Generally a saving in energy consumption is insufficient incentive for the consumer to purchase new cooking equipment unless other improvements (e.g. shorter cooking periods, fewer cleaning difficulties and improved appearance) are available as well. For the individual, there is a natural reticence to incur rapid changes because of the valid economic desire to exploit existing capital investment to the maximum: this is the major problem with many proposed energy-thrift measures. However, caterers should’ appreciate that by reducing energy wastages; they will not only be saving money, but also improving the working environment within their kitchens.
Retro-fitting existing cookers with energy-conservation improvements in order to raise achievable efficiencies will occur only rarely. For the most immediate significant impact nationally, with respect to reducing the energy expended upon cooking, better management is recommended. Lawson suggested that about 16 PJ per year could be saved in the British catering sector by adopting improved operational practices. If only 10% of the energy used for catering purposes in the domestic sector could also be saved, overall national savings would amount to approximately 44 PJ per annum. To achieve this aim, a comprehensive and straight-forward program of energy-thrift education for housewives, cooks and kitchen managers is needed. This will require all concerned to exercise considerable personal discipline.
The present approach, whereby individuals make purchasing decisions mainly on visual and first-cost grounds-partly because the cooking appliance and food manufacturing industries rarely provide adequate scientific data to support their claims- should be supplemented by other considerations. Food is too fundamental to human life, health and happiness to be considered an unworthy subject by intellectuals. For example, even the typical Briton (who tends to be casual about eating compared with most of his foreign counterparts) spends between 5% and 13% of his waking hours preparing, cooking and/or cleaning away ’after meals. Nevertheless, energy wastage prevails both on a national scale ( e. g. storing vast quantities of food at sub-ambient temperatures in so-called food mountains); and on an individual scale (e. g. performing hob operations without placing lids on the pans employed) .
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the text

A:Consumers take other factors into consideration when buying cooking equipments. B:Retro-fitting existing cookers to raise achievable efficiencies will occur only rarely. C:People have valid desire to exploit existing capital investment to the maximum. D:Consumers buy a new cooking equipment only for the purpose of saving energy.

About thirty years ago, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned employment decisions that discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. To avoid legal penalties, companies created affirmative action programs. These programs became highly controversial, for they were seen by some as a form of reverse discrimination. Both praised and condemned, affirmative action programs remain in effect.
Since the passage of Title VII, the United States has undergone a major demographic shift. California will soon have a population of 50 percent Hispanic American and nonwhite. More than half of the nation’s work force now consists of minorities, immigrants, and women; white, native-born males, though still dominant, has become a statistical minority. In addition, about 80 percent of new workers are not white males.
Affirmative action relied heavily on assimilation, the process by which minorities are absorbed into the dominant culture. Generally, assimilation involves abandoning distinctive cultural patterns of behavior in favor of those of the dominant culture. Two, three, four generations ago, people who immigrated to this country routinely changed their names to help them enter the mainstream as soon and as completely as possible.
In contrast, the huge successes of the women’s movement and civil rights activism have helped Americans to appreciate their differences, even to celebrate them. This change is transforming the workplace, for people who are comfortable and proud of being different are much less amenable to assimilation. "You don’t have to aspire to be a white male or a member of the dominant group," says Thomas, "People are willing to be part of each, but they won’t jump into the melting pot anymore. "
Diversity in the workplace is much more than skin color. Diversity also refers to gender, age, religion, social class, sexual orientation, and even to military experience.
Realizing that assimilation is probably not the way of the future, companies as diverse as IBM, Ford, and 3M have begun programs called "Managing Diversity" or "Valuing Diversity. " The goals of these programs are threefold. (1) to uncover and root out biases and prejudices about people’s differences, (2) to increase awareness and appreciation of people’s differences, and (3) to teach people "skills," especially communication and negotiation skills, for working with diverse groups.
From a functionalist perspective, we would say that programs in managing diversity are an adjustment in the economic system. They will help meet needs caused by changing demographics within the nation and new international relations that require American corporations to be more competitive. From a symbolic interaction perspective, we would say that these programs reflect a change in symbols—that they illustrate how being different from the dominant group now has a different meaning than it used to. These programs not only reflect that change, they also foster further change in the meaning of diversity. From a conflict perspective, we would say that the key term in managing diversity programs is not diversity, but managing. No matter what they are called, these programs are merely another way to exploit labor.
The last paragraph is mainly about

A:how companies exploit their workers through managing diversity. B:what companies expect of their affirmative action programs. C:the implications of the affirmative action programs. D:the national and international action against the exploitation of workers.

