1 . The feeling of envy (忌妒) strikes at many moments these days: When a friend buys a house, or when a neighbor shares good news about their successful side project while you’re caught by sky-high debts, and when a co-worker gets a new job while your career has no progress.

“It’s normal to feel envious. After all, envy is a universal emotion, and we don't have to feel ashamed by it,” psychologists (心理学家) say. In fact, psychologists suggest trying a powerful method and analyzing our envy to get clues about what we really want out of life. Doing so can help us figure out next steps in our careers and personal lives.

“Two distinct types of envy exist. Malicious (怀有恶意的) envy arrives with anger, annoyance and a sense of wanting to take an advantage away from another person,” says Jan Crusius, psychologist and professor of motivation and emotion at University of Greifswald in Germany. Benign (良性的) envy, on the other hand, is when you wish you were in someone else’s position but don’t feel like tearing them down. That envy can inspire self-reflection and the motivation to set new goals. Research from Crusius has shown that marathon runners who were to experience benign envy also set higher goals for themselves, and tended to run faster in their races.

Rather than bottle up envy when it occurs, start by asking who inspires a mix of admiration and envy in your life. If they’ve achieved a particular milestone, investigate why you’re drawn to that achievement. The answer may point you on a more fulfilling path. Changing your thoughts helps you view someone as a model to catch up rather than an opponent (对手) to defeat, and helps you focus on what you can control.

In 2019, Veronica, a park owner, planned to set free a bear named Archie into the wild, but Veronica worried about his well-being. So she came up with a brilliant plan. If she could prove that Archie was her pet, she could legally adopt him. To do that, she would need to prove beyond every doubt that she was in complete control of the animal.

So Veronica and Archie would go fishing to show the two of them having fun together. Seeing that the bear seemed happy and had a good life with her, the authorities had no choice but to declare that Archie was a pet. This made them very happy and they went fishing every week until something very strange happened one day.

Veronica noticed Archie suddenly started acting strangely. He started rocking the boat back and forth. Veronica looked at him, trying to understand what was happening. She saw in his look something she had never seen before. The bear was amazed at something. But what was it? Veronica put down her fishing rod(钓鱼竿) and gave Archie a hug. “What’s the matter, buddy ?” Then Archie did something she couldn’t have expected. He began to roar (吼叫) , and it got louder and louder. Then Veronica understood that he was calling her attention to see something. What’s he trying to tell me?” thought the confused woman.

Suddenly, Archie lifted his paw and pointed toward the bank. When Veronica looked carefully that way, she found something very surprising. On the shore of the lake was another bear! The animal appeared to be communicating with Archie. She felt there was no negative tension between them. Archie was looking at the other bear with a very warm and tender look.

Veronica then began to row the boat towards the shore. As they approached, Archie jumped out of the boat at high speed and ran toward the animal.

To her surprise, the two animals started hugging each other tightly.

Saying goodbye to her great companion was one of the hardest things Veronica had ever done in her life.

5 . Phonetic (语音) information—the smallest sound elements of speech - is considered by researchers to be the basis of language. Babies are thought to learn these small sound elements and add them together to make words. But a new study suggests that phonetic information is learnt too late and slowly for this to be the case. Instead, rhythmic (有韵律的) speech helps babies learn language and is effective even in the first few months of life.

Researchers from the Trinity College Dublin investigated babies’ ability to process phonetic information during their first year. Their study, published in the journal Nature Communications. found that phonetic information wasn’t successfully encoded (编码) until seven months old, and did not occur very often at 11 months old when babies began to say their first words. From then individual speech sounds are still added in very slowly—too slowly to form the basis of language.

The researchers recorded patterns of brain activity in 50 babies at four, seven, and eleven months old as they watched a video of a primary school teacher singing 18 nursery rhymes (童谣) to a baby. They found that phonetic encoding in babies appeared inchmeal over the first year of life, beginning with labial sounds (e.g. “d” for “daddy”) and nasal sounds (e.g. “m” for “mummy”), with the “read out” progressively looking more like that of adults.

“The reason why we use nursery rhymes is because that is the best way for babies to discover and connect sounds with language, so we are teaching them how to speak,” said Giovanni Di Liberto, lead author of the study at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. “Parents should talk and sing to their babies as much as possible or use baby-directed speech because it will make a difference to language outcome,” she added.

The day that I met my best friend for the first time, I was anxiously reviewing for an important exam in the local library. Because I kept being disturbed by others, I was unable to make any progress, The last straw was when I heard someone singing behind me. I turned around and gave the person a dirty look. It was a tall girl about the same age as me and she had a slight smile on her face. Standing near the “English Literature” section, she seemed to be looking for a book. “How could she be so selfish (自私的)?” I thought angrily.

I picked up my books, looked into her eyes and said angrily, “Please be considerate in public. I’ve been unable to study because of your terrible singing”

I still hate thinking of that moment. Let me tell you the rest of the story though.

Two hours later, I realized I’d forgotten my most important textbook in the library. What was worse, the library had already closed. I was close to tears. Just then, the phone rang. A soft voice introduced the speaker as Li Hua and asked if I was Jane. After confirming that I was, she told me that she had noticed my book in the library. As my phone number was in it, she called and told me she didn’t live far away and could bring it to me.

Paragraph 1: I sighed (叹息) with relief and agreed to meet her at the store down the road.

Paragraph 2: Can you believe we became best friends?

It was last summer that Anna reached retirement age and left the job she loved. She spent most of her working life teaching Chinese in a high school. A good teacher must know how to deal with children. She received many honours, including outstanding teachers in the town.

Her husband had passed away earlier and her children are all abroad. She was alone guarding a large house, so her friends advised her to enter a local nursing home. However, she loved being around people and was used to dealing with young people. Fortunately, there stood a library near her home, so she often visited it.

