Sam was waiting for a taxi at the hospital. He had booked it on the phone after his medical treatment. He'd been suffering from kidney (肾) failure since last year. During this time, he was on the transplant list, but no 1 appeared.
Bill was driving to visit a friend when his phone rang with the request for Sam's ride home. The trip was out of Bill's way. 2 , he took the order, figuring if the passenger was coming from a hospital, he likely needed a ride.
When Sam got into the car, Bill could see he was 3 but in good spirits. As the two set out, they began chatting.
"Sam really 4 the car with positive energy," said Bill, who talked a lot with Sam. He learnt Sam had enjoyed volunteering in the community, but he was doing less because of the treatments. Then Sam revealed he was searching for a kidney donor. Bill 5 he'd be a good donor candidate because he didn't drink or smoke. Sam agreed, though he didn't think much of it. Bill, however, couldn't stop thinking about it.
Bill believed in 6 others, so donating a kidney was something always on his mind. Plus, he already liked and respected Sam. When approaching the destination, Bill repeated, "I'd see if I could be a match to give you a kidney."
"I was shocked," Sam recalled. He was shaking so hard that he could barely write his name when they 7 contact information. Once inside his home, he excitedly told his wife, "The taxi driver offered his kidney to me!"
After the initial excitement, Sam started feeling less 8 , wondering if it had just been an emotional moment. Would he hear from him?
But Bill was 9 to his word. He contacted the hospital soon. After a long process, the results came: They were a perfect match. Then they had their surgery, which was a(n) 10 . Today, Sam is doing well. And the two men still keep in touch.
Miraculously, a chance encounter turned out to be a life-saving ride.
The Lighthouse Book Project is an intensive, two-year program. It is aimed at giving writers of book-length manuscripts (文稿) the classes, advice, and moral support they need to draft, revise, and—most importantly—finish. Whether you're working on a novel, short story collection, or narrative nonfiction, our program guides will work closely with you to chart a path through your project. And at the end of two years, you'll have a manuscript you can be proud of and a support team ready to help you take the next steps.
Benefits
● Individualized guidance: You'll meet your guide on a regular basis to check your progress, review drafts of your work, and set goals for the future, keeping you accountable and on track throughout the program.
● Intensives: Three times a year, the Book Project participants gather for a weekend of classes led by special guest authors and our publishing expert, group meetings, participant readings, great meals and plenty of social time.
● Manuscript feedback: You'll receive detailed feedback on your manuscript from your guide and then a second thorough examination of your complete manuscript from a second reader, chosen from our list of Lighthouse teachers and many other famous writers.
Applications and Tuition
● Applications: Applications are available starting April 1, and the deadline to apply is June 22 every year. Each guide accepts six applicants, for a total of 36participating writers.
● Components of applications: a writing sample up to 30 pages, a project outline, two to three recommendation letters from your current or former writing instructors, and a short personal statement.
● Tuition: $8,580 per year, or $715 per month. Partial tuition assistance is available through our Book Project Fellowship.
Since 2019, we've seen deals signed for thirteen books from our Book Project participants. They've had nonfiction, short story collections, novels, and middle-grade works signed by the best publishers. Will you be next?
In 2014, a year into her retirement, Morag Warrack found herself in a village hall in the Surrey hills, surrounded by middle-aged men throwing each other on to the floor." When entering the classroom, I was terrified and thought all these men would be shocked by an old woman walking in," she says. "The teacher encouraged me to stay and I realized they were all kind and curious about me being there. That was my first experience of learning aikido."
At 59, Warrack, who had recently handed in her resignation, began reading up on mindfulness practices. "The more I looked into mindfulness, the more aikido kept coming up," she says. "These books were recommending it as a way to connect the mind, body and spirit."
Attracted by the idea, Warrack found a local class where she could take a beginners' session. Despite her struggles, Warrack kept returning. While her husband and two children were supportive, they weren't tempted to join in. "They just thought: Mum's off on one again," she says. Warrack carried on and, after two years of practice, she began moving up the graded system of belt rankings and noticing a change in herself. "Aikido was making me way more confident," she says, "Since my reactions got quicker, my balance was better and my coordination (协调性)improved, I had a real understanding of my own body and it became a metaphor(比喻)for how to be in life; how to avoid attack without hurting the other person."
By January 2019, Warrack was determined to achieve her black belt and began training with the only other person in her class who was at the same level as her: a181cm police officer. "It was a very odd pairing. Not least because he's so strong and so I had to learn how to use my skills rather than strength against him," she says.
