【速度】+【越障练习】GMAT得阅读者得天下，大家一起来练阅读吧

进击的智人阿飞

【越障1-20】  计时 10 min 34 s
主旨：2012年的投资银行全球的发展情况总结。 结构： 描述现象，引出问题，详述问题， 原因，转折：不同的影响， 未来的问题

大意：尽管投行十分赚钱，并且在过去的时间中，不断扩张，但是近几年却在裁员并且收回扩张的市场。例举了两个投行的情况，他们都没有完成预期的营业目标。
一个现象就是在FICC上，包括在期权市场，股票市场和债券市场，投行的表现不是很好。第一个原因是顾客少了，不管是单独的公司还是联合的机构都减少了找投行投资的需求；第二个原因是管制严格，投行在包括房屋清算还是债券市场分红，收入都变少。
但是这个普遍的风气给不同规模，种类的投行带来的影响不同。第一个影响，对于伦敦金融中心和美国华尔街来说，负面影响很大，裁员很多。第二个，减少了独立的小投行，形成了很多联合投行，或者是商业银行和投行的联合，促发了体系的建立，这些联合投行往往更加稳定，更受青睐。第三个中型的投行普遍扩张了市场，因为它们一方面资金基础比较好，另一方面流动性也很好，受越来越多客户的追捧；而之前扩张势头很猛的小型银行今年比较萎靡。第四个是比起专业投行，普通的储蓄银行也获得了更多的信用值，这使得他们很容易投资（？），贷款（？），而投行比如摩根士丹利则把目光投向了新兴公司的股权买卖，公司并购和公司间贷款市场。
作者关注的一个问题是，虽然伦敦和欧洲有比较完备成熟的金融体系和规则，但鉴于近年的管理不当和政治对投行的管制日益严格，新的金融重心会不会转移到美国或者亚洲去，因为后者拥有更雄厚的资金和广阔的市场。

我尽力了，投资银行没学过，公司金融忘完了

进击的智人阿飞

【速度1-21】来源： https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/10/tech/instagram-restaurant-industry/index.html

计时1  254 words
Restaurants rise to fame over Instagramable food

Inearly April, my younger sister and I waited for about 45 minutes in the rain toeat at Black Tap in midtown Manhattan. The line extended along the block, andboth tourists and locals stood with umbrellas, buzzing about the trendyrestaurant's popular "Crazy Shakes."

Onits website, Black Tap calls itself the "classic luncheonette modernizedfor the Instagram age." It serves burgers, fries, craft beer and, ofcourse, its over-the-top $15 milkshakes -- piled high with toppingslike candy, cookies, pretzels, cotton candy and even a slice of cake.

Therestaurant business isn't just about how good the food tastes -- atmosphere andservice are important, too. But increasingly, social media is taking on abigger role and influencing food options offered, restaurant design andmarketing.

BlackTap's giant and colorful shakes went viral on Instagram. But that wasn't therestaurant's goal when it opened in 2015.

"Instagramwas something we cared about, but we certainly at the time were not trying tobecome an Instagram brand," Black Tap owner Chris Barish told CNNBusiness. "We had a [social media] following before the milkshakes basedon our burgers. The milkshakes put it over the top."

"Thereis a lot of competition in the food industry and restaurant business," saidDipayan Biswas, a marketing and business professor at the University of SouthFlorida. "Everyone is trying to get you to talk about them and get you inthe store, so you need something to stand out."

计时2 （257 words）

Wow factor

BlackTap isn't the only restaurant focused on unique, snap-worthy offerings. Videosfrom Raclette NYC, which pours a wheel of meltedcheese on top of its dishes, can be found all over Instagram. Manila SocialClub in Brooklyn, which has since closed, made a splash last year with a doughnut filled with champagne and covered with24-karat gold. Rainbowbagels, black ice cream and Starbucks' colorful Unicorn Frappuccino have alsopopped up all over social media feeds in recent years.

FlourShop in New York is famous for its rainbow explosion cake -- sprinkles pour outas you cut into it. Celebrity clients such as Kim Kardashian have posted photos ofthe cake on social media sites, generating even more buzz.

"Vanilladoesn't stand out," said USF's Biswas. "Things that are outrageousand out of the ordinary always get attention."

Butexperts also warn that restaurants must keep innovating and iterating on thosewild food options to be successful. The food also still has to actually tastegood -- no matter how wacky it is.

