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　　As a result of pollution, Lake Erie, on the borders of the USA and Canada, is now without any living things．

　　Pollution in water is not simply a matter of“poisons”killing large numbers of fish overnight, Very often the effects of pollution are not noticed for many months or years because the first organisms(生物体)to be affected are either plants or plankton．But these organisms are the food of fish and birds and other creatures．When this food disappears, the fish and birds die too．In this way a whole food chain can be wiped out, and it’s not until dead fish and water birds are seen at the river’s edge or on the seashore that people realize what is happening．

　　Where do the substances which pollute the water come from?There are two main sources of sewage(污水)and industrial waste．As more detergent(洗涤剂)is used in the home, so more of it is finally put into our rivers, lakes and seas．Detergents harm water birds, dissolving the natural substances which keep their feathers water-proof．Sewage itself, if not properly treated, makes the water dirty and prevents all forms of life in rivers and the sea from receiving the oxygen they need．Industrial waste is even more harmful as there are many highly poisonous things in it, such as copper and lead(铅)．

　　So, if we want to stop this pollution, the answer is simple: sewage and industrial waste must be made clear before flowing into the water．It may already be too late to save some rivers and lakes, but others can still be saved if the correct action is taken at once．

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　　“Mummy, I don’t know what to play with．”Steve interrupts his mother, who is talking to a friend, for the fourth time．“You’ve got a room full of toys!”his mother says, impatiently, In fact it is the jumble of toys which is to blame for four-year-old Steve's lack of interest in his dolls, cars and stuffed(packed)animals．Each morning he tips out three washing baskets of toys all over his floor, listlessly pulls out something and shortly after is standing at his mother’s desk or following her into the kitchen saying:“Mummy, I am bored．”

　　A family therapist(心理医生)explains why children lose interest when they have a whole“toy shop”at home：“According to their brain development, little children are not in a position to judge the quality of a variety of things at once．There is always just one favorite toy for the moment．All the rest is left lying about．”What can parents do to stop their children from being oversupplied with toys?Under no conditions simply make something disappear without the child’s knowledge．If he/she takes no more notice of a toy, a parent can ask if it can be stored or given away．Be warned though the child will help．Lyn is the mother of four-year-old Jessie, and friends may also small set of shilves in her child’s room holds the toys and books that are the current(at present)favorites．When it seems to her that her daughter is tired from a cupboard in another room．The box of“old”toys goes into the cupboard．When her child says she is“bored”, they also get something from her cupboard-it may be something she has had for some time but because she hasn’t seen it for a while it is almost like a new toy．

　　Some favorite toys stay out all the time, and there is collection of dolls which sits in the comer, but in this way Lyn has found that she has fewer toys to put away at the end of the day and her daughter always has something“fresh”to play with．

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　　Jakarta-About 20 bombs exploded outside churches in Jakarta and five other Indonesian cities and towns, killing at least 14 people and injuring 47, said Nations Police Chief Gen Suroyo Bimantoro on Sunday．

　　Sunday’s attacks follow a rise in Muslim extremism(穆斯林极主义)throughout the country．The heaviest violence has been in the Maluku islands in Indonesia’s east, where about 5, 000 people of both Christian and Muslim beliefs have been killed over the past two years．Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country with 90 percent of its 210 million people, followers of Islam．

　　Christians make up less that 10 percent of Indonesia’s 210 million people．Many are from the Chinese minority, which had been attacked by Muslim groups during the past civil unrest．

　　Sunday's bombings were the latest in a series to rock the capital．The worst this year came in September, when a car bomb and the following fire killed 15 people in a parking lot at Jakarta's Stock Exchange．In August, two people were killed when a car bomb blew up outside the Philippine ambassador’s(大使)home．

　　The police made arrests after those attacks and several smaller explosions, but have brought no formal charges．Most of the arrested have been set free．

(From China Daily, December 25,2000)

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　　When I asked my daughter which item she would keep：the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said the phone ．Personally, I could do without the phone entirely, which makes me unusual Because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology．

　　Point 1：The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic．My daughter comes home from school at 4∶00 pm and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day．If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?

