高中英语美文精选

高中英语美文精选

Lesson One

How Arts Promote Our Economy

When most people think of the arts, they imagine the end product, the beautiful painting, a wonderful piece of music, or an award-winning performance in the theater. But arts groups bring broader value to our communities. The economic impact of the arts is often overlooked and badly judged.

The arts create jobs that help develop the economy. Any given performance takes a tour bus full of artists, technical experts, managers, musicians, or writers to create an appealing piece of art. These people earn a living wage for their professional knowledge and skills.

Another group of folks is needed to help market the event. “If you build it they will come” is a misleading belief. Painters, digital media experts, photographers, booking agents and promoters are hired to sell tickets and promote the event. According to the Dallas Area Cultural Advocacy Coalition, arts agencies employ more than 10,000 people as full-or part-time employees or independent contractors.

A successful arts neighborhoods creates a ripple effect（连锁反应）throughout a community. In 2005, when the Bishop Arts Theatre was donated to our town, the location was considered a poor area of town. After investing more than $1 million in reconstructing the building, we began producing a full season of theater performances, jazz concerts, and year-round arts education programs in 2008. Nearly 40 percent of jazz lovers live outside of the Dallas city limits and drive or fly in to enjoy an evening in the Bishop Arts District.

No doubt the theater has contributed to the area’s development and economic growth. Today, there are galleries, studios, restaurants and newly built work spaces where neighbors share experiences, where there is renewed life and energy. In this way, arts and culture also serve as a public good.

Teco Theatrical Produ ctions Inc. made use of Bloomberg’s investment of $35,000 to get nearly $400,000 in public and private sector support during the two-year period. Further, Dallas arts and arts-based businesses produce $298 for every dollar the city spends on arts programming and facilities. In Philadelphia, a metro area smaller than Dallas, the arts have an economic impact of almost $3 million and support 44,000 jobs, 80 percent of which actually lie outside the arts industry, including accountants, marketers, construction workers, hotel managers, printers, and other kinds of art workers.

The arts are efficient economic drivers and when they are supported, the entire small-business community benefits.

It is wrong to assume arts groups cannot make a profit. But in order to stay in business, arts groups must produce returns. If you are a student studying the arts, chances are you have been ill-advised to have a plan B. But those who truly understand the economic impact and can work to change the patterns can create a wide range of career possibilities.

Lesson Two

Population Change

Why is the world’s population growing？The answer is not what you might think.The reason for the explosion is not that people have been reproducing like rabbits,but that people have stopped dropping dead like flies.In 1900,people died at the average age of 30.By 2000 the average age was 65.But while increasing health was a tupical feature of the 20th century,declining birth rate could be a defining one of the 21st.

Statistics show that the average number of births per woman has fallen from 4.9 in the early 1960s to 2.5 owadays.Furthermore,around 50% of the world’s population live in regions where the figure is now below the replacement level(i.e.2.1 births per woman)and almost all developed nations are experiencing sub-repalanement birth rate.You might think that developing nations would make up the loss(especially since80% of the world’s people now live in such nations),but you’d be wrong,Declining birth rate is a major problem in many developing regions too,which might cause catastrophic global shortages of work force within a few decades.

A great decline in young work force is likely to occur in China,for instance.What does it imply?First,China needs to undergo rapid economic development before a population decline hits the country.Sencond,if other factors such as technology remain constant,economic growth and material expectations will fall well below recent standards and this could invite trouble.

Russia is another country with population problems that could break its economic promise.Since 1992 the number of people dying has been biggen than that of those being born by a massive 50%,Indeed official figures suggest the country has shrunk by 5% since 1993 and people in Russia live a shorter life now than those in 1961.Why is this occurring?Nobody is quite sure,but poor diet an above all long-time alcoholism have much to do with it.If current trends don’t bend.Russia’s population will be about the size of Yemen’s by the year 2050.

In the north of india,the population is booming due to high birth rates,but in the south,where most econmoic development is taking place,birth rate is falling rapidly.In a further twist,birth rate is highest in poorly educated rural arceas an lowest in highly educated u rban areas.In total,25% of India’s working-age population has no education.In 2030,a sixth of the country’s potential work force could be totally uneducated.

One solution is obviously to import foreign workers via immigration.As for the USA,it is almost unique among developed nations in having a population that is expected to grow by 20% from 2010-2030,Moreover,the USA has a track record of successfully accepting immigrants.As a result it’s likely to see a rise in the size of its working-age population and to witness strong economic growth over the longer term.