AaronAllen, founder and CEO of restaurant consultancy Aaron Allen & Associates,warned that zany food items can be "gimmicky" and just a"fad." But when done well, he says, a lot of them can work.

"There'sthe cool factor of taking the photo -- but it has to have the other components,like experience, consistency of food and evolution of the product," Allensaid. Otherwise, people will try the food item once, get the photo, and neverreturn again.

计时3 （296 words）

BlackTap, for example, started out with only a few Crazy Shakes but since hasexpanded its menu to offer eight options. It also offers seasonal andlimited-time only milkshakes, such as an Easter shake topped with Peepsmarshmallow candy, and a Mean Girls drink themed around the popular 2004 movie,which is now on Broadway. (But the company's rise to fame hasn't been smoothsailing. Earlier this year, the company settled a lawsuit over the origin ofthe Crazy Shakes. Terms weren't disclosed.)

Restaurant decor fit for a(social) feed

Butit's not just about the food, either. The restaurant's physical design andbranding is also important, especially in the age of social media. Design firmPaperwhite Studio, cofounded by Laureen Moyal and Devi Rhodes in 2008, createsitems like placemats, water bottles and various paper goods for restaurants aspart of their branding strategy.

Andit's all very Instagram-friendly. Paperwhite designed special sugar packets forNew York City hotspot Jack's Wife Freda, featuring cute phrases like "ILove You A Latte" and "Sugar For My Honey." They've been a hitamong customers ever since the restaurant opened in 2012.

ThePaperwhite founders say current hot design trends include neon signs, customwallpaper, colors that pop and signs that "engage" customers.

"Allof those things are part of the branding story," Moyal explained."People share on social media the things they respond to: what they findamusing or cool or weird or beautiful. We try to create those sharing momentsfor our clients."

Socialmedia is also influencing how chefs are plating dishes, says Allen, therestaurant consultant.

"They'reconsciously thinking through how Instagramable [a dish] is," he said."It's starting to make its way into all aspects of the décor elements,plating and presentation."

计时4 （266 words）

Thetrend isn't exclusive to the restaurant industry. Pop-up exhibits dedicated to everythingfrom ice cream to rose wine and pizza are appearing in cities such as New York,San Francisco and Miami, and they've been a hit on social media. Retailers arealso taking a page out of this playbook by creating shopping experiences withInstagramable moments, including photo booths, branded mirrors and neon signs.

Marketing

Astrong social media presence can help restaurants and other businesses engagewith a much wider audience and attract new customers they may not have hadaccess to before.

"Withsocial media we're able to reach people around the globe -- it's soimportant," said Barish, the owner of Black Tap. "And it's also importantthat what you put on social media is the same product you get [in person]. Ithink we've done a good job with that."

Amidheightened competition in the restaurant industry, the ability to attract newpatrons is make-or-break. With so many options for dining, social media can bean effective way of getting on customer's radar.

But,at the end of the day, the best social posts on the Internet won't replacegreat food and ambiance.

Silicon Valley wrestles with Saudi Arabiaties

For years, Saudi Arabia has been one of the unofficial banks forthe tech industry. Now it could become a very official headache.

UberCEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson joined a growing list of business leaders distancingthemselves from the Saudi government amid growing questions about the kingdom'srole in the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

计时5 （283 words）

BothUber and Virgin Galactic had previously turned to Saudi Arabia for vastinvestments that would once have been impossible on the private market. Uberreceived a staggering $3.5 billion in funding from Saudi Arabia's PublicInvestment Fund in 2016 and added the Public Investment Fund'smanaging director to its board, where he still serves today. The next year, Branson andSaudi officials announced the fund intendedto invest $1 billion in Virgin's spacecompanies.

Atthe time of the investments, both companies framed Saudi Arabia as becoming more reform-minded, both in terms of theeconomy and, in Branson's words, a "more progressivestance on areas such as women's rights."

Thatcase is harder to make in the wake of Khashoggi's disappearance. Turkish authoritiessay they believe Khashoggi, a prominent journalist and critic of the Saudiregime, was killed at the consulate in Istanbul. The Saudis have denied theallegation.

