Sino-Japan Animosity Lessens Chinese and Japanese people view each other slightly more positively than last year, according to a survey released on Wednesday at a press conference in Beijing. The survey is jointly sponsored by China Daily and Genron NPO, a Japanese think tank similar to the American Council on Foreign Relations. It also found overwhelming agreement in both countries that Sino-Japanese relations were important. The survey is a part of the Beijing-Tokyo Forum, an annual gathering of senior government officials and representatives from Chinese and Japanese NGOs designed to improve communication and understanding between the two countries. Conducted every year for five years now, the survey focused on two different groups of people: ordinary citizens, and intellectuals. In China, the intellectual group was comprised mainly of university students from well-known schools like Peking University. In Japan, the "intellectual" group was mainly made up of previous members of Genron NPO. Among ordinary Chinese polled, 35.7 percent said they have "very good" or "relatively good" impressions of Japan, a 5.5-percentage-point increase compared with last year. 45.2 percent of Chinese students had a positive impression of Japan, two percentage points more than last year. Only 26.6 percent of Japanese have a positive impression of China, however. Still, an overwhelming majority of the respondents from each country said Sino-Japanese relations were "important" and wanted their leaders to deepen talks and cooperation with each other. But 51.9 percent of ordinary people and 42.4 percent of students in China said they saw no change in relations between the two countries over the last year. In Japan, 64.8 percent of those ordinary people and 53.4 percent of intellectuals surveyed shared the view that there was no improvement in bilateral ties this year. Historical issues and territorial disputes remain two major obstacles to improving bilateral relations, the survey found. What concerns the Chinese most are historical issues, visits by Japanese officials to Yasukuni Shrine, and the Nanjing Massacre. Perceptions on economic and trade relations have improved, though. About 47 percent of ordinary Japanese said China had been "helpful" this year in fighting the global economic crisis, compared with just 30 percent last year. The percent of Japanese intellectuals who said Chinese economic growth was good for Japan increased from 65.8 percent to 81.4 percent this year. Cooperation in East Asian issues, trade and investment, energy, and the environment and climate change top the list of common concerns that people in China and Japan want their leaders to talk about in bilateral meetings, the survey found. Civil exchanges were regarded by the most people from the both countries as an important way to improve relations. 90.7 percent of the students and 85.7 percent of the ordinary people in China and 95.8% of intellectuals and 74.8% of the ordinary people in Japan viewed civil exchanges as "important" or "relatively important". Chinese and Japanese both learn about each other’s countries mostly through television news and newspapers, the survey found. The survey found that ______.
A. most Japanese had good or relatively good impressions of China.
B. the bilateral relationship was perceived as being improved over last year by the majority of respondents from the both countries.
C. an overwhelming majority of the respondents from each country believed that the Civil exchanges were an important way to improve relations.
D. The territorial issue ranked among the top list of common concerns that people in both countries want their leaders to talk about in bilateral meetings.
The Old Gate In the Middle Ages the vast majority of European cities bad walls around them. This was partly for defensive 1 but another factor was the need to keep out anyone regarded as undesirable, like people with contagious 2 . The Old City of London gates were all 3 by the end of the 18th century. The last of London’s gates was removed a century ago, but by a 4 of luck, it was never destroyed. This gate is, in 5 fact, not called a gate at all; its name is Temple Bar, and it marked the 6 between the Old City of London and Westminster. In 1878 the Council of London took the Bar down, numbered the stones and put the gate in 7 because its design was 8 it was expensive to 9 and it was blocking the traffic. The Temple Bar Trust was 10 in the 1970’s with the intention of returning the gate home. The aim of the trust is the 11 of the nation’s architectural heritage. Transporting the gate will mean physically pulling it 12 , stone by stone, removing and rebuilding it near St Paul’s Cathedral. Most of the facade of the gate will probably be 13 , though there is a good 14 that the basic structure will be sound. The hardest 15 of all, however, will be to recreate the statues of the monarchs that once stood on top of the gate.