Text 1

A:Consumers take other factors into consideration when buying cooking equipments. B:Retro-fitting existing cookers to raise achievable efficiencies will occur only rarely. C:People have valid desire to exploit existing capital investment to the maximum. D:Consumers buy a new cooking equipment only for the purpose of saving energy.

The first time I tried shark-fin soup was at Time Warner’s annual dinner in Hong Kong. Shark-fin soup is a luxury item ($100 bowl in some restaurants)in Hong Kong and Mainland China, its biggest consumers; it’s a dish that embodies east Asia’s intertwined notions of hospitality and keeping (or losing) "face". "It’s like champagne", says Alvin Leung, owner of Bo Innovation, a Cantonese restaurant in Hong Kong. "You don’t open a bottle of Coke to celebrate. It’s a ritual. "
Unfortunately, this gesture of hospitality comes with a price tag much bigger than that $ 100 bowl. All told, up to 70 million sharks are killed annually for the trade, despite the fact that 30% of shark species are threatened with extinction. "Sharks have made it through multiple mass extinctions on our planet, " says Matt Rand, director of Pew’s Global Shark Conservation division. "Now many species are going to go the way of the dinosaur—for a bowl of soup. "
The shark-fin industry has gained notoriety in recent years not just because of what it’s doing to the global shark population but also because of what’s known as finning—the practice of catching a shark, removing its fins and dumping the animal back into the sea. While a pound of shark fin can go for up to $ 300, most shark meat isn’t particularly valuable, and it takes up freezer space and weight on fishing boats. Today, finning is illegal in the waters of the E. U. , the U. S. and Australia, among others; boats are required to carry a certain ratio of fins to carcasses(尸体) to prevent massive overfishing. But there are loopholes in antifinning laws that are easy to exploit. In the E. U. , for example, ships can land the fins separately from the carcasses, making the job of monitoring the weight ratio nearly impossible. In the U. S. , a boat found carrying nearly 65, 000 lb. ( 30, 000 kg) of illegal shark fins won a court case because it was registered as a cargo vessel, which current U. S. finning. laws do not cover.
Sharks populations can’t withstand commercial fishing the way more fertile marine species can. Unlike other fish harvested from the wild, sharks grow slowly. They don’t reach sexual maturity until later in life—the female great white, for example, at 12 to 14 years—and when they do, they have comparatively few offspring at a time, unlike, tunas, which release millions of eggs when they spawn.
The shark’s plight is starting to be weighed against the delicacy’s cultural value. The conservation group has lobbied local restaurants that offer the classic nine-course banquet served at Cantonese weddings, of which shark fin is traditionally a part, to offer a no-shark menu as a choice to couples.
After my first encounter with shark-fin soup, I decided that, like my colleagues, I would probably skip it next time. Unfortunately, that next time came at an intimate dinner in a small, private dining room, where I was both a guest and a stranger. When the soup—the centerpiece of the meal—was set down before me, I ate it. Apparently, I’m not the only one to cave. "You go to a wedding, and you refused to eat it just because you feel you’re insulted— I’m not that extreme, " Leung, the chef, says. "If other people believe that it brings luck .or brings face, I’d be a spoilsport. "To make a dent in the slaughter of the sharks, however, there are going to have to be a lot of people willing to spoil this particular sport.
Some fishmen land the fins separately from the carcasses in order to ______.

A:escape punishment by law B:make more freezer spaces on boat C:prevent massive overfishing D:exploit bad execution of law

The ______ objective of this adult education project is to exploit the employees' potential to the full.

A:distant B:ultimate C:farther D:remote

Section A
Many companies are seeking to exploit and develop the rich natural______ regions．

A:sources B:resources C:materials D:power

exploit