阅读理解 "No Future"
They are among the 250,000 people under the age of 25 who are out of work in the Netherlands, a group that accounts for 40 percent of the nation's unemployed. A storm of anger boils up at the government-sponsored (政府资助的) youth center, even among those who are continuing their studies.
"We study for jobs that don't exist." Nicollete Steggerda, 23, said.
After three decades of prosperity, unemployment among 10 member nations of the European Community has exceeded 11 percent, affecting a total of 12.3 million people, and the number is climbing.
The bitter disappointment long expressed by British youths is spreading across the continent. The title of a rock song "No Future" can now be seen written on the brick walls of closed factories in Belgium and France.
Recent surveys have found that the increasing argument in the last few years over the deployment (布局) in Europe of North Atlantic Treaty Organization missiles and the possibility of nuclear war have clouded European youths' confidence in the future.
One form of protest tends to put the responsibility for a country's economic troubles on the large numbers of "guest workers" from Third World nations, people welcomed in Western Europe in the years of prosperity.
Young Europeans, brought up in an extended period of economic success and general stability, seem to resemble Americans more than they do their own parents. Material enjoyment has given them a sense of expectation, each the right, to a standard of living that they see around them.
"And so we pass the days at the discos, or meet people at the café, and sit and stare," Said Isabella Gcuit. "There is usually not much conversation. You look for happiness. Sometimes you even find it." Environmental Problems for Products
Consumers are being confused and misled by the hodge-podge (大杂烩) of environmental claims made by household products, according to a "green labeling" study published by Consumers International Friday.
Among the report's more outrageous (令人无法容忍的) findings, a German fertilizer described itself as "earthworm friendly", a brand of flour said it was "non-polluting" and a British toilet paper claimed to be "environmentally friendlier".
The study was written and researched by Britain's National Consumer Council (NCC) for lobby group Consumer International. It was funded by the German and Dutch governments and the European Commission.
"While many good and useful claims are being made, it is clear there is a long way to go in ensuring shoppers are adequately informed about the environmental impact of products they buy." said Consumers International director Anna Fielder.
The 10-country study surveyed product packaging in Britain, Western Europe, Scandinavia and the United States. It found that products sold in Germany and the United Kingdom made the most environmental claims on average.
The report focused on claims made by specific products, such as detergent(洗涤剂), insect sprays and by some garden products. It did not test the claims, but compared them to labeling guidelines set by the International Standards Organization (ISO) in September, 1999.
Researchers documented claims of environmental friendliness made by about 2,000 products and found many too vague or too misleading to meet ISO standards.
"Many products had specially-designed labels to make them seem environmentally friendly, but in fact many of these symbols mean nothing," said report researcher Philip Page.
"Laundry detergents made the most number of claims with 158. Household cleaners were second with 145 separate claims, while paints were third on our list with 73. The high numbers show how very confusing it must be for consumers to sort the true from the misleading." he said．
The ISO labeling standards ban vague or misleading claims on product packaging, because terms such as "environmentally friendly" and "non-polluting" cannot be verified. "What we are now pushing for is to have multinational corporations meet the standards set by the ISO." said Page. Computers
The initial impact of computers was in the area of entertainment. If you walked by a video arcade in the early 1980s, you could not have failed to notice that the use of video games was growing at what some considered an alarming rate. In 1981 the movie industry grossed $3 billion, video games took in an estimated $6 billion. That gives you some idea of just how big the computer industry had become. Video games employ the same technology as personal computers, and indeed many who bought personal computers did so primarily for playing games at home, thus saving their quarters. Though video games are not as popular as they were a few years ago, they did provide consumer with their first real reason to buy PCs.
A more recent computer innovation, desktop publishing, supplies one good reason for those who write for a living to buy a PC. Desktop publishing is a deceptively simple description for an extremely complex group of hardware and software tools. You can now write text, edit text, draw illustrations, incorporate photographs, design page layouts, and print a finished document with a relatively inexpensive computer and laser printer. Althoughthe new technology offers new freedom, there is a price to be paid for this freedom. With total control comes total responsibility. In fact, the issue of social responsibility in our new computer age has long been a topic of debate among computer enthusiasts. Some people are concerned with the long-term social effects of the so called computer revolution. Ironically, many PC pioneers who built and marketed the first machines were 60s style advocates of social change. They claim that while personal computer technology has the potential to make society more equal, it's having the opposite effect since upper-middle-class people can afford them and lower class people cannot.
In addition, the ways that computers are used to monitor the activities of their users have evoked anxiety about the machine. Over 7 million Americans now have their work paced, controlled, and monitored by computers. A computer is more restrictive and powerful in the way it controls people than the old fashioned assembly line. This can lead to what some have called "tech-stress". Irritated eyes, back problems, and other physical symptoms have also been associated with the extensive use of computers. Although the personal computer may not have had the impact some predicted a decade age, the combination of computer technology with satellites and cable does promise innovations in the mass media that would have seemed astonishing just a few short years ago. Flying Vertebrates
The fossil remains of the first flying vertebrates, the pterosaurs, have intrigued paleontologists for more than two centuries. How such large creatures, which weighed in some cases as much as a piloted hang-glider and had wingspan from 8 to 12 meters, solved the problems of powered flight, and exactly what these creatures were—reptiles or birds—are among the questions scientists have puzzled over.
