What have the European countries agreed on at the Brussels Summit?You will hear 3 conversations or talks and you must answer the questions by choosing A, B, C or D. You will hear each recording only once. Questions 11 to 13 are based on an interview with the EU’s environment commissioner, Mr. Stavros Dimas. You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 11 to 13. W: Mr. Dimas, at the Brussels summit the Europeans agreed, to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and focus more on renewable energy sources. The participants gave themselves a hearty pat on the pack for this achievement. Has the world’s climate now been saved? M: We have completed important steps on the road to limiting global warming as much as possible. But of course it will take many other measures as well. W: Environmental groups are calling it window dressing. M: It’s obvious that what we have done just now won’t be enough. But let’s take a look at the facts. We intend to satisfy 10 percent of our fuel consumption needs from renewable raw materials in the future. We are placing our bets on renewable energy sources, and we have committed to a 20 percent reduction (relative to 1990 levels) in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. If we compare this to what seemed possible two years ago, these are revolutionary advances ... W: ... that exist only on paper so far. The EU has made many resolutions in the past that have been quickly forgotten. M: No one will be able to ignore these binding resolutions that easily. We will certainly encounter setbacks along the way, but the train is already in motion, and all 27 EU countries are on board. The EU Commission will now begin directly transforming the agreements into law. W; Experts predict that the EU will not even attain the meager targets of the 1997 Kyoto protocol. M: Some member states, like Germany, will make it. Others will not. Those are the ones we have to work on. More has to be done, and this is where I place a great deal of faith in the presiding president of the European Council, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To find more energy resources. To substitute renewable energy for fossil fuels. To reverse the trend of global warming.

Cultural globalization, for many, means Westernization or Americanization. An important distinction concerning today’s cultural globalization is that it is largely driven by corporations, rather than countries. As such, one of the central concerns is the spread of consumer culture. For many critics, non-Western culture and practices are at risk of being overwhelmed by homogenizing “ Mc-Donaldization“. Skeptics contend that the erosion of culture has been overstated. They point to evidence that local culture remains strong. Cultural interactions have taken place for centuries so to argue non-Western cultural are somehow pure is naive. In a sense, the cultural degradation argument dismisses the ability of non-Western people to control their destiny and incorporate those attributes they may find useful. What is more, some argue that national identities are founded on real differences that have continued salience. Other skeptics point to the growth of ethnic and nationalist movements in the post-Cold War world as evidence that these sources of identity remain strong. Intense interaction may make people more cognizant of difference and lead to conflict. Information technology may, in fact, intensify traditional identities. Cultural globalization involves processes of unequal power, which brings traditions and identities into question. Where ethnic and religious groups feel threatened by globalization , there is the potential for conflict. Migration is a significant aspect of globalization that has not only economic but also social and cultural effects. While migration is not unique to the present age, communication and transportation technologies allow migrants a greater opportunity to maintain links with their homelands. More porous borders raise questions about notions of citizenship and identity. While challenges to national identity may come from supranational entities such as the European Union, globalization at the same time may facilitate the triggering of more local, particularistic identities. There is some disagreement on where this is all going and whether globalization could come to an end. Clearly the openness and interconnectedness that emerged in the late 1800s was not permanent. The 1930s saw the major powers carving out spheres of influence and blocking out others. From a broader historical perspective, however, that may have been a hiccup. Whereas before the end of the American Civil War it took months to go by ship from one coast of the US to the other. The transcontinental railroad cut the trip to a week by 1870 and today it is a matter of a few hours by plane. There was some discussion after 9.11 whether the need for security would bring an end to the era of globalization. In some areas, such as educational exchanges, there has been an impact. Overall, however, the flow of goods, people, and messages of peace and war continue unabated some five years later. In many respects, therefore, globalization is not going away. The challenge for humanity, then, is to direct these forces in peaceful and beneficial ways.

