Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females , but this ratio drops to near balance at the age of maturity, and among 70-year-olds there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male mortality is being changed. Now, boy babies survive almost as well as girls do. This means that, for the first time, there will be an excess of boys in those crucial years when they are searching for a mate. More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed. Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby(particularly a boy baby)surviving depended on its weight. A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost certain death. Today it makes almost no difference. Since much of the variation is due to genes, one more agent of evolution has gone. There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide; stay alive, but have fewer children. Few people are as fertile as in the past. Except in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children. Nowadays the number of births, like the age of death, has become average. Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring. Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished. India shows what is happening. The country offers wealth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples. The grand mediocrity of today—everyone being the same in survival and number of offspring—means that natural selection has lost 80% of its power in upper-middle-class India compared to the tribes. For us, this means that evolution is over; the biological Utopia has arrived. Strangely, it has involved little physical change. No other species fills so many places in nature. But in the past 100,000 years—even the past 100 years—our lives have been transformed but our bodies have not. We did not evolve, because machines and society did it for us. Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of evolution: they “ look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension“. No doubt we will remember a 20th century way of life beyond comprehension for its ugliness. But however amazed our descendants may be at how far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us.

[*]W: Welcome to Friday Cinema. Would you like to purchase a movie ticket? M: Umm... I want to know when The Ring is showing? W: There are 5 shows today. One at noon, and then 2 p. m., 5 p. m., 8 p. m. and 11 p. m. On the weekend, besides these 5 shows, there is another show at midnight. M: I’ m sorry. Could you tell me the show times for today again? W: There are 5 shows today, one at noon, and then 2 p. m., 5 p. m., 8 p. m. and 11 p. m. M: OK. I want 6 tickets for the 11 p. m. show tonight. Are there still 6 tickets available that are seated together? W: Sorry. There are only three tickets left. How about the 8 p. m. show? There are still 10 tickets left for that one. M: But I have a friend who doesn’ t get off work till 8 p. m., so he won’t make the beginning of the movie. W: Well, I think it should be OK if he misses the first ten minutes. M: He works about an hour’ s drive from this movie theater, so he will never be able to make it in time. W: Would you like to see another movie then? M: No, we all want to see this one. Is there any way that we could buy tickets now for tomorrow? W: Yes, you can order tickets now for tomorrow.

[*]Now, in the last few minutes of class, I’ d like to address a slightly different issue; the question of how children learn to talk. Learning to speak their own language is one of children’ s greatest accomplishments, yet it is a somewhat mysterious process. Children first begin to make language-like noises when they are between two and four months old. These noises generally begin with the letters “g“ and “k“ and because these sounds—“goo“ and “koo“—are the easiest sounds for infant mouths to make. Between four months and eight months, infants begin to babble meaningless syllables. Most common are those beginning with “ p “ , “ b “ , “ d “ , “ m “ , or “ n “ sounds, followed by a vowel sound. Parents sometimes misinterpret these as actual words, such as mama or dada. Between six months and a year, babies say their first true words. Vocabulary grows slowly at first, usually only a few words a month, but once a child has learned about fifty words—generally around 18 months—the pace picks up rapidly. At first, children say single words; then they begin forming two-word combinations; “all gone“ “more milk“ “see doggie. “ Children’ s two word combinations are so similar to the world over that they read like translations of one another. Between the age of two and three, children can form complete sentences and have mastered the basis of grammar. Can you believe it? A two-and-a-half-year-old toddler is a grammatical genius and all without studying a single rule! Typically, four-year-old know some 15,000 words and can form very sophisticated sentences. Even their mistakes are very logical; “I saw two mans“ or “We went to gramma’ s house. “ So, how does this all happen? Well, there are several conflicting theories about language acquisition, but unfortunately, there just isn’ t time to discuss them today, so we’ 11 take them up in Wednesday’s class. In the meantime, please read Chapter Eight in your textbook. See you Wednesday.

What are the zebra stripes on the tomato soup cans and potato chip bags? They are special black and white vertical lines. These black and white【C1】______ can be read by an optical scanner, or computer. The “scanner,“ which【C2】______the lines of code, is a small laser beam of light. When the light ray is broken by the black stripes, the computer “reads“ the information about the product. This code is【C3】______the Universal Product Code (UPC). It is designed【C4】______ add speed and efficiency to stores by using computers. It can do this in【C5】______ways. First, it is not necessary for workers to put individual prices on items.【C6】______using UPC, the computer can print out the accurate price of the item. Errors in prices are eliminated, or done【C7】______with. Also, the time spent checking out is reduced.【C8】______gives an itemized receipt to the customer【C9】______all the items, prices, and totals. The store clerk does not need to spend time checking the price on the item and punching it into the cash register. This UPC computerized system will probably save as【C10】______ as 45 percent of the checkout clerk’ s time. What do the stripes mean? How does the computer interpret the stripes? The number【C11】______ below the vertical bars identifies the manufacturer and the manufacturer’ s item. As many as 10 trillion individual machine-readable numbers can be used with this system. In the example, the 0 on the left side means that it is a grocery item. The【C12】______51000 indicate the manufacturer. In this case it is the Campbell Soup Company. The【C13】______five digits, 00011, mean it is a can of tomato soup. The light rays from the light beam read these lines, and the message is sent directly to the computer. The computer【C14】______ finds the information about this product (price, inventory data) and sends it instantly back to the terminal【C15】______the checkout counter. At the same time, it keeps an inventory for the store manager. Many products have labels with these stripes.

