Life Connected With Computer After too long on the Net, even a phone call can be a shock. My boyfriend’ s Liverpudlian accent suddenly becomes indecipherable after the clarity of his words on screen, a secretary’ s tone seems more rejecting than I’ d imagined it would be. Time itself becomes fluid—hours become minutes, and alternately seconds stretch into days. Weekends, once a highlight of my week, are now just two ordinary days. For the last three years, since I stopped working as a producer for Charlie Rose, I have done much of my work as a telecommuter. I submit articles and edit them via E-mail and communicate with colleagues on Internet mailing lists. My boyfriend lives in England, so much of our relationship is computer-mediated. If I desired, I could stay inside for weeks without wanting anything. I can order food, and manage my money, love and work. In fact, at times I have spent as long as three weeks alone at home, going out only to get mail and buy newspapers and groceries. I watched most of the blizzard of 96 on TV. But after a while, life itself begins to feel unreal. I start to feel as though I’ve merged with my machines, taking data in, spitting them back out, just another node on the Net. Others online report the same symptoms. We start to strongly dislike the outside forms of socializing. It’ s like attending an A. A. meeting in a bar with everyone holding a half-sipped drink. We have become the Net opponents’ worst nightmare. What first seemed like a luxury, crawling from bed to computer, not worrying about hair, clothes and face, has become an avoidance, a lack of discipline. And once you start replacing real human contact with cyber-interaction, coming back out of the cave can be quite difficult. At times, I turn on the television and just leave it to chatter in the background, something that I’ d never done previously. The voices of the programs soothe me, but then I’ m jarred by the commercials. I find myself sucked in by soap operas, or compulsively needing to keep up with the latest news and the weather. “Dateline, ’ “Frontline“ , “Nightline“ , CNN, New York 1, every possible angle of every story over and over, even when they are of no possible use to me. Work moves from foreground to background.

The company takes environmental issues into account wherever possible. computation consideration calculation assessment

American young people find the transition into adulthood easy to face. change delivery transfer transfusion

The Only Way Is Up Think of a modern city and the first image that comes to rnind is the skyline. It is full of great buildings, pointing like fingers to heaven. It is true that some cities don’t permit buildings to go above a certain height. But these are cities concerned with the past. The first thing any city does when it wants to tell the world that it has arrived is to build skyscrapers. When people gather together in cities, they create a demand for land. Since cities are places where money is made, that demand can be met. And the best way to make money out of city land is to put as many people as possible in a space that covers the smallest amount of ground. That means building upwards. The technology existed to do this as early as the 1.9th century. But the height of buildings was limited by one important factor. They had to be small enough for people on the top floors to climb stairs. People could not be expected to climb a mountain at the end of their journey to work, or home. Elisha Otis, a US inventor, was the man who brought us the lift—or elevator, as he preferred to call it. However, most of the technology is very old. Lifts work using the same pulley system the Egyptians used to create the Pyramids. What Otis did was attach the system to a steam engine and develop the elevator brake, which stops the lift falling if the cords that hold it up are broken. It was this that did the most to gain public-confidence in the new invention. In fact, he spent a number of years exhibiting lifts at fairgrounds. giving people the chance to try them out before selling the idea to architects and builders. A lift would not be a very good theme park attraction now. Going in a lift is such an everyday thing that it would just be boring. Yet psychologists and others who study human behavior find lifts fascinating. The reason is simple. Scientists have always studied animals in zoos. The nearest they can get to that with humans is in observing them in lifts. “ It breaks all the usual conventions about the bubble of personal space we carry around with us—and you just can’ t choose to move away, “ says workplace psychologist, Gary Fitzgibbon. “ Being trapped in this setting can create different types of tensions, “ he says. Some people are scared of them. Others use them as an opportunity to get close to the boss. Some stand close to the door. Others hide in the corners. Most people try and shrink into the background. But some behave in a way that makes others notice them. There are a few people who just stand in a corner taking notes. Don’ t worry about them. They are probably from a university.

How to Get Along Well With Your Boss 1 Before you argue with your boss, check with the boss’ s secretary to determine his mood. If he ate nails for breakfast, it is not a good idea to ask him for something. Even without the boss’ s secretary, there are keys to timing: don’ t approach the boss when he’ s on deadline, don’ t go in right before lunch, when he is apt to be distracted and rushed, don’ t go in just before or after he has taken a vacation. 2 If you’ re mad, that will only make your boss mad. Calm down first, and don’ t let a particular concern open the floodgates for all your accumulated frustration. The boss will feel that you think negatively about the company and it is hopeless trying to change your mind. Then maybe he will dismiss you. 3 Terrible disputes can result when neither the employer nor the employee knows what is the problem the other wants to discuss. Sometimes the fight will go away when the issues are made clear. The employee has to get his point across clearly in order to make the boss understand it. 4 Your boss has enough on his mind without your adding more. If you can’ t put forward an immediate solution, at least suggest how to approach the problem. People who frequently present problems without solutions to their bosses may soon find they can’ t get past the secretary. 5 To deal effectively with a boss, it’ s important to consider his goals and pressures. If you can put yourself in the position of being a partner to the boss, then he will be naturally more inclined to work with you to achieve your goals. A. Keep Your Voice Low All the Time B. Put Yourself in the Boss’ s Position C. Propose Your Solution D. Don’ t Go In When You Are Angry E. Make the Issue Clear F. Never Give In

