武大博士期末文章分析练习

Passage 1 Kyoto Protocol: The Unfinished Agenda1. Most mainstream scientists agree that the burning of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and petroleum that is known as oil or crude oil) and other industrial activities have led to a buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. They also agr ee that the earth‘s surface has warmed during the last century and that further warming of several degrees Celsius is likely in the next century. This broad scientific consensus has played an important role in convincing many national governments that immediate action is necessary to limit global greenhouse gas emissions.2. Developing countries, however, have portrayed themselves as victimized by the wealthier industrialized nations. On one hand, these countries believe they have the most to lose from continued global warming. Because much of the developing world occupies warmer regions, where many species of crops and domesticated animals live at the upper limit of their natural temperature tolerance, higher temperatures could lead to widespread livestock declines and crop failures. Moreover, unlike the industrialized world, most developing nations lack the capital and infrastructure to develop new varieties of heat-tolerant crops and animals, build flood control systems, and deploy disaster relief when needed.3. On the other hand, global emission reduction targets also hurt developing countries because such reduction interferes with their plans for economic development through inexpensive, carbon-based energy sources. Indeed, many representatives of developing countries see global warming advocates as part of a conspiracy to maintain the economic advantage of industrialized nations at the expense of poorer nations. Thus, developing countries have argued that they be exempt from emission reduction until their economies approached the strength of those in developed nation.4. Carbon-cycle calculations, however, suggest that allowing developing countries to delay by decades their participation in emission reduction agreements would commit the world to very large increases in levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The carbon cycle refers to the natural process through which carbon dioxide injected into the atmosphere is slowly removed by photosynthesis in plants and absorption in the oceans. These processes take about a century to complete. Various carbon-cycle models have shown that if fossil fuels are used to power industrial growth in developing countries, then their carbon dioxide emissions will soon outpace even those of the currently industrialized countries. These computer models strongly suggest that emission reductions must be achieved everywhere, presumably through a Kyoto or post-Kyoto negotiated protocol.5. Global environmental collapse is not inevitable. But the developed world must work with thed eveloping world to ensure that new industrialized economies do not add to the world‘s environmental problems. Politicians must think of sustainable development rather than economic expansion. Conservation strategies have to become more widely accepted, and people must learn that energy use can be dramatically diminished without sacrificing comfort. In short, with the technology that currently exists, the years of global environmental mistreatment can begin to be reversed. (476 words)ARTICLE ANALYSIS- Passage 1Passage 21.Recent stories in the newspapers and magazines suggest that teaching and research contradict each other, that research plays too prominent a part in academic promotions, and that teaching is badly underemphasized. There is an element of truth in these statements, but they also ignore deeper and more important relationships.2.Research experience is an essential element of hiring and promotion at the research university because it is the emphasis on research that distinguishes such a university from an arts college. Some professors, however, neglect teaching for research, and that presents a problem.3.Most research universities reward outstanding teaching, but the greatest recognition is usually given for achievements in research. Part of the reason is the difficulty of judging teaching. A highly responsible and tough professor is usually appreciated by top students who want to be challenged, but disliked by those whose records are less impressive. The mild professor gets overall ratings that are usually high, but there is a sense of disappointment on the part of the best students, exactly those for whom the system should present the greatest challenges. Thus, a university trying to promote professors primarily on the basis of teaching qualities would have to confront this confusion.4.As modern science moves faster, two forces are exerted on professors: one is the time needed to keep up with the profession; the other is the time needed to teach. The training of new scientists requires outstanding teaching at the research university as well as the arts college. Although scientists are usually ―made‖ in the elementary schools, scient ists can be ―lost‖ by poor teaching at the college and graduate school levels. The solution is not to separate teaching and research but to recognize that the combination is difficult but vital. The title of professor should be given only to those who profess, and it is perhaps time for universities to reserve it for those willing to be an earnest part of the community of scholars. Professors unwilling to teach can be called ―distinguished research investigators, or something else‖.5.The pace of modern science makes increasingly difficult to be a great researcher and great teacher. Yet many are described in just those terms. Those who say we can separate teaching and research simply do not understand the system, but those who say the problem will disappear are not fulfilling their responsibilities.