On November 5th 1605, a band of English Catholic hotheads planned to detonate 36 barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords. The scheme would have destroyed the nation by wiping out MPs, lords, bishops and the king. For sheer terrorist ambition, the plot remains unmatched. So why has this plan, and the capture, torture and public execution of the leading conspirators, been celebrated in Britain for the past four centuries? “God’s Secret Agents“ suggests one reason why: anti-Catholic paranoia. The plot was the “popish“ outrage that Protestants had expected and warned about for half a century. Such fears had resulted in fines, strict laws and show trials of Jesuit missionaries. It is as though Anglicanism—a vague and ambiguous creed, even in its early days—required an enemy against which to test itself. Before 1605, the threat from Catholicism was mostly imaginary. Attempts to re-establish the old religion in England were doomed to failure. Missionaries concentrated on the nobility, reckoning they would in turn convert the rest of the population, but this was to misunderstand English society. Worst, the missionaries received little support from Rome or Spain. The Gunpowder Plot was a desperate last heave by men who had already failed. It was also a gift to the authorities. The plot had been so wide-ranging that every pillar of the state—monarchy, church, nobility and Parliament—could interpret its survival as an act of divine providence. All had an interest in keeping the memory of Catholic perfidy alive. As one preacher put it in 1636, the day was “never to be cancelled out of the calendar, but to be written in every man’s heart for ever. “ But then, something rather odd happened. What began as a celebration of the status quo became the opposite. By the 18th century, Bonfire Night had become an excuse for violence and barely disguised extortion. Respectable citizens who tried to suppress it were burned in effigy for their pains, alongside the pope—a tradition that survives in the Sussex town of Lewes. This peculiar transformation is the subject of Gunpowder Plots, a book of essays. It is a mixed bag, but two stand out: an elegant account of the evolution of Bonfire Night by David Cressy, a historian, and a nerdy and fascinating treatise on gunpowder and fireworks by Brenda Buchanan. The latter contains an intriguing detail. A receipt dated November 1605 from the Board of Ordnance mentions that the gunpowder recovered from Parliament was “decaied“—i. e. moist. Perhaps the plot that Britons have celebrated all this time would have been rather a damp firework.

Who is Jacques1 Lalonde?Questions 14 to 16 are based on a passage on plastic tax. You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 14 to 16. In the annals of environmental calamities, it doesn’t quite have the same ring as a Hummer. According to environmentalists, though, the humble and handy plastic bag wreaks havoc: plastic bags are made from oil, and they choke both landfills and wildlife. Now, thanks to the efforts of Jacques Lalonde， a Montreal translator and self-described “ecological volunteer”, Quebecers may soon have to shoulder the environmental impact with their wallets. In 2005，Lalonde saw PQ MNA Stephan Tremblay on television trumpeting the benefits of a tax on each of the estimated 1.5 billion plastic bags used by Quebecers every year. Inspired, he started an online petition; five months later, he’d collected some 50,000 signatures urging the government to consider the program. Liberal Environment Minister Line Beauchamp has indicated she is weighing the idea. “We aren’t getting the results we want with reusable bags,” said Lalonde of the suddenly chic canvas totes on sale at most grocery chains— of which some four million have been sold in the province. “We have to go for more coercive measures.” Under his plan, plastic bags would cost 20 cents each. “It would get immediate results,” he says, pointing at a similar project in Ireland that saw a 90 percent reduction in plastic bag use. Several US cities are looking to tax the polyethylene menace. The issue and Lalonde’s petition has the plastic industry in a tizzy. “No one will refuse to sign something about the environment, says former Canadian Plastic Industry Association president Denis Cloutier. Nevertheless, “the answer is recycling the bags, and the challenge is to get people bringing them back to the store.” For now, the tax remains under review, but should the province follow the Irish model, Quebecers will have to get used to paying for plastic. Since 2002，Ireland has collected 50 million euros in levies. Needless to say, there are no plans to repeal the program. A volunteer in Liberal Environment. A Canadian translator. An Internet programmer. A junior employee for Minister.

