1 . A new study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family claims that all that time you spend parenting just doesn’t matter. But it’s a claim that, despite the enthusiastic and widespread coverage by the media, does not hold water.

The research suggests that child outcomes (including behavior problems, emotional problems, and academic performance) are barely connected with the time that parents spend with their children. The researchers examined the time diaries of 1,600 children, looking at parenting time and outcomes when the kids were aged 3 to 11 in 1997, and again in 2002, when they were between 8 and 16. (A time diary is a detailed report of all activities you carry out in a day. )

This research largely reflects the failure of the authors to correctly measure parental input. It just looked at time diaries from two particular days-one a weekday and the other a weekend day.

Trying to get a sense of the time you spend parenting from a single day’s diary is a bit like trying to measure your income from a single day. If yesterday was payday, you looked rich, but if it’s not, you would be reported as poor. You get a clearer picture only by looking at your income — or your parenting time—over a more meaningful period.

What you did yesterday should not be taken as representative of what you did last year, This is why most high-quality studies of parenting time focus instead on how often parents read to their children, play with them or help their with homework over a period of a month or longer — long enough to represent their different approaches to parenting.

As an exhausted parent who doesn’t get enough time to work out, and who hasn’t seen a movie for months, I understand why so many of us might seize on studies suggesting that we should take more time for ourselves. Perhaps we should. But I agree with Ariel Kalil, a developmental psychologist, on the suggestion “that when parents spend high-quality time with their children, their children are more likely to succeed.”

5 . A star athlete at the college where I work recently stopped by my office. After committing a few unforced errors during a weekend match, she suffered severely by self-criticism.

This student, like many I teach, strongly believes she should be able to control the outcomes of her life by virtue of her hard work. In her mind, nothing can stop me but myself. So when these students fall short of what they imagine they should accomplish, they are filled with self-blame, reasoning. If my accomplishments are mine to control, my failures must be entirely my faults, too, which makes it extremely difficult for them to move on.

We often owe young adults struggling with failure to their parents’ over protection of them from discomfort. But there is another factor at play — a message transmitted by indulging parents who have falsely promised them that they can achieve anything if they are willing to work for it. However, the cruel reality of life is that you can do everything in your power-and still fail. Then what should be done to help?

Psychologists Luthar and Kumar urge parents and teachers to spend time helping students find purpose, or goals they genuinely love to pursue and that make an impact on the world, which may help them gain greater life satisfaction and become more psychologically mature. Besides, instead of allowing our kids to beat themselves up when things don’t go their way, we might all question a culture where one is considered lazy without full devotion. The point is to remind them that life has a way of sucker — punching us when we least expect it. It’s often the people who learn to say “stuff happens” who get up the fastest.

6 . There has been a substantial decline in the number of children who read for pleasure in the last few years. According to the annual Kids and Family Report, in just the last four years, the number of kids that read for fun has dropped by nearly 10%. Today, barely half of the children in the United States report liking to read for enjoyment.

When it comes to reading, kids can come up with a million excuses as to why they don’t like it. It can be frustrating trying to get your child to read, and it’s easy to rely on unsuccessful methods for encouraging reading. Sometimes you tend to nag (唠叨) your child to read, or perhaps bribe(贿赂) him to read by offering him a reward. Unfortunately, these methods often do more harm than good. Nagging can lead your child to feel that he is being forced to read. And while rewarding your child for reading isn’t bad in itself, it shouldn’t be relied upon to get him to read.

It’s similarly important to reserve judgment regarding what your child chooses to read. While it might be your goal for your child to read To Kill a Mockingbird, reading about his favorite band in a teen magazine will also do. Reading is reading, and the more your child does it, the more he will enjoy it. And with increased enjoyment comes more frequent reading.

The first step in getting your child to read more is to help him enjoy doing it. The best way to accomplish this is by providing him with something that he wants to read. Besides, what you do will highly influence what your child does. If you read for pleasure, it establishes the notion (观念) that reading is fun. Research shows that children who are surrounded by readers – their parents, siblings, friends, or teachers - are more likely to become readers themselves.

7 . What would you do if you had $5, but were limited to two hours to make as much money as possible? Buy a lottery ticket (彩票). While this is the most _________ suggestions from people, it means a significant risk in return for a _________ chance.

Tina Selling, who invented the _________ for her students at Stanford University, has a _________ story to tell.

Selling gave each of the fourteen teams a sealed envelope that contains five dollars of “seed funding”. They were _________ to spend as much time planning, but once they had _________ the envelope they then had two hours to make as much money as possible. The next week, each team were to _________ their project in a three-minute presentation.

It _________ that most of the 14 teams didn’t use the five dollars _________. They realized that focusing on the __________ actually limited the problem too tightly. They understood that five dollars is __________ and decided to consider the problem more __________: what can be done if they are __________ with nothing?

The average __________ on the five-dollar investment was 4000 percent! So what did they __________ do?

One team started a stand on campus to check bike tire __________ for free and charged $1 to refill tires. Another team made __________ at busy restaurants and then sold each of them for up to twenty dollars to customers who didn’t want to __________ in line. The team who made the greatest __________ sold their presentation time to a company that wanted to employ them to advertise. They __________ a good business for that company in the three minutes’ presentation and brought in $650000.

The Lomax family needed a dog. Though their house was already full with seven people, they knew a dog would truly make the house a home. So they settled on a dog whom they named Jack. It turned out to be the best decision they ever made.

It was Jack’s protective instinct(本能) that would save the lives of the Lomax family. If it wasn’t for him, the family may never have survived the terrible accident that would eventually befall one cold January day in 2020.

It was a night like many others. Autumn, the family’s youngest child and her mother Ashley had settled into bed in one of the bedrooms on the second floor. Jack, who rarely left Autumn’s side, had settled in there as well. Little did they know that something terrible was about to happen that night. While the family was fast asleep, a fire had started in one of the other second floor bedrooms. Jack had picked up a whiff (些微的气味) of smoke in the next room. In an instant, the brave dog jumped into action.

The four-legged family member knew something was wrong but had no way of telling his owners. He jumped up Ashley’s bed and began touching her face. She pushed him off her bed and tried to roll over but he began again, until she was up.

As soon as she could, Ashley took hold of Autumn and began to move away from the door. She screamed at the top of her lungs as she ran from the room, alerting the rest of the family to the disaster that was taking place. Jack did his part again too, barking loudly. Ashley’s screams woke the four other adults and two more children. All of them headed out into the cold January night. In no time, the fire had engulfed (吞没) nearly the entire home, but luckily, all of them had made it out alive, with Jack leading the way.