The Future of Technology

    William, a businessman, arrives in a foreign airport. He doesn't show his passport. Instead, a machine in the wall reads the computer chip（芯片）in his arm. This contains information about him: his name, age, and I.D number. He exits the airport, and a car door opens when it “sees” him. The car takes him to his hotel. His room “knows” he has entered the building and it “reads” his body. He is cold, so the room becomes warmer. William then watches a business presentation on a video wall. When he takes a bath, the presentation “follows him and continues ”on the bathroom wall. Finally, the room plays music to help him sleep. It turns off the music when it “sees” him sleeping.

    William doesn't exist, and none of this is real. But it might be soon. “In five to ten years, computing and communications are going to be free and everywhere, in your walls, in your car, on your body,” says Victor Zue, leader of Project Oxygen.

    Project Oxygen has one big idea: to create better relationships between machines and people. The dream is that computer will learn to understand what people want.

    So, what changes will there be at work? Firstly, the building will know where everyone is, all the time. You want to talk to someone? Type the person's name on the nearest computer. It will show you a map of the building and exactly where this person is. You then call this person, who picks up the nearest telephone, also shown on the computer. If he or she is busy with a client（客户）or in a meeting, the computer will tell you.

    Is all this really possible? Visit the Siebel Center, Illinois and see for yourself: computers in the doors and walls, cameras everywhere, the technology of the future, but here today.

    Pocket Tape-Recorders “Family and Home Magazine” test what's on the market now.

1）Pearlcorder S702 $64

    This simple model at the bottom of the Olympus range scored the most points for its excellent quality of recording. Background noise hardly affects the sound and recording from a pocket is perfectly possible, but it doesn't turn off automatically.

Tape length: 30 minutes per side. Weight:240g.

2）Sony M9 $49.95

    Small and very good looking, sony's latest offering scored most for appearance. Sounds clear, but there is slight machine noise. The big control buttons are a great improvement on some of the complicated little controls on other tape-recorders. Doesn't switch off automatically but a red light shows if the machine is still running.

   Tape length: 60 minutes per side. Weight: 195g.

3）Sony M400 $115

    Lots of little control buttons that make a noise and are difficult to use . Recording was good but machine noise lost points. Tape counter and automatic switch-off when tape has finished recording or rewinding are useful Tape length: 60 minutes per side. Weight: 230g.

4）Imperial OEM. MC $29.95

    Cheap and simple compared with the rest, but recording was good as long as there was no background noise. Use only its own make of cassette. No light to show it is on; no fast forward button and the record button makes a loud noise.

    Tape length: 30 minutes per side. Weight: 285g.

5）Philips 585 $80

    Handsome and simple to use, but recording is very poor at more than the recommended distance of 5 cm-designed for dictation. No recording light. Tape length: 15 minutes per side. Weight: 220g.

    What is success? I am not going to try to explain success. I think a precise meaning is impossible! Is it winning a Gold Medal at the Olympic Games or winning Wimbledon, or being awarded a Nobel Prize? What else? I believe personal success could be anything at all- it does not have to involve public recognition. Who is more successful? A millionaire who is unhappy, or an unnoticed person, who has led a simple, quiet, sincere and happy life? The simplest definition of success, I think, is “to set out to do something and to succeed in doing it.

    The first step on the road to success starts with belief. Believe you can succeed and you will. Achieving success in whatever endeavor(努力)you choose may be the goal of life; because it gives you freedom from worry. Could that be?

    Success means different things to every one of us. Some people believe it is measured in financial term; others believe it is helping others rather than helping themselves. However, most people are motivated to a great extend by public recognition. How many people are really happy? How many people are really doing what they want to with their lives? Incidentally, to imagine makes us different from animals.

    Most important of all, I believe success is a matter of personal growth. If every day you are developing or growing just a millimeter, I believe one is successful. Just being a slightly better person each day for me is success. I've got a very long way to go them!

    Finally, always remember success is a process and is not simply a matter of arriving at a destination. It's the journey that really matters. Success is what you become in the often very difficult and dangerous journey down the river of life.

    Counterfeit(假的) medicines are a widespread problem in developing countries. Like other counterfeits, they look like real products. But counterfeit drugs may contain too little or none of the active ingredients of the real thing.