How can foreign-trained doctors get approved from the Educational Commission to complete a residency in the US?Questions 17 to 20 are based on the following talk on how to become a doctor in the US. You now have 20 seconds to read Questions 17 to 20. Today we talk about how a foreign doctor can become an American doctor. One way is to complete a medical residency in the United States. A residency is a period of hospital training for medical school graduates. To be accepted, foreign-trained doctors need approval from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. The process involves passing several tests. After that, foreign doctors can receive a visa to stay in the United States, at least for the training period. Practicing medicine in the United States also involves other steps. But the first thing that foreign-trained doctors have to do is make sure they attended a recognized medical school. It has to be listed in the FAIMER International Medical Education Directory. FAIMER is the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research. If their school is not listed, then foreign-trained doctors cannot be approved for a residency. One solution is to go back to medical school—an American medical school. 125 schools in the United States belong to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The group says more than 1,100 foreign citizens applied for the current school year. One-fourth of them were admitted last fall. Almost all medical schools in the United States require applicants to report scores from the Medical College Admission Test. Future doctors in the United States traditionally complete four years of medical school after undergraduate school. Then, as residents, they treat patients under the supervision of experienced doctors. A residency is generally between three and seven years. The first year is called an internship. The Association of American Medical Colleges publishes a book called Medical School Admissions Requirements. The newest one is for 2008—2009. The guide has details about every school as well as information for foreign students. The book costs twenty-five dollars and can be ordered through the association’s website. By reporting to the Educational Commission. By passing several tests. By getting a visa. By getting hospital training.

You will hear an interview with Dr. John Smith, a senior lecturer of astronomy at Westminster University, on the human history of recording time. As you listen, answer the questions or complete the notes in your test booklet for Questions 21 to 30 by writing no more than three words in the space provided on the right. You will hear the interview twice. You now have 1 minute to read Questions 21 to 30. [*]You will hear an interview with Dr. John Smith, a senior lecturer of astronomy at Westminster University, on the human history of recording time. As you listen，answer the questions or complete the notes in your test booklet for Questions 21 to 30 by writing not more than three words in the space provided on the right. You will hear the interview twice. You now have 1 minute to read Questions 21 to 30. W: Dr. Smith, How did early humans start to note, or record the passing of time? M: Well, this is a long story. No one knows what time itself is. But we can notice its passing in a number of ways. In early human history, the only changes that seemed to repeat themselves evenly were the movements of objects in the sky. The most easily seen result of these movements was the difference between light and darkness. The sun rises in the eastern sky, producing light. It moves across the sky and sinks in the west, causing darkness. The periods of light and darkness it created were the first accepted periods of time. We have named each period of light and darkness——one day. People saw the sun rise higher in the sky during the summer than in winter. They counted the days that passed from the sun’s highest position until it returned to that position. They counted 365 days. We now know that is the time Earth takes to move once around the sun. We call this period of time a year. W: I am sure the moon was also very important to our ancestors. M: Yes, of course. Early humans also developed a way to use the changing faces of the moon to tell the time. The moon was “full” when its face was bright and round. The early humans counted the number of times the sun appeared between full moons. They learned that this number always remained the same— about 29 suns. 29 suns equaled one moon. We now know this period of time as one month. As early humans learned to plant seeds and grow crops, they had to know when the seasons would change. So, they developed calendars. No one knows when the first calendar was developed. But it seems possible that it was based on moons, or lunar months. The divisions of time we use today were developed in ancient Babylonia 4000 years ago. Babylonian astronomers believed the sun moved around the Earth every 365 days. They divided the trip into twelve equal parts, or months. Each month was thirty days. Then, they divided each day into 24 equal parts, or hours. They divided each hour into sixty minutes, and each minute into 60 seconds. Humans have used many devices to measure time. The sundial was one of the earliest and simplest. A sundial measures the movement of the sun across the sky each day. It has a stick or other object that rises above a flat surface. The stick, blocking sunlight, creates a shadow. As the sun moves，so does the shadow of the stick across the flat surface. Marks on the surface show the passing of hours, and perhaps, minutes. W: But the sundial works well only when the sun is shining. So, what are the other ways to measure the passing of time? M; Of course. One device is the hourglass. It uses a thin stream of falling sand to measure time. The hourglass is shaped like the number eight wide at the top and bottom, but very thin in the middle. In a true “hour” glass，it takes exactly one hour for all the sand to drop from the top to the bottom through a very small opening in the middle. When the hourglass is turned with the upside down, it begins to mark the passing of another hour. By the 18th century, people had developed mechanical clocks and watches. And today, many of our clocks and watches are electronic. So, we have devices to mark the passing of time. But what time is it now? Clocks in different parts of the world do not show the same time at the same time. This is because time on Earth is set by the sun’s position in the sky above. As international communications and travel increased, it became clear that it would be necessary to establish a common time for all parts of the world. In 1884, an international conference divided the world into 24 time areas, or zones. Each zone represents one hour. The astronomical observatory in Greenwich, England, was chosen as the starting point for the time zones. Twelve zones are west of Greenwich. Twelve are east. The time at Greenwich—as measured by the sun—is called Universal Time. For many years it was called Greenwich Mean Time. W: That brings us to the modem time. Thanks very much, Dr. Smith.

