2006
On the north bank of the Ohio River sits Evansville, Ind., home of David Williams, 52, and of a riverboat casino where gambling games are played. During several years of gambling in that casino, Williams, a state auditor earning $35,000 a year, lost approximately $175,000. He had never gambled before the casino sent him a coupon for $20 worth of gambling.
He visited the casino, lost the $20 and left. On his second visit he lost $800. The casino issued to him, as a good customer, a Fun Card, which when used in the casino earns points for meals and drinks, and enables the casino to track the user's gambling activities. For Williams, these activities become what he calls electronic morphine. (41)______________. In 1997 he lost $21,000 to one slot machine in two days. In March 1997 he lost $72,186. He sometimes played two slot machines at a time, all night, until the boat locked at 5 a.m., then went back aboard when the casino opened at 9 a.m. Now he is suing the casino, charging that it should have refused his patronage because it knew he was addicted. It did know he had a problem.
In March 1998, a friend of Williams's got him involuntarily confined to a treatment center for addictions, and wrote to inform the casino of Williams's gamblers. The casino included a photo of Williams among those of banned gamblers, and wrote to him a” cease admissions” letter noting the medical/psychological nature of problem gambling behaviors, the letter said that before being readmitted to the patronizing the casino would pose no threat to his safety have to his safety or well-being. (42) ______________.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the casino has 20 signs warning: “Enjoy the fun ... and always bet with your head, not over it”. Every entrance ticket lists a toll-free number for counseling from the Indiana Department of Mental Health. Nevertheless, Williams's suit charges that the casino, knowing he was “helplessly addicted to gambling”, intentionally worked to ”love” him to “engage in conduct against his will” well. (43) ______________.
The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) says “pathological gambling” involves persistent, recurring and uncontrollable pursuit less of money than of taking risks in quest of a windfall, (44) ______________.Pushed by science, or what claims to be science, society is reclassifying what once were considered character flaws or moral failings as personality disorders akin to physical disabilities. (45) ______________.
Forty-four states have lotteries, 29 have casinos, and most of these states are to varying degrees dependent on --you might say --addicted to--revenues from wagering. And since the first Internet gambling site was created in 1995, competition for gamblers' dollars has become intense. The Oct. 28 issue of NEWSWEEK reported that 2 million gamblers patronize 1,800 virtual casinos every week. With $3.5 billion being lost on Internet wagers this year, gambling has passed pornography as the Web's most profitable business.
(A). Although no such evidence was presented, the casino's marketing department continued to pepper him with mailings. And he entered the casino and used his Fun Card without being detected.
(B). It is unclear what luring was required, given his compulsive behavior. And in what sense was his will operative?
(C). By the time he had lost $5,000 he said to himself that if he could get back to even, he would quit. One night he won $5,500, but he did not quit.
(D). Gambling has been a common feature of American life forever, but for a long time it was broadly considered a sin, or a social disease. Now it is a social policy: the most important and aggressive promoter of gambling in America is government.
(E). David Williams’s suit should trouble this gambling nation. But don’t bet on it.
(F). It is worrisome that society is medicalizing more and more behavioral problems, often defining as addictions what earlier, sterner generations explained as weakness of will.
(G). The anonymous, lonely, undistracted nature of online gambling is especially conductive to compulsive behavior. But even if the government knew how to move against Internet gambling, what would be its grounds for doing so?
Text1
One of the most important steps toward increasing the productivity of the poor is to make sure that they have access to educational opportunities that are at least as good as those available to the rest of the society. In fact we may very well want more educational attention directed toward them than to the children of the well-to-do, in order to overcome the social and psychological handicaps that may confront them. 1) _______________________________.
Educational programs will not produce instant results. Neither will they increase the productivity and incomes of all the poor. Nevertheless, they constitute one of the great equalizers in our society.
2) _______________________________. Unemployed persons or persons in relatively low-wage occupations and areas often do not know where better opportunities exist. Frequently, those in the areas where unemployment is low and wages are high are reluctant to publish this information for fear that an influx of labor will "spoil" what they have.
3) _______________________________. Examples include blacks breaking into positions where they may be supervising whites, and practicing professions--medicine, dentistry, accounting, law, etc.-- in which their clients may be white. Occupational and professional mobility of groups that have traditionally been discriminated against was greatly enhanced by opening previously segregated schools at all levels to students of all groups.
