It was the best of times or, depending on your political and philosophical outlook, one of the foulest and most depraved. Rebellion seemed to be leaping from city to city, continent to continent, by some fiery process of contagion. Radical students filled the streets of Mexico city, Berlin, Tokyo, Prague. In the U. S. , Chicago swirled into near anarchy as cops battled antiwar demonstrators gathered at the Democratic Convention. And everywhere from Amsterdam to Haight-Ashbury, a generation was getting high, acting up.
So, clearly, it was the year from hell--a collective "dive into extensive social and personal dysfunction," as the Wall Street Journal editorialized recently. Or, depending again on your outlook, a global breakthrough for the human spirit. On this, the 25th anniversary of 1968, probably the only thing we can all agree on is that ’68 marks the beginning of the "culture wars," which have divided America ever since.
Both the sides of the "culture wars" of the ’80s and ’90s took form in the critical year of’68. The key issues are different now--abortion and gay rights, for example, as opposed to Vietnam and racism--but the underlying themes still echo the clashes of ’68: Diversity vs. conformity, tradition vs. iconoclasm, self-expression vs. deference to norms. "Question authority," in other words, vs. "Father knows best."
The 25th anniversary of ’68 is a good time to reflect, calmly and philosophically, on these deep, underlying choices. On one hand we know that anti-authoritarianism for its own sake easily degenerates into a rude and unfocused defiance: Revolution, as Abbie Hoffman put it, "for the hell of it." Certainly ’68 had its wretched excesses as well as its moments of glory: the personal tragedy of lives undone by drugs and sex, the heavy cost of riots and destruction. One might easily conclude that the ancient rules and hierarchies are there for a reason--they’re worked, more or less, for untold millenniums, so there’s no point in changing them now.
But it’s also true that what "worked" for thousands of years may not be the best way of doing things. Democracy, after all, was onee a far-out, subversive notion, condemned by kings and priests. In our own country, it took all kinds of hell-raising, including a war, to get across the simple notion that no person is morally entitled to own another. One generation’s hallowed tradition--slavery, or the divine right of kings--may be another generation’s object lesson in human folly.
’68 was one more awkward, stumbling, half-step forward in what Dutschke called the "long march" toward human freedom. Actually, it helped inspire the worldwide feminist movement.
The writer’s attitude towards the issue is

A:impartial. B:subjective. C:biased. D:puzzling.

It was the best of times or, depending on your political and philosophical outlook, one of the foulest and most depraved. Rebellion seemed to be leaping from city to city, continent to continent, by some fiery process of contagion. Radical students filled the streets of Mexico city, Berlin, Tokyo, Prague. In the U. S. , Chicago swirled into near anarchy as cops battled antiwar demonstrators gathered at the Democratic Convention. And everywhere from Amsterdam to Haight-Ashbury, a generation was getting high, acting up.
So, clearly, it was the year from hell--a collective "dive into extensive social and personal dysfunction," as the Wall Street Journal editorialized recently. Or, depending again on your outlook, a global breakthrough for the human spirit. On this, the 25th anniversary of 1968, probably the only thing we can all agree on is that ’68 marks the beginning of the "culture wars," which have divided America ever since.
Both the sides of the "culture wars" of the ’80s and ’90s took form in the critical year of’68. The key issues are different now--abortion and gay rights, for example, as opposed to Vietnam and racism--but the underlying themes still echo the clashes of ’68: Diversity vs. conformity, tradition vs. iconoclasm, self-expression vs. deference to norms. "Question authority," in other words, vs. "Father knows best."
The 25th anniversary of ’68 is a good time to reflect, calmly and philosophically, on these deep, underlying choices. On one hand we know that anti-authoritarianism for its own sake easily degenerates into a rude and unfocused defiance: Revolution, as Abbie Hoffman put it, "for the hell of it." Certainly ’68 had its wretched excesses as well as its moments of glory: the personal tragedy of lives undone by drugs and sex, the heavy cost of riots and destruction. One might easily conclude that the ancient rules and hierarchies are there for a reason--they’re worked, more or less, for untold millenniums, so there’s no point in changing them now.
But it’s also true that what "worked" for thousands of years may not be the best way of doing things. Democracy, after all, was onee a far-out, subversive notion, condemned by kings and priests. In our own country, it took all kinds of hell-raising, including a war, to get across the simple notion that no person is morally entitled to own another. One generation’s hallowed tradition--slavery, or the divine right of kings--may be another generation’s object lesson in human folly.
’68 was one more awkward, stumbling, half-step forward in what Dutschke called the "long march" toward human freedom. Actually, it helped inspire the worldwide feminist movement.

A:impartial. B:subjective. C:biased. D:puzzling.

People can not (but) feel (puzzling), for they (simply cannot) understand how he (could have made) such a stupid mistake.（　）

A:but B:puzzling C:simply cannot D:could have made

People can (not) but feel (puzzling), for they (simply cannot) understand how he (could have made) such a stupid mistake.（　）

A:not B:puzzling C:simply D:could have made

The world’s oceans have warmed 50 percent faster over the last 40 years than previously thought due to climate change, Australian and US climate researchers reported Wednesday. Higher ocean temperatures expand the volume of water, contributing to a rise in sea levels that is covering small island nations and threatening to destroy the low-lying, densely-populated low regions around the globe.
The study, published in the British journal Nature, adds to a growing scientific chorus of warnings about the pace and consequences rising oceans. It also serves as a corrective to a massive report issued last year by the Nobel-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), according to the authors.
Rising sea levels are driven by two things: the thermal expansion of sea water, and additional water from melting sources of ice. Both processes are caused by global warming. The ice sheet that sits atop Greenland, for example, contains enough water to raise world ocean levels by seven meters, which would bury sea-level cities from Dhaka to Shanghai.
Trying to figure out how much each of these factors contributes to rising sea levels is critically important to understanding climate change, and forecasting future temperature rises, scientists say. But up to now, there has been a puzzling gap between the projections of computer-based climate models, and the observations of scientists gathering data from the oceans.
The new study, led by Catia Domingues of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, is the first to reunite the models with observed data. Using new techniques to assess ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 meters from 1961 to 2003, it shows that thermal warming contributed to a 0.53 millimeter-per-year rise in sea levels rather than the 0.32 mm rise reported by the IPCC.

A:The warming of the world’s oceans is not a threat. B:That not enough is being done about global warming. C:There is a puzzling gap between the model and observations. D:Ocean waters have warmed faster than scientists had previously thought.

A:puzzled B:be puzzled C:puzzle D:be puzzling

The most pressing problem any economic system faces is how to use its scarce resources.

A:puzzling B:controversial C:terrifying D:urgent

The most crucial problem any economic system faces is how to use its scarce resources.

A:puzzling B:difficult C:terrifying D:urgent

The most {{U}}crucial{{/U}} problem any economic system faces is how to use its scarce resources.

A:puzzling B:difficult C:terrifying D:urgent