阅读理解Recently the end of the Mayan Long Calendar has received a lot of attention because of the belief that the date is closely linked with the end of the world as we know it today. These 2012 predictions range from those on a celestial level to those on a much more earthly realm. One of the reasons why researchers of Mayan culture and mythology are so certain that this calendar means something is because of the exacting relevance and research that was put into studying the solar system and the corresponding important dates.For example, the end of the calendar takes place at the end of the thirteenth baktun. The number thirteen was considered by the Mayan to be a very important and spiritual number. Not to mention the fact that December 21st, 2012, is not only the winter solstice, but is actually the date that a rare alignment will take place of the entire Milky Way. This is something that only occurs once every twenty five thousand years. The fact that the Mayans knew this date was going to be an important one for the alignment of the planets is not a coincidence. In fact, the Mayan culture has several components that are closely linked with the study of astronomy.When researchers began to look into the dates on the Mayan calendar they realized that they actually corresponded to certain astronomical phenomenon. It was that which amazed most of them. After all, this culture did not have access to the high tech scientific equipment that we have today, yet they were able to pinpoint many events in our solar system with complete accuracy. It was this ability of the Mayans that caused many who looked into the 2012 predictions to take them a little more seriously than they might have otherwise.There are arguments that the end of the baktun cycle that the Mayans put into their calendar does not necessarily mean that it is the end of humanity, but rather they would have seen it as an important transition that would affect everyone on a different level. However, there are others who view it as a literal end of the world scenario. Besides the rare planetary alignment that is set to occur, there are also interesting astronomical occurrences that help to lend credence to this idea.One of these is the belief that there is a planet named Nibiru (sometimes referred to as Planet X) that orbits through our solar system once every three thousand six hundred years. While there is no definite scientific proof of this, there are those researchers who agree that there appears to be a missing planet from the orbital rotation. Some even believe that the next time this planet’s orbit is set to intersect with ours will be in the year 2012. If this orbit interferes with our solar system it could cause a lot of problems, and these issues are what some people are anticipating.While you may find the idea of this strange planet something out of a science fiction novel, you should know that the ancient Sumerians actually wrote about this planet, and they are the ones who named it Nibiru. They also believed that an advanced race of beings known as the Anunnaki lived on the planet, and that these beings created humanity through a form of genetic manipulation. While the Sumerians did not know about genetic mutation, it appears that the hieroglyphs that have been uncovered by archeologists show a detailed description of the Anunnaki taking a part of themselves and combining it with other creatures to create humanity.Even though the 2012 predictions are completely shrouded in mystery, it is certain that they have intrigued people around the world. If you are interested in finding out more, you can go to the website below as a way to find out more about the countdown to this date. In fact, it is full of helpful information to make sure that no matter what happens, you and your family will be fully prepared.

阅读理解Rick Stevenson, 16 years old, spends every minute he can on the mountain. He and his friends go snow-boarding every weekend. “It’s incredible,” he says. “The winds are so strong, the boards go 50 miles an hour.” His friend Laura Fields agrees. “No one goes skiing anymore,” she says. “That’s for the old folks.” Rick and Laura are part of a new trend in sports. It has its own language, words such as “rage,” “juice,” and “energy”. It has its own clothing， such as skin-tight bicycle suits in rainbow colors or baggy tops and pants. And it’s not for the old or the easily frightened. Its philosophy is to get as close to the edge as possible. And more and more young athletes are taking part in these risky, daredevil activities called “extreme sports,” or “X-sports.”In the past, young athletes would play hockey or baseball. Today, they want risk and excitement—the closer to the edge, the better. They snowboard over cliffs and mountain-bike down steep mountains. They wind-surf near hurricanes, go white-water rafting through rapids, and bungy-jump from towers.Extreme sports started as an alternative to more expensive sports. A city kid who didn’t have the money to buy expensive sports equipment could get a skateboard and have fun. But now it has become a whole new area of sports, which specialized equipment and high levels of skill. There’s even a special Olympics for extreme sports, called the Winter X-games, which includes snow mountain biking and ice climbing. An Extreme Games competition is held each summer in Rhode Island. It features sports such as sky surfing where people jump from airplanes with surfboards attached to their feet.What makes extreme sports so popular? “People love the thrill,” says Murray Nussbaum, who sells sport equipment. “City people want to be outdoors on the weekend and do something challenging. The new equipment is so much better that people can take more risk without getting hurt.” An athlete adds, “Sure there’s risk, but that’s part of the appeal. Once you go mountain biking or snowboarding, it’s impossible to go back to bike riding or skiing. It’s just too boring.”Now even the older crowd is starting to join in. Every weekend a group of friends in their early 30s get together. During the week they work as computer programmers in the same office. On Sundays they rent mountain bikes that cost $2000 each and ride down steep mountains together. Extreme sports area certainly not for everyone. Most people still prefer to play baseball or basketball or watch sports on TV. But extreme sports are definitely gaining its popularity. “These sports are fresh and exciting. It’s the wave of the future. The potential is huge,” says Nussbaum.