Lesson Three

An Extension of the Human Brain

Other people can help us compensate for our mental and emotional deficiencies (欠缺)，much as a wooden leg can compensate for a physical deficiency. To be exact, other people can extend our intelligence and help us understand and adjust our emotions. When another person helps us in such ways, he or she is participating in what I’ve called a “social prosthetic (义肢的）system.” Such systems do not need to o perate face-to-face, and it’s clear to me that the Internet is expanding the range of my own social prosthetic systems. It’s already a big bank of many minds. Even in its current state, the Internet has extended my memory and judgment.

Regarding memory: O nce I look up something on the Internet, I don’t need to keep all the details for future use—I know where to find that information again and can quickly and easily do so. More generally, the Internet functions as if it were my memory. This function of the Internet is particularly striking when I’m writing; I’m no longer comfortable writing if I’m not connected to the Internet. It’s become natural to check facts as I write, taking a minute or two to dip into PubMed, Wikipedia, or other websites.

Regarding judgment: The Internet has made me smarter in matters small and large. For example, when I’m writing a textbook, it has become second nature to check a dozen definitions of a key term, which helps me dig into the core and understand its meaning. But more than that, I now regularly compare my views with those of many others. If I have a “ new idea,” I now quickly look to see whether somebody else has already thought of it, or something similar—and I then compare what I think with what others have thought. This certainly makes my own views clearer. Moreover, I can find out w hether my reactions to an event are reasonable enough by reading about those of others on the Internet.

These effects of the Internet have become even more striking since I’ve begun using a smartphone. I now regularly pull out my phone to check a fact, watch a video, read weibo. Such activities fill the spaces that used to be dead time (such as waiting for somebody to arrive for a lunch meeting).

But that’s the upside (好处).The downside is that in those dead periods I often would let my thoughts flow and sometimes would have an unexpected insight or idea. Those opportunities are now fewer and farther between.

Lesson Four

People select news in expectation of a reward. This reward may be either of two kinds. One is related to what Freud calls the Pleasure Principle, the other to what he calls the Reality Principle. For want of better names, we shall call these two classes immediate reward and delayed reward.

In general, the kind of news which may be expected to give immediate reward are news of crime and corruption, accidents and disasters, sports, social events, and human interest. Delayed reward may be expected from news of public affairs, economic matters, social problems, science, education, and health.

News of the first kind pays its rewards at once. A reader can enjoy an indirect experience without any of the dangers or stresses involved. He can tremble wildly at an axe-murder, shake his head sympathetically and safely at a hurricane, identify himself with the winning team, and laugh understandingly at a warm little story of children or dogs.

News of the second kind, however, pays its rewards later. It sometimes requires the reader to tolerate unpleasantness or annoyance—as, for example, when he reads of the threatening foreign situation, the mounting national debt, rising taxes, falling market, scarce housing, and cancer. It has a kind of “threat value.” It is read so that the reader may be informed and prepared. When a reader selects delayed reward news, he pulls himself into the world of surrounding reality to which he can adapt himself only by hard work. When he selects news of the other kind, he usually withdraws from the world of threatening reality toward the dream world.

For any individual, of course, the boundaries of these two classes are not stable. For example, a sociologist may read news of crime as a social problem, rather than for its immediate reward. A coach may read a sports story for its threat value: he may have to play that team next week. A politician may read an account of his latest successful public meeting, not for its delayed reward, but very much as his wife reads an account of a party. In any given story of corruption or disaster, a thoughtful reader may receive not only the immediate reward of indirect experience, but also the delayed reward of information and preparedness. Therefore, while the division of categories holds in general, an individual’s tendency may transfer any story from one kind of reading to another, or divide the experience between the two kinds of reward.

Lesson Five

The expression, “everybody’s doing it,” is very much at the center of the concept of peer pressure. It is a strong influence of a group, especially of children, on members of that group to behave as everybody else does. It can be positive or negative. Most people experience it in some way during their lives.

People are social creatures by nature, and so it is hardly surprising that part of their self-respect comes from the approval of others. This instinct (天性) is why the approval of peers, or the fear of disapproval, is such a powerful force in many people’s lives. It is the same instinct that drives people to dress one way at home and another way at work, or to answer “fine” when a stranger asks “how are you?” even if it is not necessarily true. There is a practical aspect to this: it helps society to function efficiently, and encourages a general level of self-discipline that simplifies day-to-day interaction.

For certain individuals, seeking social acceptance is so important that it becomes like an addiction; in order to satisfy the desire, they may go so far as to abandon their sense of right and wrong. Teens and young adults may feel forced to use drugs, or join gangs that encourage criminal behavior. Mature adults may sometimes feel pressured to cover up illegal activity at the company where they work, or end up in debt because they are unable to hold back the desire to buy a house or car that they can’t afford in an effort to “keep up with the Joneses.”

