Optimism and pessimism are both powerful forces, a...

Old people are always saying that the young people are not【61】they were. The same comment is【62】from generation to generation and it is always【63】. It has never been truer than it is today. The young are better educated. They have a lot more money to spend and enjoy【64】freedom. They grow up more quickly and are not so【65】on their parents. Events which the older generation remember vividly are【66】more than past history. This is as it should be. Every new generation is【67】from the one that preceded it. Today the difference is very marked indeed.

The old always assume that they know best for the simple【68】that they have been【69】a bit longer. They don't like to feel that their values are being questioned or threatened. And this is precisely what the【70】are doing. They are questioning the 【71】 of their eiders and disturbing their complacency. They take leave to 【72】 that the older generation has created the best of all possible words. What they reject more than 【73】 is conformity. Office, hours, for instance, are nothing more than enforced slavery. Wouldn't people work best if they were given complete freedom and 【74】 ？ And what 【75】 the clothing？ Who said that all the men in the world should 【76】 drab grey suits？ If we turn our 【77】 to more serious matters, who said that human differences can best be solved through conventional politics or by violent means？ Why have the older generation so often used 【78】 to solve their problems？ Why are they are so unhappy and guilt-ridden in their personal lives, so obsessed with mean ambitions and the desire to amass more and more 【79】 possessions？ Can anything be right with the rat-race？ Haven't the old lost 【80】 with all that is important in life？

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For【36】the bloodshed and tragedy of D-Day, the beaches of Normandy will always evoke a certain【37】: a yearning for a time when nations in the civilized world buried their differences and combined to oppose absolute evil, when values seemed clearer and the terrible consequences of war stopped【38】of the annihilation of humanity. But over half a century after the allies hit those wavebattered sand flats and towering cliffs, the Normandy invasion stands as a feat【39】to be repeated.

There will never be【40】D-Day. Technology has changed the conditions of warfare in ways that none of the D-Day participants could have【41】. All-out war in the beginnings of this century would surely spell all-out【42】for the belligerents, and possibly for the entire human race. No credible scenario for a future world war would allow time for the massive buildup of conventional forces that occurred in the 1940s. The moral equivalent of the Normandy invasion in the nuclear age would involve a presidential decision to put teas of millions of American lives at.【43】. And the possible benefits for the allies would be uncertain at best.

European defense experts often ask whether the U.S. would be willing to "trade Pittsburgh for Dusseldorf". In practice, the question may well be whether it is worth【44】American cities to avenge a Europe already【45】to rubble.

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The development of writing was one of the great human inventions. It is difficult【36】many people to imagine language without writing; the spoken word seems intricately tied to the written【37】. But children speak【38】they learn to write. And millions of people in the world speak languages with【39】written form. Among these people oral literature abounds, and crucial knowledge【40】memorized and passed【41】generations. But human memory is short-lived, and the brain's storage capacity is finite.【42】overcame such problems and allowed communication across the miles【43】through the years and centuries. Writing permits a society【44】permanently record its poetry, its history and its technology.

It might be argued【45】today we have electronic means of recording sound and【46】to produce films and television, and thus writing is becoming obsolete.【47】writing became extinct, there would be no knowledge of electronics【48】TV technicians to study; there would be, in fact, little technology in years to【49】There would be no film or TV scripts, no literature, no books, no mail, no newspapers, no science. There would be【50】advantages: no bad novels, junk mail, poison-pen letters, or "unreadable" income-tax forms, but the losses would outweigh the【51】.

There are almost as【52】legends and stories on the invention of writing as there are【53】the origin of language. Legend has it that Cadmus, Prince of Phoenicia and founder of the city of Thebes,【54】the alphabet and brought it with him to Greece. In one Chinese fable the four-eyed dragon-god T'sang Chien invented writing. In【55】myths, the Babylonian god Nebo and the Egyptian god Thoth gave humans writing as well as speech.

