大学英语四级

考试类别

大学英语四级大学英语六级大学英语三级专四专八成人英语三级商务英语雅思 GRE

Traditionally, universities have carried out two main activities: research and teaching. Many experts would argue that both these activities play a critical role in serving the community. The fundamental question, however, is how does the community want or need to be served? In recent years universities have been coming under increasing pressure from both the governments and the public .to ensure that they do not remain "ivory towers(象牙塔)" of study separated from the realities of everyday life. University teachers have been encouraged, and in some cases constrained (强迫), to provide more courses which produce graduates with the technical skills required for the commercial use. If Aristotle wanted to work in a university in the UK today，he would have a good chance of teaching computer science but would not be so readily employable as a philosopher. A postindusttial society requires large numbers of computer programmers, engineers, managers and technicians to maintain and develop its economic growth but "man", as the Bible says, "does not live by bread alone.” Apart from requiring medical and social services, which do not directly contribute to economic growth, the society should also value and enjoy literature, music and the arts. Because they can also promote economic growth. A successful musical play, for instance, can contribute as much to the Gross National Product through tourist dollars as any other things. 答案解析
I won't make the_______mistake next time. 答案解析
Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. Passage OneQuestions 46 and 50 are based on the following passage. Aging happens to all of us, and is generally thought of as a natural part of life. It would seem silly to call such a thing a “disease.”On the other hand, scientists are increasingly learning that aging and biological age are two different things, and that the former is a key risk factor for conditions such as heart disease, cancer and many more. In that light, aging itself might be seen as something treatable, the way you would treat high blood pressure or a vitamin deficiency.Biophysicist Alex Zhavoronkov believes that aging should be considered a disease. He said that describing aging as a disease creates incentives to develop treatments. “It unties the hands of the pharmaceutical (制药的) industry so that they can begin treating the disease and not just the side effects,” he said. “Right now, people think of aging as natural and something you can’t control,” he said. “IN academic circles, people take aging research as just an interest area where they can try to develop interventions. The medical community also takes aging for granted, and can do nothing about it except keep people within a certain health range.”But if aging were recognized as a disease, he said, “It would attract funding and change the way we do health care. What matters is understand that aging is curable.” “It was always known that the body accumulates damage,” he added. “The only way to cure aging is to find ways to repair that damage. I think of it as preventive medicine for age-related conditions.” Leonard Hayflick, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said the idea that aging can be cured implies the human lifespan can be increased, which some researchers suggest is possible. Hayflick is not among them. “There’re many people who recover from cancer, stroke, or heart disease. But they continue to age, because aging is separate from their disease,” Hayflick said. “Even if those causes of death were eliminated, life expectancy would still not go much beyond 92 years.” 答案解析
Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. Passage OneQuestions 46 and 50 are based on the following passage. Aging happens to all of us, and is generally thought of as a natural part of life. It would seem silly to call such a thing a “disease.”On the other hand, scientists are increasingly learning that aging and biological age are two different things, and that the former is a key risk factor for conditions such as heart disease, cancer and many more. In that light, aging itself might be seen as something treatable, the way you would treat high blood pressure or a vitamin deficiency.Biophysicist Alex Zhavoronkov believes that aging should be considered a disease. He said that describing aging as a disease creates incentives to develop treatments. “It unties the hands of the pharmaceutical (制药的) industry so that they can begin treating the disease and not just the side effects,” he said. “Right now, people think of aging as natural and something you can’t control,” he said. “IN academic circles, people take aging research as just an interest area where they can try to develop interventions. The medical community also takes aging for granted, and can do nothing about it except keep people within a certain health range.”But if aging were recognized as a disease, he said, “It would attract funding and change the way we do health care. What matters is understand that aging is curable.” “It was always known that the body accumulates damage,” he added. “The only way to cure aging is to find ways to repair that damage. I think of it as preventive medicine for age-related conditions.” Leonard Hayflick, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said the idea that aging can be cured implies the human lifespan can be increased, which some researchers suggest is possible. Hayflick is not among them. “There’re many people who recover from cancer, stroke, or heart disease. But they continue to age, because aging is separate from their disease,” Hayflick said. “Even if those causes of death were eliminated, life expectancy would still not go much beyond 92 years.” 答案解析
Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section A Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once. A rat or pigeon might not be the obvious choice to tend to someone who is sick, but these creatures have some ___26___ skills that could help the treatment of human diseases. Pigeons are often seen as dirty birds and an urban ____27___, but they are just the latest in a long line of animals that have been found to have abilities to help humans. Despite having a brain no bigger than the ___28___ of your index finger, pigeons have a very impressive ____29____ memory. Recently it was shown that they could be trained to be as accurate as human at detecting breast cancer in images. Rats are often ___30____ with spreading disease rather than ___31___ it, but this long-tailed animal is highly ___32___. Inside a rat’s nose are up to 1,000 different types of olfactory receptors （嗅觉感受器）, whereas humans only have 100 to 200 types. This gives rats the ability to detect ___33___ smells. As a result, some rats are being put to work to detect TB（肺结核）. When the rats detect the smell, they stop and rub their legs to ___34___ a sample is infected. Traditionally, a hundred samples would take lab technicians more than two days to ___35___, but for a rat it takes less than 20 minutes. This rat detection method doesn’t rely on specialist equipment. It is also more accurate — the rats are able to find more TB infections and, therefore, save more lives.A) associated B) examine C) indicate D) nuisance E) peak F) preventing G) prohibiting H) sensitiveI) slightJ) specifyK) superiorL) suspiciousM) tipN) treatedO) visual 答案解析
Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section A Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once. A rat or pigeon might not be the obvious choice to tend to someone who is sick, but these creatures have some ___26___ skills that could help the treatment of human diseases. Pigeons are often seen as dirty birds and an urban ____27___, but they are just the latest in a long line of animals that have been found to have abilities to help humans. Despite having a brain no bigger than the ___28___ of your index finger, pigeons have a very impressive ____29____ memory. Recently it was shown that they could be trained to be as accurate as human at detecting breast cancer in images. Rats are often ___30____ with spreading disease rather than ___31___ it, but this long-tailed animal is highly ___32___. Inside a rat’s nose are up to 1,000 different types of olfactory receptors （嗅觉感受器）, whereas humans only have 100 to 200 types. This gives rats the ability to detect ___33___ smells. As a result, some rats are being put to work to detect TB（肺结核）. When the rats detect the smell, they stop and rub their legs to ___34___ a sample is infected. Traditionally, a hundred samples would take lab technicians more than two days to ___35___, but for a rat it takes less than 20 minutes. This rat detection method doesn’t rely on specialist equipment. It is also more accurate — the rats are able to find more TB infections and, therefore, save more lives.A) associated B) examine C) indicate D) nuisance E) peak F) preventing G) prohibiting H) sensitiveI) slightJ) specifyK) superiorL) suspiciousM) tipN) treatedO) visual 答案解析
The fridge is considered necessary. It has been so since the 1960s when packaged food list appeared with the label: "Store in the refrigerator."　　In my fridgeless Fifties childhood, 1 was fed well and healthy. The milkman came every day, the grocer, the butcher (肉商), the baker, and the ice-cream man delivered two or three times each week. The Sunday meatwould last until Wednesday and surplus(剩余的) bread and milk became all kinds of cakes. Nothing was wasted, and we were never troubled by rotten food. Thirty years on food deliveries have ceased, fresh vegetables are almost unobtainable in the country.　　The invention of the fridge contributed comparatively little to the art of food preservation. Many well-tried techniques already existed -- natural cooling, drying, smoking, salting, sugaring, bottling...　　What refrigeration did promote was marketing --- marketing hardware and electricity, marketing soft drinks, marketing dead bodies of animals around the world in search of a good price.　　Consequently, most of the world’s fridges are to be found, not in the tropics where they might prove useful, but in the rich countries with mild temperatures where they are climatically almost unnecessary. Every winter, millions of fridges hum away continuously, and at vast expense, busily maintaining an artificially-cooled space inside an artificially-heated house -- while outside, nature provides the desired temperature free of charge.　　The fridge’s effect upon the environment has been evident, while its contribution to human happiness has been not important. If you don’t believe me, try it yourself, invest in a food cabinet and mm off your fridge next winter. You may not eat the hamburgers(汉堡包), but at least you’ll get rid of that terrible hum. 答案解析
