2 . People are often surprised by my fear of blood and needles. Working in a public health unit, I probably have more daily interaction with syringes (注射器) than the average person. But the truth is, having my blood drawn scares me.

When I was 9, I had an extremely high temperature. A nurse rudely stuck the needle into my arm, causing a sharp pain. I avoided having blood taken from my body for the next years. A few months before I turned 30, my doctor ordered a blood test as part of my physical exam. I am frightened. Sensing my fear, she gently suggested I see a psychiatrist (精神科医生). “Dr. M helped my other patients with the same fear,” she said.

When Dr. M called to set up an appointment, I hesitated. Talking about personal problems to a medically licensed stranger was uncommon in my family. “A psychiatrist?” Mother asked. “He’ll just put you on drugs. Can’t you get over this yourself?” I almost listened. But I went to Dr. M’s clinic finally. “Phobias (恐惧症) are pretty easy to treat,” he said. I wasn’t convinced of his words. But despite my doubts, I was running out of options.

We started with basic exposure treatment. I watched videos of blood being drawn every day. As I started to feel more at ease with needles, Dr. M suggested drawing blood. As he gently pressed the needle into my flesh, I felt dizzy and breathed deeply. After a few minutes, I looked at the needle. It wasn’t so bad. I didn’t pass out.

I still find it unpleasant getting blood drawn, but thanks to several months of treatment, I’m less scared. I hate to admit it, but Dr. M is right — phobias can be treated. Sometimes, we have to leave our comfort zone and face our fears. And this can lead to freedom in the end.

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

4 . As a student, you have a lot of freedom when it comes to how you spend your time. But with that freedom comes the responsibility to make the most of your studying hours. Here are some tips to help you do just that.

Create a schedule

This means setting aside specific times for studying each day and then sticking to that schedule as closely as possible.Of course, there will be days when things come up, and you have to deviate (偏离) from your plan.     1    

Break up your study sessions into smaller periods

Our brain can only focus effectively for so long before we start losing concentration     2     , chances are much higher that you won’t remember all of the information youre trying to learn. Instead, break up your study sessions into shorter periods of time, with breaks in between to help chances are much higher that you won’t remember all of the information youre trying to learn. Instead, break up your study sessions into shorter periods of time, with breaks in between to help you relax and recharge.

Find a study place that works for you

    3    . Some people prefer to study in complete silence,while others find that some background noise helps them focus better. There is no right or wrong answer here-its all about finding a place to study. that allows you to work as efficiently as possible.

Take practice quizzes

This will not only help you check your understanding of the concepts but also identify any area that may need more review     4    ,it will be much easier for you to direct your study sessions accordingly and make better use of your time overall.

    5    

If you find that you’re struggling to understand the material or just not making progress as quickly as you’d like,seek assistance in time. There is no shame in admiting that you need assistance. In fact, it can save lots of time in the long run by getting you the support you need early on.

6 . Children should do housework. That’s a controversial (有争议的) idea, though not everyone will admit it. A few parents will say that their children are too busy for housework. Many more of us assign (分派) housework, or say we believe in them, but the housework just doesn’t get done.

That’s a problem. For starters, housework is good for kids. Being a part of the routine work of running a household helps children develop an awareness of the needs of others, while at the same time contributing to their emotional well-being.

One small study, done over a period of 25 years, found that the best predictor (预测) for young adults’ success in their mid-20s was whether they participated in household tasks at age 3 or 4. Those early shared responsibilities extended to a sense of responsibility in other areas of their lives.

But for all that their help matters, few kids are doing much around the house at all. In a survey of 1,000 American adults, 75 percent said they believed regular housework made kids “more responsible”. Yet while 82 percent reported having had regular housework growing up, only 56 percent of those with children said they required them to do housework.

Sports and homework are not get-out-of-housework-free cards. The goal, after all, is to raise adults who can balance a caring role in their families and communities with whatever lifetime achievement goals they choose. Housework teaches that balance.

What should you do when getting children to do housework? Accept no excuses. Don’t worry if you must repeat yourself again and again. If you’re spending more time getting the child to do this job than it would take to do it yourself, then you’re doing it right. Can a payment help? Maybe. But if you’re trying to teach kids to share the responsibility of a home, paying them for routine housework is not the right message.

8 . Failure is probably the most exhausting experience a person ever has. There is nothing more tiring than not succeeding.

We experience this, tiredness in two ways: as start-up fatigue (疲惫) and performance fatigue. In the former case, we keep putting off a task because it has either too boring or too difficult. And the longer we delay it, the more tired we feel.

Such start-up fatigue is very real, even if not actually physical, not something in our muscles and bones. The solution is obvious though perhaps not easy to apply: always handle the most difficult job first.

Years ago, I was asked to write 102 essays on the great ideas of some famous authors. Applying my own rule, I determined to write them in alphabetical (按字母顺序), never letting myself leave out a tough idea. And I always started the day’s work with the difficult task of essay-writing. Experience proved that the rule works.

Performance fatigue is more difficult to handle. Though willing to get started, we cannot seem to do the job right. Its difficulties appear so great that, bow ever hard we work, we fail again and again. In such a situation, I work as hard as I can - then let the unconscious take over.

When planning Encyclopedia Britannica (《大英百科全书》), I had to create a table of contents based on the topics of its articles. Nothing like this had ever been done before, and day after day I kept coming up with solutions, but none of them worked. My fatigue became almost unbearable.

One day, mentally exhausted, I wrote down all the reasons why this problem could not be solved. I tried to convince myself that the trouble was with the problem itself, not with me. Relieved, I sat back in an easy chair and fell asleep.

An hour later, I woke up suddenly with the solution clearly in mind. In the weeks that followed, the solution which had come up in my unconscious mind proved correct at every step. Though I worked as hard as before, I felt no fatigue. Success was now as exciting as failure had been depressing.

Human beings, I believe must try to succeed. Success, then, means never feeling tired.

9 . In 2018, a severe drought brought Cape Town close to “Day Zero”, when it could have become the world’s first major city to run out of water. Dam levels in South Africa’s Western Cape fell to below a fifth of capacity and the province suffered its worst water crisis in 100 years.

“The water supply was dwindling and it just wasn’t raining,” recalls Thinus Booysen, a professor at Stellenbosch University, who had created a device in 2015 designed to help homeowners cut their power usage. Seeking to reduce water waste, Booysen figured he could adapt the device to measure water usage instead of electricity use.

Soon, Booysen launched a start-up, Bridging the Internet of Things (BridgloT), to develop his idea. Called Count Dropula, the device reports water usage once a minute while many conventional devices only record data once an hour. The system uses an app in the user’s cellphone and sends short messages in real time. “Within minutes, we would be able to tell the user, ‘Something has burst, or something is leaking,’” he says.

Then Booysen discovered that a key issue was maintenance (维修), with the poorest schools using by far the most water. Leaking toilets could waste 1,000 liters of water per day. “We found that the biggest problems are things like children not closing taps properly, but often that would be because the taps just don’t close,” Booysen explains. During the test, the invention saved one school more than three million liters of water in three months. Another reduced its water usage 55 percent in four months.

Businesses including Cape Talk radio station and Africa’s largest food company, Shoprite, became sponsors, partnering with the Western Cape Education Department to install (安装) test devices in 350 schools. They saved more than $2.7 million and almost 550 million liters of water in 17 months. Booysen has looked at expanding to government buildings, hospitals and hotels. There are plans to roll out the device across Africa.