1 . A study by a team of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) psychologists has found a link between extraverts (外向的人) and their word choices. The finding highlights the need for stronger linguistic indicators to be developed for use in online personality prediction tools, which are being rapidly adopted by companies to improve digital marketing strategies.

Today, marketing companies use predictive algorithms (算法) to help them forecast what consumers want based on their online behaviors. For example, an extravert consumer might be attracted to marketing messages that match their personality, and retail brands could then choose to target such consumers by using more extraverted and creative language to advertise their products. However, personality prediction tools available today that are used by marketing firms are not entirely accurate due to a lack of theoretically sound designs. This may lead to a weakness affecting the performance of the machine learning algorithms. This begs the question—how should we create robust and accurate personality predictions?

The study found a correlation between extraverts and their tendency to use certain categories of words. The results showed a small strength of relationship between extraversion and the use of “positive emotion words” and “social process words.”

Positive emotion words are defined as words that describe a pleasant emotional state, such as “love”, ”happy”, or “blessed”, or that indicate positivity or optimism, such as “beautiful” or “nice”. Social process words include words containing personal pronouns except “I”, and words showing social intentions, such as “meet”, “share” and “talk”.

Moving forward, the NTU research team will investigate the relationship between extraversion and other word categories. They hope their work will provide clarity on the types of words that can help guide the development of more accurate machine learning tools for personality prediction.

Last year I graduated from college and landed a job in the local company. I was lucky because the economy was declining and a lot of companies went out of business. There were many unemployed graduates. That was a difficult time for everyone. I cherished my precious job and worked so hard. One day, I walked on the street after finishing my work. I saw many beautiful decorations, such as colorful lights, the familiar song and so on. I suddenly realized Christmas was coming. I had promised my nephew that when I found a job, I would send him a Christmas gift. Fortunately I still had a little time to buy one for him. And on that very day I witnessed how people cared for each other,

I was doing some last-minute Christmas shopping in a toy store. A nicely dressed little girl was looking through the teddy bears beside her father when she saw a little boy walk in and stop in front of the Pokemon toys. His jacket was obviously too small. He had money in his hand. However, it looked no more than five dollars at most. He was with his father as well, and kept picking up the Pokemon video games. Each time he showed one to his father, his father shook his head, “No”.

Rather disappointed, the boy gave up the video games and chose a book of stickers instead. After they walked away, the little girl ran over to the Pokemon video games. She excitedly picked up one lying on top of the others, and raced down toward the checkout. I picked up my purchases and followed the girl and her father.

Then, much to the little girl's delight, the little boy and his father got in line behind her and me.

The boy could only stare in disbelief.

6 . Will Covid-19 Kill the Handshake?

The handshake might date back to the 14^th century, when knights (骑士) and soldiers would extend their unclenched(松开的) right hands toward each other in greeting to show that they were carrying no weapons.

    1     Or rather, its tendency for picking up and holding onto germs (细菌) from polluted surfaces, or from   our own eyes or noses when we have certain illnesses. Those germs can then be transferred into the hands of the people we greet, while we can pick up their germs. We then will probably touch our own eyes or noses or mouths, potentially sickening ourselves and restarting the cycle.

Now that a novel coronavirus is spreading fast, our hands are being cast in a new, doubtful light.     2     And lately, the Internet has been full of suggestions for socially acceptable ways to greet each other that don’t involve passing germs along unintentionally from one person to the next.

    3     In fact, the tradition of shaking hands isn’t the only greeting to take a fresh look. A Maori tribe in New Zealand put the brakes on hongi, the traditional nose-to-nose hello.     4     Maybe people will stop making fun of the Hollywood air kiss, though it’s not a huge improvement health-wise.

