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America's recent history has been a persistent tilt to the West—of people, ideas, commerce and even political power. California and Texas are the twin poles of the West, but very different ones. For most of the 20th century the home of Silicon Valley and Hollywood has been the brainier and trendier of the two. Texas has trailed behind: its stereotype has been a conservative Christian in cowboy boots. But twins can change places. Is that happening now?
It is easy to find evidence that California is in a panic. At the start of this month the once golden state started paying creditors in IOUs. The gap between projected outgoings and income for the current fiscal year has leapt to a horrible $26 billion. With no sign of a new budget to close this gulf, one credit agency has already downgraded California's debt. As budgets are cut, universities will let in fewer students, prisoners will be released early and schemes to protect the vulnerable will be rolled back.
By contrast, Texas has coped well with the recession, with an unemployment rate two points below the national average and one of the lowest rates of housing repossession. In part this is because Texan banks, hard hit in the last property bust, did not overexpand this time. Texas also clearly offers a different model, based on small government. It has no state capital-gains or income tax, and a business-friendly and immigrant-tolerant attitude. It is home to more Fortune 500 companies than any other state.
Despite all this, it still seems too early to hand over America's future to Texas. To begin with, that lean Texan model has its own problems. It has not invested enough in education, and many experts rightly worry about a “lost generation” of mostly Hispanic Texans with insufficient skills for the demands of the knowledge economy.
Second, it has never paid to bet against a state with as many inventive people as California. Even if, Hollywood has gone into depression, it still boasts an unequalled array of sunrise industries and the most brisk venture-capital industry on the planet. The state also has an awesome ability to reinvent itself—as it did when its defense industry collapsed at the end of the cold war.
The truth is that both states could learn from each other. Texas still lacks California's great universities and lags in terms of culture. California could adopt not just Texas's leaner state, but also its more bipartisan approach to politics. There is no perfect model of government: it is America's genius to have 50 public-policy laboratories competing to find out what works best.
1. What does the author say about California and Texas in Paragraph 1?
A. They have been competing for the leading position.
B. California has been superior to Texas in many ways.
C. They are both models of development for other states.
D. Texas's cowboy culture is less known than California's.
2. What does the author say about today's California?
A. Its debts are pushing it into bankruptcy.
B. Its budgets have been cut by $26 billion.
C. It is faced with a serious financial crisis.
D. It is trying hard to protect the vulnerable.
3. In what way is Texas different from California?
A. It practices small government.
B. It has a large Hispanic population.
C. It is home to traditional industries.
D. It has an enviable welfare system.
4. What problem is Texas confronted with?
A. Its Hispanic population is mostly illiterate.
B. Its sunrise industries are shrinking rapidly.
C. Its education cannot meet the needs of the knowledge economy.
D. Its immigrants have a hard time adapting to its cowboy culture.
5. What do we learn about American politics from the passage?
A. All states believe in government for the people.
B. Most states favor a bipartisan approach.
C. Parties collaborate in drawing public policies.
D. Each state has its own way of governing.
Don't talk: your cell phone may be eaves-dropping. Thanks to recent developments in “spy phone” software, a do-it-yourself player can now wirelessly transfer a wiretapping program to any mobile phone. The programs are inexpensive, and the transfer requires no special skill. The would-be spy needs to get his hands on your phone to press keys authorizing the download, but it takes just a few minutes—about the time needed to download a ringtone.
This new generation of user-friendly spy-phone software has become widely available in the last year—and it confers stunning powers. The latest programs can silently turn on handset microphones even when no call is being made, allowing a spy to listen to voices in a room halfway around the world. Targets are none the wiser: neither call logs nor phone bills show records of the secretly transmitted data.
More than 200 companies sell spy-phone software online, at prices as low as $50 (a few programs cost more than $300). Vendors are loath to release sales figures. But some experts—private investigators and consultants in counter-wiretapping, computer-security software and telecommunications market research—claim that a surprising number of people carry a mobile that has been compromised, usually by a spouse, lover, parent or co-worker. Many employees, experts say, hope to discover a supervisor's dishonest dealings and tip off the top boss anonymously. Max Maiellaro, head of Agata Christie Investigation, a private-investigation firm in Milan, estimates that 3 percent of mobiles in France and Germany are tapped, and about 5 percent or so in Greece, Italy, Romania and Spain. James Atkinson, a spy-phone expert at Granite Island Group, a security consultancy in Gloucester, Massachusetts, puts the number of tapped phones in the U.S. at 3 percent. (These approximations do not take into account government wiretapping.) Even if these numbers are inflated, clearly many otherwise law-abiding citizens are willing to break wiretapping laws.
Spyware thrives on iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smart phones because they have ample processing power. In the United States, the spread of GSM networks, which are more vulnerable than older technologies, has also enlarged the pool of potential victims. Spyware being developed for law-enforcement agencies will accompany a text message and automatically install itself in the victim's phone when the message is opened, according to an Italian developer who declined to be identified. One worry is that the software will find its way into the hands of criminals.
