperature would be varied between the trials. The thermode was real. The mobile phone, however, was a dummy. The type of stimulus, be it the authentic heat source or the sham electromagnetic radiation, was announced before each exposure and the volunteers were asked to rate its unpleasantness on a five-point scale. In the case of heat, the two groups" descriptions of their experiences were comparable. So, too, was their brain activity. However, when it came to the sham-phone exposure, only the electrosensitive described any sensations—which ranged from prickling to pain. Moreover, they showed neural activity to match. This suggests that electrosensitivity, rather than being a response to electromagnetic stimulus, is similar to well-known psychosomatic disorders such as some sorts of tinnitus and chronic pain. A psychosomatic disorder is one in which the symptoms are real, but are induced by cognitive functions such as attitudes, beliefs and expectations rather than by direct external stimuli. The paradoxical point of Dr. Landgrebe"s and Dr. Frick"s experiment is that mobile phones do indeed inflict real suffering on some unfortunate individuals. It is just that the electromagnetic radiation they emit has nothing whatsoever to do with it.

单选题Biologists estimate that as many as 2 million lesser prairie chickens—a kind of bird living on stretching grasslands—once lent red to the often grey landscape of the midwestern and southwestern United States. But just some 22,000 birds remain today, occupying about 16% of the species" historic range. The crash was a major reason the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) decided to formally list the bird as threatened. "The lesser prairie chicken is in a desperate situation," said USFWS Director Daniel Ashe. Some environmentalists, however, were disappointed. They had pushed the agency to designate the bird as "endangered", a status that gives federal officials greater regulatory power to crack down on threats. But Ashe and others argued that the "threatened" tag gave the federal government flexibility to try out new, potentially less confrontational conservations approaches. In particular, they called for forging closer collaborations with western state governments, which are often uneasy with federal action, and with the private landowners who control an estimated 95% of the prairie chicken"s habitat. Under the plan, for example, the agency said it would not prosecute landowner or businesses that unintentionally kill, harm, or disturb the bird, as long as they had signed a range-wide management plan to restore prairie chicken habitat. Negotiated by USFWS and the states, the plan requires individuals and businesses that damage habitat as part of their operations to pay into a fund to replace every acre destroyed with 2 new acres of suitable habitat. The fund will also be used to compensate landowners who set aside habitat. USFWS also set an interim goal of restoring prairie chicken populations to an annual average of 67,000 birds over the next 10 years. And it gives the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA), a coalition of state agencies, the job of monitoring progress. Overall, the idea is to let "states remain in the driver"s seat for managing the species," Ashe said. Not everyone buys the win-win rhetoric. Some Congress members are trying to block the plan, and at least a dozen industry groups, four states, and three environmental groups are challenging it in federal court. Not surprisingly, industry groups and states generally argue it goes too far, environmentalists say it doesn"t go far enough. "The federal government is giving responsibility for managing the bird to the same industries that are pushing it to extinction." says biologist Jay Lininger.

单选题Low-level slash-and-burn farming doesn"t harm rainforest. On the contrary, it helps farmers and improves forest soils. This is the unorthodox view of a German soil scientist who has shown that burnt clearings in the Amazon, dating back more than 1,000 years, helped create patches of rich, fertile soil that farmers still benefit from today. Most rainforest soils are thin and poor because they lack minerals and because the heat and heavy rainfall destroy most organic matter in the soils within four years of it reaching the forest floor. This means topsoil contains few of the ingredients needed for long-term successful farming. But Bruno Glaser, a soil scientist of the University of Bayreuth, has studied unexpected patches of fertile soils in the central Amazon. These soils contain lots of organic matter. Glaser has shown that most of this fertile organic matter comes from "black carbon" —the organic particles from camp fires and charred wood left over from thousands of years of slash-and-burn farming. "The soils, known as Terra Preta, contained up to 70 times more black carbon than the surrounding soil." says Glaser. Unburnt vegetation rots quickly, but black carbon persists in the soil for many centuries. Radiocarbon dating shows that the charred wood in Terra Preta soils is typically more than 1,000 years old. "Slash-and-burn farming can be good for soils provided it doesn"t completely burn all the vegetation, and leaves behind charred wood," says Glaser. "It can be better than manure." Burning the forest just once can leave behind enough black carbon to keep the soil fertile for thousands of years. And rainforests easily regrow after small-scale clearing. Contrary to the conventional view that human activities damage the environment, Glaser says: "Black carbon combined with human wastes is responsible for the richness of Terra Preta soils." Terra Preta soils turn up in large patches all over the Amazon, where they are highly prized by farmers. All the patches fall within 500 square kilometers in the central Amazon. Glaser says the widespread presence of pottery confirms the soil"s human origins. The findings add weight to the theory that large areas of the Amazon have recovered so well from past periods of agricultural use that the regrowth has been mistaken by generations of biologists for" virgin" forest. During the past decade, researchers have discovered hundreds of large earth works deep in the jungle. They are up to 20 meters high and cover up to a square kilometer. Glaser claims that these earth works, built between AD 400 and 1400, were at the heart of urban civilizations. Now it seems the richness of the Terra Preta soils may explain how such civilizations managed to feed themselves.

