What is the speaker mainly discussing?As you probably know, log structures are gaining popularity. They are no longer just the simple country homes that we think of as the traditional log cabin. Some upscale homes now incorporate natural round logs in sealing beams and walls. People seem to think that the rounded logs give their homes a cozy warm atmosphere. And even people who want to build a traditional log cabin on their own can buy a kit with precut logs that fit together like pieces of lig-saw puzzle. Before showing you some slides of modern log houses, I’ d like to give you a little historical background on the subject. Log cabins were first built in the late 1600s along the Delaware river valley. The European immigrants who settled there brought centuries’ old traditions of working with logs. And in this heavily wooded area logs were the material in hand. Log cabins were the most popular in the early 1800s with the settlers who were moving west. They provided the answer to the pioneer ’ s need for a sale and sliding boards for windows. But the log buildings that have probably had most influence on modern architects are those of the mountain retreats of wealthy New Yorkers. These country houses which were popular in the early 1900 s typify what’ s known as the Adoroundyx style. Now let’ s look at those slides. Traditional European architecture. Techniques for building log cabins. The history of log structures. How to build a home by yourself.

Some doctors are taking an unusual new approach to communicate better with patients—they are letting【C1】______read the notes that physicians normally share only with each other. After meeting with patients, doctors typically jot 【C2】______notes on a range of topics, from musings about possible diagnoses to observations about 【C3】______a patient is getting along with a spouse. The notes are used to justify the bill, and may be audited. But the main idea is to have a written record【C4】______insights into the patient’ s condition for the next visit or for other doctors to see. A study currently under way, 【C5】______the OpenNotes project, is looking at what happens 【C6】______doctors-notes become available for a patient to read, usually【C7】______electronic medical records. In a report on the early stages of the study, published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers say that inviting patients to review the 【C8】______can improve patients understanding of their own health and get them to stick to their treatment regimens 【C9】______ closely. But researchers also point to possible downsides: Patients may panic if their doctor speculates 【C10】______writing about cancer or heart disease, leading to a flood of follow-up calls and emails. And doctors say they worry that some medical terms can be taken the【C11】______way by patients. For instance, 【C12】______phrase “the patient appears SOB“ 【C13】______ to shortness of breath, not a derogatory designation. And OD is short for oculus dexter, or right eye, 【C14】______for overdose. Medical providers have been stepping up efforts to improve doctor-patient communication, in part 【C15】______studies show it can result in better patient outcomes. The introduction of electronic medical records in recent years has helped to achieve that.

Jim Clark, 55, is the first person ever to start three companies that each grew to be worth more than $ 1 billion—an achievement celebrated in Michael Lewis’ best-selling book, The New New Thing. Clark saw in primitive computer graphics chips the potential for powerful new workstations built by Silicon Graphics. He looked at a simple interface for websites, and turned it into the Netscape Web browser. And he most recently has exploited the potential of the Web for dispensing medical information through a company called Healtheon. Each of these ideas has netted Clark a cool billion or so. Shouldn’ t such a visionary come up with a similarly new way of giving those bucks away? Well, no. Clark has bestowed his money the old-fashioned way—by attaching his name to a building at Stanford University, his alma mater. His $ 150 million grant, establishing the Jim C. Clark Center for Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, reflects his belief that just as computer technology has been driving today’ s economy, biotech will power it over the next 40 years. “Some people say you should give where the need is greatest, “he says, shrugging. “But that’ s the job for government. For me, with only a few billion, ! have more impact targeting a specific priority. “ Clark also wanted to reward Stanford, whose labs he used while engineering the chip for his Silicon Graphics workstations. And this was the sort of philanthropic gesture that would still leave him time to have fun running companies, building yachts and flying helicopters. Clark has a personal insight into why some tech multimillionaires postpone serious charitable giving. At one point in 1998, he watched the value of his Netscape stock erode from $ 2 billion to $ 200 million. And other wealthy techies have seen similar wild swings in their personal fortunes. Explains Clark: “ When you see your net worth drop like that, you think, ’ If this keeps going, I’ m going to have to sell my air-plane. Clark is critical of some of his Silicon Valley brethren who haven’ t been as generous, despite their multibillion-dollar net worth. He hopes his gift will spur other tech billionaires to action, particularly Yahoo founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, who don’ t discuss specifics of any giving they may have done—and who Clark believes have been too frugal. “These guys actually ran the Yahoo servers out of Stanford, “ says Clark. “They should be giving something back. These guys are young, but they’ ve got more money than me. Or take Larry Ellison: he should be doing more. “ But Clark remains optimistic: “ These new-money guys, first they have to get a couple of houses, the plane. At that point they’ll think about: How can I do something more impacting?“

