Man:

Woman:

Kate:

Dear Custard Valley Park members,

Custard Valley Park’s grand reopening event will be held on June 1st. For this exciting occasion, we are offering free admission to all visitors on the reopening day. There will be a food stand selling ice cream and snacks. We would like to invite you, our valued members, to celebrate this event. Please come and explore the park’s new features such as tennis courts and a flower garden. Just relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery. We are confident that you will love the new changes, and we are looking forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely,

While the mechanic worked on her car, Jennifer walked back and forth in the waiting room. She was deeply concerned about how much it was going to cost to get her car fixed. Her car’s engine had started making noises and kept losing power that morning, and she had heard that replacing an engine could be very expensive. After a few minutes, the mechanic came back into the waiting room. “I’ve got some good news. It was just a dirty spark plug. I already wiped it clean and your car is as good as new.” He handed her the bill and when she checked it, the overall cost of repairs came to less than ten dollars. That was far less than she had expected and she felt at ease, knowing she could easily afford it.

Certain hindrances to multifaceted creative activity may lie in premature specialization, i.e., having to choose the direction of education or to focus on developing one ability too early in life. However, development of creative ability in one domain may enhance effectiveness in other domains that require similar skills, and flexible switching between generality and specificity is helpful to productivity in many domains. Excessive specificity may result in information from outside the domain being underestimated and unavailable, which leads to fixedness of thinking, whereas excessive generality causes chaos, vagueness, and shallowness. Both tendencies pose a threat to the transfer of knowledge and skills between domains. What should therefore be optimal for the development of cross-domain creativity is support for young people in taking up creative challenges in a specific domain and coupling it with encouragement to apply knowledge and skills in, as well as from, other domains, disciplines, and tasks.

Lawyers sometimes describe ownership as a bundle of sticks. This metaphor was introduced about a century ago, and it has dramatically transformed the teaching and practice of law. The metaphor is useful because it helps us see ownership as a grouping of interpersonal rights that can be separated and put back together. When you say It’s mine in reference to a resource, often that means you own a lot of the sticks that make up the full bundle: the sell stick, the rent stick, the right to mortgage, license, give away, even destroy the thing. Often, though, we split the sticks up, as for a piece of land: there may be a landowner, a bank with a mortgage, a tenant with a lease, a plumber with a license to enter the land, an oil company with mineral rights. Each of these parties owns a stick in the bundle.

When it comes to the Internet, it just pays to be a little paranoid (but not a lot). Given the level of anonymity with all that resides on the Internet, it’s sensible to question the validity of any data that you may receive. Typically it’s to our natural instinct when we meet someone coming down a sidewalk to place yourself in some manner of protective position, especially when they introduce themselves as having known you, much to your surprise. By design, we set up challenges in which the individual must validate how they know us by presenting scenarios, names or acquaintances, or evidence by which to validate (that is, photographs). Once we have received that information and it has gone through a cognitive validation, we accept that person as more trustworthy. All this happens in a matter of minutes but is a natural defense mechanism that we perform in the real world. However, in the virtual world, we have a tendency to be less defensive, as there appears to be no physical threat to our well-being.

There are pressures within the museum that cause it to emphasise what happens in the galleries over the activities that take place in its unseen zones. In an era when museums are forced to increase their earnings, they often focus their energies on modernising their galleries or mounting temporary exhibitions to bring more and more audiences through the door. In other words, as museums struggle to survive in a competitive economy, their budgets often prioritise those parts of themselves that are consumable: infotainment in the galleries, goods and services in the cafes and the shops. The unlit, unglamorous storerooms, if they are ever discussed, are at best presented as service areas that process objects for the exhibition halls. And at worst, as museums pour more and more resources into their publicly visible faces, the spaces of storage may even suffer, their modernisation being kept on hold or being given less and less space to house the expanding collections and serve their complex conservation needs.

