Lacking a cure for AIDS, society must offer education, not only by public pronouncement but in classrooms. Those with AIDS or those at high risk of AIDS suffer prejudice; they are feared by some people who find living itself unsafe, while others conduct themselves with a "bravado" that could be fatal. AIDS has afflicted a society already short on humanism, open-handedness and optimism. Attempts to strike it out with the offending microbe are not abetted by pre-existing social ills. Such concerns impelled me to offer the first university level undergraduate AIDS course, with its two important aims.To address the fact the AIDS is caused by a virus, not by moral failure of societal collapse. The proper response to AIDS is compassion coupled with an understanding of the disease itself. We wanted to foster (help the growth of) the idea of a humane society.To describe how AIDS tests institutions upon which our society rests. The economy, the political sys- tem, science, the legal establishment, the media and our moral ethical-philosophical attitudes must respond to the disease. Those responses, whispered, or shrieked, easily accepted or highly controversial, must be put in order if the nation is to manage AIDS. Scholars have suggested that how a society deals with the threat of AIDS describes the extent to which that society has the right to call itself civilized. AIDS, then, is woven into the tapestry of modem society; in the course of explaining that tapestry, a teacher realizes that AIDS may bring about changes of historic proportions. Democracy obliges its educational system to prepare students to become informed citizens, to join their voices to the public debate inspired by AIDS. Who shall direct just what resources of manpower and money to the problem of AIDS Even more basic, who shall formulate a national policy on AIDS The educational challenge, then, is to enlighten the individual and the societal, or public responses to AIDS. What does the author think is the correct response to AIDS()
A. Fear and contempt.
B. Optimism and bravado.
C. Understanding and compassion.
D. Resentment and avoidance.
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When workers become more efficient, it’s normally a good thing. But lately, it has acted as a powerful brake on job creation. And the question of whether the recent surge in productivity has run its course is the key to whether job growth is finally poised to take off.One of the great surprises of the economic downturn that began 27 months ago is this.. Businesses are producing only 3 percent fewer goods and services than they were at the end of 2007, yet Americans are working nearly 10 percent fewer hours because of a mix of layoffs and cutbacks in the workweek.(46) That means high-level gains in productivity--which in the long run is the key to a higher standard of living but in the short run contributes to sky-high unemployment. So long as employers can squeeze dramatically higher output from every worker, they won’t need to hire again despite the growing economy.(47) On Friday, the Labor Department will release a closely watched March employment report expected to show the strongest job growth in three years, driven by stabilization in the economy and a rebound from February snowstorms.A strong March job-growth number-at a time when the economy is growing at only a middling pace--would suggest that the productivity boom has largely run its course. (48) Regardless, the question of what caused the burst in workers’ efficiency is one of the great unanswered questions of the expansion and has huge stakes for the economy over the coming year."It is an episode that we’re going to--we, economists in general--are going to want to understand better and look at for a long time," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said at a hearing last week in which he described the productivity gains as "extraordinary" and acknowledged he had not foreseen them.(49) Businesses have certainly not been investing in new equipment that might enable workers to be more efficient-capital expenditures plummeted during the recession and are rebounding slowly. (50) And the structural shifts occurring in the economy are so profound that one would expect productivity to be lower, rather than higher, as people need new training to work in parts of the economy that are growing, such as exports and the clean-energy sector.So what’s happening As best as anyone can guess, the crisis that began in 2007 and deepened in 2008 caused both businesses and workers to panic. On Friday, the Labor Department will release a closely watched March employment report expected to show the strongest job growth in three years, driven by stabilization in the economy and a rebound from February snowstorms.
