2016年3月上海市中级口译第一阶段笔试真题试卷

In the summer of 2010, record-high temperatures hit Moscow. At first it was just another 【C1】______but the scorching heat that started in 【C2】______continued through mid-August. Western Russia was 【C3】______in early August that 300 or 400 new fires were starting every day. Millions of acres of forest 【C4】______. So did thousands of homes. Crops withered. Day after day Moscow was bathed in【C5】______. The elderly and those with impaired respiratory systems【C6】______. The death rate climbed as heat stress and smoke【C7】______. The average July temperature in Moscow was a scarcely believable 14 degrees Fahrenheit 【C8】______. Twice during the heat wave, the Moscow temperature 【C9】______Fahrenheit, a level Muscovites had never before【C10】______. Watching the heat wave play out over a seven-week period on the TV 【C11】______, with the thousands of fires and the smoke everywhere, was like watching 【C12】______that had no end. Russia’s 140 million people were 【C13】______, traumatized by what was happening to them and their country. The most 【C14】______in Russia’s 130 years of record keeping was taking a heavy economic toll. The loss of 【C15】______and the projected cost of their restoration 【C16】______some $300 billion. Thousands of farmers faced bankruptcy. Russia’s 【C17】______shrank from nearly 100 million tons to scarcely 60 million tons as crops withered. Recently the world’s number three wheat exporter, Russia banned grain exports 【C18】______to rein in soaring domestic food prices. Between mid-June and mid-August, the world price of wheat 【C19】______. Prolonged drought and the worst heat wave in Russian history【C20】______worldwide.In the summer of 2010, record-high temperatures hit Moscow. At first it was just another heat wave , but the scorching heat that started in late June continued through mid-August. Western Russia was so hot and dry in early August that 300 or 400 new fires were starting every day. Millions of acres of forest burned. So did thousands of homes. Crops withered. Day after day Moscow was bathed in seemingly endless smoke . The elderly and those with impaired respiratory systems struggled to breathe. The death rate climbed as heat stress and smoke took their toll. The average July temperature in Moscow was a scarcely believable 14 degrees Fahrenheit above the norm . Twice during the heat wave, the Moscow temperature exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit, a level Muscovites had never before experienced. Watching the heat wave play out over a seven-week period on the TV evening news , with the thousands of fires and the smoke everywhere, was like watching a horror film that had no end. Russia’s 140 million people were in shock , traumatized by what was happening to them and their country. The most intense heat in Russia’s 130 years of record keeping was taking a heavy economic toll. The loss of standing forests and the projected cost of their restoration totaled some $ 300 billion. Thousands of farmers faced bankruptcy. Russia’s grain harvest shrank from nearly 100 million tons to scarcely 60 million tons as crops withered. Recently the world’s number three wheat exporter, Russia banned grain exports in a desperate move to rein in soaring domestic food prices. Between mid-June and mid-August, the world price of wheat climbed 60 percent. Prolonged drought and the worst heat wave in Russian history were boosting food prices worldwide.

Question No. 1 Compared with the other countries we have visited on this trip, Italy is really a charming country to tourists. I wish George had come to Italy with us. Question No. 2 Although she is supposed to be at work by eight thirty, Jane usually turns up forty-five minutes late. The manager wants to talk to her about that. Question No. 3 As a member of the board of the multinational company, he had no voice at all in the matter, though he little realized it. Question No. 4 The medicine the doctor gave me seems to have helped, but it’s making me awfully drowsy when I’m working in the office. Question No. 5 I’ve tried changing my work schedule several times, but in vain. No matter how I changed my schedule, there didn’t seem to be enough time to finish all. I’m pleased that George came to Italy with us. I’m sorry that George didn’t come to Italy with us. I don’t think that George will go to Italy with us. I hope that George isn’t going to Italy with us.

Question No. 6 If a robber threatens you at home or on the street, try not to resist unless you feel that your life is in danger and you must fight or run away. Question No. 7 Our next meeting will be May 10 at 9 a. m. , at which development plans will be examined. Soon after this, contracts will be drawn up. Question No. 8 Susan wants to make an agreement with Jack to share profits from the product if Jack will promote it. Question No. 9 In those restaurants, many tourists like the menu that blends the cuisine of Vietnam with the French colonial influence. Question No. 10 The bigger the European Union gets, the more inevitable will be differences between the member countries. You should resist in face of a robber’s threat. You must not fight when your life is not threatened. The robber will run away when you fight back. The robber will threaten your life if you show your weakness.