In December 2021, Warrack, at the age of 66, took her black belt test. For 20minutes, she had to defend her position against attackers one after another before facing the final randori, where four people attack at once. "One guy kicked me and split my lip," she laughs. "It made me so angry, but that's what I needed to keep going." She passed, making her one of the oldest people to achieve an aikido black belt in the UK.
Our travels are not limited to physical time. We also experience mental time travel. We visit the past through our memories and then journey into the future by imagining what tomorrow or next year might bring. When we do so, we think of ourselves as we are now, remember who we once were and envision how we will be.
A recent study explores how one particular brain region helps to knit together memories of the present and future selves. When people sustain an injury to this area, it leads to a damaged sense of identity. The region, called vmPFC, may produce a fundamental model of the person and place it in mental time. When the region does so, it may be the source of our sense of self. It's also found that memories that reference the self are easier to recall. They benefit from what researchers have called a self-reference effect.
In the study, the researchers used the self-reference effect to assess memories of present and future selves among people who had brain lesions(损伤) to the vmPFC. The scientists worked with people with vmPFC lesions, then compared them with a control group made up of people with injuries to other parts of the brain and healthy individuals. They were asked to list adjectives to describe themselves and a celebrity, both in the present and future. Later, they had to recall these same traits. It was discovered that people in the control group could recall more adjectives linked to themselves than adjectives linked to the celebrity. However, the participants with vmPFC lesions had little or no ability to recall references to the self, regardless of the context of time. Their identification of adjectives for celebrities was also comparatively weak.
These findings are intriguing, for the study helps us understand how self-related memories depend on the function of the vmPFC. But what about our past selves? Previous studies asked people to consider their past selves, but there was no evidence of the self-reference effect. Our past selves seem foreign to us, as if they were individuals apart from us.
One idea that scientists have put forward to understand this distinction is that perhaps we are not very kind in our judgments of our past selves. Instead we may be rather critical of our previous behavior, emotions and personal traits. We may use our past primarily to construct a more positive self-image in the present. Put another way, because we may recognize flaws (瑕疵) in our past self's behavior, we tend to distance ourselves from the person we once were.
Therefore, bringing the present and future into the spotlight is central to understanding the way our brain and thoughts shape our current selves. And with the research, we have a better idea about the way a small region within our brain is able to build and hold the core ability to maintain our identity.
With its 1.2million LED lights shining brightly against the Las Vegas night, the Las Vegas Sphere may well be the ultimate symbol of 2020s overuse. But that gigantic entertainment space is also something else: a symbol of the coming conflict between our climate goals and our seemingly insatiable(永不满足) appetite for stuff.
In the 1990s, multicolor LED lights were invented to prevent climate disasters by greatly reducing the amount of electricity we use. After all, LED lights use 90percent less energy and last around 18 times longer than incandescent bulbs(白炽灯).Yet the amount of electricity we consume for light globally is roughly the same today as it was in 2010. That's partly because of population and economic growth in the developing world. But another big reason is that as technology has advanced, we've only grown more wasteful.
There's an economic term for this: the Jevons Paradox, named for the 19th-century English economist William Stanley Jevons, who noticed that as steam engines became ever more efficient, Britain's appetite for coal increased rather than decreased. The logic of Jevons is that instead of banking the efficiency savings we make as technology advances, we go out and spend it.
Today, you can see examples of the Paradox everywhere. When residents in England installed home insulation, their overall heating energy demand soon rebounded, ending up at about the same level as it was before: The residents had apparently chosen to turn up their thermostats(温控器) and live in warmer homes.
The good news is that in some cases the efficiency gains are so great that even our insatiable appetite for new stuff cannot completely negate them. Today's car engines require less fuel, even though Americans on average now drive longer distances in heavier cars. However, the bad news is that the Jevons Paradox seems to be hard-wired into us. There are few examples throughout history of people willingly consuming less energy, either for moral or environmental reasons.
For some, the solution is obvious: Governments must do more to limit our energy use, perhaps through regulations or taxes. A global carbon tax would help—though the chances of establishing one remain slim. A more innovative answer comes from Rob West, founder and chief executive of Thunder Said Energy. Having spent years documenting the Jevons Paradox and finding it far more widespread than economists predicted, he thinks the best hope we have is to fight Jevons with Jevons. That means applying the idea that consumption increases as goods become cheaper and more efficient to our production of energy. In other words, the future lies not in rationing(定量供应) energy and hoping humans suddenly change their behavior, but in ensuring any energy we use is as green and attractive as possible.
Highly sensitive person, or HSP, is a term coined by psychologist Elaine Aron. According to research, in every five people, there's one HSP. HSPs have strong self-consciousness; they may struggle to adapt to new circumstances, demonstrate seemingly inappropriate emotional responses in social situations, and easily become uncomfortable in response to light, sound or certain physical sensations. .