阅读理解Psychologists warn that therapies based on positive emotions may not work for Asians. Thinking happy thoughts, focusing on the good and downplaying the bad is believed to accelerate recovery from depression, bolster resilience during a crisis and improve overall mental health. But a new study by University of Washington psychologists reveals that pursuing happiness may not be beneficial across all cultures.In a survey of college students, Asian respondents showed no relationship between positive emotions and levels of stress and depression. For European-American participants, however, the more stress and depression they felt, the fewer positive emotions they reported.The study indicates that psychotherapies emphasizing positive emotions, which can relieve stress and depression in white populations, may not work for Asians, who make up 60 percent of the world population.The findings have implications for helping the Japanese recover from natural disasters and subsequent nuclear crisis in March, and for Chinese coping with post-traumatic stress following the 2008 Sichuan Province earthquake.The researchers asked 633 college students — a mix of Asian immigrants, Asian Americans and European Americans — to rate how much stress and depression they felt and how often they’ve been in a sad mood, felt worthless or had sleep or appetite changes.The participants also rated the intensity of the positive emotions that they felt, including feelings of serenity, joy, confidence and attentiveness.For European-American participants, there was a strong correlation showing that the more positive emotions they expressed, the less depression or stress they reported. The correlation was more subtle among Asian-Americans, but for Asians, there was no correlation between positive emotions and depression and stress.The findings show that Asians interpret and react to positive emotions differently in regards to their mental health.Upon winning an award, for instance, the researchers said that a typical response would be “I’m so happy that I’m afraid.” The award would trigger feelings of happiness for the achievement combined with concern that others would be jealous.This blend of emotions is common among Asians and it may be shaped by Buddhist beliefs that happiness either leads to suffering or is impossible to obtain.“Happiness signals that something bad will happen next; happiness is fleeting,” one researcher said. Similarly, yin-and-yang attitudes may instill views that life is a natural balance of good and bad.For Asians with depression, therapies likely to work the best are those that encourage patients to observe when they feel good and bad and notice that both will disappear. Everything passes.

阅读理解It’s a plain common sense—the more happiness you feel, the less unhappiness you experience. It’s plain common sense, but it’s not true. Recent research reveals that happiness and unhappiness are not really two sides of the same emotion. They are two distinct feelings that, coexisting, rise and fall independently.People might think that the higher a person’s level of unhappiness, the lower their level of happiness and vice versa. But when researchers measure people’s average levels of happiness and unhappiness, they often find little relationship between the two.The recognition that feelings of happiness and unhappiness can co-exist much like love and hate in a close relationship may offer valuable clues on how to lead a happier life. It suggests, for example, that changing or avoiding things that make you miserable may well make you less miserable， but probably won’t make you any happier. That advice is backed up by an extraordinary series of studies which indicate that a genetic predisposition for unhappiness may run in certain families. On the other hand, researchers have found happiness doesn’t appear to be anyone’s heritage. The capacity for joy is a talent you develop largely for yourself.Psychologists have settled on a working definition of the feeling—happiness is a sense of subjective well-being. They have also begun to find out who’s happy, who isn’t and why. To date, the research hasn’t found a simple formula for a happy life, but it has discovered some of the actions and attitudes that seem to bring people closer to that most desired of feelings.Why is unhappiness less influenced by environment? When we are happy, we are more responsive to people and keep up connections better than when we are feeling sad. This doesn’t mean, however， that some people are born to be sad and that’s that. Genes may predispose one to unhappiness, but disposition can be influenced by personal choice. You can increase your happiness through your own actions.

阅读理解At 18, Ashanthi Desilva of suburban Cleveland is a living symbol of one of the great intellectual achievements of the 20 th century. Born with an extremely rare and usually fatal disorder that left her without a functioning immune system, she was treated beginning in 1990 with a revolutionary new therapy that sought to correct the defect at its very source, in the genes of her white blood cells. It worked. Although her last gene-therapy treatment was in 1992, she is completely health with normal immune function, according to one of the doctors who treated her, W. French Anderson of the University of Southern California. Researchers have long dreamed of treating diseases from hemophilia to cancer by replacing mutant genes with normal ones. And the dreaming may continue for decades more. “There will be a gene-based treatment for essentially every disease,” Anderson says, “within 50 years.”It’s not certainly clear why medicine has been to slow to build on Anderson’s early success. The National Institutes of Health budget office estimates it will spend $ 432 million on gene-therapy research in 2005, and there is no shortage of promising leads. The therapeutic genes are usually delivered through viruses that don’t cause human disease. “The virus is sort of like a Trojan horse,” says Ronald Crystal of New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical College. “The cargo is the gene”.At the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center, immunologist Carl June recently treated HIV patients with a gene intended to help their cells resist the infection. At Cornell University, researchers are pursuing gene- based therapies for Parkinson’s disease and a rare hereditary disorder that destroys children’s brain cells. At Stanford University and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, researchers are trying to figure out how to help patients with hemophilia who today must inject themselves with expensive clotting drugs for life. Animal experiments have shown great promise.But somehow, things get lost in the transition from laboratory to patient. In human trials of the hemophilia treatment, patients show a response at first, but it fades over time. And the field has still not recovered from the setback it suffered in 1999, when Jesse Gelsinger, an 19-year-old with a rare metabolic disorder, died after receiving an experimental gene therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. Some experts worry that the field will be tarnished further if the next people to benefit are not patients but athletes seeking an edge. This summer, researchers at the Salk Institute in San Diego said they had created a “marathon mouse” by implanting a gene that enhances running ability; already, officials at the World Anti-Doping Agency are preparing to test athletes for signs of “gene doping”. But the principle is the same, whether you’re trying to help a health runner run faster or allow a muscular-dystrophy patient to walk. “Everybody recognizes that gene therapy is a very good idea,” says Crystal. “And eventually it’s going to work.”

阅读理解A publisher of a national book of high student biographies has just released the results of a survey it did of its membership, those who appear in their book. The results, which appear to contain several findings of grave interest to the American public, are nevertheless suspect in their scientific validity. How often do we hear the word validity used in relationship to statistics which are proffered on the evening news or in the newspapers? Most people are left believing that all statistics are to be taken seriously and that they imply, by the fact that they are in the media, some assurance of being well grounded and useful. The facts, in my opinion, do not warrant such trust, nor do the researchers warrant plaudits for their work in this instance.A questionnaire which was designed to tap into teens’ beliefs on everything from sex to suicide was mailed to just over 8,000 students across the nation. Just over 3,000 returned their questionnaires and from this sample the publisher made its findings public.The number of teens who actually thought about suicide was found to be slightly more than 800 and the number who tried to kill themselves was around 130. Of course, these figures had to be calculated because percentages were given in the original press release and discussed by the spokesperson on national TV. When questioned about the responsibility of the researchers in terms of the students who thought about killing themselves and those who had actually tried, the spokesperson took a turn and answered another question; they intended to do something about the high percent of students who reported rape or forced sexual contact.But where does this leave not only the kids who sent in the questionnaire and admitted to suicidal thoughts or actions, but all those kids who didn’t reply, but who had the same feelings or experiences? Where is the responsibility not only of the research company, but of the publishers and the schools where those students are in classes? What percent of the almost 5,000 kids who didn’t respond had tried to kill themselves or had thought about it? The study naively offers a glimpse into the, seriousness of teen suicide while ignoring its own inadequacy in truly providing information. In this case, ifs not only the kids who responded, but, more important, the kids who didn’t because those kids feel there’s no sense to reach out and tell someone of their pain. I suspect those kids are truly in danger and how is the study identifying them? For that matter, how is the study identifying the teens who admitted to trying to kill themselves?