OnThursday, Branson said his company will "suspend itsdiscussions with the Public Investment Fund over the proposed investment"as investigations into Khashoggi's fate continue. Khosrowshahi, meanwhile, said he was "very troubled" by thenews about Khashoggi and would be pulling out of an upcoming Saudi conference.He did not address his company's business relationship with the kingdom. Arepresentative for Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Thestatements highlight the new challenge much of the tech industry may face inreconciling its financial ties to Saudi Arabia with renewed public scrutiny ofthe country's leadership. This year, the Public Investment Fund also reportedlytook a $2 billion stake in Tesla and pumped nearly half a billion dollars into MagicLeap, a buzzy startup working on augmentedreality products.

进击的智人阿飞

【速度1-21】
计时

+2行， +2行， +2行， +2行， +4行

part I : it reported about a new trend in restaurant of USA. Many restaurants in USA offer instagrammable food ， such as , black tap, which sells mixed food cnsisting of french fries, fruits, creams and candies etc. There are many other restaurants do the same. Under the influence of Ins, Buzz, people love to share their new findings in life. Inflence on social media affets res's business. They should not only create food special and creepy but also attractive packages, decorations of  the restaurants. Besides, their food should taste good, and their menus have to update ,too. Because people now increasingly care about the experiences, and the cmpetition among the retaurants are increasingly fierce. This instagramm fad also arrives in other industry, for many shops or companies post contents in instagram background.  The patrons are optimistic about this fad, for it indeed bring many more customers from far away.

Part II： Many hightech investment company from Saudi Arabian distant themselves from Arabian government, in protest to the dissapearance of a reporter.  The probable influence is a headach to Arabian Gov. Because early this year, two companies , Uber and Virgin, signed contract with these investment companies, in which they will receive financing. But now, the investment companies delay the financing.

In recent years, Saudi Arabian has been said to have some progress in gender equality and social reform. But the dissappearance of the reporter poured cool water on it. Turkey believed the reporter has been killed for he reported news infavourable to Arabian Gov.

Anyway, the Silicon Valley is under influence of political factor in Saudi Arabian now.

进击的智人阿飞

【越障1-21】 （1182 words)


Autonomous helicoptersRobocopter arrives After unmanned drones,


pilotless helicopters are taking to the sky to deliversupplies to troops

UNMANNED attack aircraft, such as Predator and Reaper, have becomea familiar part of modern warfare. But an army, famously, marches on itsstomach, and campaigns can be lost as easily by a lack of supply as by a lackof firepower. That, combined with the increasing squeamishness of richcountries about taking casualties, is leading to the use of a new type of dronein the form of unmanned helicopters to deliver supplies. Pioneered by the armedforces, these hovering robots will also find civilian roles.

Two unmanned helicopters havebeen flying experimental combat missions delivering goods to American marineoutposts in Afghanistan since December 2011. The project has been such asuccess it has twice been extended and may well run until September 2013. Thehelicopters in question are modified versions of the K-MAX, built by Kaman, anAmerican aerospace firm. They are used in a number of military roles and incivilian jobs, such as logging and power-line construction, as a sort ofairborne sky-crane cum delivery truck.

Strange bird

The K-MAX (pictured above) is a “synchropter”, with two sets ofintermeshing blades, synchronised so as not to hit each other. It looksungainly, but it is a robust system. The rotors turn in opposite directions tocancel out torque, the twisting action which requires conventional helicoptersto use a tail rotor—a hazardous appendage. The modification for autonomousflight was carried out in a joint venture with Lockheed Martin, a big Americandefence contractor. By August the two K-MAXs had flown 485 autonomous sortiescarrying over 900 tonnes of cargo.

The K-MAX was selected becauseit can carry over 2,700kg, which is more than its unladen weight. Unlike manylarge fixed-wing drones, which are flown under remote control by ground-basedpilots, a modified K-MAX flies autonomously along a programmed course using GPSto navigate via specified way points. It can also be operated by remotecontrol. The craft use a number of sensors, some of which Lockheed Martin iskeeping mum about. These give the helicopter an awareness of its surroundingswhich is precise enough for it to land in total darkness. The American army isinterested in adding a sophisticated camera to survey landing sites and spotpotential threats. The camera could also help direct a helicopter from theground and be used in civilian roles, like fire fighting or search and rescue.

The army has also suggested fitting some form of self-defence,like a gun which the camera could be used to aim. At present the K-MAX has nodefensive systems, but Lockheed Martin says the helicopters could easily befitted with armour, machine-gun pods or flares which could be fired as decoysto divert ground-launched missiles. But this would eat into its cargo-liftingcapacity.

