1 . Many of our most worrying problems, from overeating to not saving enough for retirement to not working out enough have something in common: lack of self-control. Self-control is what gives us the capacity to say no to choices that are immediately satisfying but costly in the long term — that a piece of chocolate cake (instead of an apple), that afternoon in front of the couch (instead of a visit to the gym).
The problem of self-control has puzzled psychologists and behavioral scientists for decades. A great deal of research has identified situations in which self-control failures are likely to happen and tools to help people exercise better control.
Entrepreneurs have also become interested in self-control, as is evident from the many diet and exercise apps and gadgets on the market. To take one notable example, on the commitment contract website stickK.com, users put down some money (say, $200) and state a goal they want to achieve (such as to lose ten pounds in a month).
Tools like stickK.com can be effective, but they are often difficult to implement. My colleagues and I conducted a new research to point to a different solution that may be easier to carry out: using rituals.
A.They have to point out someone to monitor them and ensure they reach the goal or donate the money. |
B.Despite our best intentions, we often fail to meet our goals. |
C.Rituals are series of steps we take while attaching some kind of symbolic meaning. |
D.In the past, my colleagues and I have found that rituals reduce anxiety before stressful tasks, and improve performance. |
E.They also need to state what will happen to the money if they don’t stick to their commitments (e.g., it’ll go to a friend or to a charity they do not like). |
F.For instance, research has found that people persist for longer on tasks that require self-control when they know they’ll be paid for their efforts, or when they are told that their work will benefit others. |
2 . Success Requires “Ample Doses of Pain”
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, has a simple message for young people who want to achieve greatness: No pain, no gain. That was essentially his message for students at his alma mater, Stanford University, where he made a speech at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
“Greatness is not intelligence.
“One of my great advantages is that I have very low expectations,” Huang said, noting that most Stanford graduates have very high expectations as a result of having an elite education. Often people with very high expectations have very low resilience because they are not accustomed to, or prepared for, failure. “
“To this day I use the phrase ‘pain and suffering’ inside our company with great joy,” Huang told the Stanford students. “
A.Greatness comes from character. |
B.Unfortunately, resilience matters in success. |
C.Building character is a key factor in determining success. |
D.When it comes to achieving success, Huang knows more than most. |
E.That’s why I still worry Nvidia could ultimately fail, despite its massive success. |
F.I mean that in a happy way, because you want to refine the character of your company. |
3 . It is certainly difficult to make money. But should money be difficult to give away? In The Gilded Age, industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller worried about waste and misuse; Carnegie wrote in 1889 that $950 of every $1,000 that went to charity was “unwisely spent”.
Fortunately, a new generation of donors is once again shaking up the world of big philanthropy (慈善事业). Leading the mission is MacKenzie Scott, who simplified the process of giving and is donating billions of dollars a year with few conditions. This “no-strings giving” is changing mega-donors’ long-held assumptions.
One is the recognition that philanthropists do not have to do everything themselves.
Another lesson from the no-strings crowd is that philanthropists can trust recipients to put money to good use once the proper due diligence is in place. That means analyzing a nonprofit organization’s annual reports and interviewing its leaders and other funders.
A.It offers lessons for those struggling to get money out of the door. |
B.In addition to that, her charity work is too numerous to mention. |
C.However, this idea that charities’ money is wasted has been proven wrong by evidence. |
D.Mega-donors no longer need to endure the trouble of setting up a foundation and hiring staff. |
E.Two decades on, however, it’s become clear that all this paperwork puts the brakes on giving. |
F.Around the turn of the millennium donors looked to data and rules as a way to stop waste. |
4 . Monarch Butterflies Listed as Endangered
The monarch butterfly, known for its legendary migration from Mexico to Canada, is now at great risk of extinction. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the population of this orange-and-black insect has shrunk between 23% and 72% over the past 10 years. IUCN has labeled it as being endangered after having added it to its Red List of Threatened Species.
