1 . You throw a flying disc (飞盘). Your friend catches it. Well done!

Flying discs are fun toys. They are becoming popular in China. On the Internet, there are more than thousands of posts about disc games, talking about things like rules and dress codes.

Flying discs are very beginner-friendly. It is easy for anyone to throw a disc almost anywhere they want to, from a field to a beach. No special skills are needed. Boys and girls can also play together, making it a good activity to socialize.     1    

For those who want to compete, there are many choices. They can try the team disc sport called “ultimate”.     2     There are no judges. You must overcome your desire to cheat. Put simply, it makes us better people. In another game called “disc golf”, players try to hit faraway targets with a disc. Like in golf, the lowest number of throws wins.

    3     They started with pie tins (烤盘), which inspired the birth of the toy. After enjoying the pies, some university students soon found that the empty pie tins could be tossed (扔)around. They had great fun with them in the 1930s. In 1948, a man named Walter made a plastic disc with his partner Warren.     4     The discs quickly became popular.

2 . Making a Backup Plan Weakens Performance

There are certainly important benefits to making backup plans. One is the psychological comfort it brings: People think, “I’m going to be Okay, even if I fail because I can then do X or Y.” Another benefit is that if you fail, you won’t keep thinking about it; you can quickly implement your backup plan.     1     Jihae Shin of Wisconsin School of Business believes that acknowledging the costs and benefits can lead to better and more informed decision making.

She gave 160 university students a sentence-unscrambling (理清句子) task and promised an energy bar to those who performed it well.     2     People encouraged to think about those backup plans unscrambled significantly fewer sentences on average than people who hadn’t been asked to formulate a plan B.

In the follow-up experiment, Shin took the same approach but offered people different rewards — an extra dollar. “We think that when achieving a goal requires work, not luck, making a backup plan can hurt performance by reducing the desire for the goal.” said professor Shin. “In the third study in which participants were asked about how much they wanted the promised reward of one dollar, those who had been asked to think through backup plans reported that they wanted the cash less than others.     3     So they put in less effort which hurt their results.

The participants in the lab studies spent less than 10 minutes, thinking about their backup plans -- a tiny investment of their attention -- yet it significantly affected their motivation and performance on goal pursuit. In real life when the stakes are higher, people would be expected to devote more time and energy to mapping out the detailed backup plans.     4    

The practical advice from the researchers is: Hold off on making back up plans until you’ve put as much effort as possible into your primary goal.

3 . What My Year Abroad Taught Me About Cultural Differences

Imagine going to study abroad. You walk into the local shop and bam!, Golliwogs (黑面木偶) everywhere. I’m talking salespeople dressed as Golliwogs. Surprised, you go to the junk food section as that’s the only thing that will give your body the sugar rush it needs to shock your body out of the state of bewilderment (困惑). And there they were: Golliwog cookies.

I’m using the word “Golliwogs” because to a British person abroad that’s what they are. But in the Netherlands and Belgium the image is known as Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). There has been much discussion about whether or not it’s racist.     1     Zwarte Piet is understood by most in the Netherlands to be Santa’s helper whose black face was due to his delivering presents through the chimney.

Working as a trainee with the European Commission, I met people from all over the world, not just Europe. Working alongside my German, Spanish and Italian colleagues, I learned some valuable lessons.     2     You shouldn’t wait to say “excuse me,” or wait for a gap in the conversation to give your opinion, because you’ll walk out at the end of the meeting wondering how three hours have passed without you managing to say anything. I learned how to stop my colleagues and interject (插话) my thoughts.

Another lesson was the value of the coffee break. Coffee breaks in Brussels were not just time to get coffee. It was a chance to develop new ideas with colleagues in a more informal setting. At first I declined the invitation to attend, but after a while I began to notice that almost everyone went on these trips to the coffee machine and decided to join them.     3    

Graduates and students who have worked abroad gain an understanding of what it means to be truly European and how this can benefit you at work. Not only do you bring home experiences, skills and practices from other countries, but you also seek to take your work further afield (向远方).

    4     Remember the Golliwog cookies? All I really wanted were some Mr. Kipling’s cakes but they’re nearly impossible to find abroad. When I finished my trainee ship with the Commission, I came home and started a business called Packed Munches, a service sending boxes of British snacks to Britons all over the world. And to think, it all started with Zwarte Pict.

5 . Water is a key ingredients in a healthy diet and lifestyle.There are many health benefits of drinking water. It helps flush impurities and toxins out of our systems.     1     In fact, nearly every system in our bodies relies on water for proper functioning. But what will happen if the water you drink every day is unhealthy?

In past decades, concerns about tap water and its impact on overall health led some people to tun to bottled waters. You could pay to have a company deliver large bulky plastic bottles of water for the water cooler. Or you could purchase gallon jugs of distilled or “drinking water” at the grocery store.

