A Brief History of World Commercial Fishing

From the picture we can see that it is very interesting and instructive. The upper part of the picture shows that there was only one fishing ship sailing in the sea in 1900, while in the water there were large number of fish which were swimming freely. In contrast, the lower part of the picture displays a relatively discouraging scene. In 1995, many fishing boats were busy fishing in the sea. Unfortunately, there were few fish left.

The purpose for drawing the picture is to tell people that the ecological balance was destroyed by human beings, the so-called rulers of the earth. To meet the human beings' consumption needs, a large number of fish were caught and killed at random. Human society developed and survived at the expense of other animal species including fish. After 95 years' catching and killing, there were very few fish left in the sea, which is indeed a tragedy.

Now it is high time for human beings to take measures to protect the ecological environment so that human beings themselves can maintain a decent life. In order to achieve this goal, laws should be passed to prohibit human beings from indiscriminately killing other animal species. On the other hand, governments should educate the people to enhance their consciousness of environmental protection. It is very urgent to let people understand that there is only one earth and they have to share this planet in harmony with other life forms.

Rich Foreigners: Why They All Love London

There are many reasons why London is an attractive place in which to live and to do international business: the time zone, English, the shops, the theatre—and the taxes. A loophole1 in Britain's law allows many foreigners to aroid paying tax on income generated outside Britain or on the disposal of foreign assets.

In most countries, a foreign resident's "domicile2" (home country) status is determined by objective criteria. In Britain, it's largely up to the foreigner. So a Greek ship-owner who has lived in Britain for years but says that he intends to move back to Athens vhen circumstances permit is treated differently from one who says le intends to settle in Britain.''

This rule helps explain why so many rich foreigners choose to ive in a city with such rotten weather and congested1 roads. At cast 60,000 are reckoned to benefit from the loophole; and their considerable investments in the better streets of Belgravia, Mayfair and Hampstead' have injected1' many millions into the top end of le property market. If they pulled out, nasty7 things could hap-en to the price of penthouses8. So there has been considerable arm in moneyed circles since Gordon Brown declared that he was Ding to review the rules in last April's budget. The review is exacted this year.

It is easy to understand why a Labour chancellor9 would want i close a loophole that turns Britain into a tax haven10 for rich forgners. And it isn't just politicians who disapprove. "Every tax system treats temporary residents differently. What is ridiculous i bout this system is this archaic" . subjective' rule about domicile, says Edward Troup of Simmons 8-. Simmons, a City law firm-'.

But there are worries that if the government removes this ta loophole, London will suffer. The change will affect not just rich shipping magnates1'' but foreign staff working for London's international banks. "Whenever governments have looked al this in the past 20 years, they have concluded that the balance of advantage was in favour of leaving the rules as they are." says John Batter? by, a tax partner at KPMG. "There isn’t any easy money for the government because a lot of the people are internationally mobile and won I stay.

So far, the Treasury1' appears inclined to caution. In the Novembers prejudged report, it stressed the need to balance at fairness with the ability to attract skilled labour. Bui rich foreigners are keeping a close eye on the promised review.

My Trip on Foot

Somewhere up in the high forests between England and Wales I had been walking for hours and, not for the first time, I had lost my way. All tracks seemed to lead west when it was clear from map and compass that I should be heading north. Down in the valley an old man explained in elaborate detail how I'd strayed miles off course. In any case, he said, there wasn't much worth seeing even had I got to where I mended to spend the night. A thoroughly dispiriting old man, from time to time you meet them. I thanked him and began to move off.

But he wasn't to be put off that easily and asked me where I had come from. When 1 told him I had walked all the way from Cornwall he shook his head sadly and said: "Then all I can say is it's a pity you couldn't be doing something useful. "

You can't win. ' (k> to deserted parts of Africa and walk around some lake or other and people say you were darned lucky to get the chance. It looks like an exotic stunt. They reckon it's just a matter of being able to raise the cash. Some point out you could have hired a Land-Rover instead of camels and got there in a tenth of the time.

If, on the other hand, you decide, as I did, to walk across your own native land they tell you it's been done many times before. Men have set off on foot, on bicycles, on tricycles. Somebody has even pushed a pram from one end of the country to the other. But all that, of course, was done on the roads I tried to avoid.

