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You may think the best way to solve a tough problem is to keep working on it, even overnight. But the truth is just the opposite: Your best chance to get to the bottom of a problem is actually to sleep on it.
A team of researchers at Northwestern University, US, found that sleeping is useful in both strengthening and re-organizing memory. This can help you solve problems.
The researchers did an experiment with 57 students. They asked them to solve 42 difficult puzzles on the first day. The students worked on each puzzle while listening to different music. The research encouraged students to remember the music they heard while solving the puzzles. By the end, there were six puzzles that the students still hadn't solved.
The students then went back home to sleep. They were given special sleep-monitoring (睡眠监测) and music devices (设备). The devices played music linked with the unsolved puzzles while the students were in the slow-wave sleep stage. This stage is when people are likely to dream and re-organize their memories.
The next morning, the students tried the unsolved puzzles again. Researchers found they were 55 percent more likely to solve them. The music activated (激活) the memories they had of the puzzles while they were sleeping. It allowed them to "work" on the puzzles in their sleep.
Earlier studies of both people and animals have shown that sleep cannot only strengthen memory, but also help us organize information in our brains. This study seems to support that understanding. So the next time you face a difficult problem, sleep on it. Then play some music to remind yourself of the problem.
One of the nicest things to do during the cold winter is to curl up (蜷缩) with a hot cup of tea.
But for Britons, tea is a popular drink all year round. Afternoon tea, high tea, builder's tea (a strong cup of tea, usually with full-fat milk and two teaspoons of sugar), tea gowns (礼服), tea cakes, tea houses, tea breaks ... they are all everyday names and phrases in the UK.
Tea has, in fact, become part of the British way of life. And Britons' preferences for types of tea and how to drink it can really say a lot about them.
British anthropologist (人类学家) Kate Fox writes in her book Watching the English that several clear messages are sent whenever a Briton makes a cup of tea.
She observes that the strongest cups of black tea are usually drunk by the working class. The tea gets weaker as one goes up the social ladder.
Sugar means something, too. "Taking sugar in your tea is thought by many to be a sign of a lower-class person: even one makes people suspicious (可疑的); more than one and you are lower-middle at best; more than two and you are definitely working class," she writes.
Other rules involve how milk and sugar are added, if any is added. For example, drinking smoky black Lapsang Souchong (正山小种) tea from China with no sugar or milk can be a sign of class worries in the middle class.
Tea doesn't just show class, though; it can also be a social space filler. "Whenever the English feel awkward (尴尬的) or uncomfortable in a social situation (that is, almost all the time), they make tea," Fox wrote in her book.
In recent years, the number of foreign guests increased rapidly. More and more hotels have western-style food services. At the same time, more and more Chinese people have accustomed to the hobby of eating western-style food.
When eating western-style food, you can talk with others freely and lightly. But, when you talk with others, don't chew the food in your mouth. Generally speaking, clean your lips with napkins before talking or drinking.
When eating western-style food, you cannot hold the plate when eating; and you cannot stab the food while eating a large piece of food. You should cut the food into small pieces and then put them into your mouth.
When eating western-style food, the way of eating is similar to the way of eating Cantonese food. That is — drink soup first and then eat the dishes. When drinking the soup, hold the spoon with right hand, and the spoon should face the outer side to ladle out the soup, and then put it into the mouth. Don't make any sound while drinking the soup.
When eating western-style food, the bones and thorns should not be put into the mouth when you meet the dishes which have them. The food which already eaten into the mouth cannot be spit out. So you should know the food you eat when eating western-style food. For the food which you are not so sure or the food which you don't like, then you'd better not put them into your mouth.
When eating western-style food, if you leave the table without finishing the dinner, you should put the knife and fork crossed beside the plate, let the edge of the knife faces inside. If you have finished your meal, you should put the knife and fork side by side to show that the plate can be removed.
The human face is a remarkable piece of work. The astonishing variety of facial features helps people recognize each other and is important to the formation of complex societies. So is the face's ability to send emotional signals, whether through an unconscious reddening of face or a false smile. People spend much of their waking lives, in the office and the courtroom as well as the bar and the bedroom, reading faces, for signs of attraction, trust and cheat. They also spend plenty of time trying to dissimulate.
Technology is rapidly catching up with the human ability to read faces. In America, facial recognition is used by churches to track prayers' attendance; in Britain, by shopkeepers to spot past thieves. This year Welsh police used it to arrest a suspect outside a football game. In China, it verifies the identities of ride-hailing (网约车) drivers, permits tourists to enter attractions and lets people pay for things with a smile. Apple's new iPhone is expected to use it to unlock the home screen.
Compared with human skills, such applications might expand steadily in scale. Some breakthroughs, such as flight or the Internet, obviously transform human abilities; facial recognition seems merely to encode them. Although faces are peculiar to individuals, they are also public, so technology does not, at first sight, intrude on something that is private. And yet the ability to record, store and analyse images of faces cheaply, quickly and on a vast scale promises one day to bring about major changes to our understanding of privacy, fairness and trust.
Start with privacy. One big difference between faces and other biometric (计量生物学的) data, such as fingerprints, is that they work at a distance. Anyone with a phone can take a picture for facial-recognition programs to use. FindFace, an app in Russia, compares snaps of strangers with pictures on VKontakte, a social network, and can identify people with a 70% accuracy rate. Even if private firms are unable to join the dots between images and identity, the state often can. Photographs of half of America's adult population are stored in databases that can be used by the FBI. Law-enforcement agencies now have a powerful weapon in their ability to track criminals, but at enormous potential cost to citizens' privacy.