    People do not get the medicine they need. And in some cases, counterfeits cause death. Twenty children in Bangladesh died last year after being given acetaminophen(对乙酰氨基酚).The medications contained ingredients that looked, smelled and tasted like the real thing. The medicine was produced by a local drug company that used a dangerous substitute to save money.

The problem of counterfeit medicines is especially serious in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The WHO estimates that up to thirty percent of medicines on sale in many of those countries are counterfeit. The problem is less widespread among industrialized countries. The WHO says counterfeits make up less than one percent of the illegal drug market in countries like the United States, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

    But the agency also says as much as fifty percent of the medicine sold on the Internet is counterfeit.

    Much is being done to fight counterfeit drugs. Several companies are developing ways to make counterfeits easier to identify. And there are existing methods, like a machine that can quickly identify chemicals in pills to confirm if the pills are real. Other ideas include things like special tracking codes for drug packages. People could send a text message with the code and get a message back, which proves that what they bought is listed in a database. Some drug makers and other companies put three-dimensional images called holograms(全息图)on their products as a security device.

Why College Is Not Home

    The college years are supposed to be a time for important growth in autonomy(自主性) and the development of adult identity. However, now they are becoming an extended period of adolescence, during which many of today's students are not shouldered with adult responsibilities.

    For previous generations, college was a decisive break from parental control; guidance and support needed to come from people of the same age and from within. In the past two decades, however, continued connection with and dependence on family, thanks to cell phones, email and social media, have increased significantly. Some parents go so far as to help with coursework. Instead of promoting the idea of college as a passage from the shelter of the family to autonomy and adult responsibility, universities have given in to the idea that they should provide the same environment as that of the home.

    To prepare for increased autonomy and responsibility, college needs to be a time of exploration and experimentation. This process involves "trying on" new ways of thinking about oneself both intellectually(在思维方面)and personally. While we should provide "safe spaces" within colleges, we must also make it safe to express opinions and challenge majority views. Intellectual growth and flexibility are fostered by strict debate and questioning.

    Learning to deal with the social world is equally important. Because a college community(群体) differs from the family, many students will struggle to find a sense of belonging. If students rely on administrators to regulate their social behavior and thinking pattern, they are not facing the challenge of finding an identity within a larger and complex community.

    Moreover, the tendency for universities to monitor and shape student behavior runs up against another characteristic of young adults: the response to being controlled by their elders. If acceptable social behavior is too strictly defined(规定) and controlled, the insensitive or aggressive behavior that administrators are seeking to minimize may actually be encouraged.

    It is not surprising that young people are likely to burst out, particularly when there are reasons to do so. Our generation once joined hands and stood firm at times of national emergency. What is lacking today is the conflict between adolescents' desire for autonomy and their understanding of an unsafe world. Therefore, there is the desire for their dorms to be replacement homes and not places to experience intellectual growth.

    Every college discussion about community values, social climate and behavior should include recognition of the developmental importance of student autonomy and self-regulation, of the necessary tension between safety and self-discovery.

    Poetry is the artistic expression of the human thoughts and feelings in rhythmical and emotional language. Compared with prose (散文) , it lays more stress on rhythm, imagery (意象), emotion, and imagination. As its language is rhythmical, its sound is highly musical. We may say, "No rhythm, no poetry", no matter the rhythm of poetry is traditional as in metrical (格律的) style or "natural" as in free verse.

    So the poet must write carefully and reflectively in order to find words that not only fulfills the demands of meter and rhyme, but also expresses the meaning in a manner that complements the imagery and tone of the rest of the poem. This careful use of language is the most significant difference between ordinary prose and poetry.

    The ordinary prose writer neatly builds an argument using words the way a mason (石匠) builds a house using bricks; the poet is an artisan who creates a fieldstone hearth (大卵石壁炉炉床) — each stone or each word is turned over  examined, and often laid aside until it can be placed where its shape, weight, and color will contribute to the strength and beauty of the whole. Prose, according to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is "words in their best order", and poetry is "the best words in their best order".

    The reader's chief delight in reading poetry comes from his response to its musical effect, which comes from many metrical patterns represented in conventional iambic (抑扬格) feet or from repetitions and parallel phrasing shown in free verse and from other elements of poetry.