What does the author mean by the question "why should anyone applaud" in the last paragrap

ph?

mic and social strata.

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ke, was forced to resign in May after admitting that some 1,000 foreign prisoners who ought to have been considered for deportation had been freed. This week Mr. Reid faced a prison crisis of his own, made worse by new figures showing that offenders released early from jail on electronic tags have committed more than 1,000 serious crimes.

In theory, the jails of England and Wales can accommodate just over 80,000 people. By October 6th they were just 210 short of that limit. The obvious remedies—cramming two people into cells built for one, letting more prisoners out on probation and moving convicts far from their families—have already been taken. So, last-ditch measures were put in place this week. Some 500 police cells will be used for prisoners. Foreign convicts' appeals against deportation will no longer be contested, in order to liberate their beds. Others will be paid to go home.

This is one of history's less surprising crises. By the late 1990s Home Office statisticians were not only predicting a rapid rise in prisoner numbers, but also erring on the side of pessimism. Eight years ago, when the prison population was just above 65,000, the department predicted that it would rise to 83,000 by 2005. In 2002 the statisticians' forecasts were also too pessimistic. Yet the politicians still appear to have been caught by surprise.

One reason the prisons are full is that there are more police officers—141,000, compared with 122,000 in 2000. They can now go after crimes that are hard to crack but attract long sentences, such as drug trafficking. The number of people in prison for drug offences has trebled since 1994. And, while the overall crime rate in England and Wales is improving, it may be that some criminals are worse. Cindy Barnett, a London magistrate, reckons the defendants she sees are more violent and have graver drug problems these days. That helps to explain why magistrates sent 27% of robbers straight to prison in 2004—up from just 10% in 1993.

In the past few years, the Home Office has prodded judges and magistrates to punish serious, violent offenders more heavily, while encouraging them to go easier on petty thieves. The former has certainly happened: the number of life sentences has more than doubled since the early 1990s. The latter has not. Populist politicians forgot that judges tend to have fixed ideas about the relative seriousness of offences. Force them to increase sentences for murder, and they will also hand out longer terms to armed robbers.

Finally, there is media pressure. Tabloid newspapers such as the Sun and the Daily Mail hound judges who pass, or even seek to justify, lenient sentences. This week the Sun accused one wig of "living in an ivory tower". Because most people's experience of the criminal-justice system is rare and intermittent, such coverage strongly influences the public mood. Ivory towers notwithstanding, it also stings judges. Penny Derbyshire, an academic who has been following wigs for several years, says they pore over press coverage. "And many of them have wives who read the Daily Mail," she says.

How serious is the problem of crowdedness in prisons of England and Wales? What are the solutions taken by the authority?

4 hours each day watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio, and 14 minutes reading magazines. It was also disclosed that over the past five years, people reduce their time reading to 2.5 hours per month, and over one third of all books were bought by customers aged 55 and older. On the other hand, 30% of American survey said they would rather read a book than do anything else; 21% said watching TV is their favorite activity. That's the good news. The bad news is that only 13 % said they like spending time with family.

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10)?

会珍惜并利用每一分钟，抓住任何一个机会。他付出许多，也得到许多，不仅为自己，也为祖国赢得荣誉。

参与并取胜，这就是奥林匹克精神。它表现在弱者敢于向强者挑战，也表现在强者力争取得更好的成绩。胜而又胜，优而更优，这种理想一直鼓舞着运动员奋力前进。他会尽其所能，永不松懈，永不罢休。有人说竞技者终究会是失败者，即使是最佳运动员也终将被更强者淘汰。成千上万个强者才涌现一个胜利者，这个胜利者最终仍将被取代，挤出光荣榜——这就是竞技运动的规律。

ce in the women's 4×100 relay, the most exciting race in the track and field competition, a combination of speed and technique.

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ildren are allowed to decide for themselves what they want to do and when to do it. What they need is their parents' time, which seems to be in increasingly short supply.

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