Information Overload

    In modern society，if we're trying to make a decision，we often have so much information that we get confused，and we don't know what to do．This state is known as information overload．{#blank#}1{#/blank#} It can cause stress，frustration and reduced productivity．But what can we do in the face of information overload？

•Plan for only one time each day to check e-mail，social messaging sites，Wechat，etc．Don't allow yourself to check multiple times，unless you truly are waiting for an important e-mail．{#blank#}2{#/blank#}And that eats up your valuable time before getting away．

    If you are suffering from too many electronic interruptions during the weekday，ask people to call or text you during work hours only if it's really an emergency．{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Remind yourself that it's okay to not know everything．In fact，it's impossible to keep up with the pace of the information superhighway．The sooner you accept that，the happier you'll be．{#blank#}4{#/blank#} It is good to fall behind on the information that really isn't worth your attention．

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Set aside a regular time each week where you and other family members do not use any kind of electronic media technologies，including television．It could be something you do every weekend，or perhaps an hour or two every evening．

A．Just catch up with the happiest moment．

B．Know what's worth knowing and what isn't．

C．Each time you go online，you run the risk of being addicted to it．

D．Spend time with your family free from electronic products．

E．We need to find some effective ways to process the information．

F． Almost everyone suffers from it to some degree．

G．Otherwise they and you end up stealing time from your employer．

Protect Children from Cyber-bullying

    When you think about bullying, you might think of a child being bullied by another in the schoolyard. As more young people have access to computers and cell phones, traditional bullying has gone digital, which has not yet gained awareness in Chinese parents.

    Cyber-bullying, first invented by Canadian educator Bill Belsey, is the use of the Internet and related technologies to harm other people, in an intentional, repeated, and unfriendly manner. It involves threatening text messages, the spread of online rumors on social networking sites, and intentionally keeping someone out of an online group. Cyber-bullying is at an all-time high in the US. According to a study from the US Department of Justice, more than 43% of teenagers report being victims（受害者）of cyber-bullying.

    Compared to face-to-face bullying, cyber-bullying is considered to have a worse emotional effect on the victims, and kids could feel more desperate and depressed. Severe, long-term or frequent cyber-bullying can leave victims at greater risk for anxiety, depression, and other disorders. Research says that cyber-bullying victims were almost twice as likely to have attempted suicide compared to youths who had not experienced it.

In traditional schoolyard bullying, at least home is a safe place for the victims. But cyber-bullying is endless—it could happen anytime. Moreover, in the digital world, bullying is much easier, as a bully can pick on people with a much lower risk of being caught.

    Actually, cyber-bullying has become a worldwide issue. In the US, as several teens committed suicide because of cyber-bullying, some schools set rules to punish cyberbullies. Laws to punish cyber-bullying have been introduced in some states. In China, cyber-bullying is still considered by many parents and educators as a problem that involves physical contact. However, as cell phones and laptops are becoming common equipment for teenagers, social interactions have increasingly moved from personal contact to virtual contact. Cyber-bullying is spreading faster than expected.

    For schools and parents, safety rules should be set in the virtual world for kids, such as telling them not to let out anything to a stranger. Active steps should be taken to make the public aware of the seriousness of this problem, because it would be too late to take measures after tragedy strikes.

    I was asked in an e­mail about learning idioms in a foreign language. Maybe I am different from most people，but I do not bother with them. To me they are kind of dessert of language learning. They come at the end of a meal. Once you have filled up with the key words and phrases that are used in a variety of situations，then you can add a few idioms. And by that time, you will be able to pick them up naturally anyway.

    I find that many learners have trouble with idioms，as if repeating some very colloquial expressions is going to upgrade how they sound in a language. In fact, it is the opposite. Idioms are difficult to use correctly.

    Yes，occasionally you hear idioms and do not understand. But，in my experience，there are always situations where you do not understand. It is best to focus on the most important words，what they mean and how they are used. Certainly，it is best for a non­native speaker to stick to standard speech.

    Some teachers even try to teach the “real language”．Then you hear non­native speakers saying things like “I goanna”, “You wane” etc.

    You will learn all the idioms you need just by exposing yourself to the language. In general，you can save any phrase that you find interesting，and if that includes idioms，go to it. But I would not make any special effort to go after idioms. I，in fact，avoid them. If I come across something in Russian that strikes me as a particularly idiomatic use of words，I just leave it aside; do not even bother trying to learn it. If it keeps on appearing，then I will learn it.