George: Hi Jenny. I’m thinking of applying for a job with a multinational company, but I’m worried about having an interview in English. Can you give me any good tips? Jenny: Hmmm. I guess the first thing is to try to make a good impression. We often say, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression“. George: That sounds like good advice. But how do I make a good first impression? Jenny: To begin with, you should firmly shake the interviewer’s hand while greeting him or her with a smile. Be sure to keep eye contact, especially when listening to the interviewer. George: Ah, “body language“ is really important, isn’t it? Jenny: Yes, it is. The second thing is to have confidence. You get confidence from being prepared. You should learn about the company before the interview and find out what they do, how long they’ve been in business, and what their business motto is, that kind of thing. You should also anticipate possible questions, and think about how you will answer them. George: Should I memorize my answers beforehand? Jenny: No! That may sound mechanical. You should be natural when you speak. Just think about how you want to answer, and choose the right words. That way, you can use the interviewer’s words in your answer, which shows you’ve been listening. Then you’re sure to make a good impression. George: I never thought about that before. You’re really smart, Jenny! But what should I do if I can’t remember an English word when I’m answering a question? Jenny: In that case, you have to paraphrase. In other words, you have to explain what you want to say. For example, if you forget the word “manufacturing“, you can say “making a product“ instead. George: That’s very helpful, Jenny. Thanks so much. Ah, one more thing. Should I ask about the salary during the interview? Jenny: No, either let them bring up the topic of money, or else wait for a second interview. If you prepare well, make a good first impression, have confidence, and use English naturally, you’re almost certain to be interviewed again. Good luck! Question No. 19 Why does George want to talk to Jenny? Question No. 20 Which of the following will not make a good impression on the interviewee? Question No. 21 What preparations should be made before the interview according to Jenny? Question No. 22 What behavior is considered inappropriate for the interview? Because he plans to work for a national company. Because he wants Jenny to give him some advice. Because Jenny speaks good English. Because Jenny often attends interviews in English.

When you stop and think about your high school or college you have graduated from, were your experiences more positive or negative? Do your feelings of success or failure in that school have anything to do with whether or not your school was single-sex or coeducational? Today, more and more Americans are electing to send their children to single-sex schools because they feel both boys and girls blossom when they study in the company of students of the same sex. They tend to achieve more. For years, only parents who could afford to send their children to private schools, or who had strong religious or cultural reasons, chose single-sex education for their children. For example, Catholic families often sent their children to church schools. Since U. S. public schools are, by law, coeducational and free, single-sex schooling was out of reach for most American families. Today, however, along with costly private schools, public schools are experimenting with the idea of separating the sexes. However, because public schools are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of sex, they have been denied federal support. Girls may be the ones who benefit most from single-sex schooling. Studies have shown that many girls get disappointed in coed classrooms because teachers sometimes pay more attention to boys. Girls’ positive, enthusiastic attitude toward their studies tends to disappear as they begin to feel less successful. They start to watch their male peers outperform them in math and science. As boys begin to gain confidence, girls start to lose it. Moreover, adolescence is such a fragile time for girls. As they experience adolescent changes, some girls become depressed, develop an addiction, or suffer from an obsession with weight. Question No. 23 To what kind of school do more and more American parents choose to send their children? Question No. 24 What will happen to public schools if they experiment with the idea of separating the sexes? Question No. 25 What is NOT a disadvantage for girls in co-educational schooling? Question No. 26 Which of the following is NOT mentioned as adolescent changes that girl students experience? Single-sex schools. Co-educational schools. Public schools. Famous schools.