COVID-19 is a real threat, and we shouldn’t take the warning lightly. We may, indeed, need to keep our hands to ourselves for the time being. But we’re not ready to send handshake into the dustbin of history. Humans long for making a physical connection with friends. For now, perhaps, a regretful smile and nod might work as a shared acknowledgment.     5    

7 . A young woman was walking in Santa Ana, California, when she came upon an elderly street vendor (小贩) selling tamales (玉米粉蒸肉). Seeing how tired he looked in his wheelchair, she decided to give him a few bucks and a sandwich—and she also gave him a sympathetic ear to listen to his story.

When Kenia Barragan first saw Jose Villa Ochoa, she thought of her own parents. “I felt for him,” she told KTTV News, “My parents are both older, and I would hate to see my dad out selling tamales for somebody and barely making ends meet.”

Known as “Don Joel”, he explained that although he wanted a job, no company would hire him because of his age. In order to keep himself out of debt, he started to sell tamales cooked by a local woman. At the end of each hard day, she would give him a cut of the earnings. This allowed him to buy food, but was not enough for him to afford his medical treatment or a phone.

The 28-year-old woman was happy to listen to Don Joel’s story, but she wanted to do more. She made an appeal to her followers on Instagram for some assistance. Within a week, friends and strangers flooded her with more than $84 000 in donations.

In addition to the money raised for Don Joel’s retirement, Kenia purchased him a new wheelchair and a shiny new pair of shoes. Even though he’s 94, he says he feels like he’s 40 now, because the kindness has made him feel so alive. He describes the generosity as “life-changing”.

Kenia feels exactly the same way. She says she’s always looking for a purpose that helps people and that she’s been living in line with those values in her current job, working with people who have disabilities to get them transportation. Her goal in life is to establish a homeless shelter.

9 . Years of exposure to Americans has, at last, convinced me of something about their food culture. I now think they’re correct in one of life’s great dilemmas: when eating at a restaurant, it is really fine to politely send your food back if it is not what you ordered, or covered in cheese when you asked for no cheese, etc.

Of course, the idea makes me feel anxious; the British fear of making a scene is planted in my soul. But what persuaded me, in the end, was realizing how self-centered that fear actually is. Are you really such a big deal that your no-cheese request will embarrass your fellow diners, ruin the waiter's day, and send waves of shock through the kitchen? Face it: you're not. Instead, you're in the situation of what might be termed “egocentric reticence (以自我为中心的沉默).”

Egocentric reticence raised its head again the other day in a study about gratitude, which found that people underestimate how much delight a thank-you note can bring. The psychologists Amit Kumar and Nicholas Epley had people send grateful messages to someone who'd made a difference to their lives. Again and again, they found, senders assumed their words would lead to less happiness and more awkwardness than they really did, and that recipients would judge their letter-writing competence cruelly, too. Even in the seemingly selfless context of expressing gratitude, senders couldn’t help giving too much weight to their own perspective. So if you stop yourself from sending someone a thank-you note because you're worried you'll make them feel awkward or annoyed, you are letting egocentrism prevent an action that would have made both of you happier.

The most acute form of egocentric reticence, surely, is extreme shyness. “Shyness is just egotism out of its depth,” famous actress Penelope Keith once told an interviewer. The quote was later regarded as a line the writer Sadie Stein credits with curing her own shyness. “For some reason, the clear cruelty of that quote was what I needed, ” Stein wrote. “OK, I thought... No one is looking at you.”

A remarkable study from 1976 gives us some insight into how and     1     relationships with our neighbors can be so good for us. Surprisingly to scientists at that time, results     2     （show） that contact with family members—even     3     （one）own children—had little impact     4     feelings of well-being or willpower. Meanwhile, friendships, especially those with neighbors, predicted lower levels of     5     （lonely）and worry, higher levels of feelings of usefulness and self- perceived respect within the community.

The study suggests that acquaintance and friendship with neighbors     6     （base）on nearness, common interests and lifestyle choices are more     7     （effect）at increasing well-being. The neighborhood relationships are also developed     8     （voluntary）. Family ties, on the other hand, are often characterized by     9     sense of responsibility, physical distance, and personal disharmony. Later studies confirm the importance of close friendships for people over 65,     10     （highlight）the particular importance of frequent contact.