I exercise all the time, but I still have gut fat that hangs over my belt when I sit. Why isn't all the exercise getting rid of it?It's a question many of us could ask. More than 45 million Americans now belong to a health club. We spend some $19 billion a year on gym memberships. Of course, some people join and never go.Still, as one major study -- the Minnesota Heart Survey -- found, more of us at least say we exercise regularly. And yet obesity (肥胖) figures have risen sharply in the same period: a third of Americans are obese, and another third count as overweight by the Federal Government's definition. Yes, it's entirely possible that those of us who regularly go to the gym would weigh even more if we exercised less. But like many other people, I get hungry after I exercise, so I often eat more on the days I work out than on the days I don't.Could exercise actually be keeping me from losing weight? The popular belief that exercise is essential for weight control is actually fairly new. As recently as the 1960s,doctors routinely advised against too much exercise, particularly for older adults who could injure themselves. Today doctors encourage even their oldest patients to exercise, which is sound advice for many reasons: People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of diseases-- those of the heart in particular. But the past few years of obesity research show that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly over-evaluated. "In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless," says Eric Ravussin,exercise researcher at Louisiana State University. Many recent studies have found that exercise isn't as important in helping people lose weight as you hear so regularly in gym advertisements or from magazines.The basic problem is that while it's true that exercise bums calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight,exercise has another effect: it can make one hungry. That causes us to eat more,which in turn can negate (使无效) the weight-loss benefits we just gained. Exercise, in other words,isn't necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder. 答案解析
Every year in the first week of my English class, some students inform me that writing is too hard. They never write, unless assignments __1__ it. They find the writing process __2__ and difficult.　　How awful to be able to speak in a language but not to write in it- __3__ English, with its rich vocabulary. Being able to speak but not write is like living in an __4__ mansion (豪宅) and never leaving one small room. When I meet students who think they can't write, I know as a teacher my __5__ is to show them the rest of the rooms. My task is to build fluency while providing the opportunity inherent in any writing activity to __6__ the moral and emotional development of my students. One great way to do this is by having students write in a journal in class every day.　　Writing ability is like strength training. Writing needs to be done __7__, just like exercise; just as muscles grow stronger with exercise, writing skills improve quickly with writing practice. I often see a rise in student confidence and __8__ after only a few weeks of journal writing.　　Expressing oneself in writing is one of the most important skills I teach to strengthen the whole student. When my students practice journal writing, they are practicing for their future academic, political, and __9__ lives. They build skills so that some day they might write a great novel, a piece of sorely needed legislation, or the perfect love letter. Every day that they write in their journals puts them a step __10__ to fluency, eloquence (雄辩), and command of language.A. closerB. dailyC.emotionalD. enhanceE.enormousF. especiallyG. hinderH. missionI.. painfulJ. performanceK. professionL. remarkablyM. requireN. sensitiveO. urge 答案解析
Perhaps like most Americans you have some extra pounds to ___1___ . You may even have tried a fad diet or two, but found yourself right back where you started. The key to weight loss is regular ___2___ activity. And surprisingly, you don't have to give up eating or make the gym your second home to see long-term, ___3___ effects.　　You body needs a certain amount of energy to maintain basic ___4___ such as breathing, blood circulation and digestion. The energy required to keep your organs functioning is referred to as the resting or basal metabolic rate.　　Any time you are active, ___5___ energy is required. It is obtained from glycogen and fat stored in the blood, liver, and muscles. The key to losing weight is to draw on the fat rather than on the carbohydrate reserves.　　Which of the two energy sources you use depends on the intensity and ___6__ of your activity. The higher the intensity, the more your body will pull from the stored carbohydrates. The lower the intensity, the more your body will ___7___ on fat as its fuel.　　Aerobic exercise is most ___8___ for weight loss. When you perform aerobic activities you ___9___ contract large muscle groups such as your legs and arms. Walking, running, rollerblading, swimming, dancing, and jumping jacks are all forms of aerobic activity.　　Surprisingly, if your aerobic activity is low to moderately intense and of long duration, you will burn more fat than if you had ___10___ in a short burst of high-intensity exercise. In short, a brisk 30-minute walk will burn fat while a 100-yard sprint will burn glycogen.A. positiveB. additionalC. durationD. effectiveE. shed F. physicalG. foodH. functionsI. participatedJ. relyK. cut L. repeatedlyM. usesN. little O. obvious 答案解析