阅读理解For a child, happiness has a magical nature. I remember making hide-outs in newly-cut hay, playing cops and robbers in the woods, getting a speaking part in the school play. Of course, kids also experience lows, but their delight at such peaks of pleasure as winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved.In the teenage years, the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it’s conditional on such things as excitement, love, popularity and whether that zit will clear up before night. I can still feel the agony of not being invited to a party that almost everyone else was going to. But I also recall the ecstasy of being plucked from obscurity at another event to dance with a John Travolta look-alike.【B1】_____________________________________My dictionary defines happy as “lucky” or “fortunate”, but I think a better definition of happiness is “the capacity for enjoyment”. The more we can appreciate what we have, the happier we are. It’s easy to overlook the pleasure we get from loving and being loved, the company of friends, the freedom to live where we please, even good health.【B2】_____________________________________Later, peace descended again, and my husband and I enjoyed another pleasure—intimacy. Sometimes just the knowledge that he wants can bring me joy.You never know where happiness will turn up next. When I asked friends what made them happy, some mentioned apparently insignificant moments. “I hate shopping,” one friend said, “but there’s a clerk who always chats and really cheers me up.”【B3】_____________________________________I get a thrill from driving. One day I stopped to let the school bus turn onto a side road. The driver grinned and gave me a thumbs-up sign. We were two allies in the world of mad motorists. It made me smile.【B4】_____________________________________Psychologists tell us that to be happy we need a mixture of enjoyable leisure time and satisfying work. I doubt that my great grandmother, who raised 14 children and took in washing, had none of either. She did have a network of close friends and families, and maybe this is what fulfilled her. If she was content with what she had, perhaps it was because she didn’t expect life to be very difficult.【B5】_____________________________________While happiness may be more complex for us, the solution is the same as ever. Happiness isn’t about what comes to us—it’s about how we perceive what comes to us. It’s the knack of finding a positive for every negative, and viewing a setback as a challenge. It’s not wishing for what we haven’t had, but enjoying what we do possess.A.Anotherfriendlovesthetelephone.“Everytimeitrings,Iknowsomeoneisthinkingaboutme.”B.Weallexperiencemomentslikethese.Toofewofusregisterthemashappiness.C.Inadulthoodthethingsthatbringprofoundjoy—birth,love,marriage—alsobringresponsibilityandtheriskofloss.Lovemaynotlast,sexisn’talwaysgood,lovedonesdie.Foradults,happinessiscomplicated.D.We,ontheotherhand,withsomanychoicesandsuchpressuretosucceedineveryarea,havechangedhappinessintoonemorethingwe“gottahave”.Wearesoself-consciousaboutour“right”toitthatit’smakingusmiserable.Sowechaseitandequateitwithwealthandsuccess,withoutnoticingthatthepeoplewhohavethosethingsaren’tnecessarilyhappier.E.Iaddedupmylittlemomentsofpleasureyesterday.FirsttherewassheerblesswhenIshutthelastlunchboxandhadthehouseformyself.ThenIspentanuninterruptedmorningwriting,whichIlove.Whenthekidscamebackhome,Ienjoyedtheirnoiseafterthequietofthewholeday.

阅读理解I became conscious of the difference between play and sport when I helped organize a sandlot football team at the age of 12. We had to figure out what we would do. The first thing was to schedule a game with a similar team from a nearby town.It never occurred to us to practice or prepare for the game except to do what we had done for years— run around, pass the football and yell. The result was catastrophic.It dawned on us that we were engaged in a sport, not in play. If we were to play decently, let alone win, we would have to prepare, and the only way was to learn the discipline of practice.Looking back, I realize that at that moment we underwent a profound experience. We entered into a social contract that bound us together with ties still strong after more than 30 years.Our quarterback imposed his rule on us and assumed the offices of captain and coach. He focused my attention on the importance of pain and the reaction to it.We had been pushed around unmercifully by a larger and stronger opponent. On our 5-yard line, he told the team he would take the ball on every play until we lost it. He was not large, and it seemed folly to plunge into the center of the line, especially since he had no pads or helmet to protect him.The first rush caught the other team by surprise, and he went for 10 yards. On the second plunge, they stiffened, but we still moved. For 60 yards, we inched forward. After the first few rushes, it was clear that our offense consisted of one play-up the center. By the time we had penetrated to their 30- yard-line, our quarterback was covered with dust and blood, but still giving the same command: “Snap the ball to me on three”.A surprising thing happened. The opposition collapsed. We moved 5, then 10, then 15 yards until the touchdown was made.One boy, determined to break his opponents regardless of personal agony, had demoralized 11 other boys, all bigger than he and as good (or better) football players. Their undoing was their inability to understand how the human will can drive the body to do things that defy reason.I have never forgotten that day and the lesson I learned. In the years since, I have used that lesson well. Pain of one sort or another is everywhere. It is painful to confront a problem in math that you cannot solve. It is excruciating to roll blank paper into a typewriter and have no words come for hours. It hurts to give a lecture that puts students to sleep or, worse, that is terrible but applauded.And so I have continued to punish myself. Even at the slow pace I run, it hurts; my pass patterns in touch football are becoming fuzzy and less clean; the weights get heavier to lift, even when they add up to the same total; I don’t bounce so lightly anymore in a judo throw. It is still worth it, for my will remains firm though I must lower my physical sights.And more and more, I have become a faithful spectator, for what I think I see in sports is the process by which young people become mature men and women. I realize that modern psychology has claimed that sports do not build character. It is true that sports may not improve a person, just as a college education is often wasted.

