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President Bush has proposed adding optional personal accounts as one of the central elements of a major Social Security reform proposal. Although many details remain to be worked out, the proposal would allow individuals who choose to do so to divert part of the money they currently pay in Social Security taxes into individual investment accounts. Individuals would have a choice of fund managers, and the return that they earn from those accounts would then partially determine the Social Security benefit they receive when they retire.Individual accounts pose a number of important and complex design and implementation issues, including how to lower the cost of administering accounts so that they do not erode the value of pensions that individuals receive when they retire, how many and what kinds of fund choices should be offered, and how to engage workers in choosing funds.In the late 1990s, Sweden added a mandatory individual accounts tier to its public pension system. This p01icy brief examines the Swedish experience and lessons it suggests for the United States about the design and implementation challenges of individual accounts.Sweden has one of the oldest and most comprehensive public pension systems in the world. But by the 1980s, several problems with the system were becoming evident, including current funding deficits and a very large projected funding shortfall as Sweden’s population, which is among the oldest in the world, continued to age.Between 1991 and 1998, Sweden adopted a new pension system built on three fundamental elements. A new "income pension" is intended to tie pension benefits more closely to contributions made over the entire course of an individual’ s working life, while lowering the overall cost of the system; it is financed entirely by a 16 percent payroll tax. A "guarantee pension" provides minimum income support for workers with low lifetime earnings. It is financed entirely by general government revenues and is income-tested against other public pension income.The third element is a "premium pension" financed by a 2.5 percent payroll tax. These funds are placed in an individual investment account. Individuals have a wide variety of fund choices. To lower administrative costs; and the administrative burden on employers, collection of premium pension contributions and fund choices are centrally administered by a new government agency, the Premium Pension Authority. Deposits into pension funds are made only once a year, after complete wage records for a calendar year are available from the state tax authorities. Employees choose up to five funds from a list of funds approved by the PPA. Swedes can change their fund allocations as often as they want without charge, but the system is not designed to facilitate "day trading"—switching funds often takes several days.The new pension system’s planners recognized that many workers might not make an active pension fund choice. They created a Seventh Swedish National Pension Fund to offer a default fund, called the Premium Savings Fund, for those who do not choose a fund or simply prefer to have the government invest for them. What can you learn about Bush’s proposal of adding optional personal accounts()。

A. People can transfer some money from their investment accounts to the Social Security taxes
B. The return people earn from their accounts can decide their social benefit decisively
C. People can spent more on investment and meanwhile receive more benefit in the future
D. These accounts will determine how much people can receive in their lives

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The world’s No. 3 record company, EMI became the first major music company to sell a large selection of its recordings on line on Tuesday.It related more than 100 albums and 40 singles from acts of famous singers of various styles for fans to download from their computers.EMI’s downloading trial came as Legal battles rage over copyrights and digital music distribution between the recording industry and online music providers like MP3. corn Inc.. MP3. corn provides access to music via the popular MP3 technology, a compression format that turns music on compact discs into small computer fibres. EMI’s music will be available in the future in secure format, after the company develops a player that supports the format.Current MP3 technology allows fans to copy songs again and again, the encoded software being used by EMI will limit consumers from hard drives. A consumer can turn the song to a CD twice and send it to a portable device three times. The popular MP3 technology ()。

A. allows fans to copy songs once or twice
B. allows consumers to turn the song to a CD three times
C. allows consumers to send the song to a portable device twice
D. is a compression format that turns music on compact discs into small computer files