Coinciding with the groundbreaking theory of biological evolution proposed by British naturalist Charles Darwin in the 1860s, British social philosopher Herbert Spencer put forward his own theory of biological and cultural evolution. Spencer argued that all worldly phenomena, including human societies, changed over time, advancing toward perfection. 【R1】______. American social scientist Lewis Henry Morgan introduced another theory of cultural evolution in the late 1800s. Morgan helped found modern anthropology—the scientific study of human societies, customs and beliefs—thus becoming one of the earliest anthropologists. In his work, he attempted to show how all aspects of culture changed together in the evolution of societies.【R2】______. In the early 1900s in North America, German-born American anthropologist Franz Boas developed a new theory of culture known as historical particularism. Historical particularism, which emphasized the uniqueness of all cultures, gave new direction to anthropology. 【R3】______. Boas felt that the culture of any society must be understood as the result of a unique history and not as one of many cultures belonging to a broader evolutionary stage or type of culture.【R4】______. Historical particularism became a dominant approach to the study of culture in American anthropology, largely through the influence of many students of Boas. But a number of anthropologists in the early 1900s also rejected the particularist theory of culture in favor of diffusionism. Some attributed virtually every important cultural achievement to the inventions of a few, especially gifted peoples that, according to diffusionists, then spread to other cultures. 【R5】______. Also in the early 1900s, French sociologist Emile Durkheim developed a theory of culture that would greatly influence anthropology. Durkheim proposed that religious beliefs functioned to reinforce social solidarity. An interest in the relationship between the function of society and culture became a major theme in European, and especially British, anthropology. [A] Other anthropologists believed that cultural innovations, such as inventions, had a single origin and passed from society to society. This theory was known as diffusionism. [B] In order to study particular cultures as completely as possible, he became skilled in linguistics , the study of languages, and in physical anthropology, the study of human biology and a-natomy. [C] He argued that human evolution was characterized by a struggle he called the “survival of the fittest,“ in which weaker races and societies must eventually be replaced by stronger, more advanced races and societies. [D] They also focused on important rituals that appeared to preserve a people’ s social structure, such as initiation ceremonies that formally signify children’ s entrance into adulthood. [E] Thus, in his view, diverse aspects of culture, such as the structure of families, forms of marriage , categories of kinship, ownership of property, forms of government, technology, and systems of food production, all changed as societies evolved. [F] Supporters of the theory viewed culture as a collection of integrated parts that work together to keep a society functioning. [G] For example, British anthropologists Grafton Elliot Smith and W. J. Perry incorrecdy suggested , on the basis of inadequate information, that farming, pottery making, and metallurgy all originated in ancient Egypt and diffused throughout the world. In fact, all of these cultural developments occurred separately at different times in many parts of the world.

In the 1950s, the pioneers of artificial intelligence(AI)predicted that, by the end of this century , computers would be conversing with us at work and robots would be performing our housework. But as useful as computers are, they’re nowhere close to achieving anything remotely resembling these early aspirations for human like behavior. Never mind something as complex as conversation : the most powerful computers struggle to reliably recognize the shape of an object, the most elementary of tasks for a ten-month-old kid. A growing group of AI researchers think they know where the field went wrong. The problem, the scientists say, is that AI has been trying to separate the highest, most abstract levels of thought, like language and mathematics, and to duplicate them with logical, step-by-step programs. A new movement in AI, on the other hand, takes a closer look at the more roundabout way in which naturally came up with intelligence. Many of these researchers study evolution and natural adaptation instead of formal logic and conventional computer programs. Rather than digital computers and transistors, some want to work with brain cells and proteins. The results of these early efforts are as promising as they are peculiar, and the new nature-based AI movement is slowly but surely moving to the forefront of the field. Imitating the brain’s neural(神经的)network is a huge step in the right direction, says computer scientist and biophysicist Michael Conrad, but it still misses an important aspect of natural intelligence. “People tend to treat the brain as if it were made up of color-coded transistors“ , he explains, “but it’s not simply a clever network of switches. There are lots of important things going on inside the brain cells themselves. “ Specifically, Conrad believes that many of the brain’s capabilities stem from the pattern recognition proficiency of the individual molecules that make up each brain cell. The best way to build and artificially intelligent device, he claims, would be to build it around the same sort of molecular skills. Right now, the option that conventional computers and software are fundamentally incapable of matching the processes that take place in the brain remains controversial. But if it proves true, then the efforts of Conrad and his fellow AI rebels could turn out to be the only game in town.