阅读理解Police officers were sent to guard schools, while hundreds of security officers scoured large areas near the French capital. Spooked drivers locked their car doors. Residents cowered at home, fearful that a menacing tiger would devour them whole. But a little more than 24 hours after the French police began their frantic search, they concluded that the errant feline was no tiger but, possibly, a large or perhaps overweight domestic cat.At a time of economic and political malaise, the French could use a diversion, and the renegade beast — first spotted in Montévrain, a town east of the capital not far from Disneyland Paris — captured the national imagination, while also stoking more than a little fear.It may also have played into what commentators have said is a growing public anxiety, stemming from 14 illegal drone flights over French nuclear plants in recent weeks, raising concern about the security of the country’s main source of electricity. French authorities say they have no idea who was behind the mysterious flights.Then came the reports of a large wild cat on the loose, slinking around the outskirts of the French capital and eluding a hunting squad that included officers armed with tranquilizer guns and a helicopter equipped with a thermal detector. As of Friday evening, they proved no match for the elusive cat, which officials estimated weighed at least 100 pounds, based on the size of its tracks.The national agency for hunting and wildlife was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying that the cat was not dangerous. “It is between a domestic cat and a larger feline,” said Eric Hansen, an official from the agency, who also ruled out that it was a lynx.Nevertheless, a fuzzy photograph of the creature was circulated by the French news media, and minute-by-minute sightings have been reported here as if the country were on alert for a serial killer or U.F.O.The police said dozens of sightings have been phoned in. One driver reported spotting the cat crossing the A4, a major highway, prompting the authorities to tell drivers and residents in the area not to leave their cars, or, worse, venture into the woods. The feline was also seen stalking a gas station and prowling near the parking lot of a supermarket, news reports said.Writing on Twitter, Olivier Rimmel, an entrepreneur, mused that the obsessive hunt seemed to reflect a current French obsession with nonsensical things. “Every two days, a new bogus issue keeps us busy,” he wrote. “This time it’s a little tiger that is going to eat lots of children.” After it emerged that the tiger could, in fact, be an obese cat, Libération, the French newspaper, offered reassurance to its readers. “The tiger is not a tiger,” it wrote in a post on Twitter. “You can resume normal activities.”

阅读理解Last week, a jet operated by a private Pakistani airline, Shaheen Air, skidded off the runway while landing in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore. About 120 passengers were on board as the plane lumbered into a grassy field, blowing a tire but stopping about 1,000 feet from certain disaster. Ten passengers were slightly injured in the crash, which raised further questions about the safety of Pakistan’s aging fleet of private and state-owned domestic airlines.Over the weekend, a government investigation into the accident concluded the pilot, Asmat Mehmood, was “drunk” at the time of the crash. According to Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority, Mehmood had a blood alcohol level of .08. Since 1977, alcohol has been banned in Pakistan. CAA regulations state that “no alcohol level is acceptable in the blood” of pilots, cockpit or cabin crews or passengers in Pakistan. In the United States, the CAA noted in a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations prohibits pilots from flying if their blood alcohol level exceeds .04.Mehmood’s family and some of his colleagues deny he had been drinking. Instead, they describe him as hero who managed to save 120 passengers on a plane that had to make a crash-landing because it was “overweight,” according to Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.One captain told Dawn that the same plane experienced four other weight-related mishaps over the past three years.Based on my travels in Pakistan, Mehmood’s apparent defense is somewhat believable. Earlier this summer, I was on a Pakistani International Airlines (PIA) flight that was oversold. Instead of pushing off extra passengers onto another flight, the flight crew allowed one random passenger to crouch on the floor in the cockpit—for a flight over some of the world’s tallest mountains. Domestic airlines in Pakistan also seem far less strict in enforcing restrictions on weight limits for luggage.But there is also past precedent for a Pakistani pilot being drunk in the cockpit, despite the country’s conservative reputation.In 2013, authorities in the United Kingdom arrested a PIA pilot and jailed him for nine months after he smelled of alcohol while preparing to fly about 150 passengers from Leeds-Bradford airport to Islamabad. The pilot reportedly had a blood alcohol limit of four times the legal limit for a pilot in the United Kingdom. Whatever the truth is in this case, Pakistani police are taking the matter seriously. Over the weekend, 12 to 15 men scaled the wall in front of Mehmood’s house in Karachi and detained him, Dawn reported.According to The Express Tribune, the men did not identify themselves, causing Mehmood’s family to report the matter as an “abduction.” They “started beating him before they dragged him outside,” Mehmood’s wife told the newspaper.Police in Pakistan’s Punjab province, which includes Lahore, later admitted Mehmood has been detained under Pakistan’s counterterrorism ordinance. “He has been booked under ATA on the complaint of the Civil Aviation Authority,” said Haider Ashraf, a senior police official from Lahore. “The CAA says his act nearly caused death to ... passengers.”Among other things, Pakistan’s counter-terrorism act covers any crime that is “likely to cause death or endangers a person’s life.” Mehmood could face up to 14 years in jail if he is ultimately charged and convicted for a terrorism-related offense that didn’t result in anyone being killed.In the meantime, Pakistani aviation authorities have sent fresh notices to Pakistani airlines reminding flight crews: Don’t drink and fly.