(394 words)ARTICLE ANALYSIS- Passage 2Passage 31.Some people argue that diversity in the material environment is insignificant so long as we are racing toward cultural or spiritual homogeneity. This view gravely underestimates the importance of material goods as symbolic expressions of human personality differences, and it foolishly denies a connection between the inner and outer environment. Those who fear the standardization of human beings should warmly welcome the destandardization of goods. For by increasing the diversity of goods available to man, we increase the mathematical probability of differences in the way men actually live.2.More important, however, is the very premise that we are racing towards cultural homogeneity, since a close look at this also suggests that just the opposite is true. It is unpopular to say this, but we are moving swiftly towards fragmentation and diversity not only in material production, but in art and education as well.3.One highly revealing test of cultural diversity in any literate society has to do with the number of different books published per million of population. The more standardized the tastes of the public, the fewer titles will be published per million; the more diverse these tastes, the greater the number of titles. The increase or decrease of this figure over time is a significant clue to the direction of cultural change in the society. This was the reasoning behind a study of world book trends published by UNESCO. Conducted by Robert Escarpit, director of the Center for the Sociology of Literature at the University of Bordeaux, it provided dramatic evidence of a powerful international shift towards cultural destandardization.4.The same push towards pluralism is evident in painting, too, where we find an almost incredibly wide spectrum of production. Representationalism, expressionism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, hard-edge, pop, kinetic, and a hundred other styles are pumped into the society at the same time. One or another may dominate the galleries temporarily, but there are no universal standards or styles. It is a pluralistic market place.5.Similarly, a wave of revolt for diversity in education has begun to sweep the college campus. New technology makes destandardization possible. Computers, for example, make it easier for a large school to schedule more flexibly. They make it easier for the school cope with independent study, with a wide range of course offerings and more varied extra-curricular activities. More important, computer-assisted education and other such techniques, despite popular misconceptions, radically enhance the possibility of diversity in the classroom. They permit each student to advance at his own purely personal pace. They permit him to follow an individual-cut path towards knowledge, rather than a rigid syllabus as in the traditional industrial era classroom.In education, therefore, as in the production of material goods, the society is shifting irresistibly away from, rather than towards, standardization. It is not simply a matter of more varied automobiles, detergents and cigarettes. The thrust towards diversity and increased individual choice affects our mental, as well as our material surroundings. (488 words)ARTICLE ANALYSIS- Passage 3Passage 4Post-car Society1.KimiyukiSuda should be a perfect customer for Japan's carmakers. He's a young (34), successful executive at an Internet-services company in Tokyo and has plenty of disposable income. He used to own Toyota's Hilux Surf, a sport utility vehicle. But now he uses mostly subways and trains. Suda reflects a worrisome trend in Japan; the automobile is losing its emotional appeal, particularly among the young, who prefer to spend their money on the latest electronic gadgets.Whileminicars and luxury foreign brands are still popular, everything in between is slipping. Since 1990, yearly new-car sales have fallen from 7.8 million to 5.4 million units in 2007.2.Alarmed by this state of decay, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association launched a comprehensive study of the market in 2006. It found a widening wealth gap, demographic changes—fewer households with children, a growing urban population—and general lack of interest in cars led Japanese to hold their vehicles longer, replace their cars with smaller ones or give up car ownership altogether. "Japan's automobile society stands at a crossroads," says Ryuichi Kitamura, a transport expert and professor at KyotoUniversity. He says he does not expect the trend to be reversed, as studies show that the younger Japanese consumers are, the less interested they are in having a car. JAMA predicts a further sales decline of 1.2 percent in 2008.3. But in Japan, the "demotorization" process, is also driven by cost factors. Owning and driving a car can cost up to $500 per month in Japan, including parking fees, car insurance, toll roads and various taxes. Taxes on a $17,000 car in Japan are4.1 times higher than in the United States, 1.7 times higher than in Germany and 1.25 times higher than in the U.K., according to JAMA. "Automobiles used to represent a symbol of our status, a Western, modern lifestyle that we aspired for," says Kitamura. For today's young people, he argues, "such thinking is completely gone."4.Cars are increasingly just a