The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn is notoriously toxic. Since 1869, the mile-long waterway has been a dumping ground for garbage, industrial waste, guns and body parts—its waters once too dirty to search. Today you can still stand on a bridge over the canal and see underwear floating on the water. The odor, once almost unbearable, has softened into an occasional summerstink, thanks to a flushing tunnel installed 10 years ago.A growing number of artists and young people have moved into the industrial lofts and row houses nearby. Some of the most oblivious have been spotted on the canal in canoes, their paddles stirring 140 years worth of detritus (small pieces of rubbish) from leather factories, chemical plants and more. Now, these Gowanus pioneers want somebody to finally detoxify their hazardous neighborhood. They imagine it as Brooklyn"s little Venice, although a bit cleaner. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering naming the Gowanus an official Superfund site. That would bring in a slow but steady federal cleanup with money and the legal influence to force polluters to help pay. The present Mayor of the New York City also wants a cleaner Gowanus, but he wants to do it his way. At a community board meeting Tuesday night, about 200 people listened as the mayor"s experts argued against a Superfund listing. It was a hard crowd to move. Many wore a button that said it all: "Gowanus Canal: Superfund Me." The mayor and his team are particularly worried about how a Superfund site would affect the real estate market, especially a few possibilities for larger developments in the area. Instead of being "stigmatized" by the Superfund label, as they put it, they favor the "Superfund Alternative" plan. Although there are few details at this point, that effort would be run by the city and overseen by the EPA Every year, the city would rush to collect funds from the Corps of Engineers and other agencies to help clean up the area to the EPA"s satisfaction. The city could only plead with polluters to help pay. With so many pollutants and so many polluters, this looks like a job for Superfund. Brooklyn can handle the label. Residents already enjoy boasting about their survival or joking about living near the canal"s dark humors. Why else have a popular bar called the Gowanus Yacht Club They just want the cleanup done and done right. The phrase "Some of the most oblivious" (Para. 2) here means _____.
A. people who randomly pollute the canal
B. people who care little about the odor
C. people who try to neglect the smell
D. people who wish to clean the canal
Parents of children who happily eat what"s put in front of them might assume their kids are well nourished. But two new studies drive home the importance of varying that diet. Deficiencies of vitamin D, omega-3 fats, and other healthful compounds are common; it turns out—and consequential. Growing evidence links vitamin D deficiency not only to weak bones but al-so to impaired immunity, asthma, and diabetes among other problems. And some of the latest research finds that rates of asthma and related respiratory problems climb in kids who are short on other commonly missing essentials, including vitamins C and E and omega-3 fatty acids. A team at the Harvard School of Public Health evaluated the diet and respiratory (relating to the process of breathing) health of some 2,000 North American high school seniors and found that teens who lack of fruit, vegetables, and other healthful foods were most likely to have problems such as coughing, panting, episodes of bronchitis, and asthma. Vitamins C and E, which are abundant in fruit and dark-green vegetables, may "protect the lung from stress," says Harvard research fellow and study leader Jane Burns. Omega-3 reduces inflammation, a key feature of asthma, in which airways swell and make breathing difficult. Oily fish like salmon, mackerel, and tuna—as well as cod-liver oil—are rich in both omega-3 and vitaminD Vitamin D can also be obtained from multivitamin milk and sunshine—and many kids should be getting more of both. In another new study, researchers found that 55 percent of outwardly healthy children and teenagers they tested didn"t have enough vitamin D to grow healthy bones. Dark-skinned children were particularly likely to be short of the bone-building vitamin, according to Babette Zemel, an author of the study and director of the Nutrition and Growth Laboratory at Children"s Hospital of Philadelphia. The melanin (a natural dark brown colour in human skin, hair, and eyes) that makes their skin dark also blocks ultraviolet rays, which the body uses to make vitaminD In winter, when the sun was weakest, more than 90 percent of blacks in the study were vitamin D deficient. Researchers suggest pointing kids outside, and waiting a few minutes before putting on sun block; 10 minutes of midday summer sun provides 10,000 international units of the vitamin—more than enough for a day. Like melanin, sunblock prevents the skin from making vitamin D, so a bit of lotion-free exposure is necessary to grab the benefit. What can we infer from the first paragraph
A. Parents will always feed their children well.
B. Kids who eat more are less likely to suffer from malnutrition.
C. Kids should have access to diets of healthful nutrients.
Deficiencies of certain compounds are harmful or even deadly.