For me the question wasn't whether it could be done, but whether I could do it, I'm fifty. I'm interested in biology and pre-history. They are, in fact, my business. For years I've had the nation of getting the feel of the country in one brisk walk; mountains and moorlands, downlands and dales. Thick as it is with history^ and scenic contrast, Britain is just small enough to be walked • across in springtime. It seemed an attractive idea. There was a challenge in the prospect. But to see the best of what's left I knew I should have to set off pretty soon. Each year the country in every sense of the word gets a bit smaller.2 Already there are caravans in some of the most improbable places. IJ3ng-distance walkers are becoming rare. You can regard what follows as the reminiscences of one of the last.

I set off with the intention of avoiding all roads. I meant to keep to cross-country tracks and footpaths all the way. In places this turned out to be practically impossible for notwithstanding3 what's been written about the ancient by-ways, many of them are : now hopelessly overgrown; others have been enclosed, ploughed up, or deliberately obstructed in one way or another. But I tried to keep to out-of-the-way places, especially the highlands and moors.

As for trappings, I carried the basic minimum, including a tent that eliminated the need to look for lodgings at nightfall. This gives you a comforting sense of independence. I don't mean I'm overfond of the Spartan life; certainly not for its own sake, and if I ; found a pub or hotel at dusk, I went in, gratefully. But I had no need to rely on static shelter.

Business Highlights

1. The Company is engaged in brewing sector of light industry. Brewing industry has a long history but is full of vitality. Alcoholic drink is still indispensable product in the traditional consumption of Chinese people. With the consumption trend of recent years, high quality and low alcohol content products will be the development orientation of the white spirit industry in China.

Soft cooking wine, nourishing drink as well as fruit drink will also cover part of the market share.

At present, the white spirit product market is in the status of supply'exceeding demand on overall basis and the competition is more and more intensive. Main showing of the white spirit industrial competition is the low concentration rate of market covering. Relevant national authorities decide to support a batch of famous and high-quality white spirit products, on the basis of controlling gross turnover and encourage large enterprises and groups with well-known brand to conduct association and merging activities across regions and the sector.

LQ distillery enjoys Chinese famous brand and accounts as one of the Eight Great Traditional Distillery. In recent years, the Company maintained a long-lasting progress in the operation achievements through advanced and experienced management and overall marketing system. Popularity and prestige of the Company's brand achieved great improvement, ranking top in the white spirit industry. Recently, while the Company placing major emphasis on the production and sales of the white spirit and affirming the profit from white spirit, the Company also hope to cultivate new economic growing point by trying hi-tech industry; to expedite the Company's industry transforming by investing or shareholding projects or enterprises with high technology factors.

Telecommunications Satellite Spins Out of Control

People in most countries depend on communications technology more than ever before. One day in May, an accident forced millions of Americans to be silent. They had to live and work without the technology they depend on every day.

A telecommunications satellite experienced computer failure. The satellite known as Galaxy Four moved from its correct orbit and was unable to receive signals from the Earth, A back-up computer failed to turn on, and the satellite began to spin out of control.

Galaxy Four was launched in 1993. It cost two hundred fifty million dollars. The failed satellite is almost three meters wide. It has devices on each side that are fifteen meters long to gather energy from the sun. ' It weighs about one thousand seven hundred kilograms. Galaxy Four provided a major link for millions of pagers, credit card operations, company communications systems, and home satellite equipment. The satellite also was used to send television and radio broadcasts.

Galaxy Four is owned by PanAmSat of Greenwich, Connecticut. Officials at PanAmSat tried to repair the satellite. They say hey do not know how and why the satellite failed. They say the Satellite cannot be fixed. Experts say it is possible something in space crashed into it. 2

The telecommunications satellite failure created big problems or many companies; at least eight of the nation's ten biggest paing companies depend on Galaxy Four. A pager3 is an electronic evice that receives telephone messages. The small device can be worn by a person. The pager makes a beeping sound when it receives a telephone message. Ninety percent of the nation's forty-five million B-P lost service when Galaxy Four failed. Paging copanies were unable to provide services to police departments, doctors, and other individuals. Some customers included patients waiting for replacement organs such as a liver, kidney or lung.

The satellite failure affected many television and radio broadcast. Thousands of computer users were unable to use the Internet.

A nearby satellite called Galaxy Six has replaced the Galaxy

Four satellite. Signals for broadcasting companies are being sent through Galaxy Six. Another Satellite, Galaxy Three R. is replacing Galaxy Four for paging and other signals. Technical experts had to move each person's satellite1 equipment, to point to Galaxy Three-R. Each move takes about thirty minutes. Technicians say the moves must lie exact to within less than a centimeter.

