Improve Computer-research Skills
Like many college students, Jose Juarez carries around a pocket-sized computer that lets him watch movies, surf the Internet and text—message his friends.
He's part of "Generation M" — those born after 1985 who【51】up connected to everything from video game to cellphones.
"For us, it's everyday life," said Juarez, 18, a freshman【52】California State University at Sacramento (CSUS).
【53】, educators are now saying that not all Generation M-ers can synthesize the piles of in- formation they're accessing.
"They're geeky, but they don't know what to【54】with their geekdom(滑稽)," said Barbara O'Connor, a Sacramento State communications studies professor who has been involved in a nationwide【55】to improve students' computer-research skills.
In a recent nationwide test to【56】their technological "literacy" — their ability to use the Internet to complete class assignments — only 49 percent correctly evaluated a set of Web sites for objectivity , authority and timeliness (合时) . Only 35 per cent could correctly narrow an overly【57】Internet search.
About 130 Sacramento State students, including Juarez, participated in the experimental test,【58】to 6,300 college students across the country.
The hour-long assessment test is conducted by Educational Testing Service. It is a web-based scavenger hunt (拾荒游戏)【59】simulated Internet search engines and academic databases that spit out purposely misleading information.
"They're very good a【60】in and using the Internet, but don't always understand what they get back," said Linda Golf, head of instructional services for the CSUS library.
"You see an open search box, you type in a few words and you【61】the button," said Golf, who is involved in the testing.
"They take at face value【62】shows up at the top of the list as the best stuff." Educators say that these sloppy research skills are troubling.
"We look at that as a foundational skill, in the same way we【63】math and English as a foundational skill," said Lorie Roth, assistant vice-chancellor for academic programmes in the CSU system.
Measuring how well students can "sort the good【64】the bad" on the Internet has become a higher priority for CSU, Roth said.
CSU is considering【65】a mandatory assessment test on technological literacy for all freshmen, much as it has required English and math placement tests since the 1980s.
Students in freshman seminars at Sacramento State were asked to take the test early in the semester and were expected to finish another round this week to measure their improvement.
(51)
A. brought
B. built
C. stood
D. grew
Common Problems, Common Solutions
The chances are that you made up your mind about smoking a long time ago — and decided it's not for you.
The chances are equally good that you know a lot of smokers — there are, after all about 60 million of them, work with them, and get along with them very well.
And finally it's a pretty safe bet that you're open-minded and interested in all the various issues about smokers and non-smokers — or you wouldn't be reading this.
And those three things make you incredibly(难以置信地) important today.
Because they mean that yours is the voice — not the smoker's and not the anti-smoker's — that will determine how much of society's efforts should go into building walls that separate us and how much into the search for solutions that bring us together.
For one tragic result of the emphasis on building walls is the diversion(转移) of millions of dollars from scientific research on the causes and cures of diseases ,which, when all is said and done, still strike the nonsmoker as well as the smoker. One prominent(卓越的) health organization, to cite(引证) but a single instance, now spends 28 cents of every publicly contributed dollar on "education" (much of it in anti- smoking propaganda, and only 2 cents on research).
There will always be some who want to build walls, who want to separate people from people, and up to a point, even these may serve society. The anti-smoking wall-builders have, to give them their due, helped to make us all more keenly aware of choice.
But our guess, and certainly our hope, is that you are among the far greatest number who know that walls are only temporary(暂时的) at best, and that over the long run, we can serve society's interest better by working together in mutual accommodation.
Whatever virtue walls may have, they can never move our society toward fundamental solutions. People who work together on common problems, common solutions, can.
What does the word "wall" used in the passage mean?
Anti-smoking propaganda.
B. Diseases striking nonsmokers as well as smokers.
C. Rules and regulations that prohibit smoking.
D. Separation of smokers from nonsmokers.
Egypt Felled by Famine
Even ancient Egypts mighty pyramid builders were powerless in the face of the famine that helped bring down their civilian around 2180 BC. Now evidence gleaned(搜集) from mud deposited by the River Nile suggests that a shift in climate thousands of kilometers to the south was ultimately to blem — and the same or worse could happen today.
The ancient Egyptians depended on the Niles annual floods to irrigate their crops. But any change in climate that pushed the African monsoons(季风) southwards out of Ethiopia would have diminished these floods.
Dwindling(逐渐变少;使变小) rains in the Ethiopian highlands would have meant fewer plants to establish the soil. When rain did fall it would have washed large amounts of soil into the Blue Nile and into Egypt, along with sediment(沉积,沉积物) from the White Nile. The Blue Nile mud has a different isotope signature(名;特征) from that of the White Nile. So by analyzing isotope(同位素;核素) differences in mud deposited in the Nile Delta, Michael Krom of Leads University worked out what proportion of sediment Came from each branch of the river.
Krom reasons that during periods of drought, the amount of the Blue Nile mud in the river would be relatively high. He found that one of these periods, from 4,500 to 4,200 years ago, immediately predates the fall of the Egypts Old Kingdom.
The weakened waters would have been catastrophic for the Egyptians. Changes that affect food supply don't have to be very large to have a ripple effect in societies, says Bill Ryan of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory(天文台) in New York.
Similar events today could be even more devastating, says team member Daniel Stanley, a geoarchaeologist (地质考古学家) from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C.. Anything humans do to shift the climate belts would have an even worse effect along the Nile system because the populations have increased dramatically.
Why does the author mention pyramid builders.
A. Because they once worked miracles.
Because they were well-built.
C. Because they were actually very weak.
D. Because even they were unable to rescue their civilization.
They Say Ireland's the Best
Ireland is the best place in the world to live in for 2005, according to a life quality ranking that appeared in Britain's Economist magazine last week.
The ambitious attempt to compare happiness levels around the world is based on the principle that wealth is not the only measure of human satisfaction and well-being. The index of 111 countries uses data on incomes, health, unemployment, climate, political stability, job security, gender equality as well as what the magazine calls "freedom, family and community life"
Despite the bad weather, troubled health service, traffic congestion (拥挤), gender inequality and the high cost of living, Ireland scored an impressive 8.33 points out of 10.
That put it well ahead of second-place Switzerland, which managed 8.07. Zimbabwe, troubled by political insecurity and hunger, is rated the gloomiest (最差的), picking up only 3.89 points.
"Although rising incomes and increased individual choices are highly valued. "the report said, "some of the factors associated with modernization such as the breakdown (崩溃) in traditional institutions and family values in part take away from a positive impact. "
"Ireland wins because it successfully combines the most desirable elements of the new with the preservation of certain warm elements of the old, such as stable family and community life"
The magazine admitted measuring quality of life is not a straightforward thing to do, and that its findings would have their critics.
No. 2 on the list is Switzerland. The other nations in the top 10 are Norway, Luxembourg, Sweden, Australia, Iceland, Italy, Denmark and Spain.
The UK is positioned at No. 29, a much lower position chiefly because of the social and family breakdown recorded in official statistics. The US, which has the second highest per capita GDP (人均国内生产总值) after Luxembourg, took the 13th place in the survey. China was in the lower half of the league at 60th.
For 2,050 years, Ireland has been the best place for humans to live in.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned