Dear Mr. Spiller,
I am sending this e­mail on behalf of my daughter. She and her fiancé will be married on May 20. The Smalltown Art Museum grounds will be the site of both the ceremony and the reception. My daughter and I anticipate that, between the two families, about fifty couples will need accommodations for the night of May 20. We would like to be able to recommend a quality hotel like Golden Serenity to our guests. We are wondering if you will be able to accommodate our guests for that night and offer them a significant discount. We would appreciate a response by February 20, as we will be printing and mailing invitations soon thereafter.
Sincerely,
Laura Diamond

Judd stood in front of the elevator, the wave of darkness licking at him like a physical force. He could feel his heart slow and then begin to beat faster. He reached in his pockets for a book of matches. He had left them in the office. Perhaps the lights were working on the floors below. Moving slowly and cautiously, he felt his way toward the door that led to the stairwell. He pushed the door open. The stairwell was in darkness. Carefully holding onto the railing, he started down into the blackness. In the distance below, he saw the wavering beam of a flashlight moving up the stairs. Bigelow, the watchman. “Bigelow!” he yelled. “Bigelow! It’s Dr. Stevens!” His voice bounced against the stone walls, echoing weirdly through the stairwell. The figure holding the flashlight kept climbing silently upward. “Who’s there?” Judd demanded. The only answer was the echo of his words.

As we all know, even the best-­laid plans can go astray. It is therefore important that you keep in mind the possibility of plans going wrong, and maintain flexibility in your plans. If a given strategy or allocation of resources does not succeed, then you must be ready to change to another plan or set other priorities for resource allocation. For example, one of the most damaging strategies in taking a test is that of spending too long on a given problem. Occasionally, you may find that a problem you had thought you could solve in a reasonable amount of time is taking much longer than you had anticipated. Just as you have to know when and how to start a problem, you also have to know when and how to stop. Sometimes the best decision is just to give up and to move on.

Before the Internet, most professional occupations required a large body of knowledge, accumulated over years or even decades of experience. But now anyone with good critical thinking skills and the ability to focus on the important information can retrieve it on demand from the Internet instead of from his own memory. However, those with wandering minds, who might once have been able to focus by isolating themselves with their work, now often find they must do their work with the Internet, which simultaneously furnishes a wide range of unrelated information about their friends’ doings, celebrity news, and millions of other sources of distraction. How well an employee can focus might now be more important than how knowledgeable he is. Knowledge was once an internal property, and focus on the task at hand could be imposed externally; with the Internet, knowledge can be supplied externally but focus must be achieved internally.

Customers often focus on product specifications, giving interviewers detailed instructions on particular design characteristics: size, weight, color, shape, look, or feel. Razor users may request “a wider handle” or “a lighter weight” or “a shiny look.” By accepting this input from customers, companies assume that the customer knows the best solution―which is often not the case. A wider handle, for example, may have been requested to prevent the razor from slipping out of the user’s hand while shaving. Although a wider handle may be helpful in solving the problem, a better option might be a regular­-size handle with a ribbed, rubberized grip. Although this type of feedback may be appropriate in certain situations, accepting specifications as customer inputs inherently prevents engineers and designers from using their creative skills to devise breakthrough products and services.

Something extraordinary from a cognitive perspective happens when a group starts to sing together. On your own, you might get stuck after the first line of the song. Singing with a single friend, your companion might remember the first word of the second line and that keeps you going for another few words, but then neither of you can remember the third line just now. In a large group, no one has to be able to recollect the entire song. Just one person singing the first syllable of a word can trigger a recollection in another group member to bring the second syllable of that same word, which in turn can cue a group of people to that whole word and the next three words after it. Imagine this notion propagated through a large group of dozens or hundreds of people, and throughout every syllable of the song―a sort of group consciousness emerges in which no single member of the group can be said to know the song, but the group itself does.

*propagate: 전파하다

The graph above shows the change of biofuel production capacity and biofuel production in Austria from 2005 to 2010. ① The production capacity of biodiesel increased overall from 2005 to 2009, and remained the same in 2010 as in the previous year. ② From 2007 to 2008, the production of biodiesel decreased in contrast to the rise of that of bioethanol. ③ In 2007, bioethanol production began to appear on the graph, and it continued to increase through 2010. ④ The production capacity of both biodiesel and bioethanol increased from 2008 to 2009. ⑤ In 2010,   biodiesel production capacity was more than three times greater than bioethanol production capacity.

2016 High School Musical Theater Workshop

 This summer, you can work with a team of theater teachers, specialists, and other talented students to explore the distinct challenges of musical theater. This workshop will be held at Bronx College from June 27 to July 11, 2016.