The British philosopher and logician Bertrand Russell once wrote: “Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty—a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture. “ 【R1】______ This seems curious, since it is clear that artists have long found inspiration in mathematics. Greek architects appear to have used a number known as the golden ratio when designing the Parthenon, and Leonardo De Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, which depicts an outstretched figure encompassed by square and a circle, is an attempt to link human beauty with geometry. And in the 20th century, artists have been exposed even more to mathematical ideas, initially because Victorian mathematicians found ways of visualizing formulae and functions in physical form. Now computers have made it possible to visualize even more complex functions such as fractal patterns, and then mathematical objects like the Mandelbrot set have become a household image. 【R2】______ What, then, constitutes beautiful mathematics? This is rarely debated among mathematicians, but there are some generally accepted tests that a piece of work must pass to be deemed beautiful— it must employ a minimal number of assumptions, for example, or give some original and important insight, or throw other work into new perspective. Elegance is perhaps a better term for it. There is a flip side, of course, a piece of mathematics laden with unnecessary assumptions and offering no new insights is deemed ugly. The most famous example of a function that meets all the requirements of beauty is Euler’s formula(e^m+1=0), which links some of the most fundamental concepts in mathematics and draws together two entirely separate branches of the science—geometry, the study of space, and algebra, the study of structure and quantity. I have never seen a physical model of Euler’s formula, but it would be impossible to get a sense of the function’s power and majesty from such a thing. 【R3】______ Yet it need not be like that ten years ago, I began assembling the most beautiful examples of mathematics and exhibiting them as digital prints. My latest exhibition opens next week in London. I imagined the task an intellectual diversion, like hunting for shells on the seashore. Instead, I have found it a profoundly creative experience, and laden with emotional undertones. 【R4】______ Most people’s reaction to all this is fascination. They ask questions and demand explanations and answers. I cannot tell them what to think, but now when I display the images I write a commentary for each exhibit—not an explanation of the mathematics, but a snapshot of the ideas and emotions that the mathematics inspires me. 【R5】______ Which is why I have come to disagree with Russell. The beauty of mathematics can be cold and austere, when viewed in a particular way. But viewed in another, it can be rich and warm, funny and sad, romantic and profound. Just like sculpture—he was right about that. A. But mathematicians are not usually thinking of images, models and sculptures when they talk about beauty. Mathematical beauty is not a visual quality. Judging a piece of mathematics by the way it looks when printed on paper is like judging a book by its typeface—it is an absurd notion. B. For example, it is hard not to be awestruck by the language of symmetry, a branch of mathematics called group theory. Likewise, who could fail to be inspired by the mathematical description of the birth of stars? There are rich veins of inspiration wherever you look. And thus, for me, mathematical photography has become an art. C. It is the equation that everybody knows, but it is just part of a theory. How you go about proving E really does equal mc²? The short answer is, with a great deal of care. A multinational team has just published the most accurate ever test of Einstein’s equation. D. The best way I can describe it is to compare it with photography. Just as an ordinary photograph is a snapshot of natural beauty, an equation is a snapshot of mathematical beauty, or indeed ugliness or some other aesthetic. My “photographs“ are simply mathematical statements that I have chosen. But like conventional images, making the choice can imbue them with emotion. E. Sculpture is widely admired in our societies—there is hardly a public space in our cities that does not boast a sculpture of some sort. But mathematical beauty is barely recognized beyond the confines of academia, and it is never celebrated. F. So why has mathematical beauty failed to make a cultural impact? One reason could be that this spectrum of aesthetics, with beauty at one end and ugliness at the other, sounds horribly one-dimensional. And having rules for mathematical beauty feels, as Russell put it, cold and austere: this is beauty devoid of emotion, profoundly different to that which we experience and admire in the physical world.

