People in business can use foresight to identify new products and services, as well as markets for those products and services. An increase in minority populations in a neighborhood would prompt a grocer with foresight to stock more foods linked to ethnic tastes. An art museum director with foresight might follow trends in computer graphics to make exhibits more appealing to younger visitors. Foresight may reveal potential threats that we can prepare to deal with before they become crises. For instance, a corporate manager with foresight might see an alarming rise in local housing prices that could affect the availability of skilled workers in the region. The public"s changing values and priorities, as well as emerging technologies, demographic shifts, economic constraints (or opportunities), and environmental and resource concerns are all parts of the increasingly complex world system in which leaders must lead. People in government also need foresight to keep systems running smoothly, to plan budgets, and to prevent wars. Government leaders today must deal with a host of new problems emerging from rapid advances in technology. Even at the community level, foresight is critical: school officials, for example, need foresight to assess numbers of students to accommodate, numbers of teachers to hire, new educational technologies to deploy, and new skills for students (and their teachers) to develop. Many of the best-known techniques for foresight were developed by government planners, especially in the military, when the post-World War Ⅱ atomic age made it critical to "think about the unthinkable" and prepare for it. Pioneering futurists at the: RAND Corporation (the first "think tank") began seriously considering what new technologies might emerge in the future and how these might affect U.S. security. These pioneering futurists at RAND, along with others elsewhere, refined a variety of new ways for thinking about the future. The futurists recognized that the future world is continuous with the present world, so we can learn a great deal about what may happen in the future by looking systematically at what is happening now. The key thing to watch is not events (sudden developments or one-day occurrences) but trends (long-term ongoing shifts in such things as population, land use, technology, and governmental systems). Using these techniques and many others, futurists now can tell us many things that may happen in the future. Some are nearly certain to happen, such as the continuing expansion in the world"s population. Other events are viewed as far less likely, but could be extremely important if they do occur, such as an asteroid colliding with the planet. The best title for the passage may be
A. The Use of Foresight.
B. How to Exercise Foresight.
C. Foresight in Business and Government.
D. The Best-known Techniques for Foresight.
查看答案
Television—the most pervasive and persuasive of modern technologies, marked by rapid change and growth—is moving into a new era, an era of extraordinary (1)_____ and versatility, which promises to reshape our lives and our world. It is an electronic revolution of sorts, made possible by the (2)_____ of television and computer technologies. The word "television", derived from its Greek (tele: distant) and Latin (vision: sight) roots, can (3)_____ be interpreted as sight from distance. Very simply (4)_____, it works in this (5)_____: through a sophisticated system of electronics, television provides the capability of (6)_____ an image (focused on a special photo-conductive plate within a camera) into electronic impulses, which can be sent through a wire of cable. These impulses, when fed into a (7)_____ (television set), can then be electronically (8)_____ into that same image. Television is (9)_____ just an electronic system, (10)_____. It is a means of expression, as well as a (11)_____ for communication, and as such becomes a powerful tool for reaching other human beings. The field of television can be divided into two (12)_____ determined by its means of transmission. First, there is broadcast television, which reaches the masses through broad-based airwave transmission of television (13)_____. Second, there is non-broadcast television, which provides for the needs of individuals or (14)_____ interest groups through controlled transmission techniques. Traditionally, television has been a (15)_____ of the masses. We are most familiar with broadcast television (16)_____ it has been with us for about thirty-seven years in a form similar to what exists today. During those years, it has been controlled, for the most part, by the broadcast networks. ABC, NBC and CBS, who have been the (17)_____ purveyors of news, information, and entertainment. These giants of (18)_____ have actually shaped not only television but our perception of it as well. We have come to (19)_____ the picture tube as a source of entertainment, placing our role in this (20)_____ medium as the passive viewer.
A. datum
B. medium
C. agent
D. outlet
Television—the most pervasive and persuasive of modern technologies, marked by rapid change and growth—is moving into a new era, an era of extraordinary (1)_____ and versatility, which promises to reshape our lives and our world. It is an electronic revolution of sorts, made possible by the (2)_____ of television and computer technologies. The word "television", derived from its Greek (tele: distant) and Latin (vision: sight) roots, can (3)_____ be interpreted as sight from distance. Very simply (4)_____, it works in this (5)_____: through a sophisticated system of electronics, television provides the capability of (6)_____ an image (focused on a special photo-conductive plate within a camera) into electronic impulses, which can be sent through a wire of cable. These impulses, when fed into a (7)_____ (television set), can then be electronically (8)_____ into that same image. Television is (9)_____ just an electronic system, (10)_____. It is a means of expression, as well as a (11)_____ for communication, and as such becomes a powerful tool for reaching other human beings. The field of television can be divided into two (12)_____ determined by its means of transmission. First, there is broadcast television, which reaches the masses through broad-based airwave transmission of television (13)_____. Second, there is non-broadcast television, which provides for the needs of individuals or (14)_____ interest groups through controlled transmission techniques. Traditionally, television has been a (15)_____ of the masses. We are most familiar with broadcast television (16)_____ it has been with us for about thirty-seven years in a form similar to what exists today. During those years, it has been controlled, for the most part, by the broadcast networks. ABC, NBC and CBS, who have been the (17)_____ purveyors of news, information, and entertainment. These giants of (18)_____ have actually shaped not only television but our perception of it as well. We have come to (19)_____ the picture tube as a source of entertainment, placing our role in this (20)_____ medium as the passive viewer.
A. convert
B. converting
C. switch
D. switching
Television—the most pervasive and persuasive of modern technologies, marked by rapid change and growth—is moving into a new era, an era of extraordinary (1)_____ and versatility, which promises to reshape our lives and our world. It is an electronic revolution of sorts, made possible by the (2)_____ of television and computer technologies. The word "television", derived from its Greek (tele: distant) and Latin (vision: sight) roots, can (3)_____ be interpreted as sight from distance. Very simply (4)_____, it works in this (5)_____: through a sophisticated system of electronics, television provides the capability of (6)_____ an image (focused on a special photo-conductive plate within a camera) into electronic impulses, which can be sent through a wire of cable. These impulses, when fed into a (7)_____ (television set), can then be electronically (8)_____ into that same image. Television is (9)_____ just an electronic system, (10)_____. It is a means of expression, as well as a (11)_____ for communication, and as such becomes a powerful tool for reaching other human beings. The field of television can be divided into two (12)_____ determined by its means of transmission. First, there is broadcast television, which reaches the masses through broad-based airwave transmission of television (13)_____. Second, there is non-broadcast television, which provides for the needs of individuals or (14)_____ interest groups through controlled transmission techniques. Traditionally, television has been a (15)_____ of the masses. We are most familiar with broadcast television (16)_____ it has been with us for about thirty-seven years in a form similar to what exists today. During those years, it has been controlled, for the most part, by the broadcast networks. ABC, NBC and CBS, who have been the (17)_____ purveyors of news, information, and entertainment. These giants of (18)_____ have actually shaped not only television but our perception of it as well. We have come to (19)_____ the picture tube as a source of entertainment, placing our role in this (20)_____ medium as the passive viewer.
A. therefore
B. moreover
C. however
D. henceforth
__________、__________是影响生物在地球表面分布的两个最重要的生态因子。