4) _______________________________. Some people are too old and some are too young to take advantage of them. Some are not healthy enough in either mind or body. Some may be victims of structural problems in the society. Any comprehensive or reasonably complete antipoverty program must include direct income transfers to those whose productivities cannot be increased sufficiently to enable them to earn minimum acceptable income levels.
5) _______________________________.
A very large part of present government income transfers is toward the aged through Social Security payments and Medicare. What could be more humane than taking care of the old? The fact is that many of the elderly people in our society are perfectly capable of supporting themselves, including the costs of their medical care. But Social Security payments and Medicare payments are made to them anyway, whether they are poor or not.
[A] A great problem with using government transfers of income to alleviate poverty is that they are used to subsidize the nonpoor as well as the poor. This occurs largely because special interest groups manage to worm their way into the ranks of those eligible for subsidization, and politicians have a way of catering to the voting powers of special interest groups.
[B] As a consequence of such dissatisfaction, considerable support has developed for direct income transfers in the form of negative income taxes
[C] Even under the best of circumstances, policies designed to increase the incomes of the poor cannot eliminate all poverty.
[D] In addition, vocational education and retraining programs may be useful in increasing the productivity of the adult poor.
[E] There are additional ways of increasing the productivity of the poor. Hopefully, anti discrimination measures contribute toward this end, enabling qualified persons to break into professions or occupations that were closed to them by discriminatory practices.
[F] Subsidies to farmers are much more generous to skilled, highly productive, and high income farmers than they are to the farming poor. But both veterans and farmers are highly visible, politically powerful groups.
[G] Another important measure in increasing the productivity of the poor is the improvement of labor market information.
Text2
Patents, trademarks, and copyrights all impart monopoly rights on inventions, business identities, and intellectual property. 1) _______________________________.
Inventions like the telephone and the electric light have revolutionized our lives and have brought riches to their inventors. Today immense expenditures are being poured into genetic research, research on faster microchips that can access larger computer memories, and research into more attractive consumer products. Both public and private research and development expenditures in 1985 were over $100 billion, and over a million scientists and engineers were employed.
2) _______________________________. Hundreds of countries were checked to ensure that the name was not previously trademarked and would not connote anything offensive to consumers. Then hundreds of millions of dollars were spent helping the public remember the new trademark. Firms like Gucci, Cartier, and Chanel invest heavily in their trade names. Chanel, for example, spends over $1 million a year on trade-name security alone.
3) _______________________________. Software developers have formed an organization to fight unauthorized duplication, and record producers use ASCAP and BMI to pressure businesses to license music for commercial purposes. ASCAP and BMI send people into businesses to see if they play background music to entertain customers. If, for example, a radio is playing, they will ask the owner to purchase a license to play the radio in the store. If the owner refuses, the agent for ASCAP or BMI will immediately retain an attorney and file a lawsuit. The law is clear--playing music for commercial purposes without a license is unlawful unless you own the copyright to the music itself. ASCAP and BMI then prorate their proceeds to the copyright homers of the music being played.
4) _______________________________.
5) _______________________________. However, businesses are hesitant to admit that their product line has been reproduced. Many fear that publicity may encourage further copying or that their customers will become wary of their brand names. In any event, counterfeiting substantially weakens the monopoly power associated with many patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
[A] Trademarks are another device conveying monopoly power to firms. Several million dollars were spent developing the EXXON name.
[B] Copyrights protect intellectual property in a number of areas including books, records, video tapes, and computer software, as well as product designs.
[C] Today, counterfeit goods are threatening all these forms of monopoly power. Numerous products are counterfeited. The imitations are typically of inferior quality. Replicas of aircraft parts and bogus "high-strength" fasteners are showing up in civilian and military aircraft. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that over three-quarters of a million jobs are lost to imported product "knock-offs", the industry's term for counterfeited goods.
[D] Interestingly, secrecy is the order of the day on both sides of this problem. For those counterfeiting products, the reason is clear.
[E] Obtaining these rights is a costly endeavor.
[F] Licensing and bonding restrictions, ostensibly used to protect consumers from shoddy or fraudulent practices, may really be disguised barriers to entry.
[G] Other important legal barriers to entry included patents and copyrights. Patent and copyright monopolies may be justifiable as incentives for research and development leading to technological advances or the enrichment of our culture.
