【推荐3】Should we focus on our goal, or on the process?

What happened to Brenda Martinez, a US Olympic runner, may provide us with the answer. She lost her balance in the 800 m race and failed to qualify for the Olympics. Focusing on everything that would give her another chance, she quickly let go of what happened in the 800m race and got back to her routine. A week later, she won the third place in the 1500 m race to qualify for the Olympics in Rio. Instead of attaching herself to the goal of making the Olympic team, she concentrated on the process.

Generally, overemphasizing goals based on ultimate outcomes often leads to risk-taking, unethical (不道德的) behavior and reduced motivation. We see this happen in the real world all the time: someone becomes driven by the external rewards and recognition that he hopes accomplishing his goal will bring, and, in the worst case, he’ll go to any extreme to achieve it such as taking harmful diet pills to lose weight or using banned drugs in a competition. These are all predictable side effects of overemphasizing goals.

Another danger of only focusing on goals is giving up all the merits after completing them. For example, some marathon runners experience what’s called the “post-race blues”. Achieving their goal may cause them to drop the good habits that got them there. Dieters often experience this in what’s called “yo-yo dieting” — gaining all the weight back while resuming their bad habits after they drop down to a desired weight.

However, focusing on the process will help you to achieve little victories on your way to achieving long-term goals and leave you with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, regardless of the ultimate outcome. It means breaking down a goal into little parts and concentrating on those parts. For Martinez, this meant not worrying about her bad luck in the 800m race, but rather ensuring she got in the right nutrition, sleep and workouts to give herself the best chance to run a good race in the 1500m race.

Therefore, after you set a goal, it’s best to shift your focus from the goal itself to the process that gives you the best chance of achieving the goal, and to judge yourself based on how well you do in the process.

【推荐2】More than 100 scientists from 25 countries have traveled to faraway places to collect wild crop seeds(种子) in an effort to help battle climate change.

The scientists, who have been compared to the heroes of the “Indiana Jones” movies, traveled on foot, four-wheeled vehicles(交通工具), boats, horses and even elephants to reach faraway areas. They faced extreme heat,dust, and danger from wild animals. At last, they collected 4, 644 seeds of 371 wild relatives of 28 world crops, many of which are said to be endangered.

The Crop Trust, an organization that works to save different kinds of crops, is directing the project. The group is working in partnership with Britain's Royal Botanic Gardens and Millennium Seed Bank. Additional financial support comes from Norway. The project is believed to be the largest organized international effort yet to collect and protect crops' wild relatives.Hannes Dempewolf is a scientist and the head at the Crop Trust. He said“What these seed collectors went through in the field resembles scenes from an Indiana Jones movie.”

Some crops are threatened because of destruction of forests, climate change and expanded cities. The newly-found wild seeds have developed so plants can grow in extreme temperatures, poor soils, and even in low rainfall areas.

A United Nations report says that food production is at risk because of a shortage of rain and other weather extremes connected to climate change. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says that the number of plant species is quickly decreasing and people are depending on fewer species for food. Those wild seeds could be important in feeding a growing human population in some areas and offer a largely unused source of diversity(多样性) to crops.

【推荐3】Do you know Australia? Australia is the largest island in the world. It is a little smaller than China. It is in the south of the earth. Australia is big, but its population is not large. The population of Australia is nearly as large as that of Shanghai.

The government has made enough laws to fight pollution. The cities in Australia have got little air or water pollution. The sky is blue and the water is clean. You can clearly see fish swimming in the rivers. Plants grow very well.

Last month we visited Perth, the biggest city in Western Australia, and went to a wild flowers’ exhibition. There we saw a large number of wild flowers we had never seen before. We had a wonderful time. Perth is famous for its beautiful wild flowers. In spring every year Perth has the wild flowers’ exhibition.

After visiting Perth, we spent the day in the countryside. We sat down and had a rest near a path at the foot of a hill. It was quiet and we enjoyed ourselves. Suddenly we heard bells ringing at the top of the hill. What we saw made us pick up all our things and run back to the car as quickly as we could. There were about three hundred sheep coming towards us down the path.

Australia is famous for its sheep and kangaroos (袋鼠). After a short drive from any town, you will find yourself in the middle of white sheep. Sheep, sheep, everywhere are sheep.