Registration Fee                          
• $2,500 (includes room and board)

Application
• Enrollment is open to high school senior singers, actors, and dancers. Enrollment is limited; applications are reviewed on a first­-come, first-­served basis; and acceptance is based on available space in each voice part.

Workshop Programs
• Music Theory, Song Interpretation
• Voice & Speech, Voice Studio Lab, Acting Lab, Jazz & Ballet
• Optional: Travel to New York City to see a Broadway musical each weekend (Workshop participants can apply for this program and should submit an added $50 for travel.)

Housing
• The dormitories are located on the south end of campus. Each suite sleeps four students in two bedrooms.

SAVE THE FROGS! Art Contest
 One-­third of the world’s amphibian species are threatened with extinction, and up to 200 frog species have completely disappeared since 1979. This year, the 8th annual art contest has the goal to spread awareness of frog extinctions.
 Winners will be given a cash prize and a 100% organic cotton T­-shirt with their own artwork printed on it. The contest is open to all ages!
                                 
◆ Contest Rules
• Your artwork must be submitted by October 31.
• Submitted artwork must be your original creation!
• Your artwork must not be larger than 8.5″ × 11″ in size.
• Submit up to three entries per person.
• Your entry form and artwork must be mailed to:
SAVE THE FROGS! Art Contest P.O. Box 78345 Los Angeles, CA 34789 USA.
For further information, please visit our website at www.savethefrogs.com.

Robert Hooke was born on July 18, 1635 on the Isle of Wight, England. He entered Westminster School at the age of thirteen, and from there went to Oxford, where some of the best scientists in England were working at the time. Hooke impressed them with his skills at designing experiments and building equipment, and soon became an assistant to the chemist Robert Boyle. Hooke worked with Boyle for seven years. Hooke devised a compound microscope with a new, screw­-operated focusing mechanism he designed. In 1665 Hooke wrote Micrographia, a book describing observations made with microscopes and telescopes, which was a big bestseller at that time. He was the one who first used the term “cell” for describing biological organisms. He died in London on March 3, 1703.

Humans usually experience sound as the result of vibrations in air or water. Although sound that humans can sense ① is usually carried through these media, vibrations can also travel through soil, including rocks. Thus, sound can travel through a variety of substances with different densities, and the physical characteristics of the medium through which the sound travels have a major influence on ② how the sound can be used. For instance, it requires more energy to make water vibrate than to vibrate air, and it requires a great deal of energy to make soil vibrate. Thus, the use of vibrations in communication ③ depending on the ability of the sender to make a substance vibrate. Because of this, large animals such as elephants are more likely than small animals ④ to use vibrations in the soil for communication. In addition, the speed ⑤ at which sound travels depends on the density of the medium which it is traveling through.

The theory of E­-prime argues that if you wrote and spoke English without the verb to be, you’d describe events more accurately. For example, when you say, “Johnny is a failure,” the verb is implies that “failure” is in Johnny rather than in your observation of Johnny. The verb to be (in forms such as is, are, and am) also implies (A) permanence / variation; the implication is that because failure is in Johnny, it will always be there; Johnny will always be a failure. A more (B) erroneous / precise statement might be “Johnny failed his last two math exams.” Consider this theory as applied to your thinking about yourself. When you say, for example, “I’m not good at public speaking” or “I’m unpopular” or “I’m lazy,” you imply that these qualities are in you. But these are simply (C) evaluations / solutions that may be incorrect or, if at least partly accurate, may change over time.

There was a knock on the door. “Come in!” said Jack. The man who entered was young, well­-groomed, and trimly dressed, with something of refinement and delicacy in ① his bearing. The streaming umbrella, which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told of the fierce weather through which ② he had come. He looked around anxiously in the glare of the lamp. Jack could see that his face was pale and ③ his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is weighed down with some great anxiety. “I owe you an apology. I fear that I have brought some traces of storm and rain into your room,” the man said, raising his golden glasses to ④ his eyes. Jack took the man’s coat and umbrella. “Your coat may rest here on the hook and will be dry shortly,” ⑤ he said.

If you increase people’s awareness of time—by placing a big clock in front of them—they do more stuff. Think about how much work you get done on the day before vacation. It makes sense that by getting more done, we’d feel more in control. More than that, it’s one of the great fantasies of time management: If you get more organized, you will get on top. However, that works only in a finite world. We haven’t lived in that world for quite a while. In our infinite world, we will never be able to get on top of everything. When we complete more tasks, more take their place—send more e-­mails, get more replies. If we do more as a result of better managing our time, we just become ___________.