However, peer pressure is not always negative. A student whose friends are good at academics may be urged to study harder and get good grades. Players on a sports team may feel driven to play harder in order to help the team win. This type of influence can also get a friend off drugs, or to help an adult take up a good habit or drop a bad one. Study groups and class projects are examples of positive peer groups that encourage people to better themselves.

Schools try to teach kids about the dangers of negative peer pressure. They teach kids to stand up and be themselves, and encourage them to politely decline to do things that they believe are wrong. Similarly, it can be helpful to encourage children to greet the beneficial influence of positive peer groups.

Lesson Six

Quiet Virtue: The Conscientious

The everyday signs of conscientiousness (认真尽责)—being punctual, careful in doing work, self-disciplined, and scrupulous (一丝不苟的) in attending to responsibilities—are typical characteristics of the model organizational citizen, the people who keep things running as they should. They follow the rules, help out, and are concerned about the people they work with. It’s teh conscientious worker who helps newcomers or updates people who return after an absence, who gets to work on time and never abuses sick leaves, who always gets things done on deadline.

Conscientiousness is a key to success in any field.. In studies of job performance, outstanding effectivenss for almost all jobs, from semi-skilled labor to sales and management, depends on conscientiousness. It is particularly important for outstanding performance in jobs at the lower levels of an organization: the secretary whose message taking is perfect, teh delivery truck driver who is always on time.

Among sales representatives for a large American car manufactures, those who were most conscientious had the largest volume of sales. Conscientiousness also offers a buffer (缓冲) against the threat of job loss in today’s constantly chaning market, because employees with this quality are among the most valued. For the sales representatives, their level of conscientiousness mattered almost as much as their sales in determining who stayed on.

But conscientiousness in the absence of social skills can lead to problems. Since conscientious people demand so much of themselves, they can hold other people to their own standards, and so be overly judgement when others don’t show the same high levels of model behavior.Factory workers in Great Britain and the United States who were extremely conscientious, for example, tended to criticize co-workers even about failures that seemed unimportant to those they citicized, which demanded their relationships.

When conscientiousness takes the form of living up to expectations, it can discourage creativity. In creative professions like art or advertising, openness to wild ideas and spontaneity (自发性) are scarce and in demand. Success in such occupations calls for a balance, however; without enough conscientiousness to follow through, people become mere dreamers, with nothing to show for their imaginativeness.

Lesson Seven

“Happiness Advantage” Effect

In July 2010 Burt’s Bees, a personal-care products company, was going through enormous change as it began a global expansion into 19 new countries. In this kind of high-pressure situation, many leaders bother their assistants with frequent meetings or flood their in-boxes with urgent demands. In doing so, managers lift ev eryone’s anxiety level, which activates the part of the brain that processes threats and steals resources from the prefrontal cortex ( 大脑皮层), which is responsible for effective problem solving.

Burt’s Bees’s then-CEO, John Wolfgang, took a different approach. Each day, he’d send out an e-mail praising a team member for work related to global marketing. He’d interrupt his own presentations to remind his managers to talk with their teams about t he company’s values. He asked me to further a three-hour session with employees on happiness in the course of the expansion effort. As one member of the senior team told me a year later, Wolfgang’s emphasis on developing positive leadership kept his manage rs actively involved and loyal as they successfully transformed the company into a global one.

That outcome shouldn’t surprise us. Research shows that when people work with a positive mind-set (思维模式), performance on nearly every level—productivity, creativity, involvement—improves. Yet happiness is perhaps the most misunderstood driver of performance. For one, most people believe that success comes before happiness. “Once I get a promotion, I’ll be happy,” they think. Or, “Once I hit my sales target, I’l l feel great. ”But because success is a moving target—as soon as you hit your target, you raise it again—the happiness that results from success does not last long.

In fact, it works the other way around: People who have a positive mind-set perform better in the face of challenge.

I call this the “ happiness advantage”—every business outcome shows improvement when the brain is positive. I’ve observed this effect in my role as a researcher and lecturer in 48 countries on the connection between employee ha ppiness and success. And I’m not alone: In an analysis of 225 academic studies, researchers found strong evidence of cause-and-effect relationship between life satisfaction and successful business outcomes.

Another common misunderstanding is that our genetics, our environment, or a combination of the two determines how happy we are. To be sure, both factors have an impact. But one’s general sense of well-being is surprisingly unstable. The habits you form, the way you interact with colleagues, how you think about stress—all these can be managed to increase your happiness and your chances of success.

Lesson Eight

When Should a Leader Apologize and When Not?

Why Difficult?