Alex: I think I really need to move, Linda. This apartment is too noisy and too dark. There are so many cars going by, but no sun comes through the windows. Do you think it would be easy for me to find a better apartment? Linda: Sure. There are lots of apartments available at this time of year. Which part of the city would you like to live in? Alex: I’d like to stay on the west side, near our university, but I’d also like an apartment near the subway. Linda: Maybe you should consider the Park area. It’s a very convenient location. Alex: Yeah, it sounds good. It’s also near the shopping mall and not far from the airport. Linda: Next you have to think about rent. What price range are you thinking about? Alex: Well, I really can’t pay around 4,500 RMB a month, but I’d like to pay 3,000 if possible. Linda: I think 3,000 is possible if you have a roommate. You could share an apartment with a college student, or maybe a young clerk. Alex: That might be interesting, but I really like my privacy. I need to study Chinese in a quiet place and also sleep in peace every night. Linda: Maybe it’s best for you to pay a little bit more for your own apartment. So, the next step is to decide what kind of apartment you want—how many rooms, what kind of furnishings, stuff like that. Alex: I don’t need any special furnishings, but I certainly want a southern exposure. I like to have a bright, sunny room. One bedroom and one living room is enough, but I really want to have a balcony. Linda: Maybe we’ll get lucky and find something bigger but not expensive. Let’s wait and see. Alex: Okay, now that I know what I want, what do I have to do to actually find an apartment? Linda: I’ll look through some advertisements and make some phone calls. Then we can go check out the ones that sound good. Question No. 27 Which of the following is NOT a reason for Alex to look for a new apartment? Question No. 28 For a new apartment, which is not important to Alex? Question No. 29 What is the highest rent Alex can possibly afford to pay? Question No. 30 What suggestion does Linda offer to help Alex save money? The present apartment is noisy. The present apartment is not bright. The present apartment is far from the university. The present apartment gets no sunshine.

The day after Thanksgiving has become America’s wildest shopping day. Closed all day on Thursday, chain stores all across the nation open early on Friday. Some stores open at 12:01 Friday morning, while others open at 4 a. m. Some “sleepyhead“ stores, like Target this year, don’t open their doors on Friday until 6 a. m. From Friday to the day before Christmas, this is the season when businesses make as much as 25 percent of their annual revenue. This season puts many businesses “in the black“—that is, into profitability—for the year. Reporters from local TV stations interview people who camp out in front of stores a day or two before the doors open on Friday. These people patiently wait in line to get products that are discounted 50 percent or more. “Oh, we have fun,“ said one camper. “We bring games to play, we watch TV and order lots of pizza, and we meet interesting people. And, most important of all, we save big bucks!“ The catch, of course, is that only a very small number of products are available at the largest discounts. Regardless, each store has plenty of other items that are reduced from 10 to 50 percent—saving shoppers from $ 10 to $ 400 per item—to entice Americans to shop. Not all Americans appreciate this frenzy of shopping. William Graham, pastor of the Church of the Risen Jesus, wants to rename Black Friday. “We want to call it Remember Jesus Friday. People should start the season with the right attitude. Christmas time has become a Season of Shopping. We want to make it a Season of Giving. And we don’t mean giving iPods, DVDs, flat screen TVs, and other crap. We mean giving your back, your mind, and your hands. Help an old lady clean up her house. Teach a kid how to read. Visit sick people in the hospital or in nursing homes. Pick up the trash in your neighborhood. Give blood to the Red Cross. Do volunteer work for charities. Celebrate Christmas by remembering Jesus and forgetting Santa Claus. “ Question No. 15 What time do some “sleepyhead“ stores open their doors on the day after Thanksgiving ? Question No. 16 Why do many people wait a day or two outside the store before that Friday? Question No. 17 What should be Thanksgiving season like according to William Graham? Question No. 18 Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the report? At 12:01 a.m. At 4:00 a. m. At 6:00 a.m. At 8:00 a. m.

F: Next patient, please! ... Come in. M: Good morning, doctor. Sorry I’m a bit late, but I felt really awful when I got up. F: Don’t worry. It’s Mr. Barnes, isn’t it? M: That’s right. F: Is that B-A-R-N-E-S? M: Yes, it is. F: Right, now what seems to be the trouble? M: Well, I’ve had this awful flu and a terrible cough. F: I see. How long have you been feeling like this? M: Oh, about three or four days, I suppose. F: And have you been taking any medication? M: Just the normal things. Aspirins, lemon and hot drinks, but it hasn’t done any good. F: Are you a smoker? M: No. I gave up three years ago. F: Have you had a temperature? M: Yes. For the last couple of days or so. F: OK. I’ll just take a look at your chest. Take off your jacket and pullover please. ... Right. Now breathe in ... and out slowly. And again. Good. Once more. That’s it. Put your clothes back on. M: Thank you. F: Well, it looks as if you’ve got a touch of bronchitis. I’ll give you some cough mixture and a prescription for a course of antibiotics as well. Take one capsule every 8 hours for the next five days. M: OK, doctor. What about going to work? F: No. You’ll have to spend a couple of days in bed till it clears up. Question No. 11 What was the trouble with the man? Question No. 12 Why did he apologize? Question No. 13 What was the man most probably suffering from? Question No. 14 For how long did the doctor suggest the man take antibiotics? He arrived too early for the appointment. He missed the early bus. He went to a wrong address. He felt very bad when he got up.

