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　　London-Laura Spence has excellent grades, a place at Harvard University and a US $25, 000 a year scholarship．The British Government says that is scandal(丑闻)．

　　Not because the 18-year-old girl is going to Harvard, but because she was rejected by Oxford University．Her case makes people talk about the long running problems about elitism(精英主义) in British education．

　　“I think it’s a scandal if a child has to go to Harvard rather than getting into Oxford, don't you?” Education Secretary David Blunkett said on May 26th in an interview on BBC radio．

　　British Treasury chief Gordon Brown said in a speech on May 25th it was “an absolute scandal”, a girl with those grades was turned down by Oxford' s Magdalen College．He noted that Spence comes from Monkseaton in northeastern England, where people sometimes complain they get fewer chances than people living in the richer, more populous south．

　　Oxford and Cambridge University now take the majority of their students－53 percent－from publicly funded schools．Elite(精英)private schools such as Eton and Harrow account for the other 47 percent, even though they serve only 7 percent of secondary students．

　　A BBC reporter had seen notes of Spence’s interview at Magdalen．“As with other comprehensive school pupils, she’s low in confidence and difficult to draw out of herself in spite of being able to think on her feet, ” the BBC quoted the notes as saying．Still, the notes concluded that Spence “will be an excellent doctor．”

　　“It appears as if some of our institutions have admissions procedures which may be because of strange prejudices against children from comprehensive schools are not giving these children a fair crack of the whip”, Education Minister Wicks told the BBC．

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　　Tuvalu, a tiny country in the Pacific Ocean, has asked for help as it fears it will be swallowed up by the sea．

　　Storms and huge waves are a constant threat and none of Tuvalu’s nine little islands is more than five meters above sea level．Salt water is already entering the country’s drinking water supply, as well as damaging plants(种植园) that produce fruit and vegetable．Withouturgent(紧急的) help, the country’s days are numbered．

　　But Tuvalu is not the first place to face sinking into the sea．Venice, a historic city in Italy best known for its canals, has sunk about 24 cm over the past 100 years．Experts say that it will have sunk another 20-50 cm by 2050．A century ago, St．Mark’ s Square, the lowest point in the city, flooded about nine times a year．Nowadays, it happens more than 100 times．

　　While Venice is slowly sinking into the mud on which it stands, Tuvalu’ s rising sea level is caused by global warming．

　　The average global temperature has increased by almost 0.5 centigrade degree over the past century．Scientists expect it to rise by an extra 1-3 degrees over the next 100 years．

　　Warmer weather makes glaciers (冰川) melt, adding more water to the ocean．The warmer temperatures also make water increase, so it takes up more space, causing the sea level to rise．

　　The sea level has risen about 10-25 cm in the last 100 years．

　　The main cause of global warming is human pollution．Through burning coal, oil and gas, people have been increasing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as CO₂．This adds to the power of the greenhouse effect, making the planet even warmer．

　　Many scientists believe that, if the warming is not stopped, there will be huge climate changes．The sea level could rise by one meter this century．

　　Should this come true, millions of homes will be swallowed up by the sea and the world will be flooded with "climate refugees (难民) looking for somewhere to live．

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　　A dream became true as two young pilots took off to fly around the world．

　　Chris Wall and Dan Dominguez have been dreaming big since they were 17-year-old high school students in EL Paso, Tex．USA At that time they flew alone in a plane to Alaska and back．

　　Now they were really dreaming big．They were planning to take off this September on an around-the-world flight．And all went well, the 21-year-old pilots at last broke a world record by becoming the youngest to fly by themselves around the Earth．

　　As they circled the world in their small, twin-engine airplane, they would be taking plenty of kids along for the ride, because students could follow their flight by way of the Internet．The flight took three months and made about 32 stops．

　　Their plane was highly versatile (多用途的)．Dan said, "It can take off from a muddy strip in Bali(巴厘岛), the deserts of Egypt, the jungles of Africa, yet it can still cross the ocean．”

