2 . Kindness is seen as a true strength, and the success of civilizations relies on kindness. As parents and teachers, we also teach children from a young age to “be kind to one another” and “treat others the way you want to be treated.”

In addition to being helpful to our interpersonal relationships, research has shown that kindness can even contribute to our well-being. According to the Mayo Clinic, when we perform acts of kindness, the pleasure center in our brain is activated, releasing the stress-reducing hormone (激素). Individuals who volunteer on a regular basis report greater life satisfaction. And what is even greater is that kindness rarely stops with just one person. There can be a positive contagion (扩散) effect, where other people are motivated to be nice if they receive a random act of kindness. The question then arises: Could kindness be harmful to us when it has such clear benefits? Let’s think about this in the workplace or in an organization.

You are the new person on the team and you want to be well-liked and respected by your colleagues. You are a kind person and tell your team, “Let me know how I can help you; I’m always available to help.” Though you may truly mean this, there are unfortunately people in this world who can see your kindness as a weakness. This can lead to you being taken advantage of by others.

Let’s fast forward a year. You have been in your position now for one year, and you are working with the same team. You are noticing that your colleagues continue asking for your help over and over again. In fact, the only time they communicate with you is when they need something. You have been so helpful to your colleagues and there has rarely been any return from them.

In a very broad sense, it is advantageous to be kind to others, and your kind acts will be appreciated and, perhaps, paid forward. However, you need to be willing to say “no”. Recognize when your plate is already too full. When people ask you a favor, assess if you have the time, energy, and attention to give to them. To truly be kind, sometimes you need to be more comfortable saying “no” to others and saying “yes” to yourself.

“Oh my God, buy it!” I believe that you are very familiar with Li Jiaqi’s phrase. Livestreaming marketing is a method of selling products on live video streaming platforms, which are now mainly Taobao, Kuaishou and Douyin. On April 1st, 2020, Luo Yonghao finished his first livestreaming marketing on Douyin. Data showed that the total amount of payments reached 110 million yuan in 3 hours, which set the record of livestreaming marketing on Douyin.

One of the most popular functions of livestreaming is the “real-time connection”. Although traditional television shopping channels also allow viewers to instantly buy recommended items, they don’t allow hosts to respond to real-time comments, nor can television sales data be readily collected to analyze customers’ purchasing behaviors or performance indicators. With this feature, potential customers can get answers to pressing questions and gain a more comprehensive impression of the products, making promotional activities more convincing and effective.

Under the influence of the current epidemic, online shopping reduces direct contact between folks, having a certain guarantee for the health of residents. At the same time, many industries are hit by the epidemic. In this situation, many businessmen walked into the studio with the aim of recovering some of the damage for the business as much as possible.

Meanwhile, the expanding of 5G has created a favorable environment for livestreaming marketing. Supported by the technology of 5G, the image quality of the live stream is clearer, so more details can be showed to customers, which helps to provide them an entirely different experience. “With the arrival of the 5G era, livestreaming will be faster, allowing users to zoom in and out of videos to see more details of products,” said the general manager for e-commerce content at Taobao.

4 . The expression, “Everybody’s doing it,” is very much at the center of the concept of peer pressure. It is a social influence applied on an individual in order to get that person to act or believe in a(n) ______ way as a larger group. This influence can be negative or positive, and can exist in both large and small groups.

People are social creatures by nature, and so it is hardly ______ that some part of their self-respect comes from the approval of others. This instinct explains why the approval of peers, and the fear of ______, is such a powerful force in many people’s lives. This instinct drives people to dress one way at home and another way at work, or to answer a simple “fine” when a stranger asks “How are you?” even if it is not necessarily true. There is a(n) ______ aspect to this: It helps society to function efficiently, and encourages a general level of self-discipline that ______ day-to-day interaction between people.

For certain individuals, seeking social acceptance is so important that it becomes a(n) ______: in order to satisfy the desire, they may go so far as to ______ their sense of right and wrong. Teens and young adults may feel forced to use drugs, or join gangs that _______criminal behavior. Mature adults may sometimes feel ______ to cover up illegal activity at the company where they work, or end up in debt because they are unable to hold back the desire to buy a house or car that they can’t afford in an effort to ______ the peers.

However, peer pressure is not always negative. A student whose friends are good at contests may be ________ to work harder and get good grades. Players on a sports team may feel driven to play harder in order to help the team win. This type of ______ can also get a friend off drugs, or to help an adult take up a good habit or drop a bad one.

Although peer pressure is sometimes quite obvious, it can also be so ______ that a person may not even notice that it is affecting his or her behavior. For this reason, when making important decisions, simply going with a(n) ______ is risky. Instead, people should seriously consider why they feel drawn to taking a particular action, and whether the real ______ is simply that everyone else is doing the same thing.

How to deal with Whiners (抱怨不停的人)?

There are always some people radiating negativity in the work place. For them, the temperature is never right, the boss is always a fool, the canteen food is awful, and they are always treated unfairly.

Career experts say such habitual complainers are highly contagious and that their attitude can easily affect an entire team in a company. “While some complaints might be reasonable, others are taken from thin air. You need to see between these different types and  adopt the right strategy towards each,” said Li Ling, HR manager at Wal-Mart (China). 

