问答题

问答题伟大的抗战精神，蕴含着中华儿女和衷共济的团结精神。面对亡国灭种的民族危机，中华儿女，地无分南北，人无分老幼，有钱出钱，有力出力，举国上下，万众一心，用血肉筑成了一座侵略者不可逾越的新的长城。“富贵不能淫，贫贱不能移，威武不能屈”，在民族患难的时代，这种浩然之气概，不屈之节操，激励着中华儿女赴汤蹈火，殊死奋战，使救亡图存成为可歌可泣、英勇卓绝的斗争。今年是中国人民抗日战争暨世界反法西斯战争胜利60周年。重温那段血与火的悲壮历史，缅怀抗日先烈的丰功伟绩，弘扬中华民族伟大的抗战精神，在今天仍然具有十分重要的意义。

问答题西塘是一个具有一千多年历史的水乡古镇，保存完好的明清时期建筑群是其他旅游景点所无法相比的。倘佯古镇街头，游人们仿佛置身于一幅美丽的水墨画之中。河两岸高耸的粉墙和水中清晰的瓦房倒影，还有那在微风里婆娑摇曳的杨柳，似乎都在为这个古镇增添着异彩和生机。 在这个宁静的水镇里，生活的脚步似乎完全听命于那淌着潺潺流水的河流。西塘可以说是水的同义词。这里的河流是那样的蜿蜒曲折、波光粼粼，映射出一派宁静祥和的街景。夜幕降临，河岸边数千盏灯笼与晚霞一并点燃，把整个小镇映衬得灯火通明，为镇民们照亮了回家的路。

问答题中华文明历来注重社会和谐，强调团结互助。中国人早就提出厂“和为贵”的思想，追求天人和谐、人际和谐、身心和谐，向往“人人相亲，人人平等，天下为公”的理想社会。今天，中国提出构建和谐社会，就是要建设一个民主法治、公平正义、诚信友爱、充满活力、安定有序、人与自然和谐相处的社会，实现物质和精神、民主和法治、公平和效率、活力和秩序的有机统一。中国人民把维护民族团结作为自己义不容辞的职责，把维护国家主权和领土完整作为自己至高无上的使命。一切有利于民族闭结和国家统一的行为，都会得到中国人民真诚的欢迎和拥护。一切有损于民族团结和国家统一的举动，都会遭到中国人民强烈的反对和抗争。

问答题In 2005, the recruitment examination for state civil servants attracted more than 540,000 applicants with more than 8,400 positions in 103 departments. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Personnel from 1996 to 2003, only about 1.2 percent of civil servants changed jobs every year, while in business the figure was about 10 percent. Topic: Why is civil servant a sought-after job? Questions for Reference: 1. What motivates the college graduates to be civil servants? 2. Do you prefer to be a civil servant or a company clerk? Why? 3. What can we learn from the fact that undergraduates rush to be civil servants?

