Passage 1
Shortages of flu vaccine are nothing new in America, but this year’s is a big lie. Until last week, it appeared that 100 million Americans would have access to flu shots this fall. Then British authorities, concerned about quality-control problems at a production plant in Liverpool, barred all further shipments by the Chiron Corp. Overnight, the U.S. vaccine supply dwindled by nearly half. Why is such a basic health service so easily knocked out? Mainly because private companies have had little incentive to pursue it. Profit margins are narrow, demand is fickle and, because each year’s flu virus is different, any leftover vaccine goes to waste. Experts are hoping that this year’s fiasco will speed the pace of innovation. In fact, many experts are hoping the shortage will serve as an awareness campaign—encouraging the people who really need a flu shot to get one.
Passage 2
Broadly speaking, the Englishman is a quiet, shy, reserved person who is fully relaxed only among people he knows well. In the presence of strangers or foreigner she often seems inhibited, even embarrassed. You have only to witness a city train any morning or evening to see the truth of this. Serious-looking businessmen and women sit reading their newspapers or having a light sleep in a corner; no one speaks. In fact, to do so would seem most unusual. An Englishman, pretending to be giving advice to overseas visitors, once suggested, “On entering a railway carriage shake hands with all the passengers.” Needless to say, he was not being serious. There is an unwritten but clearly understood code of behavior which, if broken, makes the person immediately suspect.
Passage 3
The principal lines of development of machinery have been an increase in the speed of operation to obtain high rates of production, improvement in accuracy to obtain quality and economy in the product, and minimization of operating costs. These three requirements have led to the evolution of complex control systems. The most successful production machinery is that in which the mechanical design of the machine is closely integrated with the control system, whether the latter is mechanical or electrical in nature. A modern conveyor for the manufacture of automobile engines is a good example of the mechanization of a complex series of manufacturing processes. Developments are in hand to automate production machines, further, using computers to store and process the vast amount of data required for manufacturing a variety of components with a small number of versatile machine tools. One aim is a completely automated machine shop for batch production.