The unmanned K-MAX carries itscargo externally on a 25-metre cable. The helicopters are monitored as they flyautonomously to a forward operating base, where a marine controller on theground takes over using a portable device to direct the drop. However, thehelicopters can deliver a load to given co-ordinates without any humanintervention. Jim Naylor of Lockheed Martin says the craft have been testedwith radio beacons placed where the drop is needed. The K-MAX then delivers itscargo to within three metres.

The K-MAX has a four-hookcarousel, so it can drop off supplies at several locations in one mission. Asconfidence grows the marines have been experimenting with new techniques. InMay they carried out the first “hot hook-up from hover”, which involvedattaching cargo while a K-MAX was in flight. This is faster and takes less timethan landing to pick things up.

The top speed of the K-MAX isonly about 100 knots (115mph), but it has all the virtues of unmanned aircraft:it never gets sick, tired or goes on leave. Helicopter pilots are a scarceresource who take years to train. Terry Fogarty, in charge of unmanned systemsat Kaman, says that the single-pilot-manned K-MAX can be flown up to 12 hours aday on logging operations, requiring a change of pilots. In its unmanned form aK-MAX might fly for most of the day. Moreover, if pilots are grounded byreduced visibility during, say, a dust storm, the unmanned version keeps going.

Other systems for autonomoushelicopters are being developed. One, called HERMES—or less elegantly theHelicopter Remote Manipulation of External Slingloads—has been produced byAdvanced Optical Systems, an American firm, for the US Armed Forces. It usessensors on an unmanned helicopter to locate a load and pick it up automaticallywithout having anyone on the ground.

Safelandings

Hazards such as buildings,trees and power lines in the drop zone can be a problem. But the Americannavy’s Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System (AACUS) first surveys an area tolocate such problems before selecting a suitable landing site. It then plots asafe approach route to land without help from a ground controller.

This is straightforward enoughin benign flying conditions, but the aim is to be able to do it on a steep,unprepared slope in high winds. Although autonomous, an AACUS-equipped craftcan communicate with people on the ground to let them know where it is landing.It could be used not just for delivering fuel, ammunition and other supplies,but also for evacuating casualties. (Though there are concerns about carryinginjured people on a robotic aircraft without a doctor or a medical attendant onboard.)

If the K-MAX assessmentcontinues to be successful, the next stage could be an order for more pilotlesshelicopters by the marines. The army may also be interested. And commercialapplications would follow. A change in the rules on airspace

regulation would be required for civilian use of drones really totake off, especially in areas where other aircraft operate. Aviationauthorities are looking at this, but want to see progress on autonomous safetysystems.

An American start-up,Matternet, envisions using small unmanned electric helicopters with a 2kgpayload to transport medicine, vaccines and blood samples in remote places. Theuser puts a package in the load bay and presses a button for the helicopter totake off and make its delivery. Andreas Raptopoulos of Matternet says the firmhopes to conduct a feasibility trial in the Dominican Republic later this year.

Larger electric helicopterscould transform the economics of unmanned transport. E-volo, a German company,recently won the Lindbergh prize for innovation, awarded by an Americanfoundation set up to commemorate Charles Lindbergh’s pioneering NewYork-to-Paris flight. E-volo has produced a flying machine it calls theVolocopter. With 16 rotors, it looks like a scaled up version of some flyingtoys, although one that is big enough to carry an adult. Given suitablesoftware, unmanned Volocopters could become flying delivery vans, bypassingcongested roads. Indeed, one website recently offered to deliver tacos withminiature robotic quadcopters. It was a spoof, but one day fast food reallycould be delivered this way.

