Have you ever noticed what happens to an idea once you express it?Just talking about it or writing it down causes you to make it clear in your own mind.How can you use this to increase your brain power?Start writing.

    By putting thoughts into words,you are telling yourself the logic behind what you think,feel,or only partly understand.Often,explaining a thought is the process of understanding.In other words,you increase your brain power by exercising your “explain power”.

    Another benefit of writing is that it helps you remember.Many,if not most,highly productive people are always taking notes.You can try keeping it all in your head,but if you keep a journal of your ideas,the next time you're working on a big project,you'll probably have more success.

    Want to understand a topic?Write a book about it.That's an extreme example,but if you are learning something new,write a letter to a friend about it,and you will understand it better.Want to invent something?Write an explanation of the problem—why you want to solve it,and why it is worth solving,and you're halfway there.

    Writers don't always write because they clearly understand something beforehand.Often,they write about something because they want to understand it.You can do the same.Writing will help bring you to an understanding. Give it a try.

    If you will be cycling, you will need to know what these traffic signs and signals mean.

    A sign like this one means that there is a bike lane（道）. If there is a bike lane, you are required to use it. If there is not a bike lane, you should ride with traffic as far to the right side of the road as possible.

    When the signal light turns green, cars go. When you cross the street at a signal light, you should wait for the walk signal. Be sure to look carefully to the left, right and left again, before crossing the street.

    When the signal light turns yellow, car drivers should slow down and prepare to stop. You should not cross if the light is yellow. The light is about to turn red, and cars will enter the intersection(十字路口).

    This signal is the WALK sign. It has a picture of a person walking instead of using the word WALK.

    This signal is the DON'T WALK sign. It is part of the signal with the picture of a person walking. This is a picture of a red hand, meaning you should stop. You should wait to cross the street until the green picture of the person walking is showing.

    Car drivers and bikers must come to a complete stop at STOP signs.

    A yield sign means to slow down and be ready to stop. If there are pedestrians（行人）or vehicles in or nearing the intersection, you must stop. If there is no traffic in or nearing the intersection and it is safe, you may go through.

    This sign means you are coming to a crosswalk. Car drivers and bikers must stop to allow people in the crosswalk to cross the street.

    What would work be like if you had no boss?Imagine you could make all your own decisions and no one told you what to do.

    A Swedish software company,Crisp,decided to get rid of their CEO.First,they needed to find out what a CEO actually did.Then they shared those duties among staff and board members,which is exactly what they did.And the employees believes it's been a good change.An employee named Heinrik Kniberg says the company can now act faster,"If you want to get something done,you stand up and start driving that.Workers are also more active and satisfied."And any big decisions are made during the all-member meetings several times a year.

    So,if it's working well for Crisp,could this model become more widespread? Online retailer（零售商）Zappos tried out a similar plan but had unpleasant results.Almost a fifth of its staff decided to leave,and CEO Tony Hsieh admitted that "self-management is not for everyone".Mr Houston,founder of file-sharing service Drew Dropbox,says that total freedom doesn't always feel good,because you no longer know what you're supposed to do,what is important and you're bumping up against other people."

    Would you like to work somewhere with no boss?

    Hundreds of years ago, a Roman army came north from England to make war on Scotland. The Scots, a brave people, love their country. They fought hard to drive the enemy out of Scotland. But there were too many of the Romans. It looked as if the Romans would win.

    One night, the leader of the Scots marched his soldiers to the top of a hill. “We will rest here tonight, my men,” he said, “Tomorrow we will fight one more battle. We must win, or we will die.”

    They were all very tired. So they ate their supper quickly and fell asleep. There were four guards on duty, but they were very tired, too, and one by one, they fell asleep.

    The Romans were not asleep. Quickly they gathered at the foot of the hill. Slowly they went up the hill. Closer they came to the sleeping Scots. They were almost at the top. A few minutes more the war would be over. Suddenly, one of them put his foot on a thistle (蓟). He cried out and his sudden cry woke the Scots. In a minute they were on their feet and ready for a battle. The fighting was hard, but it did not last long. The Scots wiped out the Romans and saved Scotland.

    The thistle is not a beautiful plant. It has sharp needles all over it. Few people liked it. But the people of Scotland liked it so much that they made it their national flower.

    My first introduction to Chinese art was an early morning walk in Beihai Park in Beijing. There, I saw elderly people writing on the pavement with paintbrushes which were a metre long! I soon learned that they were doing water calligraphy − writing in water. The words have meanings, but they are also art. The calligraphy quickly disappears, of course. But tomorrow, the old people will be back.

    Temporary art like this is very popular in China. Every winter, Harbin, in northern China, is visited by sculptors and tourists from around the world. They come for the Harbin Ice Festival, when the city has huge sculptures made out of ice. The sculptures are bigger than houses, and they take weeks to make. Harbin's freezing winter temperatures make it very difficult for the artists to work outside. But the weather also means that the sculptures will be protected until the spring.

    Of course, not all Chinese art is temporary − some of it has been around for a very long time! Near the city of Xi'an, I visited the amazing terracotta warriors, or soldiers. In 200 BC, 8,000 statues of soldiers were made by sculptors out of a material called terracotta. They are as big as real people and they all have different faces. An important king had the statues produced to protect his body after he died. They stayed under the ground with the dead king for over 2,000 years, until they were discovered by a farmer in 1974.

    At the China Art Museum, in Shanghai, I saw wonderful 16th-century Chinese paintings of tall mountains, trees and cliffs. The paintings were beautiful, but they didn't look very realistic to me at the time. 'Mountains aren't like that,' I thought. But that was before the last stop on my trip: the mountains of Zhangjiajie National Park.

    These mountains were used by film director James Cameron in his sci-fi film Avatar because they look like something from another planet. On my last weekend in China, I took a cable car up into the mountains there. Trees grew on the sides of hundred-metre cliffs, and strange towers of rock appeared out of the morning fog. It looked just like the pictures in the China Art Museum. For a moment, I felt like I was inside a Chinese painting!

Juleus Ghunta is an award-winning children's author, but growing up, he could barely 1 . Raised by a single mother, who often had to make 2 choices about how to use their limited resources－including a decision to send his oldest sister to school, he had been kept home and had no 3 to books as a child.

When Ghunta finally got the opportunity to attend school, he couldn't 4 words, spell, or read with understanding. The situation was made worse by a series of teachers who made him feel 5 . "They were not very patient, not very kind," he said, "I suffered from a deep sense of loss and shame."

Fortunately, a young teacher decided to start a reading program for 6 students. Ghunta was the first to sign up. "The teacher was 7 kind to me." he said, "She had left me with the gift of literacy, and a deeper appreciation of my value as a human being." Under her patient 8 , Ghunta's reading skills gradually improved, and his sense of inadequacy (不足) began to 9 .

After interacting with the young teacher, Ghunta's life took a new 10 . He graduated from high school with a number of academic awards, and went on to college successfully. Nowadays, he is the author of two children's books about 11 difficult experiences in childhood.

In 2010, Ghunta went back to his old school to 12 his old teacher's name, but in vain. However, he still hopes to 13 her one day, so that he can thank her for seeing his 14 . "I would love for her to see the significant impact she has made on my life, and the ways in which I have carried this 15 of her－the hope, the light, with me－and how it continues to be a source of joy."