Prometheus is said to be the creator of mankind and man's protector and benefactor.

The Four-Day Workweek Is Winning Fans

In an era when most of us seem to be working more hours than ever (provided we're still lucky enough to have jobs), 17, 000 people in Utah have embarked on an unusual experiment. A year ago, the Beehive State became the first in the U. S. to mandate a four-day workweek for most state employees, closing offices on Fridays in an effort to reduce energy costs. The move is different from a furlough in that salaries were not cut; nor was the total amount of time employees work. (9) But on that fifth (glorious) day, they don't have to commute, and their offices don't need to be heated, cooled or lit.

After 12 months, Utah's experiment has been deemed so successful that a new acronym could catch on: TGIT (thank God it's Thursday). (10) Altogether, the initiative will cut the state's greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 12, 000 metric tons a year. (11) "It's beneficial for the environment and beneficial for workers," says Lori Wadsworth, a professor at Brigham Young University who helped survey state employees. "People loved it." Those who didn't tended to have young children and difficulty finding extended day care.

(12) Private industry is interested as well—General Motors has just instituted a workweek of four 10-hour days at several of its plants. "There is a sense that this is ready to take off," says R. Michael Fischl, an associate dean at the University of Connecticut's law school, which is organizing a symposium on four-day weeks.

The advantages of a so-called 4-10 schedule are clear: less commuting, lower utility bills. (13) By staying open for more hours most days of the week, Utah's government offices have become accessible to people who in the past had to miss work to get there in time. (14) Plus, fears that working 10-hour days would lead to burnout turned out to be unfounded—Wadsworth says workers took fewer sick days and reported exercising more on Fridays. "This can really make a difference for work-life balance," says Jeff Herring, Utah's executive director for human resources.

Of course, in the age of the BlackBerry, fewer days in the office may not make much of a difference in terms of workload. But as energy prices start rising again, it makes sense to be flexible and find savings where we can.

A．The disadvantage of 4-10 schedule is clear.

B．And perhaps not surprisingly, 82 % of state workers say they want to keep the new.

C．The state found that its compressed workweek resulted in a 13% reduction in energy use and estimated that employees saved as much as $ 6 million in gasoline costs.

D．And there have been unexpected benefits as well, even for people who aren't state employees.

E．They pack in 40 hours by starting earlier and staying later four days a week.

F．Managers from around the world have gotten in touch with Utah officials, and cities and towns including El Paso, Texas, and Melbourne Beach, Fla., are following the state's lead.

G．With the new 4-10 policy, lines at the department of motor vehicles actually got shorter.

H．A year ago, the Beehive State became the first in the U. S. to mandate a four-day workweek for most state employees, closing offices on Fridays in an effort to reduce energy costs.

(9)

Most of us think we know the kind of kid who becomes a killer, and most of the time we're right. Boys (1)_____ about 85% of all youth homicides, and in those cases about 90% (2)_____ a pattern in which the line from bad parenting and bad (3)_____ to murder is usually clear. Their lives start with abuse, neglect and (4)_____ deprivation at home. Add the effects of racism, poverty, the drug and gang cultures, and it is not (5)_____ that in a violent society like ours, (6)_____ children become deadly teens.

(7)_____ what about the other 10% of kids who kill: the boys who have (8)_____ parents and are not poor? Are their parents to blame when these kids become (9)_____?

Most children do fine while young enough to be (10)_____ by loving parents, but change as adolescents subjected to peer competition, bullying and rejection, (11)_____ in big high schools. The "normal" culture of adolescence today contains elements that are so nasty that it becomes hard for parents to (12)_____ between what in a teenager's talk, dress and taste in music, films and video games indicates (13)_____ trouble and what is simply a (14)_____ of the times. Most kids who have multiple body piercing, or listen to Marilyn Manson, or play the video games are normal kids caught in a toxic (15)_____ Intelligent kids with good social skills can be quite skillful at hiding who they really are from their parents. They may do this to (16)_____ punishment, to escape being identified as "crazy", or to protect the parents they love from being (17)_____ or worried. Anyway, how many parents are (18)_____ of thinking the worst of their son—(19)_____, that he harbors murders fantasies, or that he could (20)_____ so far as acting them out.

A．complete

B．commit

C．submit

D．perform

Study confirms that moderate drinking reduces stroke risk. Similar to the way a drink or two a day protects against heart attacks, moderate alcohol consumption wards off strokes, a new study found.

The study also found that the type of alcohol consumed—beer, wine or liquor—was unimportant. Any of them, or a combination was protective, researchers reported in today's journal of the American Medical Association. "No study has shown benefit in recommending alcohol to those who do not drink", cautioned the authors, led by Dr. Ralph L. Sacco of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. But the new data support the guidelines of the National Stroke Association, which say moderate drinkers may protect themselves from strokes by continuing to consume alcohol, the authors said.