After the violent earthquake that shook Los Angeles in 1994, earthquake scientists had good news to report: The damage and death toll(死亡人数) could have been much worse. More than 60 people died in this earthquake. By comparison, and earthquake of similar __1__ that shook America in 1998 claimed 25,000 victims.　　Injuries and deaths were __2__ less in Los Angeles because the quake occurred at 4:31 a.m. On a holiday, when traffic was light on the city's highway. In addition, __3__ made to the construction codes in Los Angeles during the last 20 years have strengthened the city's buildings and highways, making them more __4__ to quakes.　　In the past, making structures quake-resist-ant meant firm yet __5__ materials, such as steel and wood, that bend without breaking. Later, people tried to lift a building off its foundation, and insert rubber and steel between the building and its foundation to __6__ the impact of ground vibrations. The most __7__ designs give buildings brains as well as concrete and steel supports, called smart buildings, the structures respond like living organisms to an earthquake's vibrations. When ground shakes and the building tips forward, the computer would __8__ the building to shift in the opposite direction. The new designs should offer even greater __9__ to cities where earthquakes ofen take place.　　The new smart structures could be very __10__ to build. However, they would save many lives and would be less likely to be damaged during earthquakes.A. changesB. flexibleC. decreaseD. recentE. pushF. reduceG. relativelyH. safetyI. resistantJ. expensiveK. forceL. accordinglyM. intensityN. securityO. opposed 答案解析
Beauty and Body Image in the MediaA) Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women--and their body parts--sell everything from food to cars.Popular film and television actresses are becoming younger, taller and thinner.Some have even been known to faint on the set from lack of food. Women' s magazines are full of articles urging that if they can just lose those last twenty pounds, they' 11 have it all--the perfect marriage, loving children,great sex, and a rewarding career.B) Why are standards of beauty being imposed on women, the majority of whom are naturally larger and more mature than any of the models? The roots, some analysts say, are economic. By presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits. And it' s no accident that youth is increasingly promoted, along with thinness, as an essential criterion of beauty. If not all women need to lose weight, for sure they're all aging, says the Quebec Action Network for Women's Health in its 2001 report.And, according to the industry, age is a disaster that needs to be dealt with.C) The stakes are huge. On the one hand,women who are insecure about their bodies are more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes, and diet aids. It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth anywhere between 40 to 100 billion (U.S.) a year selling temporary weight loss (90% to 95% of dieters regain the lost weight). On the other hand, research indicates that exposure to images of thin, young,air-brushed female bodies is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls.D) The American research group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders, Inc. says that one out of every four college-aged women uses unhealthy methods of weight control--including fasting,skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative ( 泻药) abuse, and self-induced vomiting. The pressure to be thin is also affecting young girls:the Canadian Women's Health Network warns that weight control measures are now being taken by girls as young as 5 and 6. American stat is-tics are similar.Several studies, such as one conducted by Marika Tiggemann and Levina Clark in 2006 titled" Appearance Culture in 9-to-12-Year-Old Girls: Media and Peer Influences on Body Dissatisfaction," indicate that nearly half of all preadolescent girls wish to be thinner, and as a result have engaged in a diet or are aware of the concept of dieting. In 2003, Teen magazine reported that 35 percent of girls 6 to 12 years old have been on at least one diet, and that 50 to 70percent of normal weight girls believe they are overweight. Overall research indicates that 90%of women are dissatisfied with their appearance in some way. Media activist Jean Kilbourne concludes that, "Women are sold tothe diet industry by the magazines we read and the televise on programs we watch, almost all of which make us feel anxious about our weight."E) Perhaps the most disturbing is the factthat media images of female beauty are unattainable for all but a very small number of women. Researchers generating a computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions, for example, found that her back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her body would be too narrow to contain more than half aliver and a few centimeters of bowel. A real woman built that way