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A theory is a good theory if it satisfies two requirements: It must accurately describe a large class of observations on the basis of a model that contains only a few arbitrary elements, and it must make definite predictions about the results of future conservation. Newton' s theory of gravity was based on an even simpler model, in which bodies attracted each other with a force that proportional to a quantity called their mass and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

By【51】out on a journey to new and exciting achievements, a learner has to distinguish what ways will be better to【52】for reaching his goal relatively quickly and efficiently.

Linguists and methodologists described many【53】strategies of English language learning. Many of them【54】to be highly efficient and brought amazing results in testing.

A starting point, which will push you up in all the【55】of your English studying is your motivation to learn. You should be specific about the goal of your studying and reflect on【56】a skilful mastery of English can bring you. You are aimed at getting smarter,【57】new culture and meeting new people or your primary【58】of English learning is to earn more money and succeed in your career.

A sure-fire way to master English is to go to America or England and communicate with【59】speakers. It means to penetrate into English environment and【60】both speaking and listening. Going to English-speaking country is a great opportunity to perfect your listening skills,【61】your vocabulary with new words. What is the most important is【62】you are forced to speak on a daily【63】and perceive colloquial speech, the samples of it you are not likely to find in any dictionaries.

A good, safe, and cheap way to master English is to stimulate a foreign language【64】 in your home. It means to bring English-speaking country to your house, surrounding yourself with everything that is connected with English. Try all, which will come in【65】. Read English books, see movies in English, you can hear English in radio or TV. These methods will help you learn faster and have a【66】of achievement, because each time you'll understand more and more.

Speak English as much as possible. It helps you uncover the gaps in your vocabulary and grammar. Though, ff you don't have an opportunity to go to English-speaking country it doesn't【67】that you won't be able to speak English fluently and naturally. It only means that you'll have to【68】more efforts to find English language environment in your surrounding. In any ease, you can look for good English language courses or【69】to the British 'council for help. Perhaps, my article "How to find the best foreign language courses" can be helpful to you if you choose to【70】language courses.

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Dynamic commercial and technological forces are deepening worldwide economic integration and interdependence, bringing us closer together than at any other time in human history. Glohalization presented great opportunities, combining resources from various economies in new and innovative ways that will help us all grow faster, be more productive and create more jobs. It also poses formidable challenges as traditional business and social structures come under pressure to adapt to a rap idly changing environment.

As the world' s two largest economies, the U. S. and Japan have a special responsibility to help this vast transformation. Our security alliance undergirds the stability that has made possible an era of unprecedented prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. We are working hard to keep that security partnership vital and strong. Economically, our two countries have joined hands to facilitate the free flow of goods, services and capital across the region and the world. Bilaterally, we have resolved many serious trade disputes and are committed to resolving new problems that arise. Multilaterally, we are cooperating to strengthen the global trading system and to promote trade and investment liberalization through the activities of APEC and the WTO.

American and Japanese businesses are joining forces in a wide range of sectors, bringing their respective strengths to a number of successful joint ventures. They give concrete meaning to the concept of win-win outcomes in trans-Pacific relations. For example, Texas Instruments has joined with Hitachi, and Motorola with Toshiba, to make semiconductors in Japan; GF and Yokogawa together produce and sell medical equipment; Time-Wagner and U.S. West are partnering with Japanese firms to offer cable telephone services; Hughes and its Japanese partners are bringing multi-channel TV to Japan; and Microsoft has ventures with a host of Japanese companies. I commend these and the many. Many more American and Japanese companies that are using their talents to create jobs, meet consumer needs and contribute to the continued economic growth of our two countries, the Pacific region and the world as a whole.

Our job in government is to continue to support policies that promote macroeconomic stability, as well as vigorous trade and investment. We must also respond to new demands on trade diplomacy which are just a few of the problems emerging, Infrastructure bottlenecks likewise pose a serious threat to growth. We need to look beyond traditional trade policy and at the bigger economic picture. A comprehensive attack on the full array of barriers to free trade and growth must be our continuing policy concern.