Read the following text(s) and write an essay to 1) summarize the main points of the text(s), 2) make clear your own viewpoints, and 3) justify your stand. In your essay, make full use of the information provided in the text(s). If you use more than three consecutive words from the text(s) , use quotation marks (“ “). You should write 160 -200 words on the ANSWER SHEET. No woman can be too rich or too thin. This saying often attributed to the late Duchess of Windsor embodies much of the odd spirit of our times. Being thin is deemed as such a virtue. The problem with such a view is that some people actually attempt to live by it. I myself have fantasies of slipping into narrow designer clothes. Consequently, I have been on a diet for the better—or worse—part of my life. Being rich wouldn’ t be bad either, but that won’t happen unless an unknown relative dies suddenly in some distant land, leaving me millions of dollars. Where did we go off the track? When did eating butter become a sin, and a little bit of extra flesh unappealing, if not repellent? All religions have certain days when people refrain from eating and excessive eating is one of Christianity’ s seven deadly sins. However, until quite recently, most people had a problem getting enough to eat. In some religious groups, wealth was a symbol of probable salvation and high morals, and fatness a sign of wealth and well-being. Today the opposite is true. We have shifted to thinness as our new mark of virtue. The result is that being fat—or even only somewhat overweight—is bad because it implies a lack of moral strength. Our obsession with thinness is also fueled by health concerns. It is true that in this country we have more overweight people than ever before, and that in many cases, being overweight correlates with an increased risk of heart and blood vessel disease. These diseases, however, may have as much to do with our way of life and our high-fat diets as with excess weight. And the associated risk of cancer in the digestive system may be more of a dietary problem—too much fat and a lack of fiber—than a weight problem.

What is the most fundamental difference between plants and animals?Green plants can produce their own food. They use substances in the environment. This process is known as photosynthesis. In contrast, all animals including humans, get their food either directly from plants or indirectly by eating animals which have eaten plants. So animals take in a wider range of foods than plants. Plants are generally stationary. They do not have the power of locomotion. Animals, on the other hand, can usually move around. Therefore, plants appear to be less sensitive than animals although they respond in some ways to light, heat, physical contact and other stimuli. In external appearance plants are usually green. They grow in a branching fashion at their extremities. Their growth continues throughout their lives. Animals, however, are very diverse in their external appearance. Their growth pattern is not limited to their extremities but is evenly distributed. Growth occurs in a definite period of time. The most basic difference between plants and animals is in the unit of structures and functions: i. e. , the cell. Plant cells have a wall which is nonliving in chemical nature whereas animal cells do not have this characteristic. Plants produce their own food but animals don’t. Plant cells have a wall which is non-living in chemical nature but animal cells haven’ t. Plants are green but animals aren’ t. Plants can’t move but animals can.

The big identity-theft bust last week was just a taste of what’s to come. Here’s how to protect your good name. HERE’S THE SCARY THING about the identity-theft ring that the Feds cracked last week: there was nothing any of its estimated 40,000 victims could have done to prevent it from happening. This was an inside job, according to court documents. A lowly help-desk worker at Teledata Communications, a software firm that helps banks access credit reports online, allegedly stole passwords for those reports and sold them to a group of 20 thieves at $ 60 a pop. That allowed the gang to cherry-pick consumers with good credit and apply for all kinds of accounts in their names. Cost to the victims: $3 million and rising. Even scarier is that this, the largest identity-theft bust to date, is just a drop in the bit bucket. More than 700,000 Americans have their credit hijacked every year. It’s one of crime’s biggest growth markets. A name, address and Social Security number—which can often be found on the Web—is all anybody needs to apply for a bogus line of credit. Credit companies make $1.3 trillion annually and lose less than 2% of that revenue to fraud, so there’s little financial incentive for them to make the application process more secure. As it stands now, it’s up to you to protect your identity. The good news is that there are plenty of steps you can take. Most credit thieves are opportunists, not well-organized gangs. A lot of them go Dumpster diving for those millions of “pre-approved“ credit-card mailings that go out every day. Others steal wallets and return them, taking only a Social Security number. Shredding your junk mail and leaving your Social Security card at home can save a lot of agony later. But the most effective way to keep your identity clean is to check your credit reports once or twice a year. There are three major credit-report outfits; Equifax(at equifax. com), Trans-Union(www. transunion. com)and Experian(experian. com). All allow you to order reports online, which is a lot better than wading through voice-mail hell on their 800 lines. Of the three, I found Trans-Union’s website to be the cheapest and most comprehensive—laying out state-by-state prices, rights and tips for consumers in easy-to-read fashion. If you’re lucky enough to live in Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey or Vermont, you are entitled to one free report a year by law. Otherwise it’s going to cost $8 to $ 14 each time. Avoid services that offer to monitor your reports year-round for about $ 70; that’s $ 10 more than the going rate among thieves. If you think you’re a victim of identity theft, you can ask for fraud alerts to be put on file at each of the three credit-report companies. You can also download a theft-report form at www. consumer. gov/idtheft, which, along with a local police report, should help when irate creditors come knocking. Just don’t expect justice. That audacious help-desk worker was one of the fewer than 2% of identity thieves who are ever caught.

