时间：2019-10-26 点击：755次
1112 A1
Boys schools are the perfect place to teach young men to express their emotions and involve
them in activities such as art, dance and music.
Far from the traditional image of a culture of aggressive masculinity in which students either sink
or swim, the absence of girls gives boys the chance to develop without pressure to conform to a
stereotype. A US study says.
Boys at single sex schools were said to be more likely to get involved in cultural and artistic
activities that helped develop their emotional expressiveness, rather than feeling they had to
conform to the "boy code" of hiding their emotions to be a "real man".
The findings of the study go against received wisdom that boys do better when taught alongside
girls.
Tony Little, headmaster of Eton, warned that boys were being failed by the British education
system because it had become too focused on girls.
He criticized teachers for failing to recognize that boys are actually more emotional than girls.
The research argued that boys often perform badly in mixed schools because they become
discouraged when their female peers do better earlier in speaking and reading skills.
But in single-sex schools teachers can tailor lessons to boys learning style, letting them move
around the classroom and getting them to compete in teams to prevent boredom, wrote the
studys author, Abigail James, of the University of Virginia.
Teachers could encourage boys to enjoy reading and writing with specifically "boy-focused"
approaches such as themes and characters that appeal to them.
Because boys generally have more acute vision, learn best through touch, and are physically
more active, they need to be given "hands-on" lessons where they are allowed to walk around.
"Boys in mixed schools view classical music as feminine and prefer the modern genre in which
violence and sexism are major themes," James wrote.
Single-sex education also made it less likely that boys would feel they had to conform to a
stereotype that men should be "masterful and in charge" in relationships.
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"In mixed schools, boys feel compelled to act like men before they understand themselves well
enough to know what that means," the study reported.
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1112 A2
Its an annual argument. Do we or do we not go on holiday?
My partner says no because the boiler could go, or the roof fall off, and we have no savings to
save us.
I say that you only live once and we work hard and whats the point if you cant go on holiday.
The joy of a recession means no argument next year—we just wont go.
Since money is known to be one of the things most likely to bring a relationship to its knees, we
should be grateful.
For many families the recession means more than not booking a holiday.
A YouGov poll of 2,000 people found 22% said they were arguing more with their partners
because of concerns about money.
Whats less clear is whether divorce and separation rates rise in a recession—financial pressures
mean couples argue more but make splitting up less affordable.
A recent research shows arguments about money were especially damaging to couples.
Disputes were characterized by intense verbal aggression, tended to be repeated and not
resolved, and made men, more than women, extremely angry.
Kim Stephenson, an occupational psychologist, believes money is such a big deal because of what
it symbolizes, which may be different things to men and women.
"People can say the same things about money but have different conceptions of what it is for,"
he explains.
"They will say its to save, to spend, for security, for freedom, to show someone you love them."
He says men are more likely to see money as a way of buying status and of showing their parents
that theyve achieved something.
"The biggest problem is that couples assume each other knows what is going on with their
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finances, but they dont.
There seems to be more of a taboo about talking about money than talking about death.
But you both need to know what you are doing, who is paying what into the joint account and
how much you keep separately.
In a healthy relationship you dont have to agree about money, but you have to talk about it."
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1106 A1
Several recent studies have found that being randomly assigned to a roommate of another race
can lead to increased tolerance but also to a greater likelihood of conflict.
Recent reports found that lodging with a student of a different race may decrease prejudice and
compel students to engage in more ethnically diverse friendships.
An Ohio State University study also found that black students living with a white roommate saw
higher academic success throughout their college careers.
Researchers believe this may be caused by social pressure.
In a New York Times article, Sam Roakye—the only black student on his freshman year floor-said
that "if youre surrounded by whites, you have something to prove."
Researchers also observed problems resulting from pairing interracial students in residences.
According to two recent studies, randomly assigned roommates of different race are more likely
to experience conflicts so strained that one roommate will move out.
An Indiana University study found that interracial roommates were three times as likely as two
white roommates to no longer live together by the end of the semester.
Grace Kao, a professor at Penn said she was not surprised by the findings.
"This may be the first time that some of these students have interacted, and lived, with someone
of a different race," she said.
At Penn, student are not asked to indicate race when applying for housing.
"One of the great things about freshman housing is that, with some exceptions, the process
throws you together randomly," said Undergraduate Assembly chairman Alec Webley.
"This is the definition of integration."
"Ive experienced roommate conflicts between interracial students that have both broken down
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stereotypes and reinforced stereotypes," said one Penn resident advisor (RA).
The RA of two years added that while some conflicts "provided more multicultural acceptance
and melding," there were also "jarring cultural confrontations."
The RA said that these conflicts have also occurred among roommates of the same race.
Kao said she cautions against forming any generalizations based on any one of the studies, noting
that more background characteristics of the students need to be studies and explained.