The power of insensitivity can be interpreted as "sluggish (迟缓的) power". Usually, people associate "insensitivity" with something bad, but insensitivity does not equal dullness. That is, calmly facing the setbacks and downtime in life and firmly moving towards one's own direction. It is the "means and wisdom to win a better life", as a Japanese author writes in the book The Power of Insensitivity. According to him, the world will be better if we focus on the major goals and stay insensitive to anything else.
One of the important reasons is that behind insensitivity is strong self-awareness or self-confidence. Knowing yourself is difficult, but knowing yourself correctly is undoubtedly an excellent ability. One of the qualities shared by many successful people is: they all clearly know where their strengths are, what they want, and what direction to go.
To practice insensitivity, the first step is to avoid overthinking. Resist the urge to overanalyze situations, and redirect your focus towards actionable steps within your control. Secondly, don't pay too much attention to the ups and downs of life at the moment. Rather, you should be looking forward. Additionally, set clear boundaries. Remember not to get too involved in other people's business and set limits that keep you safe from outside pressures.
As a unique wisdom of life, the power of insensitivity gives completely new inspiration to modern people. Once you become a bit "blunt" and slow down the pace, you will feel more comfortable.
A. Everyone can obtain the ability to be insensitive.
B. That's where the need to be insensitive comes from.
C. It emphasizes determination when it comes to difficulties.
D. Avoid focusing too much on what others are doing or thinking.
E. Regarding relationships, learn to view the problem as two parts.
F. Being a highly sensitive person can come with many challenges.
G. Why can insensitivity allow a person to better adapt in a competitive environment?
annoy, warn, drama, intelligent, emotion
Technology has improved my life in ways that still surprise and delight me. My TV (remember) how far I got in yesterday's show, even if I don't! I can watch my pizza's entire journey the restaurant to my house! These are miracles. But there have been sacrifices. I have turned over memory and independence to the machines. Over the past 20 years, I (become) anxious about problems that didn't use to exist, and indecisive over choices I never used to make.
The exhibition——"Blossoms of Dunhuang" (hold) at the National Art Museum of China last month. It reflected upon the 60-year-long career of a famous Chinese artist Chang Shana. Her passion for Dunhuang was inspired by her father was also a famous artist. Chang Shana has devoted (she) to preserving the art of Dunhuang. (ensure) that the thousand-year-old art lives on, she's now working with an online platform to promote the sale of her works.
While my fellow conference attendees were (happy) discussing the dinner menu, I was trying to stop a panic attack. This wasn't the first time this had happened. During group discussions, my brain stopped (function) and panic took over. For years I didn't know I felt like this. But now I know the reason: I have a nerve disorder. Recognizing this aspect of my identity brings me new worries and hope.
Hogan was one of the greatest golfers of the 20th century, an accomplishment he achieved through tireless practice. For him, every practice session had a purpose. He spent years breaking down each phase of the golf swing and testing new methods for each part. The result was near perfection. Hogan finished his career with nine major championships. During his prime, other golfers attributed his remarkable success to "Hogan's secret". Today, experts have a new term for his style of improvement: deliberate practice.
Deliberate practice refers to a special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance. When Hogan carefully reconstructed each step of his golf swing, he was engaging in deliberate practice. He was finely tuning his technique.
The greatest challenge of deliberate practice is to remain focused. In the beginning, showing up and putting in your repeated practice is the most important thing. But after a while we begin to carelessly overlook small errors and miss daily opportunities for improvement. This is because the natural tendency of the human brain is to transform repeated behaviors into automatic habits. The more we repeat a task, the more mindless it becomes. Mindless activity is the enemy of deliberate practice. The danger of practicing the same thing again and again is that progress becomes assumed. Too often, we assume we are getting better simply because we are gaining experience. In reality, we are merely reinforcing our current habits—not improving them.
Deliberate practice always follows the same pattern: break the overall process down into parts, identify your weaknesses, test new strategies for each section, and then integrate your learning into the overall process.
Deliberate practice does not mean that you can fashion yourself into anything with enough work and effort, though. While human beings do possess a remarkable ability to develop their skills, genes put limits on how far any individual can go. But genetics do not determine performance. It is deliberate practice that can help us maximize our potential. It turns potential into reality.
According to the passage, we possess a remarkable ability to develop our skills, so we can achieve any success through deliberate practice.
1.分享你的活动设计方案；
2.询问对方的建议。
注意：
1. 词数 100左右;
2.开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
Yours,
Li Hua