would suffer from chronic diarrhea(慢性腹泻)and eventually die from malnutrition. Jill Barad, President of Mattel (which manufactures Barbie), estimated that 99% of girls aged 3 to 10years old own at least one Barbie doll. Still, the number of real life women and girls who seek a similarly underweight body is epidemic, and they can suffer equally devastating health consequences. In 2006 it was estimated that up to 450,000 Canadian women were affected by an eating disorder.F) Researchers report that women's magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men's magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women's magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman's bodily appearance-by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery. Television and movies reinforce the importance of a thin body as a measure of a woman' s worth.Canadian researcher Gregory Fouts reports that over three-quarters of the female characters in TV situation comedies are underweight, and only one in twenty are above average in size. Heavier actresses tend to receive negative comments from male characters about their bodies ("How about wearing a sack?), and 80 percent of these negative comments are followed by canned audience laughter.G) There have been efforts in the magazine industry to buck (抵制，反抗)the trend. For several years the Quebec magazine Coup de Pouce has consistently included full-sized women in their fashion pages and Chatelaine has pledged not to touch up photos and not to include models less than 25 years of age. In Madrid, one of the world's biggest fashion capitals, ultra-thin models were banned from the runway in 2006. Furthermore Spain has recently undergone a project with the aim to standardize clothing sizes through using a unique process in which a laser beam is used to measure real life women' s bodies in order to find the most true to life measurement.H) Another issue is the representation of ethnically diverse women in the media. A 2008 study conducted by Juanita Covertand Travis Dixon titled "A Changing View: Representation and Effects of the Portrayal of Women of Color in Mainstream Women's Magazines" found that although there was an increase in the representation of women of color,overall white women were over represented in mainstream women' s magazines from 1999 to 2004.I) The barrage of messages about thinness,dieting and beauty tells "ordinary" women that they are always in need of adjustment--and that the female body is an object to be perfected. Jean Kilbourne argues that the overwhelming presence of media images of painfully thin women means that real women's bodies have become invisible in the mass media. The real tragedy, Kilbourne concludes, is that many women internalize these stereotypes, and judge themselves by the beauty industry's standards.Women learn to compare themselves to other women, and to compete with them for male attention. This focus on beauty and desirability "effectively destroys any awareness and action that might help to change that climate." 答案解析
A Mission to End Career HookupsA）Neil Clark Warren has a bold ambition．He wants “people to have a job they love and a marriage they wouldn’t change for anything”．For the 79-year-old founder and chief executive of dating site eHar-mony now wants to match job hunters with employers．B）The dating marketplace is crowded．Online dating，once stigmatized（使受耻辱），is now main-sffeam. Eharmony，founded in 2000，today competes with niche sites catering for users from vegetarians to Ayn Rand fans，as well as social media and apps such as Tinder．Though Dr．Warren patently sees his site，which claims to have been responsible for 600，000 marriages，as a cut above those facilitating mere hookups．“Tinder and eHarmony are in two different businesses．Tinder is very superficial；it’s based on looks．’’C）Dr．Warren wants to broaden eHarmony’s appeal and become a “relationship company”．Not just making love and job matches but also fixing retirees up with advisers and the isolated with friends．He sees loneliness as one of the biggest problems in modem society．Technology，he concedes，is a double-edged sword，both contributing to and combating isolation．D）But first he is going after the jobs giants，Linkedln and Monster．In December eHarmony’s subsidiary Elevated Careers will launch in the US．Dr．Warren believes there is an untapped market of unfulfilled professionals．“0ver 70 percent of employees identify themselves as not engaged or actively disengaged from theft jobs．We think we Call reduce the amount of turnover and raise the level of productivity for companies by matching candidates with the right job，in the right career，with the right company．’’He insists he can counter the modem career pattern of serial jobs in multiple companies and turn employees monogamous（一夫一妻制）．The fallout of those who flit from job to job is far-reaching, he says．His wife’s father, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate，moved jobs 17 times．“That has an impact”, he says．“When a person is unhappy at their job，it affects their home fife，their marriage，their personal relationships，and their relationships with their co-workers．[It has]a negative effect on the productivity of the organisations for which they are working．”