Perhaps the least controversial assertion about the pterosaurs is that they were reptiles. Their skulls, pelvises, and hind feet are reptilian. The anatomy of their wings suggests that they did not evolve into the class of birds. In pterosaurs a greatly elongated fourth finger of each forelimb supported a winglike membrane. The other fingers were short and reptilian, with sharp claws. In birds the second finger is the principal strut of the wing, which consists primarily of feathers. If the pterosaurs walked on all fours, the three short fingers may have been employed for grasping. When a pterosaur walked or remained stationary, the fourth finger, and with it the wing, could only turn upward in an extended inverted V shape along each side of the animal's body.
The pterosaurs resembled both birds and bats in their overall structure and proportions. This is not surprising because the design of any flying vertebrate is subject to aerodynamic constraints. Both the pterosaurs and the birds have hollow bones, a feature that represents a savings in weight. In the birds, however, these bones are reinforced more massively by internal struts.
Although scales typically cover reptiles, the pterosaurs probably had hairy coats. T. H. Huxley reasoned that flying vertebrates must have been warm-blooded because flying implies a high rate of metabolism, which in turn implies a high internal temperature. Huxley speculated that a coat of hair would insulate against loss of body heat and might streamline the body to reduce drag in flight. The recent discovery of a pterosaur specimen covered in long, dense, and relatively thick hairlike fossil material was the first clear evidence that his reasoning was correct.
Efforts to explain how the pterosaurs became airborne have led to suggestions that they launched themselves by jumping from cliffs, by dropping from trees, or even by rising into light winds from the crests of waves. Each hypothesis has its difficulties. The first wrongly assumes that the pterosaurs' hind feet resembled a bat's and could serve as hooks by which the animal could hang in preparation for flight. The second hypothesis seems unlikely because large pterosaurs could not have landed in trees without damaging their wings. The third calls for high waves to channel updrafts. The wind that made such waves however, might have been too strong for the pterosaurs to control their flight once airborne. Explorer of the Extreme Deep
Oceans cover more than two-thirds of our planet. Yet, just a small fraction of the underwater world has been explored. Now, Scientists at the Woods Holel Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts are building an underwater vehicle hat will carry explorers as deep as 6,500 meters (21,320 feet). The new machine, known as a manned submersible or Human-Operated Vehicle (HOV), will replace another one named Alvin which bas an amazing record of discovery, playing a key role in various important and famous undersea expeditions. Alvin has been operating for 40 years but can go down only 4,500 meters (14,784 feet). It's about time for an upgrade, WHOI researchers say.
Alvin was launched in 1964. Since then, Alvin has worked between 200 and 250 days a year, says Daniel Fornari, a marine geologist and director of the Deep Ocean Exploration Institute at WHOI. During its lifetime, Alvin has carried some 12,000 people on a total of more than 3,000 dives. A newer, better versions of Alvin is bound to reveal even more surprises about a world that is still full of mysteries, Fornari says. It might also make the job of exploration a little easier. "We take so much for granted on land," Fornari says. "We can walk around and see with our eyes how big things are. We can see colors, special arrangements."
Size-wise, the new HOV will be similar to Alvin. It'll be about 37 feet long. The setting area inside will be a small sphere, about 8 feet wide, like Alvin, it'll carry a pilot and two passengers. It will be just as maneuverable. In most other ways, it will give passengers more opportunities to enjoy the view, for one thing. Alvin has only three windows, the new vehicle will have five, with more overlap so that the passengers and the pilot can see the same thing.
Alvin can go up and down at a rate of 30 meters every second, and its maximum speed is 2 knots (about 2.3 miles per hour), while the new vehicle will be able to ascend and descend at 44 meters per second. It'll reach speeds of 3 knots, or 3.5 miles per hour. Life in the Universe
The universe-life probably much like that on our own planet. They reason in the following way.
As far as astronomers can determine, the entire universe is built of the same matter. They have no reason to doubt that matter obeys the same laws in every part of the universe. Therefore, it is reasonable to guess that other stars, with their own planets, were born in the same way as our own solar system. What we know of life on earth suggests that life will arise wherever the proper conditions exist.
Life requires the right amount and kind of atmosphere. This eliminates all those planets in the universe that are not about the same size and weight as the earth. A smaller planet would lose its atmosphere; a larger one would hold too much of it.
Life also requires a steady supply of heat and light. This eliminates double stars, or stars that flare up suddenly. Only single stars that are steady sources of heat and light like our sun would qualify.
Finally, life could evolve only if the planet is just the right distance from its sun. With a weaker sun than our own, the planet would have to be closer to it. With a stronger sun, it would have to be farther away.
If we suppose that every star in the universe has a family of planets, then how many planets might support life? First, eliminate those stars that are not like our sun. Next eliminate most of their planets that are either too far from or too close to their suns. Then eliminate all those planets which are not the same size and weight as the earth. Finally, remember that the proper conditions do not necessarily mean that life actually does exist on a planet. It may not have begun yet, or it may have already died out.
This process of elimination seems to leave very few planets on which earthlike life might be found. However, even if life could exist on only one planet in a million, there are so many billions of planets that this would still leave a vast number on which life could exist. 
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