When we wrong someone we know, even not intentionally, we are generally expected to apologize so as to improve the situation．But when we’re acting as leaders, the circumstances are different．The act of apology is carried out not merely at the level of the individual but also at the level of the institution．It is a performance in which every expression matters and every word becomes part of the public record．Refusing to apologize can be smart, or it can be stupid．So, readiness to apologize can be seen as a sign of strong character or as a sign of weakness．A successful apology can turn hate into personal and organizational harmony—while an apology that is too little, too late, or too obviously strategic can bring on individual and institutional ruin．What, then, is to be done? How can leaders decide if and when to apologize publicly?

Why Now?

The question of whether leaders should apologize publicly has never been more urgent．During the last decade or so, the United States in particular has developed an apology culture—apologies of all kinds and for all sorts of wrongdoings are made far more frequently than before．More newspaper writers have written about the growing importance of public apologies．More articles, cartoons, advice columns, and radio and television programs have similarly dealt with the subject of private apologies．

Why Bother?

Why do we apologize? Why do we ever put ourselves in situations likely to be difficult, embarrassing, and even risky? Leaders who apologize publicly could be an easy target．They are expected to appear strong and capable．And whenever they make public statements of any kind, their individual and institutional reputations are in danger．Clearly, then, leaders should not apologize often or lightly．For a leader to express apology, there needs to be a good, strong reason．Leaders will publicly apologize if and when they think the costs of doing so are lower than the costs of not doing so．

Why Refuse?

Why is it that leaders so often refuse to apologize, even when a public apology seems to be in order? Their reasons can be individual or institutional．Because leaders are public figures, their apologies are likely to be personally uncomfortable and even professionally risky．Leaders may also be afraid that admission of a mistake will damage or destroy the organization for which they are responsible．There can be good reasons for hanging tough in tough situations, as we shall see, but it is a high-risk strategy．

Lesson Nine

For more than twenty years scientists have been seeking to understand the mystery of t he‘‘sixth sense"of direction．By trying out ideas and solving problems one by one，they are now getting closer to one answer．One funny idea is that animals might have a built-in compass(指南针)．

Our earth itself is a big magnet(磁体)．So a little magnetic needle that swings freely lines

itself with the big earth magnet to point north and south．When people discovered that idea about a thousand years ago and invented the compass，it allowed sailors to navigate (航海)on ocean voyages, even under cloudy skies.

Actually the idea of the living compass came just from observing animals in nature．

Many birds migrate twice a year between their summer homes and winter homes．Some of them fly for thousands of kilometers and mostly at night．Experiments have shown that some birds can recognize star patterns．But they can keep on course even under cloudy skies．How can they do that?

A common bird that does not migrate but is great at finding its way home is the homing pigeon．Not all pigeons can find their way home．Those that can are very good at it，and they have been widely studied．One interesting experiment was to attach little magnets to the birds’ heads to block their

magnetic sense—just as a loud radio can keep you from hearing a call to dinner．On sunny days, that did not fool the pigeons．Evidently they can use the sun to tell which way they are going．But on cloudy days，the pigeons with magnets could not find their way．It was as if the magnets had blocked their magnetic sense．Similar experiments with the same kind of results were done with honeybees．These insects also seem to have a special sense ot direction．

In spite of the experiments，the idea of an animal compass seemed pretty extraordinary．How

would an animal get the magnetic stuff for a compass.

An answer came from an unexpected source．A scientist was studying bacteria that live in the

mud of ponds and marshes．He found accidentally little rod-like bacteria that all swam together in

one direction—north．

Further study showed that each little bacterium had a chain of dense particles inside，which

proved magnetic．The bacteria had made themselves into little magnets that could line up with the

earth’s magnet．

The big news was that a living thing，even a simple bacterium，can make magnetite．That led

to a search to see whether animals might have it.. By using a special instrument called magnetometer，scientists were able to find magnetite in bees and birds，and even in fish．In each

animal，except for the bee．the magnetic stuff was always in or closer to the brain．

Thus．the idea of a built—in animal compass began to seem reasonable．

Lesson Ten

Communication Principles

How you see yourself can make a great difference in how you communicate．“Every individual exists in a continually changing world of experience of which he(or she)is the center”．Many communication scholars and social scientists believe that people are products of how others treat them and of the messages others send them．But every day we experience the centrality of our selves in communication．A student．for instance，may describe a conflict with a teacher as unfair treatment：“I know my teacher doesn’t like the fact that I don’t agree with his opinions．and that’s why he gave me such a poor grade in that class．”The teacher might say the opposite．Each per son may believe that he is correct and that the other person’s view is wrong．The concept of serf originates in communication．Through verbal and nonverbal symbols, a child learns to accept roles in response to the expectations of others．You establish self-image。The sort of person you believe you are，by how others think of you．Positive，negative，and neutral messages that you receive from others all play a role in determining who you are．Communication itself is probably best understood as a dialogue process．Our understanding of communication comes from our interactions with other people．In a more obvious way．communication involves others in the sense that a competent communicator considers what the other person needs and expects when selecting messages to share．So，the communication begins with the self，as defined largely by others，and involves others，as defined largely by the self．