*finite: 유한한, 제한된

With the invention of typography, spacing and punctuation solidified from gap and gesture to physical artifact. Punctuation marks, which were used differently from one scribe to another in the manuscript era, became part of the standardized, rule­-bound system of the printed page. The communications scholar Walter Ong has shown how printing converted the word into a visual object precisely located in space: “Alphabet letterpress printing, in which each letter was cast on a separate piece of metal, or type, marked a psychological breakthrough of the first order.... Writing moves words from the sound world to the world of visual space, but print ___________________________.” Typography made text into a thing, a material object with known dimensions and fixed locations.

*scribe: 필기사

Adolescents, adults, and old people all report that their worst experiences have taken place in solitude. Almost every activity is more enjoyable with another person around. People are more happy, alert, and cheerful if there are others present, compared to how they feel alone, whether they are working on an assembly line or watching television. But the most depressing condition is not that of working or watching TV alone; the worst moods are reported when _________________________________________. For people in our studies who live by themselves, Sunday mornings are the lowest part of the week, because with no demands on attention, they are unable to decide what to do. The rest of the week psychic energy is directed by external routines. But what is one to do Sunday morning after breakfast, after having browsed through the papers? For many, the lack of structure of those hours is devastating.

As essayist Nassim Taleb resolved to do something about the stubborn extra pounds he’d been carrying, he considered taking up various sports. However, joggers seemed skinny and unhappy, and tennis players? Oh, so upper­-middle­-class! Swimmers, though, appealed to him with their well­built, streamlined bodies. He decided to sign up at his local swimming pool. A short while later, he realized that he had been caught by an illusion. Professional swimmers don’t have perfect bodies because they train extensively. Rather, they are good swimmers because of their physiques. Similarly, female models advertise cosmetics and thus, many female consumers believe that these products make them beautiful. But it is not the cosmetics that make these women model-­like. Quite simply, the models are born attractive, and only for this reason are they candidates for cosmetics advertising. As with the swimmers’ bodies, beauty is ___________________________. Taleb calls the confusions like the cases above the swimmer’s body illusion.

Broad, open-­ended questions show your interest in the other person’s situation. They often start with “Tell me,” “how,” “who,” “what,” or “why.”

(A) Our computer salesperson might have a client who says, “I need more control over our order system.” He then builds on that response by asking a question using the most important words in the answer―control and order system.

(B) They are much more powerful than closed questions that require a simple answer such as “yes” or “no” or a specific piece of information. After the broad question opens the conversation and begins to build rapport, the artful questioner builds on the responses and increases his understanding of the information being transferred.

(C) For instance, he might ask, “What aspects of your order system would you like to have more control over?” or “Could you tell me more about your order system?” When the client responds, he builds his next question around the response to that question, and so on.

Cultures of honor tend to take root in highlands and other marginally fertile areas.

(A) So he has to be aggressive: he has to make it clear, through his words and deeds, that he is not weak. He has to be willing to fight in response to even the slightest challenge to his reputation―and that’s what a “culture of honor” means.

(B) If you live on some rocky mountainside, you can’t farm. You probably raise goats or sheep, and the kind of culture that grows up around being a herdsman is very different from the culture that grows up around growing crops. The survival of a farmer relies on the cooperation of others in the community.

(C) But a herdsman is off by himself. Farmers also don’t have to worry that their livelihood will be stolen in the night, because crops can’t easily be stolen. But a herdsman does have to worry. He’s under constant threat of ruin through the loss of his animals.

These clouds are very short-­lived, though, and they usually disappear within minutes after they are formed as their water droplets mix with drier air and evaporate.

Clouds are formed when moist air is carried upward by warm air currents rising from the earth’s surface during the day. ( ① ) When this air reaches high altitudes where the temperature and air pressure are lower than at the earth’s surface, the moisture comes out of the rising air and forms the water droplets we see as clouds. ( ② ) Thus, during the daytime, clouds are continually being formed and then evaporated. ( ③ ) At night, when the surface of the earth cools, the cloud-­producing process cuts off. ( ④ ) The existing clouds continue to evaporate, but they are not replaced by new ones. ( ⑤ ) The result: cloudless skies in the morning.

Furness was told one family’s fei had been lost at sea many years earlier while being transported from a nearby island during a storm.