A. borders
B. part
C. boundary
D. line
Pool Watch Swimmers can drown in busy swimming pools when lifeguards fail to notice that they are in trouble. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents says that on average 15 people drown in British pools each year, hut many more suffer major injury after getting into difficulties. Now a French company has developed an artificial intelligence system called Poseidon that sounds the alarm when it sees someone in danger of drowning. When a swimmer sinks towards the bottom of the pool, the new system sends an alarm signal to a poolside monitoring station and a lifeguard’s pager. In trials at a pool in Ancenis, near Nantes, it saved a life within just a few months, says Alistair McQuade, a spokesman for its maker, Poseidon Technologies. Poseidon keeps watch through a network of underwater and overheard video cameras. AI software analyses the images to work out swimmers trajectories. To do this reliably, it has to tell the difference between a swimmer and the shadow of someone being cast onto the bottom or side of the pool. "The underwater environment is a very dynamic one, with many shadows and reflections dancing around." says McQuade. The software does this by "projecting" a shape in its field of view onto an image of the far wail of the pool. It does the same with an image from another camera viewing the shape from a different angle. If the two projections are in the same position, the shape is identified as a shadow and is ignored. But if they are different, the shape is a swimmer and so the system follows its trajectory. To pick out potential drowning victims, anyone in the water who starts to descend slowly is added to the software’s "pre-alert" list, says McQuade. Swimmers who then stay immobile on the pool bottom for 5 seconds or more are considered in danger of drowning. Poseidon double-checks that the image really is of a swimmer, not a shadow, by seeing whether it obscures the pool’s floor texture when viewed from overhead. If so, it alerts the lifeguard, showing the swimmer’s location on a poolside screen. The first full-scale Poseidon system will be officially opened next week at a pool in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. One man who is impressed with the idea is Travor Baylis, inventor of the clockwork radio. Baylis runs a company that installs swimming pools, and he was once an underwater escapologist with a circus. "I say full marks to them if this works and can save lives," he says. But he adds that any local authority spending £30,000-plus on a Poseidon system ought to be investing similar amounts in teaching children to swim. The word "considered" in paragraph 5 could be best replaced by ______.
A. "thought".
B. "rated".
C. "regarded".
D. "believed".
Is There a Way to Keep the Britain’s Economy Growing In today’s knowledge economy, nations survive on the things they do best. Japanese design electronics while Germans export engineering techniques. The French serve, the best food and Americans make computers. Britain specializes in the gift of talking. The nation doesn’t manufacture much of anything. But it has lawyers, stylists and business consultants who earn their living from talk and more talk. The World Foundation think tank says the UK’s four iconic jobs today are not scientists, engineers, teachers and nurses. Instead, they’re hairdressers, celebrities, management consultants and managers. But can all this talking keep the British economy going The British government thinks it can. Although the country’s trade deficit was more than £60 billion in 2006, UK’s largest in the postwar period, officials say the country has nothing to worry about. In fact, Britain does have a world class pharmaceutical industry And it still makes a small sum from selling arms abroad. It also trades services-accountancy, insurance, banking and advertising. The government believes Britain is on the cutting edge of the knowledge economy. After all, me country of Shakespeare and Wordsworth has a literary tradition of which to be proud. Rock ’n’ roll is an English language medium, and there are billions to be made by their cutting-edge bands. In other words, the creative economy has plenty of strength to carry the British economy. However, creative industries account for only about 4 percent of UK’s exports of goods and services. The industries are finding it hard to make a profit, according to a report of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts The report shows only 38 percent of British companies were engaged in "innovation activities", 3 percentage points below the EU average and well below Germany (61 percent) and Sweden (47 percent). In fact, it might be better to call Britain a "servant" economy—there are at least 4 million people "in service". The majority of the population are employed by the rich to cook, clean, and take care of their children. Many graduates are even doing menial jobs for which they do not need a degree. Most employment growth has been, and will continue to be, at the low-skill end of the service sector—in shops, bars, hotels, domestic service and in nursing and care homes. A.Growth of Economy B."Servant" Economy C.Strength of the Creative Economy D.Weakness of the Creative Economy E.Gift of talking F.Export of Talking Machines Paragraph 2 ______