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Some 60 years ago, George Orwell wrote an allegorical novel, called Nineteen Eighty-Four, to describe life in a futuristic Britain under a one party police-state presided over by an all-powerful figure known as Big Brother. One of the features of the nasty world described by Orwell was its systematic misuse of language, which went by the name of "Newspeak". By re-defining words and endlessly repeating them, the Ministry of Truth through the Thought Police was able to control what people thought, and through that, their actions. Language was instrumental in destroying the culture. The same technique is being used by different people today, with similar effects. In all areas of public administration, the words "spouse" , "husband" and "wife" have been replaced by the word "partner", although the words are subtly but substantially different in meaning, and convey different realities. In some schools and university departments, feminist ideologues have dictated that the personal pronoun "he" must not be used, and is replaced by the word "they" , which means something different. The word " homophobic" , which just a few years ago was used to describe a person who supported vigilante action against homosexuals, is now being used to describe anyone who defends the universal definition of marriage. Although the transformation of language is seen most obviously around social issues, it is also being used systematically to shape political debate. So, we are told that the federal government is introducing a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, which is newspeak for its new carbon tax. The fact is that the new tax is not remotely concerned with "carbon pollution" at all, but rather with emissions of the gas CO2which is not a pollutant by anycredibledefinition, but rather, an essential building block in every cell in every living plant and creature. By the government’s own admission, it will not lead to any reduction in CO2levels, either in Australia or globally. And the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is being introduced in Australia at the same time the government is expanding exports of coal, which is virtually 100 percent carbon, to countries such as China. We live in a society in which the ordinary meaning of words is being systematically manipulated by spin-doctors and ideologues, as a means of changing the way people think, and, more fundamentally, the way they act. Language is an important part of the culture wars. For those of us who see this as a challenge to the foundations of society, it is important that we identify the problem and expose it. It is clearly preferable to avoid using the new debased, transformed language of the politically-correct left, although this can be difficult in situations where constant usage has already normalized it, as has happened with the term "same-sex marriage". The alternative phrase, "same-sex unions" , has a different meaning. When such terms are used, they should be identified for what they are: a form of linguistic dishonesty, designed to undermine existing institutions and transform them. The example of carbon pollution is used to illustrate______.

A. transformation of language is usually seen in social issues
B. transformation of language is also tracked in political debate
C. transformation of language is generated in the age of information
D. transformation of language is legitimate to a certain extent

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For this generation of young people, the future looks bleak. Only one in six is working full time. Three out of five live with their parents or other relatives. A large majority—73 percent—think they need more education to find a successful career, but only half of those say they will definitely enroll in the next few years. No, they are not the idle youth of Greece or Spain or Egypt. They are the youth of America, the world’s richest country, who do not have college degrees and aren’t getting them anytime soon. Whatever the sob stories about recent college graduatesspinning their wheelsas baristas or clerks, the situation for their less-educated peers is far worse. For this group, finding work that pays a living wage and offers some sense of security has been elusive. Despite the continuing national conversation about whether college is worth it given the debt burden it entails, most high school graduates without college degrees said they believe they would be unable to get good jobs without more education. Getting it is challenging, though, and not only because of formidable debt levels. Ms. McClour and her husband, Andy, have two daughters under 3 and another due next month. She said she tried enrolling in college classes, but the workload became too stressful with such young children. Mr. McClour works at a gas station. He hates his work and wants to study phlebotomy, but the nearest school is an hour and half away. Many of these young people had been expecting to go to college since they started high school, perhaps anticipating that employers would demand skills high schools do not teach. Just one in ten high school graduates without college degrees said they were " extremely well prepared by their high school to succeed in their job after graduation. " These young people worried about getting left behind and were pessimistic about reaching some of the milestones that make up the American dream. More than half — 56 percent — of high school graduates without college diplomas said that their generation would have less financial success than their parents. About the same share believed they would find work that offered health insurance within that time frame. Slightly less than half of respondents said the next few years would bring work with good job security or a job with earnings that were high " enough to lead a comfortable life". They were similarly pessimistic about being able to start a family or buy a home. The online survey was conducted between March 21 and April 2, and covered a nationally representative survey of 544 high school graduates from the classes of 2006-11 who did not have bachelor’s degrees. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 5 percentage points. What is the financial outlook for this generation compared with their parents

A. They have a prosperous outlook compared with the last generation.
B. Their financial situation is not as successful as their parents.
C. It depends on how hard they work and their educational background.
D. Not mentioned in the article.

The government-run command post in Tunis is staffed around the clock by military personnel, meteorologists and civilians. On the wall are maps, crisscrossed with brightly colored arrows that painstakingly track the fearsome path of the enemy. What kind of invader gives rise to such high-level monitoring Not man, not beast, but the lowly desert locust(蝗虫). In recent moths, billions of the 3-inch-long winged warriors have descended on Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, blackening the sky and eating up crops and vegetation. The insect invasion, the worst in 30 years, is already creating great destruction in the Middle East and is now treating southern Europe. The current crisis began in late 1985 near the Red Sea. Unusually rainy weather moistened the sands of the Sudan, making them ideal breeding grounds for the locust, which lays its eggs in the earth. The insect onslaught threatens to create yet another African famine. Each locust can eat its weight(not quite a tenth of an ounce)in vegetation every 24 hours. A good-size swarm of 50 billion insects eats up 100, 000 tons of grass, trees and crops in a single night. All $ 150 million may be needed this year. The U. S. has provided two spraying planes and about 50,000 gal. of pesticide. The European Community has donated $3.8 million in aid and the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan and China have provided chemical-spraying aircraft to help wipe out the pests. But relief efforts are hampered by the relative mildness of approved pesticides, which quickly lose their deadly punch and require frequent replications. The most effective locust killer Dieldrin has been linked to cancer and is banned by many Western countries and some of the affected African nations. More than 5 million acres have been dusted with locust-killing chemicals; another 5 million will be treated by the end of June. On May 30, representatives of Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Mauritania will meet in Algiers to discuss tactics to wipe out the ravenous swarms. The move is an important step, but whatever plan is devised, the locust plague promised to get worse before the insects can be brought under control. The favorable breeding ground for the locust is______.