进击的智人阿飞

【越障1-21】   计时 12 min 02s
主旨： KMAX 无人直升机的发展    结构：介绍KMAX 的应用 ， 材料和涉及， 工作特点， 与普通机相比的优点， 还待发展的空间，未来还需要做的事。
注：这个无人机应该取无人驾驶之意，即可以有人坐，但是不用控制
大意： 无人机在战争中运用很广了，对比本文讲的是载物民用直升机的发展。 KMAX直升机主要是运货的，在森林救火，建造电缆等民用领域都有发展。 讲了它的结构，好像有两片扇叶，然后有防撞系统，以及它的转向系统。这讲到它与一般无人机的不一样，一般无人机是通过地面上的控制台发信号控制，但是它是一，通过sensor 感应自己飞，二，人也可以用遥控器控制。它特殊的sensor使它在黑夜也可以行驶。同时在降落的时候，它可以很快地反映并且在几米内停下。这个使得它在民用载物之外还有其他的成长空间。
与普通机有两个不同（？？不记得更多），一是很慢，但使得它很稳，而且光载物的话也够用了，二是在天气很差，人看不清但它不会失去方向。
一个发展方向是它虽然目前还没有安装任何防卫装置，但是有可能未来会安，比如一些反侦察雷达，武器之类，一个待突破的问题是它装了这些装置本身的载货能力会受到限制。
几个需解决的困难：1. 面对地面上障碍的越障，和迫降，这个已经在极端情况测验了  2. 能够载石油，补给和医疗设施，因为有可能未来会送伤员
未来，如果无人机普及，则还需要建立完备的管制规定，因为天上飞的不只它一个。其中提到的一个规定是，某地某法限制无人机载化学物质不能超过两千克。

进击的智人阿飞

【速度1-22】


计时1 （281 words）


HarvardAccused of Discriminating Against Asian-Americans

A United States federal court in Boston,Massachusetts, is hearing a discrimination case against the oldest universityin the country.

The nonprofit organization Students for Fair Admissions firsttook legal action against Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in2014. It says the school discriminates against Asian-Americans seekingadmission.

The legal action accuses Harvard of holding Asian-American students to higher requirements thanstudents of other races. It says the university uses "racialbalancing" policies that unlawfully limit how many Asian American studentsit accepts.

The organization argues that race should not be considered whendeciding which students to accept. The use of "racial classifications and preferences"is "unfair, unnecessary, and unconstitutional," the group says on itswebsite.

It accuses the school of discriminating against Asian-Americansseeking admission by giving them a "personal rating."

Lawyers for Students for Fair Admissions said these ratings seekto measure personal qualities such as "courage" and"likeability." Such qualities are measured subjectively,leaving the process open to discrimination, the lawyers argued.

The group says it has more than 20,000members, including students, parents and others.

Harvard denies using discriminatory practices in its admissionsprocess. The Ivy League school says it uses race as one of many things itconsiders in admissions decisions. It believes considering race can help createa mixed community "where students from all walks of life" can learnwith and from each other.

Education and employment policies that consider race are knownas affirmative action. Supporters say these policies can helpmake up for historic, widespread racial discrimination of minority groups.Critics have long argued that affirmative action is unfair to white people andAsian-Americans who outperform other groups on academic measures.

计时 2 （278 words）

The U.S. Supreme Court has heard severalcases about affirmative action in recent years.

The Supreme Court's most recent decision on the subject approved limited useof race in the admission process. That 2016 decision came from a lawsuitagainst the University of Texas that accused the school of discriminatingagainst white students.

Harvard leaders have said the school only considers race in theway earlier Supreme Court cases have ruled is permitted.

The university has also noted that its share of Asian-Americanshas grown in recent years, reaching 23 percent of the latest first year class.

Harvard reports that15.2 percent of its most recent first year class is African-American. Hispanicor Latino students make up 12.3 percent, while 1.9 percent are Native American.That leaves a remaining group of mainly white students at under 50 percent.

President Donald Trump's administration supports the argument against Harvard.

In July, the Trump administration announced it was withdrawing government guidelines meant toincrease student diversity at U.S. schools. The guidelines were developedduring the presidency of Barack Obama. The guidance stated that schools couldconsider race in admissions decisions as long as the policies did not violateSupreme Court decisions.

The U.S. Justice Department said it was withdrawing theguidelines because it considered them "unnecessary or outdated."Civil rights groups criticized the move and some university officials said theywould continue their efforts toward mixed student populations as before.

Study:Air Pollution Reduces Intelligence

Air pollution is a killer.

The World Health Organization says it kills an estimated seven millionpeople around the world each year. Even if polluted air does notkill us, it can make us very sick.

计时3 （250 words）

However, breathing dirty air may do morethan hurt your body. It can also affect your brain and your ability to think.

A new study shows that air pollution can cause a"huge" reduction in our intelligence. The study was a projectinvolving researchers at Peking University in China and Yale University in theUnited States.

The researchers reported that long-term exposure toair pollution can affect a person's mental abilities in two areas: language andmathematics.