阅读理解In 1960-1961, Chad harvested 9800 tons of cotton seed for the first time in its history, and put out the flag a little too soon. The efforts of the authorities to get the peasants back to work, as they had slacked off a great deal the previous year during independence celebrations, largely contributed to it. Also, rains were well spaced, and continued through the whole month of October. If the 1961-1962 total is back to the region of 45000 tons, it is mostly because efforts slackened again and sowing was started too late.The average date of sowing is about July 1st. If this date is simply moved up fifteen or twenty days, 30000 to 60000 tons of cotton is gained, depending on the year. The peasant in Chad sows his millet first, and it is hard to criticize this instinctive priority given to his daily bread. An essential reason for his lateness with sowing cotton is that at the time when he should leave to prepare the fields he has just barely sold the cotton of the previous season. The work required to sow, in great heat, is psychologically far more difficult if one’s pockets are full of money. The date of cotton sales should therefore be moved forward as much as possible, and purchases of equipment and draught animals encouraged.Peasants should also be encouraged to save money, to help them through the difficult period between harvests. If necessary they should be forced to do so, by having the payments for cotton given to them in installments. The last payment would be made after proof that the peasant has planted before the deadline, the date being advanced to the end of June. Those who have done so would receive extra money whereas the last planters would not receive their last payment until later.Only the first steps are hard, because once work has started the peasants continue willingly on their way. Educational campaigns among the peasants will play an essential role in this basic advance, early sowing, on which all the others depend. It is not a matter of controlling the peasants. Each peasant will remain master of his fields. One could, however, suggest the need for the time being of kind but firm rule, which, as long as it cannot be realized by the people, should at least be for the people.

阅读理解Despite their many differences of temperament and of literary perspective, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman share certain beliefs. Common to all these writers is their humanistic perspective. Its basic premises are that humans are the spiritual center of the universe and that in them alone is the clue to nature, history, and ultimately the cosmos itself. Without denying outright the existence either of a deity or of brute matter, this perspective nevertheless rejects them as exclusive principles of interpretation and prefers to explain humans and the world in terms of humanity itself. This preference is expressed most clearly in the transcendentalist principle that the structure of the universe literally duplicates the structure of the individual self. Therefore, all knowledge begins with self-knowledge.This common perspective is almost always universalized. Its emphasis is not upon the individual as a particular European or American, but upon the human as universal, freed from the accidents of times, space, birth, and talent. Thus, for Emerson, the “American Scholar” turns out to be simply “Man Thinking”, while, for Whitman, the “Song of Myself” merges imperceptibly into a song of all the “children of Adam” where “every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you”.Also common to all the five writers is the belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization, which, in turn, depends upon the harmonious reconciliation of two universal psychological tendencies. First, the self-asserting impulse of the individual to withdraw, to remain unique and separate, and to be responsible only to himself or herself. Second, the self-transcending impulse of the individual to embrace the whole world in the experience of a single moment and to know and become one with that world. These conflicting impulses can be seen in the democratic ethic. Democracy advocates individualism, the preservation of the individual’s freedom and self- expression. But the democratic self is torn between the duty to self, which is implied by the concept of liberty, and the duty to society, which is implied by the concepts of equality and fraternity.A third assumption common to the five writers is that intuition and imagination offer a surer road to truth than does abstract logic or scientific method. It is illustrated by their emphasis upon introspection — their belief that the clue to external nature is to be found in the inner world of individual psychology — and by their interpretation of experience as, in essence, symbolic. Both these stresses presume an organic relationship between the self and the cosmos of which only intuition and imagination can properly take account. These writers’ faith in the imagination and in themselves as practitioners of imagination led them to conceive of the writer as a seer and enabled them to achieve supreme confidence in their own moral and metaphysical insights.

阅读理解Scratchy throats, stuffy noses and body aches all spell misery, but being able to tell if the cause is a cold or flu may make a difference in how long the misery lasts.The American Lung Association (ALA) has issued new guidelines on combating colds and the flu, and one of the keys is being able to quickly tell the two apart. That’s because the prescription drugs available for the flu need to be taken soon after the illness sets in. As for colds, the sooner a person starts taking over-the-counter remedy, the sooner relief will come.The common cold and the flu are both caused by viruses. More than 200 viruses can cause cold symptoms, while the flu is caused by three viruses—flu A, B and C. There is no cure for either illness, but the flu can be prevented by the flu vaccine, which is, for most people, the best way to fight the flu, according to the ALA.But if the flu does strike, quick action can help. Although the flu and common cold have many similarities, there are some obvious signs to look for.Cold symptoms such as stuffy nose, runny nose and scratchy throat typically develop gradually, and adults and teens often do not get a fever. On the other hand, fever is one of the characteristic features of the flu for all ages. And in general, flu symptoms including fever and chills, sore throat and body aches come on suddenly and are more severe than cold symptoms.The ALA notes that it may be particularly difficult to tell when infants and preschool age children have the flu. It advises parents to call the doctor if their small children have flu-like symptoms.Both cold and flu symptoms can be eased with over-the-counter medications as well. However, children and teens with a cold or flu should not take aspirin for pain relief because of the risk of Reye syndrome, a rare but serious condition of the liver and central nervous system. Reye syndrome.There is, of course, no vaccine for the common cold. But frequent hand washing and avoiding close contact with people who have colds can reduce the likelihood of catching one.

阅读理解One of the most authoritative voices speaking to us today is, of course, the voice of the advertisers. Its shrilling clamor dominates our lives. It shouts at us from the television screens and the radio loudspeakers; waves to us from every page of the newspaper; plucks at our sleeves on the escalator; signals to us from the road-side billboards all day and flashes messages to us in colored lights at night.Advertising has been among England’s biggest growth industries since the war, in terms of the ratio of money earnings to demonstrate achievement. Why all this fantastic expenditure?Perhaps the answer is that advertising saves the manufacturers from having to think about the customer. At the stage of designing and developing a product, there is quite enough to think about without worrying over whether anybody will want to buy it. The designer is busy enough without adding customer appeal to all his other problems of man- hours and machine tolerances and stress factors. So they just go ahead and make the thing and leave it to the advertiser to find eleven ways of making it appeal to purchasers after they finish it, by pretending that it gives status, or attracts love, or signifies manliness. If the advertising agency can do this authoritatively enough, the manufacturer is in clover.Other manufacturers find advertising saves them from changing their product. And manufacturers hate change. The ideal product is or another, some alteration seems called for how much better to change the image, the packet or the pitch made by the product, rather than go to all the inconvenience of changing the product itself.