More than 30, 000 drivers and passengers who sit in the front of the vehicles are killed or seriously injured each year. At a speed of only 30 miles per hour it is the same as falling from a third-floor building. Wearing a seat belt saves lives: it reduces your chance of death or serious injury by more than a half. Therefore drivers or front seat passengers over 14 in most vehicles must wear a seat belt. If you do not, you will be fined up to ￡50. It will not be up to the drivers to make sure you wear your belt. But it will be the driver’ s responsibility to make sure that children under 14 do not ride in the front unless they are wearing a seat belt of some kind. However, when you’ re reversing your car, you do not have to wear a seat belt: or when you are making a local delivery or collection using a special vehicle: or if you have a valid medical certificate which excuses you from wearing it. Make sure these circumstances apply to you before you decide not to wear your seat belt. Remember that you may be taken to court for not doing so, and you may be fined if you cannot prove that you have been excused from wearing it.

[*]W: I want to register for this mathematics course. M: I’ m sorry registration has closed. W: Closed? The clerk told me I could come back and register any time during the first week of classes. M: Well, that’ s not possible. The computer’ s official student account has already been sent to the state. And that’ s what our budget is based on. Who told you that anyway? W: Some woman here when I tried to register three weeks ago. She said I just had to pay a late fee. M: She must have been a temporary worker. They don’ t have much training. Why didn’ t you register then? W: She said I couldn’ t until I had my birth certificate. Here it is. M: Your birth certificate? W: Well, I’ m a new part-time student. So she asked for identification. I don’ t drive so I don’ t have a driver’ s license. M: Huh. That’ s no reason to demand a birth certificate. We only need to establish residency: a phone bill with your name and address on it would’ ve been fine. W: Really? Only prove of my address? M: Yes. I’ m afraid she gave you the wrong information. Still you’ll have to wait and take your math’ s class next semester. W: But that’ s unfair. M: Well, I sympathize with your problem , but frankly, I don’ t think there is anything anyone can do for you. You were trapped in the system. If you want to, you can talk to the director. She will help you if she can. W: Great. M: Don’ t get your hopes up.

What are the two seasonings used by most Americans?People from other countries often find American food dull and tasteless. In their countries, they use a variety of seasonings such as garlic, chili powder, oregano, and ginger to flavor their foods. Americans, however , use few spices besides salt, pepper, and ketchup to liven up their lunches and dinners. There are also differences in the kinds of food served at these meals. An American dinner often consists of large portion of meat with a few smaller portions of vegetables. Many foreigners prefer a well-seasoned portion of grains of vegetables and a little meat. Now, however, the American diet is being attacked by nutritionists. They say that we eat more meat, especially fatty beef, than is good for us. They also say that we should eat more grains and vegetables. As a result, Americans are trying foods of other nations. In more and more American cities, people find not only Chinese and Italian restaurants, but also Lebanese , Mexican, Korean, and Japanese restaurants. In the future, such foods as bean-curd, stuffed grape leaves, and tacos will become as American as apple pie. Salt and chili. Oregano and ketchup. Pepper and ketchup. Garlic and salt.

