Usually alternating current (AC) transmission suffers lower losses than direct current (DC) , and thus, AC became the industry standard. Some people, however, question that standard because over long distances high-voltage DC lines suffer lower losses than AC. Not only does thatmake them better in their own right, but employing them would allow electricity grids to be restructured in ways that would make wind power more attractive. That would reduce the need for new conventional(and polluting) power stations. Wind power has some problems. You don’ t always get it where you want it and you don’ t always get it when you want it. The question of where the wind is blowing would no longer matter because it is almost always blowing somewhere. If it were windy in Spain but not in Ireland, current would flow in one direction.Dealing with when the wind blows is a subtler issue. For instance, an important part of Dr Schmid’ s continental grid is the branch to Norway. It is not that Norway is a huge consumer. Rather, the country is well supplied with hydroelectric plants. These are one of the few ways that energy from transient sources like the wind can be stored in grid-filling quantities. The power is used to pump water up into the reservoirs that feed the hydroelectric turbines. That way it is on tap when needed. The capacity of Norway’ s reservoirs is so large, according to Dr Schmid, that should the wind drop all over Europe—which does happen on rare occasions—the hydro plants could spring into action and fill in the gap for up to four weeks. Put like this, a Europe-wide grid seems an obvious idea. That it has not yet been built is because AC power lines would lose too much power over such large distances. Hence the renewed interest in DC. Dr Schmid calculates that a DC grid of the sort he envisages would allow wind to supply at least 30% of the power needed in Europe. Moreover, it could do so reliably—and that means wind power could be used for what is known in the jargon as base-load power supply. Though wind power has its opponents, too, its environmental virtues might be enough to swing things in its favour if it were also reliable. Indeed, a group of Norwegian companies have already started building high-voltage DC lines between Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany, though these are intended as much to sell the country’ s power as to accumulate other people’ s. And Airtricity—an Irish wind-power company—plans even more of them. It proposes what it calls a Supergrid. This would link offshore wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish, North and Baltic seas with customers throughout northern Europe.

What does the speaker warn the students against doing?Your assignments this term will be to write two major research papers. One of the most important things about writing a research paper is giving proper credit for your sources of information. Failure to do this is called plagiarism which is formal intellectual dishonesty. Plagiarism is a kind of stealing or at least an unauthorized borrowing of someone else’ s ideas. Sometimes, inexperienced students will plagiarize unintentionally, and then be surprised when the teacher warns the unexpected papers or gives them the failing grade. The best way to avoid unintentionally plagiarizing is to be very carefully gathering your information as you take notes of books and magazine articles about the topic you’ ve selected. Firstly, try to assimilate the information thoroughly: Secondly, write it down in your own words, this is called paraphrasing. If you do a good job of paraphrasing, you will capture the main idea from your source without actually using any phrases from it. Most of your notes should probably be paraphrases from it. However, occasionally, you may find something you wish to quote directly in your research paper. In this case, be sure that you’ll copy the quotation precisely in your notes and enclose it in quotation marks. That way when you’re finalizing your research paper, you’ll be able to remember which of your notes are direct quotes. You can then incorporate proprietarily and give your original author proper credit. Stealing another person’ s ideas. Handing in assignments late. Sharing notes with someone else. Gathering non-relevant materials.

