WOMAN: Dad! MAN: Yes? What’s the matter? WOMAN: I’m wondering if I should buy a pair of tennis shoes. I’m going to join the tennis club in school. MAN: Why not? It’s good that you finally play sports. WOMAN: But I’d like to have Adidas. MAN: Adidas? It’s expensive. It’s for the Chicago Bulls! WOMAN: No. All the guys in the school tennis team are wearing Adidas, boys, as well as girls... MAN: But none of us has ever had Adidas and we used to play quite OK. WOMAN: Here, Dad, is an ad about Adidas. Can I read it to you? MAN: Go ahead. WOMAN: Over forty years ago, Adidas gave birth to a new idea in sports shoes. And the people who wear our shoes have been running and winning ever since. In fact, Adidas bas helped them set over 400 world records in track and field alone. MAN: Nonsense! The players have to go through a lot of hard training and practice. It’s nothing to do with the shoes. They may be comfortable, but... WOMAN: You’re right, Dad. The ad goes onto say “You are born to run. And we were born to HELP YOU DO IT BETTER.“ MAN: Hmm. It may be good for running, but you don’t run. WOMAN: Listen. “... Maybe that’s why more and more football, soccer, basketball and tennis,“ see? TENNIS players are turning to Adidas. They know that, whatever their game, they can rely on Adidas workmanship and quality in every product we make. MAN: OK, OK, dear, I know Adidas is good. But how much is a pair of your size? WOMAN: You don’t have to worry about that, Dad. I’ve saved some money since last Christmas. I just want to hear your opinion. MAN: That’s good. I have been wanting to have a pair of Adidas sneakers myself. Questions: 11.What does her father think about Adidas shoes? 12.Which of the following is NOT mentioned by the father? 13.Why does the father object to Joyce’s idea of buying Adidas? 14.What is NOT true about Joyce? They don’t help sports players at all. They don’t live up to their fame. They may be comfortable but are too expensive. They are good for track and field sports but not for ball games.

It is difficult to give a description of【C1】______because they vary from state to state and city to city. Some towns allow the sale of very weak,【C2】______, known as “three-two“ beer. Some places【C3】______of any alcohol on Sundays, not only in bars but also in shops. You may find a locked bar over the alcohol shelves. In many parts of America, you are not allowed to drink alcohol【C4】______. That is, you may not sit in a park or【C5】______drinking beer, and you cannot even take a nice bottle of wine【C6】______. In some public places, people can be seen taking drinks from cans【C7】______. These are not cans of Coca-Cola.【C8】______you are not allowed to drink alcohol while driving, or even【C9】______container in the car. Some bars【C10】______only for beer and wine. Others are also allowed to sell spirits and thus, as Americans say, “【C11】______“. Many bars have a period【C12】______, often longer than an hour, when they sell drinks with prices【C13】______. This is usually around 5p.m. and may be only【C14】______of the week. Legal drinking age varies from state to state but is generally【C15】______. Some states permit【C16】______at 18 but spirits only at 21. Others permit the consumption only of “three-two“ beer from 18 to 21.【C17】______, in some parts of the USA, young people【C18】______, marry, raise children, keep full-time jobs, be tried in courts as adults, join the army and even buy guns but not【C19】______. In some places 18 to 21 year olds are allowed into bars but not allowed to drink. Another even more interesting aspect of American drinking-age laws is that in some places people【C20】______are not even allowed to sell alcohol.It is difficult to give a description of American laws concerning alcohol because they vary from state to state and city to city. Some towns allow the sale of very weak, 3.2 percent alcohol beer known as “three-two“ beer. Some places do not allow the sale of any alcohol on Sundays, not only in bars but also in shops. You may find a locked bar over the alcohol shelves. In many parts of America, you are not allowed to drink alcohol in a public place. That is, you may not sit in a park or walk along a street drinking beer, and you cannot even take a nice bottle of wine on your picnic. In some public places, people can be seen taking drinks from cans wrapped in brown-paper bags. These are not cans of Coca-Cola. And in all states you are not allowed to drink alcohol while driving, or even have an opened alcohol container in the car. Some bars have a license only for beer and wine. Others are also allowed to sell spirits and thus, as Americans say, mixed drinks. Many bars have a period known as “happy hour“, often longer than an hour, when they sell drinks with prices lower than usual. This is usually around 5p.m. and may be only on certain days of the week. Legal drinking age varies from state to state but is generally between 18 to 21. Some states permit the consumption of beer at 18 but spirits only at 21. Others permit the consumption only of “three-two“ beer from 18 to 21. In any case, in some parts of the USA, young people are allowed to vote, marry, raise children, keep full-time jobs, be tried in courts as adults, join the army and even buy guns but not have a glass of beer. In some places 18 to 21 year olds are allowed into bars but not allowed to drink. Another even more interesting aspect of American drinking-age laws is that in some places people below legal drinking age are not even allowed to sell alcohol.