The Secret of a Long Life

    I am Peter Brown. I am a writer with an important magazine. The other day I saw a white-haired man sitting on the chair in front of his house. I could see the wrinkles (皱纹) in his face and neck, and his wrinkled hands. Articles on the secrets of living to an old age are always popular with our readers, so I decided to write a story and discover the secret of this man's long life. As I went near him, I said:

    “Sir, would it be okay if I talked with you for just a moment?”

    “Not at all. Actually, it would make me very happy. I get very bored sitting here, even for a short time. Until a little while ago, I lived a full and active life without a moment's rest.”

    “Well, they say that a lot of activities help one to live a long time.”

    “That's true, very true. I still feel very well, although my step has slowed down a little.”

    The conversation continued in that way for a while. Although I tried to be very thoughtful about getting information from older people, it seemed to me that it would now be all right to begin to ask some polite questions.

    “Would it be okay if I smoked?”

    “Not at all.”

    “I'd offer you one, but I suppose you probably don't smoke, or drink, or…”

    “You're wrong! I've always smoked a great deal. And until a little while ago, I went dancing every night. And as for alcoholic drinks ...”

    “Do you mean to say that you've done these things all your life?”

    “Of course. Why does that surprise you so much?”

    “I've always been told that doing those things is bad for the health.”

    “Nonsense!”

    “I suppose that you have another secret ... a lot of fruit... vegetables ... a lot of exercise in the fresh air…”

    “Don't be silly! I hate exercise in the fresh air, and I don't like any kind of vegetable.”

    “This is unbelievable!”

    “What do you mean, unbelievable? What are you talking about?”

    “It's just that I can't understand how you've been able to live like that and to have lasted so long. Tell me, how old are you?”

    “Me? I'm twenty-eight. Why?”

    The weather is very important to farmers. The calendar might say “August”， but the weather's more like October. For some farmers the cool weather is a good thing. For others, it's a cause for concern.

    At Apple Hill, the cooler weather was giving the Boeger Winery a chance to concentrate on bottling instead of picking. “Things were really maturing, it has just been a welcome relief to have more time to prepare.” said Greg Boeger of Boeger Winery.

    But down in the Delta, the earlier hot weather has them two weeks ahead of schedule. Their harvest actually started on Tuesday, and this cooling trend is a worry. There have been no problems yet, but for each of the last two years heavy rain right after Labor Day was a problem, one that Don Pylman would not like to see repeated.

    “If it doesn't start raining, we're in good shape，” said Pylman. “If the sun comes out and clears up we can get right back to work, but if we do get rain, the rots will start.”

    The kind of grape makes a difference as well. Thin­skinned grapes like the chardonnay variety are much more sensitive to rain than some of the others. They're also more difficult to dry off.

    As any plane passenger will confirm, a crying baby is almost impossible to ignore, no matter how hard you try. Now scientists believe they may have worked out why. A baby's cry pulls at the heartstrings(扣人心弦) in a way while other cries don't, researchers found.

    Researchers found that a baby's cry can trigger unique emotional responses in the brain, making it impossible for us to ignore them—whether we are parents or not. Other types of cries, including calls of animals in great pain, fail to get the same response—suggesting the brain is programmed to respond specifically to a baby' cry.

    A team of Oxford University scientists scanned the brains of 28 men and women as they listened to a variety of calls and cries. After 100 milliseconds—roughly the time to blink(眨眼)—two parts of the brain that respond to emotion lit up. Their response to a baby's cry was particularly strong. The response was seen in both men and women—even if they had no children.

    Researcher Dr Christine Parsons said, “You might read that men should just notice a baby and step over it and not see it, but it's not true. There is a special processing in men and women, which makes sense from an evolutionary view that both men and women would be responding to these cries.” The study was in people who were not parents, yet they are all responding at 100ms to these particular cries, so this might be a fundamental response present in all of us regardless of parental status.

    Fellow researcher Katie Young said it may take a bit longer for someone to recognize their own child's cries because they need to do more “fine-grained analysis”. The team had previously found that our reactions speed up when we hear a baby crying. Adults performed better on computer games when they heard the sound of a baby crying than after they heard recordings of adults crying.