There is growing interest in East Japan Railway Co. ltd., one of the six companies, created out of the privatized national railway system. In an industry lacking exciting growth__1__, its plan to use real-estate assets in and around train stations__2__is drawing interest.

In a plan called “Station Renaissance” that it__3__in November, JR East said that it would__4__using its commercial spaces for shops and restaurants, extending them to__5__more suitable for the information age. It wants train stations as pick-up__6__for such goods as books, flowers and groceries__7__over the Internet. In a country where city__8__depend heavily on trains__9__commuting, about 16 million people a day go to its train stations anyway, the company __10__. So, picking up commodities at train stations__11__consumers extra travel and missed home deliveries. JR East already has been using its station__12__stores for this purpose, but it plans to create__13__spaces for the delivery of Internet goods.

The company also plans to introduce __14__cards—known in Japan as IC cards because they use integrated circuit for__15__information__16__ train tickets and commuter passes__17__the magnetic ones used today, integrating them into a/an __18__pass. This will save the company money, because__19__for IC cards are much less expensive than magnetic systems. Increased use of IC cards should also__20__the space needed for ticket vending.

If the 10% rule is applied, ______.

CEOs of big companies decided to help colleges enroll more minority students because they_____.

The major tactic the forum uses is to_____.

What has been a divisive issue across the United States?

For more than two decades, U.S. courts have been limiting affirmative-action programs in universities and other areas. The legal rationale is that racial preferences are unconstitutional, even those intended to compensate for racism or intolerance. For many colleges, this means students can be admitted only on merit, not on their race or ethnicity. It has been a divisive issue across the U.S., as educators blame the prolonged reaction to affirmative-action for declines in minority admissions. Meanwhile, activists continue to battle race preferences in courts from Michigan to North Carolina.

Now, chief executives of about two dozen companies have decided to plunge headfirst into this politically unsettled debate. They, together with 36 universities and 7 nonprofitable organizations, formed a forum that set forth an action plan essentially designed to help colleges circumvent court-imposed restrictions on affirmative action. The CEOs’ motive: “Our audience is growing more diverse, so the communities we serve benefit if our employees are racially and ethnically diverse as well”, says one CEO of a compang that owns nine television stations.

We may conclude from the text that _____.

We can infer from the third paragraph that _____.

When Mr. Westhusin says “... cloning is dangerous,” he implies that _____.

“I’ve never met a human worth cloning,” says cloning expert Mark Westhusin from the cramped confines of his lab at Texas A&M University. “It’s a stupid endeavor.” That’s an interesting choice of adjective, coming from a man who has spent millions of dollars trying to clone a 13-year-old dog named Missy. So far, he and his team have not succeeded, though they have cloned two calves and expect to clone a cat soon. They just might succeed in cloning Missy later this year—or perhaps not for another five years. It seems the reproductive system of man’s best friend is one of the mysteries of modern science.

Westhusin’s experience with cloning animals leaves him vexed by all this talk of human cloning. In three years of work on the Missyplicity project, using hundreds upon hundreds of canine eggs, the A&M team has produced only a dozen or so embryos carrying Missy’s DNA. None have survived the transfer to a surrogate mother. The wastage of eggs and the many spontaneously aborted fetuses may be acceptable when you’re dealing with cats or bulls, he argues, but not with humans. “Cloning is incredibly inefficient, and also dangerous,” he says.

Even so, dog cloning is a commercial opportunity, with a nice research payoff. Ever since Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1997, Westhusin’s phone at A&M College of Veterinary Medicine has been ringing busily. Cost is no obstacle for customers like Missy’s mysterious owner, who wishes to remain unknown to protect his privacy. He’s plopped down $3.7 million so far to fund the research because he wants a twin to carry on Missy’s fine qualities after she dies. But he knows her clone may not have her temperament. In a statement of purpose, Missy’s owners and the A&M team say they are “both looking forward to studying the ways that her clone differs from Missy.”

The fate of the dog samples will depend on Westhusin’s work. He knows that even if he gets a dog viably pregnant, the offspring, should they survive, will face the problems shown at birth by other cloned animals: abnormalities like immature lungs and heart and weight problems. “Why would you ever want to clone humans,” Westhusin asks, “when we’re not even close to getting it worked out in animals yet?”

Which of the following best represents Mr. Westhusin’s attitude toward cloning?

The Missyplicity project does not seem very successful probably because _____.