______Sentence No. 1 You should inspect your purchase when it is delivered to your house. Contact the seller if you discover a problem. It is your right to ask for change or refund. Sentence No. 2 In some European countries, you tip restaurant waiters who probably earn more than you do. But the principle is there to follow: a tip for those who have performed personal services. Sentence No. 3 I think as long as you speak English properly and you can understand people, you can blend quite well into the village life in England. Sentence No. 4 The man wanted by police is about 30 years old and of medium build. He has a long face and a pointed nose. He has a small moustache and short black hair. Sentence No. 5 Investigation in the U. S. interviewed more than 4,000 young people aged 15-26. They found that those who viewed more drink advertisements also consumed more alcoholic drinks.

______Americans are friendly, but in their own way. In general, friendships among Americans tend to be shorter and more casual than friendships among people from other cultures. This has something to do with American mobility and the fact that Americans do not like to be dependent on other people. Americans are open and usually eager to explain. If you do not understand certain behavior or want to know what makes Americans behave the way they do, do not hesitate to ask questions.

Drunken driving—sometimes called America’s socially accepted form of murder—has become a national epidemic. Every hour of every day about three Americans on average are killed by drunken drivers, adding up to an incredible 250,000 over the past decade. A drunken driver is usually defined as one with a 0. 10 blood alcohol content or roughly three beers, glasses of wine or shots of whisky drunk within two hours. Heavy drinking used to be an acceptable part of the American manly image and judges were not severe in most courts, but the deaths caused by drunken driving have recently caused so many well-publicized tragedies, especially involving young children, that public opinion is no longer so tolerant. Twenty states have raised the legal drinking age to 21, changing a trend in the 1960s to reduce it to 18. After New Jersey lowered it to 18, the number of people killed by 18-20 year-old drivers more than doubled, so the state recently upped it back to 21. Reformers, however, fear that raising the drinking age will have little effect unless accompanied by educational programs to help young people to develop “responsible attitudes“ about drinking and teach them to resist peer pressure to drink. Tough new laws have led to increased arrests and tests and, in many areas already, to a marked decline in fatalities. Some states are also punishing bars for serving customers too many drinks. A bar or pub in Massachusetts was fined for serving six or more brandies to a customer who was “obviously drunk“ and later drove off the road, killing a nine-year-old boy. As the fatalities continue to occur daily in every state, some Americans are even beginning to speak well of the 13 years of national prohibition of alcohol that began in 1919, what President Hoover called the “noble experiment“. They forget that legal prohibition didn’t stop drinking, but encouraged political corruption and organized crime. As with the booming drug trade generally, there is no easy solution.