mobile utility; the real consumer time and effort goes into picking the coolest mobile phones and personal computers, not the hippest hatchback. The rental-car industry has grown by more than 30 percent in the past eight years, as urbanites book weekend wheels over the Internet.Meanwhile, government surveys show that spending on cars per household per year fell by 14 percent, to $600, between 2000 and 2005, while spending on Net and mobile-phone subscriptions rose by 39 percent, to $1,500, during the same period.5.For Japanese car companies, the implications are enormous. ―Japan is the world‘s second largest market, with a 17 to 18 percent share of our global sales. It‘s important,‖ says Takao Katagiri, corporate vice president at Nissan Motor Co. The domestic market is where Japanese carmakers develop technology and build their know-how, and if it falters, it could gut an industry that employs 7.8 percent of the Japanese work force.While surging exports, particularly to emerging markets, have more than offset the decline in domestic sales so far, companies are looking for ways to turn the tide.Nissan, for example, is trying to appeal to the digital generation with promotional blogs and even a videogame. A ra cing game for Sony‘s PlayStation, for example, offers players the chance to virtually drive the company‘s latest sporty model, the GT-R—a new marketing approach to create buzz and tempt them into buying cars. Toyota Motors has opened an auto mall as part of a suburban shopping complex near Tokyo, hoping to attract the kinds of shoppers who have long since stopped thinking about dropping by a car dealership. It‘s a bit akin to the Apple strategy of moving electronics out of the soulless superstore, and into more appealing and well-trafficked retail spaces. It worked for Apple, but then Apple is so 21st century.ARTICLE ANALYSIS- Passage 4Passage 5WomenAre Crazy for Fashion1.Whenever you see an old film, even one made as little as ten years ago, you cannot help being struck by the appearance of the women taking part. Their hair-styles and make-up look dated; their skirts look either too long or too short; their general appearance is, in fact, slightly ludicrous. The men taking part in the film, on the other hand, are clearly recognizable. There is nothing about their appearance to suggest that they belong to an entirely different age.2.This illusion is created by changing fashions. Over the years, the great majority of men have successfully resisted all attempts to make them change their style of dress. The same cannot be said for women. Each year a few so-called ‗top designers‘ in Paris or London lay down the law and women the whole world over rush to obey. The decrees of the designers are unpredictable and dictatorial. This year, they decide in their arbitrary fashion, skirts will be short and waists will be high; zips are in and buttons are out. Next year the law is reversed and far from taking exception, no one is even mildly surprised.3.If women are mercilessly exploited year after year, they have only themselves to blame. Because they shudder at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion, they are annually blackmailed by the designers and the big stores. Clothes which have been worn only a few times have to be discarded because of the dictates of fashion. When you come to think of it, only a woman is capable of standing in front of a wardrobe packed full of clothes and announcing sadly that she has nothing to wear.4.Changing fashions are nothing more than the deliberate creation of waste. Many women squander vast sums of money each year to replace clothes that have hardly been worn. Women who cannot afford to discard clothing in this way, waste hours of their time altering the dresses they have. Hem-lines are taken up or let down; waist-lines are taken in or let out; neck-lines are lowered or raised, and so on.5.No one can claim that the fashion industry contributes anything really important to society. Fashion designers are rarely concerned with vital things like warmth, comfort and durability. They are only interested in outward appearance and they take advantage of the fact that women will put up with any amount of discomfort, providing they look right. There can hardly be a man who hasn‘t at some time in his life smiled at the sight of a woman shivering in a flimsy dress on a wintry day, or delicately picking her way through deep snow in dainty shoes.When comparing men and women in the matter of fashion, the conclusions to be drawn are obvious. Do the constantly changing fashions of women‘s clothes, one wonders, reflect basic qualities of fickleness and instability? Men are too sensible to let themselves be bullied by fashion designers. Do their unchanging styles of dress reflect basic qualities of stability and reliability? That is for you to decide.(515words)ARTICLE ANALYSIS- Passage 5Passage 6The Beauty of Mathematics1.The British philosopher and logician Bertrand Russell once wrote: ―Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty —a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture.‖ Sculpture is widely admired in our societies —there is hardly a public space in our cities that does not boast a sculpture of some sort. But mathematical beauty is barely recognized beyond the confines of academia, and it is never celebrated.2.This seems curious, since it is clear that artists have long found inspiration in mathematics. Greek architects appear to have used a number known as the golden ratio when designing the Parthenon, and Leonardo Da Vinci‘s Vitruvian Man, which depicts an outstretched figure encompassed by a square and a circle, is an attempt to link human beauty with geometry. And in the 20th century, artists have been exposed even more to mathematical ideas, initially because Victorian mathematicians found ways of visualizing mathematical formulae and functions in physical form. Now computers have made it possible to visualize even more complex functions as fractal patterns, and hence mathematical objects like Mandelbrot set have become household images.3.But mathematicians are not usually thinking of images, models and sculptures when they talk about beauty. Mathematical beauty is not a visual quality, Judging a piece of mathematics by the way it looks when modeled in clay, carved in stone or printed on paper is like judging a book by its typeface –it‘s an absurd notion.4.What, then, constitutes beautiful mathematics? This is rarely debated among mathematicians, but there are some generally accepted tests that a piece of work must pass to be deemed beautiful —it must employ a minimal number of assumptions, for example, or give some original and important insight, or throw other work into new perspective. Elegance is perhaps a better term for it. There is a flip side, of course: a piece of mathematics laden with unnecessary assumptions and offering no new insight is deemed ugly.The most famous example of a function that meets all the requirements of beauty is Euler‘s formula (e iπ+1=0), which links some of the most fundamental concepts in mathematics and draws together two entirely separate branches of the science –geometry, the study of space, and algebra, the study of structure and quantity.5.So why has mathematical beauty failed to make a cultural impact? One reason could be that this spectrum of aesthetics, with beauty at one end and ugliness at the other, sounds horribly one dimensional. And having rules for mathematical beauty feels, as Russell put in, cold and austere: this is a beauty devoid of emotion, profoundly different to that which we experience and admire in a physical world. The beauty of mathematics can be cold and austere, when viewed in a particular way. But viewed in another, it can be rich and warm, funny and sad, romantic and profound. Just like sculpture —he was right about it.(486words)ARTICLE ANALYSIS- Passage 6Passage 7 The Use of Antibiotics in Modern US Agriculture1. One of the most striking patterns in modern US agriculture is the increasing use of antibiotics asa regular supplement in the feed and water consumed by cows, pigs and especially poultry. Most of these drugs are administered in small doses to farm animals not to cure sickness but to promote more growth on less feed and to prevent the infections that come with crowding in feedlots and confinement systems. The practice began in the late 1940s and has accelerated rapidly. Nobody knows precisely what volume of antibiotics is used today. But new estimates released by a public interest group suggest that the amount of antibiotics used nontherapeutically in American livestock has grown to 11.2 million kilograms per year, a number that may be as much as 50% higher than it was in 1985.2.These figures appear in a new report on agricultural antibiotics by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The numbers are alarming for two reasons. First, 11.2 million kilograms far exceeds previous estimates. Second, it was a very hard number to arrive at because the data for antibiotic production and use, in humans or animals, are, as the report states, ―shockingly incomplete‖. A trade group for the makers of veterinary medicines has estimated, for example, that far more antibiotics are used in treating human illness than are administered to animals. But the new estimates find just the opposite—that for the nontherapeutic purposes, cows, pigs and poultry receive overall more than eight times the amount of antibiotics that humans receive in the treatment of actual illness.3. The public has a vital interest in this issue because the number of microbes that are resistant to antibiotic treatments is increasing, and much of the problem stems from the overuse of antibiotics, which kill off susceptible microbes but leave the resistant ones to proliferate. Giving large numbers of animals small doses of antibiotics creates the perfect conditions for the development of resistant strains of microbes, which cause disease in humans. There is already widespread concern in the medical community about the prescription of unnecessary antibiotics for human use, but the problem is exacerbated by the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in agriculture. Moreover, the practice of giving animalsantibiosis largely unnecessary, as farmers in Sweden, where giving important human antibiotics to farm animals is illegal, have proved.4. The public also has an interest in the quality of the information concerning antibiotic usage. It is difficult to craft a meaningful policy without accurate numbers. As this report convincingly argues, ―even the most basic information on anti-microbial usage is not available‖—not from either government sources or industry. Indeed, government health officials have complained about the lack of reliable data on antibiotic use.5. The way to ensure that antibiotics rain their efficacy against disease is to know exactly how and in what quantities they are being administered and to eliminate unnecessary usage. But there seems little doubt that antibiotic use will need to be cut back sharply before it produces even more microbes that are resistant to modern medicines. (512 words)ARTICLE ANALYSIS- Passage 7。