Answer Questions 71 to 80 by referring to the briefs on four famous castles in Wales, Britain on the following page. Answer each question by choosing A, B, C or D and mark it on ANSWER SHEET 1. Note: When more than one answer is required, these may be given in any order. Some choices may be required more than once. A = Beaumaris Castle B = Conwy Castle C = Harlech Castle D = Penrhyn Castle Which castle(s)... [*] A Beaumaris Castle The king’s military architect, the brilliant James of St George, brought all his experience and inspiration to bear when building this castle, the biggest and most ambitious venture he ever undertook. In pure architectural terms, Beaumaris is the most technically perfect castle in Britain. Its ingenious and perfectly symmetrical concentric “walls within walls“ design, involving no less than four successive lines of fortifications, was state of the art for the late 13th century. The stronghold stands at one end of Castle Street, inextricably linked with the history of the town. This was the “beau mareys“(fair marsh)that Edward chose for a castle and garrison town. From the outside, Beaumaris appears almost handsome. It does not rear up menacingly like other fortresses but sits amid a scenic setting overlooking mountains and the sea, partially surrounded by a water-filled moat. The “gate next-the-sea“ entrance protected the tidal dock which allowed supply ships to sail right up to the castle. Beaumaris is endlessly fascinating. There is so much to see here—the 14 separate obstacles that any attacker would have to overcome, the hundreds of cleverly sited arrow-slits, and the deadly use of “murder holes“ to defend entrances. B Conwy Castle A distinguished historian wrote of Conwy: “ Taken as a whole, Conwy is incomparably the most magnificent of Edward I’s Welsh fortresses. “ The gritty, dark-stone fortress has the rare ability to evoke an authentic medieval atmosphere. The first time that visitors catch sight of the castle, commanding a rock above the Conwy estuary and demanding as much attention as the dramatic Snowdonia Mountain behind it, they know that they are in the presence of an historic site which still casts a powerful spell. Constructed by the English monarch between 1283 and 1287 as one of the key fortresses in his “iron ring“ of castles to contain the Welsh, Conwy was built to prompt such a humbling reaction. There are no concentric “walls-within-walls“ here, because they were not needed. Conwy’s massive military strength springs from the rock on which it stands and seems to grow naturally. Soaring curtain walls and eight huge round towers give the castle an intimidating presence undimmed by the passage of time. Conwy is the classic walled town. Its circuit of walls, over one and a quarter kilometers long and guarded by no fewer than 21 towers and three double-towered gateways, is one of the finest in the world. C Harlech Castle Spectacularly-sited Harlech Castle seems to grow naturally from the rock on which it is perched. Like an all-seeing sentinel, it gazes out across land and sea, keeping watchful eye over Snowdonia Mountain. The English monarch Edward I built Harlech in the late 13th century to fulfill this very role. It was one of the most formidable of his “iron ring“ of fortresses designed to contain the Welsh in their mountain fastness. Ironically, in 1404 it was taken by Welsh leader Owain Glyndwr who proceeded to hold a parliament there. Looking seawards, Harlech’s battlements spring out of a near-vertical cliff-face , while any landward attackers would first have to deal with a massive twin-towered gatehouse. The sea, like Snowdonia, is one of the keys to Harlech’s siting. Seaborne access was crucial in times of siege, and although the waters of Tremadog Bay have receded over the centuries, they may originally have lapped the cliffs beneath the castle. The fortress’s massive inner walls and towers still stand almost to their full height. The views from its lofty battlements are truly panoramic, extending from the dunes at its feet to the purple mass of Snowdonia in the distance. Harlech, a combination of magnificent medieval military architecture and breathtaking location is an unmissable castle, a fact reinforced by its status as a World Heritage Inscribed site. D Penrhyn Castle Built for the wealthy Pennant family on the profits of Welsh slate and Jamaican sugar, Penrhyn Castle is an extravagant example of early 19th century neo-Norman architecture. It was built between 1820 and 1837 of Anglesey limestone, to the designs of Thomas Hopper. His patron, George Hay Dawkins(1764-1840), had taken the additional surname of Pennant on succeeding to the vast estates and fortunes of his cousin Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn(1739-1808). The new castle engulfed another of the same name, built by Lord Penrhyn only 50 years earlier, and at the same time, the remains of the originally medieval manor house. Buried within its walls lie an earlier mock castle and a medieval hall, each a tribute to Penrhyn’s long and fascinating past, with links to the Welsh princes, a pirate and an Archbishop of York. Penrhyn’s architect Thomas Hopper, who also designed much of its furniture, filled the castle with intricate carvings, stained glass and handmade wallpapers. Walk through its rooms and see the one-ton slate bed made for Queen Victoria and a grand staircase that took ten years to build. On its walls hang one of the best art collections in Wales. The castle is surrounded by acres of parkland and wooded walks with beautiful plants.

