【推荐3】You know that overnight success usually takes at least 10 years? One man said, “My overnight success was the longest night of my life, I spent many days and nights just getting there.”    1       Many people are waiting for their ship to come in---when they’ve not even sent it out of the harbor(海港). You see, winners simply do what losers don’t want to do.     2     Success is mostly just hanging on after others have let go! So the most important trip you’ll make is when you go the extra mile.

Many people who have failed do not know how close they are to success when they give up.         3    One guy said, “The secret to success is to start from doing and to keep on doing.” So don’t give up because your trying times are hard.

    4     If we keep doing, we can gain almost anything we want. The American President Calvin Coolidge said, “Nothing can bring success like persistence(坚持). Talent can’t, for there are many talented people who are not successful.     5       Only persistence and determination can give you the power to succeed.” You see, you can succeed just like anyone else, just keep wanting it enough and to keep working for it enough. So why not decide it today to start going the extra mile on the road to your success?

【推荐1】A so-called “smart drug” intended to improve people's cognitive (认知的) function to protect the brain from altitude sickness.

Visiting high-altitude sites for work, spot, religious pilgrimages and military can result in cognitive effects, including memory loss and attention difficulties. There's little you can do to prevent these symptoms except acclimatize -but this takes time and doesn't always work. A drug called oxiracetam might be the answer.

ShengLi Hu at the Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China and her colleagues studied the performance of male military personnel at altitude. All lived in towns around 1,800 meters above sea level, During the study, they spent eight days at this altitude and then climbed for three days to reach 4,000 meters, where they stayed for up to a month.

Twenty participants took oxriacetam three times a day for the first 15 days of the study, while another 20 received no intervention. The man did tests of attention and memory at the start and end of the study and 20 days in, by which time they had been at 4,000 meters for nine days.

While all the participants experienced a drop in cognitive ability at 4,00 meters, those who took oxiracetam showed a much smaller drop than the control group.

The team found that at high altitude the brain stem, which plays a critical role in supporting basic living functions, received blood at the expense of areas responsible for more advanced cognitive functions. But in people who took oxiracetam, blood flowing throughout the brain rose,thus offering more oxygen to these areas. This may be how the drug seems to lessen cognitive problems like with low oxygen.

It isn't yet known whether diverting blood in this way could have negative effects in the long run. "The results are striking and imply that oxiracetam may be beneficial for helping to relieve cognitive ability decline caused by altitude." says Timothy Hales at the University of Dundee, UK.

【推荐1】As temperatures approached 90 degrees in New York City last July 4th, three police officers walked into a Whole Foods Market to get something cold to drink.

Once inside, the cops, Louis Sojo and Officers Ricky Cuevas and Michael Rivera, were approached by a store security guard who asked for help with a suspected shoplifter. The woman in question didn’t have the look of a career criminal. She was obviously scared, and her cheeks were wet with tears.

The cops went through her bag. “All we saw was containers of food. We didn’t See anything else,” Cuevas told CBS New York.

“I’m hungry,” she explained quietly.

Caught on the scene, the woman no doubt expected to be cuffed and put to prison for the crime of being hungry while poor. But the cops had other ideas. “We’ll pay for her food, Sojo told the surprised security guard.

There’d been no discussion among the three men. It went unsaid. Instead, they picked up the woman’s bag and accompanied her to a cash register, where each chipped in $10 to pay the bill. She would not be taken to the police station.

All the woman could do was weep in gratitude. Covering her face with a handkerchief and drying her eyes, she repeated, “Thank you, thank you.”

Paul Jones, who was at the store was so taken by what he’d witnessed that he posted a photo on Twitter for all to see.

But attention was never what the officers sought. They were driven by a far more common emotion. When you look at someone’s face and see that they need you and they’re actually hungry, it’s pretty difficult as a human being to walk away from something like this.

【推荐2】When I was ten years old, I went to the US to visit some family friends. We travelled all the way from California to Las Vegas. I noticed something funny about the way everyone spoke English. I was thinking, “This is the way they speak in films!”

At the beginning of the holiday, one of my friends asked me if I wanted to order “French fries.” I couldn’t imagine what French fries were. What was fried and French?! Snails? Cheese? She was amazed that I had never tried them and she ordered a portion for us to share. When the waiter brought us some chips, I asked her where the French fries were. She pointed to the plate of chips! Later that week she said she was going to buy some “chips” from the supermarket. She came out with a packet of crisps!

During that holiday we were also offered “biscuits and gravy” with our lunch. This was a very strange idea to me, because in England biscuits are sweet. Gravy is a salty, meat-based sauce. I later realized that “biscuits” in America are savoury snacks. What we call “biscuits,” they call “cookies.”

One day, I saw an “eggplant” pizza on the menu in a restaurant! Eggs do not grow on plants, I thought. What on earth could an “eggplant” be? Something eggy and leafy? My dad ordered this pizza and it was covered in aubergines. I asked him where the “eggplant” was. He laughed and pointed to the aubergines. He told me, “They call this ‘eggplant’ in America!”

Although the same “language” may be spoken in different countries, there are likely to be many differences, not just in vocabulary but also in spelling, grammar and pronunciation! I think part of the excitement of learning a language is discovering the differences in how it is spoken in different places.

【推荐3】What is a family? Why does it matter? What does it teach us that we can’t learn on our own? These questions seem especially relevant in the holiday season when it is often our tradition to gather as families and celebrate together.

My mother was one of twelve children. As they grew up, married and had children of their own, most of them lived near enough to gather for holidays at my grandparents’ home in a small town in the mountains of North Carolina.

I don’t recall getting many gifts from them. I remember the sense of belonging, of being part of something that assured me I was loved and not alone.

I delighted in the laughing, playing and fighting with my crazy cousins.

I watched my granddad and uncles sit on the porch (门廊), rain or shine, smoking and joking, arguing about politics and trying to solve the problems of the world.

I listened to my grandmother, mother and aunts stir pots on the stove and talk about their lives, hopes, dreams and disappointments, and gossip about any sister who failed to show up.

The food was always plentiful and delicious – country ham, sweet potatoes, green beans, biscuits and my grandmother’s banana pudding. But for me, the food was never the highlight. The highlight was simply being together. A family.

However, they’re all gone now. My parents and grandparents, my aunts and uncles have left this world for the next. My cousins are scattered (分散) here and there. And yet the memories linger, along with the love that we shared.

I treasure those memories and the things they taught me. They told me that families aren’t perfect, but they prepare us to find our way in an imperfect world. They made me realize that all families are crazy in their own peculiar (独特的) ways.

My husband and I are growing a new family, while keeping close to the surviving members of the families. It’s a beautiful blend (混合) of kindness, traditions, nurturing (养育) and friendships, which grows year after year.

I hope this holiday season will fill you with lovely memories of the family that raised you, and surround you with all the people who mean “family” to you now.