Cream of the Crop 22/Cream of the Crop 22.iso/educate/p_type40.zip/P_TYPE2.TX6

Text File | 1996-10-08 | 12KB | 269 lines

Public Support for Environmental Protection
Americans' concern about the environment has
grown and intensified since the initial outpouring
on Earth Day, 1970. Public opinion polls show that
the environment has become a core value for
virtually every sector of American society.
A recent Roper survey found that:
78 percent of American citizens think the
government needs to make "a major effort" to solve
environmental problems.
Even before the EXXON VALDES oil spill, 62
percent thought pollution posed a "very serious"
threat to American society-up sharply from the 44
percent who thought so in 1984.
In 1989-for the first time in 16 years of Roper
surveys on this issue-a majority said that
environmental issues should take precedence over
some other critical issues such as energy.
The number of people calling pollution one of
their pressing personal concerns has tripled
during the 1990's. A 1991 study by Environment
Opinion Study, Inc., found that 71 percent of
the public agrees that "improving the quality of
the environment can create jobs and help the
national economy." And the Gallup Poll reports
that 78 percent of Americans now consider
themselves environmentalists.
Public involvement in environmental activities
is also on the rise. The Gallup Poll found that
89 percent of U.S. households report voluntarily
recycling newspapers, glass, or aluminum.
According to Roper, people who say they regularly
return beer or soda bottles or cans to a store or
recycling center increased from 41 percent in
March 1989 to 48 percent March 1991. The
percentage who recycle newspapers nearly doubled,
while the percentage who sort trash to separate
garbage from recyclable material more than doubled.
Another example of increased involvement has been
the growing participation by volunteers in beach
cleanups. Since 1987, with EPA support tens of
thousands of volunteers have spent time between
early September and mid-October on National Beach
Cleanups coordinated by the Center for Marine
Conservation and COASTWEEKS. In 1991, more than
125,000 volunteers collected nearly three million
pounds of trash along 4,000 miles of U.S.
coastline. Information submitted by the volunteers
on the kinds of trash they found was used to
encourage U.S. ratification of an international
ban on dumping plastics at sea.
Skillful typing requires plenty of practices.
Repeated exercises can improve your typing skill.
Can you promise to type this memo by tomorrow?
Sometimes even the best typists make mistakes!
Touch typing means typing without looking at the
keyboard. Many potential employers would love to
see you, if you could type 50 WPM. Using a PC
and a good typing program, you can reach this
goal within 10 weeks, assuming that you spend
about 30 minutes in practicing every day.
The Clean Air Act
Carrying out the mandates of the historic Clean
Air Act Amendments of 1990 is a complex effort
made all the more urgent because 74 million
Americans still live in countries with unhealthy
air. This number is down 10 million since 1989,
chiefly because carbon monoxide and particulate
emissions have been reduced.
The new law requires EPA to issue 55 major
regulations and 30 guidance documents and take
many other actions within its first two years.
This is a fivefold increase in the pace of
regulatory activity in EPA's air program. By
early 1992, EPA had proposed or issued rules
that, when they take effect, will remove
two-thirds of the 56 billion pounds a year of
pollutants that the Clean Air Act promises to
scrub from the air by the year 2005. This amounts
to 224 pounds for every man, woman, and child
in the United States.
Words are sharper than the serpent's tooth.
Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind.
Vocabulary is the best single indication of IQ.
*** Word Roots and Word Power ***
About 95% of English words are derived directly
or indirectly from Latin and Greek,  which are
root-based languages that used word roots to
represent pictures 5,000 years ago. Just as a
picture is worth a thousand words, studying words
by referring to their word roots offers a great
advantage.
Linguistic studies have shown that a person can
significantly improve his verbal skills by
mastering about 200 word roots. Unfortunately,
most dictionaries list word origins in the form of
Latin or Greek words, which are obscure to most
readers, rather than the actual word roots.
PC Dictionary uses about 650 word roots and 150
prefixes.  Concise definitions, sense-development,
and examples of words are presented in each entry.
Individual word root definitions are also provided
where appropriate. Great effort has been made to
bridge the meanings of the root and the word. This
enables the user to harness the power of word
roots without any knowledge of Latin or Greek.
*** The Importance of Word Power ***
Word power plays an important role in many
aspects of your life. It is essential that you
enhance your word power.
Almost all colleges and universities require
students to take a verbal test as partial
requirement for admission. When a student
graduates from a college and applies for admission
to a graduate school, he needs to take another
verbal test.
A good computerized dictionary can help prepare
for these tests, if it has the capability to print
out the selected group of words with definitions.
Recycling -- the best way to conserve materials.
Recycling is an easy, effective way for every
citizen to do something for the environment. It
helps achieve two important goals:  preventing
pollution and conserving natural resources. The
portion of municipal solid waste handled through
recycling and composting grew to 13 percent in
1988, the latest year for which information is
available. The Bush Administration's goal is 25
percent  of the nation's total solid waste
handled by source reduction or recycling.
