【推荐2】I got this strange idea that I would run for student body president (学生会主席) when I was in the eighth grade. To run for student body president is not a surprising decision for most outgoing and popular people. But in fact, I tended to daydream, read books that were not on the required list, and sat at the table at the cafeteria with the only two friends I had, Denise and Janice. What happened within two months led me to the single best method to succeed in achieving something.

Claire was perfect-in-front-of-adults and had decent grades, though she was rude to me, which motivated me to sign up to run against her for student body president. Denise decided we should form a mastermind group to get me elected. We met everyday, right after school, reviewing a list of students. We brainstormed reasons why each one might want to vote, in their own interests for me or more likely against Claire.

We used a method we learned from Denise’s sister. It meant that we looked for students who were most likely to influence a group of other students. Those are the people we approached first. My narrow victory was a surprise to many, frankly, including the three of us.

That’s how I got my first taste of the power of what’s now called Collective Intelligence. With the right model for how we meet, we become more valuable together than apart.

When a group commits to supporting each other by meeting regularly and acting by mutually agreed upon rules of engagement, remarkable things will happen. We tend to bring the best out in each other, as thousands have learned around the world through their mastermind groups. Individuals become tight-knit teams. We become happier and higher-performing with and for each other. It is never too late for you to start your own mastermind group of no more than seven members around a strong sweet spot of mutual interest, which will definitely evolve into something different and more meaningful over the years.

【推荐3】On my granddaughter Mary’   s 21st birthday，I sat with her and her expired (过期的)driver’   s license on a hard wooden bench at the DMV (the Department of Motor Vehicles)，waiting for our number to be called. The broadcast system announced numbers to call ticket holders to reach the desk to take an eye test or renew a registration. I felt as though we were staying at a bingo game，waiting for the winning number to be called so we could jump up and collect the prize.

And on that bench，I had a thought:The seemingly ordinary events I’   ve shared with my granddaughter were both my adventures and my rewards for just showing up. I grew up in an immigrant (移民)family in the suburb of Boston. A vacation for us was a bus trip to Central Square，with shopping bags filled with delicious foods like hard boiled eggs，followed by the muddy sand sucking our toes.

I looked forward to these small outings. It sounded boring to seek out the simple pleasures，but it was not. I traveled to remote islands，to Europe，and to many of America’   s cities. Those trips were refreshing，but they were breaks. I prefer the mainstream of the ordinary.

I like the day trips. But the most wonderful time was when Mary and I stayed in the reading room. We talked about her homework，and played the roles of two thinkers discussing the Enlightenment (启蒙运动). We had our private book club，reading A Prayer for Owen Meany and copying the voice of the main character.

All of these ordinary moments are more valuable than the time it will take to travel around the world. Many people love adventures，like skydiving or climbing Mount Everest. But that is not who I am. I don’t need those adventure experiences. In the end，it turns out that just showing up is enough for me.

【推荐1】Dreams of world peace are as old as wars. But as the women of Wales were recovering from World War I, they demanded peace in droves.

Still sorrowing the husbands, sons, and loved ones who fought in the war, in 1923 the Welsh League of Nations United (WLNU) drafted a petition (请愿书) at Aberystwyth University calling for a warless world.

The petition was signed by roughly three quarters of all the women in Wales and was said to be seven miles long. The document was then packed in a large oak chest and sent across the Atlantic.

It was the WLNU’s hope that America would join in their mission for peace, and so they toured with the petition across the country before President Calvin Coolidge gave it to the Smithsonian for preservation.

As the centennial anniversary of World War I approached, a plaque was found in the archives at the Temple of Peace in Cardiff mentioning the petition, but nobody knew what it was, says Mererid Hopwood, chair of the Women’s Peace Petition Partnership.

So in 2017, an email was sent to the Smithsonian inquiring about the status and location of the chest and its petition.

Having arrived at the National Library of Wales on March 29 this year, Hopwood received it along with other members of the Peace Petition Partnership and described opening the chest and finally getting to see its contents (内容) as an emotional moment.

Hopwood is hoping more Welsh citizens will have similar experiences now that the petition has returned to its original home. The petition will be digitized, along with all signatures and addresses, so the public can view it online and see if their grandmothers or previous tenants of their homes signed 100 years ago.

Clearly the world has not yet achieved the petition’s great goals, but Hopwood said the signatures gave her hope.

【推荐2】Is it possible to persuade mankind to live without war? War is an ancient institution, which has occurred ever since men were organized into units larger than the family. In the past human race managed to survive it. Why should it not continue to survive even if wars go on occurring from time to time? Moreover, people like war, and will feel frustrated without it. And without war there will be no adequate opportunity for heroism or self-sacrifice.

Modem technology has changed this. Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man. For the present, it is nuclear weapons that cause the most serious danger, but bacteriological or chemical weapons may, before long, offer an even greater threat. If we succeed in abolishing nuclear weapons, our work will not be done. It will never be done until we have succeeded in abolishing war. To do this, we need to persuade mankind to look upon international questions in a new way, not as contests of force, in which the victory goes to the side which is most skillful in killing people, but by arbitration (通过仲裁) in accordance with agreed principles of law. It is not easy to change very old mental habits, but this is what must be attempted.

There are those who say that the adoption of this or that ideology (意识形态) would prevent war. I believe this to be a big error. All ideologies are based upon dogmatic (武断的) statements that are, at best, doubtful, and at worst, totally false. Their followers believe in them so fanatically that they are willing to go to war in support of them.

The movement of world opinion during the past few years has been very largely such as we can welcome. It has become a commonplace that nuclear war must be avoided. Of course very difficult problems remain in the world, but the spirit in which they are being approached is a better one than it was some years ago. It has begun to be thought, even by the powerful men who decide whether we shall live or die, that negotiations should reach agreements even if both sides do not find these agreements wholly satisfactory. It has begun to be understood that the important conflict nowadays is not between different countries, but between man and the atom bomb.