阅读理解Six doctors swarmed around the body of the deceased organ donor and quickly started to operate. The kidneys came out first. Then the team began another delicate dissection, to remove an organ that is rarely, if ever, taken from a donor. Ninety minutes later they had it, resting in the palm of a surgeon’s hand: the uterus. Within the next few months, surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic expect to become the first in the United States to transplant a uterus into a woman who lacks one, so that she can become pregnant and give birth. The recipients will be women who were born without a uterus, had it removed or have uterine damage. The transplants will be temporary: The uterus would be removed after the recipient has had one or two babies, so she can stop taking transplant anti-rejection drugs.Uterine transplantation is a new frontier, one that pairs specialists from two fields known for innovation and for pushing limits, medically and ethically — reproductive medicine and transplant surgery. If the procedure works, many women could benefit. But there are potential dangers. The recipients, healthy women, will face the risks of surgery and anti-rejection drugs for a transplant that they, unlike someone with heart or liver failure, do not need to save their lives. Their pregnancies will be considered high-risk, with fetuses exposed to anti-rejection drugs and developing inside a womb taken from a dead woman.Dr. Andreas G. Tzakis, the driving force behind the project, said, “There are women who won’t adopt or have surrogates, for reasons that are personal, cultural or religious.” Dr. Tzakis is the director of solid organ transplant surgery at a Cleveland Clinic hospital in Weston, Fla. “These women know exactly what this is about,” he said. “They’re informed of the risks and benefits. They have a lot of time to think about it, and think about it again. Our job is to make it as safe and successful as possible.”Dr. Tzakis said the anti-rejection drugs were safe, noting that thousands of women with donor kidneys or livers, who must continue taking anti-rejection drugs during pregnancy, had given birth to healthy babies. Those women are more likely than others to have pre-eclampsia, a complication of pregnancy involving high blood pressure, and their babies tend to be smaller. But it is not known whether those problems are caused by the drugs, or by the underlying illnesses that led to the transplants. Because the women receiving uterine transplants would be healthy, Dr. Tzakis said, he was optimistic that complication rates would be very low.A medical ethicist not connected with the research, Jeffrey Kahn, of Johns Hopkins University, said the procedure did not set off any alarms with him. “We’re doing lots of things to help people have babies in ways that were never done before,” Dr. Kahn said. “It falls into that spectrum.” Dr. Eric Kodish, the director of the clinic’s ethics center, said that when organ transplantation started more than 50 years ago, the goal was purely to save lives, but has broadened to include improving quality of life, with for example, face and hand transplants. Dr. Tzakis, 65, said he had performed 4,000 to 5,000 transplants of kidneys, livers and other abdominal organs. To prepare for the uterine surgery, he spent time with the Swedish team, practicing in miniature swine and baboons and observing all nine of the human transplants in the operating room. He described transplantation as ethically superior to surrogacy. “You create a class of people who rent their uterus, rent their body, for reproduction,” he said of surrogacy. “It has some gravity. It possibly exploits poor women.” The Swedish team used live donors, and showed that a uterus from a woman past menopause, transplanted into a young recipient, can still carry a pregnancy. In five cases, the donor was the recipient’s mother, which raised the dizzying possibility of a woman giving birth from the same womb that produced her.For a prospective recipient of a uterus, the process is long and complicated. To be eligible, candidates must be in a stable relationship, because they will need help and support. They must also have ovaries. The initial phase includes screening for psychological disorders or relationship problems that could interfere with a candidate’s ability to cope with a transplant and be part of a study. Candidates are also interviewed to make sure that they are not being pressured to have the transplant. Doctors use similar criteria for people receiving other types of organ transplants because the process is arduous, and patients with a strong social support system seem to fare better. Finances matter, too, because during parts of the study, recipients will have to live in Cleveland, and those from out of town will have to pay for their food and lodging.

阅读理解El Nino has for centuries been a regular, if somewhat reckless, climatic event. It typically makes its presence felt around midwinter, hence a name that loosely translates as “Christ child” in the Spanish of the Peruvian fishermen who first noticed it. El Nino begins, however, some months prior to that, when trade winds in the western tropical Pacific drop or even shift, switching from blowing westward to the east. When this happens, a body of warm water that normally pools in the ocean east of Australia begins to move toward the coast of Peru. Warm air rising from the surface of this mass—which is as much as 12 F warmer than normal acts like a paddle stuck into the southern jet stream, redirecting it northward and altering weather from Australia to Canada to Africa. The warm water itself, meanwhile, is like a cap on a bottle when it hits the coast of Peru, halting the rise of cold, nutrient-rich water that typically emerges along the South American coast from deep in Pacific. That drastically affects the food chain for marine mammals, birds and fish.Scientists have grown steadily more familiar with El Nino in the past 20 years. “There’s been a fundamental change since the 1982-1983 El Nino,” the devastating event the 1997-1998 El Nino surpassed in size, says McPhaden. “We didn’t even know that one was happening until it was almost over. In the 1997-1998 El Nino, we could tell you day by day what was happening.” The reason? Two new powerful tools—instrumented satellites and buoys—now make it as easy for scientists to watch the ocean as if it were a wading pool in their backyard.Still, scientists were disappointed by one significant aspect of the past year’s work on El Nino: their ability to forecast it accurately. While a few computer models suggested that an El Nino would develop in 1997, none came close to predicting its scope or the speed with which it developed. Even the gold standard of forecasting turned into lead. A model developed by Mark Cane and Steven Zebiak was considered the best among El Nino forecasting models. But it didn’t read the global tea leaves correctly, forecasting an El Nino that was much later and smaller than the one that actually hit.