问答题WHAT makes an artist great? Brilliant composition, no doubt. Superb draughtsmanship, certainly. Originality of subject or of concept, sometimes. But surely true greatness means that the creator of a painting has brought a certain je ne sais quoi to the work as well. 是什么成就了一名伟大的画家？出色的构图？高超的画技？这两点毋庸置疑。有时也靠创作主题或理念的新颖性。但真正的伟大指的是画家为作品赋予一种难以描述的特质。 There is, however, a type of person who seems to sait perfectly well what that quoi is, and can turn it out on demand. In 1945, for example, a Dutchman named Han van Meegeren faced execution for selling a national art treasure, in the form of a painting by Vermeer, to Hermann G?ring, Hitler’s deputy. His defence was that it was a forgery he had painted himself. When asked to prove it by copying a Vermeer he scorned the offer. Instead he turned out a completely new painting, “Jesus Among the Doctors”, in the style of the master, before the eyes of his incredulous inquisitors. 然而，有这样一种人，他们似乎能准确把握这个难以名状的东西，并且能够按要求把它复制出来。例如，1945年，一位名叫汉·凡·米格伦（HanvanMeegeren）的荷兰人因将一幅国家艺术珍品，也就是维米尔（Vermeer）的一幅画作，卖给希特勒的副手赫尔曼·戈林（HermannG?ring）而面临死刑。他辩称这只是幅赝品，由他本人仿造。当被要求现场模仿一幅维米尔的画作来证明自己时，他表示十分不屑。在审判者怀疑的眼神下，他以维米尔的风格创作了一幅全新的作品《基督在博学者中间》。 此处例子功能题：作者为何提及荷兰画家？ G?ring, who was facing a little local difficulty at the time, did not sue van Meegeren. But that has not been the experience of Glafira Rosales, an art dealer in New York who admitted this week that she has, over the past 15 years, fooled two local commercial art galleries into buying 63 forged works of art for more than $30m. She is being forced to give the money back, and is still awaiting sentence. 戈林当时在本国遇到了点麻烦，所以就没有起诉凡·米格伦。但格拉菲拉·罗萨莱斯（GlafiraRosales）可没那么好运了。作为纽约的一位艺术品商人，罗萨莱斯于本周承认了在过去的十五年里曾向两个当地的商业艺术画廊卖出了63幅假画，总收益达三千多万美元。她被强制要求退还所有收入，目前仍在等待法院的判决。 此处细节题，考有关Rosales 的例子内容。 Ms Rosales is guilty of passing goods off as something they are not, and should take the rap for the fraud. But although art forgers do a certain amount of economic damage, they also provide public entertainment by exposing the real values that lie at the heart of the art market. 罗萨莱斯女士因出售赝品获罪，应承担相应的刑事责任。但虽然这些艺术品伪造者给他人造成了一定的经济损失，但他们也通过揭露艺术品市场上核心艺术品的真实价值而娱乐了大众。 此处词汇理解题：解释take the rap。 That art market pretends that great artists are inimitable, and that this inimitability justifies the often absurd prices their work commands. Most famous artists are good: that is not in question. But as forgers like van Meegeren and Pei-Shen Qian, the painter who turned out Ms Rosales’s Rothkos and Pollocks, show, they are very imitable indeed. If they were not, the distinction between original and knock-off would always be obvious. As Ms Rosales’s customers have found, no doubt to their chagrin, it isn’t. 艺术品市场称伟大的艺术家都是独一无二的，而这种不可模仿性使得他们的作品都贵得离谱。大多数著名的艺术家都很优秀，这一点毋庸置疑。但像伪造者凡·米格伦和为罗萨莱斯女士伪造罗斯科和波洛克画作的钱培琛，他们的存在证明了这些艺术家是可以被模仿的。如果不是的话，那真品和赝品之间的差别就会十分明显。罗萨莱斯女士的顾客就没有发现其中的区别，难怪事后他们懊恼不已。 此处句子理解题，解释黑体字部分。chagrin: 懊悔，懊恼。 If the purchasers of great art were buying paintings only for their beauty, they would be content to display fine fakes on their walls. The fury and embarrassment caused by the exposure of a forger suggests this is not so. 如果购买者纯粹是因为欣赏画作的美而去购买它，那么即使是把假画挂在自家墙上也会心满意足。但伪造者的曝光所引起的愤怒和尴尬说明了情况并非如此。 Expensive pictures are primarily what economists call positional goods—things that are valuable largely because other people can’t have them. The painting on the wall, or the sculpture in the garden, is intended to say as much about its owner’s bank balance as about his taste. With most kit a higher price reduces demand. But art, sports cars and fine wine invert the laws of economics. When the good that is really being purchased is evidence that the buyer has forked out a bundle, price spikes cause demand to boom. 名贵的画作被经济学家称为地位性商品——这类商品昂贵的价值很大程度是因为其他人无法拥有。不管是墙上的名画，还是花园里的雕塑，都彰显着其主人的品位和财富。大多数情况下，价格越高，需求就会越少。但是艺术品，跑车和名酒却打破了这一经济学定律。当真正被买下的商品能证明买家的确是花了大手笔时，那么价格的上涨反而会使需求猛增。 All this makes the scarcity and authenticity that underpin lofty valuations vital. Artists forget this at their peril: Damien Hirst’s spot pictures, for instance, plummeted in value when it became clear that they had been produced in quantities so vast nobody knew quite how many were out there, and when the market lost faith in a mass-production process whose connection with the original artist was, to say the least, tenuous. 这个现象说明了商品稀缺性和真实性的重要性。正因为此，艺术品的价格才会持续居高不下。艺术家若忽视这一点，便会自尝苦果。例如，当达明安·赫斯特（DamienHirst）的现场画作被大批量生产时，其价格直跌。市场对批量生产过程失去了信心，至少可以说，这样生产出来的作品和原创者的联系不再紧密。 Ms Rosales’s career is thus a searing social commentary on a business which purports to celebrate humanity’s highest culture but in which names are more important than aesthetics and experts cannot tell the difference between an original and a fake. Unusual, authentic, full of meaning—her life itself is surely art, even if the paintings were not. 罗萨莱斯女士的一生无非是对艺术行业的嘲讽。这个行业声称颂扬人类最崇高的文化，但艺术家的名字却比美感更重要，而专家却连真品和赝品都无法区别开来。即使罗萨莱斯女士出售的画作不是真正的艺术品，但她的一生，不同寻常、万般真实且意义深刻，充满了艺术性。