　　Dan, a commercial pilot and flight instructor, recently graduated from the University of Rochester New York State．Chris is a three -year student at Rice University in Houston, Tex．

The purpose of their project, called World Flight 2005, was to make education more interactive and to encourage young people to follow their dreams no matter how challenging they are．

　　Said Dan, “We want to share the spirit of flying and show students that anything is possible with a good education, persistence and determination．”

　　At each stop, the two pilots talked with students about their trip．They also visited schools all over the United States to tell about their adventures．

　　“We’ve wanted to fly since we could remember, ” they said “We started flying before were driving．”

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　　Heidi spoke schoolgirl English with a slight American accent to her own complete satisfaction．She had clearly no intention of doing any work．

　　When I tried weakly to suggest a plan for lessons, she kept interrupting to offer me chocolate, coffee, and cigarettes．“Excuse me, there isn’t any fruit,” she smiled, then picked up the house telephone, “Anna．Please bring some oranges．”

　　When the maid arrived with the oranges, I was forced, despite my unwillingness, to make a regular meal, with plate, knife, and fork．This destroyed the last pretence of a teacher-pupilrelationship．

　　It was a waste of time even pretending to teach her anything．If she didn’t know a word, she said it in German．If I corrected her, she repeated it in German．I was glad, of course, that she was so lazy, and only afraid that her mother might discover how little progress she was making．

　　But this was very unlikely．Most rich people, once they have decided to trust you, can be cheated to almost any extent．The only real problem for the private teacher is to get inside the door．

　　As for Heidi, she seemed to enjoy my visits．From something she said, I understood that she boasted to her school friends that she had got a real English teacher．We came to understand each other very well．I was bribed with fruit not to be troublesome about the English language; she, for her part, told her parents that I was the best teacher she had ever had We talked in German about the things that interested her．And every three or four minutes we were interrupted while she played her part in the family game of exchanging entirely unimportant messages over the house telephone．

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完形填空

　　Even plant can run a fever, especially when they’re under attack by insects or disease．But unlike human, plants can have their temperature taken from 3, 000 feet away- straight up．A decade ago, adopting the infrared(红外线)scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress．The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide(杀虫剂)spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don’t have pest(害虫)problems．

　　Even better, Paley’s Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye．Mounted on a plane flown at 3, 000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted(发出)by crops．The data were transformed into a color- coded map showing where plants were running”fevers”．Farmers could then spot-spray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would．

　　The bad news is that Paley’s company closed down in 1984, after only three years．Farmers resisted the new technology and long-term backers(支持者)were hard to find．But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation．Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works．“This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States,”says George Oerther of Texas A & M．Ray Jackson, who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade．But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago．

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　　Money spent on advertising is money spent as well as any I knew of .It serves directly to assist a rapid distribution(销售)of goods at reasonable price，thereby establishing a firm home market and so making it possible t o provide for export at competitive prices drawing attention to new ideas it helps enormously to raise standards of living .By helping to increase demand it ensures an increased need for labor, and is therefore an effective way to fight unemployment .It lowers the costs of many services：without advertisements your daily newspaper would cost four times as much，the price of your television license would need to be doubled ,and travel by bus or tube would cost 20 percent more．

　　And perhaps most important of all，advertising provides a guarantee of reasonable value in the produces and services you buy．Apart from the fact that twenty seven acts of Parliament(国会)govern the terms of advertising，no regular advertiser dare promote a product that fails to live up to the promise of his advertisements，He might fool some people for a little while through misleading advertising．He will not do so for long ,for mercifully the public has the good sense not to buy the inferior(劣等的)article more than once .If you see an article consistently(始终如一)advertised ,it is the surest proof I know that the article does what is claimed for it, and that it represents good value。

　　Advertising does more for the material benefit of the community than any other force I can think of．

　　There is one more point I feel I ought to touch on．Recently I heard a well-known television personality declare that he was against advertising because it persuades rather than informs．He was drawing excessively(过分地)fine distinctions．Of course advertising seeks to persuades．