So for the past two years he has set social scientists and technology employees to work on the criteria and algorithms（算法）that will help employees and employers find “the one”．The dating site asks sub—scribers to answer about l50 questions to help identify values and personality．So Dr．Warren envisages（设想）a questionnaire to unearth a candidate’s skills，expectation of culture and personality．E）Few recruiters do well on matching an employee with a company culture，he says，“The majority of the workforce change jobs for reasons directly related to company culture．It is imperative we bring candidates verifiable company-culture data that matches to their core work values so they can find the best possible opportunities to experience a meaningful and emotional connection with their work．’’The details of such data remain secret．Dr．Warren knows about being faithful to one career．He worked as a relationship psychologist for 40 years before setting up eHarmony．Originally from as mall town in Iowa，he went to a school attended by only l7 pupils．He was the only child in his class．“I came both first and last。”he jokes．His father was a “true entrepreneur”who，says Dr．Warren，“owned the town”．F）Dr：Warren’s brother-in-law took an interest in him as a teenager and encouraged his intellectual curiosity-no one else in his family had been to university．He studied at Princeton Theological Seminary before doing a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Chica90．His interest in relationships came from his Christian beliefs but also a sense that despite their 70-year marriage，his parents were incompatible．“My father was brilliant，very vital．He liked to talk about big things like the Middle East but my mother couldn’t keep up with him．They didn’t talk about much．”G）He says the relationship still worked very well for their children：“They never said anything sarcastic to each other。”But his parents’ example instilled in him the belief that a “long marriage is not necessarily a great marriage”．So Dr．Warren set up as a marriage counselor，seeing more than 7，700 people over the decades．The counseling only confirmed his convictions that divorce was due to incompatibility that should have been evident before the wedding．“I thought people had found the wrong person．They had never received any training about who they should meet．”H）Pre-marital counseling did not seem to work．“I never had one couple cancel their wedding as a re-suit．”He recalls one session in which the man told his fianc6e：‘‘Nothing this mall says will stop me marrying you．”It was this that set him-together with his son-in-law-on the idea of matchmaking online．Dr. Warren had also reached a point in his career when his work had become “samey”．Despite diversifying into writing relationship books and running seminars，he craved stimulation．So in 2000，just before the dotcom bubble burst，the pair managed to raise$2.5m funding．I）It was difficult to find subscribers at the start，he says，because internet dating was relatively new．The first users tended to be those living in sparsely populated areas so there were a lot of long-distance relationships．But gradually，the California-based site grew．In 2007 he stood down from the privately owned company and moved to Maine with his wife to enjoy their 30-acre grounds．complete with golf course，swimming pool and tennis courts．Despite trying to stay active，he got bored，and，convinced that his company had lost its way，returned as chief executive．J）During retirement he read a lot of books about comeback kings such as Starbucks’ Howard Schultz and Steve Jobs．He felt “glad to have a chance to run the company as he wanted it”．In doing so he cut his staff from 320 to 190 and says the reorganisation is aligned with his views on job-matching．“We matched people with the fight jobs in our own company．”Can the 79-year-old grandfather keep on working?“I don’t think I'll ever retire．I was bored in retirement．”He hopes，however，that the company’s chief operating officer will take over when that day eventually comes．“He’s a verb and I'm a noun." What does he mean?“I'm more of a visionary and he’s more of a doer。" 答案解析
By the time you retire, there’s no doubt about it，your brain isn’ t what it used to be. By 65, most people will start to notice the signs ： you forget people ’ s names and the teapot occasionally turns up in the fridge. There is a good reason why our memories start to let us down. At this stage of life, we are steadily losing brain cells in critical areas. This is not too much of a problem at first； even in old age, the brain is flexible enough to compensate. At some point, though, the losses start to make themselves felt. Clearly, not everyone ages in the same way, so what’s the difference between a happy, intelligent old person and a forgetful，had-tempered granny? And can we improve our chances of becoming the former? Exercise can certainly help. Numerous studies have shown that gentle exercise three times a week can improve concentration and abstract reasoning in older people, perhaps by encouraging the growth of new brain cells. Exercise also helps steady our blood sugar. As we age，our blood sugar control worsens，which causes a large increase in blood sugar levels. This can affect an area that helps form memories. Since physical activity helps control blood sugar, getting out and about could reduce these peaks and，potentially improve your memory. Coordination training