They were able to restore service to most customers within a few days.

It's human to hate the status quo

The poor are planning to become better-off. The better-off are trying to become truly rich. And every young man promises to his parents or lover that he'll "make it. " We are, in fact, generally looking forward to something different or new, by making a change in everything as it is.

Innovation and new ideas are intended to make just such change, and are therefore "welcome" to most of us. When they are proposed, everyone will be secretly wondering; "Can I benefit from them?" When they are proposed to make a change in the make-up of the government, for example, people all over the country, millions upon millions of them, with the exception of a few government people, get excited at the change to be had. In all such cases, new ideas are regarded as the mother of change, and the very mention of a change causes people to become hopeful about "something. "

The question is: Will they get that "something?"

The cruel fact is, any change, from the making of a new nation to the reorganization of the old government , will result in the satisfaction of some people and the disappointment of many others. It is now history that, when "new ideas" about changes were put forward in the British Kingdom several centuries ago, they were welcome to most of the British people. Then many people changed their mind. It is not that these new ideas became less good; it is that more and more people resented the way they were put into practice. Take for example the new idea about redistributing political power. It was soon clear that the power was not redistributed into the hands of all those who had been hopeful about it; it fell into the hands of a fraction of them, who were later called the bourgeois. And the resentment of so many people—the peasants and later the working class people, especially— was to cause new, worse social problems, but, more importantly, to give birth to other new ideas.

For these people, however, instead of blaming new ideas, they start to think of or even design new ways to make a further change. And ideas about such new ways are in turn recognized as "innovation" and "new ideas," which are found "easy" to welcome and accept by most people. And these newly recongnized new ideas are, often, intended to do the "old" business. In fact, throughout the many centuries, society seems to have concerned itself about only a small number of businesses, among which the distributing and sharing of property and power are the most vital. And the many changes, from great "revolutions" to the routine reformations, are but instances of how people try to put new ideas into practice using new ways. In this sense, the working class revolution was based on innovation and new ideas that were essentially new ways of putting into practice the new ideas for the bourgeois revolution. And in all the peasant, bourgeois, and working class revolutions, people were minding the same, old business of seizing property and power from formerly prevailing classes. Thus society gets its never-ending innovation and new ideas to be found easy to welcome, and ways of putting them into practice found but most people difficult to accept.

And, if a conclusion is to be had, it is this: since we are so "human," we can not but be interest-minded, and therefore will never stop arguing about new ideas and the way they are put into practice, which are always interest-oriented.

At a Meeting

A meeting is in session. The speaker's talk has lasted for two hours, and it is unlikely that he intends to finish it. The audience has got so bored that they can't listen to the talk attentively. Some people begin chatting in lower voices. A lady starts to draw a portrait of the speaker. A stout man on her right can not help dozing off, while his neighbor, a thin man, is on his alert watching a mosquito flying around him.

All of a sudden the stout man is woken from his sweet dream by the sound of a clap, which has come from the thin man while killing the mosquito. In his confusion the stout man thinks the talk is over and everyone is applauding the speakers so he hurries to clap as loud as he can to show how he appreciates the talk. His clapping surprises everyone. The audience all turns to stare at him. Have you ever seen such a scene in your life?

Squirrel

Everybody likes the cute animal — squirrel. I've grown up with some squirrels around my house. I can tell a lot of stories about them. Here is a story about a squirrel.

The squirrel had a furry gray coat and lived in the woods. It worked hard to get food to eat. All summer the squirrel looked for nuts and acorns. It put the nuts and acorns on the ground under a pine tree. Then it covered them up with leaves. Now the squirrel would have nuts and acorns to eat when winter came.

One morning the squirrel came back to the tree with a nut in its mouth. It saw a big dog was digging in the ground under the pine tree. The dog was looking for something and it pushed the leaves all around , and then ran away.

The squirrel looked for the nuts and acorns. It looked and looked. But ere not there. Its food for winter was gone. What would it do? It had to load for more nuts and acorns. And it had to find a safe place for them,squirrel ran up a tree on which it stopped and looked around. It was for a place to hide the nuts and acorns. The squirrel jumped to another tree which was an oak tree. The squirrel stopped to rest. Then it saw something, J

It was a hole in the big oak tree. The squirrel looked into the hole. It was dark in there. What a good place to hide food! The squirrel put down the nut it had in its mouth. Then it ran to look for more nuts and acorns. The squirm brought more food. It hid the food in the hole in the tree. Soon it had many nuts and acorns in the hole. It slept there, too.

