Great hotels in the Florida Keys

Stopping in Key Largo? Then check out Baker's Cay Resort. The 13-acre, 200-room hotel comes with all the thoughtful facilities (设施) you expect: two swimming pools, a winding nature path linking hidden beaches, and a spa (温泉浴场). Want to bring your pet? No problem. The hotel even offers your dog cooled water bowls. For more information,call 305-852-8669.

Reopened a year ago after a redecoration, the 27-acre, 214-unit oceanfront hotel on the Atlantic now looks better than ever with a new restaurant, a spa, a rebuilt 525-foot fishing place, and a nine-hole golf course. And there is more to come. For more information, call 305-664-4651. Isla Bella Beach Resort Expectation is building for the 24-acre, 199-unit Isla Bella Beach Resort scheduled to open this month. Near to the famous Seven Mile Bridge, it will have several restaurants, five oceanfront pools, and a 4,000-square-foot spa. For more information, call 844-752-2352.

If you're headed down to the Lower Keys, be sure to check out the Perry Hotel Key West. Inspired by Matthew Calbraith Perry, the father of the United States Navy, the hotel's easy atmosphere stays true to the seafaring (航海的) roots of Old Key West. The 100-room hotel offers a waterfront swimming pool, two restaurants and direct access to the ocean. For more information, call 305-296-1717.

In the fall of my junior year, my mother announced that she had signed me up for a volunteering project in Bolivia for my New Year's break. My first thought was,“That's impossible! I want a new computer and a new dress. How will I ever get all those gifts down there?” I was careful not to say these selfish things out loud. Was I really going to spend my New Year's break working in an orphanage in one of the poorest countries in the world?

The day finally came anyway. The children must have heard the engine and grinding (摩擦声) of the bus tires on the rough road, for as the bus turned the corner, I could see no fewer than fifty sets of clear, brown eyes looking eagerly at us. Immediately sprinting (奋力地跑) toward us, one little girl, Naomi, leapt into my arms and kissed my face before even saying,“Hola!”Excited by our arrival, the children directed us to the community center, really a basketball court, which had been decorated with colorful paper. Dressed in traditional Bolivian skirts, the teenagers sang a song as the younger children danced. Having obviously rehearsed (排练) for a long time, they proudly gave us this wonderful show.

The orphanage included ten “casas,” each housing a“family”of eight children. One afternoon I was invited to Casa San Francisco to eat lunch with one of the“families.”As I was served my plate, three-year-old Maria spilled her apple juice all over my food. Knowing not enough food was left in the pot, Eduardo, the eldest boy, offered me his. When I refused, he switched the plates anyway.

Not until several weeks after our return did I realize,“Hey, I didn't get that computer or the new dress.”At the same time, I realized how much I might have missed had I not gone on my Bolivia trip. The gifts I received from the orphaned children added not a single pound to the baggage I carried home, for the lasting gifts they gave me were those of joy, of friendship, and of growing up.

We have long known that, for particular skills, people tend to rate themselves incorrectly. In a famous study in 1981, researchers asked people to rate their driving ability. More than 90 percent considered themselves above average. Of course, some people who think they are above average drivers really are. But the 90 percent statistic shows that many people inflate how they compare with others. In fact, only 50 percent of people can rate above average.

So when are people likely to be overconfident in how they rank? And when are they underconfident? Spencer Greenberg of Clear Thinking and his team conducted a study and asked people where they ranked on 100 skills.

For each skill, participants were asked how they thought they compared with others on the platform who shared their age and gender (性别), and lived in their area. If, on average, people thought they could outperform more than 50 percent of others at the task, that suggests systematic overconfidence. If, however, people thought they would outperform less than 50 percent, that's evidence of underconfidence.

There was great variation in how people assessed their relative skills at a task. On average, people rated themselves better than 75 percent of others in their ability to use a computer, for example. But people rated themselves better than only 32 percent of others in their ability to knit (编织) a sweater.

Next, the researchers found that people tend to be overconfident when it comes to tasks that are viewed as easy and underconfident when it comes to tasks that are viewed as hard. People overestimate (高估) how they compare with others in cutting up vegetables but underestimate where they rank in their ability to recite the alphabet backward.

Also, the more experienced people are at a task, the more people tend to be overconfident. People tend to be overconfident in their skill at frying an egg, which most people have done multiple times, and underconfident in their ability to paint a portrait (画像), which most people have rarely tried.

As the hot tears rolled down her face, I knew I had asked the wrong question. The words reverberated ( 回 响 ) in my mind: Widowed or divorced?

“Well, you could call me widowed,” she replied. “My husband died five months ago today.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I needed it to fill out your credit application.”

“Don’t worry about it, honey,” she said. “If I never thought about it, I would not remember the love and the memories we shared. Even after 50 years of marriage, each passing moment would bring a deeper meaning to the word ‘love’.”

I began to deal with her credit application, words hung in the air. My mind was not focused on the task, and I was unsuccessful in my first few attempts. After I finally completed it, she continued in a heart-to-heart. I couldn’t believe someone could open up to a perfect stranger.

“Have you ever been married?” she asked.

I couldn’t help but laugh. I hadn’t even thought about getting married. Besides, I looked nothing like a married woman.

“Ah, no,” I replied. “I’m only 16.”

“Sixteen?” she murmured (嘟囔).“That’s a great age, an age of lessons. There’s so much worth learning.”

She then spoke in a whisper, sharing the one lesson that I will carry with me the rest of my life. “Never, ever take anyone for granted . If you are in love with someone, let it be known as often as you feel it. Otherwise, life may pass you by. Don’t spend your life angry. The ridiculous arguments you think are important won’t even be remembered in a short time.”

I have never seen that woman again, but her words of inspiration still live in me.