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Passage ThreeEver since the 1750s, when the writer, satirist, statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin put political cartooning on the map by publishing the first cartoon of the genre in America, artists have combined their talent, wit and political beliefs to create cartoons that enrage, enlighten or simply engage the viewer. A picture may paint a thousand words, but a cartoon provokes, protests and entertains all at once. It is this that makes cartoonists so valuable and influential in times of crisis. Today, that crisis is climate change, and clever imagery can give new impetus to our struggle to combat global warming. The organizers of Earthworks 2008, a global cartoon competition, believe that art and humor are simple ways to get the environmental message across. "We set up the competition to give cartoonists around the world a platform on which to express themselves," says John Renard, one of the Earthworks organizers. "We hoped the competition would stimulate cartoonists to use their pens and wit to help combat environmental devastation and give new impetus to our desperate fight to stop global warming," he says. "After all, humor is often a valuable key in the struggle to win hearts and minds." But despite the sharp wit that pervades the cartoons, climate change is no laughing matter for their creators. The 50 or so countries from which the 600 competition entries were sent are all suffering the effects of global warming, some more dramatically than others. Two cartoons were sent from Burma, where in May this year a tropical storm tore through five regions along the western coast, killing at least 100,000 people, and leaving millions more without shelter, food, or clean water. Although governments around the world are reluctant to suggest, officially, that the disaster in Burma is a direct result of global warming, there’s little doubt that it will have added to the tropical storm’s destructive power. Studies published in the journals Nature and Science have demonstrated a link between rising sea temperatures and increased wind-speed of tropical storms and hurricanes, and even US-government-funded organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration admit that a warming of the global climate will affect the severity of storms. "Experiencing first-hand the catastrophic effects of climate change allowed these artists to give their cartoons a special sharpness," says Revent. With respect to global warming, the passage suggests that political leaders should（）
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Passage TwoModern Japan, despite its ready adoption of Western manners, is in things theatrical still faithful to the ancient feudal day. It is true that within the last few years, the old school drama has to some extent lost ground, and quite recently performances of Shakespeare’s Othello and Hamlet, and Daudet’s Sappho have been received with favor by Tokyo audiences. The explanation of this curious survival of the old form of play, at a time when all Japan is eagerly imitating the foreigner, is undoubtedly to be found in the peculiar customs of the country. The progressive Japanese finds it easier to change his mode of dress than to reform habits bred in the bone. The old plays, lasting, as they formerly did, from early morning until nearly midnight, just suited the Japanese play-goer, who, when he does go to the theatre, makes an all-day affair of it. Indeed, theatre-going in Japan is a very serious matter, and not to be entered upon lightly or without due preparation. Recently Sada Yoko and Oto Kawakami, who learned a good deal in their foreign travels, introduced the comparatively short evening performance of three or four hours, an innovation which was at once welcomed by the better class of people. But the new arrangement found little favor with the general public, and particular indignation was aroused in the bosom of the Japanese Matinee Girl who loves to sit in the theatre as long as possible and weep over the play. For, to the young gentlewoman, the theatre is essentially the place for weeping. Japanese girls are extremely sentimental, and a play without tear-provoking situations would not appeal to them in the least. The Japanese women are passionately devoted to the drama. It is usual for a party to book a box through a tea house connected with the theatre and at the same time make arrangements for what refreshments they wish served. The Japanese maiden makes the most elaborate preparations days beforehand. To be at the theatre on time, playgoers must rise with the sun, and all their meals, including breakfast, are eaten in the tiny box in the playhouse. It is not an easy task to reach one’s seats and once the family has settled down, nothing but a catastrophe would induce it to leave its box. The women chew candy and the men freely drink sake as the play goes on. While watching a drama in the theatre box, the family would most UNLIKELY（）
Passage FourThe "issues" reported were unthinkable. The physician who enrolled the most patients in the study, an Alabama weight-loss doctor, allegedly forged scores of signatures, enrolling "’volunteers" every few minutes. By the time of the FDA review, she was under criminal investigation. (She’s now in federal prison.) Another key researcher had been put on probation by the California medical board for gross negligence. He was arrested shortly after the study ended, when police, called to his home on a domestic violence complaint, found him with a bag of cocaine and waving a loaded gun at imaginary people. The study was so riddled with fraud and error that FDA reviewers decided it was useless. Yet Dr. Ross says he was told to reveal nothing about those problems to the advisory board, which recommended that the drug be approved. Later, he says, he was pressured to soften his report about Ketek’s liver toxicity to gain approval of higher-ups. Six million Americans have now used the drug, including hundreds of infants in a clinical trial designed to test Ketek’s effectiveness against ear infections. "How does one justify balancing the risk of fatal liver failure against one day less of ear pain" one FDA scientist, Rosemary Johann-Liang, protested--to no avail--in a memo to her superiors. Most ear infections clear up in a few days on their own, she says. The agency says the controversy is overblown. "There was enough good, solid scientific data to make that decision." Says FDA spokeswoman Julie Zawisza, pointing to what appeared to be a history of safe use of Ketek in other countries. Ketek has now been linked to 18 deaths and at least 134 cases of liver damage, according to an independent analysis using FDA data. The real toll, some researchers say, may be far greater. Last October the FDA sent a warning letter to Sanofi-Aventis, Ketek’s maker, accusing the company of knowingly presenting compromised data to the agency, a charge the company denies. "We were not aware of the fraud," says spokeswoman Melissa Feltmann. "It was not until the FDA’s criminal investigators uncovered it that we became aware of it." The question remains, What did the FDA and the drugmaker know about the fake safety data, and when Congressmen John Dingell and Bart Stupak, both Michigan Democrats, are investigating that mystery right now in Congressional hearings. "Unfortunately," Stupak says, "the truth comes too late for some victims." The author obviously believes that, in the incident, FDA failed to（）
Passage OneSwine flu has infected more than a million Americans and is infecting thousands more every week even though the annual flu season is well over. That total of those who have already been infected is "just a ballpark figure," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of respiratory diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adding, "We know we’re not tracking every single one of them." Only a tiny fraction of those million cases have been tested. 66 A survey in New York City showed that almost 7 percent of those called had had flu symptoms during just three weeks in May when the flu was spreading rapidly through schools. If that percentage of the city has had it, then there have been more than 500,000 cases in the city alone. 67 The flu has now spread to many areas of the country, Dr. Schuchaf noted, and the C. D. C. has heard of outbreaks in 34 summer camps in 16 states. About 3,000 Americans have been hospitalized, and their median age is quite young, just 19. Of those, 127 have died. The median age for deaths is somewhat higher, at 37, but that number is pushed up because while only a few elderly people catch the new flu, about 2 percent of them die as a result. 68 "Even those victims, "she said, "tend to be relatively young, and I don’t think that they were thinking of themselves as ready to die." The now flu has now reached more than 100 countries, according to the World Health Organization. 69 Australia, Chile and Argentina are seeing a fast spread of the virus, mostly among young people, while one of the usual seasonal flus, an H3N2, is also active. Five American vaccine companies are working on a swine flu vaccine, Dr. Schuchat said. The C. D. C. has estimated that once the new vaccine is tested for both safety and effectiveness, no more than 60 million doses will be available by September. 70 . 70（）.
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