Why are“Clovis people“ believed to first enter North America?In the 1930s, archaeologists discovered spear points in the New Mexico town of Clovis, dated from around 13, 000 years ago. The individuals who made them have since become known as the“Clovis people“ and are believed by many to have been the first people to enter North America. The“ Clovis first “theory proposes that around 14, 000 years ago people traveled across a land bridge that existed between Siberia and Alaska. Once in North America, their journey took them through a corridor that opened up between the ice sheets in Western Canada making them the first to be able to enter the interior of the continent. It’ s an elegant and almost biblical explanation, but more recent fossil finds question the theory. Some researchers believe the first people entered North America much earlier—perhaps as long as 20, 000 -30, 000 years ago. In more recent years, the Pacific coast has been seen as an alternative route of entry—possibly at an earlier date than the Clovis. There is little direct evidence to support this, but fossil evidence from the islands of south-east Alaska tells us that this region, or part of it, was free of ice and may have been a refuge for animals throughout the ice age. If animals such as bears and foxes lived here then why not people? Fossilized human remains have been found on Alaska’ s Prince of Wales Island and much further south on the Channel Islands off California. These are thought to be as old as some of the Clovis finds and it may only be a matter of time before older remains are discovered. If people did travel down the coasts between islands, they must have used boats. Although the coastal route still lacks a lot of hard evidence, the relatively recent discovery of a stone tool off the coast of British Columbia has added support to the idea. Some fossils have been discovered. They were found to have lived in the area known as the refuge during the ice age. Some spear points were discovered. It is in accordance with the biblical explanation.

Police in the popular resort city Virginia Beach recently began operating video surveillance cameras with controversial face recognition technology. Virginia Beach and Tampa in Florida two cities in the United States acquired the technology, which cost them $ 197, 000. “Before we switched it on, we went through an extensive public education process with hearings and the involvement of citizen groups and minority groups, who helped write the policies we are using, “ said deputy police chief Greg Mullen. A citizens’ auditing committee has the right to perform unannounced spot checks on police headquarters to make sure the technology is not being misused. Three of the city’ s 13 cameras are linked full time to the face recognition system, though the others can be activited as needed. The database of wanted people is updated every day. So far, the system has failed to produce a single arrest, though it has generated a few false alarms. It works by analyzing faces based on a series of measurements, such as the distance from the tip of the nose to the chin or the space between the eyes. Critics say it is highly inaccurate and can be easily fooled. Mullen, who sees the system eventually being linked to the databases of other city, state and federal law enforcement agencies to track criminals and suspected terrorists, said, “ The system doesn’ t look at skin color or your hair or your gender. It takes human prejudices out of the equation. “ “ This technology has little or no effect on the crime rate but it does have an effect on people’ s behavior. People feel cowed, “said Bruce Steinhardt, who directs the technology. Despite the fact that tests have shown faces recognition only works in around 30% cases, the ACLU is alarmed that the technology may soon spread to airports. The organization also fears it could potentially be used to monitor individual’ s political activities to harass law-abiding citizens. “This kind of surveillance should be subject to the same procedures as wiretaps. Law enforcement agencies should justify why they need it and it should be tightly limited, otherwise it will soon become a tool of social control, “ said Mihir Kshisagar of the Electronic Information Privacy Center. Nor does such criticism come exclusively from the political left. Lawyer John Whitehead, founder of the conservative Rutherford Institute, wrote in an editorial that the technology threatened the right of each U. S. citizen to participate in society. “After all, that is exactly what constant surveillance is—the ultimate implied threat of coercion, “he wrote.

At our house, nobody gets more mail than Jake: catalogs, coupons, and offers to subscribe to magazines. 【T1】He is also urged to donate to worth causes and take advantage of some pretty incredible credit-card offers. He ignores all of them. What do they expect? He’sa dog. 【T2】It all started when I used Jake’ s name as an assumed name on the Internet, in an attempt to protect what’ s left of my privacy. Before I knew it, junk was pouring in, proving once again that these days every move you make online can be, and often is, carefully watched and recorded by people who don’ t know you from your dog—everyone from ad and insurance agencies to nonprofit groups and even the dreaded telemarketers. And let’ s not forget the more, shall we say, unscrupulous characters. 【T3】We’ve all heard horror stories about people whose identities, in the form of credit card or Social Security numbers, were assumed by crooks. Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes around. Even if you never buy anything online, your privacy can be compromised by Web“ cookies“. A cookie is a small file that a Web site stores on your computer containing information it can use to “recognize“you if you return to that site. Most cookies pose little risk to privacy on their own. The problem comes when others get hold of your cookies. In a highly publicized case earlier this year, DoubleClick Inc planned to cross reference consumer cookie data with information from a marketing database, such as name, address and credit card purchase history. 【T4】Seen as an unethical violation of consumers’ privacy, a lawsuit followed. Doubleclick backed off the plan, for now. In the meantime, other threats to your cyber privacy still exist. Example-. Anyone who knows where to look can buy stolen credit card numbers in chat rooms, and spends up every penny on your card in minutes. 【T5】As new technologies bring out the creativity in crooks, your best bet may be plain old-fashioned vigilance. Keep track of each penny, balance your checkbook and follow up on discrepancies in your statements immediately. However much the world change, it still pays to be your own watchdog.

