It Takes at Least 200 Hours to Make a Close Friendship, and More to Maintain It
Many of us worry that we don’t put in enough time to maintain close friendships. But how much is enough? Unfortunately, there’s no magic formula (公式) for how much time you need to spend on your friends to keep them. Each friendship and friend are unique and develops or ends depending on how we interact.
Forming a friendship in the first place takes a certain number of hours of being together. We need between 40 and 60 hours together for a person we know slightly to become a casual friend. In order to move from casual friends to close friends, we need to spend an additional 140 to 160 hours together for a total of about 200 hours.
However, deeper interactions can quicken that timeline. We can form a close bond in less than 200 hours with meaningful conversations. Contrarily, spending 200 hours together doesn’t necessarily mean a person will become a close friend. They have to want to be your friends. Some co-workers can spend 300 hours together and never become close friends.
When it comes to maintaining friendships, it’s not just the number of hours spent together, but what we do that matters. Engaging in passive activity with friends — like watching a TV series — is fun and enjoyable, but it doesn’t do as much to maintain friendship as having deep conversations, sharing feelings, and being a good listener. And routinely checking in with people we choose to connect with, through calls and texts or in person, helps maintain relationships and leads to higher scores of positive feelings, like happiness.
The key point is that sharing things about ourselves can lead to close friendships. Once that closeness is established, some ways to maintain closeness are supporting friends when things go wrong for them and celebrating their achievements.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. 昆剧社（Kun Opera Club）；
2. “走进大师”社（Close to Masters Club）；
3. 涂鸦社（Doodling Club） ；
4. 文学欣赏社（Literature Appreciation Club）；
请选择你最想参加的1-2个社团并说明原因，以及对社团活动开展提出建议。（120—150字）
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Have You Got Success Amnesia?
Have you heard yourself say “it was nothing really” when someone congratulates you on a job well done? Or have you drawn a blank when you are asked to make a list of what you have achieved? If so, you have suffered success amnesia. Failing to acknowledge your hard work is often a sign of success amnesia. It signals that there might be a gap between how others view your achievements and how you see them.
People who have success amnesia often have a strong track record at work or get it sorted for family members. They are people who others would describe as successful and yet they find it difficult to acknowledge and own their results. They don’t hold their achievements in their memory bank.
This particular type of memory loss robs them of the satisfaction and pleasure that can follow in achieving a goal. And, perhaps more importantly, it robs them of confidence. Confidence does not guarantee success, but it does increase the chance of success. Why not try some practical methods?
Ask for feedback about the impact you’ve had and then listen carefully. Watch out for anything that you begin to tell yourself “It wasn’t that big a deal.” Try to absorb what you hear. You can also look back over the past 6 or12 months, capture every success you can think of, whether large or small, and write them down clearly. Purposefully acknowledging and admitting your achievements can help to bring them into more realistic focus. Besides, be mindful that you have a tendency to forget or minimize your achievements. A sticky note on your laptop screen might help: my strengths and achievements are bigger than they appear to me.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Drawing High Schoolers to Science
A group of educators and plant scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) are connecting to reshape science classes. And this particular partnership isn’t just helping students get a better understanding of biology; it’s turning them into young scientists, even if only during class.
It doesn’t take long to see that the curriculum born from this collaboration makes for a much different experience than the traditional high school biology classes. For starters, it has a comic book for a workbook. Secondly, students are getting their hands dirty growing plants. MSU researchers are also studying the plant. The high schoolers are asking some of the same questions professional plant scientists are trying to answer.
“We’re getting them engaged with science in science practices, not just having them learn about science,” says Hildah Makori, a researcher at MSU. “They learn to look at things differently. That’s a life-time impact.”
The main characters of the comic book are a pair of young field scientists. They invite the high school students to help with plant research inspired by a real project at MSU. By growing their own plants, the students learn about genetics, evolution and how these interact with the environment.
The team has seen how this practice could keep students in the driver’s seat of their learning. To help the characters out, students set up different experiments to test their ideas.
The program is working. “This comic personally gave me a click that sparked my curiosity,” reads one student’s survey response. “The comic book put a lot of creative atmosphere into the story instead of just looking at words, instead of just listening to the teacher talk,” says another.