问答题

问答题

问答题Imagine you have two candidates for a job. Their CVs are equally good, and they both give good interview. You cannot help noticing, though, that one is pug-ugly and the other is handsome. Are you swayed by their appearance? If you were swayed by someone’s looks, would that be wrong? In the past, people often equated beauty with virtue and ugliness with vice. Even now, the expression “as ugly as sin” has not quite passed from the language. There is, of course, the equally famous expression “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, to counter it. Most beholders agree what is beautiful-and modern biology suggests there is a good reason for that agreement. Biology also suggests that beauty may, indeed, be a good rule of thumb for assessing someone of either sex. Not an infallible one, and certainly no substitute for an in-depth investigation. But, nevertheless, an instinctive one, and one that is bound to contribute to the advantage of the physically well endowed.

问答题In Russia, where the shape of many people has long resembled the favorite national food —the potato-dieting is now the rage. Slimming concoctions, from Slimfast to Herbalife, have taken the country by storm. Diet classes that teach the basics of healthful eating are jam-packed with the obese. American diet books can be found at subway book stalls. Diet sodas line the windows of nearly every sidewalk kiosk. Spurred by a recent flood of Western television, advertising and snazzy fashion, women here have come to embrace the old saying that a woman cannot be too rich or too thin. The dieting craze comes at a time when many Russians are officially impoverished and growing numbers of children suffer from vitamin and other deficiencies. "In the past, a woman was supposed to be a good worker and a good housekeeper," said Galina Istomina, who teaches at the Center for Psychological Correction-Harmony diet program, "Now people have to care how they look. Western influence has had an effect. " Of course Russian women were never as overweight, as their dreary and doughy "babushka" image suggested. In fact, on average, they are probably thinner than their American counterparts, whose greater access to healthier food and lifestyles is mitigated by junk food and sedentary ways. But for a long time, spending too much time on one's looks was definitely bad form, as Raisa Gorbachev, wife of the former Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, discovered when her stylish ness provoked barbs. Now it is considered a capitalist necessity, especially for the growing number of women in the new world of business. "Before, I worked in a government ministry, and it was not important how you dressed or how you looked," said Ludmilla Topchi, 31, who recently attended Harmony's weeklong diet class in an effort to lose 10 to 15 pounds (about 5 to 7 kilograms) , "Now I have my own firm, and I'm meeting every day with people in similar social status. So I want to look better. " Said Miss Istomina, "People in Russia are overweight not because they eat too much but because there is such little choice of healthy food. Just macaroni, fried potatoes and salami." Indeed, it is not easy to diet here. The local cuisine is heavy with fat: fatty salami is the main protein at all meals; heavy sour cream is slathered onto, and into, everything; mayonnaise is a basic ingredient of many salads; fried potatoes are a staple; fresh fruits and vegetables are pricey and, in many regions, virtually impossible to find out of season. And the season tends to be very brief. Still, a combination of career necessity, greater awareness about health and growing worries about environmental hazards in food has spurred many women to eat better if they can afford to. "Women today, even those who have been so shocked by the changes of the last few years, have begun to understand that the main thing is health, feeling good," said Zoya Krylova, editor in chief of the women's magazine Rabotnitsa. But there is more to it than that, she said. "Women realize they have to be in good shape, they have to be a high quality commodity," the editor said, "The money-commodity relationship, after all, is well known now. " Tatyana, one of dozens of women now selling Herbalife in Moscow, said that many of her "clients" were women who had taken jobs with new private companies headed by Westernized men in their mid-30s. "These men want to be surrounded by 'young things'," she said, "So to get a job in a good firm, you better look good." She also said that many women had now traveled abroad or had Western contacts and wanted Western lifestyles. A few years ago that was impossible in Russia because Western clothes and cosmetics were unavailable in state-run stores, which is what all Soviet stores were. Today, with the old structures gone, the situation has changed dramatically. On nearly every street of downtown Moscow, a store or kiosk sells flashy imported clothes. As one overweight Russian woman, who several months ago began dieting for the first time in her life and has now lost 30 pounds, put it, "For the first time it is possible to buy nice clothes here, but they don't come in large sizes. If you want to buy them, you have to be thin, " Zoya Krylova, whose office bookshelf includes a copy of "The New Our Bodies Ourselves", said she thought that it was only a matter of time before Russia became as diet and health-obsessed as the United States. "It enters our lives gradually, through movies especially," she said. "When we see people who are fit and healthy it has an impact. /1.What kind of persons were women supposed to be in the past?