Communication Occurs almost every minute of your life．If you are not communicating with yourself(thinking，planning，reacting to the world around you)，you are observing others and drawing inferences from their behavior．Even if the other person did not intend a message for you．you gather observations and draw specific conclusions．A person yawns and you believe that person is bored with your message．A second person looks away from you and you conclude that person is not listening to you．A third person smiles(perhaps because of a memory of a joke he heard recently) and you believe that he is attracted to you．We are continually picki ng up meanings from others’ behaviors and we are constantly providing behaviors that have communicative value for them．

More often than not，you may have hurt someone accidentally and you may have tried to explain that you did not mean that. You may have told the other person that you were sorry for your statement．You may have made a joke out of your rude statement．Nonetheless，your comment remains both in the mind of the other person and in your own mind．You cannot go back in time and erase your messages to others．Communication cannot be reversed(倒退)，nor can it be repeated．When you tried to re—create the atmosphere，the conversation，and the setting，nothing seemed right．Your second experience with a similar setting and person made far different results．

Lesson Eleven

Teamwork is just as important in science as it is on the playing field or in the gym. Scientific investigations (调查) are almost always carried out by teams of people working together. Ideas are shared, experiences are designed, data are analyzed, and results are evaluated and shared with other investigators. Group work is necessary, and is usually more productive than working alone.

Several times throughout the year you may be asked to work with one or more of your classmates. Whatever teh task your group is assigned, a few rules need to be followed to ensure a productive and successful experience.

What comes first is to keep an open mind, becasue everyone’s ideas deserve consideration and each group member can make his or her own contribution. Secondly, it makes a job easier to divide the group task among all group members. Choose a role on the team that is best suited to your particular strengths. Thirdly, always work together, take turns, and encourage each other by listening, clarifying, and trusting one another. Mutual support and trust often make a great difference.

Activities like investigations are most effective when done by small groups. Here are some more suggestions for effective team performance during these activities: Make sure each group member understands and agrees to the task given to him or her, and everyone knows exactly when, why and what to do; take turns doing various tasks during similar and repeated activities; be aware of where other group members are and what they are doing so as to ensure safety; be responsible for your own learning, though it is by no means unwise to compare your observations with those of other group members.

When there is research to be done, divide the topic into several areas, and this can explore the issue in a very detailed way. You are encouraged to keep records of the sources used each person, which helps you trace back to the origin of the problems that may happen unexpectedly. A format for exchanging information (e.g. photocopies of notes, oral discussion, etc.) is also important, for a well-chosen method not only strengthens what you present but also makes yourself easily understood. When the time comes to make a decision and take a position on an issue, allow for the contributions of each member of the group. Most important of all, it is always wise to make decisions by compromise and agreement.

After you’ve completed a task with your team, make an evaluation of the team’s effectiveness —the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and challenges.

Lesson Twelve

If you want to disturb the car industry, you'd better have a few billion dollars: Mom-and-pop

carmakers are unlikely to beat the biggest car companies. But in agriculture, small farmers can get

the best of the major players. By connecting directly with customers, and by responding quickly to

changes in the markets as well as in the ecosystems(生态系统）, small farmers can keep one step

ahead of the big guys. As the co-founder of the National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC, 美国青年农会）and a family farmer myself. I have a front-row seat to the innovations among small farmers that are transforming the industry.zx.xk

For example, take the Quick Cut Greens Harvester, a tool developed just a couple of years ago by a young farmer, Jonathan Dysinger, in Tennessee, with a small loan from a local Slow Money group. It enables small-scale farmers to harvest 175 pounds of green vegetables per hour—a huge improvement over harvesting just a few dozen pounds by hand—suddenly making it possible for the little guys to compete with large farms of California. Before the tool came out, small farmers couldn't touch the price per pound offered by California farms. But now, with the combination of a better price point and a generally fresher product, they can stay in business.

The sustainable success of small farmers, though, won't happen without fundamental changes

to the industry. One crucial factor is secure access to land. Competition from investors. developers, and established large farmers makes owning one's own land unattainable for many new farmers.

From 2004 to 2013, agricultural land values doubled, and they continue to rise in many regions.