The researchers studied about 25,000 people from across China.Between 2010 and 2014, these Chinese men, women and children were givenlanguage and math tests. Then researchers compared the test results withmeasurements of pollution in the air, namely nitrogen dioxide and sulfurdioxide.

Xi Chen of the Yale School of Public Health led the study. Heand his team found that breathing polluted air can reduce a person's educationlevel by about one year.

Chen said that the effect generally is worse for those over 64years of age, for men and for those with little or no education.

"The older persons -- they are more affected. And we find,quite interestingly, males are more affected than females. And people workingoutdoors are more affected than people working indoors."

He noted that the youngest people in the study were 10 yearsold, while the oldest was 90. They came from 25 of China's 33 provinces. In hiswords, this range of ages and locationsacross the country provided a "good representative sample."

计时4 （240 words）

The researchers noted that the effect ofpollution on verbal ability is even moreserious as people age, especially among men and the less educated.

Why were language skills more affectedthan math?

Xi Chen told VOA that there are two main kinds of tissue in thebrain: white matter and gray matter. White matter, he said, is more connectedwith a person's language skills, while gray matter is connected to our abilityto solve math problems. Other studies, he noted, have shown that air pollutionhas a great effect on the white matter in the brain, but not the gray matter.

"Our findings are very consistent withthe hypothesis that the white matter is the key to explainthis result. In our brains, we have two main tissues: one is white matter. Theother is gray matter. And we know that gray matter is more responsible forpeople's math skills. But white matter is more related to people's languageskills. So, that's why we find a much larger effect on language skills."

Chen said that air pollution did affect themath skills of the study participants, just not as much astheir language skills.

The study was carried out in a single country. But the findingsmay be important to people all over the world, especially those living inhighly polluted areas.

In May 2018, the WHO reported that nine of every 10 peopleworldwide are breathing polluted air.

计时5  （241 words）

WHO experts note that of the seven milliondeaths from air pollution, "more than 90% of air pollution-related deaths occur in low- and middle-incomecountries in Asia and Africa.

In 2018, the WHO found that India had the world's 14most polluted cities.

The study we described earlier found that people who workoutdoors fall into a high-risk group. However, that does not mean those whowork inside buildings are safe from air pollution.

Researcher Xi Chen spoke about the smallest pieces of airpollution, called particulate matter 2.5 or simply PM2.5.

These particulates are only 2.5 micrometers long; sometimes theyare even smaller. So you can easily breathe them in, and they are foundindoors.

"Everyone is actually affected. And there are some studiesalready showing that the very small particulate matter can go directly into thebrain affecting office workers. So, no matter whether you stay outdoors orindoors, everyone is affected. Some studies show that PM2.5 – which is verysmall particulate matter -- 70 percent of outdoor PM2.5 can go directly intothe building."

Chen urges government policymakers to make serious changes.

"So, the longer term affects suggests to the policymakersthat we need to engage in cleaning up the skyinstead of investing in short-term avoidances, for example the face masks orair filters."

Xi Chen and his team reported their findings in the Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences.

And that's the Health and Lifestyle report.

进击的智人阿飞

【速度1-22】

计时 +7行， +3行， 52s, 56s, 1min


part I : Harvord was accused of racial descrimination against Asian-American students by a AA association.  The school is said to hold higher admission standard to AA people and it's unfair. The supreme court is investigating this accuse. Some people supported the accuse for they think these standards are  as subjective as qualities like courage.  But in Ivy league, these are called affirmative rules. Universities do so in consideration of a more appropriate race proportion. The supporters of the affirmative said it's right for societies should make up for the lost of minorities. The opponents said that these standards are held unfairly against those white or AA who outperformed others.  Harvard denied the accuse. This is not the sole case. Universit of Texas was also accused by the similar reason. Many US officers and university are suportive to the affirmative rules for they want to ensure everyone will have sth to learn from others so differences are encouraged. In recent years, white people and AA still ranked top 2 of the percentage of admissions, following are espnol , african , latinate and native america. Donald trump is also supportive to the rule. However , the AA association said they would go on to defend their legitimaty.


Part II : The polluted air is bad to people's intelligence, which is confirmed by a research held in china. The polluted air is both bad to people's language skill and mathematics and generally reduced people's education level by one year. Aged people , men and people work out doors are much more affected. And language skill is more seriously damaged than math skill. Because, polluted air does more damage to whiter matter in brain which controls language  and less damage to grey matter which controls math skill. The experiment is held amng a widely ranging age group of women and men. Developing country is more affected by Airpolution than developed country. But the researcher said this study is releted to people around the world. And PM2.5 will affect people work indoors samely as outdoors. They call for more longterm reccommendations to people.