You have read an article in a newspaper which states that “Children should be paid for doing housework, for this helps them to learn to be economically independent at an early age. “ Write an article for the same newspaper to clarify your own points of view towards this issue. You should use your own ideas, knowledge or experience to generate support for your argument and include an example. You should write no less than 250 words. Write your article on ANSWER SHEET 2.

You will hear a talk on the technique used to model milk in movies. As you listen, answer Questions 1 to 10 by circling TRUE or FALSE. You will hear the conversation only once. You now have 1 minute to read Questions 1 to 10. [*]You will hear a talk on the technique used to model milk in movies. As you listen, answer Questions 1 to 10 by circling TRUE or FALSE, You will hear the talk only once. You now have 1 minute to read Questions 1 to 10. In Shrek, some say the most difficult shot to produce was that of a small glass of milk. By the time Shrek 2 came out in 2004， vastly improved software for rendering milk meant that the guards in the sequel went crazy for the stuff, even going so far as dumping boiling milk on a walking gingerbread man. Milk was previously difficult to model realistically because it is translucent. In the first Shrek, it was modeled as an opaque fluid, which meant the light bounced straight off its surface, making it look like paint. To build a realistic model of milk, in 2001， Henrik Wann Jensen at the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues added reflections from light scattering beneath the milk’s surface. They used a technique that was later used to make Gollum’s skin look eerily realistic in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now, insights gained during this progress are being put to work in the dairy industry, in the name of quality control. To model just how light moves under the surface of a substance, Jensen specifies the substance、ability to scatter, absorb, refract and spread light. He deduces what values each property Should have for a given substance by shining a spot of light onto a sample and measuring how the light intensity fades from the centre of the spot. Software then uses those properties to create a realistic model of the light moving and scattering beneath the surface. Now Flemming Moller, a researcher at Danish food-ingredient company Danisco, is borrowing Jensen’s technique to help determine particle sizes in drinking yogurt and to measure the size of air bubbles and ice crystals in ice cream—important for quality control and standardization. Like Jensen, he shines a spot of laser light on the yogurt or ice cream. As he has already correlated how the resulting pattern varies with particle and air bubble size, he can determine them from the shape of the spot. This allows Moller to test the products’ quality without having to sample the food invasively, something that always carries a risk of contamination. It also removes the need to dilute the samples, which is necessary for standard light-based tests. The technique is not used routinely at Danisco but Moller hopes it will become widespread. “This work has been an eye-opener,” he says. “I thought that computer graphics were very simple— you sit down and it’s a lot of nerds. I was very surprised that there was a lot of science behind it.” Compliments aside, Jensen has since updated the milk model so that it can be programmed to vary the sub-surface scattering and reflection according to the relative fat and protein composition of the milk. The primary light-scattering particles in skimmed milk are clumps of protein, but whole milk also contains fat globules. Jensen’s model uses this to work out how to vary the way milk looks according to the fat and protein composition. He found that skimmed milk looks bluish, because protein molecules scatter blue light preferentially and whole milk looks white, because fat globules scatter all frequencies equally. He can also reverse the process to determine the fat and protein content of a sample of milk and therefore the type of milk just by shining light on it. He does this by running multiple milk simulations, tweaking the fat and protein content with each run until the optical properties of the simulated milk— and therefore the fat and protein content一match that of the real thing. Moller hopes to use the same technique to more precisely determine particle size in a sample. Jensen believes that such models will have other applications. By measuring how pollutants affect the optical properties of seawater, a model similar to the milk model could be used to monitor and interpret changes in the oceans, he says. And a model of the atmosphere might allow changes in its composition to be tracked.

