Failure is probably the most exhausting experience a person ever has. There is nothing more tiring than not succeeding.

We experience this tiredness in two ways: as start-up fatigue(疲惫) and performance fatigue. In the former case, we keep putting off a task because it has either too boring or too difficult. And the longer we delay it, the more tired we feel.

     Such start-up fatigue is very real, even if not actually physical, not something in our muscles and bones. The solution is obvious though perhaps not easy to apply: always handle the most difficult job first.

Years ago, I was asked to write 102 essays on the great ideas of some famous authors. Applying my own rule, I determined to write them in alphabetical(按字母顺序), never letting myself leave out a tough idea. And I always started the day's work with the difficult task of essay-writing. Experience proved that the rule works.

Performance fatigue is more difficult to handle. Though willing to get started, we cannot seem to do the job right. Its difficulties appear so great that, however hard we work, we fail again and again. In such a situation, I work as hard as I can-then let the unconscious take over.

      When planning Encyclopaedia Britannica (《大英百科全书》), I had to create a table of contents based on the topics of its articles. Nothing like this had ever been done before, and day after day I kept coming up with solutions, but none of them worked. My fatigue became almost unbearable.

      One day, mentally exhausted, I wrote down all the reasons why this problem could not be solved. I tried to convince myself that the trouble was with the problem itself, not with me. Relived, I sat back in an easy chair and fell asleep.

An hour later, I woke up suddenly with the solution clearly in mind. In the weeks that followed, the solution which had come up in my unconscious mind provided correct at every step. Though I worked as hard as before, I felt no fatigue. Success was now as exciting as failure had been depressing.

      Human beings, I believe must try to succeed. Success, then, means never feeling tired.

    April is Financial Literacy Month，when Americans of all ages are encouraged to learn how to be smart about money.And this year，fifth­grade Rachel Kelly from Naperville，Illinois，is already at the head of her class.Kelly,11, won a nationwide contest called the Stock Market Game.

    Students who take part in the Stock Market Game，run by the SIFMA Foundation，a financial­education organization，pretend to buy stocks (股票) worth $100,000.Then they have to read financial news over several days to see if their investments would have gained money or lost money and write an article explaining their choices.

    “I  wanted  to  choose  a  company  that was well­known，” writes Kelly.“I thought about products that I see every day，so cars came to my mind.” Kelly picked the Japanese car company Honda Motors.“Honda Motor Company is the No.1 producer of motorcycles in the world and the fifth­largest producer of automobiles behind Toyota，Volkswagen，General Motors and Hyundai，” says Kelly.

    Honda makes many different kinds of cars，which Kelly thinks makes the company a safe investment.She explains that even if the cost of gas goes up，Honda has a good chance of staying in business because of the company's fuel­efficient cars，which run on less gas than most cars made today.

    “If one of their departments is not doing so well，it won't affect the overall company sales，” she writes.

    Because the stock Kelly picked performed well and her article was persuasive，Kelly won this year's contest.About 600,000 students from 4th to 12th grade competed.

    What if our babies could somehow tell us what they're thinking about, what they want, and what makes them unhappy? Robyn Holt, researcher for Baby Talk New Zealand, says they can. Holt heard about baby sign language through an advertisement and decided to go along to a workshop (研讨会).

    “Sign language is something that's always interested me, and I thought, it could be really cool to try this with a baby because we are always guessing all the time what they actually want.”

    Holt started using baby sign language with her baby son Benjamin, now 12, and within two weeks he started to sign the sign for milk. She has since used it with her two younger sons Dominic, 8, and Matthew, 3.

    Baby sign language is nothing new: the practice (which is based on adult sign language) has been out in America for more than 30 years. But it is enjoying a rebirth in New Zealand.

    The idea behind baby sign language is that babies do have the ability to communicate their needs if they are given the right tools to do so. Although many mothers develop an intuition (直觉) about whether their baby's crying is from hunger, tiredness, or pain, baby sign language creates a direct form of communication that unlocks the mystery.