The library is both an invaluable resource and a beautiful space. Anna always appreciates the helpful staff and broad collection of books. “Studying from home gets lonely, so just to be around other people is very helpful,” she told her friends.

However, she still felt that there was room for energy in her heart and always thought about doing something more meaningful.

One day, the sign on the librarian’s desk read: “Readers Wanted for Project Read Aloud.” Anna looked at it as the librarian handed the book that she had chosen.

“What is Project Read Aloud?” Anna asked, bursting (满怀) with curiosity.

“Here’s the brochure about it. There’s a form inside to fill out if you want to become a reader. There is no pay, by the way,” the librarian said with a smile.

She loved to sit in one of the reading chairs in the reading room with the smell of books all around her and lose herself in a book. Once home, she sat down to read the brochure, which said, “Project Read Aloud aims to provide the opportunity of hearing stories read aloud in a comfortable setting.” That was a fine goal, she thought.

Anna filled out the form.

Soon, the audience began to walk in and find their seats.

8 . Scarlett did not eat regularly when she was three years old. At the time, her parents thought she was just a picky eater, but after a blood test and some other tests, they learned she had a rare heart condition.

“I was shocked. I always thought it was her stomach, but the result was beyond our imagination,” her mom, Shanna Tabron, says. “It was really tough to understand and let it sink in. The heart is the engine to your body, and it was heart-broken to hear it.”

In the following 5 years, Scarlett was in and out of the hospital while she waited for a new heart, before receiving a transplant in 2019. Since then, Scarlett said she’s been “feeling better”. And she is a cute and active girl and has found great joy through dancing, which she finds both fun and challenging. This year, when the doctor told Scarlett’s parents that they should not worry about Scarlett’s heart any more, the family even held a dance party for the lucky and brave girl.

Out of all the dancers in the world, Scarlett’s biggest inspiration is the amazing Rockettes. “They are the best,” Scarlett says. “Even when I was sick and went through so many tests, I could felt the power and energy they gave me.” She always wished to see the Rockettes in person.

Through a partnership between Make-A-Wish Southern Florida and Make-A-Wish Metro NYC, Scarlett and her family recently got to fly to New York City for an unforgettable weekend.

And when she found out that her dream of going to New York City to meet them was coming true, she was excited. “I’m really excited to go dancing with the Rockettes and watch their performance,” she said, after changing into a special dancing suit to show off her high kicks.

In tears, Scarlett’s mother observed the little girl during the show.

Then, Scarlett got to attend a private meet with the Rockettes dancers in person.

Johnny and his two younger sisters were very poor. They lived in a very old block of flats in the crowded part of the city. They had no father. Their mother went to work from morning till late evening, as a cleaning lady in many rich houses. Therefore, Johnny had to stay at home and look after his sisters.

Sometimes on a sunny day,he would take them to the nearby park. He had to be very careful when they crossed roads. Not having any pocket money, they could not buy chips or drinks. They had to be satisfied with sandwiches as a treat that Johnny made.

One day, after they had finished their sandwiches, Johnny’s youngest sister Mary looked at other well-dressed children nearby, who seemed to be on a picnic with their parents, eating all kinds of chips, cakes and many other goodies. Mary’s mouth was watering, and very much more, when their parents brought each of the five children huge ice-cream cones from the ice cream trundle cart (移动贩卖车) nearby. “I wish we had some money to buy cones,” she said eagerly. Johnny looked at her with sadness in his eyes. “You know we don’t have money for these expensive things,” he said. “Mom works hard for what we have.”

There was silence after that. As the children sat with sad faces, the ice cream man went past them with his trundle cart. They were sitting on a bench on a little grassy hill, which sloped (倾斜) gently down the path. The trundle cart had a hard time not running away downhill, as the ice cream man held on tightly to the handles, trying to break the speed. It so happened that suddenly a little boy of two ran in front of the cart following a flying balloon.

He did not see the cart coming downhill, but Johnny did.

Hearing the screams of the child, the anxious parents came running over.

I clicked the link (点击链接), sign un here. This wouldn’t be my first half marathon (马拉松赛跑); I had run a flat half when I was thirty-eight. But that was eleven years ago. Now, it was November 2022, and I’d had a shoulder injury before, and I was turning fifty. So, as awful as running 13.1 miles seemed, I was going to do it.

I signed up for a women’s training group, a group of strangers with whom I would spend a few months preparing for the race, and then I was directed to sign up for the actual race. I imagined a course somewhere beautiful in Florida. Or perhaps in sunny California, I was shocked when the race website opened, and I was greeted with the words, “Zion at night, half marathon in the darkness.” In Zion? At night? Oh, no.

I looked at the website. Was it to late to quit? Actually, I had just signed up for a coaching group that was meant to “encourage me through running”. Giving up before I even started seemed like a terribly shameful thing to do. I looked through the photos of the race.

I lost all my confidence. Runners wearing headlights and running shoes filled the computer screen. I couldn’t do this, I thought. I hadn’t run on paths in Delaware. I hadn’t run on paths or up hills. I clicked onto the next photo and looked at the happy runners advancing alongside a frightening cliff (峭壁). I was also afraid of heights.

A text came through my phone. It was Nicole, our training group’s brave leader, a woman who has run hundred-mile marathons. This is what happens when you run a race with someone who has strong willpower. “Sign up for the 4 am start time,” she wrote.

As I filled in my name and address, I tried to think about how likely I was to get injured during training. Realistically, that was my best way to get out of this race. I filled out the form and started worrying. About everything.

But Nicole encouraged me, saying that she was with me in spirit on every run.

On the day of the race, we drove to Zion at 4 am.