The most effective people are the same whether they are having a conversation with friends or giving a public speech to a large audience and their gesture matches their words.

Our company is active in world market and we employ just over thirty thousand people worldwide. We have production facilities, agents and subsidiaries in all five continents and we are increasing our share of the world’s cosmetics markets. This chart shows last year’s sales when we had a turnover of 3.8 billion dollars. If we look more closely, we can see the largest part of the revenue comes from the Consumer Salon services.

The discovery of the Antarctic not only proved one of the most interesting of all geographical adventures, but created what might be called “the heroic age of Antarctic exploration“. By their tremendous heroism, men such as Shackleton, Scott, and Amundsen, caused a new continent to emerge from the shadows, and yet that heroic age, little more than a century old, is already passing. Modem science and inventions are revolutionizing the techniques of former explorers, and, although still calling for courage and feats of endurance, future journeys into these icy wastes will probably depend on motor vehicles equipped with caterpillar traction rather than on the dogs that earlier discoverers found so invaluable. Few realize that this Antarctic continent is almost equal in size to South America, and an enormous field of work awaits geographers and prospectors. The coasts of this continent remain to be accurately charted, and the mapping of the whole of the interior presents a formidable task to the cartographers who undertake the Work. Once their labours are completed, it will be possible to prospect the vast natural resources which scientists believe will furnish one of the largest treasure hoards of metals and minerals the world has yet known, and almost inexhaustible sources of copper, coal, uranium, and many other ores will become available to man. Such discoveries will usher in an era of practical exploitation of the Antarctic wastes. The polar darkness which hides this continent for the six winter months will be defeated by huge batteries of light, and make possible the establishing of air-fields for the future inter-continental air services by making these areas as light as day, Present flying mutes will be completely changed, for the Antarctic refueling bases will make flights from Australia to South America comparatively easy over the 5,000 miles journey. The climate is not likely to offer an insuperable problem, for the explorer Admiral Byrd has shown that the climate is possible even for men completely untrained for expeditions into those frozen wastes. Some of his party were men who had never seen snow before, and yet he records that they survived the rigours of the Antarctic climate comfortably, so that, provided that the appropriate installations are made, we may assume that human beings from all countries could live there safely. Byrd even affirms that it is probably the most healthy climate in the world, for the intense cold of thousands of years has sterilized this continent, and rendered it absolutely germfree, with the consequences that ordinary and extraordinary sicknesses and diseases from which man suffers in other zones with different climates are here utterly unknown. There exist no problems of conservation and preservation of food supplies, for the later keep indefinitely without any signs of deterioration; it may even be that later generations will come to regard the Antarctic as the natural storehouse for the whole world. Plans are already on foot to set up permanent bases on the shores of this continent, and what so few yearn ago was regarded as a “dead continent“ now promises to be a most active center of human life and endeavour.

Bill told me that he would graduate in June if he could get the chemistry course he needs out of the way. Bill will graduate in June even if he fails in his chemistry course. Bill intends to do graduate work in chemistry after June. Bill won’t graduate in June, so he’s going away. Bill must take the chemistry course before he can graduate in June.

