style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/ style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/B） The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Congress. The membership of the House is distributed among the states according to their different populations. Since 1910, the House has had a permanent membership of 435, with each Representative representing about half a million Americans. Under the principle that each state is guaranteed at least one representative, Nevada, a state with a small population. sends only one Representative to the House. California has more than 40 Representatives in the House because of its large population. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/C） The election of Representatives is organized by the state legislature which divides the state into a number of districts known as Congressional districts. Each district, with a population of nearly half a million, elects one Representative to the House. A Representative’s term of office is set at two years, but there is no limit to the number of his terms. A new Representative can hardly feel easy about his position. Hardly has he begun his work in the Congress when he finds it’s time for him to seek re-election. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/D） The Senate is the upper house of the US Congress. Representation in the Senate is based on the principle of state equality. The Senate is comprised of l00 Senators, two from each of the fifty states. Senators have been directly elected by voters of their respective states since 1913. Their term of office is six years. With one-third of the Senate seats up for election every two years. A Senator must be at least thirty years old and a citizen for nine years. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/ style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/E） Generally speaking, Senators are accorded greater prestige than their colleagues in the lower house. Many Representatives aspire to win the election to the Senate. Senators derive their prestige from the following facts. They are less numerous, for there are fewer than one fourth as many Senators as Representatives, or Congressmen. Elected by the whole state instead of a single congressional district, most Senators represent more constituents (选民) than do House members. They are less worried by the problem of seeking re-electives. What’s more, the Senate has special powers which it does not share with the House. It has the power to approve or deny proposed treaties, nominations proposed by the President. In line with the tradition of “senatorial courtesy (礼貌)” , the Senate always rejects a nominee who is objected to by a Senator of the state from which he comes. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/F） It won’t do to neglect the importance of the Senate in foreign affairs. Without its cooperation and support, the President can hardly take any significant action in foreign relations. A Secretary of State on good terms with the Senators is always important for the President. Foreign countries must try to establish good relations with the US Senate if they intend to make a bargain with the United States. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/ style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/G） The presiding (主持的) officer of the Senate is the Vice President who functions as a kind chairman when the Senate is in session (开会). The chief spokesman of the House is known as the Speaker who is the leader of the majority party in the House. The Speaker is the most influential figure in the House because he directs his party’s forces in legislative battles. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/ style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/H） The Congress is a legislative body, but it relies on its various committees to do preparatory work.. The Senate and the House have several dozen standing and special committees to deal with problems of different natures. The seats of the committees are divided between the two parties in proportion to their respective membership in the Congress. But the committee chairman is always a member of the majority party who has been in the Senate or the House without interruption for longer than anybody else on the committee. The custom is known as “seniority rule” . Most proposed laws in the Congress are known as bills. All bills introduced during a two-year congressional term are designated “HR” in the House and “S” in the Senate, with consecutive (连续的) numbers assigned in order in which they are introduced in each house. After this, the bills are referred to the relevant committees for further study. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/I） To assess the bill at its true worth, the relevant committee usually organizes its sub-committee to conduct detailed study. There is no doubt that the sub-committee will study the literal sense of the bill. But it also holds meetings with the citizens who want to state their opinions about the bill. These meetings are commonly known as hearings. The purpose of the sub-committee in holding these hearings is to obtain information on the bill before it. The sub-committee may summon people to appear at the hearings and to testify. After finishing study of the bill, the sub-committee will report the result to the full committee. The committee chairman then has a choice between two things. He can send the bill to the house for further consideration. He can also postpone, or kill it by putting it aside and not reporting it. For this reason, a committee chairman is regarded as an important person in the Congress. It won’t do to neglect them.

style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/B． Success breeds imitators. Amazon is about to be attacked by a squadron of would-be Kindle killers being brought to market by some of the biggest names in consumer electronics and publishing. To complicate the increasingly competitive landscape even further, Apple and, according to rumor, Microsoft are working on tablet computers that could prove to be handy e-readers but with more functions and features, such as video display capability and full web browsers. "2009 is a breakout year fore-readers," says Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst with Forrester Research."But we're still in the early stages."