Teachers also had positive reviews. In a survey, one remarked how helpful it was to have the comic to refer to. The students could see the comic’s characters doing something in the lab and realize, “I’m able to do this right here at my table and I can do the same thing,” the teacher says.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.
Will Plant-based Protein Continue to be an Appetizer in Food World?
A good vegan milk needs to look like milk and taste like milk, whether it’s a fatty version, preferred by bakers, or a skimmed one, favored by the health-conscious. For years, manufacturers of plant-based protein have had trouble hacking this delicate imitation game and it seems that they are winning back a bit. The global revenues (收益) from alternative proteins could reach $290 billion by 2035 and that is a cautious estimate. However, can it last?
Unlike those early products, which were neither terribly tasty nor particularly nutritious, cleaver (剁肉刀) processing improves textures, additives boost taste and a pinch of specially engineered peas and beans adds nutrient in the latest products. Still, ultra-processed substitutes seldom match animal proteins in nutritional value. Animal products, including milk, are better for children’s bone development, though lab- grown versions of meat or dairy are becoming more nutritious. Meanwhile, green-minded consumers are realizing that plant-based does not necessarily mean sustainable in that it still takes a lot to obtain raw materials. Farming almonds (杏仁) to make a milk-like drink, for example, uses huge quantities of water.
Plant-based proteins are also a tough sell in giant markets like India, where diets are already rich in plants and vegetables, or Nigera, where meat-eating is a sign of wealth. That limits their global appeal.
All these suggests that alternative proteins have far to go to replace the animal kind. The limitations may be weighing on the firms involved. Oatly’s market value has fallen by about 80% since its listing, partly because of production difficulties. That of Beyond Meat, whose burgers feature in McDonald’s latest menu, is down by 90% from its peak. Plant-based foods may no longer be only an appetizer in diets, but their maker remain one in food business.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why companies are hiring "prompt engineers"?
With the new generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, anyone can put in a prompt—type in a few words and get a result. But that doesn’t mean that the results will be relevant or accurate.
The key is putting in the right prompt. That’s why some businesses are now hiring prompt engineers-people with the skill, background and practice to talk to so-called large-language AI systems effectively and why many people expect prompt engineering to be a desirable skill for many kinds of workers to add to their resumes.
In general, the more detailed the request, the closer the response will come to what the user is looking for. But the most effective prompt engineering goes beyond adding detail.
For one thing, adding the right detail to get the best response is crucial. Also, there are many ways to guide how an AI system presents the information it finds, depending on the goal-tellinlg it to write in a certain style or for a certain audience, for instance. Each tool also has particular capabilities and limitations that users can learn to tackle. And the best results often come from an extended conversation with the AI, reacting to what it produces and asking for refinements.
Even for people applying to jobs that don’t clearly mention prompt engineering, having this skill could become essential for all sorts of roles. Art directors could use generative AI to outline ideas, and marketers could use it to develop new slogans. Software engineers could use it to find problems with their code. Lawyers could use it to research a piece of law. This is going to be a foundational skill that all of us need to know. The through line is when you learn a new skill, you can take it in any direction you like.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Communicating science
One of the major problems for scientists lies in communicating the value of research to non-specialists that matter:policymakers and the general public. In recent years, scientific organisations have come a long way in developing ways to make science more accessible to non-specialist groups.
The development of blogs has helped substantially in bringing science closer to the public. According to Wikipedia, the ScienceBlogs network is now ranked 37th among the most authoritative blogs worldwide, with two of its sections having won weblog awards. Released from editorial restrictions, science bloggers generally focus on areas of science that they are both passionate and knowledgeable about. They often write about science in an accessible, lively manner, and it is this that perhaps most attracts members of the public. Ed Yong’s Not Exactly Rocket Science, for instance, is filled with the writer’s enthusiasm and down-to-earth attitude towards the subject. His chatty, youthful style appeals to a wide range of readers.
Television has also boosted the image of science. Early pioneers such as Jacques Cousteau, whose beautifully filmed documentaries opened up the oceans to millions, quickly realised the potential of TV to make science come alive for viewers. Other science disciplines have eagerly followed suit. Entertaining presenters carry out daring experiments or explore amazing scientific phenomena in order to attract attention. Celebrities such as Brian Cox, once famous for playing music in D:Ream, have also been instrumental in bringing science into popular culture. Now working in the field of physics, Brian is presenter of the BBC TV series Wonders of the Solar System. His background means that his face is not only well known to younger viewers but is also considered cool. Other organisations have been using the power of visual media through the internet. For example, SciVee offers scientists video services to create online presentations of their research.