阅读理解An international team of astronomers has used a new technique to study the bright disc of matter surrounding a faraway black hole. Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, combined with the gravitational lensing effect of stars in a distant galaxy, the team measured the disc’s size and studied the colours (and hence the temperatures) of different parts of the disc.These observations show a level of precision equivalent to spotting individual grains of sand on the surface of the Moon. While black holes themselves are invisible, the forces they unleash cause some of the brightest phenomena in the Universe. Quasars — short for quasi-stellar objects — are glowing discs of matter that orbit supermassive black holes, heating up and emitting extremely bright radiation as they do so.A quasar accretion disc has a typical size of a few light-days, or around 100 billion kilometres across, but they lie billions of light-years away. This means their apparent size when viewed from Earth is so small that we will probably never have a telescope powerful enough to see their structure directly. Until now, the minute apparent size of quasars has meant that most of our knowledge of their inner structure has been based on the oretical extrapolations, rather than direct observations.The team therefore used an innovative method to study the quasar: using the stars in an intervening galaxy as a scanning microscope to probe features in the quasar’s disc that would otherwise be far too small to see. As these stars move across the light from the quasar, gravitational effects amplify the light from different parts of the quasar, giving detailed colour information for a line that crosses through the accretion disc.The team observed a group of distant quasars that are gravitationally lensed by the chance alignment of other galaxies in the foreground, producing several images of the quasar. They spotted subtle differences in colour between the images, and changes in colour over the time the observations were carried out. Part of these colour differences are caused by the properties of dust in the intervening galaxies: the light coming from each one of the lensed images has followed a different path through the galaxy, so that the various colours encapsulate information about the material within the galaxy.There were clear signs that stars in the intervening galaxy were passing through the path of the light from the quasar. Just as the gravitational effect due to the whole intervening galaxy can bend and amplify the quasar’s light, so can that of the stars within the intervening galaxy subtly bend and amplify the light from different parts of the accretion disc as they pass through the path of the quasar’s light.By recording the variation in colour, the team was able to reconstruct the colour profile across the accretion disc. This is important because the temperature of an accretion disc increases the closer it is to the black hole, and the colours emitted by the hot matter get bluer the hotter they are. This allowed the team to measure the diameter of the disc of hot matter, and plot how hot it is at different distances from the centre.

阅读理解The relative importance that a culture places on the past, present and future can have an effect on the philosophies that companies have about doing business. Most companies plan carefully for the future by researching their target markets and developing timelines for designing, manufacturing, and delivering goods or services. In this sense, strategies, goals, and objectives are all full future oriented. However, past experiences and present realities affect the choices that companies make. The interaction among past, present and future varies from country to country.The United States is an example of a future-oriented culture. In business, there is typically a lot of emphasis on the future, and companies are continually striving to ensure that the future will be better than the present. Most business people in the U.S. are generally optimistic about what the future holds, and most of what their daily actions are geared toward achieving ongoing positive changes.Past-oriented cultures include China, Japan, Great Britain, France, Africa and the Middle East. Past events hold a lot of importance in these cultures, and history, protocol, and traditions often help guide business people in making decisions. In these countries， longevity is viewed as a positive, and old things are valued. The sense of tradition is evident in the fact that there is a lot of emphasis on loyalty and commitment in the workplace.Some present-oriented cultures include the Philippines and Latin America. These cultures believe that the present moment holds the most significance, partly because the future is unknown. Generally speaking, business people in these cultures have a more relaxed style. They don’t work specially to achieve future goals or rewards, but they typically feel an ongoing obligation to their companies. However, if they are no longer enjoying their work, they are more likely to leave the company and look for another job.

阅读理解A= Book 1B= Book 2C= Book 3D= Book 4Which book(s) say(s) that …A. Book 1The book offers a comprehensive perspective on the consequences and possible policy solutions for climate change as we move into the 21 st century. It assesses the impact of potential feature global climate change on agriculture and the need to sustain agricultural growth for the economic development.The book begins by examining the role of international research institutions in overcoming environmental constraints on sustainable agricultural growth and economic development. The authors then discuss how agricultural research systems may be restored to respond to global environmental problems such as climate change and loss of genetic diversity. The discussion then extends to consider environmental accounting and indexing, to illustrate how environmental quality can be included formally in measures of national income, social welfare, and sustainability. The third part of the book focuses on the effects of and policy responses to climate change. They consider impacts of the distribution of income between developed and developing countries remain a major economic activity. Authors take on an economy-wide perspective to draw lessons for agriculture, trade, land use and tax policy.B. Book 2The ozone layer is threatened by chemical emissions; the climate is endangered from fossil and deforestation, and global biodiversity is being lost by reason of thousands of habitat conversions. Global environmental problems arise out of the accumulated impacts from many years’ and many centuries’ economic development. In order to address these problems the states of the world must cooperate to manage their development processes together—this is what an international environmental agreement must do.But can the world’s countries cooperate successfully to manage global development? How should they manage it? Who should pay for the process, as well as for the underlying problems?This book presents an examination of both the problem and the process underlying international environmental lawmaking; the recognition of international interdependence, the negotiation of international agreements and the evolution of international resource management. It examines the general problem of global resource management by means of general principles and case studies and by looking at how and why specific negotiations and agreement have failed to achieve their targets.The book is designed as an introductory text for those studying global environmental policy making and institution building. It will also be of interest to practitioners and policy makers and scholars in the areas of environmental economics and law.C. Book 3Industrialization to achieve economic development has resulted in global environmental degradation. While the impacts of industrial activity on the natural environment are a major concern in developed countries, much less is known about these impacts in developing countries. This source book identifies and quantifies the environmental consequences of industrial growth, and provides policy advice, including the use of clean technologies and environmentally sound production techniques, with special reference to the developing world.The developing world is often seen as having a high percentage of heavily polluting activities within its industrial sector. This, combined with a substantial agriculture sector, which contributes to deforestation, the erosion of the top soil and desertification, has led to extreme pressure on the environment and impoverishes the population by destroying its natural resource base. This crisis suggests that sound industrialization policies are of paramount importance in developing countries’ economic development, and calls for the management of natural resources and the adoption of low-waste of environmentally clean technologies.The authors consider the industrial sector as a pollutant to other sectors of the economy, and then focus on some industrial specific pollutants within the manufacturing sector. They conclude by reviewing the economic implications of promoting environmentally sound industrial development, specially addressing the question of the conflict or complementarily which may exist between environmental goods and industrial production.D. Book 4This is an important book which presents new concepts of the marginal cost of substituting non-pollutive for pollutive goods. Technically in its approach it complements the other literature in the field and will be a significant contribution to the understanding of microeconomic issues in pollution control. The book focuses on three main concepts: substitutions in consumption, emission abatement and exposure avoidance. The first part considers the adjustment of the scope and combination of goods produced as a method for controlling pollution.The author argues that pollution is controlled by increasing the relative price of the polluting goods in the production process, thereby reducing demand and subsequent production of the goods. In the second part, the discussion is extended to include the possibilities of preventing or abating emissions in relation to three models: first, pollution prevention when non-polluting inputs and processes are substituted for pollutants; second, when a proportion of the polluting output is recycled rather than being discarded; and finally end-of-pipe abatement where additional technology is used. In conclusion, the author assesses the extent to which pollution damage is controlled by avoidance of emissions, with avoidance being modeled as an add-on technology with its own returns to scale.