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1106 A2
Global warming is causing more than 300,000 deaths and about $125 billion in economic losses
each year, according to a report by the Global Humanitarian Forum, an organization led by Kofi
Annan, the former United Nations secretary general.
The report, to be released Friday, analyzed data and existing studies of health, disaster,
population and economic trends.
It found that human-influenced climate change was raising the global death rates from illnesses
including malnutrition and heat-related health problems.
But even before its release, the report drew criticism from some experts on climate and risk, who
questioned its methods and conclusions.
Along with the deaths, the report said that the lives of 325 million people, primarily in poor
countries, were being seriously affected by climate change.
It projected that the number would double by 2030.
Roger Pielke Jr., a political scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who studies disaster
trends, said the Forums report was " a methodological embarrassment" because there was no
way to distinguish deaths or economic losses related to human driven global warming amid the
much larger losses resulting from the growth in populations and economic development in
vulnerable regions.
Dr. Pielke said that "climate change is an important problem requiring our utmost attention."
But the report, he said, "will harm the cause for action on both climate change and disasters
because it is so deeply flawed."
However, Soren Anderasen, a social scientist at Dalberg Global Development Partners who
supervised the writing of the report, defended it, saying that it was clear that the numbers were
rough estimates.
He said the report was aimed at world leaders, who will meet in Copenhagen in December to
negotiate a new international climate treaty.
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In a press release describing the report, Mr. Annan stressed the need for the negotiations to
focus on increasing the flow of money from rich to poor regions to help reduce their vulnerability
to climate hazards, while still curbing the emissions of the heat-trapping gases.
More than 90% of the human and economic losses from climate change are occurring in poor
countries, according to the report.
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1012 A1
It is pretty much a one-way street.
While it may be common for university researchers to try their luck in the commercial world,
there is very little traffic in the opposite direction.
Pay has always been the biggest deterrent, as people with families often feel they cannot afford
the drop in salary when moving to a university job.
For some industrial scientists, however, the attractions of academia outweigh any financial
considerations.
Helen Lee took a 70% cut in salary when she moved from a senior post in Abbott Laboratories to
a medical department at the University of Cambridge.
Her main reason for returning to academia mid-career was to take advantage of the greater
freedom to choose research questions.
Some areas of inquiry have few prospects of a commercial return, and Lee’s is one of them.
The impact of a salary cut is probably less severe for a scientist in the early stages of a career.
Guy Grant, now a research associate at the Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics at the
University of Cambridge, spent two years working for a pharmaceutical company before
returning to university as a post-doctoral researcher.
He took a 30% salary cut but felt it worthwhile for the greater intellectual opportunities.
Higher up the ladder, where a pay cut is usually more significant, the demand for scientists with a
wealth of experience in industry is forcing universities to make the transition to academia more
attractive, according to Lee.
Industrial scientists tend to receive training that academics do not, such as how to build a
multidisciplinary team, manage budgets and negotiate contracts.
They are also well placed to bring something extra to the teaching side of an academic role that
will help students get a job when they graduate, says Lee, perhaps experience in manufacturing
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practice or product development.
“Only a small number of undergraduates will continue in an academic career.
So someone leaving university who already has the skills needed to work in an industrial lab has
far more potential in the job market than someone who has spent all their time on a narrow
research project.”
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1012 A2
Being sociable looks like a good way to add years to your life.
Relationships with family, friends, neighbours, even pets, will all do the trick, but the biggest
longevity boost seems to come from marriage or an equivalent relationship.
The effect was first noted in 1858 by William Farr, who wrote that widows and widowers were at
a much higher risk of dying than their married peers.
Studies since then suggest that marriage could add as much as seven years to a mans life and
two to a womans.
The effect holds for all causes of death, whether illness, accident or self-harm.
Even if the odds are stacked against you, marriage can more than compensate.
Linda Waite of the University of Chicago has found that a married older man with heart disease
can expect to live nearly four years longer than an unmarried man with a healthy heart.
Likewise, a married man who smokes more than a pack a day is likely to live as long as a divorced
man who doesnt smoke.
Theres a flip side, however, as partners are more likely to become ill or die in the couple of years
following their spouses death, and caring for a spouse with mental disorder can leave you with
some of the same severe problems.
Even so, the odds favour marriage.
In a 30-year study of more than 10,000 people, Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School
describes how all kinds of social networks have similar effects.
So how does it work?
The effects are complex, affected by socio-economic factors, health-service provision, emotional
support and other more physiological mechanisms.
For example, social contact can boost development of the brain and immune system, leading to
better health and less chance of depression later in life.
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People in supportive relationships may handle stress better.
Then there are the psychological benefits of a supportive partner.
A life partner, children and good friends are all recommended if you aim to live to 100.
The ultimate social network is still being mapped out, but Christakis says: “ People are
interconnected, so their health is interconnected.”
