“Every poet has trembled on the verge of science,” wrote Henry David Thoreau, the (1) American: essayist, poet, and naturalist. Like Thoreau, many Western philosophers and artists of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries –including the idealists in Germany, the Romantics in Britain, and the transcendentalists in the United States (2) struggled with what they saw as the cold, impersonal empiricism stemming from the scientific revolution and

Enlightenment era. Science diminished the mystery of the natural world with every new discovery, they argued, and as a result, nature was best experienced through more subjective means, such as art and intuition. Thoreau, however, found a way to balance the objectivity of science with the subjectivity of the imagination: the key lay in the writings of (3) the well-known scientist whose work was widely celebrated, Alexander von Humboldt.

[1] A gifted polymath, Humboldt contributed to the modern conceptualization of nature as an interconnected web of life. [2] Humboldt argued that viewing science as a collection of unconnected facts would lead one to believe that (4) scientists detailed measurements “chill the feelings” as well as “diminish the nobler enjoyments, attendant upon a contemplation of nature.” [3] However, if one considered precise observations as a way to gain knowledge of a larger, connected whole, then science could reveal the “unity in diversity of phenomena.” (5)

Upon reading Cosmos, Thoreau began (6)charting details about the changing seasons. Earlier in his life, Thoreau had kept separate books for recording poetry and (7)| facts. In 1849,in contrast to those earlier years, Thoreau began keeping one solitary journal, which he filled with details from his daily walk in the woods. (8)Combining meticulous notes about nature, such as the dates of the first flowering of dozens of plant species around his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, with musings on the relationship between humanity and the cosmos. Reflecting on (9)our approach, Thoreau wrote, “A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry.”

Thoreau’s journal eventually grew to more than two million words, and its contents (10)detected their route into his literary works, such as Walden_y whose

manuscript he revised six times to include his growing knowledge of the ecology of Walden Pond. Humboldt had provided Thoreau with a worldview that allowed him as historian Andrea Wulf puts it -- to (11)be “deeply affected by the rhythm of the natural world.”

Animal domestication the process of breeding tame animals over time to be more docile and suitable for human care and use doesn’t just result in animals that are behaviorally different from their wild counterparts; it also (12) turns out critters with a whole lot of physical differences. These differences which include white patches in the fur, floppy (13) ears, and diminished snout, tooth, and brain size—are collectively known as “domestication syndrome.” Scientists have long believed that deliberate human intervention is the cause of domestication syndrome, (14) a process that began when humans first selectively bred wild animals for desirable traits around 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.

Dr. Anna Lindholm and her colleagues at the University of Zurich (15) discovered this phenomenon by examining a population of wild house mice, Mus musculus domesticus, in an empty barn in Illnau, Switzerland. (16) Meanwhile, from 2007 to 2016, the researchers monitored the mice and measured various physical aspects of the animals, including their head length, body weight, and presence of white patches. Although they had to be occasionally handled for measuring, the mice were otherwise left alone, allowing them to reproduce without intentional human selection.

Over several reproductive generations, the mice showed physiological changes consistent with domestication syndrome. Body weight decreased significantly, while the number of adult mice with white patches increased from one to thirty-two. Similarly, the researchers found that there was a considerable decrease in head length relative to body weight (residual head length) from (17) 2014 to 2016 and that the trend in residual head length generally decreased over the course of the examination period. The results suggested that (18) although the residual head length was nearly identical in 2008 and 2009, simple exposure to humans had caused domestication syndrome in the mice.

The researchers suggest that the population of wild house mice self-domesticated, a theory supported by genetic evidence. Scientists attribute domestication to a deficit in neural crest cells, a type of stem cell, during (19) development that results in smaller, less active adrenal glands (responsible for stress and fear responses) and therefore more docile animals. These stem cells also influence snout size and fur color. The mice that had this deficit were likely more comfortable with human interaction, a key component of (20) tameness, stayed around the barn, while the more apprehensive mice fled. Over time, the tamer mice reproduced, passing that tameness on to (21) one’s offspring, eventually resulting in a domesticated population. These results have important implications for understanding the domestication of other species and demonstrate how (22) they may be unknowingly affecting the animals around them.

