A few common misconceptions. Beauty is only skin deep. One’s physical assets and liabilities don’t count all that much in a managerial career. A woman should always try to look her best.
    Over the last 30 years, social scientists have conducted more than 1,000 studies of how we react to beautiful and not so beautiful people. The virtually unanimous conclusion: Looks do matter, more than most of us realize. The data suggest, for example, that physically attractive individuals are more likely to be treated well by their parents, sought out as friends, and pursued romantically. With the possible exception of women seeking managerial jobs, they are also more likely to be hired, paid well, and promoted.
    Un American, you say, unfair and extremely unbelievable? Once again, the scientists have caught us mouthing pieties (虔诚) while acting just the contrary. Their typical experiment works something like this. They give each member of a group-college students, or teachers or corporate personnel mangers-a piece of paper relating an individual’s accomplishments. Attached to the paper is a photograph. While the papers all say exactly the same thing the pictures are different. Some show a strikingly attractive person, some an average looking character, and some an unusually unattractive human being. Group members are asked to rate the individual on certain attributes, anything from personal warmth to the likelihood that he or she will be promoted.
    Almost invariably, the better looking the person in the picture, the higher the person is rated. In the phrase, borrowed from Sappho, that the social scientists use to sum up the common perception, what is beautiful is good.
    In business, however, good looks cut both ways for women, and deeper than for men. A Utah State University professor, who is an authority on the subject, explains: In terms of their careers, the impact of physical attractiveness on males is only modest. But its potential impact on females can be tremendous, making it easier, for example, for the more attractive to get jobs where they are in the public eye. On another note, though, there is enough literature now for us to conclude that attractive women who aspire (追求) to managerial positions do not get on as well as women who may be less attractive.

    Not content with its doubtful claim to produce cheap food for our own population, the factory farming industry also argues that “hungry nations are benefiting from advances made by the poultry (家禽) industry”. In fact, rather than helping the fight against malnutrition (营养不良) in “hungry nations,” the spread of factory farming has, inevitably aggravated the problem.
    Large scale intensive meat and poultry production is a waste of food resources.
    This is because more protein has to be fed to animals in the form of vegetable matter than can ever be recovered in the form of meat. Much of the food value is lost in the animal’s process of digestion and cell replacement. Neither, in the ca se of chicken, can one eat feathers, blood, feet or head. In all, only about 44% of the live animal fits to be eaten as meat.
    This means one has to feed approximately 9—10 times as much food value to the animal than one can consume from the carcass. As a system for feeding the hungry, the effects can prove disastrous. At times of crisis, grain is the food of life.
    Nevertheless, the huge increase in poultry production throughout Asia and Africa continues. Normally British or US firms are involved. For instance, an American based multinational company has this year announced its involvement in projects in several African countries. Britain’s largest suppliers chickens, Ross Breeders, are also involved in projects all over the world.
    Because such trade is good for exports, Western governments encourage it. In 1979, a firm in Bangladesh called Phoenix Poultry received a grant to set up a unit of 6,000 chickens and 18,000 laying hens. This almost doubled the number of poultry kept in the country all at once.
    But Bangladesh lacks capital, energy and food and has large numbers of unemployed. Such chicken raising demands capital for building and machinery, extensive use of energy resources for automation, and involves feeding chickens with potential famine relief protein food. At present, one of Bangladesh’s main imports is food grains, because the country is unable to grow enough food to feed its population. On what then can they possibly feed the chicken?

    We all have offensive breath at one time or another. In most cases, offensive breath emanates from bacteria in the mouth, although there are other more causes.
    Until a few years ago, the most doctors could do was to counsel patients with bad breath about oral cleanliness. Now they are finding new ways to treat the usually curable condition.
    Bad breath can happen whenever the normal flow of saliva (唾液) slows. Our mouths are full of bacteria feeding on protein in bits of food and shed tissue. The bacteria emit evil smelling gases, the worst of which is hydrogen sulfide (硫 化物).
Mouth bacteria thrive in airless conditions. Oxygen rich saliva keeps their numbers down. When we sleep, for example, the saliva stream slows, and sulfur producing bacteria gain the upper hand, producing classic “morning breath”.
    Alcohol hunger, too much talking, breathing through the mouth during exercise anything that dries the mouth produces bad breath. So can stress, though it’s not understood why. Some people’s breath turns sour every time they go on a job interview.
    Saliva flow gradually slows with age, which explains why the elderly have more bad breath trouble than younger people do. Babies, however, who make plenty of saliva and whose mouths contain relatively few bacteria have characteristically sweet breath.
    For most of us, the simple, dry mouth variety of bad breath is easily cured. Eating or drinking starts saliva and sweeps away many of the bacteria. Breakfast often stops morning breath.
    Those with chronic dry mouth find that it helps to keep gum, hard candy, or a bottle of water or juice around. Brushing the teeth wipes out dry mouth bad breath because it clears away many of the offending bacteria.
    Surprisingly, one thing that rarely works is mouthwash. The liquid can mask bad breath odor with its own smell, but the effect lasts no more than an hour. Some mouthwashes claim to kill the bacteria responsible for bad breath. The trouble is, they don’t necessarily reach all offending germs. Most bacteria are well protected from mouthwash under thick layers of mucus (粘液). If the mouthwash contains alcohol-as most do-it can intensify the problem by drying out the mouth.