问答题Paraphrase the sentence "networking devolves into a system of quid pro quo horse-trading" in the last paragraph.

问答题America: the Land and the People The United States is a varied land—of forests, deserts, mountains, high flat lands and fertile plains. Almost every kind of climate may be found, but the country lies mostly in the temperate zone. Including the states of Alaska and Hawaii, the United States covers an area of 9 million square kilometers. The continental United States stretches 4,500 kilometers from the Atlantic ocean on the east to the Pacific ocean on the west. It borders Canada on the north, and reaches south to Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico. A jet plane crosses the continental United States from east to west in about five hours. Taking off from an Atlantic coast airport, the plane is soon flying over the gentle slopes of the Appalachian Mountains. Then, for hundreds of kilometers it crosses the fertile fields of the farm belt of the great Middle West. To the north, on clear days passengers may see the five Great Lakes located between the United States and Canada. Continuing into the West, the plane flies over vast prairies and rough cattle-grazing country. Soon the snow-topped Rocky Mountains appear in the distance. After crossing these high ranges, the plane can almost glide down into the rich valleys of California and, finally, to a landing not far from the beaches of the Pacific ocean. The United States has long been known as a "melting pot", because many of its people are descended from settlers who came from all over the world to make their homes in the new land. The first immigrants in American history came from England and the Netherlands. Attracted by reports of great economic opportunities and religious and political freedom, immigrants from many other countries flocked to the United States in increasing numbers, reaching a peak In the years 1880-1914. Between 1820 and 1980 the United States admitted almost 50 million immigrants. Some 1,360,000 American Indians, descendants of North America"s first inhabitants, now reside in the United States. Most live in the West, but many are in the south and north central areas. Of the more than 300 separate tribes, the largest is the Navaho in the Southwest. Black people were first brought to America from Africa as slaves. Their descendants now make up nearly 12 percent of the population. They once lived mainly in the agricultural South but now are scattered throughout the nation. Hispanics are the largest minority in the US. Today, nearly 15 percent of the US population is Hispanic. Hispanic Americans have diverse roots; they come from 22 different countries of origin, including Mexico, Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries and Spain. They share certain historical backgrounds and cultural traditions—in particular, the Spanish language. In Hawaii, more than a third of the residents are of Japanese descent, a third are Caucasians, about 15 percent are of Polynesian background, and the others are mainly of Pilipino, Korean and Chinese descent. The American people are always on the move—from one part of the country to another, from one city to another, from farm to city. from the city to the suburbs. One in five Americans moves to a new home every year seeking new job opportunities, a better climate, or for other reasons.