Another challenge for more than a million of the most qualified farm workers and managers is a non-existent path to citizenship — the greatest barrier to building a farm of their own. With farmers over the age of 65 outnumbering(多于）farmers younger than 35 by six to one, and with two-thirds of the nation's farmland in need of a new farmer, we must clear the path for talented people willing to grow the nation's food.

There are solutions that could light a path toward a more sustainable and fair farm economy,

but farmers can't clumsily put them together before us. We at the NYFC need broad support as we

urge Congress to increase farmland conservation, as we push for immigration reform, and as we

seek policies that will ensure the success of a diverse and ambitious next generation of farms from

all backgrounds. With a new farm bill to be debated in Congress, consumers must take a stand with young farmers.

Lesson Thirteen

A new commodity brings about a highly profitable,fast-growing industry,urging antitrust（反垄断）regulators to step in to check those who control its flow. A century ago ,the resource in question was oil. Now similar concerns ares being raised by the giants（巨头）that deal in data, the oil of the digital age. The most valuable firms are Google,Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft. All look unstoppable.

Such situations have led to calls for the tech giants to be broken up. But size alone is not a crime,The giants' success has benefited consumers. Few want to live without search engines or a quick delivery, Far from charging consumers high prices, many of these services are free (users pay, in effect, by handing over yet more data). And the appearance of new-born giants suggests that newcomers can make waves, too.

But there is cause for concern. The internet has made data abundant, all-present and far more valuable, changing the nature of data and competition. Google initially used the data collected from users to target advertising better. But recently it has discovered that data can be turned into new services: translation and visual recognition, to be sold to other companies. Internet companies’ control of dat a gives them enormous power. So they have a “God’s eye view” of activities in their own markets and beyond.

This nature of data makes the antitrust measures of the past less useful. Breaking up firms like Google into five small ones would not stop remaking themselves: in time, one of them would become great again. A rethink is required—and as a new approach starts to become apparent, two ideas stand out.

The first is that antitrust authorities need to move form the industrial age into the 21st century. When considering a merger(兼并),for example, they have traditionally used size to determine when to step in. They now need to take into account the extent of firms'data assets(资产) when assessing the impact of deals. The purchase price could also be a signal that an established company is buying a new-borm threat. When this takes place, especially when a new-born company has no revenue to speak of, the regulators should raise red flags.

The second principle is to loosen the control that providers of on-line services have over data and give mo re to those who supply https://www.360docs.net/doc/f810706778.html,panies could be forced to consumers what information they hold and how ma ny money they make form https://www.360docs.net/doc/f810706778.html,emments could order the sharing of certain kinds of data, with users' consent.

Restarting antitrust for the information age will not be easy But if govemments don't wants a data oconom y by a few giants, they must act soon.

Lesson Fourteen

Before birth,babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices.They can even distinguish their mother’s voice from that of a female stranger.But when it comes to embryonic learning（胎教），birds could rule the roost.As recently reported in The Auk:Ornithological Adrances,some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch(孵化)。New-born chicks can then imitate their mom’s call within a few days of enering the world.

This educational method was first observed in 2012 by Sonia Kieindorfer,a biologist at Flinders University in South Australia,and her collcagues.Femake Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their errs,When the errs were hatched,the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers—asound that served as their regular “feed me!”call.

To find out if the special quality was more widespread in birds,the researchers sought the red-backed fairy wren,another species of Australian songbird.First they collected sound datd from 67 nests in four sites in Queenslang before and after hatching,Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the order and number of notes.A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks,ranking them by similarity. It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms. And the more frequently mothers had called to their errs,the more similar were the babies’ begging calls. In addition,the team set up a separate experiment that suggested that the baby birds that most closely imitated their mom’s voice were rewarded with the most food.

This observation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological(神经系统的)strengths of children to parents.An evolutionary inference can then be drawn.”As a parent,do you invest in quality children,or do you invest in children that are in need?”Kleindorfer asks.”Our results suggest that they might be going for quality.”

Lesson sixteen

Chimps(黑猩猩) will cooperate in certain ways, like gathering in war parties to protect their territory. But beyond the minimum requirements as social beings, they have little instinct (本能) to help one another. Chimps in the wild seek food for themselves. Even chimp mothers regularly decline to share food with their children. Who are able from a young age to gather their own food.

In the lab oratory, chimps don’t naturally share food either. If a chimp is put in a cage where he can pull in one plate of food for himself or, with no great effort, a plate that also provides food for a neighbor to the next cage, he will pull at random ---he just d oesn’t care whether his neighbor gets fed or not. Chimps are truly selfish.

Human children, on the other hand are extremely corporative. From the earliest ages, they decide to help others, to share information and to participate a achieving common goals. The psychologist Michael Tomasello has studied this cooperativeness in a series of expensive with very young children. He finds that if babies aged 18 months see an worried adult with hands full trying to open a door, almost all will immediately try to help.