The protective effect of moderate drinking against heart attacks is well established, but the data had been conflicting about alcohol and strokes, the authors said. The new study helps settle the question and is the first to find blacks and Hispanics benefit as well as whites, according to the authors. Further research is needed among other groups, such as Asian, who past study suggested may get no stroke protection from alcohol or may even be put at greater risk.

Among the groups where the protective effect exists, its mechanism appears to differ from the protective effect against heart attacks, which occurs through boosts in levels of so-called "good" cholesterol, the authors said. They speculated alcohol might protect against stroke by acting on some other blood trait, such as the tendency of blood platelets to clump, which is key in forming the blood clots that can cause strokes. ①

The researchers studied 677 New York residents who lived in the northern part of Manhattan and had strokes between July 1,1993 and June 30,1997. After taking into account differences in other factors that could affect stroke risk, such as high blood pressure, the researchers estimated that subjects who consumed up to two alcoholic drinks daily were only half as likely to have suffered clot-type strokes as nondrinkers. ②Clot-type strokes account for 80% of all strokes, a leading cause of the US deaths and disability. Stroke risk increased with heavier drinking. At seven drinks per day, risk was almost triple that of moderate drinkers.

An expert spokesman for the American Heart Association, who was not involved in the study, said it was well-done and important information. But it shouldn't be interpreted to mean,“ I can have two drinks and therefore not worry about my high blood pressure or worry about my cholesterol,” said Dr. Edgar J. Kenton, an associate professor of clinical neurology at Thomas Jefferson University Medical College in Philadelphia. Instead, he said, the study provides good reason to do further research and to add alcohol to the list of modifiable risk factors for stroke.

According to Dr. Sacco,______.

A．different wines work differently on drinkers at stroke risk

B．nondrinkers should also consume a moderate amount of alcohol

C．drinkers should keep to one kind of alcohol to ward off strokes

D．moderate alcohol consumption protects against strokes

Should doctor ever lie to benefit their patients—to speed recovery or to conceal the approach of death? In medicine as law, government, and other lines of work, the requirements if honesty often seem dwarfed by greater needs: the need to shelter from brutal news or to uphold a promise of secrecy.

What should doctors say, for example, to a 46-year-old man coming in for a routine physical checkup who, though he feels in perfect health, is found to have a form. of cancer? If he asks, should the doctors deny that he is ill, or minimize the gravity of the illness? Doctors confront such choices often and urgently. At times, they see important reasons to lie for the patient's own sake. In their eyes, such lies differ sharply from self-serving ones.

Studies show that most doctors sincerely believe that the seriously ill do not want to know the truth about their children, and that informing them risks destroying their hope, so that they may recover more slowly, or deteriorate faster, perhaps even commit suicide. As one physician wrote: "ours is a profession which traditionally has been guided by a precept that transcends the virtue of uttering the truth for truth's sake, and, that is as far as possible do no harm." Armed with such a precept, a number of doctors may slip into deceptive practices that they assume will "do no harm" and may well help their patients.

But the illusory nature of the benefits such deception is meant to produce is now coming to be documented. Studies show that, contrary to the belief of many physicians, an overwhelming majority of patients do want to be told the truth, even about grave illness, and feel betrayed when they learn that they have been misled. We are also learning that truthful information, humanely conveyed, helps patients cope with illness.

Not only do lies nor provide the "help" hoped for by advocates of benevolent deception, they invade the autonomy of patients and render them unable to make informed choices concerning their own health.

Lies also do harm to those who tell them: harm to their integrity and, in the long run, to their credibility. Lies hurt their colleagues as well. The suspicion of deceit undercuts the work of the many doctors who are scrupulously honest with their patients; it contributes to the spiral of lawsuits and of "defensive medicine," and thus it injures, in turn, the entire medical profession.

Who are most likely to lie for self-serving purposes?

A．physicians

B．surgeons

C．psychiatrists

D．lawyers

Everyone is familiar with the cry of the director who is about to shoot a scene for a new movie. "Quiet on the set!" is the command. When all is ready, the next order is "Action!" Then the actors begin to play their roles in the setting that has been made for them.

Before they have gotten this far, however, great pains have been taken to set the scene just the way the director wants it. The reason such care is taken to set a scene is that the setting must do a great deal for the viewers when the movie is completed.

Think for a moment about a movie or television show you have seen recently. As soon as the show begins, you get some very distinct impressions. From the way people dress, the way they live, and the vehicles they ride in, you know at once where you are and if the story takes place in the present or in the past. If it's a bright, sunny day in a park, you will tend to feel bright and sunny yourself. But if clouds are lowering darkly over a cemetery, you will probably squat down and get set for a good scare. If you are shown a mansion in Texas, you will begin to think about what it's like to be rich. If the setting is a city slum, you will begin to think about the problems of the poor.