One morning the squirrel woke up. It put its head out of the hole all looked around. It was snowing. Now the squirrel could find no more nuts.' ';

Winter had come. It was very cold. But the squirrel was ready for winter. It had many nuts and acorns to eat. And it was safe and warm in its home in the big oak tree.

Shaking hands in Germany

In Germany shaking hands is an accepted and expected greeting ritual; however. Germans seldom embrace. Hugging, even among family members, is rarer than it is in France and in Latin cultures. The handshake establishes touch, but at arm's length, whereas an embrace represents too much invasion of the personal bubble.

The Maori of New Zealand, in contrast, expect touching as part of the greeting ritual. Maori businesspeople may feel left out of business meetings if the traditional greeting, the hongi, or pressing of noses, and the kamnga, or formal cry of welcome, are not performed. They serve a similar function to handshaking in German society, setting everyone at ease. It would be unthinkable for a Maori function not to begin with both hongi and karanga, however many non-Maori are present.

People from low-context cultures tend to feel crowded by people from high-context cultures, and people from high-context cultures feel left out and rejected by people from low-context cultures. People come with certain expectations that frame their behavior. and when those expectations are not met, they feel confused, resentful, or excluded. All people from all cultures bring their unique cultural baggage with them. However, as people learn more about another culture, they adjust their expectations. They become more sophisticated and adjust their behavior according to the context and their degree of awareness of that context.

A Bolivian and a Dutchman who meet for the first time to do business both will be dissatisfied unless they understand each other's touching behavior. The Bolivian comes from a culture that is close, where people touch each other frequently while speaking.He will approach his Dutch counterpart with this background and act accordingly. The Dutchman comes from a much more reserved culture where people are more distant and cold. He too will bring his background to the meeting and act accordingly. If they want to work together, they need to come to terms with these differences.

How do we know what the "right" distance is and what acceptable touch is? As in childhood, we learn by observation in individual situations. Books can help, but lists of dos and don'ts, while providing some initial guidelines, do not give the underlying reasons for individual differences, variations, and changes.

Touching behavior can and does change as people adapt to new cultural environments. Sometimes they very consciously decide to change to fit in. When Vittorio Sanchez goes to Chicago on business, he refrains from touching the businessmen he meets because he knows that businesspeople in the United States touch each other less frequently than Latins do. In other cases the adaptation occurs more at the intuitive level, at which people are not necessarily consciously aware of changes in their touching behavior. Urs Luder, a businessman from Switzerland, has noticed that his past few visits to Abu Dhabi have been much more pleasant. He is not as tense and nervous as before, and the atmosphere is more relaxed. His hosts seem more pleasant. What Urs may not be aware of is that his nonverbal behavior has changed. He does not avoid being touched by the people he talks to, and he approaches people more openly and feels comfortable putting his hand on someone's arm.

If we understand that touching is natural to some cultures, we will be less offended if someone touches us. By the same token, if the other person knows that we need our space, he or she will allow us more room and breathing space.

Above all, we need to keep things in perspective and not get offended each time we deal with someone who has a different relationship to space. Men in Africa hold hands with other men while walking down the street. Men in the Middle East kiss the cheeks of other men in greeting. Russian men embrace in a bear hug. Doing business with people from other cultures may mean setting aside ideas about touching learned in one's culture. During a television interview the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, in the excitement of the discussion, slapped the former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, on the knee. Most people think of Mrs. Thatcher as properly British and fairly distant, but she was not offended. She correctly interpreted the gesture as acceptable in the Egyptian culture.

Automobiles

Automobiles, as the product of modern civilization, have been playing a vital part in the daily activities of human society. First of all, cars offer convenience and mobility. We can now drive to work, go shopping, visit friends, and even travel across the country. Fast and labor saving, automobiles have become so essential and indispensable to us that it is no exaggeration to say that our modern society is moving on four wheels.

But automobiles have also given rise to a series of problems. Pollution, traffic accidents, and energy consumption, to name just a few, are following in the wake of automobiles. However, these problems are offset by the advantages derived from auto development.

Obviously, automobiles, like anything else, have more than one face. While taking advantage of automobiles, we must try to find ways to reduce their disadvantages to a minimum so as to let them serve our purposes better. With the popularization of cars in our country, the era of the automobile, like any other technological age, will come.