问答题 Practice 3 　　What today’s global market economy teaches many of us who are involved in political life, is that even when they are inconvenient, the laws of economics, like the laws of physics, cannot be repealed for the convenience of governments. The economic principles for national success are as difficult to implement as they are easy to state. There is a paradox in all our countries at this moment. Just as a new global economy creates more to look forward to than ever before, it also brings more uncertainty and more change to worry about than ever before. That is why the challenge of crafting economic policy in your country as in mine is one of balance. A balance between moving toward necessary objectives and maintaining stability. A balance between responding to global realities and upholding domestic traditions. And a balance between the virtues of competition as the best known motivator and driver of success, and the importance of cohesion and cooperation as sources of strength for our societies. These balances will have to be struck and calibrated every year in every country in this new global economy. These measures are what one might call the intangible infrastructure of a modern market economy.

问答题 Practice 1 　　If chief executives of leading U. S. agri-biotech companies have been suffering from heartburn lately, it isn’t because of anything they’ve been eating. Rather, it’s the unsettling knowledge that long-simmering European anxieties over genetically modified (g. m.) crops, like ocean-hopping viruses, are spreading across the world. 　　Unlike Britons, whose concerns about what they eat have been on the rise ever since “mad cow disease” (even though it had nothing to do with genetic engineering), Americans have seemed indifferent to g.m. foods. If foodmakers can no longer count on the public’s unquestioning acceptance of their products, it’s not just because of activist theatrics and shrill agitprop. With billions of dollars at risk, the biotech industry has begun to fight back, forming corporate alliances and launching a major p. r. effort that includes lobbying, new research efforts to still public fears and TV, radio and newspaper ads. So far, the regulators have approved dozens of genetically modified plants for human consumption. But if public pressure grows, it may be forced to go slower in the future. One possibility: the FDA could begin applying to g.m. foods the powers it already has to regulate food additives. By overreacting to fears fanned by well-fed consumers in the industrialized world, food producers might uproot an industry that could someday provide billions of people in the rest of the world with crops they desperately need.

问答题 Practice 5 　　Dell says the problem is that it dropped prices too much. But deeper, more threatening forces are also now at play. 　　The first is the resurgence of rivals, which have caught up with Dell’s low price model. By driving prices down, Dell has unintentionally cut costs for its rivals too. “The supply chain has become as standardized as the components—the money has been wrung out,” explains an expert. Dell, by not working through retail outlets, is still more efficient, but the cost benefits that this once brought have been whittled away. 　　The second factor hurting Dell is that growth in the computer business is coming from the consumer market and emerging countries rather than the corporate market, in which Dell sells around 85% of its machines. Increasing sales to consumers is difficult for Dell because individuals tend to want to see and touch computers before buying them. They also like to be able to return the machine easily if it breaks. Dell’s lack of retail presence, once ballyhooed as a benefit, has turned into grave disadvantage. 　　A third problem facing Dell is its exclusive use of Intel chips rather than lower-priced ones made by Intel’s sworn rivals, AMD. This arrangement lets Dell buy chips inexpensively and benefit from Intel’s generous co-marketing programmes. But it has started to harm Dell’s sales for higher margin computer servers.

问答题 Practice 3 　　Caesar was right. Thin people need watching. I’ve been watching them for most of my adult life, and I don’t like what I see. When these narrow fellows spring at me, I quiver to my toes. Thin people come in all personalities, most of them menacing. You’ve got your “together” thin person, your mechanical thin person, your condescending thin person, your tsk-tsk thin person, your efficiency-expert thin person. All of them are dangerous. 　　In the first place, thin people aren’t fun. They don’t know how to goof off, at least in the best, fat sense of the word. They’ve always got to be adoing. Give them a coffee break, and they’ll jog around the block. Supply them with a quiet evening at home, and they’ll fix the screen door and lick S&H green stamps. They say things like “there aren’t enough hours in the day.” Fat people never say that. Fat people think the day is too damn long already. 　　Thin people make me tired. They’ve got speedy little metabolisms that cause them to bustle briskly. They’re forever rubbing their bony hands together and eyeing new problems to “tackle.” I like to surround myself with sluggish, inert, easygoing fat people l the kind who believe that if you clean it up today, it’ll just get dirty again tomorrow. (Suzanne Britt Jordan: That Lean And Hungry Look)

问答题 Practice 2 　　The magical thing about this network is not just that it collapses distance and makes everyone your neighbor. It also dramatically increases the number of brilliant minds we can have working together on the same problem and that scales up the rate of innovation to a staggering degree. 　　At the same time, for every person in the world who has access to this technology, five people don’t. That means many creative minds are left out of this discussion—smart people with practical intelligence and relevant experience who don’t have the technology to hone their talents or contribute their ideas to the world. 　　We need as many people as possible to have access to this technology, because these advances are triggering a revolution in what human beings can do for one another. They are making it possible not just for national governments, but for universities, corporations, smaller organizations, and even individuals to see problems, see approaches, and measure the impact of their efforts to address the hunger, poverty, and desperation George Marshall spoke of 60 years ago.