If you’re frustrated by the market and you’re looking for a currency that can stand the test of time, look no further. In the Caroline Islands in the South Pacific, there’s an island named Yap (or Uap). ( ① ) In 1903 an American anthropologist named Henry Furness III visited the islanders and found they had an unusual system of currency. ( ② ) It consisted of carved stone wheels called fei, ranging in diameter from a foot to 12 feet. ( ③ ) Because the stones were heavy, the islanders didn’t normally carry their money around with them. ( ④ ) After a transaction the fei might remain on a previous owner’s land, but it was understood who owned what. ( ⑤ ) But that stone was still used as currency, even though it was unseen and irretrievable beneath hundreds of feet of water.

Once you have made a decision, you have to be able to live with it. Sometimes we make bad decisions that are irreversible. ① If you make a commitment in a negotiation, you have to uphold it, even if you know it was a bad decision on your part. ② You can always go back and ask to renegotiate a deal or issue, but you have to maintain your commitment if renegotiation is not possible or is unsuccessful. ③ If you break a commitment made in a negotiation, you can be sure that you will not get the opportunity to negotiate with that particular party again. ④ Acquiring the information you need to have a successful negotiation is a critical component of your overall effort. ⑤ Sometimes it is painful to fulfill a commitment, but it is more painful and can be fatal to lose business because you failed to fulfill a commitment.

National tragedies create what psychologists call “flashbulb” memories, named for the vivid images that we retain: where we were when we got the news, how we learned it, how we felt, what we did. These memories are thought to be unforgettable, and it is true that the broad outlines of such catastrophes, thoroughly reported in the media, are well remembered, but your memory of your personal circumstances surrounding the events may not necessarily be precise. There have been numerous studies of this phenomenon, including surveys of fifteen hundred Americans’ memories of the September 11 attacks. In this study, the respondents’ memories were surveyed a week after the attacks, again a year later, and then again three years and ten years later. Respondents’ most emotional memories of their personal details at the time they learned of the attacks are also those of which they are most confident and, paradoxically, the ones that have most changed over the years relative to other memories about 9/11.

____(A)____ in one’s memories of personal circumstances at the time one heard about national tragedies does not guarantee their ____(B)____.

Microsoft senior research fellow Malcolm Slaney and Cambridge University professor Jason Rentfrow advocated dispensing with physical copies of documents and mail, and all the filing, sorting, and locating that they entail. Computer-­based digital archives are more efficient in terms of storage space, and generally quicker in terms of retrieval.
But many of us still find something soothing and satisfying about handling physical objects. Memory is multidimensional, and our memories for objects are based on multiple attributes. Think back to your experience with file folders, the physical kind. You might have had an old beat-­up one that didn’t look like the others and that—quite apart from what was inside it or written on it—evoked your memories of what was in it. Physical objects tend to look different from one another in a way that computer files don’t. All bits are created equal. The same 0s and 1s on your computer that render junk mail also render the magnificent beauty of Mahler’s fifth symphony or Monet’s Water Lilies. In the medium itself, there is nothing that _________________. So much so that if you looked at the digital representation of any of these, you would not even know that those zeros and ones were representing images rather than text or music. Information has thus become separated from meaning.

Microsoft senior research fellow Malcolm Slaney and Cambridge University professor Jason Rentfrow advocated dispensing with physical copies of documents and mail, and all the filing, sorting, and locating that they entail. Computer-­based digital archives are more efficient in terms of storage space, and generally quicker in terms of retrieval.
But many of us still find something soothing and satisfying about handling physical objects. Memory is multidimensional, and our memories for objects are based on multiple attributes. Think back to your experience with file folders, the physical kind. You might have had an old beat-­up one that didn’t look like the others and that—quite apart from what was inside it or written on it—evoked your memories of what was in it. Physical objects tend to look different from one another in a way that computer files don’t. All bits are created equal. The same 0s and 1s on your computer that render junk mail also render the magnificent beauty of Mahler’s fifth symphony or Monet’s Water Lilies. In the medium itself, there is nothing that _________________. So much so that if you looked at the digital representation of any of these, you would not even know that those zeros and ones were representing images rather than text or music. Information has thus become separated from meaning.

(A)
Carol had picked out the flowers for her wedding bouquet in person, with thought for the meaning of each one. There were blue irises, white roses, and strands of green ivy. Midway through her wedding reception, (a) she found herself happy, chatting with friends and juggling a full champagne glass and her flowers. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see a woman she had met only briefly, a friend of her mother-­in-­law.

(B)
 “I have a wedding gift for you,” the woman said, and held out a small flowerpot crowded with leaves. Suddenly, Carol knew. “It’s the ivy you dropped at your wedding,” the woman explained. “I took it home and made a cutting and planted it for you.” Years ago, at her own wedding, someone had done the same for (b) her. “It’s still growing, and I remember my wedding day every time I see it,” she said. “Now, I try to plant some for other brides when I can.” Carol was speechless. All the weird thoughts she’d had, and what a beautiful gift she’d received!