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1006 A1
You never see him, but theyre with you every time you fly.
They record where you are going,how fast youre traveling and whether everything on your
airplane is functioning normally.
Their ability to withstand almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic
book.
Theyre known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India
ocean June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong.
So when a French submarine detected the devices homing signal five days later, the discovery
marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were
killed.
In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track
basic information like altitude and direction.
That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial
flights by 1960.
Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device was completely
redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane—the area least subject to impact—from its
original position in the landing wells.
The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never
actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots conversations,and
a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions
that help investigators reconstruct the aircrafts final moments.
Placed in an insulated case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the
boxes can withstand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉.
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When submerged, theyre also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft.
Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009,
are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say theyre still likely to turn up.
In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one planes black boxes
were never recovered.
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1006 A2
The $11 billion self-help industry is built on the idea that you should turn negative thoughts like
"I never do anything right" into positive ones like "I can succeed."
But was positive thinking advocate Norman Vincent Peale right?
Is there power in positive thinking?
Researchers in Canada just published a study in the journal Psychological Science that says trying
to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply
highlight how unhappy they are.
The studys authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine
Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin by citing older research showing that when
people get feedback which they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better.
If you tell your dim friend that he has the potential of an Einstein, youre just underlining his
faults.
In one 1990s experiment, a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked
participants to write essays opposing funding for the disabled.
When the essayists were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they
had written.
In this experiment, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students self-esteem.
The participants were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes.
Every 15 seconds, one group of students heard a bell.
When it rang, they were supposed to tell themselves, "I am lovable."
Those with low self-esteem didnt feel better after the forced self-affirmation.
In fact, their moods turned significantly darker than those of members of the control group, who
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werent urged to think positive thoughts.
The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy that urge people to accept their
negative thoughts and feelings rather than fight them.
In the fighting, we not only often fail but can make things worse.
Meditation techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger,
more realistic perspective.
Call it the power of negative thinking.
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0912 A1
Throughout this long, tense election, everyone has focused on the presidential candidates and
how theyll change America.
Rightly so.
But selfishly, Im more fascinated by Michelle Obama and what she might be able to do, not just
for this country, but for me as an African-American woman.
As the potential First Lady, she would have the worlds attention.
And that means that for the first time people will have a chance to get up close and personal
with the type of African-American woman they so rarely see.
Usually, the lives of black women go largely unexamined.
The prevailing theory seems to be that were all hot-tempered single mothers who cant keep a
man.
Even in the world of make-believe, black women still cant escape the stereotype of being
eye-rolling, oversexed females raised by our never-married, alcoholic mothers.
These images have helped define the way all women are viewed, including Michelle Obama.
Before she ever gets the chance to commit to a cause, charity or foundation as First Lady, her
most urgent and perhaps most complicated duty may be simple to be herself.
It wont be easy.
Because few mainstream publications have done in-depth features on regular African-American
women, little is known about who we are, what we think and what we face on a regular basis.
For better or worse, Michelle will represent us all.
Just as she will have her critics, she will also have millions of fans who usually have little interest
in the First Lady.
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Many African-American blogs have written about what theyd like to see Michelle bring to the
White House—mainly showing the world that a black woman can support her man and raise a
strong black family.
Michelle will have to work to please everyone—an impossible task.
But for many African-American women like me, just a little of her poise, confidence and
intelligence will go a long way in changing an image thats been around for far too long.
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0912 A2
When next years crop of high-school graduates arrive at Oxford University in the fall of 2009,
theyll be joined by a new face;
Andrew Hamilton, the 55-year-old provost of Yale, wholl become Oxfords vice-chancellor—a
position equivalent to university president in America.
Hamilton isnt the only educator crossing the Atlantic.
Schools in France, Egypt, Singapore, etc, have also recently made top-level hires from abroad.
Higher education has become a big and competitive business nowadays, and like so many
businesses, its gone global.
Yet the talent flow isnt universal.
High-level personnel tend to head in only one direction: outward from America.
The chief reason is that American schools dont tend to seriously consider looking abroad.
For example, when the board of the University of Colorado searched for a new president, it
wanted a leader familiar with the state government, a major source of the universitys budget.
“We didnt do any global consideration,” says Patricia Hayes, the boards chair.
The board ultimately picked Bruce Benson, a 69-year-old Colorado businessman and political
activist who is likely to do well in the main task of modern university presidents: fund-raising.
Fund-raising is a distinctively American thing, since U.S. schools rely heavily on donations.
The fund-raising ability is largely a product of experience and necessity.
Many European universities, meanwhile, are still mostly dependent on government funding.
But government support has failed to keep pace with rising student number.
The decline in government support has made funding-raising an increasing necessary ability
among administrators and has hiring committees hungry for Americans.