The current predicament is partly the result of decisions by Apple, Microsoft and Research In Motion (producer of the BlackBerry) to open their phones to outside application-software developers, which created the opening for spyware. Antivirus and security programs developed for computers require too much processing power, even for smart phones. Although security programs are available for phones, by and large users haven't given the threat much thought. If the spying keeps spreading, that may change soon.
1. According to the first two paragraphs, which of the following statements is true of the existing spy-phone software?
A. It can be automatically installed if only a call is made.
B. It requires no special technique and training in using the software.
C. It is only usable in certain types of mobile phones.
D. It allows users to check other people's call log and phone bills.
2. An employee wiretapping his boss's mobile phone is cited to show _______.
A. how competitive the office has become
B. how dishonest the high-status official is
C. how widespread wiretapping is
D. how surprising wiretapping is executed by ac-quaintance
3. What is the concern for the Spyware being developed for law-enforcement agencies?
A. It would be abused.
B. It would threaten privacy.
C. It would enlarge the victim pool.
D. It would compromise credibility.
4. According to the last paragraph, for what are phone manufactures to blame?
A. They make phone products compatible with other programs.
B. The security programs developed for phones are not effective.
C. They don't develop enough anti-virus programs.
D. They don't give much thought to the customers' needs.
5. By saying “that may change soon” (Last sentence, Para. 5), the author means _______.
A. manufacturers may become more devoted to developing security programs
B. manufactures may stop opening their phones to other software
C. customers may choose the phones with less processing power
D. customers may consider installing security programs in their phones
The description of any animal as an “evolutionary throwback” is controversial. A Belgian paleontologist called Louis Dollo proposed that evolution was irreversible: that “an organism is unable to return, even partially, to a previous stage already realized in the ranks of its ancestors”. Early 20th-century biologists came to a similar conclusion, though they qualified it in terms of probability, stating that there is no reason why evolution cannot run backwards—it is just very unlikely. And so the idea of irreversibility in evolution stuck and came to be known as “Dollo's law”.
If Dollo's law is right, atavisms should occur only very rarely, if at all. Yet almost since the idea took root, exceptions have been cropping up. In 1919, for example, a humpback whale with a pair of leg-like appendages over a metre long, complete with a full set of limb bones, was caught off Vancouver Island in Canada. Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews argued at the time that the whale must be a throwback to a land-living ancestor. “I can see no other explanation,” he wrote in 1921.
So many examples have been discovered that it no longer makes sense to say that evolution is as good as irreversible. And this poses a puzzle: how can characteristics that disappeared millions of years ago suddenly reappear? In 1994, Rudolf Raff and colleagues at Indiana University in the USA decided to use genetics to put a number on the probability of evolution going into reverse. They reasoned that while some evolutionary changes involve the loss of genes and are therefore irreversible, others may be the result of genes being switched off. If these silent genes are somehow switched back on, they argued, long-lost traits could reappear.
Raff's team went on to calculate the likelihood of it happening. Silent genes accumulate random mutations, they reasoned, eventually rendering them useless. So how long can a gene survive in a species if it is no longer used? The team calculated that there is a good chance of silent genes surviving for up to 6 million years in at least a few individuals in a population, and that some might survive as long as 10 million years. In other words, throwbacks are possible, but only to the relatively recent evolutionary past.
As a possible example, the team pointed to the mole salamanders of Mexico and California. Like most amphibians that are able to live both on land and in water, these begin life in a juvenile “tadpole” state, then change into the adult form—except for one species, the axolotl, which famously lives its entire life as a juvenile. The simplest explanation for this is that the axolotl lineage alone lost the ability to change, while others retained it. From a detailed analysis of the salamanders' family tree, however, it is clear that the other lineages evolved from an ancestor that itself had lost the ability to change. In other words, changing in mole salamanders is an atavism. The salamander example fits with Raff's 10-million-year time frame.
More recently, however, examples have been reported that break the time limit, suggesting that silent genes may not be the whole story. In a paper published last year, biologist Gunter Wagner of Yale University reported some work on the evolutionary history of a group of South American lizards called Bachia. Many of these have tiny limbs; some look more like snakes than lizards and a few have completely lost the toes on their back limbs. Other species, however, sport up to four toes on their back legs. The simplest explanation is that the toed lineages never lost their toes, but Wagner begs to differ. According to his analysis of the Bachia family tree, the toed species re-evolved toes from toeless ancestors and, what is more, toes loss and gain has occurred on more than one occasion over tens of millions of years.