Since ancient times it has been known that your word is a cause set in motion. In fact, the universe itself is claimed to have emanated from a single primordial sound. In the science of yoga, it is believed that certain Sanskrit words, known as mantras, can bring about magical results, thus you can secure abundance with a certain mantra, peace with another, and so on. On a more practical level, your word still remains highly potent.With your words, you can wound someone, sending them into spirals of defeat, and with your words you can heal someone, raising them up from a dismal place to soaring hope and motivation. In fact, the entire field of self-improvement is the transmission of words that will assist others to get a firm perspective and move forward with their lives, fulfilling their dreams and desires.On a personal level, too, your words affect you. What you say to yourself about anyone or anything affects you, too. If you speak well of someone or something, you bring more of that harmony into your life. And if you speak ill of someone or something, you bring more of that frustration and anger and conflict into your life.Psychological literature often speaks of numerous cases where a parents words, spoken casually, can affect the destiny of a child. And the most potent words that a parent can use to affect a child are those spoken at the time of dying since these are the last words, and the moment is so highly-charged and the awareness so acute, these words become an imperative that the child now feels obligated to never disown.Words are further charged with the emotion behind them. The stronger the emotion, the more highly charged the words. Many a love affair has fallen by the wayside because of emotionally charged words, which are later regretted.Despite all this, people use words with the utmost casualness. People wreck their own lives and that of others through the careless use of words. They also accept the words of others as a given truth, when, in fact, all comments by others are merely opinion.The most marvelous aspect of words is how they can bend time. The brilliantly crafted words of Shakespeare or the eloquence of Martin Luther King still shape our lives. Words are so sacred that whole buildings are used to archive them and make them available for reading.A person can rise from poverty to wealth, from sickness to health, and from loneliness to loving companionship simply through exposing themselves to the most beneficial stream of words.Words not only steal hearts, but shape reality as well. The earth can be a better place because of your choice of words. You can fill lives with the miracles of your words. You can be an agent for positive change and bring out the best in yourself and others simply by how you use words. Words are psychic shape-shifters; use them wisely. According to the author, words can ()。

A. kill people
B. show people’s defeat
C. give people hope
D. change the speaker himself

The development of toothpaste began as long ago as 3000/5000 BC in the ancient countries of China and India. According to Chinese history, Huang-Ti claimed different types of pain felt in the mouth could be cured by sticking gold and silver needles into different parts of the jaw and gum. h was theories such as these that led to the development of dental cream. During the years 3000/5000 BC, Egyptians made toothpaste using a recipe of powdered ashes of hooves of oxen, myrrh, powdered and burned eggshells and pumice. It is assumed that the ancient Egyptians used their fingers to rub the mixture onto teeth.The tooth stick, the forerunner of the toothbrush, had not, as far as is known, been discovered at this time. From the records of the ancient countries of India, China and Egypt, it was the Greeks and Romans who developed and improved toothpaste and developed a leaden instrument for the extraction of teeth. They were also the first to bind loose teeth together and to support artificial teeth by means of gold wire. During 1000 AD, the Persians gave advice on the dangers of using hard toothpowders and recommendations were made to make toothpowder from burnt hartshorn, the burnt shells of snails and oysters and burned gypsum. Other Persian recipes included dried animal parts, herbs, honey and minerals. One formula for strengthening teeth included green lead, verdigris, incense, honey and powdered flint stone.Toothpowder or dentifrice was first available in Britain in the late 18th century. It came in a ceramic pot and was available either as a powder or paste. The rich applied it with brushes and the poor with their fingers. The powders were developed by doctors, dentists and chemists and often contained ingredients that were highly abrasive and harmful to the teeth, such as brick dust, china, earthenware or cuttlefish, and to make them more palatable, they contained glycerine. By the early nineteenth century, the ingredient stronchium was introduced, to strengthen teeth and reduce sensitivity, but it only really concentrated on the gums. In the late 18th century, borax powder was used to get the foaming effect. In 1873, an aromatic toothpaste in a jar was introduced in the U.S. and in 1896, Dental Cream was first packaged in collapsible tubes. Before the Second World War, the majority of toothpaste on the market used soap as an emulsifying agent, even though it was known that soap had certain inherent defects. According to the passage, it can be inferred that the Greeks and Romans ()。

A. also developed the toothbrush
B. were the first to support artificial teeth
C. had more dental problems than other cultures
D. did not keep records of their dental practices

The world’s No. 3 record company, EMI became the first major music company to sell a large selection of its recordings on line on Tuesday.It related more than 100 albums and 40 singles from acts of famous singers of various styles for fans to download from their computers.EMI’s downloading trial came as Legal battles rage over copyrights and digital music distribution between the recording industry and online music providers like MP3. corn Inc.. MP3. corn provides access to music via the popular MP3 technology, a compression format that turns music on compact discs into small computer fibres. EMI’s music will be available in the future in secure format, after the company develops a player that supports the format.Current MP3 technology allows fans to copy songs again and again, the encoded software being used by EMI will limit consumers from hard drives. A consumer can turn the song to a CD twice and send it to a portable device three times. EMI is ()。

A. the world’s first major music company
B. the world’s third largest record company
C. the world’s largest on -line music provider
D. the world’s largest software company

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