Hyper-mobility ― the notion that more travel at faster speeds covering longer distances generates greater economic success ― seems to be a distinguishing feature of urban areas, where more than half of the world’s population currently reside. By 2005, approximately 7.5 billion trips were made each day in cities worldwide. In 2050, there may be three to four times as many passenger-kilometres travelled as in the year 2000, infrastructure and energy prices permitting. Freight movement could also rise more than threefold during the same period. Mobility flows have become a key dynamic of urbanization, with the associated infrastructure invariably constituting the backbone of urban form. Yet, despite the increasing level of urban mobility worldwide, access to places, activities and services has become increasingly difficult. Not only is it less convenient ― in terms of time, cost and comfort ― to access locations in cities, but the very process of moving around in cities generates a number of negative externalities. Accordingly, many of the world’s cities face an unprecedented accessibility crisis, and are characterized by unsustainable mobility systems.

The above graph shows the share of the EU-28 population participating in tourism in 2017 by age group and destination category. ① The share of people in the No Trips category was over 30% in each of the five age groups. ② The percentage of people in the Outbound Trips Only category was higher in the 25—34 age group than in the 35—44 age group. ③ In the 35—44 age group, the percentage of people in the Domestic Trips Only category was 34.2%. ④ The percentage of people in the Domestic & Outbound Trips category was lower in the 45—54 age group than in the 55—64 age group. ⑤ In the 65 or over age group, the percentage of people in the No Trips category was more than 50%.

Jean Renoir (1894—1979), a French film director, was born in Paris, France. He was the son of the famous painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He and the rest of the Renoir family were the models of many of his father’s paintings. At the outbreak of World War I, Jean Renoir was serving in the French army but was wounded in the leg. In 1937, he made La Grande Illusion, one of his better-known films. It was enormously successful but was not allowed to show in Germany. During World War II, when the Nazis invaded France in 1940, he went to Hollywood in the United States and continued his career there. He was awarded numerous honors and awards throughout his career, including the Academy Honorary Award in 1975 for his lifetime achievements in the film industry. Overall, Jean Renoir’s influence as a film-maker and artist endures.

Consider The Wizard of Oz as a psychological study of motivation. Dorothy and her three friends work hard to get to the Emerald City, overcoming barriers, persisting against all adversaries. They do so because they expect the Wizard to give ① them what they are missing. Instead, the wonderful (and wise) Wizard makes them aware that they, not he, always had the power ② to fulfill their wishes. For Dorothy, home is not a place but a feeling of security, of comfort with people she loves; it is wherever her heart is. The courage the Lion wants, the intelligence the Scarecrow longs for, and the emotions the Tin Man dreams of ③ being attributes they already possess. They need to think about these attributes not as internal conditions but as positive ways ④ in which they are already relating to others. After all, didn’t they demonstrate those qualities on the journey to Oz, a journey ⑤ motivated by little more than an expectation, an idea about the future likelihood of getting something they wanted?

To the extent that an agent relies on the prior knowledge of its designer rather than on its own percepts, we say that the agent lacks autonomy. A rational agent should be autonomous ― it should learn what it can to (A) compensate / prepare for partial or incorrect prior knowledge. For example, a vacuum-cleaning agent that learns to foresee where and when additional dirt will appear will do better than one that does not. As a practical matter, one seldom requires complete autonomy from the start: when the agent has had little or no experience, it would have to act (B) purposefully / randomly unless the designer gave some assistance. So, just as evolution provides animals with enough built-in reflexes to survive long enough to learn for themselves, it would be reasonable to provide an artificial intelligent agent with some initial knowledge as well as an ability to learn. After sufficient experience of its environment, the behavior of a rational agent can become effectively (C) independent / protective of its prior knowledge. Hence, the incorporation of learning allows one to design a single rational agent that will succeed in a vast variety of environments.

People have always needed to eat, and they always will. Rising emphasis on self-expression values does not put an end to material desires. But prevailing economic orientations are gradually being reshaped. People who work in the knowledge sector continue to seek high salaries, but they place equal or greater emphasis on doing stimulating work and being able to follow their own time schedules. Consumption is becoming progressively less determined by the need for sustenance and the practical use of the goods consumed. People still eat, but a growing component of food’s value is determined by its _________ aspects. People pay a premium to eat exotic cuisines that provide an interesting experience or that symbolize a distinctive life-style. The publics of postindustrial societies place growing emphasis on “political consumerism,” such as boycotting goods whose production violates ecological or ethical standards. Consumption is less and less a matter of sustenance and more and more a question of life-style ― and choice.