Pool Watch 【B1】______The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents says that on average 15 people drown in British pools each year, but many more suffer major injury after getting into difficulties. Now a French company has developed an artificial intelligence system called Poseidon that sounds the alarm when it sees someone in danger of drowning. When a swimmer sinks towards the bottom of the pool, the new system sends an alarm signal to a poolside monitoring station and a lifeguard’s pagerd(携带式电子呼叫机). In trials at a pool in Ancenis, it saved a life within just a few months, says Alistair McQuade, a spokesman for its maker, Poseidon Technologies. 【B2】______AI software analyses the images to work out swimmers’ trajectories(轨迹). To do this reliably , it has to tell the difference between a swimmer and the shadow of someone being cast onto the bottom or side of the pool. “The underwater environment is a very dynamic one, with many shadows and reflections dancing around, “says McQuade. The software does this by “projecting“ a shape in its field of view onto an image of the far wall of the pool. It does the same with an image from another camera viewing the shape from a different angle. If the two projections are in the same position, the shape is identified as a shadow and is ignored.【B3】______ To pick out potential drowning victims, anyone in the water who starts to descend slowly is added to the software’s “pre-alert“ list, says McQuade.【B4】______Poseidon double-checks that the image really is of a swimmer, not a shadow, by seeing whether it obscures the pool’ s floor texture when viewed from overhead. If so, it alerts the lifeguard, showing the swimmer’ s location on a poolside screen. The first full-scale Poseidon system will be officially opened next week at a pool in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.【B5】______Baylis runs a company that installs swimming pools—and he was once an underwater escapologist(擅长从捆扎的绳索中脱身的杂技演员)with a circus. “I say full marks to them if this works and can save lives, “ he says. A. But if they are different, the shape is a swimmer and so the system follows its trajectory. B. One man who is impressed with the idea is Travor Baylis, inventor of the clockwork(时钟机构)radio. C. Swimmers can drown in busy swimming pools when lifeguards fail to notice that they are in trouble. D. Baylis says that any local authority spending ￡30, 000—plus on a Poseidon system ought to be investing similar amounts in teaching children to swim. E. Swimmers who then stay immobile on the pool bottom for 5 seconds or more are considered in danger of drowning. F. Poseidon keeps watch through a network of underwater and overhead video cameras.

Only his relatives knew he had a fatal illness. strange deadly serious unknown

He becomes famous for his coverage of significant events during the war. usage baggage reportage orphanage

When he got out of the manager’ s office, from his facial expression we knew that his proposal must have been turned down. refused accepted adopted denied

Our plan is to allocate one member of staff to handle appointments. assign persuade ask order

The gangster disappears into the crowd. politicians musicians industrialists violent criminals

In order to improve our standard of living, we have to accelerate production. step up decrease stop control

I must have been insane to agree to his idea. reasonable crazy sensible unbelievable

She’ s been deliberately ignoring him all day. sufficiently noticeably intentionally absolutely

Man of Few Words Everyone chases success, but not all of us want to be famous. South African writer John Maxwell Coetzee is【C1】______for keeping to himself. When the 63-year-old man was named the 2003 Nobel Prize winner for literature, reporters were warned that they would find him*’particularly difficult to【C2】______“. Coetzee lives in Australia but spends part of the year teaching at the University of Chicago. He seemed【C3】______by the news that he won the US $1.3 million prize. “It came as a complete surprise. I wasn’ t even aware they were due to make the announcement, “ he said. His【C4】______of privacy led to doubts as to whether Coetzee will attend prize-giving in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10. But despite being described as【C5】______to track down, the critics agree that his writing is easy to get to know. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, to an English-speaking family, Coetzee【C6】______his breakthrough in 1980 with the novel“ Waiting for the Barbarians“. He【C7】______his place among the world’ s leading writers with two Booker prize victories, Britain’ s highest honour for novels. He first【C8】______in 1983 for the Life and Times of Michael K and his second title came in 1999 for Disgrace. A major theme in his work is South Africa’ s former apartheid system, which divided whites from blacks. 【C9】______with the problems of violence, crime and racial division that still exist in the country, his books have enabled ordinary people to understand apartheid【C10】______within. “ I have always been more interested in the past than the future, “he said in a rare interview. ’’The past【C11】______its shadow over the present. I hope I have made one or two people think 【C12】______about whether they want to forget the past completely. “In fact, this purity in his writing seems to be【C13】______in his personal life. Coetzee is a vegetarian, a cyclist rather than a motorist and he doesn’ t drink alcohol. But what he has【C14】______to literature, culture and the people of South Africa is far greater than the things he has given up. “ In looking at weakness and failure in life, “ the Nobel prize judging panel said, “ Coetzee’ s work【C15】______the divine spark in man. “

Einstein’ s Theory of Relativity was so profound that only a few scientists could understand it. deep superior wide narrow

It was a(n)inevitable consequence of the decision. inconsistent proper certain strange

The decoration of the palace amazes the visitors with its gorgeous furniture. ridiculous lovely peculiar magnificent

The police had to restrain the prisoners from escaping. prevent reduce disallow confine

A lamp was suspended from the ceiling. held hooked hidden hung

The phrase “coming back out of the cave“ in the fifth paragraph means______.

What is the author’ s attitude to the computer?

What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

The passage implies that the author and her boyfriend live in______.

Compared to the clear words of her boyfriend on screen, his accent becomes______.