[A] Until summarizing is possible, managers and CEOs who are experts in their various fields won’ t trust a computer that cannot offer a reason for why a creative yet risky move is the best one to make. Researchers have developed a mathematical proof that shows the limits to how creative a computer can be. They found that the fastest modern supercomputer couldn’ t list or explore all the features of an object/thing even if it had started working on the problem way back in the 1950s. Further, computers cannot always fill in the gaps in our lack of understanding for how things work. Our theories will always need actual empirical measurements to fill in the gaps in our understanding. [B] We shouldn’ t concern ourselves, therefore, about whether computers will overtake humans: instead, we should focus on designing a system that allows humans and computers to easily collaborate together so each partner can build upon the other’ s strengths and counter the other’ s weaknesses. Along the way, humans will rise to the challenge of working with a strong machine partner. In some ways, this is already happening. After losing the first three games to AlphaGo, and witnessing the computer system make novel moves that players hadn’ t seen before, Lee Sedol made a highly creative move of his own and ended up winning the game. [C] Despite these advancements, computers still have limitations. For example, even though AlphaGo leaned on deep learning to make moves that increased its chances of winning, its programmers didn’ t know why the system made certain moves. They could peer in to see such things as the values at the many digital“neurons“of a many-layered network, but much of the information was distributed across large ranges of the neural network and was not available to be summarized in a reasoned argument as to why a particular move was chosen. [D] Artificial intelligence is disturbing the workforce, and will continue to do so as its capabilities increase. Inevitably, artificial intelligence will soon be able to do the administrative tasks that consume much of managers’ time faster, better, and at a lower cost. But, when it comes to more complex and creative tasks such as innovation, the question still remains whether AI can do the job better than humans. [E]One can see more of this in the future. As we develop systems and they evolve, humans and computers will continue to challenge each other, and, as a result, both will become more innovative in the process. Further, designing the proper interface for human and computers to collaborate on the same problem will unleash a level of innovativeness that neither partner can achieve on their own. [F]Given these limitations, researchers have proposed a solution: a new human-computer interface (HCI) that allows humans and computers to work together to counter each other’ s weaknesses. Computers, for example, could prevent humans from falling prey to cognitive biases such as functional fixedness, assumption blindness and analogy blindness. And humans could make up the creative deficiencies of computers. In order for this to work, the interface needs to be both human- and computer-friendly. [G]There’ s no doubt that recent advancements in AI have been extraordinary. AlphaGo, a computer program designed to play the ancient board game Go, beat Lee Sedol, one of best players in the world, in a 4-1 landslide. Since Go is far more complex game than chess, AlphaGo’ s victory was a major breakthrough. [*]

Every country with a monetary system of its own has to have some kind of market in which dealers in bills, notes, and other forms of short term credit can buy and sell. The“ money market“is a set of institutions or arrangements for handling what might be called wholesale transactions in money and short term credit. The need for such facilities arises in much the same way that a similar need does in connection with the distribution of any of the products of a diversified economy to their final users at the retail level. If the retailer is to provide reasonably adequate service to his customers, he must have active contacts with others who specialize in making or handling bulk quantities of whatever is his stock in trade. The money market is made up of specialized facilities of exactly this kind. It exists for the purpose of improving the ability of the retailers of financial services—commercial banks, savings institutions, investment houses, lending agencies, and even governments—to do their jobs. It has little if any contact with the individuals or firms who maintain accounts with these various retailers or purchase their securities or borrow from them. The elemental functions of a money market must be performed in any kind of modern economy, even one that is largely planned or socialist, but the arrangements in socialist countries do not ordinarily take the form of a market. Money markets exist in countries that use market processes rather than planned allocations to distribute most of their primary resources among alternative uses. The general distinguishing feature of a money market is that it relies upon open competition among those who are bulk suppliers of funds at any particular time and among those seeking bulk funds, to work out the best practicable distribution of the existing total volume of such funds. In their market transactions, those with bulk supplies of funds or demands for them, rely on groups of intermediaries who act as brokers or dealers. The characteristics of these middlemen, the services they perform, and their relationship to other parts of the financial vary widely from country to country. In many countries there is no single meeting place where the middlemen get together, yet in most countries the contacts among all participants are sufficiently open and free to assure each supplier or user of funds that he will get or pay a price that fairly reflects all of the influences (including his own)that are currently affecting the whole supply and the whole demand. In nearly all cases, moreover , the unifying force of competition is reflected at any given moment in a common price (that is, rate of interest) for similar transactions. Continuous fluctuations in the money market rates of interest result from changes in the pressure of available supplies of funds upon the market and in the pull of current demands upon the market.

[*]Shakespeare was born in 1564. He probably studied Latin in the village school, and his plays show that he had read widely the books in his day, but we know little of his education. He left his hometown in 1586 and in 1592 he was well known in London as an actor and a dramatist. In the next few years he published two poems, and by this time he was also writing some famous poems. His life seems to have lacked the adventure found in the careers of many Elizabethans and indeed in those of some of his early dramatists. He early became a member of one of the leading dramatic companies and he continued a shareholder in its profits until his death. Shakespeare’ s plays were popular both in the theatre and at court, but less than half were printed. It was only late in his career that man began to realize that his successful and interesting dramas were to be a part of the world’ s great literature. Shakespeare did not appear as an actor after 1603, but he continued writing plays for nearly ten years more, when he was retired to his hometown, where he died in 1616.

The consequence of the Gulf War that has called the concerns of the scientists is______.When Iraqi troops blew up hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells at the end of the Gulf War, scientists feared environmental disaster. Would black powder in the smoke from the fires circle the globe and block out the sun? Many said“No way“. Rain would wash the black powder from the atmosphere. But in America, air sampling balloons have detected high concentrations of particles similar to those that were collected in Kuwait. Some oil didn’ t catch fire. It has formed huge lakes in the Kuwaiti desert. They trap insects and birds, and poison a variety of other desert animals and plants. The only good news is that the oil lakes have not affected the underground water resources. So far, the oil has not been absorbed because of the hard sand just below the surface. Nothing, however, stops the oil from evaporating. The resulting poisonous gases are choking nearby residents. Officials are trying to organize a quick cleanup , but they are not sure how to do it. One possibility is to burn the oil. Get those black-powder detectors ready. the threat of poisonous desert animals and plants the exhaustion of energy resources the destruction of oil wells the spread of the black powder from the fires

What is the speaker mainly discussing?As you probably know, log structures are gaining popularity. They are no longer just the simple country homes that we think of as the traditional log cabin. Some upscale homes now incorporate natural round logs in sealing beams and walls. People seem to think that the rounded logs give their homes a cozy warm atmosphere. And even people who want to build a traditional log cabin on their own can buy a kit with precut logs that fit together like pieces of lig-saw puzzle. Before showing you some slides of modern log houses, I’ d like to give you a little historical background on the subject. Log cabins were first built in the late 1600s along the Delaware river valley. The European immigrants who settled there brought centuries’ old traditions of working with logs. And in this heavily wooded area logs were the material in hand. Log cabins were the most popular in the early 1800s with the settlers who were moving west. They provided the answer to the pioneer ’ s need for a sale and sliding boards for windows. But the log buildings that have probably had most influence on modern architects are those of the mountain retreats of wealthy New Yorkers. These country houses which were popular in the early 1900 s typify what’ s known as the Adoroundyx style. Now let’ s look at those slides. Traditional European architecture. Techniques for building log cabins. The history of log structures. How to build a home by yourself.