问答题 Questions 7～10 In a provocative look at the impact of sedentary behavior on health, a new study links time watching television to an increased risk of death. One of the most surprising findings is that it isn't just couch potatoes who were affected—even for people who exercised regularly, the risk of death went up the longer they were in front of the TV. The problem was the prolonged periods of time spent sitting still. Australian researchers who tracked 8,800 people for an average of six years found that those who said they watched TV for more than four hours a day were 46% more likely to die of any cause and 80% more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than people who reported spending less than two hours a day in front of the tube. Time spent in front of TVs and computers and videogames has come under fire in studies in recent years for contributing to an epidemic of obesity in the U. S. and around the world. But typically the resulting public-health message urges children and adults to put down the Xbox controller and remote and get on a treadmill or a soccer field. The Australian study offers a different take. "It's not the sweaty type of exercise we're losing," says David Dunstan, a researcher at Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, who led the study. "It's the incidental moving around, walking around, standing up and utilizing muscles that doesn't happen when we're plunked on a couch in front of a television." Indeed, participants in the study reported getting between 30 and 45 minutes of exercise a day, on average. The results are supported by an emerging field of research that shows how prolonged periods of inactivity can affect the body's processing of fats and other substances that contribute to heart risk. And they suggest that people can help mitigate such risk simply by avoiding extended periods of sitting. The report, being published Tuesday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, focuses on TV watching in part because it is the predominant leisure-time activity in many countries, researchers said, especially in the U. S. A study by ratings firm Nielsen Co. found that Americans averaged 151 hours of TV viewing a month in the fourth quarter of 2008—more than five hours a day. Dr. Hamilton says studies suggest that after just one day of inactivity, levels of HDL, or good cholesterol, which helps transport LDL or bad cholesterol out of the blood stream, can fall by as much as 20%. Keeping such processes working more effectively doesn't require constant intense exercise, but consciously adding more routine movement to your life might help, doctors say. "Just standing is better than sitting," says Gerard Fletcher, a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla., who works standing up at his computer. "When you stand up, you shuffle around a little bit and use muscles not required when you're sitting or lying down". Simple strategies for increasing activity include incorporating household chores such as folding laundry into TV-watching time or getting up to change a TV channel rather than using a remote control.

问答题The biggest problem of the third industrial revolution is as easy to explain as it is difficult to solve. Technology is creating a global economy that is rapidly supplanting our old national economies. National governments cannot control this new economy, yet no one, least of all Americans, wants to create the form of global government that might be able to control it. As a result we were going to be living in a fundamentally unmanaged economic system. The difficulties of containing the 1997 Asian economic meltdown are just the first of many such difficulties we can expect. National governments, which used to worry about managing and maintaining their economic systems, are slowly being pushed out of business. Changes in global finance overwhelm all but the largest governments. Governments have lost much of their influence over the movement of information and capital. They cannot control who crosses their borders either physically or culturally. Conversely, the power of global businesses is growing with companies" ability to move to the most advantageous locations and play countries off against one another in bidding for attractive investment projects.

问答题Shy people, having low self-respect, are likely to be passive and easily influenced by others. They need reassurance that they are doing "the right thing". Shy people are very sensitive to criticism. They feel it confirms their inferiority. They also find it difficult to be pleased by praise because they believe they are unworthy of praise. It is clear that, while self-awareness is a healthy quality, over-doing it is harmful. Can shyness be completely eliminated, or at least reduced? Fortunately, people can overcome shyness with determined and patient effort in building self-confidence. Since shyness goes hand in hand with lack of self-esteem, it is important for people to accept their weaknesses as well as their strengths. Each one of us is a unique, worthwhile individual. We are interesting in our own personal ways. The better we understand ourselves, the easier it becomes to live up to our fuI1 potential. Let's not allow shyness to block our chances for a rich and fulfilling life.