　　Point 2：The mobile phone means that we are never alone．“The mobile saved my life,”says Crystal Johnstone．She had an accident in her Volvo on the A45 between Otley and Skipton．Trapped inside, she managed to make the call that brought the ambulance to her rescue．

　　Point 3：The mobile removes our secret．It allows Marketing Manager of Haba Deutsch, Carl Nicolaisen, to ring his sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are, where they are going, and how their last meeting went．

　　Point 4：The telephone separates us．Antonella Bramante in Rome says,“We worked in separate offices but I could see him through the window．It was easy to get his number．We were so near-but we didn’t meet for the first two weeks!”

　　Point 5 ：The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives．Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously on chat lines(at least my daughter does．I wouldn't know what to talk about)．We can talk across the world．We can even talk to astronauts(if you know any)while they’re space walking．And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access the Internet, the biggest library on earth．

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　　For some time past, it has been widely accepted that babies and other creature-learn to do things because certain acts lead to“rewards”, and there is no reason to doubt that this is true．But it used also to be widely believed that effective rewards, at least in the early time, had to be directly connected to such basic physiological“drives”as thirst or hunger．In other words, a baby would learn if he got food or drink or some sort of physical comfort, not otherwise．

　　It is now clear that this is not so．Babies will learn to behave in ways that produce results in the world with no reward except success in sight．

　　Papousek began his studies by using milk in the normal way to“reward”the babies and so teach them to carry out some simple movements, such as turning the head to one side or the other．Then he noticed that a baby who had had enough to drink would refuse the milk but would still go on making the learned response(回答)with clear signs of pleasure．So he began to study the children’s responses in situations where no milk was provided．He quickly found that children as young as four months would learn to turn their heads to right or left if the movement“turned on”some lights-and indeed that they were able to learn some more turns to bring about this result, for example, two left or two right, or even to make as many as three turns to one side．

　　Papousek’s light experiment was placed directly in front of the babies and he made the interesting observation that sometimes they would not turn back to watch the light closely although they would“smile and speak”when the light was on．Papousek concluded that it was not the sight of the lights which pleased them．It was the success they were achieving in solving the problem, in mastering the skill, and then there is a basic human nature to make sense of the world and bring it under control．

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　　There are two factors which determine an individual’s(个人)intelligence．The first is the sort of brain he is born with．Human brains differ considerably, some being more capable than others．But no matter how good a brain he has to begin with, an individual will have a low order of intelligence unless he has opportunities to learn．So that second factor is what happens to the individual-the sort of environment in which he is reared．If an individual is handicapped(制约)environmentally, it is likely that his brain will fail to develop and he will never attain the level of intelligence of which he is capable．

　　The importance of environment in determining an individual’s intelligence can be demonstrated by the case history of the identical twins, Peter and Mark．Being identical, the twins had identical brains at birth, and their growth processes were the same．When the twins were three months old, their parents died, and they were placed in separate foster homes．Peter was reared by parents of low intelligence in an isolated community with poor educational opportunities．Mark was reared in the home of well-to-do parents who bad been to college．He was read to as a child, sent to good schools, and given every opportunity to be stimulated(刺激)intellectually．This environmental difference continued until the twins were in their late teens, when they were given tests to measure their intelligence．Mark's IQ was 125, twenty-five points higher than the average and fully forty points higher than his identical brother．Given equal opportunities, the twins, having identical brains, would have tested at roughly the same level．

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　　When John Milton, writer of“Paradise Lost”, entered Cambridge University, in 1625, he was already skilled in Latin after seven years of studying it as his second language at St．Paul’s School, London．Like all English boys who prepared for college in grammar schools, he had learned not only to read Latin but also to speak and write it smoothly and correctly．His pronunciation of Latin was English, however, and seemed to have sounded strange to his friends when he later visited Italy．

　　Schoolboys gained their skill in Latin in a bitter way．They kept in mind the rules to make learning by heart easier．They first made a word-for-word translation and then an idiomatic translation into English．As they increased their skill, they translated their English back into Latin without referring to the book and then compared their translation with the original．The schoolmaster was always at hand to encourage them．All schoolmasters believed Latin should be beaten in．

　　After several years of study, the boys began to write compositions in imitation of the Latin writers they read．And as they began to read Latin poems, they began to write poems in Latin．Because Milton was already a poet at ten, his poems were much better than those painfully put together by the other boys．During the seven years Milton spent at university, he made regular use of his command of Latin．He wrote some excellent Latin poems, which he published among his works in 1645．

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　　Short people, studies have shown, are more likely to have a stroke(中风), suffer from high blood pressures and heart disease and be bullied in school．