could also help. Studies have shown that specifically targeting motor control and balance improves learning function in 60 to 80-year-olds. “Brain training” was once considered strange, but a study concludes that computerized brain exercises can improve memory and attention in the over 65s. Importantly，these changes were large enough that participants reported significant improvements in everyday activities，such as remembering names or following conversations in noisy restaurants. Avoiding the complaints is even easier. In fact, your brain is doing all it can to ensure a contented retirement. By 65，we are much better at increasing the experience of positive emotion，says Florin Dolcos, a neurobiologist at the University of Alberta in Canada. In experiments, he found that people over the age of 60 tended to remember fewer emotionally negative photographs compared with positive ones than younger people. 答案解析
When families gather for Christmas dinner, some will stick to formal traditions dating back to Grandma’s generation. Their tables will be set with the good china and silver, and the dress code will be Sunday-best.　　But in many other homes, this china-and-silver elegance has given way to a stoneware (粗陶)-and-stainless informatity, with dress assuming an equally casual-Friday look. For hosts and guests, the change means greater simplicity and comfort. For makers of fine china in Britain, it spells economic hard times.　　Last week Royal Doulton, the largest employer in Stoke-on-Trent, announced that it is eliminating 1,000 jobs-one-fifth on its total workforce. That brings to more than 4,000 the number of positions lost in 18 months in the pottery (陶瓷) region. Wedgwood and other pottery factories made cuts earlier.　　Although a strong pound and weak markets in Asia play a role in the downsizing, the layoffs in Stoke have their roots in earthshaking social shifts. A spokesman for Royal Doulton admitted that the company "has been somewhat slow in catching up with the trend" toward casual dining. Families eat together less often, he explained, and more people eat alone, either because they are single or they eat in front of television.　　Even dinner parties, if they happen at all, have gone casual. In a time of long work hours and demanding family schedules, busy hosts insist, rightly, that it’s better to share a takeout pizza on paper plates in the family room than to wait for the perfect moment or a "real" dinner party. Too often, the perfect moment never comes. Iron a fine-patterned tablecloth? Forget it. Polish the silver? Who has time? Yet the loss of formality has its downside. The fine points of etiquette (礼节) that children might once have learned at the table by observation or instruction from parents and grandparents ("Chew with your mouth closed." "Keep your elbows off the table. ") must be picked up elsewhere. Some companies now offer etiquette seminars for employees who may be competent professionally but clueless socially. 答案解析
In the 1960s, medical researchers Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe developed a checklist of stressful events. They appreciated the tricky point that any major change can be stressful. Negative events like "serious illness of a family member" were high on the list, but so were some positive life-changing events like marriage. When you take the Holmes-Rahe test you must remember that the score does not reflect how you deal with stress—it only shows how much you have to deal with. And we now know that the way you handle these events dramatically affects your chances of staying healthy.　　By the early 1970s, hundreds of similar studies had followed Holmes and Rahe. And millions of Americans who work and live under stress worried over the reports." Somehow, the research got boiled down to a memorable message. Women’s magazines ran headlines like "Stress causes illness!" If you want to stay physically and mentally healthy, the articles said, avoid stressful events.　　But such simplistic advice is impossible "to follow. Even if stressful events are dangerous, many—like the death of a loved one—are impossible to avoid. Moreover, any warning to avoid all stressful events is a prescription (处方)for staying away from opportunities as well as trouble. Since any change can be stressful, a person who wanted to be completely free of stress would never, marry, have a child, take a new job or move.　　The notion that all stress makes you sick also ignores a lot of what we know about people. It assumes we’re all vulnerable (脆弱的) and passive in the face of adversity (逆境). But what about human initiative and creativity ? Many come through periods of stress with more physical and mental vigor than they had before. We also know that a long time without change or challenge can lead to boredom, and physical and metal strain. 答案解析
