Why So Many Children
 

     In many of the developing countries in Africa and Asia, the population is growing fast. The reason for this is simple: Women in these countries have a high birth rate from 3.0 to 7.13 children per woman. The majority of these women are poor, without the food or resources to care for their families. Why do they have so many children? Why don't they limit the size of their families? The answer may be that they often have no choice. There are several reasons for this.
     One reason is economic. In a traditional agricultural economy, large families are helpful.Having more children means having more workers in the fields and someone to take care of the parents in old age. In an industrial economy, the situation is different. Many children do not help a family; instead, they are an expense. Thus, industrialization has generally brought down the birth rate. This was the case in Italy, which was industrialized quite recently and rapidly. In the early part of the twentieth century, Italy was a poor, largely agricultural country with a high birth rate. After World War II, Italy's economy was rapidly modernized and industrialized. By the end of the century, the birth rate had dropped to 1.3 children per woman, the world's lowest.
       However, the economy is not the only important factor that influences birth rate. Saudi Arabia, for example, does not have an agriculture-based economy, and it has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. Nevertheless, it also has a very high birth rate (7.0). Mexico and Indonesia, on the other hand, are poor countries, with largely agricultural economies, but they have recently reduced their population growth.
    Clearly, other factors are involved. The most important of these is the condition of women.A high birth rate almost always goes together with lack of education and low status for women.This would explain the high birth rate of Saudi Arabia. There, the traditional culture gives women little education or independence and few possibilities outside the home. On the other hand, the improved condition of women in Mexico, Thailand, and Indonesia explains the decline in birth rates in these countries. Their governments have taken measures to provide more education and opportunities for women.
     Another key factor in the birth rate is birth control. Women may want to limit their families but have no way to do so. In countries where governments have made birth control easily available and inexpensive, birth rates have gone down. This is the case in Singapore, Sri Lanka, and India, as well as in Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico, and Brazil. In these countries,women have also been provided with health care and help in planning their families.
      These trends show that an effective program to reduce population growth does not have to depend on better economic conditions. It can be effective if it aims to help women and meet their needs. Only then, in fact, does it have any real chance of success.
 

Making a Loss Is the Height of Fashion
 

      Given that a good year in the haute couture (高级定制女装) business is one where you lose even more money than usual, the prevailing mood in Paris last week was sensational. The big-name designers were falling over themselves to boast of how many outfits they had sold at below cost price, and how this proved that the fashion business was healthier than ever. Jean-Paul Gaultier reported record sales. "but we don't make any money out of it," the designer assured journalists backstage. "No matter how successful you are, you can't make a profit from couture," explained Jean-Jacques Picart, a veteran fashion PR man, and co-founder of the now-bankrupt Lacroix house.
       Almost 20 years have passed since the unusual economics of the couture business were first exposed. Outraged that he was losing money on evening dresses costing tens of thousands of pounds, the couturier Jean-Louis Scherrer published of his costs. One outfit he described curtained over half a mile of gold thread, 18, 000 sequins (亮片), and had required hundreds of hours of hand-stitching in an atelier (制作室). A fair price would have been ~ 50, 000 , but the couturier could only get ~ 35, 000 for it. Rather than riding high on the foolishness of the super-rich, he and his team could barely feed their hungry families.
     The result was an outcry and the first of a series of government and industry-sponsored inquiries into the surreal ( 超现实的) world of ultimate fashion. The trade continues to insist that couture offers you more than you pay for, but it's not as simple as that. When such a temple of old wealth starts talking about value for money. It isn't to convince anyone that dresses costing as much as houses are a bargain. Rather, it is to preserve the peculiar mystique (神秘), lucrative (利润丰厚的) associations and threatened interests that couture represents.
      Essentially, the arguments couldn't be simpler. On one side are those who say that the business will die if it doesn't change. On the other are those who say it will die if it does. Huge in its costs, tiny in its clientele and questionable in its influence, it still remains one of the great themes of Parisian life. In his book, The Fashion Conspiracy, Nicholas Coleridge estimates that the entire couture industry rests on the whims (一时兴起) of less than 30 immensely wealthy women, and although the number may have grown in recent years with the new prosperity of Asia, the number of couture customers worldwide is no more than 4, 000.
     To qualify as couture, a garment must be entirely handmade by one of the 11 Paris couture houses registered to the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Each house must employ at least 20 people, and show a minimum of 75 new designs a year. So far, so traditional, but the Big Four operators -- Chanel, Dior, Givenchy and Gaultier -- increasingly use couture as a marketing device for their far more profitable ready-to-wear, fragrance and accessory lines.
 

On the Trial of the Honey Badger
 

       On a recent field trip to the Kalahari Desert, a team of researchers learn a lot more about honey badgers. The team employed a local wildlife expert Kitso Khama to help them locate and follow the badgers across the desert. Their main aim was to study the badgers' movements and behavior as discreetly (谨慎地) as possible without frightening them away or causing them to change their natural behavior. They also planned to trap a few and study them close up before releasing them in view of the animal's reputation; this was something that even Khama was reluctant to do.
     "The problem with honey badgers is they are naturally curious animals, especially when they see something new," he says. "That, combined with their unpredictable nature, can be a dangerous mixture. If they sense you have food, for example, they won't be shy about coming right up to you for something to eat. They're actually quite sociable creatures around humans,but as soon as they feel they might be in danger, they can become extremely vicious (凶恶的). Fortunately this is rare, but it does happen. "
      The research confirrned many things that were already known. As expected, honey badgers ate any creatures they could catch and kill. Even poisonous snakes, feared and avoided by most other animals, were not safe from them. The researchers were surprised, however, by the animal's fondness for local melons, probably because of their high water content. Preciously researchers thought that the animal got all of its liquid requirements from its prey (猎物). The team also learnt that, contrary to previous research findings, the badgers occasionally formed loose family groups. They were also able to confirm certain results from previous research,including the fact that female badgers never socialized with each other.
     Following some of the male badgers was a challenge, since they can cover large distances in a short space of time. Some hunting territories cover more than 500 square kilometers.Although they seem happy to share these territories with other males, there are occasional fights over an important food source, and male badgers can be as aggressive towards each other as they are towards other species.
     As the badgers became accustomed to the presence of people, it gave the team the chance to get up close to them without being the subject of the animal's curiosity -- or sudden aggression. The badgers' eating patterns, which had been disrupted, to normal. It also allowed the team to observe more closely some of the other creatures that form working associations with the honey badger, as these seemed to badgers' relaxed attitude when near humans.