Electronic Mail During the past few years, scientists all over the world have suddenly found themselves productively engaged in task they once spent their lives avoiding—writing, any kind of writing, but particularly letter writing.Encouraged by electronic mail’s surprisingly high speed, convenience and economy, people who never before touched the stuff are.regularly, skillfully, even cheerfully tapping out a great deal of correspondence. Electronic networks, woven into the fabric of scientific communication these days, are the route to colleagues in distant countries, shared data, bulletin boards and electronic journals.Anyone with a personal computer, a modern and the software to link computers over telephone lines can sign on.An estimated five million scientists have done so with more joining every day, most of them communicating through a bundle of interconnected domestic and foreign routes known collectively as the Internet, or net. E-mail is starting to edge out the fax, the telephone, overnight mail, and of course, land mail.It shrinks time and distance between scientific collaborators, in part because it is conveniently asynchronous (异步的) (Writers can type while their colleagues across time zones sleep; their message will be waiting.).If it is not yet speeding discoveries, it is certainly accelerating communication. Jeremy Bernstein, the physicist and science writer, once called E-mail the physicist’s umbilical cord (脐带).Later other people, too, have been discovering its connective virtues.Physicists are using it; college students are using it; everybody is using it; and as a sign that it has come of age, the New Yorker has celebrated its liberating presence with a cartoon—an appreciative dog seated at a keyboard, saying happily, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.“

A peculiarly pointed chin is his most memorable facial characteristic. mark feature trace appearance

The tomato juice left a brown stain on the front of my jacket. track trace spot point

A complete change in policy is needed if relations are ever to improve. strict wide ever radical

They bought the land in order to build a new office block. with a purpose to with a view to with a goal to with a reason to

The manager got angry just because his secretary was ten minutes late. lost his mood lost his temper lost his mind lost his passion

Housewives who do not go out to work often feel they are not working to their full ability. capacity strength length possibility

Professor Taylor’s talk has indicated that science has a very strong influence on the everyday life of non-scientists as well as scientists. motivation perspective impression impact

Schooling and Education It is commonly believed in the United States that school is where people go to get an education.Nevertheless, it has been said that today children interrupt their education to go to school.The distinction between schooling and education implied by this remark is important.Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling.Education knows no bounds.It can take place anywhere, whether in the shower or in the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor.It includes both the formal learning that takes place in schools and the whole universe of informal learning.The agents of education can range from a revered grandparent to the people debating politics on the radio, from a child to a distinguished scientist. Whereas schooling has a certain predictability, education quite often produces surprises.A chance conversation with a stranger may lead a person to discover how little is known of other religions.People are engaged in education from infancy on.Education,then,is a very broad, inclusive term.It is a lifelong process, a process that starts long before the start of school, and one that should be an integral part of one’s entire life.Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized process, whose general pattern varies little from one setting to the next. Throughout a country, children arrive at school at approximately the same time, take assigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do homework, take exams, and so on.The slices of reality that are to be learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the workings of government, have usually been limited by the boundaries of the subject being taught.For example, high school students know that they are not likely to find out in their classes the truth about political problems in their communities or what the newest filmmakers are experimenting with. There are definite conditions surrounding the formalized process of schooling.

Working Mothers Carefully conducted researches that have followed the children of working mothers have not been able to show any long-term problems, compared with children whose mothers stayed at home. My personal【C1】______is that mothers should be allowed to work if they wish. Whether we like it or not,there are a【C2】______of mothers who just have to work. There are those who have invested such a big part of their lives in establishing a career that they cannot【C3】______to see it lost.Then there are many who must work out of pure economic【C4】______. Many mothers are not【C5】______out to be full-time parents. After a few months at home with a much loved infant,they feel trapped and isolated. There are a number of options when it【C6】______to choosing childcare. These range from child minders and nannies through to Granny or the kind lady【C7】______the street.In reality,【C8】______,many parents don’t have any choice; they have to accept anything they can get. Be prepared! Nomatter【C9】______good the childcare may be,some children are going to protest wildly if they are left. This is a【C10】______normal stage of child development. Babies separate well in the first six months, but soon after that they start to get a crush on Mum and close family【C11】______. Make sure that in the first week you allow【C12】______time to help your child settle in. All children are different. Some are independent, while others are more【C13】______to their mothers. Remember that if you want to【C14】______the best for your children, it’s not the quantity of time you spend with them,it’s______the【C15】______that matters.