进击的智人阿飞

【越障1-22】历史人文


The British empire
Ponderingthe past
Britain’sempire was far more complex than its critics appreciate (1101 words)

JOHN DARWIN hasspent his whole career thinking about Pax Britannica. Three years afterhis magisterial study, “The Empire Project: The Rise and Fall of the BritishWorld-System, 1830-1970”, the Oxford historian has returned yet again to thesubject. This time, though, his focus is different and the period he covers islonger. His new book is not a straightforward narrative of the British empire’srise and fall. Rather, it is a brilliantly perceptive analysis of the forcesand ideas that drove the creation of an extraordinary enterprise. At its zeniththe British empire was almost impossibly grand in conception and yet wasfrequently so “improvised and provisional in character” as to appear almostramshackle.

In fact, argues MrDarwin, there was, at least for its first 100 years or so, no single vision ofempire, but several. These reflected the unusually pluralistic andintellectually open society that Britain had become during the “long” 18thcentury (from 1688 to 1815). It was, above all, at this stage an empire drivenless by the state than by the personal ambitions of people with vastlydifferent backgrounds and agendas: from fortune-seeking gentry to merchantslooking for new markets, impover

ished economicmigrants and evangelical missionaries.

Over time thestate began, often reluctantly, to take on more of the protection andultimately the running of these inchoate ventures overseas. Before that, thecolonising of America and the gradual takeover of India by the East IndiaCompany were chiefly commercial projects that were dependent on private capitaland private risk. And the American settler uprising that began in 1775 wasessentially a reflection of the tensions between this private-enterprise notionof empire and the growing financial burden of securing it both from rivalEuropean colonial powers and from displaced indigenous peoples.

If there was no single vision of empire, neither was the projectever monolithic in practice. Between the late 18th and the early 19th centuriesfour very different types of British empire had begun to emerge. The first werethe self-governing colonies in North America, the Caribbean and Australasia;second, India and the opportunity it provided for Britain to project power fromthe Persian Gulf to the South China Sea; and third, a rag bag of smallerterritories, some of them bases acquired as way stations to India, some tradeentrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore and some “maritime bridgeheads” ineast and west Africa with relatively ungoverned hinterlands. The fourth kind ofempire, suggests Mr Darwin, was a more informal one in places such as Argentinaand Egypt where British influence was exercised through commerce, investmentand shrewd diplomacy (occasionally of the gunboat kind).

What characterised Britain’s empire most was the matchlessadaptability of its builders and promoters. As Mr Darwin puts it: “The hallmarkof British imperialism was its extraordinary versatility in method, outlook andobject.” In particular, the British excelled at recruiting local elites andinterest groups as collaborators without whose consent little would have beenpossible. The whole project could have been doomed by the loss of the Americancolonies swiftly followed by the “world” war, lasting 25 years, against France(revolutionary and then Napoleonic) and its allies. But by holding on to India,confirming the supremacy of British sea power, and securing a peaceful Europeafter Wellington’s victory at Waterloo and the Congress of Vienna, a platformwas created for unprecedented expansion. The British world-system then heldtogether until the second world war.

To the uniquegeopolitical circumstances that British diplomatic genius was able to exploitat this time could be added at least two other critical ingredients. The firstwas technology. Railways, fast steamships and then the telegraph made itpossible to expand, police and govern a vast, sprawling empire in ways that hadpreviously been impossible with a relatively small army and administrativeclass.

The second was the emergence of something approaching a guidingideology of empire: the old buccaneering empire of conquest and commerce neverquite disappeared, but the British empire fashioned in the 19th century wasbelieved by many of those involved in the project to be based on “enlightenedreform and disinterested trusteeship”. Its purpose was to rescue benightedparts of the world, in the words of the great propagandist, Thomas Macaulay,from “all the evils of despotism and the evils of anarchy”. It was possible tobelieve that by spreading the blessings of free trade, good governance andtechnological progress Britain’s empire really was in the interests of allmankind.