Another factor at play is the use of herbicides (除草剂) in agricultural fields.
Climate change has also taken a heavy toll on the species.
Monarch experts are calling for the public’s help in the fight to save the species. “Few species inspire the awe and wonder that the migratory monarch butterfly commands,” said Dr. Sean T. O’Brien, President and CEO of Nature Serve. “While efforts to protect this species are encouraging, much is still needed to ensure its long-term survival.”
What can be done to case the problem? A middle-of-the-road solution is gaining ground. Scientists recommend promoting the growth of native milkweed and nectar flowers. Monarch butterflies are a common backyard insect in America, so everyone can contribute their share. —
A.People can plant milkweed to support their egg-laying and caterpillars. |
B.When they are caterpillars (幼虫), monarchs entirely depend on milkweed. |
C.Hence, local people should maintain thick forests and reduce the use of pesticides within the monarch’s range. |
D.The reasons for the threat to monarchs are varied, but the leading one is the decades-long destruction of its habitats. |
E.In a one-two punch, droughts have limited the growth of milkweed, thus threatening the butterflies’ overwintering habitats. |
F.To help ensure the survival of monarchs, the habitats of the Monarch butterfly need to be protected and conserved. |
5 . The Maya loved cacao so much that they used the beans as currency. They also believed it is good for you — which many people still say today about cacao’s most famous byproduct, chocolate.
Flavanols may also boost insulin sensitivity, according to some studies, which might be helpful in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes (糖尿病).
What these findings mean for chocolate is limited, however. Participants would have had to eat multiple fat and sugar filled chocolate bars a day to source 500mg of flavanols.
A.Cacao contains hundreds of bioactive plant compounds, including flavanols, which have been associated with numerous possible health benefits. |
B.In 2022, Sesso and colleagues found compelling evidence for the benefits of flavanols. |
C.But the results aren’t conclusive. |
D.Spurred by chocolate’s popularity, numerous studies have explored bow the natural chemical compounds found in cocoa might be good for human health. |
E.All chocolates are definitely not created equal. |
F.But there’s still more research to be done to understand these effects. |
6 . Successful people have a few common characteristics that make them great. Now look at the following common traits exhibited by successful people that I have observed across various fields including sports, business and arts.
Self-disciplineI put this at the top of the list simply because without self-discipline nothing is possible. Self-discipline is a quality that can be developed by having a clear idea on what we want and then ensuring the desire to succeed is greater than the consequences of not doing it. If we want to exercise 5 times a week, then we can imagine the enormous benefits of exercise and visualise that while trying to keep the end goal in mind.
Angela Lee Duckworth says that grit is the single quality that guarantees success, based on her groundbreaking studies. There are going to be setbacks, like we may not get the promotion we wanted, but having patience and perseverance never goes out of fashion. Talent will not take the place of persistence and resilience.
One of the best kept secrets of the highly successful is the ability to keep learning something new every day in their field or related fields. The hallmark of learning is curiosity. Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, is an excellent example of someone who kept learning till the end of his life.
A.You can be down but never out. |
B.I have noticed that a lot of successful people take care of themselves better. |
C.If we want to achieve all the things we want, then self-discipline is the best place to start and we have 100% control on this. |
D.He was always learing something new. |
E.When you have high self-esteem, you generally feel more positive about life and do better at work. |
F.Passion is the fuel behind the success engine. |
7 . What a chatbot can teach us about the art of conversation
After lunchtime on May 2, 1989, a student at Drake University in Iowa started an online text chat with a user at University College Dublin. The UCD user’s handle was “MGonz”.
Over the next hour and 20 minutes, the two exchanged insults (谩骂). When the student logged off, he wrote off MGonz as an abusive troll (山怪). But while MGonz was abusive, it was not a troll — it was a simple chatbot programmed by UCD undergrad Mark Humphrys. The next day, Humphrys reviewed the chat logs in astonishment. His MGonz chatbot had passed the Turing test.
