23.
If children were required to excel only in certain areas, they might be better able to cope with their parents’ expectations. Psychologist Michael Thompson says that we make unfair “genetic” demands on our teens: “It is the only period in your life when you’re expected to do all things well. Adults don’t hold themselves to those standards. We don’t interview the dentist about whether he can throw a basketball, or quiz our accountant on biology before we let her do our taxes. In elementary and high school we celebrate the generalist, but in the real world there is no room for the generalist except on a quiz show.” We should not expect too much from our children.
24.
We need to be careful when we use general terms to identify groups. In some cases, they make distinctions among the subgroups unclear. For example, people from both Guatemala and Mexico may be described as Latinos. However, their cultural backgrounds vary on several important dimensions, so we should not view them as being from a homogeneous group. Similarly, the term Asian American blurs variations among people whose heritage is, for example, Chinese, Korean, or Japanese. Whenever the subgroups have been identified, we will use the more specific terms. When we use the more general terms, remember that they may not apply to all subgroups within the group described by the more general terms.
25.
Sometimes we find a piece of writing hard to understand and we need to make the meaning clear, which is possible through simulation. A classic example is car insurance people. They read the reports of accidents and have to figure out who is legally responsible for the accidents. While nowadays they probably use computer simulation, at one time they would use toy cars and drawings of the roads. They would move the toy cars and note the damage that would occur according to the reports from the drivers making claims. In this case the simulation makes the written material more understandable by presenting it in a visual way. To study a text better, you can use simulation with any convenient objects.
26
Dr. Vaigyanik is a rare scientist who wears baggy trousers and a dirty gown. But he is more scientific than you would imagine him to be. One day when it was raining cats and dogs, he wanted to pay a visit to one of his friends, Dr. Manchala. However, neither an umbrella nor a raincoat was available in the house. But Dr. Vaigyanik had an idea. He took out some old clothes and sewed them in the form of a raincoat. When he wore it, he asked his servant to paint it with a brush. He painted the raincoat just as one paints a door! Dr. Vaigyanik then stood for some time before a heater and went outside. You can just imagine what he must have looked like in the street!
27.
When talking in general about Roman women, things break down by time periods and by classes. Whether a woman was a slave or came from a wealthier class made a great deal of difference. It also made a difference which period you’re talking about. Rome’s conquests meant that men were often away for long periods of time and might not come back at all. Women were left in charge of making sure that things got done. After the conquests, the enormous wealth brought back to Italy allowed middle-and upper-class women to run things with more independence and power.
28
Getting an “F” means only that you failed a test ― not that you failed your life. From now on, imagine that the letter “F” when used as a grade represents the word: feedback. An “F” is an indication that you didn’t understand the material well enough. It’s a message that you should do something differently before the next test. If you think of “F” as feedback, you can change your thinking and behavior in ways that promote your success. You can choose a new learning strategy. Getting meaningful feedback on your performance is a powerful strategy for learning anything. Tests are not the only source of feedback. Make a habit of asking for feedback from your teachers, friends, and anyone else who knows you. Just determine what you want to improve and ask, “How am I doing?”
30
The traveler’s palm is a species of plant native to the island of Madagascar which is off the coast of east Africa in the Indian Ocean. It has been given the name “traveler’s palm” because its long stems with green leaves on the top of them extend out from the trunk like a giant hand fan. Young traveler’s palms have an underground trunk which, in the adult plant, emerges above ground. A mature traveler’s palm blooms year round and produces brown fruits that contain light blue seeds. The traveler’s palm tolerates sandy soils with stores of water in many parts of the plant including the leaf. It thrives and grows best in full sun, so it requires a lot of light, especially when grown indoors.
31
No one else can experience the way your heart feels about things. No one can see through the lens you use to see life quite the same as you do. Accept this individuality. Honor and praise it, too. Do not be quick to compromise it. In your desire to fit in or make others happy, you may be tempted to pretend to be someone you are not. You may even pretend to believe things you don’t really believe, or act in ways that are out of character with who you really are. When you do this, you lose out on the real you. The world loses out on you, too. Strive to be a healthy, happy and enlightened person― and then, taking your place alongside your fellow travelers, offer your self to the waiting world.
32
Many of the biggest stars in sports are tough to deal with and rarely does an agent develop a connection with them during the first encounter. The most important lesson I learned as a sports agent is that it isn’t just about signing a million-dollar contract. When I am working with a client, there are hundreds of little things that take place during the weeks before we are ready to sit down and negotiate. Small stuff plays a big part in how satisfied and comfortable my clients are with me and my services. I often express interest in their recent vacation or how their children are doing in school. Paying attention to details is a huge sign of respect to today’s top athletes.
