Finding the Real You

    Psychometric testing—personality testing—has been very popular nowadays as studies show their results to be three times more accurate in predicting your job performance. These tests are now included in almost all graduate recruitment (招聘) and are widely used in the selection of managers.

    The most popular of these personality tests is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It is based on the theory that we are born with a tendency to one personality type which stays more or less fixed throughout life. You answer 88 questions and are then given your “type”, such as Outgoing or Quiet, Feeling or Thinking.

    Critics of personality testing raise doubts about “social engineering”. Psychologist Dr. Colin Gill warns that the “popular” personality traits (特性) have their disadvantages. “People who are extremely open to new experiences can be butterflies, going from one idea to the next without mastering any of them.” However, the psychometric test is here to stay, which may be why a whole sub-industry on cheating personality tests has sprung up. “It's possible to cheat,” admits Gill, “but having to pretend to be the person you are at work will be tiring and unhappy and probably short-lived.”

    So can we change our personality? “Your basic personalities fixed by the time you're 21,”says Gill, “but it can be affected by motivation and intelligence. If you didn't have the personality type to be a doctor but desperately wanted to be one and were intelligent enough to master the skills, you could still go ahead. But trying to go too much against type for too long requires much energy and is actually to be suffered for long. I think it's why we're seeing this trend for downshifting—too many people trying to fit into a type that they aren't really suited for.”

    Our interest in personality now exists in every part of our lives. If you ask an expert for advice on anything, you'll probably be quizzed about your personality. But if personality tests have any value to us, perhaps it is to free us from the idea that all of us are full of potential, and remind us of what we are. As they say in one test when they ask for your age: pick the one you are, not the one you wish you were.

    Bats are the only mammals(哺乳动物) that can fly a great distance, but they have another ability. Many bats live a very long time for an animal of their size. European researchers are studying bats to understand why they lives0 long. They hope to make discoveries aimed at fighting the aging process in human beings.

    Last week, the group of scientists said they had identified important biological qualities in some bat species. The group studied bat chromosomes(染色体), a line of genes found in the nucleus(细胞核) of cells. The scientists were most interested in structures connected to the ends of the chromosomes. They are called telomeres(端粒), which protect the ends of chromosomes and shorten each time a cell divides. Scientists believe this shortening process causes cells to breakdown. They say this is what causes aging.

    The European researchers studied 493 bats from four bat species. The group used information that had been gathered over more than 60 years. Of these animals ，the greater mouse-eared bat generally lived the longest, an average of 37 years. The scientists said this and a related species, which are grouped together under the name Myotis, had telomeres that did not shorten with age. Another Myotis bat holds the record for oldest age, reaching 41years. The scientists' findings suggest that these bats cells have the ability to maintain and repair their telomeres. This, they said, helps guard against the aging process.

    Based on its body size, a bat like the greater mouse-eared bat would be expected to live four years. But, these mammals have been found to live nearly 10 times longer than that. The scientists found that only 19 species of mammals live longer than humans when their body size is considered. Eighteen of these are bats.

    Now Glen doesn't like to think what might have happened had he and his best friends, Ray Wightman and Chris Johnson, picked their usual path along a rocky outcrop－the faster route to Johnson s home on Triangle Mountain. They were heading there after school that day－April 14, 1999－to play street hockey in Johnson's driveway. There were other lucky twists, too: not stopping at the shops to get a cola« as they usually did; hearing the strange cry.

    It was 3:30 pm. The three teens were laughing and talking when suddenly they heard a strange cry coming from the ditch(沟渠) across the road. Crossing to take a look, they found an Adidas gym bag sitting deep in the icy water. They climbed down the steep bank and pulled the bag from the water, expecting to find abandoned cats or dogs inside. Instead, the boys found a trembling newborn girl. Wrapped in an old blanket, wearing a thin nightshirt, she was almost blue, her lips shaking from the cold and her crying.

    The boys couldn't have been more astonished. They knew this one needed to get warm and dry, although they didn't know much about babies. Ray dug through his gym bag and wrapped her in a T-shirt. “We didn't know what to do,” said Glen. “I didn't think any of us had really held a baby before.” So the three stood beside the ditch, dumbfounded, taking turns to hold the baby to their chests to keep her warm.

    “We knew it was no use walking up to Ray's house, because his mum was working and no one would be home. We figured we'd have a better chance just staying by the road and flagging down someone.” So they stood there and waited.

    A car drove by and the boys caught the driver's attention, telling her that they had found a baby. The woman then drove off to get help. When the police and ambulance came 20 minutes later, the teens were told the baby was probably two or three hours old and had perhaps been in the ditch for an hour or more. They were also told that they had saved her life and that given 10-20 minutes more in the cold water, she probably would be drowned.