MAN: Have a seat, please, Miss Jenkins. WOMAN: Thank you, sir. MAN: Well, I’d like to start our conversation with some questions. Shall I start? WOMAN: Sure. MAN: Can you type, Miss Jenkins? WOMAN: Yes, I can. MAN: How many words a minute? WOMAN: Sixty. MAN: Hmm. Have you ever learned how to operate office computer? WOMAN: Yes, I have. I worked for two years as a computer operator in a school. MAN: Good. Are you familiar with other modem equipment, the fax machine, printer, and things like that? WOMAN: I don’t think there’s any problem for me to work on these machines You know, sir, I’ve even learned shorthand. MAN: You have? That’s good. And you speak foreign languages, do you? WOMAN: Yes. I speak German and French. MAN: Do you speak Italian? WOMAN: No, I don’t speak Italian. But I speak Chinese. MAN: Really? We have branches in Beijing and Shanghai. WOMAN: You mean I have the job? MAN: Wait, wait, Miss Jenkins. I have to talk to the general manager before a final decision is made. WOMAN: I see. When can I know the result? MAN: In about two weeks, I think. WOMAN: Thank you very much. MAN: Goodbye, Miss Jenkins. WOMAN: Goodbye. Questions: 19.What are the man and woman talking about? 20.Who might be the man in the dialogue? 21.Which of the following is true about Miss Jenkins? 22.What can you infer from the dialogue? A formal talk between the boss and his secretary. An informal talk between two friends. A formal talk between a professor and a student. An interview between the interviewer and the job applicant.

We might marvel at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a person’s knowledge and ability remain as primitive as ever they were. It really is extraordinary that after all these years, educationists have still failed to devise anything more efficient and reliable than examinations. For all the pious claim that examinations test what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite. They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person’s true ability and aptitude. As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the mark of success or failure in our society. Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t feeling very well, or that your mother died. Little things like that don’t count: the exam goes on. No one can give of his best when he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of vicious competition where success and failure are clearly defined and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of “drop-outs“: young people who are written off as utter failures before they have even embarked on a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students? A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself. The examination system does anything but that. What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus, so the student is encouraged to memorize. Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive the teacher of all freedoms. Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques which they despise. The most successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are the best trained in the technique of working under duress. The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiner. Examiners are only human. They get tired and hungry; they make mistakes. Yet they have to mark stacks of hastily scrawled scripts in a limited amount of time. They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates. And their word carries weight. After a judge’s decision you have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner’s. There must surely be many simpler and more effective ways of assessing a person’s true abilities. Is it cynical to suggest that examinations are merely a profitable business for the institutions that mn them? This is what it boils down to in the last analysis. The best comment on the system is this illiterate message recently scrawled on a wall: “I were a teenage drop-out and now I are a teenage millionaire.“

Eight thousand years ago, forests covered more than 23 million square miles, or about 40 percent of Earth’s land surface. Today, almost half of those forests have fallen to the ax, the chain saw, the matchstick, or the bulldozer. A map unveiled in March by the Washington-based World Resources Institute not only shows the locations of former forests, but also assesses the condition of today’s forests worldwide. Institute researchers developed the map with the help of the World Conservation Monitoring Center, the World Wildlife Fund, and 90 forest experts from a variety of universities, government organizations, and environmental groups. Only one-fifth of the remaining forests are still “frontier forests“, defined as a relatively undisturbed natural forests large enough to support all of their native species. Frontier forests offer a number of benefits: They generate and maintain biodiversity, protect watersheds, prevent flooding and soil erosion, and stabilize climate. Many large areas that have traditionally been classified as forest land don’t qualify as “frontier“ because of human influences such as fire suppression and a patchwork of logging. “There’s surprisingly little intact forest left,“ says research associate Dirk Bryant, the principal author of the report that accompanies the new map. In the report, Bryant, Daniel Nielsen, and Laura Tangley divide the world into four groups: 76 countries that have lost all of their frontier forest; 11 nations that are “on the edge“; 28 countries with “not much time“; and only eight—including Canada, Russia, and Brazil—that still have a “great opportunity“ to keep most of their original forest. The United States is among the nations said to be mining out of time: In the lower 48 states, says Bryant, “only 1 percent of the forest that was once there as frontier forest qualifies today.“ Logging poses the biggest single threat to remaining frontier forests. “Our results suggest that 70 percent of frontier forests under threat are threatened by logging,“ says Bryant. The practice of cutting timber also creates roads that cause erosion and open the forest to hunting, mining, firewood gathering, and land clearing for farms. What can protect frontier forests? The researchers recommend combining preservation with sustainable land use practices such as tourism and selective timber extraction. It’s possible to restore frontiers,“ says Bryant, “but the cost and time required to do so would suggest that the smart approach is to husband the remaining frontier forest before it’s gone.

