2 . After winning the 100-meter dash at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in August, 26-year-old sprinter (短跑运动员) Noah Lyles was named “World’s Fastest Man”. Now he has his ____ set on winning more medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Lyles, the son of two former runners, grew up in Alexandria, Virginia. He began ______ as a sprinter when he was a teenager and dreamed of going to the Olympics. He ______ for a spot (排名位置) on the US Olympic team in 2016 but did not ______. Fortunately, in 2021, he ______ the US team for the Tokyo Games and won a bronze medal in the 200-meter race.

Lyles has been ______ with legendary Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who has held the same ____   “World’s Fastest Man”. Bolt won the 100 meter and 200 meter races at the World Championships and still holds the ___in the 200 meter with a time of 19. 19 seconds, set in 2009. Lyles’ best time for that race is 19.31, and he said his _____ is to run it in 19.10 seconds, which would break Bolt’s record. Lyles said that he did not ______ top runners like Bolt as idols (偶像) while growing up. “I believed in myself and in learning something from _____people, because everyone has their own advantage,” he said.

After his win, Lyles said he felt that his years of training and patience have finally ______. In Paris next year, Lyles hopes to win more golds.   “If I got three gold medals at the World Championships, maybe I have the ______ to get three gold medals at the Olympics,” he said. His another expectation is to make track and field more _____ and accessible to a large number of people. “I’m trying to make sure that everybody comes and ______ the sport,” he said.

3 . Imagine you need milk, so you go to the grocery store to pick some up, only to find there are dozens of options. These days, you have to make a decision on not only the percentage of fat you want, but also what source you want your milk to be coming from: cows, soybeans... You have no idea what milk to pick. There are so many choices that you are confused.

This phenomenon is known as the paradox (悖论) of choice and it is becoming a concern in the modern world, where more and more options are becoming easily available to us. While we might believe that being presented with multiple options actually makes it easier to choose one that we are happy with, and thus increases consumer satisfaction, having too many options actually requires more effort to make a decision and can leave us feeling unsatisfied with our choice.

The idea was popularized by American psychologist Barry Schwartz when he published his book, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. Schwartz, who has long studied the ways in which economics and psychology intersect (交叉), became interested in seeing the way that choices were affecting the happiness of citizens in Western societies. He identified that the range of choices that we have available to us these days is far greater than that people had in the past; however, consumer satisfaction has not increased as much as traditional economics theories might expect.

Schwartz identified that the paradox of choice carries the most consequence for people that are maximizers. Maximizers, unlike satisficers, are concerned with making the best choice instead of simply making a choice that they are happy with. When there are many options available to maximizers, it becomes harder for them to determine which is the best, which can cause them to feel a great deal of regret after they have made a choice.

Instead of believing that freedom of choice is unlimited, Schwartz advocates that the role of psychology and behavioral economics should be to find the kind of limitations on freedom that can lead to the greatest level of happiness within society.

4 . A new study from the Netherlands has found that an important factor in a child’s ultimate level of education, even more important than their own family’s economic situation, is whether they grow up with rich neighbors nearby.

Researcher Agata Troost and her colleagues at Delft University of Technology used a national database to track the address of every Dutch baby born in 1995, a total of 140,338 people, from birth to age 23. Using geolocating software, they drew up a socioeconomic profile (概况) for each child's immediate neighborhood, figuring the percentage of neighbors who were rich, middle class or disadvantaged.

After controlling a number of other factors, including parents’ earnings and levels of education, the researchers found that a child's own experience of wealth or poverty mattered less to their ultimate level of schooling than exposure to well-off neighbors. The data suggest that growing up in a rich area, with well-maintained parks, libraries and soccer fields, as well as interactions with educated neighbors, could boost a poor child's ability to see beyond their immediate horizons (眼界).

“Rich families create neighborhoods and activities that create opportunities,” said Ms. Troost, and these advantages are shared with other children who happen to live nearby. The finding echoes an earlier study by Mr. Chetty and his colleagues, which showed that having even one inspiring teacher in middle school can improve a student’s career prospects. Whether in the classroom or on the street, it seems that social interactions outside the family can start a young person's motivation and ambition.

At the same time, the study also stressed the importance of the home environment. When parents are well educated, children are likely to be, too. And that's the moral of the story: Neighborhoods can have different effects on different children, depending on how educated their parents are, whether they are male or female, and how much casual contact they have with people who are different from their own families. “Location, location, location” may be a old saying for buying a house, but we're learning that it also holds true for children's development.

5 . Sadaf’s childhood was happy. She enjoyed going to school and meeting her friends. But one day, she returned home running a high temperature.

“We thought it was regular flu. But we were told that I would not be able to walk ever again now,” she recalls.

Sadaf was just 10 years old then. After the family was turned down by doctors in Kashmir, they went to Mumbai, where an operation was performed to treat her legs. But eventually, Sadaf had to rely on a wheelchair to move around. By this time, she had to discontinue her education.

Things worsened when her father, her “only source of support”, passed away. “Everyone except my father doubted my capabilities. But he always encouraged me to dream big. I missed him.”