Nevertheless, despite this progress, communication remains one of science’s biggest obstacle. Perhaps it is time that universities addressed this problem, and thought about adding communications training to the curriculum.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Building up your muscles is an easy part—the hard part is burning those layers of fat that cover your muscles. Here are some tips.
In order to work out harder, make a favorite fitness playlist with music that gets you excited, as it can help you go up to 20% longer and burn more calories, according to a study of Brunel University London. The study’s researcher says that music tends to prevent tiredness, and produces feelings of excitement.
Not only does eating good breakfast speed up your metabolism(新陈代谢), but it also nourishes (为……提供营养) your muscles. After eating breakfast, your best way of keeping fat burning going is to “graze”. Set up an eating schedule where you eat five to eight small meals every few hours throughout the day. It provides your body with a constant flow of nourishment to feed your muscles.
Men’s Health suggests choosing hard exercise that involves total body movements in order to help raise your heart rate and leave you out of breath. By including total body movements into your exercise, you’re going to end up burning a lot more calories while challenging yourself at the same time. As the saying goes: No pain, no gain. So, get moving.
Sounds easy enough, right? It’s as simple as drinking a cup of green tea every day. Adding in green tea will push fat burning to another level. And studies have shown that it can increase fat burning and help you lose weight.
While doing your weight training, try something including short, big bursts of cardio(心脏强化锻炼) throughout your exercise. For example, if you’re doing an hour-long exercise, place cardio into it every 15 minutes to help speed up your metabolism.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Good friendships seem to be especially helpful for the heart. A three-year Swedish study of more than 13,600 men and women found that having few or no close friends increased the risk of having a heart attack by about 50 percent. A two-year study of more than 500 women with suspected coronary artery(冠状动脉) disease showed similar results. Women who reported the lowest levels of social support were twice as likely to die during the study. The women who enjoyed close support were not only more likely to be alive after two years, they also had lower rates of high blood pressure and were less likely to have excessive fat.
As reported in the Journal of the National Medical Association, friendships and other types of social support can help relieve stress, a well-known contributor to heart disease. Among other things, stress can encourage inflammation (炎症) in arteries. The research is still not very mature, but some studies have found that people who enjoy close support from friends and family generally have fewer inflammatory chemicals in their blood. The link between social ties and inflammation seems to be especially marked in older people.
When stress does appear, friends can encourage healthy reactions. People who lack strong social support tend to have dramatic and potentially dangerous reactions to scary situations. Their hearts pound and their blood pressure soars. But friends can help keep the heart on a more even keel. A study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine found that young men and women discussing rough patches in their lives had a lower pulse and blood pressure when they had a supportive friend at their side.
Finally, friendships may help encourage a heart-healthy lifestyle. As reported in Current Opinion in Psychiatry, people are more likely to eat fruit and vegetables, exercise regularly and quit smoking if they have a network of friends and family.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The link between personality and success
The modern manager has to play the role of coach in charge of their team. And that requires an understanding of the different personality types they may be managing, and indeed the role their own personality may play in the way they manage.
Karl Moore, an associate professor at McGill University in Canada, has written two recent articles on the role of different personality types in business. One of the most common divides is between introverts and extroverts. Mr. Moore estimates that around 40% of the population are introverts, 40% are extroverts and 20% are “ambiverts” who can display both characteristics.
An academic study also found that the children of professionals were more likely to be extrovert. It could simply be that children who grow up in more prosperous homes are less likely to face the kind of stressful events that undermine self-confidence. People with higher self-confidence may apply for more prestigious jobs and may be more likely to believe that their efforts will be rewarded; those with a negative self-image may feel it is not worth trying too hard.
Introverts should not give up hope of climbing the greasy pole. A study in 2017 found that introverts were slightly more likely than extroverts to surpass the expectations of boards and investors when appointed as chief executive.
Mr. Moore thinks that successful executives have to become ambiverts at times in order to succeed. Introverts must try to show enthusiasm, or make a stirring speech, when the situation calls for it. And extroverts need to shut up and listen to their teams—not least because when the boss speaks first, subordinates will be reluctant to disagree.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
