Is your promotion really necessary? Many workers focus their hopes on climbing the scale of their organizations. The prospect of higher pay helps explain their ambition,but so does the greater status that comes with each successive(连续的) title.
This climb can often end in disappointment. The Peter Principle, developed by Laurence Peter for a book published in 1969, states that workers get promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. It makes perfect sense. If you are good at your job, you rise up the career ladder. Eventually, there will be a job you are not good at and at that point your career will stop.
There is another problem with chasing the promotion fantasy. Many companies have a strong tendency to promote the best sales people. Convincing others to buy goods and services is a useful skill, requiring charm and persistence. But, as the authors point out, these are not the same capabilities as the strategic planning and administrative competence needed to lead a sales team.
The research then looked at what happened after these super-salespeople were promoted Their previous sales performance was actually a negative indicator of managerial success.The sales growth of workers assigned to the star sellers was 7.5 percentage points lower than for those whose managers were previously weaker performers.
The trick to avoiding this curse is to stick to what you like doing. If you enjoy teaching, don't be a headmaster or college principal. If you like writing articles and columns, editing other people's work may not give the same degree of satisfaction.
Another problem with pursuing frequent promotions is that it turns you into a supplicant, endlessly in search of favourable feedback from the higher-ups. This can lead you to lose control of your work-life balance. In Charles Handy's new book, 21 Letters On Life And Its Challenges, the experienced management theorist recalls an insight when working for Royal Dutch Shell,an oil giant. "In exchange for the promise of financial security and guaranteed work, I had sold my time to complete strangers with my permission for them to use that time for their own purpose," he writes.
The higher up the ladder you go, the greater the demands are likely to be on your time.The chief executive will expect you to be available at weekends: after all, that is why you get paid the big bucks.
So that shiny promotion may not be for everyone. Beware the curse of overwork an/dissatisfaction. Some people like to devote their whole lives to their job and be at the centre of events. It is best to let them get on with it.
A portrait created by artificial intelligence(AI)made a historic appearance on the auction(拍卖)block at Christie's in New York City this week．It is the first artwork created by an algorithm(算法)to be offered for auction in the world of fine art．
The strange-looking painting of an imaginary man in a dark long dress left the auction block at Christie's for $432，500 on Oct.25 in New York City．
The portrait—designed in the"Old Master"style of European fine artists from centuries ago—only partially fills the canvas(画布)，leaving empty space around the central figure．It appears to represent a man with an unclear face，dressed in clothing similar to that worn by subjects painted by the Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn in the 17th century．
Of course，a computer didn't pick up a brush and become an artist．The AI that generated(生成)the image had human programmers—a Parisian art team called Obvious．To generate the portrait，titled"Portrait of Edmond De Belamy"，the Obvious team first fed the neural network a diet of 15，000 images painted between the 14th and 20th centuries，to train it to recognize visual elements in fine art，Obvious artist Hugo Caselles—Dupré told Christie's．The algorithm that eventually created an original image had two parts that worked against each other，called the Generator and the Discriminator．
"The Generator makes a new image based on the set，and then the Discriminator tries to spot the difference between a human-made image and one created by the Generator．The aim is to fool the Discriminator into thinking that the new images are real—life portraits．Then，we have a result，"he told Christie's．
GAN's final image was then inkjet—printed on canvas and framed，according to Obvious．At the bottom of the portrait is a mathematical formula(公式)representing the algorithm that created it，Obvious artists wrote on the team's website．
The goal of the painting and of Obvious，also co-founded by Hugo Caselles-Dupré and Gauthier Vernier，was to prove"artificial intelligence can do more than operate driverless cars or transform industry—it can be creative，"CNBC reported．
Just because you are in a wheelchair doesn't mean you can't enjoy the competitiveness—the all-around fun that playing sports offers you. More and more wheelchair users are playing sports every day—some even on a professional level. The following information is just a few examples of what gaming opportunities you have.
Wheelchair basketball is a very common wheelchair sport. It was started over forty years ago as a medical recovering program, and over the years has grown rapidly. Today wheelchair basketball is a professional sport that offers more than 180 teams across the United States. In order to play wheelchair basketball, it is essential to have a lightweight wheelchair. Several sports wheelchairs are on the market today just for sports enthusiasts.
Another wheelchair sport, quad rugby, was specifically designed for quadriplegics (四肢瘫痪者) who are unable to play wheelchair basketball. It is a mixture of wheelchair basketball and ice hockey. To play the game you must have two teams of four players each. Each player is classified based on impairment (损伤).
Power soccer is another fun wheelchair sport that can be very fun and exciting. Players in power soccer must have an electric wheelchair. Two teams have two 30-minute halves to push the soccer ball over the other team's goal line. The first team to reach the other team's goal line most frequently wins.
And finally, based on the sport you choose to participate in, there are several wheelchair sports accessories available for you, including belts and harnesses, gloves, bags for carrying items, drink holders and special back supports.
We're living in modern times and it seems like we never have enough time. We all get the same amount in a day, a week, and a year. It just depends on how we use it. Rather than all getting the same amount of time to spend, ? What if we could control the way we consume our time to a greater extent? Here are three unexpected ways to give ourselves more time.
Help others
This might seem strange, but people who have more time often give it away through volunteering and helping others. A study that compared the opportunities to waste time, spend time on oneself, or spend a gift of time found that giving time selflessly actually increased people's perception of time. ?
