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A Sense of FairnessEverybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as "all too human," with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published inNature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys. They look cute. They are good-natured, cooperative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of "goods and services" than males.Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr. Brosnan"s and Dr. de Waal"s study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different.In the world of capuchins, grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (without an actual monkey to eat it) was enough to induce resentment in a female capuchin.The researchers suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a cooperative, group-living species. Such cooperation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation, it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question. What can we infer from the last paragraph
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Robots May Allow Surgery in SpaceSmall robots designed by University of Nebraska researchers may allow doctors on Earth to help perform surgery on patients in space.The tiny, wheeled robots, 1 are about 3 inches tall and as wide as a lipstick case, can be slipped into small incisions (切口) and computer-controlled by surgeons in different locations. Some robots are equipped 2 cameras and lights and can send images back to surgeons and others have surgical tools attached that can be 3 remotely."We think this is going to 4 open surgery," Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov said at a news conference. Oleynikov is a 5 in computer-assisted surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.Officials hope that NASA will teach 6 to use the robots soon enough so that surgeries could one day be performed in space.On earth, the surgeons could control the robots themselves 7 other locations. For example, the robots could enable surgeons in other places to 8 on injured soldiers on the front line. Researchers plan to seek federal regulatory 9 early next year. Tests on animals have been successful, and tests on humans in England will begin very soon.The camera-carrying robots can provide 10 of affected areas and the ones with surgical tools will be able to maneuver(操控) inside the body in ways surgeons" hands can"t. The views from the camera-carrying robots are 11 than the naked eye, because they 12 back color images that are magnified(放大). Because several robots can be inserted through one incision, they could reduce the amount and 13 of cuts needed for surgery, which would decrease recovery time. This is particularly 14 to those patients who have been debilitated(使虚弱) by long illness.Eventually, Oleynikov said, the tiny robots may enable surgeons to work without ever 15 their hands in patients" bodies. "That"s the goal," Oleynikov said. "It"s getting easier and easier. We can do even more with these devices."
Centers of the Great European CitiesThe centers of the great cities of Europe are meeting places by tradition. People gather there to drink coffee and chat late into the night. A mixture of locals and tourists make for an exciting, metropolitan atmosphere.Squares, plazas(广场) and arcades(拱廊) form the heart of Europe"s cities. Venice in Italy has the Piazza San Marco-a beautiful square surrounded by shops, churches, restaurants and cafes. In Barcelona, Spain, La Bosqueria is a lively market with hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of goods. London"s Covent Garden is filled with fruit and vegetable stalls by day and musicians, acrobats(杂技演员) and artists by night. The government buildings at the center of many cities often are architecturally impressive. In London, they serve as a beautiful backdrop(背景) to the coffee tables that line the streets and the banks of the Thames.These vibrant(有活力的) hearts are the product of centuries of evolution, social historian Joel Garreau told US News and World Report recently. "The reason people think Venice is so great today is you don"t see all the mistakes," said Garreau, "those have all been removed." Most European cities were laid out before the invention of the car, so bars, restaurants and cafes were near to people"s homes. Today, the focus of many Europeans" life has moved away from the centers. They live in the suburbs and outskirts, driving to supermarkets to get their supplies. But on a continent where people treasure convention, there are still those who hold onto traditional ways, living and shopping locally. These people, together with tourists, provide the city centers with their reason for existence.Coffee culture plays a part in keeping these city centers flourishing. This is particularly true of Paris whose citizens are famous enthusiastic conversationalists. This skill is developed over many hours spent chatting over espressos(浓咖啡) and cigarettes.Religion also plays a role in developing sociable atmosphere. People in Roman Catholic countries used to visit the Church on an almost daily basis. Entire communities would gather in the same building and then move out to the markets, cafes and bars in the surrounding streets. An enormous example of this relationship between church and society is the Duomo. The huge marble cathedral in Florence, Italy is surrounded by bakeries and coffee shops, and caters not only to the tourist crowds, but also the local community. What are Parisians famous for
A Sense of FairnessEverybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as "all too human," with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published inNature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys. They look cute. They are good-natured, cooperative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of "goods and services" than males.Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr. Brosnan"s and Dr. de Waal"s study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different.In the world of capuchins, grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (without an actual monkey to eat it) was enough to induce resentment in a female capuchin.The researchers suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a cooperative, group-living species. Such cooperation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation, it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question. Dr. Brosnan and Dr. de Waal have eventually found in their study that the monkeys ______.
Bill Gates: Unleashing Your CreativityI"ve always been an optimist and I suppose that is rooted in my belief that the power of creativity and intelligence can make the world a better place.For as long as I can remember, I"ve loved learning new things and solving problems. So when I sat down at a computer for the first time in seventh grade, I was hooked. It was a chunky old teletype machine and it could barely do anything compared to the computers we have today. But it changed my life.When my friend Paul Allen and I started Microsoft 30 years ago, we had a vision of "a computer on every desk and in every home," which probably sounded a little too optimistic at a time when most computers were the size of refrigerators. But we believed that personal computers would change the world. And they have.And after 30 years, I"m still as inspired by computers as I was back in seventh grade.I believe that computers are the most incredible tool we can use to feed our curiosity and inventiveness to help us solve problems that even the smartest people couldn"t solve on their own.Computers have transformed how we learn, giving kids everywhere a window into all of the world"s knowledge. They"re helping us build communities around the things we care about and to stay close to the people who are important to us, no matter where they are.Like my friend Warren Buffett, I feel particularly lucky to do something every day that I love to do. He calls it "tap-dancing to work". My job at Microsoft is as challenging as ever, but what makes me "tap-dance to work" is when we show people something new, like a computer that can recognize your handwriting or your speech, or one that can store a lifetime"s worth of photos, and they say, "I didn"t know you could do that with a PC!"But for all the cool things that a person can do with a PC, there are lots of other ways we can put our creativity and intelligence to work to improve our world. There are still far too many people in the world whose most basic needs go unmet. Every year, for example, millions of people die from diseases that are easy to prevent or treat in the developed world.I believe that my own good fortune brings with it a responsibility to give back to the world. My wife, Melinda, and I have committed to improving health and education in a way that can help as many people as possible.As a father, I believe that the death of a child in Africa is no less poignant or tragic than the death of a child anywhere else and that it doesn"t take much to make an immense difference in these children"s lives.I"m still very much an optimist, and I believe that progress on even the world"s toughest problems is possible—and it"s happening every day. We"re seeing new drugs for deadly diseases, new diagnostic tools, and new attention paid to the health problems in the developing world.I"m excited by the possibilities I see for medicine, for education and, of course, for technology. And I believe that through our natural inventiveness, creativity and willingness to solve tough problems, we"re going to make some amazing achievements in all these areas in my lifetime. Bill Gates and his wife consider it their duty to help the poor better their health and education as much as possible.
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