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Parents can easily come down with an acute case of schizophrenia from reading the contradictory reports about the state of the public schools. One sat of experts asserts that the schools are better than they have been for years. Others say that the schools are in terrible shape and are responsible for every national problem from urban poverty to the trade deficit. One group of experts looks primarily at such indicators as test scores, and they cheer what they see: all the indicators—reading scores, minimum competency test results, the Scholastic Aptitude Test scores—are up, some by substantial margins. Students are required to take more academic courses—more mathematics and science, along with greater stress on basic skills, including knowledge of computers. More than 40 state legislatures have mandated such changes. But in the eyes of another set of school reformers such changes are at best superficial and at worst counterproductive. These experts say that merely toughening requirements, without either improving the quality of instruction or, even more important, changing the way schools are organized and children are taught makes the schools worse rather than better. They challenge the nature of the test, mostly multiple choice or true or false, by which children’s progress is measured; they charge that raising the test scores by drilling pupils to come up with the right answers does not improve knowledge, understanding and the capacity to think logically and independently. In addition, these critics fear that the get-tough approach to school reform will cause more of the youngsters at the bottom to give up and drop out. This, they say, may improve national scores but drain even further the nation’s pool of educated people. The way to cut through the confusion is to understand the different yardsticks used by different observers. Compared with what schools used to be like "in the good old days", with lots of drill and uniform requirements, and the expectation that many youngsters who could not make it would drop out and find their way into unskilled jobs--by those yardsticks the schools have measurably improved in recent years. But by the yardsticks of those experts who believe that the old school was deficient in teaching the skills needed in the modem world, today’ s schools have not become better. These educators believe that rigid new mandates may actually have made the schools worse. According to the author the drop-out rate of school children is often caused by the______.
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Space enthusiasts look to the day when ordinary people, as well as professional astronauts and members of Congress, can leave Earth behind and head for a space station resort, or maybe a base on the moon or Mars. The Space Transportation Association, an industry lobbying group, recently created a division devoted to promoting space tourism, which it sees as a viable way to spur economic development beyond Earth. The great stumbling block in this road to stars, however, is the sheer difficulty of getting anywhere in space. Merely achieving orbit is an expensive and risky proposition. Current space propulsion technologies make it a stretch to send probes to distant destinations within the solar system. Spacecraft have to follow multi-laver, indirect trajectories that loop around several planes in order to gain velocity from gravity assists. Then the craft lack the energy to come back. Sending spacecraft to other solar systems would take many centuries. Fortunately, engineers have no shortage of inventive plans for new propulsion systems that might someday expand human presence, literally or figuratively, beyond this planet. Some are radical refinements of current rockets or jet technologies. Others harness nuclear energies or would ride on powerful laser beams. Even the equivalents of "space elevators" for hoisting cargoes into orbit are on the drawing board. "Reach low orbit and you are halfway to anywhere in the Solar System," science-fiction author Robert A. Heinlein memorably wrote, and virtually all analysts agree that inexpensive access to low Earth orbit is a vital first step, because most scenarios for expanding humankind’ s reach depend on the orbital assembly of massive spacecraft or other equipment, involving multiple hunches. The need for better launch systems is already immediate, driven by private and public sector demand. Most commercial payloads are destined either for the now crowed geo-stationary orbit, where satellites jostle for elbow room 36,000 kilometers above the equator, or for low-Earth or bit, just a few hundred kilometers up. Low-Earth orbit is rapidly becoming a space enterprise zone, because satellites that close can transmit signals to desktop or even handheld receivers. Scientific payloads are also taking off in a big way. More than 50 major observatories and explorations to other solar systems’ bodies will lift off within the next decade. The pressing demand for launches has even prompted Boeing’s commercial space division to team up with RSC—Energia in Moscow and Kvaerner Maritime in Oslo to refurbish an oil rig and create a 34,000—ton displacement semi-submersible launch platform that will be towed to orbitally favorable launch sites. The passage is mainly about______.
下面各题，如无说明，年利率均为10%。 张某从2008年年末到银行存了3000元，复利计息，那么在2006年1月1日的现值为( )。
下面各题，如无说明，年利率均为10%。 按8%的复利计息，张某若想在第五年取得10000元，则现在要存入( )。
The most critical time in the life of a human is the very beginning—the first hours after birth. Yet it has been only within the past few years that doctors have recognized that treating a newborn baby like a small child is not the best procedure. This is especially true of "high risk babies", a term applied to babies that are premature, underweight, or born with major organic defects. They need immediate, imaginative, intensive care and observation, not only for survival but also to help circumvent physical problems which may affect the infant for life. Out of this requirement has developed a new branch of medicine called neonatology, which is concerned with the first three months of life. Dozens of major hospitals throughout the United States have opened newborn intensive care units, directed by neonatologists and employing equipment and techniques devised specially for tiny patients. One of the greatest aids in these units is an "isolette"—an electronically equipped glass-enclosed incubator with portholes for sterile access to the baby. Inside the isolette, sensors placed on the infant make him look much like a miniature astronaut. The sensors automatically regulate and record the temperature, humidity, and oxygen in this "artificial womb", as well as signal change or trouble affecting its occupant. In hospitals with newborn intensive care unit, specialists are ready to use their skills as the need arises. They are alerted to pregnancies that may develop complications. For example, if a woman who is pregnant enters the hospital and is under the age of 18 or over the age of 40, is undernourished or obese, has diabetes, heart or kidney trouble, the neonatologists are advised. The neonatologist often attends the delivery of a baby with the obstetrician, and then rushes the newborn infant into his special care unit. There, within a few minutes, the baby is tested, examined thorougbly, and made ready for treatment or surgery if needed. The most common cause of infant deaths is pre-maturity. In some hospitals it is not unusual to find 8 or 9 "preemies" (premature infants) in the special care units at one time. In addition to the technical advances, the health of the infant depends on an ageless ingredient-love. Nurses are essential members of baby-caving teams. Their job is to rock, to feed, and to fondle the very small patients. Even at this early age, doctors find that lack of love has adverse physical and psychological effects. on the newborn babies. As the number of neonatologists and special care centers has increased, the survival rate for high-risk babies in the United States has risen from about 75 % a few years ago to an impressively high 90% today. Doctors think that the 90% could beincreased if the babies could be brought more quickly under the care of a neonatologist. In some hospitals, teams of doctors and nurses can respond to emergencies with portable isolettes which are carried by airplane, helicopter, or ambulance. Besides technical advances, what else is needed for the health of an infant
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