So the setting does a number of things. It prepares a scene that allows you to believe you are really viewing a certain place at a certain time. The setting prepares you for the action that will take place. And because it makes you feel a certain way, the setting helps put you in the proper mood to appreciate that action. Setting also starts you thinking about important ideas that are presented through the movie;

The main idea of the passage is about ______

A．the shooting of a movie

B．the arrangement of the setting before shooting a movie

C．the importance of setting in movie-shooting

D．the influence of setting on your mood

Everyone is familiar with the cry of the director who is about to shoot a scene for a new movie: "Quiet on the set!" is the command. When all is ready,the next order is "Action!" Then the actors begin to play their roles in the setting that has been made for them.

Before they have gotten this far, however, great pains have been taken to set the scene just the way the director wants it. The reason such care is taken to set a scene is that the set ting must do a great deal for the viewers when the movie is completed.

Think for a moment about a movie or television show you have seen recently. As soon as the show begins, you get some very distinct impressions. From the way people dress, the way they live, and the vehicles they ride in, you know at once where you are and if the story takes place in the present or in the past. If it's a bright, sunny day in a park, you will tend to feel bright and sunny yourself. But if clouds are lowering darkly over a cemetery, you will probably squat down and get set for a good scare. If you are shown a mansion in Texas, you will begin to think about what it's like to be rich. If the setting is a city slum, you will begin to think about the problems of the poor.

So the setting does a number of things. It prepares a scene that allows you to believe you are really viewing a certain place at a certain time. The setting prepares you for the action that will take place. And because it makes you feel a certain way, the setting helps put you in the proper mood to appreciate that action. Setting also starts you thinking about important ideas that are presented through the movie.

The main idea of the passage is about____________.

A．the shooting of a movie

B．the arrangement of the setting before shooting a movie

C．the importance of setting in movie-shooting

D．the influence of setting on your mood

2 Savage, a public limited company, operates a funded defined benefit plan for its employees. The plan provides a

pension of 1% of the final salary for each year of service. The cost for the year is determined using the projected unit

credit method. This reflects service rendered to the dates of valuation of the plan and incorporates actuarial

assumptions primarily regarding discount rates, which are based on the market yields of high quality corporate bonds.

The expected average remaining working lives of employees is twelve years.

The directors have provided the following information about the defined benefit plan for the current year (year ended

31 October 2005):

(i) the actuarial cost of providing benefits in respect of employees’ service for the year to 31 October 2005 was

$40 million. This is the present value of the pension benefits earned by the employees in the year.

(ii) The pension benefits paid to former employees in the year were $42 million.

(iii) Savage should have paid contributions to the fund of $28 million. Because of cash flow problems $8 million of

this amount had not been paid at the financial year end of 31 October 2005.

(iv) The present value of the obligation to provide benefits to current and former employees was $3,000 million at

31 October 2004 and $3,375 million at 31 October 2005.

(v) The fair value of the plan assets was $2,900 million at 31 October 2004 and $3,170 million (including the

contributions owed by Savage) at 31 October 2005. The actuarial gains recognised at 31 October 2004 were

$336 million.

With effect from 1 November 2004, the company had amended the plan so that the employees were now provided

with an increased pension entitlement. The benefits became vested immediately and the actuaries computed that the

present value of the cost of these benefits at 1 November 2004 was $125 million. The discount rates and expected

Brain-dead Mother Dies after Giving Birth

A brain-dead woman who was kept alive for three months so she could deliver the child she was carrying was removed from life support on Wednesday and died, a day after giving birth.

"This is obviously a bittersweet time for our family," Justin Torres, the woman's brother-in-law, said in a statement.

Susan Torres, a cancer-stricken, 26-year-old researcher at the National Institutes of Health, suffered a stroke in May after the melanoma (黑瘤) spread to her brain.

Her family decided to keep her alive to give her foetus (胎儿) a chance. It became a race between the foetus' development and the cancer that was destroying the woman's body.

Doctors said that Torres' health was getting worse and that the risk of harm to the foetus finally outweighed the benefits of extending the pregnancy.

Torres gave birth to a daughter by Caesarean section (剖腹产手术) on Tuesday at Virginia Hospital Center. The baby was two months premature and weighed about a kilogram. She was in the newborn intensive care unit.

Dr Donna Tilden-Archer, the hospital's director of neonatology (新生儿学), described the child as "very vigorous." She said the baby had responded when she received stimulation, indicating she was healthy,

Doctors removed Torres from life support early Wednesday with the consent of her husband, Jason Torres, after she received the final sacrament (圣礼) of the Roman Catholic Church.

"We thank all of those who prayed and provided support for Susan, the baby and our family," Jason Torres said in a statement. "We especially thank God for giving us little Susan. My wife's courage will never be forgotten."

English-language medical literature contains at least 11 cases since 1979 of irreversibly brain-damaged women whose lives were prolonged for the benefit of the developing foetus, according to the University of Connecticut Health Center.

Dr Christopher McManus, who coordinated care for Susan Torres, put the infant's chances of developing cancer at less than 25 per cent. He said 19 women who have had the same aggressive form. of melanoma as Torres have given birth, and five of their babies became iii with the disease.

Susan Torres died soon after

A．she suffered a stroke.

B．she became brain-dead.

C．she was diagnosed with cancer.

D．she gave birth to a baby.