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/C． The early stages have lasted a longtime. E-readers have been around for more than a decade, but the devices weren't popular due to high cost, proprietary (专利的) display formats and the reluctance of book publishers to sell digital versions of their best-selling titles. Now, just as digital music was driven into the mainstream by Apple's iPod and iTunes, Amazon's Kindle andonline bookstore, which sells more than 350,000 titles, are proving there's amass market for e-books. Total industry revenue from digital-book downloads has risen 149% this year, according to the Association of American Publishers,while e-reader sales are expected to reach 3 million by Dec.31, according to For rester Research. Almost a million of the devices could be sold during the upcoming holiday season alone. In 2010, sales are projected to double, to 6 million.That kind of growth is hard to come by in the recession-wracked technology industry, and a crowd is starting to gather. Around the world, at least 17 e-readers are in development or already on the market.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/D． Among the better-known entrants is Asustek -- the Taiwanese company of China practically invented the netbook category with its ASUS Eee-PC, and it is working on a product called the Eee-reader that it hopes to have on the market in time for Christmas. South Korea's two powerhouse consumer-electronics companies, Samsung and LG Electronics, are wading in too. Samsung earlier this year introduced a reader called the Papyrus in South Korea; reports circulating in the technology blogosphere say LG is developing a prototype with a large,11.5- inch (diagonal） flexible screen. Meanwhile, Japan's Fujitsu has released the world's first dedicated e-reader with a colour  screen, although so far the device is only available in Japan.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/E． It isn't just tech companies that are joining the fray. Bricks-and-mortar bookseller Barnes & Noble, which in the US offers access to 750,000 e-books on its website, is rumored to be pondering the development of its own e-reader to rival the Kindle. (The retailer already has a partnership to sell e-readers made by IREX, a spin-off of Holland's Royal Philips Electronics.)
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/Major newspaper and magazine publishers,which are suffering mightily from the loss of subscribers and advertisers to the recession and the Internet, are also getting involved. News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, owner of The Wall Street Journal, is reportedly considering a deal with Japanese consumer-electronics giant Sony, which in 2004 introduced the first commercially viable e-reader, to use a black-and-white display technology called electronic ink (also used by the Kindle. Sony is rolling out a new family of e-readers, including a pocket- size version and one with a large screen that's geared toward newspapers and magazines.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/F． One reason e-readers are getting traction is that competition is driving down prices. Amazon has cut the price of the Kindle by $100 over the past six months, to $259. As e-readers proliferate(激增) and price disparities narrow, manufacturers are trying to differentiate their products by adding features such as MP3 players and touch screens. The eSlick by Foxit,based in Fremont, Calif., allows users to listen to songs while reading .Asustek recently unveiled a prototype e-reader with two screens, which would more closely duplicate the traditional reading experience, although the devicethat the company expects to release later this year will have a single screen.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/G． At the same time, new display technologies are emerging that promise to improve battery life and make devices more portable and easier to read. UK-based Plastic Logic hopes to introduce nextyear the first e-reader with a plastic screen that will reduce glare and be less prone to cracking when dropped by ham-fisted owners. Electronic-ink technology is set to move from black and white to colour by the end of 2010.Even video is on the horizon. "We'll see a range of models start to appear over the first half of 2010 offering a range of different reading and productivity experiences," says Neil Jones, CEO of UK-based In teread, which in May launched
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/a $249 e-reader called the COOL-ER.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/H. Newcomers will have a hard time breaking Amazon's chokehold in the US, where the company controls 60% of the e-reader market, according to Forrester Research. But the edge Amazon gained when it launchedthe Kindle could be blunted by evolving technology and changing consumer needs.Currently, more people read e-books on their smart phones than they do on dedicated devices like e-readers.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/I. And there's the looming threat posed by next-generation tablet computers. Apple, the king of cool handheld devices, is rumored to be readying a tablet computer with all the functions of a laptop aswell as iPhone-like touch capabilities for release early next year. Microsoft has been secretive about its plans for a tablet, but a video making the rounds of the blogosphere shows a dual-LCD-screen prototype that closes like a book."E-readers are a transitional technology," says Rotman Epps of Forrester Research. It means that just as the e-reader is taking off, it may be becoming obsolete.