单选题In a time of low academic achievement by children in the United States, many Americans are turning to Japan, a country of high academic achievement and economic success, for possible answers. However, the answers provided by Japanese preschools are not the ones Americans expected to find. In most Japanese preschools, surprisingly little emphasis is put on academic instruction. In one investigation, 300 Japanese and 210 American preschool teachers, child development specialists, and parents were asked about various aspects of early childhood education. Only 2 percent of the Japanese respondents listed "to give children a good start academically" as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. In contrast, over half the American respondents chose this as one of their top three choices. To prepare children for successful careers in first grade and beyond, Japanese schools do not teach reading, writing, and mathematics, but rather skills such as persistence, concentration, and the ability to function as a member of a group. The vast majority of young Japanese children are taught to read at home by their parents. In the recent comparison of Japanese and American preschool education, 91 percent of Japanese respondentschose providing children with a group experience as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. Sixty-two percent of the more individually oriented Americans listed group experience as one of their top three choices. An emphasis on the importance of the group seen in Japanese early childhood education continues into elementary school education. Like in America, there is diversity in Japanese early childhood education. Some Japanese kindergartens have specific aims, such as early musical training or potential development. In large cities, some kindergartens are attached to universities that have elementary and secondary schools. Some Japanese parents believe that if their young children attend a university-based program, it will increase the children"s chances of eventually being admitted to top-rated schools and universities. Several more progressive programs have introduced free play as a way out for the heavy intellectualizing in some Japanese kindergartens.

单选题Imagine a Briton"s new year resolutions: he vows to stop smoking 20 cigarettes a day, and abandon his daily bottle of claret and nightly whisky. Confronting his enlarging gut, he may even promise to make his ten-mile round-trip commute by bike, not car. What admirable goals. And since this gentleman"s annual vice bill comes to around 7,500 pounds, he will be well-rewarded for his virtue even before considering the effect on his health. But the Treasury might rejoice a little less. In the fiscal year 2010-11 nearly 10% of all taxes collected came from duty on alcohol, tobacco, and fuel as well as from vehicle excise duty, a tax that falls most heavily on the least efficient cars. You may say that New Year resolutions are notoriously short-lived, but the longer-run trend still looks bad for the exchequer. Because many vices are in constant decline, so are receipts, predicts the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Smoking rates have been falling for decades, attributed partly to high taxes, and partly to public health campaigns changing social mores and a smoking ban in workplaces introduced across Britain in 2007. The government could respond by increasing sin tax rates. But when duties rise, so do the incentives to get around them, by buying abroad or on the black market. This is particularly common with cigarettes, which are easy for individual smokers to import. In 2000 non-duty consumption reached a peak of 78%, a consequence of the weak euro as well as a sudden increase in taxes of inflation plus 5%. Petrol taxes are leaking more quickly. As with smoking, behavior is changing: car and van mileage has fallen for four consecutive years, partly because petrol is so expensive and new vehicles have better engines. These trends, as well as the rise of electric and hybrid cars, are forecast to compress receipts from 1.8% of GDP in 2010 to just 1.1% in 2030. There are, of course, advantages to Britons giving up their filthy habits. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness and premature death in Britain. It cost the National Health Service more than 5 billion pounds a year in 2005-06, some 5.5% of its budget at the time, according to an Oxford University study. But any benefit to the NHS may be short-lived. Those who do not perish from diseases associated with smoking are likely to die more slowly of age-related illnesses. In moral terms, a decline in sin tax receipts suggests a job well done. But in fiscal terms, a hole is a hole. As the OBR sees it, falling Treasury income means Britons will be getting, in effect, an unannounced tax cut. Other taxes could therefore rise without leaving people worse off in aggregate. The maths makes sense. For the virtuous, though, being clobbered with new taxes may seem a rather poor reward.