The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn is notoriously toxic. Since 1869, the mile-long waterway has been a dumping ground for garbage, industrial waste, guns and body parts—its waters once too dirty to search. Today you can still stand on a bridge over the canal and see underwear floating on the water. The odor, once almost unbearable, has softened into an occasional summerstink, thanks to a flushing tunnel installed 10 years ago.A growing number of artists and young people have moved into the industrial lofts and row houses nearby. Some of the most oblivious have been spotted on the canal in canoes, their paddles stirring 140 years worth of detritus (small pieces of rubbish) from leather factories, chemical plants and more. Now, these Gowanus pioneers want somebody to finally detoxify their hazardous neighborhood. They imagine it as Brooklyn"s little Venice, although a bit cleaner. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering naming the Gowanus an official Superfund site. That would bring in a slow but steady federal cleanup with money and the legal influence to force polluters to help pay. The present Mayor of the New York City also wants a cleaner Gowanus, but he wants to do it his way. At a community board meeting Tuesday night, about 200 people listened as the mayor"s experts argued against a Superfund listing. It was a hard crowd to move. Many wore a button that said it all: "Gowanus Canal: Superfund Me." The mayor and his team are particularly worried about how a Superfund site would affect the real estate market, especially a few possibilities for larger developments in the area. Instead of being "stigmatized" by the Superfund label, as they put it, they favor the "Superfund Alternative" plan. Although there are few details at this point, that effort would be run by the city and overseen by the EPA Every year, the city would rush to collect funds from the Corps of Engineers and other agencies to help clean up the area to the EPA"s satisfaction. The city could only plead with polluters to help pay. With so many pollutants and so many polluters, this looks like a job for Superfund. Brooklyn can handle the label. Residents already enjoy boasting about their survival or joking about living near the canal"s dark humors. Why else have a popular bar called the Gowanus Yacht Club They just want the cleanup done and done right. The bar-name "Gowanus Yacht Club" expresses
A. local residents" wishes for the future development
B. local residents" yearning for cleanup on Gowanus Canal
C. Gowanus pioneers" resolution to clean the canal
D. Gowauns pioneers" resentment towards the mayor
How stupid does one need to be to get a job reading the television news Is it actually beneficial for TV newsreaders to have, instead of a brain, a plate of lemon jelly Last week the debate was raging once again about the controversial and important point as to whether the newsreaders write their own copy, read someone else"s or simply make it up as they go along. Angela Rippon reckonedthat she had never heard of a newsreader writing stuff, but her modern counterpart, the beautiful Sophie Raworth, claims that they do the writing and adds that she has a postgraduate degree in journalism. This is the core of the issue: what on earth is there to learn about journalism at postgraduate level The point and purpose of our lowly, occasionally useful, trade could be scribbled on the back of a postage stamp and would easily be comprehended by a 14-year-old boy with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Who has decided that it must be dignified with a doctoral thesis Nor is reading the news even what one might call "journalism". It is an even simpler business called "reading". All that the BBC demands of its female newsreaders is an ability to read in an impartial way words like "Israel has murdered more Lebanese children again today" from the teleprompter without belching or lisping. It helps if they have the eminently presentable manner of a girl guide leader from Esher. They are forbidden to express an opinion. They are not required to go undercover, analyze the news or add witty asides. They are required to be that which they are known as in the trade—"a gob on a stick".A penetrating intelligence is not merely unnecessary, it is counterproductive. Newsreaders who are too intelligent soon stop being newsreaders, much as John Humphrys did, stifled by the commonplace of their duties. Or they give the game away by doing what that German newsreader did and end the programme, shaking their heads sadly, muttering, "it"s all lies, all lies". Which is not to say BBC newsreaders are bad at their jobs: quite the reverse. But we should not confuse competence with intelligence. Newsreaders believe that because they are reading out serious stuff and everybody is listening to them, they must therefore be creatures possessed of a high IQ. They are confusing the message with the medium. The author cites the example of BBC in Paragraph 3 to show that _____.
A. it is concerned about international affairs and widely reports them
B. reading the news mainly involves required reading capability
C. it has laid down a lot of dos and don"ts for its newsreaders
D. reading the news is an easy job that most people are qualified for