(C)
 “Go ahead. Keep it,” (c) she said with a smile, and congratulated herself for being gracious in the face of a rather odd request. Then the music started up, and she danced off in the crowd. A few months later, the bell rang at (d) her new home. Carol opened the door to find that same stranger on her porch. This time, she couldn’t hide her surprise. Carol hadn’t seen her since the wedding. She thought,What was this all about?  

(D)
 In her hand, she held a tendril of ivy. “This fell out of your bouquet when you were on the dance floor,” she said. Carol thanked her and began to reach for it, when the woman added, “Do you mind if I keep it?” Carol was startled at first. She hadn’t even tossed her bouquet yet. And she barely knew this woman. She wondered, “What did she want with my ivy?” But then practicality kicked in. (e) She was leaving on her honeymoon in the morning and certainly wouldn’t take the bouquet along. She had no plans for preserving it.               

*tendril: (식물의) 덩굴손

(A)
Carol had picked out the flowers for her wedding bouquet in person, with thought for the meaning of each one. There were blue irises, white roses, and strands of green ivy. Midway through her wedding reception, (a) she found herself happy, chatting with friends and juggling a full champagne glass and her flowers. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see a woman she had met only briefly, a friend of her mother-­in-­law.

(B)
 “I have a wedding gift for you,” the woman said, and held out a small flowerpot crowded with leaves. Suddenly, Carol knew. “It’s the ivy you dropped at your wedding,” the woman explained. “I took it home and made a cutting and planted it for you.” Years ago, at her own wedding, someone had done the same for (b) her. “It’s still growing, and I remember my wedding day every time I see it,” she said. “Now, I try to plant some for other brides when I can.” Carol was speechless. All the weird thoughts she’d had, and what a beautiful gift she’d received!

(C)
 “Go ahead. Keep it,” (c) she said with a smile, and congratulated herself for being gracious in the face of a rather odd request. Then the music started up, and she danced off in the crowd. A few months later, the bell rang at (d) her new home. Carol opened the door to find that same stranger on her porch. This time, she couldn’t hide her surprise. Carol hadn’t seen her since the wedding. She thought,What was this all about?  

(D)
 In her hand, she held a tendril of ivy. “This fell out of your bouquet when you were on the dance floor,” she said. Carol thanked her and began to reach for it, when the woman added, “Do you mind if I keep it?” Carol was startled at first. She hadn’t even tossed her bouquet yet. And she barely knew this woman. She wondered, “What did she want with my ivy?” But then practicality kicked in. (e) She was leaving on her honeymoon in the morning and certainly wouldn’t take the bouquet along. She had no plans for preserving it.               

*tendril: (식물의) 덩굴손

(A)
Carol had picked out the flowers for her wedding bouquet in person, with thought for the meaning of each one. There were blue irises, white roses, and strands of green ivy. Midway through her wedding reception, (a) she found herself happy, chatting with friends and juggling a full champagne glass and her flowers. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see a woman she had met only briefly, a friend of her mother-­in-­law.

(B)
 “I have a wedding gift for you,” the woman said, and held out a small flowerpot crowded with leaves. Suddenly, Carol knew. “It’s the ivy you dropped at your wedding,” the woman explained. “I took it home and made a cutting and planted it for you.” Years ago, at her own wedding, someone had done the same for (b) her. “It’s still growing, and I remember my wedding day every time I see it,” she said. “Now, I try to plant some for other brides when I can.” Carol was speechless. All the weird thoughts she’d had, and what a beautiful gift she’d received!

(C)
 “Go ahead. Keep it,” (c) she said with a smile, and congratulated herself for being gracious in the face of a rather odd request. Then the music started up, and she danced off in the crowd. A few months later, the bell rang at (d) her new home. Carol opened the door to find that same stranger on her porch. This time, she couldn’t hide her surprise. Carol hadn’t seen her since the wedding. She thought,What was this all about?  

(D)
 In her hand, she held a tendril of ivy. “This fell out of your bouquet when you were on the dance floor,” she said. Carol thanked her and began to reach for it, when the woman added, “Do you mind if I keep it?” Carol was startled at first. She hadn’t even tossed her bouquet yet. And she barely knew this woman. She wondered, “What did she want with my ivy?” But then practicality kicked in. (e) She was leaving on her honeymoon in the morning and certainly wouldn’t take the bouquet along. She had no plans for preserving it.               

*tendril: (식물의) 덩굴손