No. It's a simple word, but it can be so difficult to say. Whether it's a favor asked by a friend, or even an unethical request from a colleague, many people will say "yes" because they hate to let others down and saying "no" makes them feel uncomfortable.
And we worry that saying no will change the way the other person views us. If you have a reputation of being a helpful and accommodating person, it is even harder to say no because you don't want to hurt that good reputation, says Adam Grant, a professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
"Every 'no' is a missed opportunity to make a difference and build a relationship," Grant wrote in a column for The Huffington Post.
Saying no is a rejection and a lot of times it does hurt feelings. But even so, psychologists say, most people probably won't take our "no" as badly as we think they will. That's because of something called a "harshness bias (严重性偏向心理)" —our tendency to believe others will judge us more severely than they actually do. For those people pleasers, Grant says there's a big difference between pleasing people and helping them. "Being a giver is not about saying yes to all of the people all of the time to all of the requests. It's about saying yes to some of the people (generous givers who will return your favor, but not necessarily the selfish takers) some of the time (when it won't compromise your own goals and ambitions) to some of requests (when you have resources or skills that are uniquely relevant)."
Always saying yes can make us overcommitted and put us under too much pressure. Saying no helps us protect our own priorities, psychologist Judith Sills told The Wall Street Journal. Another important reason to say no, Sills says, is it keeps us from giving in to peer pressure. "To have your own values, sometimes you have to say A 'no' to people with whom you don't agree," Sills says.
Throughout history, humans have played some kind of kicking game. What the world now calls football, or soccer in the US, began as far back as 2500 B. C. with the Chinese game of tsu chu. The sport we know today originated in Britain. By the 1840s, England's Football Association established a set of rules, and the modern game was born. Today, more than 120 million players all over the globe participate in the game, truly making soccer the world's sport.
So, why is soccer so popular? Maybe it's the game's camaraderie: the feeling that the team on the field is your team; their win is your victory, and their loss is your defeat. Or maybe it's the game's international quality. In countries like France, England, Spain, and Brazil, major teams have players from many different nations, and these clubs now have fans all over the world. Or perhaps it's the promise of great wealth. A number of professional soccer players, including Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, come from poor families. Today, both of these players make millions of euros every year.
Soccer is popular for all of these reasons, but ultimately, the main reason for its universal appeal may be this: It's a simple game. It can be played anywhere with anything—a ball, a can, or even some bags tied together. And anyone can play it. "You don't need to be rich...to play soccer," says historian Peter Alegi. "Your just need a flat space and a ball.
But joining a professional team and making a lot of money isn't the main reason that soccer is so popular all over Africa, say Abubakari Abdul-Ganiyu, a teacher who works with youth clubs in Tamale, Ghana. "Soccer is the passion of everyone here," he says, "It unifies us." In fact, more than once, the game has helped to bring people together. In Ivory Coast, for example, immigrants and Muslims faced discrimination for years. Yet many of the country's best soccer players are from Muslim and immigrant families. As a result, the national team has become a symbol of unity and has helped to promote peace throughout the world.
When a corporation is formed, it issues stock (股票), which is sold or given to individuals. Ownership of stock entitles you to vote in the election of a corporation's directors, so in theory holders of stock control the company. In practice, however, in most large corporations, ownership is separated from control of the firm. Most stockholders have little input into the decisions a corporation makes. Instead, corporations are often controlled by their managers, who often run them for their own benefit as well as for the owners. The reason is that the owners' control of management is limited.
A large percent of most corporations' stock is not even controlled by the owners; instead, is controlled by financial institutions such as mutual funds (financial institutions that invest individuals' money for them) and by pension funds (financial institutions that hold people's money for them until it is to be paid out to them upon their retirement). Thus, ownership of I Corporations is another step removed from individuals. Studies have shown that 80 percent of the largest 200 corporations in the US are essentially controlled by managers and have little effective stockholder control.
Why is the question of who controls a firm important? Because economic theory assumes the goal of business owners is to maximize profits, which would be true of corporations if stockholders made the decisions. Managers don't have the same motivation to maximize profits that owners do. There's pressure on managers to maximize profits, but that pressure can often be weak or ineffective. An example of how firms deal with this problem involves stock options. Many companies give their managers stock options-rights to buy stock at a low price - to encourage them to worry about the price of their company's stock. But these stock options dilute (稀释) the value of company ownership and decrease profits per share and can give managers an incentive (激励，刺激) to overstate profits through accounting tricks, as happened at Enron, Xerox, and a number of other firms.
Across Asia many people have just witnessed the natural wonder that is a total solar eclipse.
This week's total eclipse could be seen in eastern India before slowly moving across Burma, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Japan, and the Pacific Ocean. Yesterday, when it reached eastern China, people flocked (聚集)into the streets to witness the astronomical wonder.
As daylight disappeared and the sky quickly darkened. Cities such as Shanghai were plunged into (陷入) darkness during what is thought to be the longest total eclipse of the 21st century. It lasted 6 minutes and 39 seconds.
Total solar eclipses of such a long duration are very rare events. Shao Zhenyi, an astronomer at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in China explained: "We'll have to wait a few hundred years for another opportunity to observe a solar eclipse that lasts this long? so it's a very special opportunity."