America—the great “melting pot“—has always been a rich blend of cultural traditions from all over the world. Many American families can trace their histories【C1】______immigrant ancestors who traveled great【C2】______, enduring risk and hardship, to make a home【C3】______ they would be guaranteed basic freedoms. And for many American families, these freedoms came【C4】______a struggle. Their parents and grandparents were deprived of the basic rights we value. American society was founded【C5】______freedom from religious persecution and on tolerance of【C6】______in beliefs and cultural heritage. The differences(or diversity)that come 【C7】______people from all over the world enrich our culture, bringing new ideas and energy. Today, more than【C8】______, children have opportunities to interact with【C9】______of differing ethnicities, religions, and cultures. Classrooms are increasingly【C10】______, reflecting the communities where families live and work. Some parents welcome the fact that we live in an increasingly diverse【C11】______. Others may feel more hesitant, especially if they have not had much exposure【C12】______people different from【C13】______. Many children are way ahead of their【C14】______in terms of exposure to cultural differences. Their circle of friends, their schoolmates, and their athletic teams are much more varied than【C15】______of even a generation ago. Why is it important for parents to【C16】______their children prepare to live, learn, and work in communities that will become even more diverse? Teaching tolerance is important【C17】______just because it is part of our American heritage but【C18】______the person who learns to be open to differences will have more opportunity in education, in business, and in so many【C19】______ways. In【C20】______, your child’s success depends on it. Success in today’s world—and tomorrow’s—depends on being able to understand, appreciate, and work with others.

Paolo Fril, chairman and scientific officer of GeneDupe, based in San Melito, California, is a man with a dream. The dream is a dragon in every home. GeneDupe’s business is biotech pets. Not for Dr. Fril, though, the cloning of dead cats and dogs. He plans a range of entirely new animals—or, rather, of really quite old animals, with the twist that when they did exist, it was only in the imagination. Making a mythical creature real is not easy. But GeneDupe’s team of biologists and computer scientists reckon they are equal to the task. Their secret is a new field, which they call “virtual cell biology“. Biology and computing have a lot in common, since both are about processing information—in one case electronic: in the other, biochemical. Virtual cell biology aspires to make a software model of a cell that is accurate in every biochemical detail. That is possible because all animal cells use the same parts list—mitochondria for energy processing, the endoplasmic reticulum for making proteins , Golgi body for protein assembly, and so on. Armed with their virtual cell, GeneDupe’s scientists can customize the result so that it belongs to a particular species, by loading it with a virtual copy of that animal’s genome. Then, if the cell is also loaded with the right virtual molecules, it will behave like a fertilized egg, and start dividing and developing—first into embryo, and ultimately into an adult. Because this “growth“ is going on in a computer, it happens fast. Passing from egg to adult in one of GeneDupe’s enormous Mythmaker computers takes less than a minute. And it is here that Charles Darwin gets a look in. With such a short generation time, GeneDupe’s scientists can add a little evolution to their products. Each computer starts with a search image(dragon, unicorn, griffin, etc), and the genome of the real animal most closely resembling it(a lizard for the dragon, a horse for the unicorn and most taxingly, the spliced genomes of a lion and an eagle for the griffin). The virtual genomes of these real animals are then tweaked by random electronic mutations. When they have matured, the virtual adults most closely resembling the targets are picked and cross-bred, while the others are culled. Using this rapid evolutionary process, GeneDupe’s scientists have arrived at genomes for a range of mythological creatures—-in a computer, at least. The next stage, on which they are just embarking, is to do it for real. This involves synthesizing, with actual DNA, the genetic material that the computer models predict will produce the mythical creatures. The synthetic DNA is then inserted into a cell that has had its natural nucleus removed. The result, Dr. Fril and his commercial backers hope, will be a real live dragon, unicorn or what you have. Dr. Fril is confident about his new idea. Indeed, if he can get the dragon’s respiration correct, he thinks they will set the world on fire.

What is the attitude of the environmentalists towards the EU agreement?

What is the goal to be reached by 2020?