When we do the same things every day, our brains tend to take shortcuts, and our efforts don't require as much conscious thought. This makes time seem to go more quickly. In contrast, when we do things in new or unexpected ways, our brains engage more consciously. We experience time as slowing down because we're more present and putting more work into the thinking that goes into the task. We can apply this research by selecting when we choose to do things in new ways versus our typical way. . But if you want to extend your perception of time, take the winding road or a new route on the way home from the office.
Take control
. It's a problem when we have too much to do in too little time, especially when we're not the ones deciding how we spend our time. We can take back a sense of having enough time by incorporating as much control as possible, and by redesigning our days. Even the simple act of pausing for 10 minutes to think about how you want to spend your time-which project to start on, which call to return, or which email to prioritize-can reassert a greater sense of time abundance.
A．Do things in new ways
B．Seek the experience of awe
C．what if we could have more
D．That way, rather than being slaves to time, we can be masters of it
E．Go the same route every time if you prefer your drive to work to go quickly
F．Why not lend a hand to others if you want to control and even expand time
G．Nothing contributes to time poverty more than feeling out of control
My 70-year-old mother was fighting an 18-year battle with cancer. It was a battle I knew she would someday 1 . Maybe soon. And it 2 my heart to think about that.
Mom and I had a good relationship, but we just weren't 3 in the way I was with my daughter. Mom and I never 4 or said "I love you" like I often do with my daughter. Sometimes I felt 5 about Mom's love for me.
"I've set about quilting, and I'll make one for you," my mother announced 6 over the phone one day. I tried to 7 her suggestion as it was too tiring for her, but she insisted.
My quilt was Mom's last one. A month later, I got a call from Dad saying Mom was gone. A great sense of 8 overwhelmed me -- the pandemic took away my last chance to see Mom and show my love to her.
One day, I decided to give quilting a(n) 9 myself for my daughter. I carefully 10 the fabric I thought she would enjoy, and maybe I was still trying to make a 11 between Mom and myself in this way. Sometimes I'd picture us sitting together in the living room quilting together.
Finally, I got the quilt Mom 12 me. I opened it and what I saw caught my 13 . It was exactly the same fabric I had chosen for my daughter! Yet something far more difficult to 14 at last became clear. Mom, in her own way, had silently said those three beautiful words "I love you" I was 15 to hear.
Several days before July 28, 1976, many strange things happened in Tangshan. The water in the village wells rose and fell. There were deep cracks that (appear) in the well walls. At least one well had some smelly gas (come) out of it. Chickens and even pigs were too nervous (eat), and dogs refused to go inside buildings. People were asleep as usual that night, didn't think much of these.
At 3: 42 am, one of the most deadly (earthquake) of the 20th century broke out. It destroyed the city and even caused damage in Beijing. In less than one minute, Tangshan lay ruins. The number of people were killed or badly injured in the quake was more than 400000. Later that afternoon, another big quake struck Tangshan again. More buildings fell down. Water, food, and electricity were hard to get.
But the hope wasn't lost. Soon after the quakes, teams were organized to dig out the tapped and bury the dead. Many more people, (include) workers and doctors, came to provide help. Though all the efforts, the city began to breathe again.
Today, new Tangshan was built upon the earthquake ruins, which has proved to the entire world that in times of disaster, people must unify and show the wisdom to stay positive and rebuild for a (bright) future.
1）你愿意成为他的朋友；
2）你打算如何帮助他；
3）你盼望他的回复。
注意：1）词数100—120；
2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3）邮件格式已给出。
Finally, the bell rang. "Don't forget to practice your class presentation at home!" Miss Bella cried as everyone started talking and packing their school bags. Jessy felt sick. She hated having to read aloud in class. She was sure everyone got really bored listening to her. Once, when Jessy was reading out her holiday diary, Lee was even looking at his watch, a silver and blue one which seemed just magical.
Jessy watched Lee walk ahead of her as they left school. He seemed so clever, and he had a certain sort of shining confidence. He was just one of those people who were good at everything. Jessy sighed. As she turned the corner, she saw Lee's watch lying right in the middle of the path.
Jessy knew she should just pick it up and return it to him, but she didn't want to run after him. Jessy bent down quickly, picked up the watch and ran home. On arriving home, Jessy put it on almost without thinking. She was surprised it fitted so well. She walked to the mirror and started practicing her speech. Words just flooded out of her. "I'm going to talk about swimming. I have been lucky. I've won lots of competitions. But when I'm in a race, I'm not really thinking about winning. I'm just loving the feeling of being in the water…" Jessy laughed with excitement. She walked across the room. She suddenly seemed to have a certain sort of confidence. Turning back to the mirror, Jessy saw a flash of light from the watch in the glass. The flashes of silver seemed almost magical. So maybe Lee's watch really DID have something magic about it.
The next day, as the lesson began, Miss Bella asked who was going to be brave and go first. Nobody moved. Jessy slowly raised her arm. Before Miss Bella could say anything, there was a shout from behind. "She's stolen my watch!" Lee said angrily, "It went missing at school yesterday."
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Everybody was fixing their eyes on Jessy, waiting for an explanation.
……
Miss Bella smiled and asked the class to listen to Jessy's speech first.