单选题With just one week until Christmas, retailers are rolling out shopper-baiting strategies to attract procrastinators, deal-hunters and people who just want a few extra Christmas gifts. Strategies include offering extended shopping hours, free shipping, last-minute-shopping ad campaigns and social media reminders that time is ticking away. The week leading up to Christmas is usually when consumers open their wallets wide—the Saturday before the holiday traditionally being the biggest spending day behind Black Friday, according to shopper analytics firm Shopper Trak. Four of the 10 busiest holiday shopping days will occur between Dec. 20 and Dec. 24, Shopper Trak predicts. This holiday shopping season is shorter than last, with six fewer days—translating into just four weekends. There will be "high levels of in-store shopper activity" the weekend before Christmas, says Shopping Trak founder Bill Martin. Here"s how retailers are trying to get the attention of gift buyers: Going social in their countdown warnings. Companies are using social media to remind customers that Christmas is coming and to offer gift suggestions. Best Buy is using the Twitter tag "Last Minute Gifts" to promote its goods and on Tuesday evening hosted a Google Hangout chat with the last-minute gift theme. Targeting procrastinators. On Wednesday, J. C. Penney launches a "men in panic" TV ad. In it, a desperate man walk by a store as a small choir sings "point him to the jewelry so he won"t buy a "vacuum"". Offering free shipping. Many retailers, including J. C. Penney, have embraced Wednesday as "Free Shipping Day" —no minimum order, and delivery by Christmas Eve is guaranteed. FreeShippingDay.com has a list of nearly 900 participating merchants. Extending store hours. Nordstrom, Target and Toys R Us all have longer hours now or coming up. Toys R Us will be open around the clock for 87 continuous hours beginning at 6 a. m. Saturday, Dec. 21, through 9 p.m. Christmas Eve. "Expanded hours at this time of year have proven to be very popular with customers in the past, but with the shortened shopping window between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and no time left to procrastinate, we expect to see larger crowds at all hours." says company spokeswoman Linda.

单选题As one of a rare group of economists who believe that "manufacturing matters" for the health of the American economy, I was heartened to hear President Obama emphasize manufacturing in his State of the Union address. During the last two years, the manufacturing sector has led the economic recovery, expanding by about 10 percent and adding more than 300,000 jobs. Though there are economists who do not share my view, I believe that a strong manufacturing sector matters for several reasons. First, economists agree that the United States must rebalance growth away from consumption and imports financed by foreign borrowing toward exports. Manufactured goods account for about 86 percent of merchandise exports from the United States and about 60 percent of exports of goods and services combined. American manufacturing exports are becoming more attractive as a result of rising wages abroad, the decline in the dollar"s value, increasing supply-chain coordination and transportation costs, and strong productivity growth in American manufacturing. Germany and Japan, two high-wage countries, have maintained substantial shares of manufacturing in their economies, and are major exporters of manufactured goods to emerging market economies. Like manufacturing in these countries, manufacturing in the United States can win larger shares of global export markets with the right policies in place. Second, on average manufacturing jobs are high-productivity, high value-added jobs with good pay and benefits. In 2009, the average manufacturing worker earned $74,447 in annual pay and benefits compared with $63,122 for the average non-manufacturing worker. In that year, only about 9 percent of the work force was employed in manufacturing, down from about 13 percent in 2000. The fall in manufacturing employment during the 2000s was a major factor behind growing wage inequality and the polarization of job opportunities between the top and bottom of the wage and skill distribution, with a hollowing out of middle-income jobs. Third, manufacturing matters because of its substantial role in innovation. American leadership in science and technology remains highly dependent on R. & D. investment by manufacturing companies, and the social returns to such investment are substantial, far exceeding the returns to the companies that fund it. American multinational companies that account for about 84 percent of all private-sector business R. & D. in the United States still place about 84 percent of their R. & D. activities in the United States, often in clusters around research universities. But this share is gradually declining as American companies shift some of their R. & D. to Asia in response to rapidly growing markets, ample supplies of technical workers and engineers and generous subsidies. Congress"s failure to extend and broaden the R. & D. tax credit, as President Obama has urged, is also encouraging companies in the United States to look to other countries offering far more generous R. & D. tax incentives.

