up like a volcanopreparing to explode, ultimately resulting in physical violence.
Some colleges have resortedto \attending a seminar on roommate relations.
Students detail behavioral guidelines for their room, including acceptable hours for study and sleep, a policy for use of each other's possessions and how messages will be handled.
Although the contracts are not binding and will never go to a jury, copies are given to the floor's residential adviser in case conflicts later arise.
\about,\
Some schools try to head off feudingbefore it begins by using computerizedmatching, a process that neverthelessremains more of a guessing game than a science.
Students are put together on the basis of their responses to housing form questions about smoking tolerance, preferred hours of study and sleep, and self-described tendencies toward tidiness or disorder.
Parents sometimes weaken the process by taking the forms and filling in false and wishful data about their children's habits, especially on the smoking question.
The matching process is also complicatedby a philosophical debate among housing managers concerning the flavor of university life: \—or different, so they can learn about each other?\
A cartoon sums up the way many students feel the process works: Surrounded by a mass of papers, a housing worker picks up two selectionforms and exclaims, \they're perfect together!\
Alan Sussman, a second-year student, says, \think they must have known each of our personalities and picked the opposite,\
While Sussman was neat and serious about studying, his roommate was messyand liked to party into the early hours of the morning.
\ Another time, I arrived to find him chewingon the last of a batchof chocolate chipcookiesmy mother had sent me.
People in the hall were putting up bets as to when we were going to start slappingeach other around,\
Against all odds, the two ended up being friends.
Says Sussman: \—but I would never do it again.\
Unit_passage_english_a
Students taking business courses are sometimes a little surprised to find that classes on business ethicshave been included in their schedule.
They often do not realize that briberyin various forms is on the increase in many countries and, in some, has been a way of life for centuries.
Suppose that during a negotiation with some government officials, the Minister of Trade makes it clear to you that if you offer him a substantial bribe, you will find it much easier to get an import
license for your goods, and you are also likely to avoid \ Now, the question is: Do you pay up or stand by your principles?
It is easy to talk about having high moral standards but, in practice, what would one really do in such a situation?
Some time ago a British car manufacturer was accused of operating a fund to pay bribes, and of other questionable practices such as paying agents and purchasers an exaggerated commission, offering additional discounts, and making payments to numbered bank accounts in Switzerland. The company rejected these charges and they were later withdrawn.
Nevertheless, at that time, there were people in the motor industry in Britain who were prepared to say in private: \
Every year we're selling more than a ￡billion worth of cars abroad.
If we spend a few million pounds to keep some of the buyers happy, who's hurt? If we didn't do it, someone else would.\
It is difficult to resist the impression that bribery and other questionable payments are on the increase.
Indeed, they seem to have become a fact of commercial life.
To take just one example, the Chrysler Corporation, the third largest of the US car manufacturers, revealed that it made questionable payments of more than $. million between and .
By announcing this, it joined more than other US companies that had admitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that they had made payments of one kind or another—bribes, extra discounts, etc.—in recent years.
For discussion purposes, we can divide these payments into three broad categories.
The first category consists of substantial payments made for political purposes or to secure major contracts.
For example, one US corporation offered a large sum of money in support of a US presidential candidate at a time when the company was under investigation for possible violations of US business laws.
This same company, it was revealed, was ready to finance secret US efforts to throw out the government of Chile.
In this category, we may also include large payments made to ruling families or their close advisers in order to secure arms sales or major petroleum or construction contracts.
In a court case involving an arms deal with Iran, a witness claimed that ￡ million had been paid by a British company to a \military equipment to that country.
Other countries have also been known to put pressure on foreign companies to make donations to party bank accounts.
The second category covers payments made to obtain quicker official approval of some project, to speed up the wheels of government.
An interesting example of this kind of payment is provided by the story of a sales manager who
had been trying for some months to sell road machinery to the Minister of Works of a Caribbean country.
Finally, he hit upon the answer.
Discovering that the minister collected rare books, he bought a rare edition of a book, slipped $, within its pages, then presented it to the minister.
This man examined its contents, then said, %understand there is a two-volume edition of this work.\
The sales manager, who was quick-witted, replied, \edition, sir, but we could offer you a copy with a preface!\ A short time later, the deal was approved.
The third category involves payments made in countries where it is traditional to pay people to help with the passage of a business deal.
Some Middle East countries would be included on this list, as well as certain Asian countries.
Is it possible to devise a code of rules for companies that would prohibit bribery in all its forms? The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) favors a code of conduct that would ban the giving and seeking of bribes.