As we lead the transformation into the 21st century, the U. S. and Japan will confront common challenges at home. Such as reforming industrial structures and providing for aging populations. Dealing with these changes will not keep us from the enormous tasks abroad: integrating the economies in transition within the global fold, establishing regimes for sustainable growth that protect our environment, engendering a culture of trust in a world that spent much of this century deeply divided by ideology, and convincing rogue nations that the negotiating table is the only acceptable means of settling disputes. Through U. S. -Japan cooperation we can achieve our shared global objectives and better guarantee a prosperous future of peace and opportunity for us all.

Try to define the identity of the author and that of the audience he or she is addressing.

The sound of the snakehead is soft and tempting and perfectly pitched to the ears of young Chinese who dream of a better life. 46. "One need never go wanting for anything in America," the snakehead says. "Color televisions. Shiny cars, Dollars by the millions. All is there, just waiting to be claimed."If the countless numbers of young Chinese who this moment are plotting their escape to America knew that the Land of Milk and Honey has proved sour for thousands of their people, they would not be so eager to make the risky journey. Since the first boatload of illegal Chinese aliens was seized by U. S. officials in 1991, some 50 Chinese crime groups have smuggled tens of thousands of Chinese into the U.S. each year. The routes vary, some by sea, others by air or by steady. In the southern coastal province of Fnjian, home goes up to about 80% of these immigrants. 47. Families band together to raise the funds, thinking they are making a down payment not only on a loved one's future but their own as well. For their effort they often bankrupt their savings only to sell the loved one into slavery.

Those who wish to try their tuck abroad are encouraged by the snakeheads who then link them with underground networks. 48. Most of the arrangements are done by international crime Syndicates, which cut deals with desperate families, then draw up the escape plan, obtain the forged documents and furnish the transportation. Some observers say as many as 20 human smuggling Syndicates may operatein Fujian. These organized rings influence officials unfairly, change stolen passports, forge visas, keep safe houses and charter boats to pull off their daring operations.

But falling into the hands of the gangs is a terrifying thing. Immigrants may face severe punishment if they fail to satisfy the demands of their contracts. 49. That, perhaps, explains the desperation of the Chinese illegals who sweat it out in restaurants, garment factories and dry-cleaning establishments for as little as $ 2 an hour. One garment clothes making district employee, for ex- ample, who worked 36 hours straight, was deprived of pay for taking a one hour nap. Non-payment of wages is widespread. "They are slaves, pure and simple," says a U. S. immigration official. "Many end up in bondage like slaves, forced to become gang enforcers or drug carriers."

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Application files are piled highly this month in colleges across the country. (67) Admissions officers are poring essays and recommendation letters, scouring transcripts and standardized test scores.

(68) But anything is missing from many applications: a class ranking, once a major component in admissions decisions.

In the cat-and-mouse maneuvering over admission to prestigious colleges and universities, (69) thousands of high schools have simply stopped providing that information, concluding it could harm the chances of their very better, but not best, students. (70) Canny college officials, in turn have found a tactical way to response. (71) Using broad data that high schools often provide, like a distribution of grade averages for entire senior class, they essentially recreate an applicant's class rank.

(72) The process has left them exasperating.

(73) "If we're looking at your son or daughter and you want us to know that they are among the best in their school with a rank we don't necessarily know, " said Jim Buck, dean of admissions and financial aid at Swarthmore College.

(74) Admissions directors say strategy can backfire. When high schools do not provide enough general information to recreate the class rank calculation, (75) many admissions directors say they have little choice and to do something virtually no one wants them to do: give more weight to scores on the SAT and other standardized exams.

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When you are in the business of sending spacecraft to other planets, it is probably wise to do everything you can m keep your space-probes sterile (无菌的). NASA, America's space agency, certainly does so. After all, you would not want hugs from one planet to contaminate another where they might possibly thrive.

But according to Curt Mileikowsky, of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, this may already have happened naturally billions of years ago when the solar sys- tem was young. For Dr Mileikowsky has taken a century-old idea called panspermia (有生源说), and shown that it is plausible.