The Turing test was invented by the mathematician, codebreaker and computing pioneer Alan Turing in 1950.
Faced with the difficult task of convincing a human that a chatbot is human, the obvious strategy is to increase the sophistication (复杂) of the chatbot, Humphrys try an alternative: reduce the sophistication of the human. MGonz had passed the Turing test, but is it not also fair to say that the student had failed it?
But MGonz generates dialogue because insults need neither context nor memory. And it is impossible to read the MGonz transcript without thinking of ugly parallels on social media.
We are at our best when our conversation explores complex issues and is sensitive to context.
Brian Christian’s book The Most Human Human explores the history of chatbots, while reflecting on the nature of good conversation. Christian argues that chatbots tend to pass for human because we humans set the benchmark so low.
Conversation is not easy. But the best conversations are delightful. So let’s start by promising to do better than MGonz and see what we can build from there.
A.So many of our interactions are predictable or downright rude. |
B.A good conversation involves give and take, builds over time and exists in a context. |
C.That is understandable response to the limited range of modern communication. |
D.But complexity and context do not play well on social media. |
E.The test is simply for a computer to successfully pretend to be a human in a text-based conversation with another human. |
F.Turing had something more uplifting in mind than MGonz’s exchange with the student. |
8 . Empathy
Last year, researchers from the University of Michigan reported that empathy, the ability to understand other people, among college students had dropped sharply over the past 10 years.
Jennifer Freed, a co-director of a teen program, has another explanation, Turn on the TV, and you’re showered with news and reality shows full of people fighting, competing, and generally treating one another with no respect, Humans learn by example — and most of the examples on it are anything but empathetic.
There are good reasons not to follow those bad examples, Humans are socially related by nature.
Empathy is also an indication of a good leader. In fact, Freed says, many top companies report that empathy is one of the most important things they look for in new managers.
What’s the best way to up your EQ? For starters, let down your guard and really listen to others.
A.Everyone is different, and levels of empathy differ from person to person. |
B.Having relationships with other people is an important part of being human — and having empathy is decisive to those relationships. |
C.“One doesn’t develop empathy by having a lot of opinions and doing a lot of talking,” Freed says. |
D.Empathy is a matter of learning how to understand someone else — both what they think and how they feel. |
E.Good social skills — including empathy — are a kind of "emotional intelligence" that will help you succeed in many areas of life. |
F.That could be because so many people have replaced face time with screen time, the researchers said. |
9 . How to Survive High School
It may feel impossible to survive even a day of high school, let alone three years. However, there are a lot of things you can do to make your high school experience one of the best times of your life.
Make friends with a variety of people. Try to break out of your comfort zone by starting a conversation with people, especially strangers.
Spare regular time for exercise.
Don't avoid interacting with your teachers. You don't have to be a teacher's pet, though.
With these tips to survive high school, you will surely be proud of graduating as an all-round approaching adult.
A.Let yourself be who you really are. |
B.Learn to change and impress your friends. |
C.Everybody has something to contribute to your growth as a person. |
D.Pressure from friends is one factor that turns teenagers into risk-takers. |
E.Try your best to be kind and friendly to everybody you take a class from. |
F.Joining a school sports team is also a great way to meet like-minded people. |
10 . Are you a multitasker?
Do you watch TV and cook dinner at the same time? Do you often interrupt your work to check your email? Do you talk on your phone while you’re driving?
Most people say they multitask because they are too busy, and multitasking saves time. Popular electronic devices like tablets and smart phone s make it convenient to do several tasks at once.
A.So people feel like they are getting more done. |
B.If you do these or similar things, then you are one of many multitaskers. |
C.People are less able to filter out their knowledge of the previous task and look at things afresh. |
D.Some psychologists say that the human brain just isn’t good at concentrating on two things at the same time. |
E.Recent studies, however, show that Melissa and others like her are perhaps getting less done than they think they are. |
F.Now, with numerous studies to refer to, the answer could not be more clear-multitasking isn’t all it’s supposed to be. |