Sign, has become a scientific hot button. Only in the past 20 years have specialists in language study realized that signed language are unique--a speech of the hand, They offer a new way to probe how the brain generates and understands language, and throw new light on an old scientific controversy; whether language complete with grammar, is something that we are born with, or whether it is a learned behavior. The current interest in sign language has roots in the pioneering work of one rebel teacher at Gallaudet University in Washington D. C. the world’s only liberal arts university for deaf people.　　When Bill-Stoke went to Gallaudet to teach English, the school enrolled him in a course in signing. But Stoke noticed something odd among themselves students signed differently from his’ classroom teacher.　　Stoke had been taught a sort of gestural code each movement of the hands representing a word in English. At the time, American sign language was thought to be no more than a form of pidgin English. But Stoke believed the "hand talk" his students used looked richer. He wondered. Might deaf people actually have a genuine language? And could that language be unlike any other on Earth? It was 1955 when even deaf people dismissed their signing as "substandard". Stroke’ s idea was academic heresy (异端邪说).　　It is 37 years later. Stoke--now devoting his time to writing and editing books and to journals and to producing video materials on ASL and the deaf culture is having lunch at a cafe near the Gallaudet campus and explaining how he started a revolution. For decades educators fought his idea that signed languages are natural languages like English, French and Japanese. They assumed language must be based on speech, the modulation of space. "What I said." Stoke explains, "is that language is not mouth stuff--it’s brain staff." 答案解析
Some houses are designed to be smart. Others have smart designs. An example of the second type of house won an Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Architects.　Located on the shore of Sullivan’s Island off the coast of South Carolina, the award-winning cube-shaped beach house was built to replace one smashed to pieces by Hurricane (飓风) Hugo 10 years ago. In September 1989, Hugo struck South Carolina, killing 18 people and damaging or destroying 36,000 homes in the state. Before Hugo, many new houses built along South Carolina’s shoreline were poorly constructed, and enforcement of building codes wasn’t strict, according to architect Ray Huff, who created the cleverly-designed beach house, In Hugo’s wake, all new shoreline houses are required to meet stricter, better-enforced codes. The new beach house on Sullivan’s Island should be able to withstand a Category 3 hurricane with peak winds of 179 to 209 kilometers per hour. At first sight, the house on Sullivan’s Island looks anything but hurricane-proof. Its redwood shell makes it resemble "a large party lantern" at night, according to one observer. But looks can he deceiving. The house’s wooden frame is reinforced with long steel rods to give it extra strength.　　To further protect the house from hurricane damage, Huff raised it 2.7 meters off the ground on timber pilings—long, slender columns of wood anchored deep in the sand. Pilings night appear insecure, but they are strong enough to support the weight of the house. They also elevate the house above storm surges. The pilings allow the surges to run under the house instead of running into it. "These swells of water come ashore at tremendous speeds and cause most of the damage done to beach-front buildings." said Huff.　Huff designed the timber pilings to be partially concealed by house’s ground-to-roof shell. "The shell masks, the pilings so that the house doesn’t look like its standing with its pant legs pulled up." said Huff. In the event of a storm surge, the shell should break apart and let the waves rush under the house, the architect explained. 答案解析
In a country that defines itself by ideas, not by shared blood, who should be allowed to come, work and live here? In the wake of the Sept.11 attacks these questions have never seemed more pressing.　　On Dec. 11, 2001, as part of the effort to increase homeland security, federal and local authorities in 14 states staged “Operation Safe Travel”—raids on airports to arrest employees with false identification (身份证明). In Salt Lake City there were 69 arrests. But those captured were anything but terrorists, most of them illegal immigrants from Central or South America. Authorities said the undocumented workers’ illegal status made them open to blackmail(讹诈)by terrorists.　　Many immigrants in Salt Lake City were angered by the arrests and said they felt as if they were being treated like disposable goods.　　Mayor Anderson said those feelings were justified to a certain extent. “We’re saying we want you to work in these places. we’re going to look the other way in terms of what our laws are, and then when it’s convenient for us, or when we can try to make a point in terms of national security, especially after Sept. 11, then you’re disposable. There are whole families being uprooted for all of the wrong reasons, ” Anderson said. If Sept. 11 had never happened, the airport workers would not have been arrested and could have gone on quietly living in America, probably indefinitely. Ana Castro, a manager at a Ben&Jerry’s ice cream shop at the airport, had been working 10 years with the same false Social Security card when she was arrested in the December airport raid. Now she and her family are living under the threat of deportation(驱逐出境). Castro’s case is currently waiting to be settled. While she awaits the outcome, the government has granted her permission to work here and she has returned to her job at Ben&Jerry’s. 答案解析
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