The Panorama is not the first model of New York. In 1845 E. Porter Belden, a savvy local who had written the best city guide of its day, set 150 artists, craftsmen, and sculptors to work on what an advertisement in his guide described as “a perfect facsimile of New York, representing every street, lane, building, shed, park, fence, bee, and every other object in the city.“ This “Great w0rk of art,“ Belden said, distilled “over 200, 000 buildings, including Houses, Stores and Rear-Buildings“ and two and a half million windows and doors into a twenty-by-twenty-four-foot miniature that encompassed the metropolis below Thirty-second Street and parts of Brooklyn and Governors Island, all basking under a nearly fifteen-foot-high Gothic canopy decorated with 0il paintings of “the leading business establishments and places of note in the city.“ Alas, every trace of it has vanished. Of course Belden’s prodigy was far from the first display of model buildings. Since antiquity architects and builders have used miniatures m solve design problems and win support from patrons and public. A recent show at die National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., featured fourteen models created by Renaissance architects, including the six-ton, fifteen-foot-high model of St. Peter’s that Antonio da Sangallo the Younger built for the pope. Beyond their uses as design tools and propaganda, models have always possessed a curious power to enchant and excite. The sculptor Teremy Lebensohn was describing architectural models but could have been characterizing all miniatures when he wrote, “The model offers us a Gulliver’s view of a Lilliputian world, its seduction of scale reinforcing the sense of our powers to control the environment, whether it be unbroken countryside, a city block or the interior of a room.“ A model 0fthe 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition presented to the city in 1889 is unique in that some of the buildings and details are made of brass and that it is still on display in the basement of what was the Liberal Arts Building at the fair in Philadelphia’s Fairmont Park. The San Francisco World’s Fair of 1915 featured another New York City model, 550 feet square and complete with a lighting system that highlighted the city’s major features. City models have also miniaturized Denver, San Diego, and San Francisco, the Denver one built during the 1930s with WPA funding. A re-creation of the city as it appeared in 1860, it includes figures of men, women, and children in period costumes, along with animals and assorted wagons, and is now on display at the Colorado History Museum in Denver. San Diego’s model, in Old Town State Historic Park, was built by Jo Toigo and completed in the 1970s and depicts that city’s Old Town section as it looked a century earlier. Like the Denver model, it includes people, animals and vehicles. A model of San Francisco is in the Environmental Simulation Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Not a realistic model in the true sense of the word, it represents the buildings and land contours of the city and has been used to study patterns of sunlight and shadow and the flower of wind caused by San Francisco’s many hills. The computer’s ability to simulate the same effects has diminished the model’s importance, and its future is uncertain. New materials and techniques have now brought the craft of architectural models to an impressive level. Computer-controlled lasers and photo-etching (the process invented to create the Panorama’s bridges) allow model makers to create presentations pieces of astonishing realism.

Jeff seemed to be no more surprised than I did when we learned that the business trip to Europe would be cancelled for unknown reason. Both Jeff and I were surprised, Neither Jeff nor I was surprised. Jeff was less surprised than I was. Jeff was more surprised than I was.

WOMAN: Dad! MAN: Yes? What’s the matter? WOMAN: I’m wondering if I should buy a pair of tennis shoes. I’m going to join the tennis club in school. MAN: Why not? It’s good that you finally play sports. WOMAN: But I’d like to have Adidas. MAN: Adidas? It’s expensive. It’s for the Chicago Bulls! WOMAN: No. All the guys in the school tennis team are wearing Adidas, boys, as well as girls... MAN: But none of us has ever had Adidas and we used to play quite OK. WOMAN: Here, Dad, is an ad about Adidas. Can I read it to you? MAN: Go ahead. WOMAN: Over forty years ago, Adidas gave birth to a new idea in sports shoes. And the people who wear our shoes have been running and winning ever since. In fact, Adidas bas helped them set over 400 world records in track and field alone. MAN: Nonsense! The players have to go through a lot of hard training and practice. It’s nothing to do with the shoes. They may be comfortable, but... WOMAN: You’re right, Dad. The ad goes onto say “You are born to run. And we were born to HELP YOU DO IT BETTER.“ MAN: Hmm. It may be good for running, but you don’t run. WOMAN: Listen. “... Maybe that’s why more and more football, soccer, basketball and tennis,“ see? TENNIS players are turning to Adidas. They know that, whatever their game, they can rely on Adidas workmanship and quality in every product we make. MAN: OK, OK, dear, I know Adidas is good. But how much is a pair of your size? WOMAN: You don’t have to worry about that, Dad. I’ve saved some money since last Christmas. I just want to hear your opinion. MAN: That’s good. I have been wanting to have a pair of Adidas sneakers myself. Questions: 11.What does her father think about Adidas shoes? 12.Which of the following is NOT mentioned by the father? 13.Why does the father object to Joyce’s idea of buying Adidas? 14.What is NOT true about Joyce? They don’t help sports players at all. They don’t live up to their fame. They may be comfortable but are too expensive. They are good for track and field sports but not for ball games.