On October 31, 1991, President Bush signed
Executive Order 12780, requiring all federal
departments and agencies to procure products
made with recycled materials wherever possible.
The order also requires federal agencies to name
recycling coordinators, whose job will be to
boost recycling of items discarded by the three
million federal employees. For its part, EPA is
recycling 15 times as much waste material as it
was in 1986. In FY 1991, EPA headquarters
collected more than 625 tons of paper, 117 tons
of glass, and more than two tons of aluminum.
Here are a few tips on good typing habits:
Place your thumbs slightly above the space bar.
Use your right thumb to press the space bar.
Use your right little finger to press 'Enter'.
Always return your finger to the typing position.
Capitals:  To type a capital letter controlled by
a finger of the right hand, as H, depress the
left shift with the left fourth (little) finger
without moving the other fingers from typing
position. Hold the shift key down until the key
for the capital has been depressed; then release
the shift key and return the finger to typing
position quickly. Use similar technique to depress
the right shift for a capital letter controlled by
a left finger, as G.
Your fingers should always return to the home keys
after pressing a key.
EPA is also taking the following actions:
Helping consumers understand claims made in
product labeling and advertising. The Agency is
working with the Federal Trade Commission and the
Office of Consumer Affairs to develop national
guidelines for use of such terms as "recyclable"
and "recycled content" in product labeling and
advertising.
Highlighting the importance of recycling, which
was the competition category for the first annual
EPA Administrator's Awards in 1991.
Cosponsoring a recycling advertising campaign
with the Environmental Defense Fund and the
Advertising Council. The 1990 campaign responded
to 90,000 requests for recycling information.
Comprehensive recycling programs are now in
effect in 23 states, with more expected to follow
soon. The Administration's national goal is 25
percent of solid waste handled through recycling
and waste reduction. Latest data available, for
1988, put the rate at 13 percent.
Air pollution is a mist demeanor.
All art is but imitation of nature.
All cats are gray in the dark. - Benj. Franklin
All great discoveries are made by accident.
All serious daring starts from within.
Always be sincere, even when you don't mean it.
An Irish bull is always pregnant.
A tyrant is worse than a tiger. - Confucius
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
It takes two to make a bargain. - English proverb
A journey of a thousand miles must
start with the first step. - Chinese proverb
Bare words are no good bargain. - John Clarke
Be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.
Be cheerful while you are alive.
Better to kill time than have it kill you.
Business will be either better or worse.
Sooner or later your hard drive will fail.
Don't count your files before they are backed up.
Don't judge a software by it's price.
California is a fine place to live --
if you happen to be an orange.
Committees do harm merely by existing.
If you don't want to do anything, form a committee.
A democratic government is of, for, and by the rich.
Duty is what one expects from others.
To kill a cock, why use an ok-knife? - Confucius
Even a poor tailor is entitled to some happiness!
Even a small star shines in the darkness.
Even the boldest zebra fears the hungry lion.
Every time I lose weight, it finds me again!
Experience is an accumulation of mistakes.
Freedom of the press belongs to those that own one.
Genius is one percent inspiration and
ninety-nine percent perspiration. - Thomas Edison
Hawaii is as American as apple poi.
How can you work when the system's so crowded?
How do I love thee?  My accumulator overflows.
How many priests are needed for a Boston Mass?
How many weeks are there in a light year?
He who knows does not speak. He who
speaks does not know. - Lao Tzu
I cried because I had no shoes,
until I met a man who had no foot.
I do not fear computers.. I fear the lack of them.
I don't even know what street Canada is on.
I don't meet competition, I crush it.
I don't mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. - Ronald Reagan
If no one uses it, there's a reason.
If I don't get enough audience, I'll buy them.
Ignorance transcends architecture.
Knowledge without common sense is folly.
Life is like a floating cloud.
Memory serves wise commanders.
Midwest farmers are just plain folks.
Misfortune: The kind of fortune that never misses.
Money is the best messenger. - Yiddish proverb
The love of money is the root of all evil.
EPA's Green Lights Program encourages the use of
energy-efficient lighting by both companies and
governments-curbing the demand for energy and
electricity and curtailing emissions from power
plants. Guided by the principle that energy
efficient lighting is "a bright investment in
the environment," Green Lights promotes energy
efficiency, pollution prevention, and economic
competitiveness. EPA estimates that if Green
Lights were fully implemented, in combination with
other lighting efficiency programs, companies and
governments would save more than $18 billion in
annual electric bills.
By early this year, more than 400 corporations and
nine states, the government of the U.S. Virgin
Islands, and a number of cities and counties,
hospitals, schools, environmental groups, and
other institutions had signed up for Green Lights.
These commitments cover two billion square feet of
office space-more than the total office space in
New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas
and Detroit. EPA estimates that the commitments
to date, when fully implemented, will save about
$700 million a year in electric bills and reduce
air emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide
and nitrogen oxide by more than seven million
metric tons a year. The carbon dioxide reduction
is the equivalent of taking 1.6 million cars of
the road.