The ancient reputation of Vikings as bloodthirsty raiders on cold northern seas has undergone a radical change in recent decades. A kinder, gentler, and more fashionable Viking emerged. But our view of the Norse may be about to alter course again as scholars turn their gaze to a segment of Viking society that has long remained in the shadows. Archaeologists are using recent findings and analysis of previous discoveries—from iron collars in Ireland to possible plantation houses in Sweden—to illuminate the role of slavery in creating and maintaining the Viking way of life. Scandinavian slavery still echoes in the English language today. The expression “to be held in thrall,“ meaning to be under someone’s power, traces back to the Old Norse term for a slave: thrall. Slavery in the region long predates the Vikings. There is evidence of vast economic disparity as early as the first century A. D. , with some people living with animals in barns while others live nearby in large, prosperous homes. Ancient chronicles long mentioned that people, as well as precious objects, were a target of the Viking raids that began in 793 A. D. at the Scottish monastery of Lindisfarne. The Annals of Ulster record “a great booty of women“ taken in a raid near Dublin in 821 A. D. , while the same account contends that 3,000 people were captured in a single attack a century later. Neil Price, an archaeologist at Sweden’s Uppsala University, suspects that “slavery was a very significant motivator in raiding. “ One key factor may have been a dire need for women. Some scholars believe that the Vikings were a polygamous society that made it hard for non-elites to find brides. That may have driven the raids and ambitious exploration voyages for which Vikings are best known. Some genetic studies, for example, suggest that a majority of Icelandic women are related to Scottish and Irish ancestors who likely were raid booty. As Viking fleets expanded, so did the need for wool to produce the sails necessary to power the ships. This also may have driven the need for slaves. The pressing need for wool production likely led to a plantation-like economy, a topic now being studied by researchers. For example, at a Swedish site called Sanda, researchers in the 1990s found a great hall surrounded by small houses. Some Swedish archaeologists now believe this could have been a Viking plantation with slaves as the labor force. “What you likely have is a slave-driven production of textiles,“ said Price. “We can’t really know who is making the cloth, but the implications are clear. “ William Fitzhugh, an archaeologist at the Smithsonian Institution, added that “female slaves were concubines, cooks, and domestic workers. “ Male thralls likely were involved in cutting trees, building ships, and rowing those vessels for their Viking masters. Other studies suggest that Viking slaves were sometimes sacrificed when their masters died, and they ate poorly during their lives.

By now you’ve probably heard that the percentage of active smokers among us has steadily and significantly dwindled. Today nearly 16% of high-school-age kids are regular puffers, as opposed to 36% of teens in 1997. This is, in a word, fantastic. Fewer teen smokers means fewer addicted adults down the road, and ultimately, fewer smoking-related deaths. However, in a potentially worrisome development, over the past three years there’s been an almost 800% increase(yes, that’s an 8)in the use of electronic cigarettes—small, battery-powered machines that deliver vapor that is far gentler than tarry, chemical-riddled smoke but still carries a hefty nicotine payload. E-cigarettes can be flavored to taste like candy and emit a vaguely scented, superfine substance often referred to as vapor, which is actually aerosol. It dissipates almost instantaneously without telltale traces on breath or clothes. E-cigs can be used one drag at a time, allowing novices to precisely control their nicotine intake without “wasting “ half or more of a cigarette before they’ve built up a tolerance. It’s not hard to imagine an enterprising kid whipping out an e-cig in the school stairwell and grabbing a couple quick puffs on the way to geometry. E-cigarettes are so new that there’s no long-term research on their health effects. Technically, they emit lower levels of toxins than conventional cigarettes, meaning e-cig smokers inhale fewer noxious chemicals to get the same dose of nicotine. But that’s only because tobacco smoke is so incredibly toxic. “When you burn tobacco, you release thousands of chemicals,“ says Peter Shields, MD, deputy director of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. “You just don’t get that in an e-cig. “ This is welcome news to long-term smokers looking for a safer alternative, but it’s hard to ignore the feeling that these devices might make it significantly easier for kids to pick up a lifelong addiction. Are e-cigs harbingers of a brave new smoke-free future, or are they just the latest Trojan horse from big tobacco? If we’re going to try to answer that question, we’d better do it soon, because kids are not waiting for scientific data to be handed down by white-coated experts. Between 2011 and 2014, e-cigarette use among high school students jumped from 1.5% to 13. 4%, a shockingly precipitous rise. For generations, cigarette smoking has been a powerful symbol of rebellion and adulthood. And during those yearning years on the way to maturity, kids long for such signifiers. The car. The girlfriend or boyfriend. Experimentation with drugs and alcohol. Today’s kids probably know the dangers of cigarettes better than any other generation—and yet are still drawn to them, though not at the same levels as previous gens. Thankfully, the romantic self-image cigarettes confer does not appear to extend to e-cigarettes. I spoke with several teens about nicotine use in their peer groups and was told that around 10% of their classmates were regular smokers and that another 5% did it occasionally. Most interestingly, all of them also reported that e-cigarettes were seen as “babyish,“ “immature“ or “a toy. “ “You look kind of dumb smoking a little plastic tube,“ a high-school junior stated. “No one’s going to say you look cool doing that. “