问答题Bengt Holmstrom, a professor at MIT, is slated to accept a Nobel Prize in economics next month for his path-breaking contributions to contract theory. Congressmen and corporate boards might take note: Mr. Holmstrom"s innovative proposal for indexed stock options, which aren"t yet widely used, could be one solution in the political debate over whether CEOs are fairly paid for performance. Almost all stock options today have a fixed exercise price: The holder buys the company"s stock at the market price on the day the options were granted. The idea is to align the interests of CEOs and their shareholders. If the stock rises, the executive buys at the old price and makes a profit. If the company"s stock is flat or down, the options become worthless. Unfortunately, as Mr. Holmstrom pointed out in 1979, fixed-price options can easily reward poorly performing executives during times of rising markets. Suppose a drug company grant 50,000 options to its CEO with an exercise price of $100 a share. If in three years the stock rises by 30%—to $130 a share—the CEO exercising his options would make a profit of $1.5million. Sometimes this profit might reflect the outstanding work of the CEO. But suppose the stock prices of comparable drug companies rose by 60% on average during the same three years. Suddenly the CEO"s options look like a windfall instead of a reward for superior management. The opposite can also happen. Suppose the stock of our CEO"s firm fell by 15% a share in three years, when comparable drug companies dropped by 30%. The CEO"s stock options would be worthless, even though he did a much better job than his peers of managing the decline in the industry. An indexed stock option eliminates these problems by doing away with the fixed exercise price. Instead, the CEO has the option to purchase stock at a price that rises or falls along with the share prices of comparable firms. The board would choose an appropriate industry stock index against which to measure the executive"s performance. For administrative feasibility, the exercise price of the indexed options could be adjusted no more than annually. To take an example. If the industry index rose 10% by the end of one year, so would the exercise price of the CEO"s options, meaning that if the stock of the CEO"s firm increased by the same 10% that year, his options wouldn"t gain value. This is the way to avoid over-rewarding (or under-rewarding) executives. CEOs with true managerial skill, those who beat their industry averages, will be richly compensated. Those who don"t will not. So why have few companies awarded options structured this way? Historically, firms shunned indexed options because the variable price model would generate expenses on their income statements, while fixed-priced options did not. But that comparative disadvantage no longer exists: For roughly a decade, companies have also been required to record expenses for fixed price options. More important, an indexed stock option is subject to onerous taxes. Regulators wanted to prevent companies from granting options with exercise prices below market—say, a $70 option on stock worth $100—thus giving their executives built-in profits. So there"s a special rule for any option whose exercise price drops below the stock"s market value on the grant date: the government immediately taxes these built-in profits, plus a 20% penalty. Indexed stock options weren"t the target, but they fail under that regulation. To encourage companies to adopt Mr. Holmstrom"s proposal, tax authorities should revise the rule to exempt indexed options. A last factor is competition. Executives might say that indexed options are less valuable than fixed price ones, especially in rising markets. But there are other ways to bid for top CEO talent. Companies could grant them restricted shares, whose payoff depends on achieving specified revenue or earnings targets. Indexed options are designed to reward managerial skill instead of fortuitous movements of the stock market. The government should change the tax rules so that a performance-oriented company may choose to award them without penalty. It"s a good idea—and you don"t have to take my word for it: Ask the Nobelist.