1. When discussing the theory developed by Louis Dollo, the writer says that ______.
A. it was immediately referred to as Dollo's law
B. it supported the possibility of evolutionary throwbacks
C. it was modified by biologists in the early twentieth century
D. it was based on many years of research
2. The humpback whale caught off Vancouver Island is mentioned because ______.
A. its body has an exceptional size
B. it exemplifies Dollo's law
C. it has caused a lot of local controversy
D. it has unusual traits
3. Which one is true about “silent genes”?
A. Their numbers vary according to species.
B. Raff disagreed with the use of the term.
C. They could lead to the re-emergence of certain characteristics.
D. They can have an unlimited life span.
4. The writer mentions the mole salamander because ______.
A. it exemplifies what happens in the development of most amphibians
B. it suggests that Raff's theory is correct
C. it has lost and regained more than one ability
D. its ancestors have become the subject of extensive research
5. Which of the following does Wagner claim?
A. Members of the Bachia lizard family have lost and regained certain features several times.
B. Evidence shows that the evolution of the Bachia lizard is due to the environment.
C. His research into South American lizards supports Raff's assertions.
D. His findings will apply to other species of South American lizards.
There are more than 300 million of us in the U.S., and sometimes it seems like we're all friends on Facebook. But the sad truth is that Americans are lonelier than ever. Between 2005 and 2019, the number of people who said there was no one with whom they discussed important matters tripled, to 25 percent, according to Duke University researchers. Unfortunately, as a new study linking women to increased risk of heart disease shows, all this loneliness can be detrimental to our health.
The bad news doesn't just affect women. Social isolation in all adults has been linked to a lot of physical and mental ailments, including sleep disorders, high blood pressure, and an increased risk of depression and suicide. How lonely you feel today actually predicts how well you'll sleep tonight and how depressed you'll feel a year from now, says John T. Cacioppo, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago and coauthor of Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection . Studies have shown that loneliness can cause stress levels to rise and can weaken the immune system. Lonely people also tend to have less healthy lifestyles, drinking more alcohol, eating more fattening food, and exercising less than those who are not lonely.
Though more Americans than ever are living alone (23 percent of U.S. households, up from 7 percent in 2000), the connection between single-living and loneliness is in fact quite weak. “Some of the most profound loneliness can happen when other people are present,” says Harry Reis, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. Take college freshmen: even though they're surrounded by people almost all the time, many feel incredibly isolated during the first quarter of the school year with their friends and family members far away, Cacioppo says. Studies have shown that how lonely freshmen will feel can be predicted by how many miles they are from home. By the second quarter, however, most freshmen have found social replacements for their high-school friends. Unfortunately, as we age, it becomes more difficult to recreate those social relationships. And that can be a big problem as America becomes a more transient society, with an increasing number of Americans who say that they're willing to move away from home for a job.
Loneliness can be relative: it has been defined as an aversive emotional response to a perceived discrepancy between a person's desired levels of social interaction and the contact they're actually receiving. People tend to measure themselves against others, feeling particularly alone in communities where social connection is the norm. That's why collectivist cultures, like those in Southern Europe, have higher levels of loneliness than individualist cultures, Cacioppo says. For the same reason, isolated individuals feel most acutely alone on holidays like Christmas Eve or Thanksgiving, when most people are surrounded by family and friends.
Still, loneliness is a natural biological signal that we all have. Indeed, loneliness serves an adaptive purpose, making us protect and care for one another. Loneliness essentially puts the brain on high alert, encouraging us not to eat leftovers from the refrigerator but to call a friend and eat out. Certain situational factors can trigger loneliness, but long-term feelings of emptiness and isolation are partly genetic, Cacioppo says. What's inherited is not loneliness itself, but rather sensitivity to disconnection.
Social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter may provide people with a false sense of connection that ultimately increases loneliness in people who feel alone. These sites should serve as a supplement, but not replacement for, face-to-face interaction, Cacioppo says. For people who feel satisfied and loved in their day-to-day life, social media can be a reassuring extension. For those who are already lonely, Facebook status updates are just a reminder of how much better everyone else is at making friends and having fun. So how many friends do you need to avoid loneliness? An introvert might need one confidant not to feel lonely, whereas an extrovert might require two, three, or four bosom buddies. Experts say it's not the quantity of social relationships but the quality that really matters.
1. Which of the following is NOT among the factors that may cause people to feel lonely?
A. Holiday atmosphere.
B. Being far away from family and friends.
C. Less healthy lifestyles.
D. Sensitivity to isolation.
2. Who tends to be the least lonely according to the passage?
A. A person who is always surrounded by others.
B. A person who has a lot of friends on Facebook.
C. A person who often moves away from home for a job.
D. A person who lives in an individual culture.
3. The author's main purpose of mentioning Facebook is to ______.
A. compare Facebook with face-to-face communication
B. emphasize the supplementary function of Facebook to daily communication
C. illustrate the importance of Facebook in helping people to relieve loneliness
D. introduce some ways to make friends on Facebook
4. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A. There are approximately 8% of Americans who claimed to be lonely in 2005.
B. College sophomores tend to be lonelier than freshmen.
C. The more you expect of social interaction, the lonelier you feel if the reality is the reverse.
D. People who often feel lonely are likely to have lonely children.
5. This article mainly talks about ______.
A. causes of loneliness
B. effects of loneliness
C. ways to avoid loneliness
D. loneliness and lifestyles