But while millions celebrate this phenomenon, it should be remembered that total eclipses have not always been such treasured events. Many cultures traditionally believed that a total eclipse was a bad omen (凶兆) or a supernatural event.Others believed that the eclipse signified oncoming disasters. Nowadays it appears that these fears and superstitions (迷信) are long forgotten. As daylight once again flooded Asian cities such as Shanghai, whoops and cheers could be heard among the gathered crowds.
Reflecting on what had just happened, one Shanghai resident described the eclipse as "eerie"(怪诞的，奇异的), while another said "It's like magic, the day turns into night in such a short period of time. I have no idea where I am right now."
A. It feels like a different world.
B. They happen but once in a lifetime.
C. Those watching were left far from disappointed.
D. Some believed that evil gods were eating the Sun.
E. People were frightened by the sudden darkness.
F. Some people thought it was a natural wonder.
G. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth line up in such a way that our view of the Sun is totally hidden by the Moon.
Like life, mountains can be seen as a series of difficulties that you need to overcome. To me, a mountain is the final 1, with body, spirit, and mind all having to work together. Being 2 is a challenge too. I wanted to do something significant to help change the 3 that friends and family had developed of me— the role of patient. I set a goal—to 4Half Dome in Yosemite. I was drawn to this destination 5 its uniqueness as its shape is unforgettably distinctive (独特) —it's 6.
In August of 1996, just ten months after my heart 7, my husband Craig and I began to hike the trail leading to Half Dome. The trail began with a mild incline (斜度), which we eagerly took at a 8 pace. I was out of breath first, but as soon as my heart 9 me, I felt energized again. I tried to go as fast as the other hikers, but found it 10 to keep up. Though the final half-mile isn't difficult, the steep (陡峭
)slope can be extremely frightening, especially for those afraid of heights. Craig, 11 the difficult task ahead, gently asked. "Do you want to 12?'' Determined to harvest the 13 for all the effort, I replied,
"Absolutely, we have to go on." Step for step, Craig stayed directly behind me, providing a 14 of security. When I finally reached the top, I was 15 with joy. Ten months after my operation, I had reached the top of Half Dome! My 16 heart had not failed me.
Looking down into the valley below, we stood in silence, amazed at how far we had come. As if the moment itself was not 17, Craig surprised me with a gold charm (吊坠)in the shape of Half Dome. As I held it in my hand, I was amazed at its 18. Craig took a moment to express how proud he was of me saying, "When I had to carry you up the stairs at night, I always looked at the photo you took of Half Dome hung on the wall and wondered if we'd ever make 19 climb." His tender words brought me to tears. We had done it; we were here at the top of the mountain — a long way from those 20 of not knowing what the future would bring.
The Tradition of Making New Year's Resolutions
There are so many ways to celebrate New Year and especially New Year's Eve. Traditions of the season include the making of New Year's resolutions. That tradition (date) back to the early Babylonians. While popular modern resolutions may include the promise to lose weight or quit smoking, the early Babylonian's (popular) resolution was to return borrowed farm (equip).
The tradition of using a baby (signify) the New Year began in Greece around 600 BC. It was their tradition at that time to celebrate their god of wine, Dionysus, by parading a baby in a basket, (represent) the annual rebirth of that god as spirit of fertility (多产). Early Egyptians also used a baby as a symbol of rebirth.
the early Christians criticized the practice as pagan (异教徒), the popularity of the baby as a symbol of rebirth forced the Church to rc-evaluate its position. The Church finally allowed (it) members to celebrate the New Year with a baby, was to symbolize the birth of the baby Jesus.
The practice that an image of a baby with a New Year's banner (横幅) is used as a symbolic representation of the New Year (bring) to early America by the Germans. They had used it since the fourteenth century.
1）向他表达歉意；
2）陈述不能赴约的原因；
3）另约时间。
注意：
1）词数80左右；
2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Chimps will cooperate in certain ways, like gathering in war parties to protect their territory. But beyond the minimum requirements as social beings, they have little instinct to help one another. Chimps in the wild seek food for themselves. Even chimp mothers regularly decline to share food with their children. Who are able from a young age to gather their own food.
In the laboratory, chimps don't naturally share food either. If a chimp is put in a cage where he can pull in one plate of food for himself or, with no great effort, a plate that also provides food for a neighbor to the next cage, he will pull at random — he just doesn't care whether his neighbor gets fed or not. Chimps are truly selfish.
Human children, on the other hand are extremely cooperative. From the earliest ages, they decide to help others, to share information and to participate a achieving common goals. The psychologist Michael Tomasello has studied this cooperativeness in a series of expensive with very young children. He finds that if babies aged 18 months see an worried adult with hands full trying to open a door, almost all will immediately try to help.
There are several reasons to believe that the urges to help, inform and share are not taught but naturally possessed in young children. One is that these instincts appear at a very young age before most parents have started to train children to behave socially. Another is that the helping behaviors are not improved if the children are rewarded. A third reason is that social intelligence develops in children before their general cognitive skills, at least when compared with chimps. In tests conducted by Tomtasell, the children did no better than the chimps on the physical world tests, but were considerably better at understanding the social world.
The cure of what children's minds have and chimps' don't in what Tomasello calls what. Part of this ability is that they can infer what others know or are thinking. But that, even very young children want to be part of a shared purpose. They actively seek to be part of a "we", a group that intends to work toward a shared goal.
