When someone gives you advice, listen without judgment, try to find value in what you’re hearing, and say: “Thank you.” This wise advice is easy to understand yet hard to practice. I’ll give you an example from my life when I totally blew it in terms of practicing what I teach.

In my work I travel constantly. I always put off going to the airport until the last second. My wife, Lydia, was sitting next to me in the front seat. I was racing along and not paying much attention. Lydia cried out: “Look out! There is a red light up ahead.” Being a trained behavioral science professional—who teaches others the value of encouraging advice—I naturally screamed at her: “I know there is a red light up ahead! Don’t you think I can see?” When we arrived at the airport, Lydia didn’t speak to me. I wondered why she seemed mad at me.

During the flight to New York, I did a cost-benefit analysis. I asked myself: “What was the cost of just listening when Lydia called out the warning? Zero.” I then reasoned: “What was the potential benefit? What could have been saved?” Several potential benefits came to mind, including her life, my life, and the lives of other people. I landed in New York feeling ashamed of myself. I immediately called Lydia and told her my cost-benefit story. I convinced her: “The next time you help me with my driving, I am just going to say, “Thank you.”

A few months passed, and I had long forgotten the incident. Again, I was racing off to the airport, when Lydia cried out: “Look out for the red light!” I was embarrassed, and then shouted: “Thank you!”

I’m a long way from perfect, but I’m getting better. My suggestion is that you get in the habit of asking the important people in your life how you can do things better. And be ready for an answer. Some people may tell you things like “Look out for the red light.” When this happens, remember that there is possibly some potential benefit. Then just say: “Thank you.”

Almost everyone has heard the expression, “the calm before the storm”. It is usually used to describe a peaceful period just before a very stressful situation or a tense argument. British sailors coined the phrase in the late 1600s; they noted that before certain storms the seas would seem to become static and the winds would drop.

But why is it often so calm before a storm?

Science has given us the answer. According to US infotainment (资讯娱乐) website HowStuffWorks, a calm period occurs because many storms, such as tornadoes and hurricanes, draw in all the warm and humid air from the surrounding area. As this air rises into the storm clouds, it cools and acts as “fuel for the storm, like petrol in a car”. Once the storm has taken all the energy it can from the air, it is pushed out from the top of the storm clouds and falls back down to ground level. As the air descends, it becomes warm and dry. Warm, dry air is stable, so once it covers an area, it causes a calm period before the storm. This same process also causes the “eye of the storm” in hurricanes and tornadoes. In these conditions, the calm occurs in the center of the storm because of the strong rotating (旋转的) winds.

The Weather Network has a tip for working out how far away a storm is. First, count how many seconds there are between a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder. Roughly three seconds equal one kilometer. So, for example, if you count nine seconds, the storm is about 3 kilometers away. A good gauge (评估) is that if your count is below 30 seconds, you should seek shelter straight away.

However, due to the complexity of storm system, not all storms are preceded(先于) by calm. Given the right conditions, some storms announce themselves with heavy rain and chilling winds.

So, your best bet is to keep yourself updated with weather reports for any predictions regarding a coming storm in your area. That’s the most reliable and sensible way to predict the next display of nature’s temper.

Can small, organic agriculture really feed the world? Won’t we need science to produce enough food as the world population is growing to 9 billion by 2050? The answer to both questions is YES—but that science may look different than you think.

We have been told that the only way we will be able to feed the growing population is through the science of GM(转基因) crops and chemicals. But the latest scientific studies are saying just the opposite. In study after study, the message about agriculture is: To feed the world, we need to support sustainable(可持续的) agriculture on different, local, family farms that work with nature.

In 2008, an international study found that sustainable agriculture, not GM crops, shows more hope of ending hunger. The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (known as the IAASTD), calls for a change of the world’s food and farming systems.

The Assessment said that industrial agriculture has greatly destroyed the world’s soils and other natural resources, and now is doing harm to water, energy, and weather safety. The report warns that expensive, short-term ways—including GM crops—are not likely to cut down long-term hunger, and could even make environmental and social problems worse in many places.

A recent report by the UN Environment Program shows that food problems will become more serious because of environmental problems and strongly supports sustainable agriculture on small family farms. It also showed that a worldwide change to organics could actually increase the world’s food production by as much as 50%—enough to feed a population of 9 billion people with the land we have now. GM crops, once popular, are now being questioned worldwide.

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia (百科全书), is the largest encyclopedia ever. An encyclopedia is a collection of informative articles about various things. Encyclopedias used to be printed as books.     11    

“Wiki” is an internet term that means "a website that can be edited by the public." It comes from “wikiwiki”, a Hawaiian word for "quick". Two Americans, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, created Wikipedia in 2001.     12    It has about 6 million articles in 300 languages and is visited by billions of people each day, who want to find information on just about anything – science, math, languages, art, culture, and company histories. There are articles on sports stars, too, and even long-forgotten soap operas from the 1970s.

    13    Except for a small number of pages, anyone can edit articles, anonymously (匿名地) or with a user account, and registered (注册的) users can create their own articles. Editing is unpaid, although Wikipedia does employ a small staff. Wikipedia is freely available to anyone with an internet connection. Its founders hoped that the model would make use of humanity's collective knowledge.

    14    Many Wikipedia pages contain errors, although the organization has a content review system that works to fix this problem. Several studies have concluded that Wikipedia is as accurate as most print encyclopedias. Indeed, a 2005 report in the journal Nature found it to be only slightly less reliable (可靠的) than Encyclopedia Britannica.

    15    It does not rely on advertising. Instead, all of its funds (资金) come from donations. Perhaps more importantly, the number of its volunteer editors is shrinking.

Despite these difficulties, Jimmy Wales says he will still stick to his dream. He has big plans for the future. He wants Wikipedia available in all of the world's languages.