【推荐2】When someone reads the right book at the right time in his life, it can have a profound effect. Such is the case for the people on this list, who come from all walks of life. These people have singled out a book that they read which had a life-changing effect on them. They, in turn, affected the worlds of science, technology and politics.

1. That Printer Of Udell’s—Ronald Reagan

One book that had a big effect on former President Ronald Reagan as a child was the Christian-book That Printer of Udell’s, by Harold Bell Wright. The main character of the book, Dick Falkner, was born into a broken home with an alcoholic father. After losing both of his parents, Falkner moves to a bigger city, called Boyd City to make a living. However, everyone turns Dick down for a job, except for a printer. At the end of the book, Dick heads to Washington, D. C, to become a politician. It's said that the book showed him that good could defeat evil and that the good guys followed a code of morality, which can be seen as a driving factor in his presidency.

2. A Treatise Of Human Nature—Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was one of the greatest minds of all time. His name is synonymous with brilliance. So, what book had the biggest effect on such an important mind? It was A Treatise of Human Nature, by David Hume, which was published in 1738. Hume was a Scottish philosopher known for his contributions to philosophical skepticism(怀疑论). Einstein mentioned a few times that A Treatise of Human Nature had a large influence on him. He read the book just before coming up with his famous special relativity theory. In a letter, Einstein said that Treatise helped him formulate the ideas. It was like he already had the ideas in his brain, and Hume helped him to express them clearly.

3. The Aeneid—Mark Zuckerberg

When Mark Zuckerberg first added his likes to his Facebook profile, he put the book Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, as a favorite book. Later, in an interview with The New Yorker, Zuckerberg clarified that the sci-fi classic was one he enjoyed, but it wasn't his favorite. He said that his favorite book is The Aeneid, by Virgil, a Latin epic poem that was written somewhere between 29 - 19 BC about a group of Trojan survivors. Zuckerberg said he first read the book when he was in high school while he was studying Latin and that one thing that stuck with him was Aeneas's drive to follow his fate to build a city that “knows no boundaries in time and greatness".

【推荐3】You can get a clear picture about Deep Work by Cal Newport in 5 minutes. Deep Work tells us professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive (认知的) capabilıties to their limit. These efforts create new value and improve your skill. The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who develop the skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive (蓬勃发展)

The book tells us the core abilities for thriving in the new economy, which are the ability to quickly master hard things, the ability to produce a high level, in terms of both quality and speed. If you can’t learn, you can’t thrive. If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive- no matter how skilled or talented you are. If you haven’t mastered deep work, you’ll struggle to learn hard things. To learn hard things quickly, you must focus intensely without distraction.

The key to developing a deep work habit is to move beyond good intentions and add routines and habits to your working life designed to minimize a state of unbroken concentration. To master the art of deep work, therefore, you must take back control of your time and attention from the many entertainments on the Internet that attempt to steal them. Adopt a tool only if its positive impacts on these factors substantially outweigh its negative impacts. It’s crucial that you figure out in advance what you’re going to do with your evenings and weekends before they begin.

In the end of Deep Work, we can know that the ability to-concentrate is a skill that gets valuable things done. If you’re struggling to use your mind to its fullest capacity to create things that matter, then you’ll discover, as others have before you, that depth generates a life rich with productivity and meaning.

【推荐1】Adult Basic Education (ABE) and GED Preparation

The Adult Basic Education Department serves a huge population of earners. Our task is to teach basic skills and help learners to get more knowledge to function effectively as a family member, citizen, worker, and lifelong learner in a changing world.

ABE is a non-credit program of self-improvement designed to improve basic skills for students who are of different educational levels. Developments of reading, writing, and maths skills are paid special attention to, as well as life skills, employ-ability, and technology. Students without high school diplomas also have opportunities to prepare for the GED exams in the five subject areas; writing, social studies, science, literature, and maths.

ABE classes are open to anyone 18 or over who desires to improve basic reading, writing, and maths skills at the precollege level. Students who are 16 or 17 must first obtain an official release from high school before attending class. To be accepted, students must attend an Educational Planning Session. During the Educational Planning Session students will be given an overview of the ABE programs as well as PCC polities, fees, etc. Students will also have their reading, writing, and maths abilities assessed during the Educational Planning Session. The results of their assessments will help the teachers develop individual programs of study for students to guide them toward their personal goals. Students needing special help must get in touch with the Office for Students with Disabilities (503-977-4341) at least two weeks before the session is held.