In previous times, when fresh meat was inadequate, pigeons were kept by many households as a source of food. in short store in short provision in short reserve in short supply

At the meeting both sides exchanged their views on a wide scope of topics they were interested in. extent number collection range

She can speak French and German,let alone English. to say nothing of to speak nothing of to talk nothing of to tell nothing of

The newspaper did not mention the degree of the damage caused by the fire. range level extent quantity

I catch a cold now and then. always occasionally constantly regularly

A.the carelessness of the drivers B.increase in the number of cars stolen C.non-professional thieves D.lack of parking space E.safe parking spots F.professional thieves

Natural Medicines Since earliest days, humans have used some kinds of medicines.We know this because humans have survived.Ancient treatments for injury and disease were successful enough to keep humans from dying out completely. They were successful long before the time of modern medicine.Before the time of doctors with white coats and shiny (发亮的) instruments.Before the time of big hospitals with strange and wonderful equipment. Many parts of the world still do not have university-educated doctors.Nor do they have expensive hospitals.Yet injuries are treated.And diseases are often cured.How? By ancient methods.By medicines that might seem mysterious, even magical (有魔力的).Traditional medicines are neither mysterious nor magical, however. Through the centuries, tribal (部落的) medicine men experimented with plants.They found many useful chemicals in the plants.And scientists believe many of these traditional medicines may provide the cure for some of today’s most serious diseases. Experts say almost 80% of the people in the world use plants for health care. These natural medicines are used not just because people have no other form of treatment. They are used because people trust them. In developed areas, few people think about the source of the medicines they buy in a store. Yet many widely-used medicines are from ancient sources, especially plants.Some experts say more than 25% of modern medicines come, in one way or another, from nature. Scientists have long known that nature is really a chemical factory.All living things contain chemicals that help them survive.So scientists’ interest in traditional medicine is not new.But it has become an urgent concern.This is because the earth’s supply of natural medicines may be dropping rapidly.

Hacking People tend to think of computers as isolated machines, working away all by themselves.Some do—personal computer without an outside link, like someone’s hideaway (隐蔽的) cabin in the woods. But just as most of homes are tied to a community by streets, bus routes and electric lines, computers that exchange intelligence are part of a community—local, national and even global network joined by telephone connections. The computer network is a creation of the electric age, but it is based on old-fashioned trust.It cannot work without trust. A rogue loose (为所欲为的无赖) in a computer system called hacker (黑客) is worse than a thief entering your house.He could go through anyone’s electronic mail or add to, change, distort or delete anything in the information stored in the computer’s memory.He could even take control of the entire system by placing his own instructions in the software that runs it.He could shut the computer down whenever he wished, and no one could stop him. Then he could program the computer to erase any sign of his ever having been there. Hacking, our electronic-age term for computer break-in, is more and more in the news-brainy kids vandalizing university records, even pranking (胡闹) about in supposedly safeguarded systems.To those who understand how computer networks are increasingly regulating life in the late 20th century, these are not laughing matters.A potential for disaster is building; A dissatisfied former insurance-company employee wipes out information from payroll (工资表) files.A student sends out a “virus“ , a secret and destructive command, over a national network.The virus copies itself at lightning speed, jamming the entire network—thousands of academic, commercial and government computer systems.Such disastrous cases have already occurred.Now exists the possibility of terrorism by computer.Spoiling a system responsible for air-traffic control at a busy airport, or knocking out the telephones of a major city, is a relatively easy way to spread panic.Yet neither business nor government has done enough to toughen its defenses against attack.For one thing, such defenses are expensive; for another, they may interrupt communication—the main reason for using computers in the first place.

Please give my best wishes to your family. notice attention regards cares

Shelly had prepared carefully for her biology examination so that she could be sure of passing it on her first endeavor. intention attempt purpose desire

Some people would like to do shopping on Sundays since they expect to pick up wonderful articles in the market. batteries bargains baskets barrels

What will happen to fax, land mail,overnight mail,etc according to the writer?

Why is a dog sitting before a computer keyboard in a cartoon published by the New Yorkers?

What does the sentence “ If it is not yet speeding discoveries, it is certainly accelerating communication“ most probably mean?

How is the Internet or net explained in the passage?

The reasons given below about the popularity of E-mail can be found in the passage except