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In the past few years, prominent schools around the world have joined the trend.
In 2003, when Cambridge University appointed Alison Richard, another former Yale provost, as
its vice-chancellor, the university publicly stressed that in her previous job she had overseen “a
major strengthening of Yales financial position.”
Of course, fund-raising isnt the only skill outsiders offer.
The globalization of education means more universities will be seeking heads with international
experience of some kind of promote international programs and attract a global student body.
Foreigners can offer a fresh perspective on established practices.
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0906 A1
The January fashion show, called FutureFashion, exemplified how far green design has come.
Organized by the New York-based nonprofit Earth Pledge, the show inspired many top designers
to work with sustainable fabrics for the first time.
Several have since made pledges to include organic fabrics in their lines.
The designers who undertake green fashion still face many challenges.
Scott Hahn, cofounder with Gregory of Rogan and Loomstate, which uses all-organic cotton, says
high-quality sustainable materials can still be tough to fine.
“Most designers with existing labels are finding there arent comparable fabrics that can just
replace what youre doing and shat your customers are used to,” he says.
For example, organic cotton and non-organic cotton are virtually indistinguishable once woven
into a dress.
But some popular synthetics, like stretch nylon, still have few eco-friendly equivalents.
Those who do make the switch are finding they have more support.
Last year the influential trade show Designers & Agents stopped charging its participation fee for
young green entrepreneurs who attend its two springtime shows in Los Angeles and New York
and gave special recognition to designers whose collections are at least 25% sustainable .
It now counts more than 50 green designers, up from fewer than a dozen two years ago.
This week Wal-Mart is set to announce a major initiative aimed at helping cotton farmers go
organic: it will buy transitional cotton at higher prices, thus helping to expand the supply of a key
sustainable material.
“Mainstream is about to occur,” says Hahn.
Some analysts are less sure.
Among consumers, only 18%are even aware that ecofashion exists, up from 6% four years ago.
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Natalie Hormilla, a fashion writer, is an example of the unconverted consumer, when asked if she
owned any sustainable clothes, she replied: “Not that Im aware of.”
Like most consumers, she finds little time to shop, and when she does, shes on the hunt for
“cute stuff that isnt too expensive.”
By her own admission, green just isnt yet on her mind.
But —thanks to the combined efforts of designers, retailers and suppliers— one day it will be.
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0906 A2
Scientists have devised a way to determine roughly where a person has lived using a strand of
hair, a technique that could help track the movements of criminal suspects or unidentified
murder victims.
The method relies on measuring how chemical variations in drinking water show up in peoples
hair.
“ Youre what you eat and drink, and thats recorded in you hair, ” said Thure Cerling, a
geologist at the University of Utah.
While U.S diet is relatively identical, water supplies vary.
The differences result from weather patterns.
The chemical composition of rainfall changes slightly as raid clouds move.
Most hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water are stable, but traces of both elements are also
present as heavier isotopes.
The heaviest raid falls first.
As a result, storms that form over the Pacific deliver heavier water to California than to Utah.
Similar patterns exist throughout the U.S. By measuring the proportion of heavier hydrogen and
oxygen isotopes along a strand of hair, scientists can construct a geographic timeline.
Each inch of hair corresponds to about two months.
Cerlings team collected tap water samples from 600 cities and constructed a mop of the regional
differences.
They checked the accuracy of the map by testing 200 hair samples collected from 65 barber
shops.
They were able to accurately place the hair samples in broad regions roughly corresponding to
the movement of raid systems.
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“Its not good for pinpointing,” Cerling said.
“Its good for eliminating many possibilities.”
Todd Park, a local detective, said the method has helped him learn more about an unidentified
woman whose skeleton was found near Great Salt Lake.
The woman was 5 feet tall.
Police recovered 26 bones, a T-shirt and several strands of hair.
When Park heard about the research, he gave the hair samples to the researchers.
Chemical testing showed that over the two years before her death, she moved about every two
months.
She stayed in the Northwest, although the test could not be more specific than somewhere
between eastern Oregon and western Wyoming.
“Its still a substantial area,” Park said, “But it narrows it way down for me.”
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0812 A1
If you are a male and you are reading this, congratulations: You are a survivor.
According to statistics, you are more than twice as likely to die of skin cancer than a woman, and
nine times more likely to die of AIDS.
Assuming you make it to the end of your natural term, about 78 years for men in Australia, you
will die on average five years before a woman.
There are many reasons for this -- typically, men take more risks than women and are more likely
to drink and smoke but perhaps more importantly, men dont go to the doctor.
"Men arent seeing doctors as often as they should," says Dr. Gullotta, "This is particularly so for
the over-40s, when diseases tend to strike."
Gullotta says a healthy man should visit the doctor every year or two.
For those over 45, it should be at least once a year.
Two months ago, Gullotta