【推荐1】In George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion,the storyline centers around three main characters:Eliza Doolittle,Professor Henry Higgins,and Colonel Pickering.Eliza Doolittle is a flower girl who is under the instruction of Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering to learn proper grammar and phonetics.Eliza can be characterized as a very sensitive（敏感的）and emotional person.She seeks to be treated like a duchess by men.Her personality clashes（冲突）with the personality of Professor Higgins in an extreme way.Professor Higgins is an arrogant（傲慢的）,work-obsessed expert in phonetics who views Eliza simply as an experiment.He is a bachelor who has never found a place for women in his life due to his obsession（痴迷）with language.Colonel Pickering is a gentleman from India who is also an expert in language.He is gentler than Higgins and treats Eliza with respect while maintaining a professional interest in her.These three characters make up the main action of the play as Eliza learns speech of the upper class from them.She manages to pass herself off as a Hungarian princess at a formal party.This achievement makes Eliza give credence to the efforts of Higgins and Pickering.After experiencing life in the upper class,Eliza settles for a lower-class life with a man who loves her for who she is and wants to marry her.After some small and unimportant disputes,Eliza and Higgins remain friends later.Other memorable characters include Mrs Higgins who maintains an authoritative（权威的）figure over her grown son and Mr Doolittle who rises from a dustman to a respected speaker in the community.

I think that this is a good book because it shows that happiness can be achieved without wealth and fame,I highly recommend it due to its emphasis on grammatical and phonetic correctness.

【推荐2】Since it was first published in 1843, the novella (短篇故事）A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens has been loved by millions of people, and perhaps has inspired them to love more and give more. It has been adapted for theatre, television and film. Dickens is known as the best author of the Victorian times writing on social issues affecting his times, such as poverty, child labour and urban development, especially in London where he lived.

Charles Dickens was no strangers to poverty. His father had been thrown in prison for debt in 1824, and he had been removed from school and put to work as the second oldest child of eight children.

Only 12 years old and no longer able to attend school, he spent his time putting labels on pots of black polish. ①

How lonely and worthless he felt there! All his hopes and dreams of making something of his life were ended. It seemed not an adult in the world cared for his hopes or his abilities, not even his own parents.He wondered "how he could be so easily thrown away at such a young age"②

Dickens' father was set free from prison after a year,and Dickens was put back into school for three years until he had to leave again to work as an office boy. Eventually, he started writing stories for the papers.With money coming in and then children,Charles had taken a mortgage(抵押贷款）on a big house.His next novel was not as well received and his future payments were cut. Charles needed to make money and he needed to make it fast. Criticism (批评） of his new novel hurt his confidence;it is not easy to write when you are down and struggling. He needed new ideas and inspiration,but he was running out of time.

③

As he walked the streets after dark, through what he called the “black streets”of London, he again saw the poor ,who had little food or warmth in the cold weather , and the closed-up houses, like the doors of the hearts of many who do not want to love and give.   ④

He happened to find the idea of a Christmas story that could show this-and warm the hearts of the poor and open the hearts of the selfish.   He needed to write fast and that is probably why we only have a novella, but a novella was enough to share his story. He filled the story with character and scenes which he had already written about in his other stories, Scrooge, the main character,is a selfish self-centred man who hates Christmas the tine of giving . His late business partner, also a greedy man, comes back from the dead as a ghost to warn Scrooge.You will need to read the story yourself to see how Scrooge finally changes his ways.

The plan to rescue himself financially also rescued Dickens emotionally. As he wrote about Christmas and the wonderful time of gift giving,family gathering,carol singing and feast sharing, his own heart was cheered and he remembered those things that really mattered to him He loved writing the book and produced a special story,which is still loved around the world. New inspiration and fresh confidence set Dickens on a new path to success.

【推荐3】Science has a lot of uses. It can uncover laws of nature, cure diseases, make bombs, and help bridges to stand up. Indeed science is so good at what it does that there’s always a temptation (诱惑) to drag it into problems where it may not be helpful. David Brooks, author of The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, appears to be the latest in a long line of writers who have failed to resist the temptation.

Brooks gained fame for several books. His latest book The Social Animal, however, is more ambitious and serious than his earlier books. It is an attempt to deal with a set of weighty topics. The book focuses on big questions: What has science revealed about human nature? What are the sources of character? And why are some people happy and successful while others aren’t?

To answer these questions, Brooks surveys a wide range of disciplines (学科). Considering this, you might expect the book to be a dry recitation of facts. But Brooks has structured his book in an unorthodox (非常规的), and perhaps unfortunate, way. Instead of introducing scientific theories, he tells a story, within which he tries to make his points, perhaps in order to keep the reader’s attention.So as Harold and Erica, the hero and heroine in his story, live through childhood, we hear about the science of child development and as they begin to date we hear about the theory of sexual attraction. Brooks carries this through to the death of one of his characters.

On the whole,Brooks’ story is acceptable if uninspired. As one would expect, his writing is mostly clear and, to be fair, some chapters stand out above the rest. I enjoyed, for instance, the chapter in which Harold discovers how to think on his own. While Harold and Erica are certainly not strong or memorable characters, the more serious problems with The Social Animal lie elsewhere. These problems partly involve Brooks’ attempt to translate his tale into science.