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Some products respond to consumers" needs; others, like Sony"s airboard, seek to create them. Like sending e-mails from the pool, or curling up in bed with your favorite sitcom. This futuristic apparatus combines the functions of a television, a DVD player and the Internet into a portable tablet the size of a place mat. If it catches on, it could change the concept of being digital at home.At 1.5kg, the airboard is light enough to carry anywhere in the house, and can send and receive data wirelessly from a base station hooked up to home-entertainment equipment. A 10.4-inc. (26-cm) LCD screen delivers vivid moving images or can serve as a digital photo album, and a touch-panel display eliminates the need for a keyboard. Sony, which began selling the device in Japan late last year, praises it as the Walkman of the information age. "It is amazing," says company president Kunitake Ando, who loftily describes the device as a gateway connecting the home to the outside world and eventually linking all appliances within. "The wireless environment will become quite common pretty soon."I tried out the airboard in my Tokyo apartment, and I have to admit: it"s way cool. First of all, airboarding is easy. I didn"t crack the instruction manual once to get the thing set up—and this is from someone who has trouble finding the "record" button on the VCR. Relaxing on my balcony, I could call up the airboard"s on-screen remote control and start playing video. By pressing another button, I could Net surf or check my e-mail account, while a split screen let me simultaneously watch my movie. The airboard"s base station—the size of a shoe box—doubles as a stand and battery charger. There is a slot for inserting a Sony memory stick, the gum-stick-sized cassette used to store photos and other digital files.But the airboard is not for everybody. At $1,065, it costs as much as a laptop but isn"t meant for serious computing. Checking e-mail is easy, but a 56-kbps modem makes for pretty slow surfing. The touch panel is fine for sending quick messages, but pushing the on-screen buttons is tedious for anything longer. The author has speculated about the airboard"s ______.

A. functions
B. weight
C. popularity
D. prize

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In a recent book entitledThe Psychic Life of Insects, Professor Bouvier says that we must be careful not to credit the little winged fellow with intelligence when they behave in what seems like an intelligent manner. They may be only reacting. I would like to confront the Professor with an instance of reasoning power on the part of an insect which cannot be explained away in any other manner.During the summer, while I was at work on my doctoral thesis, we kept a female wasp at our cottage. It was more like a child of our own than a wasp, except that it looked more like a wasp than a child of our own. That was one of the ways we told the difference.It was still a young wasp when we got it and for some time we could not get it to eat or drink, it was so shy. Since it was female, we decided to call it Miriam.One evening I had been working late in my laboratory fooling around with some gin and other chemicals, and in leaving the room I tripped over a line of diamonds which someone had left lying on the floor and knocked over my card index which contained the names and addresses of all the larvae worth knowing in North American. The cards went everywhere.I was too tired to stop to pick them that night. As I went, however, I noticed the wasp was flying about in circles over the scattered cards. "Maybe Miriam will pick them up", I said half laughingly to myself, never thinking for one moment that such would be the case.When I came down the next morning Miriam was still asleep in her box, evidently tired out. And well she might have been. For there on the floor lay the cards scattered all about just as I had left them the night before. The faithful little insect had buzzed about all night trying to come to some decision about picking them up and arranging them in the boxes for me, and then had figured out for herself that, as she knew practically nothing on larvae of any sort except wasp larvae, she would probably make more of a mess of rearranging them than if she had left them on the floor for me to fix. It was just too much for her to tackle, and discouraged, she went over and lay down in her box, where she cried herself to sleep. Which of the following statements was based on facts rather than on the author"s pure thinking

A. Miriam cried herself to sleep.
B. Miriam had buzzed about all night.
C. Miriam could only tell wasp larvae.
D. Miriam had left the cards on the floor.

The HMS Ontario is one of the most famous shipwrecks and was discovered by two Rochester engineers Jim Kennard, 64, who has spent more than half his life pursuing The HMS Ontario, along with Dan Scoville, 35, a shipwreck diver. They discovered The HMS Ontario deep off the southern shore of Lake Ontario when side-scanning sonar system that Mr. Kennard, a retired Kodak engineer, designed and built himself, showed a picture of something deep in Lake Ontario. The location of the shipwreck had been unknown for 228 years.Experienced shipwreck divers Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville have discovered seven of Lake Ontario"s estimated 500 shipwrecks in the last six years alone. Jim Kennard also designed a microwave-sized remote submersible that they deployed to go down and take the shipwreck"s video. The shipwreck is quite deep in Lake Ontario, so the remote machine with video was very useful."Right away we saw the quarter gallery, the windows in the stem, the cannons," said Jim Kennard. "There was no mistaking. That"s when we started getting excited." The discovery of the ship wreck was confirmed by the HMS Ontario expert Canadian Arthur Britton Smith, who authored the definitive book on the HMS Ontario.The loss of the HMS Ontario, is one of the worst-ever disasters recorded on Lake Ontario. In her time the HMS Ontario was the most-feared ship on the Great Lakes. It was 1780 and the Yankees were threatening to storm across Lake Ontario and seize Montreal from the British. But the intimidating 226-ton Ontario--22 cannons, two 80-foot masts, a beamy hull with cargo space for 1000 barrels, was intimidating. On Oct. 31, 1780, she sailed into a storm with around 120 passengers on board and was never seen again. The British tried to keep the news of the ship wreck hush.The HMS Ontario appears to be in perfect shape and the HMS Ontario has aged remarkably well though zebra mussels cover much of the woodwork. Leaning on a 45-degree angle, her masts still jut straight up from her decks where several guns lie upside-down and a brass bell, brass cleats and the stem lantern are perfectly visible. The Seven windows across her stem still have glass. Shipwrecks in cold freshwater are well preserved, that is why great lakes shipwrecks are prized. At 500 feet deep, where the HMS Ontario lies, there is no light and no oxygen to speed up the decomposition, and little marine life to feed on the wood.There was no evidence of the roughly 113 Canadian men, women, children and American prisoners who went down with the ship—the passengers—mostly Canadian soldiers from the 34th regiment—were never found. Nobody knows for sure how many passengers perished on the Ontario; the British kept their prisoner counts secret.Out of worries over looting, Mr. Jim Kennard and Mr. Dan Scoville are not revealing the HMS Ontario"s location. The vessel sits in water up to 500 feet deep and cannot be reached by anyone other than experienced divers. It is not believed to have any shipwreck treasure on it as was reported other than a few shipwreck coins that belonged to the passengers.Kennard said he and his partner have gathered enough ship wreck video of the ship that it will not be necessary to return to the site. He added that they hope to make a documentary about the discovery with the video of the shipwreck.The Great Lakes host many shipwreck locations and there are an estimated 4,700 shipwrecks in total, of which 500 are in Lake Ontario. Freshwater shipwrecks are famous for their preservation of the vessels and make popular diving spots. What is NOT true about the HMS Ontario