The appeal of hydrogen fuel cells has long been obvious. Because these devices use electrochemical reactions to generate electricity from hydrogen, emitting only heat and water in the process, they offer a particularly green source of power, especially for vehicles. What has not been so obvious, however, is how to make hydrogen fuel cells practical. In 2009, Steven Chu, then the U. S. Secretary of Energy,told an interviewer that in order for hydrogen fuel-cell transportation to work, “four miracles“ needed to happen. First, scientists had to find an efficient and low-cost way to produce hydrogen. Second, they had to develop a safe, high-density method of storing hydrogen in automobiles. Third, an infrastructure for distributing hydrogen had to be built so that fuel-cell vehicles would have ample refueling options. Fourth, researchers had to improve the capacity of the fuel-cell systems themselves, which were not as durable, powerful, and low cost as the internal combustion engine. Chu concluded that achieving all four big breakthroughs would be unlikely. “Saints only need three miracles,“ he added. Accordingly, the U. S. Department of Energy dramatically cut funding for fuel cells, reducing its support for various programs to nearly a third of previous levels. For the rest of Chu’s tenure, the department awarded nearly no new grants to develop the technology at universities, national labs, or private companies. Although the department’s total expenditures on fuel cells and hydrogen had always amounted to a small fraction of overall global investment in the sector, the change in posture sent a deeply pessimistic signal worldwide. Immediately after Chu’s comments made the rounds, the hydrogen community issued a defense, contending that major progress had been made. But the damage was done. Universities stopped hiring faculty in an area perceived to be dying, top students fled to other subjects, and programs at national labs were forced to reconfigure their efforts. Established scientists saw an abrupt decrease in funding opportunities for hydrogen and refocused their research on other technologies. The overall effect was a drastic shrinking of the human-resource pipeline feeding hydrogen and fuel-cell research. All of this was not necessarily a bad thing: new technologies come along all the time, pushing aside older ones that are no longer bound for the market. In the case of hydrogen fuel cells, however, scientists really had made big breakthroughs, and the technology was finally in the process of hitting the market. Rather than redirecting limited resources to more realistic technologies, the U. S. government’s policy arguably amounted to pulling the rug out from under hydrogen and fuel-cell research and development in the United States and handing over leadership in the sector to other countries. Patents are perhaps the best indicator of how much practical progress a technology is making, and even as the U. S. government decreased its support for research into hydrogen fuel cells(and increased its support for other clean energy technologies), the number of U. S. patents related to fuel cells continued to dwarf those of other energy technologies, with the exception of solar power.

Imagine you are in a department store to buy a carry-on suitcase. As you walk through the store, you notice the hefty price tag on a luxury watch on display. You have no interest in the watch, which sells for $ 2,000, but does its high price affect how much you would be willing to fork out for the suitcase? Would that amount be any different, if, instead, you had noticed a much lower price on a display of bath towels? Most people, believing they are rational shoppers, would say no. Yet we have found that this is not necessarily the case. Marketers have long known that consumers do not have fixed ideas about what things characteristically cost, or ought to cost. In fact, exposure to comparison prices for the same product and the same brand, and for items within the same category, can influence how much a customer is willing to pay. That is why many companies try to shift perceptions about prevailing market prices upward by presenting inflated ’regular’ prices for similar or identical goods. But consumers are on to this game and rarely see list prices as indicative of what they should pay. Managers, therefore, must come up with something new. Recent research suggests that incidental prices—prices for unrelated goods encountered during the purchase process—can do the job. Customers are exposed to such prices without consciously making judgements about them. But these encounters, whether accidental or planned by the seller, can inflate or deflate a buyer’s willingness to pay the asking price for a given product, though most shoppers would deny this. To test the effect of incidental prices, we analysed sales data from one of the largest automobile auctioneers in the USA. The company’s classic car auction each year attracts some 125,000 enthusiasts, all of whom have access to historical prices and book values on site. For this study, we looked at sales records for 1,477 automobiles auctioned off between 1995 and 2000. Our findings are compelling: price differentials between pairs of successive cars offered at auction systematically affected the maximum bid for the second car. When the highest bid on the first car in a pair was 100% to 200% higher than the book value of the one that followed it, the second car fetched an average of 39% more than its book value. The larger the differential, the stronger the effect. The implications of these results are far-reaching. In another study, we sold copies of a popular music CD, essentially a commodity for which the price is relatively fixed, along the boardwalk in Venice Beach, California. We found that significantly more holidaymakers were willing to pay out $ 20 asking price when sweatshirts on sale nearby were priced at $ 80 than when the same sweatshirts were priced at $ 10—even when the shoppers said they had no interest in buying the sweatshirt. None of the participants interviewed after the study believed the incidental price of the sweatshirt affected his or her decision, but clearly it did.