[*]Woman: Elizabeth Martin speaking. Man: Dr. Martin, my name is Mark Johnson. My roommate, Benjamin Jones, is in your art history class. Uhm, Art History 502? Woman: Yes. Man: Well, he is sick and won’ t be in your class today. He asked me to bring his term paper to your office. Woman: OK. The paper is due by 3 o’ clock. Man: I have a class from 1 to 2. I’ll bring it to your office after my class. Woman: Well, I have a meeting this afternoon. So you can drop it off with the secretary of the art history department. She’ll see that I get it. Man: OK. Oh I almost forgot. I’ m a biology major. But my advisor told me that I need one more humanities course to graduate. I’ ve noticed that you are teaching a course on landscape painters next semester. Could you tell me a little bit about it? Woman: Sure. Well, it’ s a course for non-art majors. We’ll be looking at several different painters and examining their works. We’ll also look the history and politics of the era in which they lived. Man: That sounds interesting. What else is required? Woman: There is no final exam. And there is only one required book. But each student has to give a major presentation about the individual painter at the end of the course. Man: Hmm. It sounds good. Will you be in your office later today? I’ d like to talk to you some more. Woman: Well, my meeting’ s scheduled to last all afternoon. Why don ’ t you stop by tomorrow? Any time in the afternoon. My office is in the fine arts building right next to the library. Man: Thanks. I’ll do that.

You may say that the business of marking books is going to slow down your reading. It probably will. That’ s one of the【C1】______for doing it. Most of us have been taken in by the notion that speed of【C2】______is a measure of our intelligence. There is no such things as the right【C3】______for intelligent reading. Some things should be 【C4】______quickly and effortlessly, and some should be read slowly and even laboriously. The sign of intelligence 【C5】______reading is the ability to read different things differently according to their worth. In the 【C6】______of good books, the point is not to see how many of them can you get through, 【C7】______how many can you get through them—how many you can 【C8】______your own. A few friends are better than a thousand acquaintances. If this be your goal, 【C9】______it should be, you will not be impatient if it takes more time and effort to read a great book than a newspaper 【C10】______. You may have another objection to【C11】______books. You can’t lend them to your friends 【C12】______—nobody else can read them【C13】______being distracted by your notes. What’ s more, you won’t want to lend them because a【C14】______copy is a kind of intellectual diary, and 【C15】______it is almost like giving your mind away. If your friend hopes to read your Shakespeare, or The Federalist Papers, tell him, gently but firmly, to buy a copy. You will lend him your car or your coat—but your books are as much a part of you as your head or your heart.