There are several reasons to believe that the urges to help, inform and share are not taught .but naturally possessed in young children. One is that these instincts appear at a very young age before most parents have started to train children to behave socially. Another is that the helping behaviors are not improved if the children are rewarded. A third reason is that social intelligence. Develops in children before their general cognitive（认知的）skills,at least when compared with chimps..In tests conducted by Tomtasell, the children did no better than the chimps on the physical world tests, but were considerably better at understanding the social world The cure of what children’s minds have and chimps’ don’t in what Tomasello calls what. Part of this ability is that they can infer what others know or are thinking. But that, even very young children want to be part of a shared purpose. They actively seek to be part of a “we”, a group that intends to work toward a shared goal.

Lesson Seventeen

El Nifio, a Spanish term for “the Christ child”, was named by South A merican fisherman who noticed that the global weather pattern, which happens every two to seven years, reduced the amount of fishes caught around Christmas. El Nifio sees warm water, collected over several years in the western Pacific, flow back eastwards when winds that normally blow westwards weaken, or sometimes the other way round.

The weather effects both good and bad, are felt in many places. Rich countries gain more from powerful Nifi o, on balance, than they lose. A study found that a strong Nifio in 1997 helped American’s economy g row by 15 billion, partly because of better agricultural harvest, farmers in the Midwest gained from extra rain. The total rise in agricultural in rich countries in growth than the fall in poor ones.

But in Indonesia extremely dry forests are in flames. A multi-year drought (干旱）in south-east Brazil is becoming worse. Though heavy rains brought about by El Nino may relieve the drought in California, they are likely to cause surface flooding and other disasters.

The most recent powerful Nino, in 1997-98, killed around 21,000 people and caused damage worth $36 billion around the globe. But such Ninos come with months of warning, and so much is known about how they happen that governments can prepare. According to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), however, just 12% of disaster-relief funding in the past two decades has gone on reducing risks in advance, rather than recovery and rebuilding afterwards. This is despite evidence that a dollar spent on risk-reduction saves at least two on reconstruction.

Simple improvements to infrastructure (基础设施）can reduce the spread of disease. Better sewers (下水道）make it less likely that heavy rain is followed by an outbreak of the disease of bad stomach. Stronger bridges mean villages are less likely to be left without food and medicine after floods. According to a paper in 2011 by Mr Hsiang and co-authors, civil conflict is related to El Nino’s harmful effects—and the poorer the country, the stronger the link. Though the relationship may not be causal, helping divided communities to prepare for disasters would at least reduce the risk that those disasters are followed by killing and wounding people. Since the poorest are least likely to make up for their losses from disasters linked to El Nino, reducing their losses needs to be the priority.

Lesson Eighteen

In the United States alone, over 100 million cell-phones are thrown away each year. Cell-phones are part of a growing mountain of electronic waste like computers and personal digital assistants. The electronic waste stream is increasing three times faster than traditional garbage as a whole.

Electronic devices contain valuable metals such as gold and silver. A Swiss study reported that while the weight of electronic goods represented by precious metals was relatively small in comparison to total waste, the concentration (含量) of gold and other precious metals was higher in So-called e-waste than in naturally occurring minerals.

Electronic wastes also contain many poisonous metals. Even when the machines are recycled and the harmful metals removed, the recycling process often is carried out in poor countries, in practically uncontrolled ways which allow many poisonous substances to escape into the environment.

Creating products out of raw materials creates much more waste material, up to 100 times more, than the material contained in the finished products. Consider again the cell-phone, and imagine the mines that produced those metals, the factories needed to make the box and packaging(包装) it came in. Many wastes produced in the producing process are harmful as well.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that most waste is dangerous in that “the produ ction, distribution, and use of products — as well as management of the resulting waste — all result in greenhouse gas release.” Individuals can reduce their contribution by creating less waste at the start — for instance, buying reusable products and recycling.

In many countries the concept of extended producer responsibility is being considered or has been put in place as an incentive (动机) for reducing waste. If producers are required to take back packaging they use to sell their products, would they reduce the packaging in the first place?

Governments’ incentive to require producers to take responsibility for the packaging they produce is usually based on money. Why, they ask, should cities or towns be responsible for paying to deal with the bubble wrap (气泡垫) that encased your television?

From the governments’ point of view, a primary goal of laws requiring extended producer responsibility is to transfer both the costs and the physical responsibility of waste management from the government and tax-payers back to the producers.

Lesson Nineteen

Suppose you become a leader in an organization. It’s very likely that you’ll want to have volunteers to help with the organization’s activities. To do so, it should help to understand why people undertake vol unteer work and what keeps their interest in the work.