This code would try to distinguish between commissions paid for real services and exaggerated fees that really amount to bribes.
A council has been proposed to manage the code.
Unfortunately, opinions differ among members of the ICC concerning how to enforce the code. The British members would like the system to have enough legal power to make companies behave themselves.
However, the French delegates think it is the business of governments to make and impose law. The job of a business community like the ICC is to say what is right and wrong, but not to impose anything.
In a well-known British newspaper, a writer argued recently that \bribery\ This is probably an exaggeration.
However, today's businessman, selling in overseas markets, will frequently meet situations where it is difficult to square his business interests with his moral conscience. Unit_passage_english_b
Every summer about a dozen journalists gather at a former army training camp north of London to spend the day watching the training of London's special armed police unit.
These are the people who regularly have to tackle the increasing number of criminals who are prepared to carry guns.
The journalists also get a chance to shoot a gun on the practice range—none of it seems that difficult, and we put most of the bullets somewhere on the target.
But then we move on to the next stage of the training, where some of the problems, which actually
crop up on the street are imitated.
The lights on the range are dimmed and we are stood in front of a large screen.
We still have guns, but the bullets are fake, and videos are played where actors act out various types of situations.
Does the man holding a woman in front of him really have a gun or not?
Is the man apparently preparing to surrender really going to, or is he going to raise the gun in front of him and shoot?
We have to decide whether to shoot and when, just like the police officer has to when faced with this situation for real.
The journalists' results here were not so impressive.
I am afraid we killed many an innocent person carrying nothing more lethalthan a stick.
The debate over whether more police in Britain should be armed with guns has been going on for years.
The current policy is to have a small number of specialists available in each of the police departments in Britain. They are kept up to scratch with intensive and regular training.
But the wisdom of that policy has been questioned as the amount of violence encountered by the police has grown.
It is usually the ordinary street officer who is on the wrong end of this, rather than the armed experts who arrive rather later.
To see the direction in which the British police are heading, consider the experience of the Northumbria police who have responsibility for law and order in , square kilometers of Northeast England.
The population is . million, living in rural areas and a few urban centers.
The , police officers in the force deal with all the typical problems thrown up by the Britain of the s.
John Stevens, head of the Northumbria Police Department, has just published his review of the past years.
During , for example, officers ( men and women) were forced into early retirement after being attacked on duty.
Before being allowed to leave the police for medical reasons, they lost between them , days on sick leave: the equivalent of police officers off the street for a full year.
Stevens makes this observation: \
One-third of the officers leaving were disabledin the very worst degree and will suffer for the rest of their lives for their efforts in the fight against crime.\
This picture of a policeman's lot could be repeated in many other parts of Britain, yet the police themselves still oppose more widespread arming of their officers.
The most recent survey, conducted last year, showed that only % were in favor.
The general public, however, likes the idea: % favored wider issuing of guns. But they, of course, would not have to carry them and maybe even use them.
Recalling my own experience shooting a gun on the practice range, I certainly would not want the responsibility.
It is clear to everyone that the police need more protection against the gun and the knife. They already carry longer clubs to replace the old ones. They have access to knife-resistantcoats and gloves.
The likely next step is agreement from the government to test pepper spray, an organic substance derived from peppers that disables an attacker if sprayed in his face. If used properly, the discomfort, although extreme, is only temporary.
Provided the spray is washed away with water, recovery should be complete within a couple of hours.
Unpleasant, certainly, but better than being shot.
Many people in Britain would not mind seeing their police with longer clubs or even pepper spray. They would just like to see them.
I have lost count of the times we have been filming police officers on the street when local residents have come up to us and told us it is the first time in weeks they have seen police in the area.
Actually the biggest threat to the traditional image and role of police officers does not come from guns and armed crime but the increase in the tasks we expect the police to carry out.
New laws and police priorities are taking up so much time that many forces simply cannot afford to let their officers walk up and down the streets.
Politicians are now asking members of the public to watch the streets. In some prosperous areas, local people pay private security firms.
Many officers believe it is all these extra duties, rather than the fear of being shot, that have really changed their role.
In future, if you want to know what time it is there might not be much point asking a policeman. He either will not be there to ask or will not have the time to answer.
Unit_passage_english_a
While not exactly a top-selling book, The History and Geography of Human Genes is a remarkable collection of more than years of research in population genetics.
It stands as the most extensive survey to date on how humans vary at the level of their genes. The book's firm conclusion: Once the genes for surface features such as skin color and height are discounted, the \
The variation among individuals is much greater than the differences among groups. In fact, there is no scientific basis for theories advocating the genetic superiorityof any one population over another.