The core of Greece’ s troubles is too much spending, too little tax-collecting and book-cooking. Spain and Ireland are in trouble even if the percentage of their public debt in gross domestic product is much smaller than that of Germany. Italy, also in the financial markets’ crosshairs, has high public debt but a lower deficit than the eurozone’ s average. The root of these countries’ problems is that their prices and wages have risen much faster than those of other eurozone members. There are two ways to mitigate the pain. First, to adopt temporarily more expansionary fiscal policies for a while. Or, more powerfully, the wider euro area could adopt more expansionary monetary policies for several years. As to the second option, the “inflation fundamentalists“ will have none of it. This elite consisting of central bankers, top economic officials, politicians, academics and journalists insists that it is unacceptable to allow inflation to climb above two percent. Hyper-inflation in Germany in the 1930s and stagflation in industrial countries in the 1970s and 1980s support their view. It’ s true that moderate inflation can creep up to become high inflation. But inflation fundamentalism can also hurt. There is little if any empirical evidence that moderate inflation hurts growth. In most countries, cutting actual wages is politically difficult if not impossible. But, to regain competitiveness and balance thebooks, real wage adjustments are sometimes inevitable. A slightly higher level of inflation allows for this painful adjustment with a lower level of political conflict. On the other hand, ultra-low inflation, in a recession, can easily become deflation. Falling prices encourage people to defer spending, which makes things worse and erodes tax payments, impairing a government’ s ability to pay debt. That in turn increases the debt’ s sizes and costs. In addition, a single-minded focus on inflation makes it easy for policymakers to lose sight of the broader picture-asset prices, growth and employment. Policy can become too tight or too loose—as in the run-up to the crisis in the U. S. when low inflation was seen as a comforting sign that things were in order. In a recession, ultra-low inflation also reduces the effectiveness of monetary policy since interest rates cannot go below zero. The crisis in the euro area highlights the need for a more open-minded discussion of the merits and costs of ultra-low inflation.

Read the following text and write an essay to 1) summarize the main points of the text, 2) make clear your own viewpoint, 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. An invisible border divides those arguing for computers in the classroom on the behalf of students, career prospects and those arguing for computers in the classroom for broader reasons of radical educational reform. There are some good arguments for a technical education given the right kind of student. Many European schools introduce the concept of professional training early in order to make sure children are properly equipped for the professions they want to join. It is, however, presumptuous to insist that there will only be so many jobs for so many scientists, so many businessmen, so many accountants. Besides, this is unlikely to produce the needed number of every kind of professional in a country as large as ours and where the economy is spread over so many states and involves so many international corporations. But, for a small group of students, professional training might be the way to go since well-developed skills, all other factors being equal, can be the difference between having a job and not. Of course, the basics of using any computer these days are very simple. It does not take a lifelong acquaintance to pick up various software programs. If one wanted to become a computer engineer, that is, of course, an entirely different story. Basic computer skills take—at the very longest—a couple of months to learn. In any case, basic computer skills are only complementary to the host of real skills that are necessary to becoming any kind of professional. It should be observed, of course, that no school, vocational or not, is helped by a confusion over its purpose.

[*]W = Reporter M = Jim W: Hello Jim. I’ m from your local newspaper the Daily Post and I’ d like to ask you some questions about the London marathon race that you’ ve just finished. M: That’ s right. What would you like to know? W: Firstly, for the benefit of our readers, exactly how long is the marathon? M: It’ s 26 miles 385 yards, or if you’ d like it in metric it’ s 42, 195 kilometers. W: Thanks. Now how many runners were there altogether? M: More than ever this year.. .there were 16, 417. W: My goodness, that’ s a lot! What position did you finish in the race, Jim? M: Well, I’ m quite pleased with my performance. I came 2, 014th. W: That’ s better than last year, isn’ t it? M: Yes, I finished 3 , 470th then—but it was my first effort. W: By the way, what time did the race start today? M : 9 o’ clock. And the winner finished at 11: 30. W: So he took two and a half hours. That’ s excellent. How long did you take? M: Three and three quarter hours—but I know I can do better. Did you know that the record is 2 hours 10 minutes? W: I didn ’ t know. That’ s fantastic! Do you know how long the slowest runner took? M: No...he hasn’t finished yet!