In recent years, there has been an explosion in the number of different bottled waters available, with big distributors such as Coke and Pepsi jumping on the bandwagon. But are bottled   drinking waters like Coke’s Dasani brand, Pepsi’s Aquafina, or Wal-Mart’s store brand really any healthier than your tap water?     2    

As we have learned more about the water we drink,the technology behind drinking water filters and purification systems has improved dramatically. There are filters to remove impurities, chemicals,heavy metals, bacteria and almost every contaminant you can think of.With the right size and filter combination for your specific home, your tap water can be exceptionally pure and healthy.

    3     Although the initial cost of a whole house system usually amounts to several hundred dollars,that cost is often less than $100 a year if spread out over the life of the system.

There may be additional expenses to replace carbon filters or lamps in an ultraviolet light water treatment device. These expenses can add another $100 or so to the annual cost of operating drinking water filters and purification systems.

While some people may hesitate to spend so much each year for clean, safe drinking water, they are probably paying more for bottled drinking water. They understand that it is more expensive, but they are still willing to pay the extra money because bottled water is thought to be safer and healthier than filtered drinking water.     4     In reality, however, few bottled waters come from natural springs,and most of them use municipal tap water.

7 . What Makes a Nobel Laureate?

Are there any predictors that point to who will be selected as Nobel laureates?

Is brilliance in childhood a predictor? When the 2006 chemistry laureate, Roger Kornberg, was asked what he wanted for Christmas, he said, “A week in the lab.”     1    . Mario Capecchi (medicine, 2007) was an abandoned child on the streets of wartime Italy.

    2    . Five of Enrico Fermi’s (physics, 1938) postdoctoral students went on to win the Nobel Prize. Otto Warburg (medicine, 1931) advised an American doctoral student, “If you wish to become a scientist, you must ask a successful scientist to accept you in his laboratory.”

Experts often recommend that people specialize in one field of work or research to maximize their chances of success.     3     If you look at the careers of Nobel Prize winners, you’ll find that they are unusually likely to be “creative polymaths.” That is, they purposely integrate formal and informal expertise from widely varied disciplines to yield new and useful ideas and practices.

There remains one quality that is essential. It is what Leon Lederman (physics, 1988) called “compulsive dedication.”     4    . Take Marie Curie (physics, 1903; chemistry, 1911) and her husband Pierre (physics, 1903). The Curies were assigned a shed with a leaking roof and a dirt floor, where they worked for years, freezing in winter and sweltering in summer. “And yet,” Marie Curie wrote in her biography of her husband, “it was in this miserable old shed that the best and happiest years of our life were spent, entirely dedicated to work.”

9 . Be a Lifelong Learner

We live in a world that prizes education. But most people think of education only in terms of formal classes. When people graduate from high school or college, they usually think their education is complete. But it is possible to continue learning after finishing school.     1    

On a personal level, learning can be fun. It can deepen your conversations by giving you something interesting to talk about. And it’s good for your brain. Hobbies that require thought can help you keep your mental abilities as you age. Just as exercise makes your muscles stronger, your mind becomes sharper when you use it.

Being a lifelong learner can also help your career. Becoming an expert in an area outside of your present job gives you freedom. It allows you to take a job in another field if you want to. Also, knowledge in other areas can help you develop creative ideas in your current job.

    2     It starts with making a conscious decision to do so. You need to be determined to keep making the effort to learn when it isn’t easy. It may help to find friends who will encourage your learning. It might also help to set aside specific times to study.

Try finding time to learn throughout your day. Carry a book with you, and read when you have to wait. Audiobooks and podcasts are also helpful resources. You can listen to them while traveling or doing chores.

    3     If you want to learn how to fix appliances, try fixing some at home. If you’re learning a foreign language, find someone who speaks that language to talk to. If you’re learning facts about economics or science, explain what you’re learning to someone else.     4    

10 . Taking responsibility for yourself and your actions is an important part of personal growth. It’s never too late to start practicing the positive habit of accepting responsibility for yourself.     1    

Improve your confidence.     2     If you can’t think of any, ask loved ones to help. You can also write down your goals, create a plan for achieving them and learn to accept positive feedback.

Remove the excuses. To break the harmful habit of excuse-making, ensure you’re honestly acknowledging what really happened. Next time you’re faced with the negative result of a situation, ensure you say something like “Sorry, I messed it up. How can I make up for it?”     3    

Take positive actions. If you want your family and friends to show more interest in your life, get interested in theirs. If you want a more satisfying job, figure out what you need to do to achieve it. Your actions will affect what you get out of life, so ensure you’re acting in a way you get what you want.

    4     If you often see yourself as a powerless man, this might be because you are experiencing hardships in your own life. And this feeling will be strengthened by the way you communicate with yourself and others. So look out for passive, self-destroying thoughts like “Why is this happening to me?” and learn to take responsibility.