单选题At the present time, 98 percent of the world energy consumption comes from stored sources, such as fossil fuels or nuclear fuel. Only hydroelectric and wood energy represent completely renewable sources on ordinary time scales. Discovery of large additional fossil fuel reserves, solution of the nuclear safety and waste disposal problems, or the development of controlled thermonuclear fusion will provide only a short-term solution to the world"s energy crisis. Within about 100 years, the thermal pollution resulting from our increased energy consumption will make solar energy a necessity at any cost. Man"s energy consumption is currently about one part in ten thousand that of the energy we receive from the sun. However, it is growing at a 5 percent rate, of which about 2 percent represents a population growth and 3 percent a per capita energy increase. If this growth continues, within 100 years our energy consumption will be about 1 percent of the absorbed solar energy, enough to increase the average temperature of the earth by about one degree centigrade if stored energy continues to be our predominant source. This will be the point at which there will be significant effects in our climate, including the melting of the polar ice caps, a phenomenon which will raise the level of the oceans and flood parts of our major cities. There is positive feedback associated with this process, since the polar ice cap contributes to the partial reflectivity of the energy arriving from the sun. As the ice caps begin to melt, the reflectivity will decrease, thus heating the earth still further. It is often stated that the growth rate will decline or that energy conservation measures will preclude any long-range problem. Instead, this only postpones the problem by a few years. Conservation by a factor of two together with a maintenance of the 5 percent growth rate delays the problem by only 14 years. Reduction of the growth rate to 4 percent postpones the problem by only 25 years; in addition, the inequities in standards of living throughout the world will provide pressure toward an increase in growth rate, particularly if cheap energy is available. The problem of a changing climate will not be evident until perhaps ten years before it becomes critical due to the nature of an exponential growth rate together with the normal annual weather variations. This may be too short a period to circumvent the problem by converting to other energy sources, so advance planning is a necessity. The only practical means of avoiding the problem of thermal pollution appears to be the use of solar energy. Using the solar energy before it is dissipated to heat does not increase the earth"s energy balance. The cost of solar energy is extremely favorable now, particularly when compared to the cost of relocating many of our major cities.

单选题 "Nanny", "tyrant"—these were among the charges hurled at Michael Bloomberg, New York's mayor, when he proposed a ban on big fizzy-drink bottles last May. The billionaire shrugged and pushed forward. However even Mr. Bloomberg must heed a court order. The American Beverage Association, which represents Coca-Cola and other soda companies, has sued. Mr. Bloomberg's ban is due to start on March 12th, but a judge may intervene. Three years after Michelle Obama launched her Let's Move! campaign, the fight against childhood obesity faces a tactical problem. Recent years have been dipping obesity rates in a few places, including New York, Mississippi and Philadelphia. But 17% of American children are still obese. The question is how to speed up progress. Further bans look increasingly unlikely. Voluntary programs remain politically much easier. Mrs. Obama has exhorted firms to take action. Many companies have. On March 6th the Partnership for a Healthier America, a business group, published a report praising its members for putting more grocers in poor areas and healthier foods at restaurants. Sixteen food and beverage companies have promised to slash a combined 1.5 trillion calories from their products by 2015. Their first progress report is due in June. The long-term effect of these efforts may be slim. For example, even if the food and drink firms keep their promise, they would cut just 14 calories from the average American's daily diet. Regulations might bring bigger change, but recent years suggest that such rules will come slowly, if at all. Congress did pass a law requiring healthier school lunches, though its effects are limited. Other attempts at national regulation have stalled. Four federal agencies studied voluntary guidelines to limit junk-food advertisements to children. Under pressure from Congress, the agencies dropped the effort. Obamacare requires that all restaurants and cinemas post the number of calories in their foods. The Food and Drug Administration proposed a rule for menus in 2011, but has yet to finalise the regulation. Cities and states are more likely to act than Congress (hardly a high bar), but they face their own challenges. Last year the beverage lobby spent more than $2.8m to defeat a soda tax in the small city of Richmond, California. Even Mr. Bloomberg, the anti-obesity crusade's most fervent warrior, can only do so much.