People in the U.S., when they attain legal marriage age and meet certain medical requirements, are free to choose their own mates. Once a couple has decided to get married, the man customarily gives the girl a diamond ring. The use of a ring comes from the ancient custom of using a ring to settle an important agreement. When the wedding day is decided upon, the girl sends out wedding announcements or invitations to friends and relatives. They then send wedding gifts to the girl’s home. On the wedding day it is supposed to be bad luck for the bride and groom to see each other before the wedding. Another old custom that many people believe will bring good luck to the marriage is for the bride to wear ’something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue’. Before the wedding day the groom always chooses a “best man“, a good friend to help him and stand beside him during the wedding ceremony. The custom of having a “best man“ is thought to have come from ancient times when a strong friend helped the groom and bride escape from the bride’s father. When a couple marries, the groom gives his bride a wedding ring. Many marriages are double-ring ceremonies—that is, the bride and the groom exchange rings. The wedding ring is customarily a simple plain gold band. The roundness of the ring symbolizes eternity and announces that the couple is united for life. The wedding ring is worn on the third finger of the left hand. People believe that a vein from the third finger runs directly to the heart. Near the end of the reception, which is offered by the bride’s parents, the bride throws her bouquet of flowers to the unwed bridesmaids. The lucky girl who catches it is supposed to be the next in the group to be married. As the bride and groom leave for their honeymoon, the guests all throw confetti on them. This is a symbol of joy and happiness. Questions: 15.Which of the following requirements is essential if a young couple wants to get married? 16.Why shouldn’t the bride and groom see each other before the wedding on the wedding day according to the passage? 17.What does the custom of having a ’best man’ for the groom tell us about an cient times? 18.Why is the wedding ring worn on the third finger of the left hand? To get consent from their parents. To prepare rings for exchange. To be of legal age and to meet certain medical requirements. To send out announcements and invitations.

Since the first reported case of AIDS in the United States in 1981, the disease has spread both numerically and geographically. According to the World Health Organization, 28 million people in the world already carry the AIDS virus. What is most alarming is that the disease is not only found in homosexuals, prostitutes or drug abusers, but also in innocent people, including children. In some countries in Africa. the situation is very serious indeed. The AIDS virus, now known as HIV, passes from mother to child in uterus, during birth. and possibly through breast-feeding. Because of the high HIV-positive rates among pregnant African women, the AIDS epidemic among children will only grow worse, In Kinshasa, Zaire, for example, eight percent of the pregnant women in a prenatal clinic tested HIV-positive, As many as half the children born to HIV-positive mothers will themselves be infected. Right now in some parts of Africa, five percent of new-borns are HIV-positive, and one-half to two-thirds of those will develop AIDS within two years. In Rwanda, for example, 22 percent of AIDS victims are children. And this year 6,000 Zambian children will be treated for AIDS. Thus AIDS endangers not only this generation of Africans, but the next as well. Besides mother-to-child, AIDS is transmitted to innocent victims in another way. A European doctor in Zambia told this story: Robbers broke into the home of a family and, before escaping with the family’s valuables, shot the two daughters. In saving the young women’s lives, doctors gave them blood transfusions. The blood, however, contained the AIDS virus. Now one of the sisters has AIDS and is dying, and the other is HIV-positive. It has been estimated that over 10 percent of Africans who are HIV-positive are believed to have received the virus through infected blood. In Central Africa that could mean over half a million people. AIDS infects health care workers, too. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) not long ago reported three AIDS infections in health workers, whose skin was exposed to the blood of AIDS patients and have become infected with the AIDS virus. They stressed that there is no evidence that the AIDS virus can pass through intact skin or spread by casual contact. While they do not know the exact route of transmission, CDC officials said that in these three cases the virus may have passed through chapped or inflamed areas of unprotected skin. Questions: 23.What is the current situation about AIDS spreading? 24.Which of the following is true about AIDS spreading in Africa, according to the talk? 25.What is the passage mainly about? 26.Which means of AIDS infection is NOT elaborated in the talk? The disease is now spreading from patients to doctors. 10% of Africans are HIV positive. The disease has spread very fast in Africa, The disease is now spreading to more people and more places.