问答题Flight attendants, who start as low as $ 12,000 per year, are paid meagerly. No question. But for all the rhetoric stirred by last month"s strike against American Airlines, few have dared to breathe perhaps the key question—a 60-year-old question. Are flight attendants indispensable guardians of passengers" safety and well-being? Or, are they flying waitresses (85% are women) and waiters who are becoming less important to passengers willing to sacrifice frills for cheap fares? Fright attendants find the second suggestion repugnant. "We"re very highly trained in first aid and CPR," says Wendy Palmer, an American Air fines flight attendant based in Nashville, "Our goal is to evacuate an airplane in a minute or less. That"s what we"re there for. In the meantime, we do serve drinks and food. " "But maybe the time has come to let the free market determine if passengers value flight attendants enough to pay for them," says Thomas Moore, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Customers willing, there"s no reason airlines can"t hand out sandwiches and soft drinks as passengers board. Then they could be on their way with, perhaps, one safety expert on board. "I"d suspect some people would be willing to pay dirt-cheap fares," says Bill Winter, spokesman for the Libertarian Party, an opponent of government regulation, "Other (airlines) would go in the opposite direction and there would be three attendants for each flier. " Already millions of passengers have shown an eagerness to sacrifice service for lower fares. Southwest Airlines, which doesn"t offer meals or assigned seating, has been the fastest-growing and most profitable airline in the industry. Southwest never staffs a jet with more attendants than the Federal Aviation Administration requires. The FAA requires at least one flight attendant for every 50 seats. A 122-seat Boeing 737 must have three flight attendants even if it"s flying only a few passengers. Union contracts often require more. Among its demands, American Airlines wants the option of staffing its jets at the FAA minimum. No other form of transportation falls under such rigid government control. Passengers aboard Amtrak and Greyhound aren"t even required to wear seat belts. But climb aboard a Boeing 757, and you not only have to be strapped in, but four specialists are there to supervise a rare evacuation. The National Safety Council estimates that 1 in 2.2 million people are killed in airline crashes each year. There are about 90,000 airline flight attendants employed by U. S. carriers. They cost the airlines $ 2.7 billion a year, assuming they average $ 30,000 per year in salary and benefits. If they save 100 lives per year, each life costs $ 27 million. Dee Maki, National president of the Association of Flight Attendants, says 100 saved lives is a gross underestimate. No one tracks the actual number, but Maki says more than 100 heart-attack victims are saved each year by attendants. Maybe one on-board attendant is all that"s needed for safety, says Moore, an opponent of government regulation. "I don"t know. But the FAA undoubtedly makes the wrong decision. Government always makes the wrong decision because they don"t have the right information. John Adams, former vice president of human resources for Continental Airlines, doubts that deaths would increase much if the number of flight attendants were cut in half. "Flying is very safe. It"s much safer than riding a bus or a train," he says. No one doubts that flight attendants have a tough job. They make about 20% what pilots make and often less than baggage handlers. Stuck in a metal tube for hours with cramped passengers battling nicotine fits, they are constantly being driven to go the extra mile for customer service. They have to worry about policies concerning theft weight, height and eyesight. And when a jet does crash, even heroic flight attendants say they face agonizing depression as they rehash what more they might have done. A 1992 FAA study of airline accidents did find examples where flight attendants performed heroically. But the FAA also found cases in which they were unable to locate and operate emergency equipment because of rusty skills. American flight attendant Todd Peters says he"s never had to evacuate a jet, but once had to tackle a deranged passenger who tried to open an exit door as a flight from Newark, N. J. , to Miami was taking off. "The public thinks we"re up there serving Cokes and Sprites," Peters says. "But if there was an emergency, passengers would be seeking us out, waiting for our instruction. " Safety is the repeated theme. But airlines say that when they hire attendants, they don"t look for backgrounds in nursing or safety. They want outgoing applicants with experience in customer relations. The history of flight attendants is rooted in safety, but safety usually has taken a back seat to promotion. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, attendants were required to be registered nurses because of fears about the health consequences of flying at high speed and altitude. But by hiring young women instead of men in the 1930s, they were signaling to the public that planes were safe. When flying caught on in the 1960s, airlines staffed their male-laden planes with pretty single women who were forced to retire at 32. It was titillation, says John Nance, author and airline-safety analyst. Braniff even promoted an "air strip", its stewardesses disappearing for a few minutes before returning in a different uniform. One commercial asked: "Does your wife know you"re flying Braniff?" No one knows how many flight attendants airlines would use if FAA minimums were eliminated, says Winter of the Libertarian Party. But he trusts a market free of government interference. Union president Maki says an end to FAA minimums probably would mean fewer flight attendants on short flights. However, for safety reasons, getting rid of FAA minimums is "crazy", she says.

问答题At a time when the public is being assaulted with unsolicited e-mail ads, California is about to launch the toughest counterattack in the nation. A law that goes into effect on Jan. 1 allows computer users in the state to refuse unwanted solicitations en masse and sue spammers who violate their wishes for as much as ＄1 million. Those potent weapons for deflecting pitches that offer everything from bigger body parts to lower mortgage rates have attracted the ire of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and mass marketers. Fearing the law will curtail advertising on the Internet, they are pushing for a far weaker national solution that would undercut the tough tactics in California and other states that are going the same route. But such self-interest is hardly enlightened. The growing flood of messages not only annoys PC users, it also slows the transmission of wanted e-mail and forces businesses to spend billions to combat spam. In fact, a survey released Oct. 22 suggests the proliferation of pitches could hurt the very e-commerce these business groups say they want to preserve. The survey of computer users, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-profit group that studies public issues, found 25% use e-mail less because of spam. And 75% were reluctant to give out e-mail addresses, even to online retailers.