57. Panspermia is the theory that life does not start independently on each planet that has it (assuming that other planets do). Rather, it hops from place to place, "infecting" new worlds as it goes. Supported by experts in biology, geology and celestial mechanics, Dr Mileikowsky argued to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Atlanta that this is not as outlandish as it sounds.

58. Bungling (笨手笨脚) space organizations apart, the only mode of travel open to microbes seems to be meteorites (流星). Most of these are small bits of junk from the asteroid (小行星) belt that have gone off course. But some are rocks that have been flung into space from the surfaces of planets as a result of those planets having been struck by even larger bits of rock--decent-sized asteroids or comets.

59. If there is life on such a planet, microscopic forms of it will probably live deep in- side rocks, as they do on earth. The acceleration of lift-off would not kill something that size.

60. If a rock is large enough, the heat generated as it is thrown clear will be negligible except at its surface--where, ii anything, melting may even produce an airtight skin to protect any microbes deeper down from the unpleasant vacuum of space.

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One morning, a few years ago, Harvard President Neil Rudenstine overslept. After years of non-stop toil in an atmosphere that rewarded frantic overwork, Rudenstine collapsed. Only after a 3-month sabbatical--during which he read essayist Lewis Thomas, listened to Ravel and walked with his wife on a Caribbean beach—was he able to return to his post. That week, his picture was on the cover of Newsweek magazine beside the banner headline "Exhausted"!

In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between action and rest. I speak with people in business and education, doctors and day-care workers, shopkeepers and social workers, parents and teachers, nurses and lawyers, students and therapists, community activists and cooks. 71. Remarkably, there is a universal refrain: "I am So busy." The more our life speeds up, the more we feel weary, overwhelmed and lost. Today our life and work rarely feel light, pleasant or healing. Instead, the whole experience of being alive begins to melt into one enormous obligation. It becomes the standard greeting everywhere: "I am so busy."

We say this to one another with no small degree of pride. The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves and, we imagine, to others. To be unavailable to our friends and family, to be unable to find time for the sunset (or even to know that the sun has set at all), to whiz through our obligations without time for a single mindful breath—this has become the model of a successful life.

72. Because we do not rest, we lose our way. We lose the nourishment that gives us succor. We miss the quiet that gives us wisdom. Poisoned by the hypnotic belief that good things come on- ly through tireless effort, we never truly rest. This is not the world we dreamed of when we were young. How did we get so terribly rushed in a world saturated with work and responsibility, yet somehow bereft of joy and delight？

We have forgotten the Sabbath.

Sabbath is the time that consecrated to enjoy and celebrate what is beautiful and good—time to light candles, sing songs, worship, tell stories,, bless our children and loved ones, give thanks, share meals, nap, walk and even make love. It is time to be nourished and refreshed as We let our work, our chores and our important projects lie fallow, trusting that there are larger forces at work taking care of the world when we are at rest.

If certain plant species do not lie dormant during winter, the plant begins to die off. 73. Rest is not just a psychological convenience; it is a biological necessity. So "Remember the Sabbath" is more than simply a lifestyle. suggestion. It is a commandment, an ethical precept as serious as prohibitions against killing, stealing and lying. Sabbath is more than the absence of work. Many of us, in our desperate drive to be successful and care for our many responsibilities, feel terrible guilt when we take time to rest. But the Sabbath has proven its wisdom over the ages. Many of us still recall when, not long ago, shops and offices were closed on Sundays. Those quiet Sunday afternoons are embedded in our cultural memory.

Much of modern life is specifically designed to seduce our attention away from rest. When we are in the world with our eyes wide open, the seductions are insatiable. Hundreds of channels of cable and satellite television; phones with multiple lines and call-waiting, begging us to talk to more than one person at a time; mail, e-mail and overnight mail; fax machines; billboards; magazines; newspapers; radio. For those of us with children, there are endless soccer practices, baseball games, homework, laundry, housecleaning, errands. Every responsibility, every stimulus competes for our attention: Buy me. Do me. Watch me. Try me. Drink me. It is as if we have inadvertently stumbled into some horrific wonderland.

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