Who is Barbara going to shop with?(Telephone rings) Tom: 4010625? Barbara: Hello, is that you, Tom? Tom: Hi Barbara. Have you decided where to go tomorrow? Barbara: Yes, that’ s right. I want to go to Camden Town to shop. Would you like to go there with me? Tom: Yes, I’ d love to. That’ s a good market. Tim and Mary are here with me now. They want to go there too. Shall we meet at Camden Town Station? Barbara: OK. How are you going there? Tom: We will go there by bus. It’ s only three stops from my place. Well, we might walk there if the weather is fine. How will you get there? Barbara: I think I’ll have to take the underground. I’ m at Bond Street and I’ll take the Central Line first and get off at Tottenham Court Road. Tom: That’ s it. Take the Central Line and get off at Tottenham Court Road. Then you take the northern Line to Camden Town. It’ s only about four stops. Make sure you get a northbound train though. You take northbound train to Camden Town. OK? Barbara: OK. I think I can find the way. I have an underground map with me now. What time shall we meet tomorrow? Tom: How about ten thirty? Barbara: Well, I think that’ s a bit too late. It might be crowded by that time. Tom: How about one hour earlier? Barbara: Fine. That will be all right. See you tomorrow. Tom. Tim and Mary. Mary and Tom. Tom, Mary and Tim.

[A] Is there still a place for the tiddlers? “ That’ s an explicit yes, “ says Bob Shea of NACUBO, “but do there need to be mergers and acquisitions? That’ s an unequivocal yes as well. “Many small colleges serve niche markets, including a large faith-based one. “Many students wouldn’ t go to college at all or would be lost in a large one, “ says Ms. Brown. [B] Part of the problem, at least for small liberal arts institutions, is that parents and would-be students are questioning the value of the liberal arts. They want a solid return, in the form of a well-paying job, for their four-year investment. There are still an awful lot of small places: about 40% of degree-granting colleges have fewer than 1, 000 students. But enrolment at these institutions has fallen by more than 5% since 2010, while the student population has increased overall. [C]Some tiny colleges rely on donations to save the day. Alumni are concerned about the value of their own degree if the college closes, but donors can grow weary. Marlboro, meanwhile, is using its endowment to offer scholarships to one student from each state in an effort to expand its usual pool from New England and to open up new student pipelines. It saw success straight away. It increased its student population by 6% this academic year, after years of falling enrolment. [D] Visitors stand out at Marlboro College’ s pastoral campus in the woods of Vermont, but not because they are special or even unexpected. With 190 enrolled students and just a few dozen faculty and staff, everyone knows everyone. The student-faculty ratio is five to one, about the lowest in the country. The college administration has worked hard to stay small: the student population has rarely topped 350. But in the years since its founding after the Second World War, Marlboro has often skirted financial ruin. In 1993 it had only a few payrolls left in the bank. It was rescued by a foundation. Today it is looking for ways to save itself and already seeing some success. [E] To attract students, some colleges are reducing their sticker price, but this is not sustainable for colleges without healthy endowments. According to the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) , 49% of independent colleges and universities give discounts, up from 38% a decade ago. [F] Alice Brown, a former head of the Appalachian College Association^ network of tiny colleges in the Appalachian Mountains, thinks more must merge or close. The Berklee College of Music(4, 371 students) and the Boston Conservatory (730 students) merged in June. Small colleges often share accountants or laboratories already. [G] Marlboro is not alone in facing revenue and enrolment pressures. Burlington College (70 students) , also in Vermont, shut its doors over the summer. Sweet Briar, a well-regarded women’ s college in Virginia, nearly closed to its 245 students last year. A last minute bout of fundraising by alumni saved it, for now. Moody’ s, a credit-ratings agency, said in 2015 that the pace of closures and mergers will accelerate and could triple from an average of five per year over the next few years. Dennis Gephardt of Moody’ s says closures and mergers will be concentrated among the smallest colleges. [*]

By saying“make them better in their own right“ (Lines 3 ~4, Paragraph 1) , the author means to______.

By saying“Dealing with when the wind blows is a subtler issue“ (Line 4, Paragraph 2) , the author actually implies that______.

How will consumers think of a DC electricity grid?

Why is Dr Schmid’ s continental grid located in Norway?

Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?