Ten thousand years ago, as the last ice age drew to a close, sea levels around the world were far lower than they are today. Much of the land under the North Sea and the English Channel was part of a huge region of forests and grassy plains, where herds of horses and reindeer roamed free and people lived in villages by the lakes and rivers. Then the climate gradually became warmer and the water trapped in glaciers and ice caps was released. This ancient land was submerged in the resulting deluge and all that remains to tell us that it was once lush and verdant—and inhabited—is the occasional stone tool, harpoon or mammoth tusk brought up from the sea bed by fishing boats. Now the development of advanced sonar technology, known as bathymetry, is making it possible to study this flooded landscape in extraordinary detail. A special echo sounder is fixed to the bottom of a survey vessel, and it makes wide sweeps across the sea bed. While previous devices have only been able to produce two-dimensional images, bathymetry makes use of computers, satellite positioning devices and special software to create accurate and remarkably detailed maps. For the first time an ancient river bed leaps out of the three-dimensional image, complete with rocky ledges rising up from the bottom of the valley. The sites of pre-historic settlements can now be pinpointed, and it is also possible to see in stunning detail the sunken shipwrecks that litter this part of the sea bed. According to archaeologist Dr Linda Andrews, this technological development is of huge significance. “We now have the ability to map the sea bed of the Channel and the North Sea as accurately as we can map dry land,“ she says. She is, however, scathing about the scale of government funding for such projects. “We have better images of Mars and Venus than of two-thirds of our own planet! In view of the fact that Britain is a maritime nation, and the sea has had such a massive influence on us, it’s an absolute scandal that we know so little about the area just off our shores!“ Once bathymetric techniques have identified sites where people might have built their homes and villages, such as sheltered bays, cliffs with caves and the shores of freshwater lakes, divers could be sent down to investigate further. Robot submarines could also be used, and researchers hope they will find stone tools and wood from houses(which survives far longer in water than on dry land)as proof of human activity. The idea of Britain as a natural island kingdom will be challenged by these findings: Britain has been inhabited for about 500,000 years, and for much of this time it has been linked on and off to continental Europe. It remains to be seen how far this new awareness is taken on board among our ’island’ people. In fact, the use of bathymetry scanners will not be limited to the study of lost landscapes and ancient settlements. It will also be vital in finding shipwrecks. Records show that there are about 44,000 shipwrecks off the shores of Britain, but there is good reason to believe that the real figure is much higher. In addition, commercial applications are a real possibility. Aggregates for the construction industry are becoming increasingly expensive, and bathymetry scanners could be used to identify suitable sites for quarrying this material. However, mapping the sea bed will also identify places where rare plants and shellfish have their homes. Government legislation may prevent digging at such sites, either to extract material for a profit or to make the water deeper: there are plans to dredge parts of the English Channel to provide deeper waterways for massive container ships.

Education has long been embraced as one of the best ways to combat inequality. Yet, this faith in the power of education has begun to falter. There is mounting evidence that improving our education system won’t do much to fix inequality. Modern inequality isn’t driven by the gap between college-educated workers and high school grads. All the action is at the top of the income ladder, where the extremely rich have pulled away from everyone else. Since 1979, wages for the top 1 percent in the United States have grown nine times faster than wages for the bottom 90 percent. That’s not a tale of the well-educated doing better than the less-well-educated. It’s about the super-rich outearning everyone else—including college graduates, who haven’t gotten a raise in over a decade. So what doesn’t seem to work is a focus on improving education. Even if we could dramatically increase the number of college graduates, or greatly expand access to high-quality education, the United States would likely remain an extremely unequal place, a country where even college grads are being left behind.

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