【T1】Back in my early 20s. when“ sensible“ wasn ’ t part of my weight-loss vocabulary, I tried a diet that was limited to just a few“ healthy“ foods. Three weeks into it, after religiously adhering to a regimen of salads and meats, I had nearly reached my goal of losing 8 pounds. 【T2】But my progress wasn’t as sweet as I expected. Instead of celebrating my emerging figure. I was obsessed with what I couldn’ t eat. Warm, crusty bread. Noodles smothered in red sauce. Chocolates packed with almonds. One night I abandoned the diet and gorged on every food I’ d been missing. Over the next two weeks, I ate more than ever. No surprise that 1 quickly regained 8 pounds, and put on 2 more. 【T3】It sounds like the old diet-binge cycle that we ’ ve all heard about so often. But many weight-loss experts are starting to think about that cycle in a new, more positive way. The answer for long-term weight control, they say, may be just the opposite of restriction: it may simply be eating a greater variety of foods than ever. My brazen (and unfortunate) act of indulgence was the direct effect of a boring, restrictive diet, suggests Kathy Hubbert, coordinator of the EatRight Weight Management program at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. “ If you tell someone they cannot have, say, a piece of cheesecake, then that is the first thing they want to have, “ says Hubbert. “ And then when they eat that piece of cheesecake, they say, ’ Oh, now I’ ve blown it, so I might as well blow it every day. At Tufts University in Boston, researchers studied 71 healthy men and women aged 20 to 80 years who provided detailed reports of everything they ate for six months. 【T4】People who routinely ate a variety of nutrient-dense foods such as vegetables, fruits, and whole grains tended to be lean. The researchers found that when people eat a variety of desirable foods, especially vegetables, they eat fewer nutrient-poor, calorie-dense foods such as cookies, candy, and chips. Overall, they consume fewer calories without consciously restricting their intake. They are also much more likely to consume the full range of vitamins and minerals they need. 【T5】Nutrition studies, including one conducted by scientists at the Department of Agriculture, which analyzed the dietary records of 3, 701 people representing a cross section of the US population, regularly find that individuals who eat different foods from each of the major food groups have the healthiest diets.

Read the following text and write an essay to 1) summarize the main points of the text, 2) make clear your own viewpoints, and 3) justify your stand. In your essay, make full use of the information provided in the text. If you use more than three consecutive words from the text, use quotation marks (“ “). You should write 160 -200 words on the ANSWER SHEET. Plastic, it seems, is no longer fantastic. Even Hollywood, that factory of artifice, is demanding a return to reality when it comes to women’ s bodies. Disney Studio’ s recent casting call for female extras for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film included a surprise announcement: “Must have real breasts. Do not submit if you have implants. “ Surgically enhanced breasts might still be considered sexy or essential by airhead starlets and models, but the new buzzword in America is “authenticity“. That’ s why, for women in the public eye, having fake breasts is looking increasingly less like a career move and more like career suicide. Another indication that fake breasts are going bust is the fact that television shows such as Extreme Makeover and The Swan (TV which promised to nip and tuck ordinary women into goddesses) have been cancelled, while statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery show that the number of breast enlargements in America fell from 365 , 000 to 312, 000 last year. In many surveys, research has shown that the larger the breasts, the more stupid a woman is considered to be. Other women, meanwhile, consider women with large breasts as a threat—so having a surgical enhancement is a lose-lose situation. Chantelle Houghton(from Big Brother remember her?) almost immediately regretted getting implants to boost her chest and admits that they were “taking over her life“ , and she had to resort to physiotherapy to deal with the back pain they caused. Even Sharon Osborne, voted the queen of nip and tuck, said recently: “I wish I’ d never had my breasts done. It’ s like having a waterbed on your chest. I hate them. I want to have the bags taken out—then I’ll put them on eBay. “ The more stories we hear like this the better, because then perhaps young women will realize that large breasts aren’t the assets they think they are—or Hollywood has made them out to be.

According to the speaker, what gives modern log homes their warm atmosphere?

Why did the early settlers use log for building homes?

According to the speaker, why were log cabins especially popular with settlers who moved west?