Of course, thereality was often far darker. The iron fist was always clenched within thevelvet glove; protecting indigenous populations from the greed ofself-governing white settlers was near-impossible. And the racial solidaritythat became a prerequisite of rule after the terrible shock of the greatrebellion of 1857 in India is irredeemably ugly to modern eyes. On the otherhand, the Britain that had enthusiastically participated in the slave trade inthe 1700s threw its naval might into a crusade to banish slavery from the worldin the 19th century.

If a benign geopolitical environment was the bedrock of the19th-century empire, it was the catalogue of geopolitical disasters of 1940-42that demolished the British world-system once and for all. Whether the empirecould have held for much longer even without those reverses is hard to say.India had become steadily more difficult for Britain to rule and without India,British hegemony in the Middle East, deemed a core national interest until thedisaster of Suez in 1956, was increasingly unsustainable. In the context of thecold war between America and Russia, a weakened Britain was no more than amarginal player. However, as Mr Darwin notes, what seems inevitable to usnow—the dissolution of empire in a modern world of nation states—did notnecessarily appear so at the time or, at least, not immediately. For Britain’sruling class, including the post-war Labour government, the imperial habit wasnot easily surrendered.

Bringing togetherhis huge erudition, scrupulous fairness and elegant prose, Mr Darwin hasproduced a wonderfully stimulating account of something that today seems almostincredible yet was, in historical terms, only yesterday. It is also amuch-needed antidote both to the leftish consensus of the past 50 years thatBritain’s empire was unrelievedly awful, a catalogue of cruelty, exploitationand racism, and the recent triumphalist revisionism of more conservativehistorians, such as Niall Ferguson. The British empire was neither good nor bad,but complicated, paradoxical and, above all, of its time.

进击的智人阿飞

【越障1-22】  
计时 11min  50s

主旨： 一个人写的一本关于大英帝国浮沉原因的书。
结构： 书的突破； 英国最初的格局，第一波兴盛， 第二波兴盛的原因，遭受的第一次小重创，重振旗鼓，收到的诟病及最终没落的原因

大意： 达尔文先生之前的作品是关于英国沉浮的记叙，他的新书则关注的是英国浮沉的原因。
英国在十八世纪之前是一个十分内部丰富的形象，因为它的格局并不受外部国家的影响而是受英国本土的商人，皇家子弟，士兵以及传教师的远见和野心影响。这解释了两个事件，一是那个时期东印度公司占领印度和美洲不算在内，因为东印度公司是私人集资，与政府无关；第二个是北美settler的崛起是东印度公司和美洲本土印第安人的交往结果，与英国当局关系也不大。 第一波兴盛源于海外扩张，即“venture"， 英国受到欧洲其他国家的压力，也开始扩张，由此建立了以四种colony为例的帝国版图： 以材料根据地存在的印度和美洲；以货物港口存在的香港，东南亚； 阿根廷；西非。这有提到印度对于英国非常重要，因为对于波斯湾和南海的控制。
第二波兴盛则是在十八世纪工业革命后，科技盛行，火车和电报的出现让人的旅行成本降低，方便扩张； 第二个是英国利用价值观强行奴役其他国家，它的价值观是：enlightenment, selfishlessness,就是说他们的自由贸易，统治和输出科技都真的是为了世界的利益。 这个自欺欺人的想法被从印度的反叛和英国邪恶的奴隶交易打脸。
遭受到的第一次重创是百年战争和美国的独立 使他们遭受了打击；但是在滑铁卢的胜利和印度的收益使得他们并未受到很大影响；但二战，印度的独立，以及冷战给英国一次次比之前更大的打击，使其没落至今。
作者的态度是，英国没落是不可避免的，但是如果英国不那么作死，不会这么早地到来。

大鱼鱼fish

进击的智人阿飞 发表于 2018-8-30 13:22
【速度】1-2计时1Asia Argento, a Leader of #MeToo, Accused of Sexual Assault
This is What's Trending  ...

1 看了4/5。
内容：MeToo的活动 ，一个著名的演员被性侵。赢了官司。未成年的时候就发生了关系，还有一些床照。- - 就记得这些了。。。
2.努力看完了。
内容：不过这个是完全啥都不记得了 只知道是一个运动员
3.看了4/5
内容：一个人是一个运动员，然后有一个人很欣赏他
4.看了176个字 60%
内容：一个人反对国家的一些做法，说他们不关心孩子，然后反对他们所谓的危机
5.大概看了200多一点字
内容：控诉对儿童的不保护。光写信还不够，得到了更多的支持。