Rules and regulations

A person with the blood type AB can_____any type of blood.

Section C

What a lovely place Xerox is to work Kim Moloney, a client services executive, can’t say enough nice things about her employer. ‘It’s a very special environment,’ she says. ‘People describe Xerox as a family and I was amazed at the number of people who have worked here for so long.’ It’s tempting to take Moloney’s comments with a pinch of salt, especially considering that when you’ve been working somewhere for only two years, as she has at Xerox, everyone seems old and established. But there’s truth behind her enthusiasm.

Take Carole Palmer, the group resources director. She joined Xerox in 1978 as a temp and has been in her present role for seven years. ‘Xerox has been good to me over the years,’ she says. ‘It has supported me through qualifications … and last year I took part in the vice-president incumbent program.’ Human resources is taken seriously at Xerox, Palmer says, and the company has a policy of promoting from within (which would explain Moloney’s amazement at her colleagues’ longevity). The company takes on only fifteen to twenty graduates each year and Moloney was part of an intake who joined having already acquired a couple of years’ work experience. She started as a project manager for Xerox Global Services before moving into sales. Now her responsibility is to ‘grow and maintain customer relationships’.

Moloney is based at the head office in Uxbridge. ‘It’s great in terms of working environment,’ she says. ‘We’ve just got a new provider in the canteen and … we have brainstorming rooms and breakout areas.’ Much of Moloney’s role is visiting clients, so she doesn’t have a permanent desk at head office. ‘I’m a hot-desker, which is good because you get to sit with different people in the hot-desk areas. And you’re given a place to store your things.’ Head office staff numbers between 1,200 and 1,500 people, Palmer says. The company has four other main offices in the UK. The nature of the organization, which encompasses sales and marketing, global services (the biggest division), developing markets, research and development and manufacturing, means that the opportunities at the company vary from service engineers to sales roles and consultants.

Perks include a final-salary pension scheme and various discount schemes. The reward and recognition scheme is a little different, and rather nice: ‘Each manager has a budget every year to recognize and reward staff,’ Palmer says. ‘It can be in the form of a meal for two, or a bottle of wine. It can be up to £1,000. There’s the recognition, and then there’s putting money behind it.’ Moloney, however, likes the non-cash rewards. ‘Xerox takes care of all its staff but it also recognizes the people who put in the added effort,’ she says. ‘It offers once-in-a-lifetime incentive trips, and recently I organized a sailing trip for my team.’

The idea of working abroad with the company appeals to her, and she says that her career goal is to be part of the senior management team. Here’s another employee, it would seem, who is in it for the long haul.

( )1.The journalist of this article thinks that .

A. staff at Xerox are not telling the truth abut the company.

B. Xerox offers great benefits to staff.

C. Xerox is the best company in the world.

D. Xerox has the best working environment.

( )2.The company tends to find its new manager .

A. only form graduates B. on training courses

C. from existing staff D. from job markets

( )3.What does the phrase “to take on” in the sentence “The company takes on only fifteen to twenty graduates each year and …” of the second paragraph mean? .

A. To train B. To employ

C. To interview D. To maintain(A)

( )4.As well as recognizing its staff through promotion, Xerox .

A. gives cash bonuses

B. gives unpaid leave to take trips of a lifetime.

C. provides a number of perks.

D. provides huge end-of-year bonuses.

( )5.One common feature of Xerox staff is that they tend .

A. to work hard B. to get promoted

C. work longer hours each day D. not to change employer

1.The failure of a high-profile cholesterol drug has thrown a spotlight on the complicated machinery that regulates cholesterol levels.But many researchers remain confident that drugs to boost levels of 'good' cholesterol are still one of the most promising means to combat spiralling heart disease.

2.Drug company Pfizer announced on 2 December that it was cancelling all clinical trials of torcetrapib，a drug designed to raise heart-protective high-density lipoproteins (HDLs).In a trial of 15000 patients，a safety board found that more people died or suffered cardiovascular problems after taking the drug plus a cholesterol-lowering statin than those in a control group who took the statin alone.

3.The news came as a kick in the teeth to many cardiologists because earlier tests in animals and people suggested it would lower rates of cardiovascular disease."There have been no red flags to my knowledge," says John Chapman，a specialist in lipoproteins and atherosclerosis at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Paris who has also studied torcetrapib."This cancellation came as a complete shock."

4.Torcetrapib is one of the most advanced of a new breed of drugs designed to raise levels of HDLs，which ferry cholesterol out of artery-clogging plaques to the liver for removal from the body.Specifically，torcetrapib blocks a protein called cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP)，which normally transfers the cholesterol from high-density lipoproteins to low density，plaque-promoting ones.Statins，in contrast，mainly work by lowering the 'bad' low-density lipoproteins.

Under pressure

5.Researchers are now trying to work out why and how the drug backfired，something that will not become clear until the clinical details are released by Pfizer.One hint lies in evidence from earlier trials that it slightly raises blood pressure in some patients.It was thought that this mild problem would be offset by the heart benefits of the drug.But it is possible that it actually proved fatal in some patients who already suffered high blood pressure.If blood pressure is the explanation，it would actually be good news for drug developers because it suggests that the problems are specific to this compound.Other prototype drugs that are being developed to block CETP work in a slightly different way and might not suffer the same downfall.

6.But it is also possible that the whole idea of blocking CETP is flawed，says Moti Kashyap，who directs atherosclerosis research at the VA Medical Center in Long Beach，California.When HDLs excrete cholesterol in the liver，they actually rely on LDLs for part of this process.So inhibiting CETP，which prevents the transfer of cholesterol from HDL to LDL，might actually cause an abnormal and irreversible accumulation of cholesterol in the body."You're blocking a physiologic mechanism to eliminate cholesterol and effectively constipating the pathway," says Kashyap.Going up

7.Most researchers remain confident that elevating high density lipoproteins levels by one means or another is one of the best routes for helping heart disease patients.But HDLs are complex and not entirely understood.One approved drug，called niacin，is known to both raise HDL and reduce cardiovascular risk but also causes an unpleasant sensation of heat and tingling.Researchers are exploring whether they can bypass this side effect and whether niacin can lower disease risk more than statins alone.Scientists are also working on several other means to bump up high-density lipoproteins by，for example，introducing synthetic HDLs."The only thing we know is dead in the water is torcetrapib，not the whole idea of raising HDL," says Michael Miller，director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center，Baltimore.

Questions 7-13

Match torcetrapib，HDLs，statin and CETP with their functions (Questions 8-13)..Write the correct letter A，B，C or D in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet.NB You may use any letter more than once.

7.It has been administered to over 10,000 subjects in a clinical trial.

8.It could help rid human body of cholesterol.

9.Researchers are yet to find more about it.

10.It was used to reduce the level of cholesterol.

11.According to Kashyap，it might lead to unwanted result if it's blocked.

12.It produced contradictory results in different trials.

13.It could inhibit LDLs.List of choices

A.TorcetrapicB.HDLSC.StatinD.CETP

In some cultures old people are more valued, while in other cultures the youth is more valued. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.