Pride and Prejudice for the Modern Woman

    Let us imagine how Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's most famous work, might be updated, 200 years on. Austen's popularity is rooted in her intelligence. But today she would certainly have had a very different life, as would her characters(角色). Here's my own suggestion…

    It is a truth finally and universally acknowledged that a single woman with brains deserves to have equal opportunities to men, however disadvantaged she may feel by sexism.

    "My dear husband," said his hopeful wife one day," have you heard that the local store, standing empty for so long, is taken over by a bright young businesswoman?"

    Her dull and indifferent (漠不关心的) husband replied that he had not. "But it is, it is," she replied excitedly. Mr. Dull-Husband made no reply.

    "Don't you want to know her plans?" she cried with some impatience.

    "Well, clearly you think it matters to your silly little head, so I'd better listen."

    "Well, my dear, the rumour (传言) is that she has already set up a string of successful businesses in northern England, though how a woman can know anything about that is beyond me". She will move in herself next month." "What is her name?" "Bingley."

    "Is she married or single?"

    "What a question! And none of your business. But her coming will be a fine thing for our five boys." "How so? How can it possibly affect them?"

    "My dear love; those lazy boys need something to wake them up. There are bound to be jobs going."

    "Is that her point in settling here? Surely as a woman she has simply taken a fancy to the place."

    "Nonsense, my love, how little you've noticed the world has changed. She's got a first-rate degree and some sort of business qualification, I'm told. She surely needs one of our boys! Perhaps you might give her a call."

    "Me? No. Perhaps you can take an interest. You still have your looks, after all. She may even offer you a job." "Oh, that's not likely. These new chances belong to the younger generation. But now you mention it, I think I'll go along all the same."

    And Mrs Bennet went along. That was 10 years ago. She is now managing director of a FTSE-listed company.

    It would remain the case, of course, that Mrs Bennet would be one of very few women on the company board, that her salary would be lower than her male colleagues, her bonus of a more "female" dimension(方面) and her lifespan (年限) among the city's business leaders shorter than theirs. Still, she'd no doubt have enjoyed Davos(达沃斯经济论坛)—and might even have hobnobbed (攀谈) with influential figures.

    When I was a boy, our extended, immigrant family would sometimes gather at my aunt's tiny house over the summer. Relatives from all over the country would come in to visit. The adults would crowd together in the living room to talk and catch up on each other's lives. And the kids would be sent out into the front yard to play when dinner was slowly cooked for all of us.

    Those were the days before video games, smart phones, and motorized toys, so we often ended up playing an old game. I remember one of those moments especially. As I was the youngest and smallest of all the kids there, I got caught first and couldn't catch anyone else. My brothers and cousins were all too fast for me, and I grew more and more frustrated. I finally fell my face first into the dirt. I got up with tears forming in my eyes. Then I saw one of my female cousins Susan standing there. She started to run but was going much slower than before. I easily caught up and seized her. Then she turned to me, smiled, and said, I'm it! You'd better run! Iran off laughing with glee while she turned and started to chase others.

    Now I see how her act of kindness that day saved me from sadness and returned me to joy. It didn't matter that we hardly ever saw each other. I know we are family and she loves me.

    In her wonderful book: Box of Butterflies, Roma Downey writes, "We are all one, we all belong to each other, and we are one big beautiful family." Perhaps it is time that we all started to treat each other that way. Perhaps it is time that we shared our love, our kindness, our laughter, and our joy with everyone without fear. Perhaps it is time to finally and forever bring this world together in one big family reunion.

    For most of us, work is the central, dominating fact of life. We spend more than half our conscious hours at work, preparing for work, traveling to and from work. What we do there largely determines our standard of living and our status to a considerable extent. It is sometimes said that because leisure has become more important, the injustices of work can be pushed into a corner, and that because most work is pretty intolerable, the people who do it should compensate for its boredom, frustrations and humiliations by concentrating their hopes on the other parts of their lives. For the foreseeable future, however, the material and psychological rewards which work can provide will continue to play a vital part in determining the satisfaction that life can offer.

    Yet only a small minority can control the pace at which they work or the conditions where their work is done; only for a small minority does work offer scope for creativity, imagination or initiative.

    Inequality at work is still one of the most glaring (明显的) forms of inequality in our society. We cannot hope to solve the more obvious problems of industrial life, many of which arise from the frustrations created by inequality at work, unless we handle it determinedly.

    The most glaring inequality is that between managers and the rest. For most managers, work is an opportunity and a challenge. Their jobs engage their interest and allow them to develop their abilities. They are constantly learning. They are able to exercise responsibility. They have a considerable degree of control over their own and others' working lives. Most important of all, they have opportunities to initiate. By contrast, for most manual workers, work is a boring, dull, even painful experience. They spend all their working lives in intolerable conditions. The majority have little control over their work. It provides them with no opportunity for personal development. Many jobs are so routine that workers feel themselves to be mere cogs (齿轮) in the bureaucratic machine. As a direct consequence of their work experience, many workers feel alienated (疏远) from their work and their firm.