单选题Spain"s government is now championing a cause called " right to be forgotten ". It has ordered Google to stop indexing information about 90 citizens who filed formal complaints with its Data Protection Agency. All 90 people wanted information deleted from the Web. Among them was a victim of domestic violence who discovered that her address could easily be found through Google. Another, well into middle age now, thought it was unfair that a few computer key strokes could unearth an account of her arrest in her college days. They might not have received much of a hearing in the United States, where Google is based and where courts have consistently found that the right to publish the truth about someone"s past supersedes any right to privacy. But here, as elsewhere in Europe, an idea has taken hold—individuals should have a "right to be forgotten" on the Web. In fact, the phrase "right to be forgotten" is being used to cover abatch of issues, ranging from those in the Spanish case to the behavior of companies seeking to make money from private information that can be collected on the Web. Spain"s Data Protection Agency believes that search engines have altered the process by which most data ends up forgotten—and therefore adjustments need to be made. The deputy director of the agency, Jesús Rubí, pointed to the official government gazette公报), which used to publish every weekday, including bankruptcy auctions, official pardons, and who passed the civil service exams. Usually 220 pages of fine print, it quickly ended up gathering dust on various backroom shelves. The information was still there, but not easily accessible. Then two years ago, the 350-year-old publication went online, making it possible for embarrassing information—no matter how old—to be obtained easily. The publisher of the government publication, Fernando Pérez, said it was meant to foster transparency. Lists of scholarship winners, for instance, make it hard for the government officials to steer all the money to their own children. "But maybe," he said, "there is information that has a life cycle and only has value for a certain time." Many Europeans are broadly uncomfortable with the way personal information is found by search engines and used for commerce. When ads pop up on one"s screen, clearly linked to subjects that are of interest to him, one may find it Orwellian. A recent poll conducted by the European Union found that most Europeans agree. Three out of four said they were worried about how Internet companies used their information and wanted the right to delete personal data at any time. Ninety percent wanted the European Union to take action on the right to be forgotten. Experts say that Google and other search engines see some of these court cases as anassault on a principle of law already established—that search engines are essentially not responsible for the information they corral from the Web, and hope the Spanish court agrees. The companies believe if there are privacy issues, the complainants should address those who posted the material on the Web. But some experts in Europe believe that search engines should probably be reined in. "They are the ones that are spreading the word. Without them no one would find these things."

单选题The idea is as audacious as it altruistic: provide a personal laptop computer to every schoolchild—particularly in the poorest parts of the world. The first step to making that happen is whittling the price down to $100. And that is the goal of a group of American techno-gurus led by Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the fabled MIT Media Lab. When he unveiled the idea at the World Economic Forum in January it seemed wildly ambitious. But surprisingly, it is starting to become a reality. Mr. Negroponte plans to display the first prototype in November at a UN summit. Four countries—Brazil, Egypt, Thailand and South Africa—have said they will buy over l m units each. Production is due to start in late 2006. How is the group, called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), able to create a laptop so inexpensively? It is mainly a matter of cleverly combining existing technologies in new ways. The laptop will have a basic processor made by AMD, flash memory instead of a hard disk, will be powered by batteries or a hand-crank, and will run open-source software. The $100 laptop also puts all the components behind the screen, not under the keyboard, so there is no need for an expensive hinge. So far, OLPC has got the price down to around $130. But good news for the world"s poor, may not be such great news for the world"s computer manufacturers. The new machine is not simply of interest in the developing world. On September 22nd, Mitt Romney, the governor of Massachusetts, said the state should purchase one for every secondary-school student, when they become available. Sales to schools are just one way in which the $100 laptop could change the computer industry more broadly. By depressing prices and fuelling the trend for "good-enough computing", where customers upgrade less often, it could eventually put pressure on the world"s biggest PC-makers.