What must you make sure when you load the cassette?M: Um, Mary, could you tell me how to use this cassette recorder, please? W: OK. Well, first of all, you have to plug it into the power supply. M;Yeah,I see. W: Once you’ve done that...you don’t need to switch anything on. M: How do you open it? W: Well, you have to press the little button that says eject. M: This one here? W: That’s right. That’s it. M: Like that? W: Yeah. After you’ve done that,then you load the cassette. Make sure that you’ve got the right side of the tape facing you and not away from you. Then you should close the cassette flap. M: Like that? W: Yeah, that’s right. And then you must remember to press the play button to set it to work. M: That one on the right? W: Yes, that’s it. M: Like that? W;Right! It won’t go down unless you push hard. M: I know. Those old models are all like that. W: That’s just what you must do. M: Yes. But how about this red thing here? W;That’s the record switch. Be careful not to press it when you’re playing, because if you do you’ll wipe off whatever is on the tape. M: Oh,I see. So that’s the record and this is the rewind. W;Exactly. If you want to rewind,then you have to press it down. M: And then stop it here. W;That’s it. You’ve got it. That you open the recorder. That you get the power supply. That you get the right side of the tape facing you. That you switch the recorder on.

What hasn’ t Devorah Day involved in?M: How did you get started in jazz singing? W: It was a zigzag route. I went from country music to singing madrigals, to singing folk, to opera, and then to jazz. People kept offering me different projects, saying ’ Well, I know that you have never done this before, so maybe you might not want to?’ and I would say,’ Oh, sure. I’ 11 try it. ’ So I went from form to form, to form and that is how. M: Are you going to keep moving around or are you stuck on jazz singing now? W: I think jazz is where I’ m going to stay. I feel the most comfortable here, I have the most freedom here. M: When were the sessions for this album originally done? W: The session was done in Sept. of 1998 we mixed it down the second week of October, and nothing was done with it. I was busy for five and half years in a life of death battle with a portion of the government’ a legal battle’ that I had. So I had to drop everything to deal with it. M: Does anyone in your family have a musical background? W: I was brought up in a family that had an awful lot of musicians, and none of them took anything I was doing very seriously at all. I was actually the family joke. I just did this music to get it out of my system. I did not expect anyone to pay much attention to it. I just knew that I had to say it. M: Thanks for talking with us, best wishes for your career. W: Thank you! Madrigals. Folk. Rock. Opera.

【T1】In a family where the roles of men and women are not sharply separated and where many household tasks are shared to a greater or lesser extent, notions of male superiority are hard to maintain. The pattern of sharing in tasks and in decisions makes for equality, and this in turn leads to further sharing. 【T2】In such a home, the growing boy and girl learn to accept that equality more easily than their parents did and to prepare more fully for participation in a world characterized by cooperation rather than by the “battle of the sexes“. If the process goes too far and man’s role is not regarded as important as before—and that has happened in some cases—we are as badly off as before, only in reverse. We should reassess the role of the man in the American family. We are getting a little tired of “Momism“ , but we don’t want to change it into a“Neo-papism“. What we need is the recognition that bringing up children involves a partnership of equality. 【T3】There are signs that psychologists and specialists on the family are becoming more aware of the part men play and that they have decided that women should not receive all the credit, nor all the blame. We have almost given up saying that a woman’s place is at home. 【T4】We are beginning, however, to study a man’s place in the home and to insist that he does have a place in it. Nor is that place irrelevant to the healthy development of the child. 【T5】The family is a cooperative enterprise for which it is difficult to lay down rules, because each family member needs to work out its own ways for solving its own problems. Excessive authoritarianism has unhappy consequences, whether it wears skirts or trousers, and the ideal of equal rights and equal responsibilities is relevant not only to a healthy democracy, but also to a healthy family.

Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

What does “fertile“ in the second paragraph mean?

The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because______.

What does the example of India illustrate?

What used to be the danger in being a man according to the first paragraph?