33
One response that happens after a diagnosis of memory loss is the tendency to blame yourself when things do not go well. Here is a good example: Jane, a woman in her mid-sixties, recently got a call from her son, who asked her to get a bus pass for an upcoming doctor’s visit. A couple of days later, the son called and asked Jane if she had gotten the bus pass. She said, with some guilt, “Oh no, I’m sorry I forgot all about that.” Her son’s response was, “Well, Mom, I asked you to do that just two days ago.” Jane ended the conversation feeling upset at herself and telling herself she “shouldn’t” have forgotten what her son had asked. But her forgetfulness was not her fault. She could not control the memory loss.
34
Cell phones seem to have achieved the status of having the shortest life cycle of all the electronic consumer products. The average person in America and Britain throws away his or her cell phone within eighteen months of purchase, even though cell phones will last for ten years on average. Every year more than 130 million still-working cell phones in the United States and 15 million in Britain are retired. Only a small fraction of them are reassembled for reuse or exported to foreign countries. This trend isn’t limited to both countries. Many other advanced countries have also seen new types of cell phones replacing old ones almost annually.
35
Back in the 19th century, trains weren’t so easy to stop. Engineers didn’t just step on the brakes― instead, “brakemen” manually adjusted the speed with brake wheels on the roof of the cars. Working on top of a moving train took concentration: Cars rocked violently, the wind roared past, and brakemen had to jump from car to car at top speeds. Often they were so intensely focused that they forgot to watch for upcoming tunnels or bridges. You can imagine what happened when a brakeman didn’t duck. That’s where “telltales”― a series of ropes hung over the tracks ―came in. Hung from about 100 feet from tunnels and low-hanging bridges, the ropes would brush across the heads of brakemen to alert them of upcoming danger.
36
Back in the 19th century, trains weren’t so easy to stop. Engineers didn’t just step on the brakes― instead, “brakemen” manually adjusted the speed with brake wheels on the roof of the cars. Working on top of a moving train took concentration: Cars rocked violently, the wind roared past, and brakemen had to jump from car to car at top speeds. Often they were so intensely focused that they forgot to watch for upcoming tunnels or bridges. You can imagine what happened when a brakeman didn’t duck. That’s where “telltales”― a series of ropes hung over the tracks ―came in. Hung from about 100 feet from tunnels and low-hanging bridges, the ropes would brush across the heads of brakemen to alert them of upcoming danger.
37
In nearly every culture, proverbs ― communicated in colorful and vivid language ― offer an important set of values for members to follow. Because all people, regardless of their culture, share common experience, many of the same proverbs appear throughout the world. For instance, in nearly every culture some degree of thrift and hard work is emphasized. Hence, in Germany, the proverb states, “One who does not honor the penny is not worthy of the dollar.” In the United States, people are told, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Similarly, in Japan and China, where silence is valued, you find the Japanese proverb that states, “The quacking duck is the first to get shot,” and the Chinese proverb “Loud thunder brings little rain.”
38
One interesting way to start conversations in your social networking site is to post something controversial. People will respond more often to controversial topics than to noncontroversial ones. Keep in mind, though, that often people don’t want to be the first person to answer a question or to comment on a controversial post. This is nothing personal against you or your content; it is human nature. What you can do in this situation is, offline, ask close friends or colleagues to be the first to make a comment. Then you can respond to the comments, and visitors to your social networking site will see that you indeed are there and are responding to the comments.
39
It is predicted that there will be more people over 60 than under 15 in 20 years. It will mean an aging society with an increasing number of old people and fewer youngsters. In reality, some youngsters worry about caring for old people while also keeping the country’s productivity going. Their concern is valid, but a study shows there’s a good news to the graying of our nation. Over the years, the older subjects proved to have fewer negative emotions and more positive ones compared with their younger days. It means as people age, they’re more emotionally balanced and better able to solve highly emotional problems. After all, that may lead to a more stable world as well.
40
Many people think the success of dieting depend mostly on determination, persistence and self-discipline. While this mental power matters, a new research has found that a much more subtle aspect of the diets themselves can also have a big influence on the pounds lost. Researchers compared the dieting behavior of women following two very different diet plans. They found that the more complicated people thought their diet plan was, the sooner they were likely to drop it. In other words, for people who go on a more complex diet that involves keeping track of quantities and items eaten, their subjective impression of the difficulty of the diet can lead them to give up on it.
To succeed in diet, simplicity of process for carrying it out is more important than willpower.
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