WOMAN: Do-It-Yourself magazine organizes a competition every summer to find the “Handyman of the Year“. The winner this year is Mr. Roy Miller, a Sheffield post man. Well, I’m very impressed by all the work you’ve done on your house, Mr. Miller. How long have you been working on it? MAN: I first became interested in do-it-yourself several years ago. You see, my son Paul is disabled. He’s in a wheelchair and I just had to make alterations to the house. I couldn’t afford m pay workmen to do it. I had to learn to do it myself. WOMAN: Have you had any experience of this kind of work? Did you have any practical skills? MAN: No. I got a few books from the library but they didn’t help very much. Then I decided to go to evening classes so that I could learn basic carpentry and electrics, WOMAN: What sort of changes did you make to the house? MAN: First of all, practical things to help Paul. You never, really realize the problems handicapped people have until it affects your own family. Most government buildings, for example, have steps up to the door. They don’t plan buildings so that disabled people can get in and out. We used to live in a flat, and of course, it was totally unsuitable. Just imagine the problems a disabled person would have in your house. We needed a large house with wide corridors so that Paul could get from one room to another. We didn’t have much money and we had to buy this one. It’s over ninety years old and it was in a very bad state of report. WOMAN: Where did you begin? MAN: The electrics, I completely rewired the house so that Paul could reach all the switches. I had w lower the light switches cad raise the power points. I went on to do the whole house so that Paul could reach things and go where he wanted. WOMAN: What else did you do? MAN: By the time I’d altered everything for Paul, do-it-yourself had become a hobby. I really enjoyed doing things with my hands. Look I even installed smoke-alarms. WOMAN: What was the purpose of that? MAN: I was very worried about fire. You see, Paul can’t move very quickly. I fitted them so that we would have plenty of warning, if there were a fire. I put in a complete burglar-alarm system. It took weeks, The front door opens automatically, and I’m going to put a device on Paul’s wheelchair so that he’ll be able to open and close it when he wants. WOMAN: What are you working on now? MAN: I’ve just finished the kitchen. I’ve designed it so that he can reach everything. Now I’m building an extension so that Paul will have a large room on the ground floor where he can work. WOMAN: There’s a ￡10,000 prize. How are you going to spend it? MAN: I’m hoping to start my own business so that I can convert ordinary houses for disabled people. I think I’ve become an expert on the subject. Questions: 27.Why does Mr. Miller make so many alterations to his house? 28.Which of the following is NOT mentioned? 29.Mr. Miller made lots of changes to his house, which of the following was not one of these changes? 30.What is Mr. Miller going to do with the prize? He likes to do things with his own hands. He wants to make things easier for Paul. His house was in a very bad state when he bought it. He wants to save money.