In labor-sharing groups, people contribute labor to other people on a regular basis (for seasonal agricultural work such as harvesting) or on an irregular basis (in the event of a crisis such as the need to rebuild a barn damaged by fire). Labor sharing groups are part of what has been called a “moral economy” since no one keeps formal records on how much any family puts in or takes out. Instead, accounting is __________. The group has a sense of moral community based on years of trust and sharing. In a certain community of North America, labor sharing is a major economic factor of social cohesion. When a family needs a new barn or faces repair work that requires group labor, a barn-raising party is called. Many families show up to help. Adult men provide manual labor, and adult women provide food for the event. Later, when another family needs help, they call on the same people.

Whatever their differences, scientists and artists begin with the same question: can you and I see the same thing the same way? If so, how? The scientific thinker looks for features of the thing that can be stripped of subjectivity ― ideally, those aspects that can be quantified and whose values will thus never change from one observer to the next. In this way, he arrives at a reality independent of all observers. The artist, on the other hand, relies on the strength of her artistry to effect a marriage between her own subjectivity and that of her readers. To a scientific thinker, this must sound like magical thinking: you’re saying you will imagine something so hard it’ll pop into someone else’s head exactly the way you envision it? The artist has sought the opposite of the scientist’s observer-independent reality. She creates a reality dependent upon observers, indeed a reality in which ____________________ in order for it to exist at all.

One of the common themes of the Western philosophical tradition is the distinction between sensual perceptions and rational knowledge. Since Plato, the supremacy of rational reason is based on the assertion that it is able to extract true knowledge from experience. As the discussion in the Republic helps to explain, perceptions are inherently unreliable and misleading because the senses are subject to errors and illusions. Only the rational discourse has the tools to overcome illusions and to point towards true knowledge. For instance, perception suggests that a figure in the distance is smaller than it really is. Yet, the application of logical reasoning will reveal that the figure only appears small because it obeys the laws of geometrical perspective. Nevertheless, even after the perspectival correction is applied and reason concludes that perception is misleading, the figure still appears small, and the truth of the matter is revealed _____________________.

Interestingly, experts do not suffer as much as beginners when performing complex tasks or combining multiple tasks. Because experts have extensive practice within a limited domain, the key component skills in their domain tend to be highly practiced and more automated. ① Each of these highly practiced skills then demands relatively few cognitive resources, effectively lowering the total cognitive load that experts experience. ② Thus, experts can perform complex tasks and combine multiple tasks relatively easily. ③ Furthermore, beginners are excellent at processing the tasks when the tasks are divided and isolated. ④ This is not because they necessarily have more cognitive resources than beginners; rather, because of the high level of fluency they have achieved in performing key skills, they can do more with what they have. ⑤ Beginners, on the other hand, have not achieved the same degree of fluency and automaticity in each of the component skills, and thus they struggle to combine skills that experts combine with relative ease and efficiency.

The growing complexity of computer software has direct implications for our global safety and security, particularly as the physical objects upon which we depend ― things like cars, airplanes, bridges, tunnels, and implantable medical devices ― transform themselves into computer code.

Darwin saw blushing as uniquely human, representing an involuntary physical reaction caused by embarrassment and self-consciousness in a social environment.

As particular practices are repeated over time and become more widely shared, the values that they embody are reinforced and reproduced and we speak of them as becoming ‘institutionalized’. ( ① ) In some cases, this institutionalization has a formal face to it, with rules and protocols written down, and specialized roles created to ensure that procedures are followed correctly. ( ② ) The main institutions of state ― parliament, courts, police and so on ― along with certain of the professions, exhibit this formal character. ( ③ ) Other social institutions, perhaps the majority, are not like this; science is an example. ( ④ ) Although scientists are trained in the substantive content of their discipline, they are not formally instructed in ‘how to be a good scientist’. ( ⑤ ) We think that these values, along with the values that inform many of the professions, are under threat, just as the value of the professions themselves is under threat.