“There were days when I would end up crying all day, sitting alone in my room. I was getting into depression,” she says.

“By now, I’ve realized that I have to either end my life or struggle to prove myself. I chose the latter. I wanted to prove to the world that people like me can also achieve something. I had just lost my ability to walk, not my ability to use my brain,” she adds.

That is when Sadaf decided to step up for herself. In 2015, she opened a shop but had to shut it a couple of years later as the work affected her eyesight. She says, “But I wanted to try my hands at everything. So I decided to play basketball as well. I have also been awarded multiple times by the Jammu and Kashmir Basketball Association.”

Recently, Sadaf tried selling unique spices of the Kashmir valley. “Today, I have established my own business without anyone’s emotional or financial support. People would question me what I could achieve sitting in a wheelchair, when their educated and able-bodied children sat idly (闲散地). Now the very same people give my example to others,” she says.

Sadaf believes that people with disabilities should never doubt themselves. “If you hear others say something not so positive, you may end up depressed. Instead of living within the confines (限制) of a room, try to prove yourself,” she advises.

6 . Pet parents — cats and dogs under 20 pounds — can travel on Capitol Corridor for $30 one-way! If your furry family member fits the bill, take them on your next adventure. Check out the information below and how to book your next trip. Our check-in process is simple, making traveling with your four-legged friend easy and enjoyable.

What to Know

As you plan your next train trip with your pet, note that we welcome a maximum (最大) of 6pets per train. Booking needs to happen in advance and only one pet reservation is allowed per customer. Pets cannot be booked with multi-ride tickets, bus connections or unaccompanied minors (未成年人).

When at the station, your pet must always travel in a carrier, which counts as one piece of carry-on baggage, and the combined weight of your pet and carrier is 20 pounds. While aboard trains, it must be able to sit, lie down and remain entirely inside without touching the sides of the carrier. It is not permitted in the Café, or Quiet Cars.

How to Book

Select your trip on the booking machine.

Add your travel details and proceed until you see the option to customize (定制) your trip.

Add a pet to your booking for $30.

Contact 800-USA-RAIL if you need to change your reservation.

The Rules

Your pet must be at least eight weeks old and be unsmelly, harmless, not disruptive, and require no attention during travel.

You confirm that your pet is up to date on all vaccinations and accept responsibility for your pet by signing the pet release document at check-in.

8 . A British architecture company has shown that it plans to build a luxury (奢华的) floating island resort made of recycled ocean plastic at a remote location in the Indian Ocean.

Margot Krasojević, the founder of Margot Krasojević Architecture, said that the 75-room hotel concept has funding to be built, but she did not say the source of funding. The hotel will be built on top of a “floating island” situated in Australia’s Cocos archipelago—a chain of islands situated 2,750 kilometers northwest of Perth, Western Australia.

Inspired by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the “Trash Island” under the resort will be woven (编织) from large plastic-filled bags and then fixed on the ocean floor. The bags will be weighed down with silt (淤泥) and sand to ensure the structural stability. Artificial “roots” designed to copy a tree with roots above the ground, will be placed around the structure to collect sediment (沉淀物) and act as a flood defense by water absorption and expansion when needed. The special structures will act like the island’s “life jacket” in an emergency, as they expand the trapped sediment and create artificial engineering land almost like an inflatable (充气的) runway. Guests of the hotel will shower in sea water that was specially treated. Krasojević said the plans were at an early stage and could take several years to build.

“The inspiration came to me when’ I saw the Pacific Ocean’s-fleet of plastic. This area is twice the size of France, because of the influence of ocean currents,” she said. “Plastic is malleable (有延展性的) and flexible, so it can be reprinted, reformed or broken down and rebuilt. I think it is a better choice than dumping garbage in’ landfills. It helps to raise the awareness of marine -waste, so it’s a good thing to do.”

9 . Telling jokes requires intelligence, creativity, imagination and the ability to tell a story, while listening to jokes is more passive behaviour but one that demands attention, intelligence and being in the right mood in order to enjoy jokes. Besides, there are also clear similarities between joke tellers and appreciators. A new study takes this further and tries to find other connections between creating humour and appreciating humour.

The author carried on the cartoon caption (字幕) task. 159 participants were shown more than 30cartoons without captions and were asked to come up with a funny caption for each one of them. Later, independent judges classified those captions based on how funny they were.

The results showed that those who produced the funniest captions also produced more captions overall. What was more interesting was that creating funny captions was negatively related to appreciation of humour. In other words, funny people tend to find jokes less funny than other people do. It is not clear why this is the case, but it might be because creators of great humour have higher standards of humour creativity and expect higher levels of creativity from people who tell jokes, compared to those who are not so good at creating humour.

Moreover, outgoing people and those who are open to new experiences found the cartoons funnier, but surprisingly, outgoing people are less likely to be funny. This is consistent with my own research that comedians were more introverted than the general population. They usually don’t like to express themselves in social situations.

Appreciation and production of humour are two different cognitive (认知的) tasks, each with unique characteristics. This is why when someone tells you he or she has a great sense of humour, you may ask, “Are you good at telling jokes or do you tend to laugh more?”