The promise of finding long-term technological solutions to the problem of world food shortages seems difficult to fulfill Many innovations that were once heavily supported and publicized have since fallen by the wayside. The proposals themselves were technically feasible, but they proved to be economically unenviable and to yield food products culturally unacceptable to their consumers.One characteristic common to unsuccessful food innovations has been that, even with extensive government support, they often have not been technologically adapted or culturally acceptable to the people for whom they had been developed. A successful new technology, therefore, must fit the entire sociocultural system in which it is to find a place Security of crop yield, practicality of storage, and costs are much more significant than what had previously been realized by the advocates of new technologies.The adoption of new food technologies depends on more than these technical and cultural considerations; economic factors and governmental policies also strongly influence the ultimate success of any innovation. Economists in the Anglo-American tradition have taken the lead in investigating the economics of technological innovation. Although they exaggerate in claiming that profitability is the key factor guiding technical change -- they completely disregard the substantial effects of culture—they are correct in stressing the importance of profits. Most technological innovations in agriculture can be fully used only by large landowners and are only adopted if these profit-oriented business people believe that the innovation will increase their incomes, Thus innovations that carry high rewards for big agribusiness groups will be adopted even if they harm segments of the population and reduce the availability of food in a country. Further, should s new technology promise to alter substantially the profits and losses associated with any production system, those with economic power will strive to maintain and improve their own positions. Therefore, although technical advances in food production and processing will perhaps be needed to ensure food availability, meeting food needs will depend much more on equalizing economic power among the various segments of the populations within the developing countries themselves. The author appears to tell us().
A. how food industry works
B. how to introduce a new food technology into a developing country
C. key factors of applying technological solutions to the problem of food shortages
D. some food technological innovations
The promise of finding long-term technological solutions to the problem of world food shortages seems difficult to fulfill Many innovations that were once heavily supported and publicized have since fallen by the wayside. The proposals themselves were technically feasible, but they proved to be economically unenviable and to yield food products culturally unacceptable to their consumers.One characteristic common to unsuccessful food innovations has been that, even with extensive government support, they often have not been technologically adapted or culturally acceptable to the people for whom they had been developed. A successful new technology, therefore, must fit the entire sociocultural system in which it is to find a place Security of crop yield, practicality of storage, and costs are much more significant than what had previously been realized by the advocates of new technologies.The adoption of new food technologies depends on more than these technical and cultural considerations; economic factors and governmental policies also strongly influence the ultimate success of any innovation. Economists in the Anglo-American tradition have taken the lead in investigating the economics of technological innovation. Although they exaggerate in claiming that profitability is the key factor guiding technical change -- they completely disregard the substantial effects of culture—they are correct in stressing the importance of profits. Most technological innovations in agriculture can be fully used only by large landowners and are only adopted if these profit-oriented business people believe that the innovation will increase their incomes, Thus innovations that carry high rewards for big agribusiness groups will be adopted even if they harm segments of the population and reduce the availability of food in a country. Further, should s new technology promise to alter substantially the profits and losses associated with any production system, those with economic power will strive to maintain and improve their own positions. Therefore, although technical advances in food production and processing will perhaps be needed to ensure food availability, meeting food needs will depend much more on equalizing economic power among the various segments of the populations within the developing countries themselves. The text indicates that ().
A. we are lack of food innovations
B. many economists are wrong in investigating the economics of technological innovations
C. profit-oriented business people believe that innovation can increase their incomes
D. we cannot disregard the effects of culture in guiding technical change
Angela Rogers is describing a boat trip which she took with her husband down the Nile.It was the summer of last year when we went, It was a special package holiday which included three days in Cairo, and a week cruising down the Nile. It sounded lovely in the brochure. Relaxing. luxurious, delicious food—all the unusual things. And the boat looked nice in the picture. In fact when we got there, and on the boat, it was exactly the opposite of luxurious. It was positively uncomfortable. It was too small to be comfortable. And too hot. The only air-conditioning was from the wind and inside, in the cabins, it was too hot to sleep, and the dining room was stifling.My husband and I paid the special rate for the best cabin. I’m glad we didn’t have to stay in the worst one. The cabins were very poorly equipped; there wasn’t even a mirror, or a socket for a hair drier, or even a point for the electric razor. There was a shower, but the water pressure wasn’t high enough to use it. The cabin was badly designed as well. There wasn’t enough room to move. The beds took up three quarters of the space.The brochure also talked about the mouth-watering French cuisine available on board, but you could hardly call it food It was boring, and practically inedible. There was nothing to do, really. There was a table-tennis table, but one bat was broken. In the daytime the decks were so crowded, there wasn’t even enough room to sit, We did stop now and then for a swim, but who wants to swim in that filthy river I certainly didn’t. What kind of cabin did the speaker stay in