　　If its message were confined merely to information-and that in itself would be difficult if not impossible to achieve, for even a detail such as the choice of the color of a shirt is subtly persuasive-advertising would be so boring that no one would pay any attention．But perhaps that is what the well-known television personality wants．

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　　One thing the tour books don’t tell you about London is that 2000 of its residents are foxes．They ran away from the city about two centuries ago after developers and pollution moved in．But now that the environment is clear, the foxes have come home．

　　“The number and variety of wild animals in urban areas is increasing,” says Comer Jones．A survey of the wildlife in New York’s Central Park last year counted 14 species of mammals．A similar survey conducted in the 1890s counted only five species．

　　Several changes have brought wild animals to the cities．Foremost is that air and water quality in many cities has improved as a result of the 1970s pollution-control efforts．Meanwhile, rural areas have been built up, leaving many animals on the edges of suburbs．In addition, urban wildlife refuges(避难处)have been created．The Greater London Council last year spent ￡ 750,000 to buy land and build 10 permanent wildlife refuges in the city．As a result, many birds are now living in the city．For peregrine falcons cities are actually safer than rural cliff dwellings(悬崖栖息地).By 1970 the birds had died out east of the Mississippi because of the DDT had made their eggs too thin to support life．That year, scientist Tom Cade of Cornell University began raising the birds for release in cities afforded plenty of food．

　　Cities can attract wild animals without turning them harmful．The trick is to create habitats where they can be self-sufficient but still be seen and appreciated．Such habitats can even be functional．In San Francisco, the local government is testing different kinds of rainwater control basins to see not only whish ones retain(保持)the cleanest water but which will attract the most birds．

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　　Shopping is not as simple as you may think! There are all sorts of tricks at play each time we reach out for that particular brand of product on the shelf．

　　Coloring, for example, varies according to what the producers are trying to sell．Health foods are packaged in greens, yellows or browns because we think of these as healthy colors．Ice cream packers are often blue and expensive goods, like chocolates, are gold or silver．

　　When some kind of pain killer was brought out recently, researchers found that the colors turned the customers off because they made the product look weak and ineffective．Eventually, it came on the market in a dark blue and white package-blue, because we think of it as safe, and white as calm．

　　The size of a product can attract a shopper．But quite often a bottle doesn’t contain as much as it appears to．

　　It is believed that the better–known companies spend, on average, 70 per cent of the total cost of the product itself on packaging!

　　The most successful producers know that it’s not enough to have a good product．The founder of Pears soap, who for 25 years has used pretty little girls to promote their goods, came to the conclusion：“Any fool can make soap, but it takes a genius to sell it．”

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　　Seeing may be believing, but hearing a sound first may help your sense of sight, according to results of a new study．

　　Researchers at the University of California of San Diego report that people were more accurate at noticing a flash of light when a sound was produced at the same place immediately before the light flashed．

　　“We used a loud sound to catch our participants’(受试者)attention”one of the study’s authors, Dr McDonald, said in an article． During some experiments, the sound occurred at the same location as the flash of light, while at other times it was produced on the opposite side of participants’ field of sight．The 33 participants in the study were more accurate at noticing the flash of light when the sound occurred on the same side, suggesting that sound can help direct visual(视觉的)attention．

　　According to McDonald, his research team plans to continue studying the relationship between sight and sound．It will be interesting to see, he said, what happens to the ability to pay attention when one of the sense does not work as well as it should, as in a person who is blind of has hearing problems．

　　McDonald also noted that research into the relationship between sight and sound could affect the way we 1ook at peop1e with attention disorder．Traditionally, these people together are considered to have attention prob1em, but in some people the problem may be caused by hearing or sight deficits(缺陷)．

　　“It could be possible that they cou1d have a deficit in one sense or another, or in relating sight and sound together,”McDonald said．Research into this area may lead to better treatment for people who have a hard time paying attention．It may be a good idea to take into consideration the relationship between sound and sight when designing warning signals, such as for an airplane pilot．

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