　　Now, researchers report that short people-at least in the past-were also more likely to die at a younger age than their taller peers．

　　Their study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology(流行病学)and Community Health, found that short bones have something to do with short life for more than 1,000 years．The conclusion was based on 490 sets of adult skeletal(骨架的)remains from an archaeological(考古的)site in northeastern England, dating from the 9^th century to about 1850．

　　About 55% of men and 73% of women died before the age of 45, and 39% of men and 56% of women died before age 30．The risk of death before age 30 declined as bone length increased．

　　“This study provides evidence from an archaeological sample that long bone length is connected with age at death-those with smaller bones tend to die younger,”according to Dr．D．J．Gunnell of the University of Bristol in the UK and colleagues．

　　While it is not clear why short stature(身材)might be linked to earlier death, the researchers point out that height is an indicator of childhood nutrition, which may have long-lasting effect on health．

　　“Mechanism(身体结构)for height-motality(死亡)associations in the past may differ from those today, for example, short stature may have increased the risk of death in childbirth and this may explain the higher risk of premature(未成熟的)mortality in women,”Gunnel and colleagues write．

　　“However, short bones, it would appear, have always been a marker of a short life,”the authors conclude．

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　　OK, so you’ve decided on a career in the media, and you are sick to death with people telling you how competitive the industries are．You know you are going to have to get in any which way you can, and that this will probably mean making tea and photocopying, and you are prepared．

　　But that may mean that you will find it a little disappointing when you emerge from an environment where your ideas or you have been publishing your own magazines, and enter a place where perhaps no one will ask you your name, or say hello to you in the morning, and where you are being perhaps not paid to do a job．

　　There are a number of training schemes offered across the media, which are a great route in．Simon Winder was given his start in publishing by the MacMillan’s training scheme．“I was sent out to Africa and Asia for a couple of years, selling educational books．It was a terrible job in many ways but interesting training,”says Winder．Because he had learnt first-hand about the business of publishing, his training prepared him for a career in the industry．On his return to England, Winder made the move to a senior position at Penguin seven years ago．

　　If you can’t get on to a training scheme, or get a paid job straight away, then offering your services for free will open up many opportunities to you．It is all about proving that you can do the job．“Identify companies and people whose programmes you like, and then simply write to them,”Connock advises those wanting to break into television,“Offer to work for free if you possibly can, and the chances are you will impress with your hard work and ideas, and end up staying on in paid employment．That’s how practically every employee of Ten Alps ended up with the company．”

　　Wherever you start out, if you work hard at what you do, your efforts will be rewarded．“Don’t focus on where you want to end up,”advises Ross,“You’ll know where that is when you’re there; just stay focused on the job in hand, and do that as well as you can．”

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Hints on safety

　　Nearly everyone is attracted to water, whether it be the sea, canals, rivers or the village pond．Beautiful as it is, water should be regarded with respect as it can be dangerous．Around 300 children up to the age of ten die each year from drowning．It should be every parent’s responsibility to ensure that both he and the children swim safely and that as the child gets older, he has some knowledge of life-saving and artificial respiration(人工呼吸)．

　　The basic rules of water safety are：

　　－don’t leave small children playing alone in water

　　－never swim an hour before or an hour after a main meal

　　－if it’s a danger area, find out before you start swimming where the lifeguard is or where a life-belt is available

　　－as children get older, try to teach them to remain calm in an emergency

　　－look out for warning signs to see whether you’re in a danger area (see under this)．Be especially careful of inland stretches of water-pools, reservoirs(水库)and dykes(沟)where there are often fewer people about than at the seaside．

　　YOU SHOUID KNOW

　　THE NATIONAL CODE FOR BATHERS－the code deals with warnings that indicate“Unsafe to Bathe”．

　　1．Colour：red, UNSAFE TO BATHE, do not enter the water．

　　2．Colour：red board, with lettering．UNSAFE TO BATHE AT ALL TIMES．

Lifesaving equipment is also painted red for easy identification．

　　3．Colour：red and yellow．PATROLLED(巡逻)BATHING AREAS．Bathing areas with life-saving facilities provided by patrols of lifeguards．

　　4．Colour：black and white check．SURFING(冲浪)AREA．Area set aside for surfing or surfing board riding．

　　5．Colour：white and blue．The divers’ flag means DIVERS DOWN．Boat users keep well clear of this area．

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