    “Welcome to the U.S.A.! Major Credit cards accepted!”
    By the millions they are coming no longer the tired, the poor, the wretched mass longing for a better living. These are the wealthy. “We don’t have a budget,” says a biologist from Brazil, as she walks with two companions through New York City’s South Street. “We just use our credit cards.”
    The U.S. has long been one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, but this year has been exceptional. First there was the World Cup, which drew thousands from every corner of the globe; then came the weakening of the U.S. dollar against major currencies. Now the U.S., still the world’s superpower, can also claim to be the world’s bargain basement (廉价商品部). Nobody undersells America these days on just about everything, from consumer electronics to fashion clothes to tennis rackets. Bottom retail prices-anywhere from 30% to 70% lower than those in Europe and Asia-have attracted some 47 million visitors, who are expected to leave behind $79 billion in 1994. That’s up from $74 billion the year before.
    True, not everyone comes just for brains. There remains an undeniable fascination in the rest of the world with all things American, nourished by Hollywood films and U.S. television series. But shopping the U.S.A. is proving irresistible. Every week thousands arrive with empty suitcases ready to be filled; some even rent an additional hotel room to hold their purchases. The buying binge (无节制) has become as important as watching Old Faithful Fountains erupt in Yellowstone Park or sunbathing on a beach in Florida.
    The U.S. has come at last to appreciate what other countries learned long ago: the pouring in of foreign tourists may not always be convenient, but is does put money in the bank. And with a trade deficit at about $130 billion and growing for the past 12 months, the U.S. needs all the deposits it can get. Compared with American tourists abroad, visitors to the U.S. stay longer and spend more money at each stop; an average of 12.2 night and $1624 a traveller versus the American s’ four nights and $298.

    One summer my wife Chris and I were invited by friends to row down the Colorado River in a boat. Our expedition included many highly successful people the kind who have staffs to take care of life’s daily work. But in the wilder rapids, all of us naturally set aside any pretenses (矫饰) and put out backs into every stroke to keep the boat from tumbling over. At each night’s encampment, we all hauled supplies and cleaned dishes. After only two days in the river, people accustomed to being spoiled and indulged had become a team, working together to cope with the unpredictable twists and turns of the river.
    I believe that in life as well as on boat trips teamwork will make all our journeys successful ones. The rhythms of teamwork have been the rhythms of my life. I played basketball alongside famous players, and the team I now coach, the New York Knicks, has recovered from years of adversity to become a major contender in the 1990s.
    I’m persuaded that teamwork is the key to making dreams come true. We all play on a number of teams in our lives-as part of a family, as a citizen, as a member of an agreement, written or unwritten. It contains the values and goals for every team member.
    For example, in the late 1970s a General Motors plant in Fremont, Calif, was the scene of constant warfare between labor and management. Distrust ran so high that the labor contract was hundreds of pages of tricky legal terms. GM spent millions trying to keep the facility up to date, but productivity and quality were continually poor. Absenteeism (旷工) was so out of control that the production line couldn’t even start up on some mornings. Finally in the early 1980s, GM shut down the plant.
    GM became convinced that it had to create new production systems based on teamwork. In the mid 1980s it reopened the Fremont plant with Toyota, starting from scratch (从零开始) with a much simpler and shorter labor contract. It promised that executive salaries would be reduced and jobs performed by outside sellers would be given to employees before any layoffs were considered. Over a hundred job classifications were cut to just two. Instead of doing one boring job over and over, workers agreed to be part of small teams, spending equal time on various tasks.
    Questions: (注意: 答题尽量简短，超过10个词要扣分。每条横线限写一个 英语单词，标点符号不占格。)

My View on Fake Commodities.