Let’s begin with the question of why people volunteer. Researchers have identified several factors that motivate people to get involved. For example, people volunteer to express personal values related to unselfishness, to expand their range of experiences, and to strengthen social relationships. If volunteer positions do not meet these needs, people may not wish to participate. To select volunteers, you may need to understand the motivations of the people you wish to attract.

People also volunteer because they are required to do so. To increase levels of community service, some schools have launched compulsory volunteer programs. Unfortunately, these programs can shift people’s wish of participation fro m an internal factor (e.g., “I volunteer because it’s important to me”) to an external factor (e.g., “I volunteer because I’m required to do so”). When that happens, people become less likely to volunteer in the future. People must be sensitive to this possibility when they make volunteer activities a must.

Once people begin to volunteer, what leads them to remain in their positions over time? To answer this question, researchers have conducted follow-up studies in which they track volunteers over time. For instance, one study followed 238 volunteers in Florida over a year. One of the most important factors that influenced their satisfaction as volunteers was the amount of suffering they experienced in their volunteer positions. Although this result may not surprise you, it leads to important practical advice. The researchers note that attention should be given to “training methods that would prepare volunteers for troublesome situations or provide them with strategies for coping with the problem they do expe rience”.

Another study of 302 volunteers at hospitals in Chicago focused on individual differences in the degree to which people view “volunteer” as an important social role. It was assumed that those people for whom the role of volunteer was most part of their personal identity would also be most likely to continue volunteer work. Participants indicated the degree to which the social role mattered by responding to statements such as “V olunteering in Hospital is an important part of who I am.” Consistent with the researchers’ expectations, they found a positive correlation (正相关) between the strength of role identity and the length of time people continued to volunteer. These results, once again, lead to concrete advice: “Once an individual begins volunteering, continued efforts might focus on developing a volunteer role identity.... Items like T-shirts that allow volunteers to be recognized publicly for their contributions can help strengthen role identity”.

Lesson Twenty

Freedom and Responsibility

Freedom’s challenge in the Digital Age is a serious topic. We are facing today a strange new world and we are all wondering what we are going to do with it.

Some 2,500 years ago Greece discovered freedom. Before that there was no freedom. There were great civilizations, splendid empires, but no freedom anywhere. Egypt and Babylon were both tyrannies, one very powerful man ruling over helpless masses.

In Greece, in Athens (雅典), a little city in a little country, there were no helpless masses. And Athenians willingly obeyed the written laws which they themselves passed, and the unwritten, which must be obeyed if free men live together. They must show each other kindness and pity and the many qualities without which life would be very painful unless one chose to live alone in the desert. The Athenians never thought that a man was free if he could do what he wanted. A man was free if he was self-controlled. To make yourself obey what you approved was freedom. They were saved from looking at their lives as their own private affair. Each one felt responsible for the welfare of Athens, not because it was forced on him from the outside, but because the city was his pride and his safety. The essential belief of the first free government in the world was liberty for all men who could control themselves and would take responsibility for the state.

But discovering freedom is not like discovering computers. It cannot be discovered once for all. If people do not prize it, and work for it, it will go. Constant watch is its price. Athens changed. It was a change that took place without being noticed though it was of the extreme importance, a spiritual change which affected the whole state. It had been the Athenian’s pride and joy to give to their city. That they could get material benefits from her never entered their minds. There had to be a complete change of attitude before they could look at the city as an employer who paid her citizens for doing her work. Now instead of men giving to the state, the state was to give to them. What the people wanted was a government which would provide a comfortable life for them; and with this as the primary object, ideas of freedom and self-reliance and responsibility were neglected to the point of disappearing. Athens was more and more looked on as a cooperative business possessed of great wealth in which all citizens had a right to share.

Athens reached the point when the freedom she really wanted was freedom from responsibility. There could be only one result. If men insisted on being free from the burden of self-dependence and responsibility for the common good, they would cease to be free. Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom. It is to be had on no other terms. Athens, the Athens of Ancient Greece, refused responsibility; she reached the end of freedom and was never to have it again.

But, “the excellent becomes the permanent”, Aristotle said. Athens lost freedom forever, but freedom was not lost forever for the world. A great American, James Mad ison, referred to:“The capacity (能力) of mankind for self-government.” No doubt he had not an idea that he was speaking Greek. Athens was not in the farthest background of his mind, but once man has a great and good idea, it is never completely lost. The Digital Age cannot destroy it. Somehow in this or that man’s thought such an idea lives though unconsidered by the world of action. One can never be sure that it is not on the point of breaking out into action only sure that it will do so sometime.