Reading the papers and looking at television these days, one can easily be persuaded that the human species is on its last legs, still tottering along but only barely making it. In this view, disease is the biggest menace of all. Even when we are not endangering our lives by eating the wrong sorts of food and taking the wrong kinds of exercise, we are placing ourselves in harm’s way by means of the toxins we keep inserting into the environment around us. As if this were not enough, we have fallen into the new habit of thinking our way into illness: ff we take up the wrong kind of personality, we nm the risk of contracting a new disease called stress, followed quickly by coronary occlusion. Or if we just sit tight and try to let the world slip by, here comes cancer, from something we ate, breathed or touched. No wonder we are a nervous lot. The word is out that if we were not surrounded and propped up by platoons of health professionals, we would drop in our tracks. The truth is something different, in my view. There has never been a time in history when human beings in general have been statistically as healthy as the people now living in the industrial societies of the Western world. Our average life expectancy has stretched from 45 years a century ago to today’s figure of around 75. More of us than ever before are living into our 80s and 90s. Dying from disease in childhood and adolescence is no longer the common occurrence that it was 100 years ago, when tuberculosis and other lethal microbial infections were the chief causes of premature death. Today, dying young is a rare and catastrophic occurrence, and when it does happen, it is usually caused by trauma. Medicine must get some of the credit for the remarkable improvement in human health, but not all. The profession of plumbing also had much to do with the change. When sanitary engineering assured the populace of uncontaminated water, the great epidemics of typhoid fever and cholera came to an end. Even before such advances, as early as the 17th century, improvements in agriculture and nutrition had increased people’s resistance to infection. In short we have come a long way--the longest part of that way with common sense, cleanliness and a better standard of living, but a substantial recent distance as well with medicine. We still have an agenda of lethal and incapacitating illnesses to cause us anxiety, but these shouldn’t worry us to death. The diseases that used to kill off most of us early in life have been brought under control. Meanwhile, biomedical research has moved us into the early stage of a totally new era in medicine. So much has recently been learned about fundamental processes at cellular and subcellular levels that there are no longer any disease mechanisms that have the look of impenetrable mysteries. There is a great deal still to be learned about the ailments of our middle years and old age—cancer, heart disease, stroke, dementia, arthritis and the rest. But they no longer seem unapproachable, as they did just ten years ago. Today’s powerful technologies for basic research have made it possible for scientists to investigate almost any question. This does not guarantee a quick answer, of course, or even a correct one; but the ability to make intelligent guesses and then to formulate sharp questions concerning medicine’s hardest problems is something new. It no longer stretches the imagination to see a time ahead when human beings, in industrialized society, can be relatively free of disease for a full run through life. This does not mean that we shall be any happier or be living much longer than we do now. We shall still die most often by wearing out, according to our individual genetic clocks; but we shall not be so humiliated by the chronic illnesses that now make old age itself seem a disease.

American no longer expect public figures, whether in speech or in writing, to command the English language with skill and gift. Nor do they aspire to such command themselves. In his latest book, Doing Our Own Thing. The Degradation of language and Music and why we should like, care, John McWhorter, a linguist and controversialist of mixed liberal and conservative views, sees the triumph of 1960s counter-culture as responsible for the decline of formal English. But the cult of the authentic and the personal, “doing our own thing“, has spelt the death of formal speech, writing, poetry and music. While even the modestly educated sought an elevated tone when they put pen to paper before the 1960s, even the most well regarded writing since then has sought to capture spoken English on the page. Equally, in poetry, the highly personal, performative genre is the only form that could claim real liveliness. In both oral and written English, talking is triumphing over speaking, spontaneity over craft. Illustrated with an entertaining array of examples from both high and low culture, the trend that Mr. McWhorter documents is unmistakable. But it is less clear, to take the question of his subtitle, why we should, like care. As a linguist, he acknowledges that all varieties of human language, including non-standard ones like Black English, can be powerfully expressive-there exists no language or dialect in the world that cannot convey complex ideas. He is not arguing, as many do, that we can no longer think straight because we do not talk proper. Russians have a deep love for their own language and carry large chunks of memorized poetry in their heads, while Italian politicians tend to elaborate speech that would seem old-fashioned to most English-speakers. Mr. McWhorter acknowledges that formal language is not strictly necessary, and proposes no radical education reforms-he is really grieving over the loss of something beautiful more than useful. We now take our English “on paper plates instead of china“. A shame, perhaps, but probably an inevitable one.

Which developed economies will gain most from the emerging economies’ new economic muscle? Conventional wisdom has it that America’s economy is coping much better than Europe’s with competition from emerging economies, thanks to its flexible labor and product markets. According to this view, Europe is having a tough time dealing with globalization, burdened by high minimum wages, extensive job protection, high taxes and generous welfare benefits. But conventional wisdom may have got it wrong. Since 1997 employment in the euro area has grown slightly faster than in America. Over the past decade, European firms have been much more successful than America’s in holding down unit labor costs and thus remaining competitive. And since 2000 the euro area’s share of world export markets has risen slightly to 1770, whereas America’s share has slumped from 14% to 10X. Thus, by many measures of competitiveness, Europe appears to be coping better with the emerging economies than America.

上海合作组织的成功经验，归结到一点，就是坚定不移地倡导和实践互信、互利、平等、协商、尊重多样文明、谋求共同发展的“上海精神”。“上海精神”已植根于各成员国的对外政策、价值观念和行为准则之中，越来越具有普遍的国际意义。纵观当今世界，和平、发展、合作已成为时代潮流，但各种传统和非传统安全威胁因素相互交织。树立互信、互利、平等，协作的新安全观，维护各国的独立、主权和民族尊严，尊重世界多样性，成为各国人民越来越强烈的要求和呼声。