How to Survive and Thrive
Here are some tips to help you learn not only to survive, but to thrive (成长) and grow in a chaotic world.
Try to build on strengths rather than focus on limitations. Maybe you'll become an auto mechanic (技工), or maybe you'll make good use of your ability to classify detailed information to build a career as a biologist or druggist.
Realize that few mistakes are disastrous. Did you fail a course? Most of us can't avoid an occasional failure, but we can learn bounce-back attitudes through failures.
Cecilia, a shy twelve-year-old, became livelier when she won the lead in a school play. “We want you to improve your grades, but not spend time on plays!” said her worried mother. To everyone's surprise, Cecilia's grades improved. Most importantly, no matter what happens, Cecilia can return to that feeling of success whenever she gets discouraged.
Getting into a top university — or any university — will not guarantee success. I've met people from top universities who have experienced unemployment and even homelessness. Career-changers who face the future with an attitude of “I can handle anything” are the ones who win today. While in difficulties, they keep up their spirits till they figure out what to do next.
A. Have no idea about your future plan?
B. Face rejection from a first-choice college?
C. Life is hard at the moment, but we're surviving.
D. Try to experience success in any area of your life.
E. I've met high school drop-outs who became very successful.
F. Do you spend hours studying models of cars for the last twenty years?
G. And she made new friends with the "good kids" who were also achievers.
When I became a junior, I decided to take Latin at school. I was so1about taking that class, and I was fully expecting to be able to2every word I'd ever come across once I learned Latin.
But Latin class was so3. Each day, the teacher, Mr Ready, would ask us to open our4and recite aloud the various Latin forms of words. This was the5he taught us every day. It was until I6my hand one afternoon when we were asked yet again to open our books.
When Mr Keady asked what was wrong, I7why I thought that his class was dull, how I had expected more, and that his method of teaching was8. When I finished speaking, I9Mr Keady to angrily send me to the head teacher.
But instead, he sat at his desk quietly, looking defeated（受挫的）and tired. After several moments of10, Mr Keady spoke. He quietly and firmly said that he would11carefully about what I'd said. And that was it.
In the following weeks, Latin class didn't become the exciting learning environment I12it would, but Mr Keady did try harder. He brought in some new worksheets and13to involve us students more in his classes.
Maybe some people would14what I did, but even so many years later, I feel bad about it.
If I saw him now, I'd tell him how I15what I'd done that day in class, and that I was disrespectful. And at the same time, I'd also tell him that he taught me a wonderful16that day. Following my17words, he showed me that being18doesn't mean you have to give away your dignity (尊严).
Indeed, Mr Keady's19proved that no matter how hurt you feel, no one — no one — can20 your dignity.
Have you ever tasted or perhaps heard of sugar painting? As fewer people choose to make sugar paintings, the traditional Chinese folk craft might have become a (distance) memory in some ways. However, a 38-year-old craftsman, Li Jiangzhong, is devoted to (keep) the art of sugar painting alive.
Li worked as a miner for more than ten years. After the mine closed down, Li turned housing decoration until he (force) to give that up due to a finger injury. Earlier this year, he discovered sugar painting, something he really had interest in.
Since there was no sugar painting craftsman in his village, he studied by (he) through large quantities of videos and information on the Internet. Li loved painting when he was young, and he found it easy to learn the skill in sugar painting. He soon mastered the skill and could make (vary) of sugar paintings. A sugar painting is made with (melt) brown or white sugar. Craftsman (basic) paint animals and flowers on a stone board with the syrup (糖浆). When the sugar cools down, appears is a piece of sugar art.
The big Town Hall clock was striking midnight when Frank began to cross the bridge. The dark night air was cold and wet, and the street lamps gave little light. Frank was anxious to get home and his footsteps rang loudly on the silent night.
When he reached the middle of the bridge, he thought he could hear someone coming near behind him. He looked back but could see no one. However, the sound continued, and Frank began walking more quickly. Then he slowed down again, thinking there was nothing to fear in a town as quiet as this. The short, quick steps grew louder until they seemed very near.
Frank found it impossible not to turn round. As he did so, he caught sight of a human from coming toward him. After reaching the other side of the bridge, Frank stopped and pretended to look down at the water. From the corner of his eyes he could now make out the form of a man dressed in a large overcoat. A hat was pulled down over his eyes and very little of his face could be seen.
As the man came near, Frank turned towards him and said something about the weather in an effort to be friendly. The man did not answer but asked roughly where Oakfield House was. Frank pointed to a big house in the distance and the stranger continued his way.
Then Frank wondered why the stranger had wanted to find Oakfield House at such an hour. He knew that the person who lived there was very rich. Almost without realizing what he was doing, Frank began following the stranger quietly.
The man was soon outside the house and Frank saw him look up at the windows. A light was still on and the man waited until it went out. When about half an hour had passed, Frank saw him climb noiselessly over the wall and heard him drop onto the ground at the other side.
Paragraph 1:
Now Frank knew what the man wanted to do. ……
Paragraph 2:
Frank couldn't just stand in the dark and wait.……
