Caroline Hartman: Thanks for the terrific article on U2’s Bono and his efforts to save Africa from financial ruin. He’s not a saint. He is a hard-working, real man, using his gifts to inspire us in song and make a difference in the world. Some issues are so serious that most of us don’t even try to fix them. Bono can’t save the world by himself, but like others who have shown the way, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, he is proving that one man can make a difference. Molly Leuschel: Bono may be smarter, better informed and more committed than other stars, but Africa’s problems are larger than his ambition. After living in Africa nearly six years, I returned to the U.S. with more questions than answers. Debt relief is a noble idea, but most foreign aid does little to enrich the life of the average African. Amanda Adichie: I am a 24-year-old Nigerian and have often viewed stars "concern" for Africa with resentment. My reaction to Bono was different: I was impressed. He is right in recommending not only debt relief but the lowering of trade restrictions on African countries. What Africa needs is not gifts of fish but fair access to the fishing pond. Malini Ranganathan: Your story on the smartest superstar on the planet was brilliant. I felt like I was right there with him, there to nod my head in approval and to believe in the potential of his African-debt-relief campaign, there to appreciate the peculiar, stubborn, witty and human sides to a guy who seems too famous to be real. Hats off to you for capturing these features so aptly and for making Bono’s personality so real, his cause so true. Lynne Pereira: I loved your article on Bono, but why the annoying wording on your cover: "Don’t laugh — the planet’s biggest rock star is on a mission to make a difference" Who would want to laugh Bono has proved that he’s willing and able to do what plenty of world leaders can’t or won’t do: put his money where his mouth is and make a difference. Statements[A] Competition on an equal footing is vital to Africa.[B] Bono should save himself from himself.[C] One man’s power, though limited, is significant.[D] Africa’s problems are insolvable.[E] You have presented a real image of Bono.[F] Africa is faced with other issues besides debts.[G] Bono’s cause is a serious business. Amanda Adichie
TEXT D Science has long had an uneasy relationship with other aspects of culture. Think of Gallileo’s 17th century trial for his rebelling belief before the Catholic Church or poet William Blake’s harsh remarks against the mechanistic worldview of Isaac Newton. The schism between science and the humanities has, if anything, deepened in this century. Until recently, the scientific community was so powerful that it could afford to ignore its critics-but no longer. As funding for science has declined, scientists have attacked "anti-science" in several books, notably Higher Superstition, by Paul R. Gross, a biologist at the University of Virginia, and Norman Levitt, a mathematician at Rutgers University; and The Demon-Haunted World, by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. Defenders of science have also voiced their concerns at meetings sucas "The Flight from Science and Reason", held in New York City in 1995, and "Science in the Age of Misinformation", which assembled last June near Buffalo. Anti-science clearly means different things to different people. Gross and Levitt find fault primarily with sociologists, philosophers and other academics who have questioned science’s objectivity. Sagan is more concerned with those who believe in ghosts, creationism and other phenomena that contradict the scientific worldview. A survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the anti-science tag has been attached to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research. Few would dispute that the term applies to the unabomber, whose manifesto, published in 1995, scorns science and longs for return to a pre-technological utopia. But surely that does not mean environmentalists concerned about uncontrolled industrial growth are anti-science, as an essay in US News & World Report last May seemed to suggest. The environmentalists, inevitably, respond to such critics. The true enemies of science, argues Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, a pioneer of environmental studies, are those who question the evidence supporting global warming, the depletion of the zone layer and other consequences of industrial growth. Indeed, some observers fear that the anti-science epithet is in danger of becoming meaningless. "The term ’anti-science’ can lump together too many, quite different things," notes Harvard University philosopher Gerald Holton in his 1993 work Science and Anti-science. "They have in common only one thing that the tend to annoy or threaten those who regard themselves as more enlightened." The author’s attitude toward the issue of "science vs. anti-science" is ______.
A. impartial
B. subjective
C. biased
D. perplexed
Which of the following questions is the speaker trying to answer
A. Why did the English conquer Ireland in the 16th century
B. Why did the English fail to introduce their culture to the Irish
C. Why do the Irish speak and write better English than the English
D. Why do the Irish use old-fashioned English in their language