When trees grow together, nutrients and water can be optimally divided among them all so that each tree can grow into the best tree it can be. If you “help” individual trees by getting rid of their supposed competition, the remaining trees are bereft. They send messages out to their neighbors unsuccessfully, because nothing remains but stumps. Every tree now grows on its own, giving rise to great differences in productivity. ( ① ) Some individuals photosynthesize like mad until sugar positively bubbles along their trunk. ( ② ) This is because a tree can be only as strong as the forest that surrounds it. ( ③ ) And there are now a lot of losers in the forest. ( ④ ) Weaker members, who would once have been supported by the stronger ones, suddenly fall behind. ( ⑤ ) Whether the reason for their decline is their location and lack of nutrients, a passing sickness, or genetic makeup, they now fall prey to insects and fungi.

The evolutionary process works on the genetic variation that is available. It follows that natural selection is unlikely to lead to the evolution of perfect, ‘maximally fit’ individuals. Rather, organisms come to match their environments by being ‘the fittest available’ or ‘the fittest yet’: they are not ‘the best imaginable’. Part of the lack of fit arises because the present properties of an organism have not all originated in an environment similar in every respect to the one in which it now lives. Over the course of its evolutionary history, an organism’s remote ancestors may have evolved a set of characteristics ― evolutionary ‘baggage’ ― that subsequently constrain future evolution. For many millions of years, the evolution of vertebrates has been limited to what can be achieved by organisms with a vertebral column. Moreover, much of what we now see as precise matches between an organism and its environment may equally be seen as constraints: koala bears live successfully on Eucalyptus foliage, but, from another perspective, koala bears cannot live without Eucalyptus foliage.

Many negotiators assume that all negotiations involve a fixed pie. Negotiators often approach integrative negotiation opportunities as zero-sum situations or win-lose exchanges. Those who believe in the mythical fixed pie assume that parties’ interests stand in opposition, with no possibility for integrative settlements and mutually beneficial trade-offs, so they (a) suppress efforts to search for them. In a hiring negotiation, a job applicant who assumes that salary is the only issue may insist on $75,000 when the employer is offering $70,000. Only when the two parties discuss the possibilities further do they discover that moving expenses and starting date can also be negotiated, which may (b) block resolution of the salary issue.

The tendency to see negotiation in fixed-pie terms (c) varies depending on how people view the nature of a given conflict situation. This was shown in a clever experiment by Harinck, de Dreu, and Van Vianen involving a simulated negotiation between prosecutors and defense lawyers over jail sentences. Some participants were told to view their goals in terms of personal gain (e.g., arranging a particular jail sentence will help your career), others were told to view their goals in terms of effectiveness (a particular sentence is most likely to prevent recidivism), and still others were told to focus on values (a particular jail sentence is fair and just). Negotiators focusing on personal gain were most likely to come under the influence of fixed-pie beliefs and approach the situation (d) competitively. Negotiators focusing on values were least likely to see the problem in fixed-pie terms and more inclined to approach the situation cooperatively. Stressful conditions such as time constraints contribute to this common misperception, which in turn may lead to (e) less integrative agreements.

Many negotiators assume that all negotiations involve a fixed pie. Negotiators often approach integrative negotiation opportunities as zero-sum situations or win-lose exchanges. Those who believe in the mythical fixed pie assume that parties’ interests stand in opposition, with no possibility for integrative settlements and mutually beneficial trade-offs, so they (a) suppress efforts to search for them. In a hiring negotiation, a job applicant who assumes that salary is the only issue may insist on $75,000 when the employer is offering $70,000. Only when the two parties discuss the possibilities further do they discover that moving expenses and starting date can also be negotiated, which may (b) block resolution of the salary issue.

The tendency to see negotiation in fixed-pie terms (c) varies depending on how people view the nature of a given conflict situation. This was shown in a clever experiment by Harinck, de Dreu, and Van Vianen involving a simulated negotiation between prosecutors and defense lawyers over jail sentences. Some participants were told to view their goals in terms of personal gain (e.g., arranging a particular jail sentence will help your career), others were told to view their goals in terms of effectiveness (a particular sentence is most likely to prevent recidivism), and still others were told to focus on values (a particular jail sentence is fair and just). Negotiators focusing on personal gain were most likely to come under the influence of fixed-pie beliefs and approach the situation (d) competitively. Negotiators focusing on values were least likely to see the problem in fixed-pie terms and more inclined to approach the situation cooperatively. Stressful conditions such as time constraints contribute to this common misperception, which in turn may lead to (e) less integrative agreements.

(A)

(A)

(A)