单选题Higher demand from developing countries and oil producers is offsetting the lower demand of wealthy countries. Consumption in these countries will rise 3 percent in 2008, or 1.2 million barrels a day, projects the International Energy Agency. Many of these countries subsidize fuel so that final customers are insulated from price increases. Gasoline is about 25 cents a gallon in Venezuela and about 60 cents in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran. There"s been a huge transfer of power to oil producers. Even at $100 a barrel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates will earn almost $8 trillion in oil revenues between now and 2020, estimates the McKinsey Global Institute. More troubling are the political implications. "This has really strengthened the Iranians, Russians and Venezuelans to be more provocative in the world," says Larry Goldstein of the Energy Policy Research Foundation. Although governments control crude supplies, private companies have dominated distribution. Anyone can buy oil at a price. Now oil could become a political commodity, used by governments to cement their alliances, offered to friends at a discount; withheld from rivals. How can we retrieve some of our lost power? The first thing is to get out of denial. Stop blaming oil companies, "speculators" and other scapegoats for a situation not of their making. Next, we need to expand oil and natural-gas drilling in the United States, including Alaska. No, we can"t "drill our way" out of this problem. But we can augment oil supplies and lessen price strains on global markets. It might take 10 years or more, because new projects are huge undertakings. But delay will only aggravate our future problems, just as past errors aggravate present problems. Finally, we need to let high prices work. Aside from encouraging fuel-efficient vehicles and disciplining driving habits, they may also stimulate development of new biofuels from wood chips, food waste and switch grass. Production costs of these fuels may be in the range of $1 a gallon. If true, that"s well below today"s wholesale gasoline prices. To assure new producers that they wouldn"t be wiped out if oil prices plunged, we should set a floor price for oil of $50 to $80 a barrel, about 40 percent to 60 percent of today"s levels. It"s a worthy idea and can be done with a standby tariff. It would activate only if prices hit the threshold. We know that oil prices are unpredictable, and should a price collapse occur, Americans wouldn"t be deluded into thinking we"ve returned permanently to cheap energy. We"ve made that mistake before.

单选题In 1993, New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit on beverage containers. Within a year, consumers had returned millions of aluminum cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw materials for new products. But because few could figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it wound up buried in landfill. The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic. Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled in the United States. The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence posts, paint brushes, etc. As the New York experience shows, recycling involves more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish. A discard remains a discard until somebody figures out how to give it a second life—and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life value. Without adequate markets to absorb materials collected for recycling, throwaways actually depress prices for used materials. Shrinking landfill space, and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste-management option. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal, which, in parts of New York, amounts to saving of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and trims the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined raw material.

完形填空Thinner isn’t always better. A number of studies have __1___ that normal-weight people are in fact at higher risk of some diseases compared to those who are overweight. And there are health conditions for which being overweight is actually ___2___. For example, heavier women are less likely to develop calcium deficiency than thin women. ___3___ among the elderly, being somewhat overweight is often an ___4___ of good health. 　　Of even greater ___5___ is the fact that obesity turns out to be very difficult to define. It is often defined ___6___ body mass index, or BMI. BMI ___7__ body mass divided by the square of height. An adult with a BMI of 18 to 25 is often considered to be normal weight. Between 25 and 30 is overweight. And over 30 is considered obese. Obesity, ___8___,can be divided into moderately obese, severely obese, and very severely obese. 　　While such numerical standards seem 9 , they are not. Obesity is probably less a matter of weight than body fat. Some people with a high BMI are in fact extremely fit, 10 others with a low BMI may be in poor 11 .For example, many collegiate and professional football players 12 as obese, though their percentage body fat is low. Conversely, someone with a small frame may have high body fat but a 13 BMI. 　　Today we have a(an) _14 _ to label obesity as a disgrace.The overweight are sometimes_15_in the media with their faces covered. Stereotypes _16_ with obesity include laziness, lack of will power,and lower prospects for success.Teachers,employers,and health professionals have been shown to harbor biases against the obese. _17_very young children tend to look down on the overweight, and teasing about body build has long been a problem in schools.