It’s especially hard to deal with complaints at work because you can’t just walk away or put your colleagues’ words out of mind. If you do, it will hurt your co-workers and you might be isolated. In a team-based company you belong to a group and need to behave accordingly. But don’t show too much sympathy. Listening passively to others’ complaints could damage your image and give others the impression that you agree with them. “Listen to the whiners actively,” says HR Li. “Help them find a solution, or see if there are ways to improve the situation.”  

Zhai Min, 24, a software engineer at Kingdee International Software Group in Shenzhen, found that 3 elderly workers liked to complain about everything, from extended working hours to  cheap hotels on business trips. “I let them talk about their opinions,” she said, “They feel better when they can tell someone how they want things to be.”  

But listening actively is far from enough. Wang Dianxue, 27, is an Internet engineer at Beijing Push Marcom Group. His co-workers always complain that their computer systems are not working properly. “I ask about the specifics and work together with them to fix everything technically.” he said.  

HR managers believe that when staffs complain, it is more a matter of recognition than an actual problem. “The real problem is that the whiners don’t feel they are being taken seriously,” said Xu Jun, HR manager at Guangqi Honda Automobile Co., Ltd. “When you attentively give them advice or perspectives, the problem usually disappears.” 

8 . A is for always getting to work on time.

B is for being extremely busy.

C is for the conscientious(勤勤恳恳的)way you do your job.

You may be all these things at the office, and more. But when it comes to getting ________, experts say, the ABCs of business should include a P, for politics, as in office politics.

Dale Carnegie suggested many years ago: Hard work alone doesn’t ________ career advancement. You have to be able to sell yourself and your ideas, both publicly and behind the scenes. Yet, despite the obvious ________ of engaging in office politics-a better job, a raise, praise-many people are still unable—or unwilling-to “play the game”.

“People take it for granted that office politics ________ some manipulative(工于心计的)behaviour,” says Deborah Comer, an assistant professor of management at Hofstra University. “ ________ politics originates from the word ‘polite’. It can mean lobbying(游说)and forming associations. It can mean being kind and helpful, or even trying to please your superior, and then expecting something ________.”

In fact, today, experts ________ office politics as proper behaviour used to pursue one’s own self-interest in the workplace. In many ________, this involves some form of socializing within the office environment-not just in large companies, but in small workplaces as well.

“The first thing people are usually ________ on is their ability to perform well on a regular basis,” says Neil P Lewis, a management psychologist. “But if two or three ________ are up for a promotion, each of whom has reasonably ________ ability, a manager is going to promote the person he or she likes best. It’s simple human ________.”

Yet, psychologists say, many employees and employers have trouble with the concept of politics in the office. ________ people, they say, have an idealistic idea of work and what it takes to succeed. Still others ________ politics with flattery(奉承). They are fearful that, if they speak up for themselves, they may ________ to be flattering their boss for favours.

Experts suggest altering this negative picture by recognizing the need for some self-promotion.

9 . Many cities around the world today are heavily polluted. Careless methods of production and ________ of consumer demands for environment friendly products have ________ the pollution problem. One ________ is that millions of tons of glass, paper, plastic, and metal containers are produced, and these are difficult to get rid of.

________, today, more and more consumers are choosing “green” and demanding that the products they buy should be safe for the environment. ________ they buy a product, they ask questions like these: “Will this shampoo damage the environment?” “Can this metal container be ________ or can it only be used once?”

A recent study showed that two ________ five adults now consider the environmental safety of a product before they buy it. This means that companies must now change the ________ they make and sell their products to make sure that they are “green,” that is, friendly to the environment.

Only a few years ago, it was impossible to find green products in supermarkets, but now there are hundreds. Some supermarket products ________ labels to show that the product is green. Some companies emphasize that their products are clean and safe in their advertising and have made it their main selling ________.

The ________ for a safer and cleaner environment is making companies rethink ________ they do business. No longer will the public accept the old ________ of “Buy it, use it, throw it away and forget it.” The public ________ is still here, and companies are ________ their act gradually.

10 . As anyone who has tried to lose weight knows, realistic goal setting generally produces the best results. That is partially _________ people who set realistic goals actually appear to work more efficiently, and make more effort, to achieve those goals.

What is far less understood by scientists, _________, are the potentially harmful effects of goal setting.

Newspapers relay (转发) reports of goal setting prevalent in industries and businesses up and down both Wall Street and Main Street, yet there has been surprisingly little research on how the practice of setting goals may have_________ to the current economic crisis, and unethical (不道德) behaviour in general.

“Goals are widely used and promoted as they have really_________ effects. And yet, the same motivation that can push people to make more effort in a constructive way could also motivate people to be more likely to_________ unethical activities,” says Maurice Schweitzer, professor at Penn’s Wharton School.

“It turns out there’s_________ economic benefit to just having a goal — you just get a psychological benefit,” Schweitzer says. “But in many cases, goals have economic_________ that make them more powerful.’

A typical example Schweitzer and his colleagues mention is the 2002_________ of energy-trading giant Enron, where managers used financial incentives (鼓励) to motivate salesmen to meet specific revenue goals. The problem, Schweitzer says, is the actual trades were not_________ .

Other studies have shown that__________ employees with unrealistic goals can force them to lie, cheat or steal. Such was the case in the early 1990s when Sears__________ specific sales quota (额度) for its auto repair staff. It__________ employees to complete repairs that were actually unnecessary just to meet the requirement.

Schweitzer admits his research runs counter to (违背) a very large body of literature that__________ the many benefits of goal setting. However, __________ of goal setting have argued with Schweitzer’s use of such evidence to support his conclusion that goal setting is widely__________ .