In the early 1990s, acclaimed science fiction writer Ted Chiang was suffering from a stubborn case of writer’s block. That changed when he was suddenly (23) hit unexpectedly with a concept for a new story: a woman is tasked with translating an alien species’ language, one so different from human languages that it changes her perception of reality. Although Chiang finally had (24) one, he felt unprepared to convincingly convey the experience of learning such a language.

[1] To solve this problem, Chiang decided to develop an understanding of linguistics, the study of the nature, structure, and history of language. [2] During his research, he learned about a theory known as linguistic determinism, which (25) assert that language is not only a tool to communicate information about the world but also a lens through which people perceive the world.

[3] For instance, linguists have found that some Australian Aboriginal languages always express the location of one’s limbs in terms of cardinal directions -- one might speak of one’s “east hand” rather than “left hand”-- (26) which speakers of these languages are constantly aware of their geographic orientation as a result. (27)

After more than four years of research, Chiang was able to use this knowledge to create the novella “Story of Your Life.” In it, the (28) protagonist: Dr. Louise Banks, discovers that members of the alien species, known as heptapods, write their sentences as geometric patterns that look “like frost on a windowpane” and have no separate words or word order.  (29) On the other hand, heptapods perceive time simultaneously rather than sequentially. (30) Dr. Banks spends increasing amounts of her time attempting to communicate with the heptapods—she experiences the events of her life all at once rather than in order, allowing her to remember the life of the daughter she hasn’t yet had. (31) The man with whom she will eventually have her daughter is a physicist whose work informs her understanding of time in the story. “I remember one afternoon when you are five years old,” Banks narrates. “You’ll be coloring with your crayons while I grade papers.” Chiang uses this narrative to explore (32) how to add greater meaning to individual moments. The narrative suggests that one way of doing so is to view life as a whole.

When it was published in 1998, “Story of Your Life” (33) will have become a favorite of fans and critics alike. It won the prestigious Nebula Award for science fiction and was adapted into the 2016 Oscar-winning Hollywood film Arrival. Chiang’s long, meticulous effort to bring his story to life paid off; he’d produced one of the most beloved science fiction stories ever written.

In a 1995 book on management, author John (34) Case tells the story, of a hotel that was losing money because it was only two-thirds full (an average nightly occupancy rate of 67 percent). (35) Satisfied with these results, the hotel manager consulted a successful CEO, Jack Stack, who advised him to tell all his employees, from front-desk staff to housekeepers, about the low occupancy rate and its implications. The (36) manager, in doing that and more, displayed the occupancy rate every day. He also offered a bonus to every employee if the rate rose to 72 percent and stayed there. Staff began to work together to raise the rate by improving conditions at the hotel, and after eighteen months the rate was an astounding 85 percent. Stack’s method, known as open-book management (37) (OBM); may seem like common sense, but relatively few top companies have adopted it. Here’s why they should.

OBM has two core components: making financial and other corporate data available to all employees and (38) training those employees in OBM practices. Stack’s company, SRC, which rebuilds engines for trucks and other heavy equipment, shows how it works. SRC posts information about the company’s productivity and financial health throughout (39) its facilities. Because all employees either own stock in the company or earn bonuses based on the company’s financial performance, they see a tangible link between the company’s financial data and their own rewards, which motivates them to make an extra effort. Research supports the wisdom of the OBM approach: a recent study conducted by the National Center for Employee Ownership on over fifty OBM companies showed that these companies (40) on an annual basis enjoyed yearly sales-growth increases as much as 2.2 percent greater than those of non-OBM competitors. 

[1]So why aren’t more companies using OBM?[2] Business leaders have voiced a couple of concerns. [3] One is that sensitive financial data, if disclosed, could be exploited by competitors. [4] A second is that employees who learn how much a company makes and spends,        (41) regardless of whether the company is making large profits, might become resentful about having to economize in their own work. [5] However, evidence suggests that employees who (42) had understood the relationship between their daily responsibilities and the company’s overall financial (43) health are likely to become more cost conscious, not less. (44)

In short, more business leaders should open their books to employees. It may feel like a risk at first, but as John Case, Jack Stack, and others have shown, it’s a risk worth taking.