A. rich soil.
B. wet land
C. spaces covered crops and vegetation
D. the Red Sea

As Facebook dominates the news with its initial public offering, activists are seizing the moment to pressure the company to add some estrogen and ethnicity to its white-male board. A women’s rights group called Ultraviolet, which has been running an online petition that claims to have attracted more than 50,000 signatures, is escalating its push, posting a new YouTube video called "Do Women Have a Future at Facebook". The video shows photos of successful women such as Hillary Clinton getting their heads cropped off the replaced with the smiling face of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. "Facebook has grown off the backs of women, who make up the majority of its users and are responsible for the majority of sharing and fan activity on the site," the group says in a blurb accompanying the video. An all-male board, the group says, is "not just wrong, it’s bad for business". A related campaign, called Face It, criticizes the lack of ethnic diversity on the seven-member board. "Seven white men: That’s ridiculous," the group says on its homepage, along side headshots of the men. The campaign, which lists dozens of human-rights groups and corporate executives as supporters, also has its own YouTube video. Called "Face it, Facebook" , the video cites a recent Zuckerberg letter to investors that says: " Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission—to make the world more open and connected. " That message isat odds withthe pale-faced board, activists say. Susan Stautberg, co-chairwoman of Women Corporate Directors, an organization for female corporate board members, says Zuckerberg’s thinking is flawed. " If you’re trying to expand a company globally, then you want someone on the board who has built a global brand," she says. "Most of these guys on Facebook’s board all have the same skills—they’re mostly from Silicon Valley and Washington. You want someone who has worked in China and India and rising markets. You want someone who has marketed to women. When you’re putting together a board, you don’t want your best friends, you want the best people. " Having zero female directors does not appear to be a good business plan, research shows. Companies with women on the board perform substantially better than companies with all-mall boards, according to a 2011 study of Fortune 500 companies conducted by the research group Catalyst. The study showed that over the course of four to five years, companies with three or more female board members, on average, outperformed companies with no female board members by 84 percent when it came to return on sales and by 60 percent when it came to return on invested capital. Facebook may secretly be on the lookout for a female board member, according to a recent Bloomberg report. Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg said Facebook had enlisted the corporate-recruitment firm Spencer Stuart to help seek some diversity. Spencer Stuary says it does not comment on clients due to confidentiality agreements. What will probably happen to Facebook

A. The corporation will turn to Spencer Stuart for recruiting more female board members.
B. The corporation will dominate the news because its worldwide popularity.
C. The corporation will gradually lose its users because it does not have female board members.
D. None of the above.

As Facebook dominates the news with its initial public offering, activists are seizing the moment to pressure the company to add some estrogen and ethnicity to its white-male board. A women’s rights group called Ultraviolet, which has been running an online petition that claims to have attracted more than 50,000 signatures, is escalating its push, posting a new YouTube video called "Do Women Have a Future at Facebook". The video shows photos of successful women such as Hillary Clinton getting their heads cropped off the replaced with the smiling face of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. "Facebook has grown off the backs of women, who make up the majority of its users and are responsible for the majority of sharing and fan activity on the site," the group says in a blurb accompanying the video. An all-male board, the group says, is "not just wrong, it’s bad for business". A related campaign, called Face It, criticizes the lack of ethnic diversity on the seven-member board. "Seven white men: That’s ridiculous," the group says on its homepage, along side headshots of the men. The campaign, which lists dozens of human-rights groups and corporate executives as supporters, also has its own YouTube video. Called "Face it, Facebook" , the video cites a recent Zuckerberg letter to investors that says: " Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission—to make the world more open and connected. " That message isat odds withthe pale-faced board, activists say. Susan Stautberg, co-chairwoman of Women Corporate Directors, an organization for female corporate board members, says Zuckerberg’s thinking is flawed. " If you’re trying to expand a company globally, then you want someone on the board who has built a global brand," she says. "Most of these guys on Facebook’s board all have the same skills—they’re mostly from Silicon Valley and Washington. You want someone who has worked in China and India and rising markets. You want someone who has marketed to women. When you’re putting together a board, you don’t want your best friends, you want the best people. " Having zero female directors does not appear to be a good business plan, research shows. Companies with women on the board perform substantially better than companies with all-mall boards, according to a 2011 study of Fortune 500 companies conducted by the research group Catalyst. The study showed that over the course of four to five years, companies with three or more female board members, on average, outperformed companies with no female board members by 84 percent when it came to return on sales and by 60 percent when it came to return on invested capital. Facebook may secretly be on the lookout for a female board member, according to a recent Bloomberg report. Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg said Facebook had enlisted the corporate-recruitment firm Spencer Stuart to help seek some diversity. Spencer Stuary says it does not comment on clients due to confidentiality agreements. Which of the following descriptions is INCORRECT about the campaign "Face It"

A. It pointed out the irrational composition of Facebook’s board of directors.
B. The campaign has plenty of human-rights supporters.
C. It indicated the original objective of Zuckerberg’s establishment of Facebook.
D. It is constantly using other media devices to support Facebook.

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