问答题 Practice 4 　　Some critics believe that the very concept of intellectual property is mistaken. Unlike physical property, ideas are non-rivalrous goods that can be used by many people at the same time without making them any less useful. The term “intellectual property” was widely adopted only in the 1960s, as a way to bundle trademarks, copyrights and patents. Those critics argue that today’s rights are too strict and make the sharing of knowledge too expensive. 　　The paradox about intellectual property in IT and telecommunications is that it eases the exchange of technology and acts as a bottleneck for innovation at the same time. The whole system is in a stage of transformation. “Markets require institutions, and institutions take a long time to develop. Today, the institutions for a ‘market for technology’ are not well developed, and it is costly to use this market,” says a specialist. 　　Ideas are to the information age what the physical environment was to the industrial one: the raw material of economic progress. Just as pollution or an irresponsible use of property rights threatens land and climate, so an overly stringent system of intellectual-property rights risks holding back technological progress. Disruptive innovation that threatens the existing order must be encouraged, but the need to protect ideas must not be used as an excuse for greed. Finding the right balance will test the industry, policymakers and the public in the years ahead.

问答题 Practice 4 　　Bluetooth is the newest kid on the technology block, and it holds a lot of promise for the assistive technology industry. Named for a 10th Century King of Denmark who unified the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, Bluetooth is a shot-range wireless communication specification that promises to improve and increase electronic access to a number of environments by overcoming some of the obstacles typical of current technology. Bluetooth technology will enable devices to communicate and transfer data wirelessly and without the line-of-site issues of infra red technology. 　　So how does it work? 　　Bluetooth devices search each other out within their given operational range. Unlike devices that are wired together, Bluetooth devices do not have to be aware of the capabilities or properties of the devices to which they will connect beforehand. Bluetooth devices have a built-in mechanism that lets each device identify itself as well as its capabilities as it connects into this new Bluetooth network. This dynamic network does have a controlling device that designates itself as the master for the connection. Its programming and the capabilities necessary for the given task determine whether or not a device can be a master. For example, a cell phone may act as a master device when connecting to a headset, an ATM, or an information kiosk. However, the same cell phone or headset may act as a slave device to the information kiosk, now acting as the master device, broadcasting emergency evacuation information. The cell phone and kiosk can function in either capacity depending on the required function and their programming.

问答题 Practice 5 　　The popular view when discussing urban transportation in American cities today is to decry its sorry state. Newspaper and journals are filled with talk of “urban transportation crisis,” of the “difficulties of getting from here to there,” and so on at great length. Matters are reported to get worse and very quickly. 　　Everyone has his own favorite traumatic experience to report: of the occasion when many of the switches froze on New York’s commuter railroad; of the sneak snowstorm in Boston that converted thirty-minute commuter trips into seven hour ordeals; of the extreme difficulties in Chicago and other Midwestern cities when some particularly heavy and successive snowstorms were endured. 　　One reason for the talk of an urban transportation crisis in the United States today perhaps lies in a failure to meet anticipations. Many commuters expected to reduce their commuting times as systems improved, but instead found themselves barely able to maintain the status quo in terms of time requirements. Another reason for talk of crisis, almost certainly, is the rate of improvement in the performance of urban transportation systems during rush hours has been markedly inferior to that expected during off-peak hours. Specifically, the ability to move quickly about American Cities during non-rush hours has improved in a truly phenomenal fashion.

问答题 Practice 2 　　The news couldn’t be worse. Three years of recession or anemic economic growth, Argentina’s debt default and collapse and—more recently—Bolivia’s president run out of office by indigenous people fed up with his pro-business, pro-Washington agenda. Taken together, these trials have seemingly erased the promise of prosperity that wafted across the region a decade ago. Now there’s the specter of a return to the dark days of the 1970s and 80s when economic and political chaos were the norm. Social eruptions have prompted a wide-ranging and contentious reappraisal of the economic orthodoxy—the neoliberal model that has shaped policy in Latin America for the past 15 years. Market-oriented structural reforms have succeeded in a few crucial ways: they ended the ruinous era of hyperinflation, and inculcated a sense of fiscal responsibility among profligate governments. But belt-tightening has not led to the robust economic performance promised when reforms began. After enjoying encouraging GDP expansion in the early and mid-1990s, Latin America has stumbled through about five years of economic stagnation that have left the region’s have-nots in a surly mood. Latin America desperately wants increased access to markets in the United States and Europe, but the region doesn’t want to pursue trade deals on what it perceives to be unfair terms. (Newsweek)

问答题 Practice 2 　　We must work passionately and indefatigably to bridge the gulf between our scientific progress and our moral progress. One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. 　　Every man lives in two realms, the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms and instrumentalities by means of which we live. Our problem today is that we have allowed the internal to become lost in the external. We have allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live. So much of modern life can be summarized in that suggestive phrase of Thoreau: “Improved means to an unimproved end. “ This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem, confronting modern man. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul. When the external of man’s nature subjugates the internal, dark storm clouds begin to form. (Martin Luther King: Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?)