A. No trace of human being has been found in the shipwreck.
B. The passengers were evacuated before the ship sank.
C. The ship used to belong to the British Navy.
D. There was not much treasure on the ship.

An "apple polisher" is one who gives gifts to win friendship or special treatment. It is not exactly a bribe, but is close to it.All sorts of people are apple polishers, including politicians and people in high offices—just about everybody. Oliver Cromwell, the great English leader, offered many gifts to win the support of George Fox and his party, but failed.There are other phrases meaning the same thing as "apple-polishing"—"soft-soaping" or "buttering-up". A gift is just one way to "soft-soap" somebody, or to "butter him up". Another that is just as effective is flattery, giving someone high praise-telling him how good he looks, or how well he speaks, or how talented and wise he is.Endless are the ways of flattery. Who does not love to hear it Only an unusual man can resist the thrill of being told how wonderful he is. In truth, flattery is good medicine for most of us, who get so little of it.We need it to be more sure of ourselves. It cannot hurt unless we get carried away by it. But if we just lap it up for its food value and nourishment, as a cat laps up milk, then we can still remain true to ourselves.Sometimes, however, flattery will get you nothing from one who has had too much of it. A good example is the famous 12th century legend of King Canute of Denmark and England. The king got tired of listening to the endless sickening flattery of his courtiers. They overpraised him to the skies, as a man of limitless might.He decided to teach them a lesson. He took them to the seashore and sat down. Then he ordered the waves to stop coming in. The tide was too busy to listen to him. The king was satisfied. This might show his followers how weak his power. King Canute of Denmark and England took his followers to the seashore because ______.

A. he was sick of his normal life
B. he disliked being overpraised any more
C. he wanted them to realize how wise he was
D. he wanted them to see how weak he was as a king

As medical evidence mounts that we are indeed what we eat, consuming a healthier diet has become almost a national passion in the United States. The food-for-fitness phenomenon began in the late "70s when a U.S. Senate committee on nutrition reached grim conclusion that six out of the ten leading causes of death—such as heart disease, cancer, and stroke—might be linked to diet. The government issued dietary guidelines advising Americans to eat a variety of foods, maintain proper weight, and limit intake of fat, salt, sugar, and alcohol.For most Americans, what to eat is a matter of personal choice, rather than one of supply. An excellent nationwide food distribution system assures that fresh produce is readily available in all parts of the country, regardless of the season. Taking advantage of this abundance, many people are forsaking traditional meat-and- potatoes and in favor of lighter meals of salads, fruits, and vegetables.The single most dramatic change in the American diet has been a reduction in consumption of animal fat, which is thought to increase the risk of heart disease and may contribute to the high U.S. incidence of breast and colon cancer. Margarine and vegetable oils have replaced butter and lard in many homes, and half of all milk now drunk in the United States is low-fat. Fish and poultry are increasingly popular sources of protein as consumption of red meat declines. The food industry has responded to concern about fat by producing leaner cuts of meat and cholesterol-free substitutes for eggs.One of the most significant trends in the American way of eating is the healthful change in restaurant food. "One of every two meals in the United States is eaten outside the home," says Donna Watson, president of the American Dietetic Association. "Restaurants are making special efforts to provide low-fat, low-salt, and low-calorie items." Salad bars, loaded with fresh greens and raw fruits and vegetables, are found everywhere, even along-side the burgers and French fries in fast-food restaurants.Most important, the focus on prudent diet has led to an unprecedented national quest for a healthier life style. Americans are smoking less, exercising more, and experimenting with new ways to conquer stress. Eating sensibly, they have discovered, is only one important route to good health. What is the author"s attitude towards restaurant food

A. Optimistic.
B. Impersonal.
C. Enthusiastic.
D. Anxious.

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