阅读理解The subatomic particle is better known to scientists as the Higgs boson. And after decades of searches, it seems likely the elusive particle has been successfully detected inside an underground tunnel experiment run by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) outside Geneva. Results “consistent” with the hard-to-detect particle, in the words of CERN chief Rolf Heuer as he announced discovery July 4, may be the opening act in explaining structure of sky over our heads.A source of heartburn to serious science types now, the “God particle” nickname for the Higgs boson comes from the title of a 1993 book by Nobel-prize winner Leon Lederman, who was trying to play up the elusive nature of the particle.For a glimpse of one implication this latest big news in science, climb aboard a time machine, says physicist Jonathan Feng of the University California-Irvine, and visit the birth of universe 13.7 billion years ago.Simply take the universe backwards, to an early time when the cosmos was a hot mass, brand new, filled with particles that each weighed perhaps 500 times as much a proton,” says Feng (protons are positively charged subatomic particles inside atoms). “Now play the film forward. Just let it go until expands to fill with today’s stars and galaxies, and what you find is that it contains amounts of that particle that are just right to be ‘dark matter’ filling the universe.”Terrific, you might say, but what’s so wonderful about dark matter?Dark matter is basically a bunch of stuff, likely exotic physics particles, that we can’t really see (hence its name) but we know is out there. Astronomers realized a few decades ago that galaxies should be spinning faster than they are if the stars within them were only things providing the gravity that holds them together. So, their theories go, there must be something—dark matter—slowing them down.It turns out that stars are just the shiny hubcaps on each galaxy, outweighed by a factor of nearly 6-to-1 by all the dark matter out there. Dark matter even pulls itself together through gravity. For example, the journal Nature last week reported that a dark matter cloud gravitationally connects two clusters of galaxies, called Abell 222 and Abell 223. This cloudy filament stretches over 11 million light years between the clusters and weighs 98 trillion times as much our sun.That’s a lot of dark matter. So is the Higgs boson this elusive matter particle (or particles) then?Nope. But it may be a key to dark matter, physicists say.The Higgs boson is the physics particle that gives other particles their mass. Essentially it interacts with them to increase their resistance being moved faster, which we can measure as mass.Because the Higgs boson’s basic job is to interact with other physics particles to give them mass, “the Higgs boson can interact with dark matter very easily,” Caltech’s Sean Carroll explained on NPR’s Science Friday show after the recent “God particle” announcement. Dark matter is one of most exciting implications of this discovery,” Carroll said.How? That brings us back to Feng’s rerun of the universe. “Having a particle out there theoretically just a little heavier than the Higgs boson, which interacts with it, is waving a red cape in front of the eyes of physicists,” Feng says. “There is a lot more data coming from CERN ahead that may reveal the dark matter particle”Dark matter particles that theoretically could be detected at CERN’s underground Large Hadron Collider are envisioned by a theory called “focus point supersymmetry.” Supersymmetry theories predict that the already-discovered particles that comprise everyday matter have much heavier “super” counterparts awaiting detection (for example, the already detected “quarks” inside protons would have an undetected super-partner called “squarks”). Focus point supersymmetry predicts both a Higgs boson with weight similar to the one reported on July 4, about 130 times as heavy a proton, and dark matter particles.In fact, the simplest focus point models predict that dark matter particles should be seen not long from now in the underground detectors that are searching for them,” if CERN lab indeed found a Higgs boson, Feng says. “So there are really two predictions—dark matter should be seen in underground detectors, and new particles should be seen at the Large Hadron Collider in next few years.” Some of the new superpartner particles theoretically weigh in the detectable range for underground experiment.Finding these new particles would crack the dark matter mystery and indicate that even heavier super- particles are out there, ones that someday could allow physicists to explain gravity the same way they can particles are out there, ones that someday could allow physicists to explain gravity the same way they can explain electromagnetic and nuclear forces, a goal of cosmologists for nearly a century.The simplest outcome is that we’ll be totally wrong and it won’t find anything,” Feng says. But we are at a point in physics where we can talk about theories and experiments coming together very closely thanks to what is now happening, and we couldn’t do that for a long time before.”When do the next big results come from CERN that might offer more answers?Likely in December. So, Feng says, physicists celebrated one holiday, July 4, with new particle results and hopefully Christmas will bring them hints of new presents.That would be excellent, we couldn’t ask for better gifts,” he says.