    When babies are between 6-months and 12 to 13-months, parents can begin to teach them sign language: use the sign for milk while feeding, and also talk about milk, so that the child begins to make the link (关联) in their brain. Then they can begin to add other signs, i.e. food, sick or pain.

    “I know of one parent. Her child was signing the sign for hurt by his mouth, and she realised his first teeth were growing. It makes life so much easier,” said Holt.

Kindle E-reader, 8th generation

    Free Touchscreen Display

    Price: $79. 99

    ● Thin and light for one-handed reading

    New Kindle is 11% thinner and 16% lighter than the previous generation Kindle, making it easy and comfortable to hold in one hand.

    ● Read like real Paper

    Kindle creates text similar to what you see in a physical book. The blacks and whites on the screen are uniform, improving text and image quality.

    ●Long-life battery

    Kindle doesn't need power to show a page of text, allowing you to read for weeks on a single charge.

    ● Thousands of books, no distraction (分心)

    Kindle is designed to be an e-reader. It satisfies your love of reading without interruptions like e-mails and phone calls.

    ●Look it up without leaving your page

    Smart Lookup combines entries from The New Oxford American Dictionary with information from Wikipedia, so you can know meanings, characters and more without losing your place.

    ●Adjust your text size

    Choose from eight text sizes to prevent tired eyes, so you can keep reading longer.

    Customer reviews:

    ※ Damon, May 21, 2019

    The price is great with an extra $ 20 off and this new Kindle is smaller in my hands than my old one. I was sad to lose my old Kindle, but this one is terrific.

    ※ Jason, January 26, 2019

    I miss the original Kindlers size—this one is too small. Also, the screen is overly sensitive and things pop up (弹出) and the battery doesn't last as long as the original Kindle. But my biggest disappointment is that this Kindle doesn't allow you to transfer everything from the original Kindle、so I lost all of the information from my old one. Overall, disappointing.

    ※ Susan, November 17, 2018

    I had the original Kindle, and the battery lasted for weeks. This battery only seems to last a few days, however. The other problem I have with this version of the Kindle is the touch screen. It is annoying when you are reading and start turning the wrong way. Sometimes, it's hard to get the page to turn the way you'd like it to.

    Some insects, such as butterflies and ladybugs, are quite beautiful. But, did you know that many bugs are also edible and are filled with protein?

    Aletheia Price knows this—and a lot more—about bugs. She also thinks you should try eating some. If you visit the website www.eatbug.com, you will find all kinds of information about edible insects. Most of it was written by Aletheia Price when she was fifteen years old. Aletheia started eating bugs at the age of thirteen. Before long, she found that she really enjoyed some of them. She also became interested in finding out more about which kinds of bugs could be eaten and how to cook them.

    According to Aletheia, there are at least 1,462 kinds of edible insects. (Doesn't that make you wonder who tried all of them and decided they were edible?) Some of her favorite dishes include mealworm chocolate chip cookies, ant tacos(玉米卷), and chocolate-covered crickets(蟋蟀). On her website she has recipes for insect entrees(开胃菜) and some helpful tips. For example, when preparing crickets, it is best to remove their legs before cooking, for the legs tend to get stuck in your teeth. She also offers information for anyone who wants to raise bugs for food.

    Aletheia realizes that eating bugs is not for everyone. But, if you think about it, you have to admit that eating bugs might be a good idea. There are billions and billions of bugs in this world. If we could get used to eating them, we would have plenty of food for everyone.

Do you know of anyone who uses the truth to deceive? When someone tells you something that is true, but leaves out important information that should be included, he can give you a false picture.

For example, some might say, "I just won a hundred dollars on the lottery. It was great. I took that dollar ticket back to the store and turned it in for one hundred dollars!"

This guy's a winner, right? Maybe, maybe not. In fact, he bought $200 worth of tickets. He's really a big loser!

He didn't say anything that was false, but he left out important information on purpose. That's called a half-truth. Half-truths are not technically lies, but they are just dishonest.

Some politicians often use this trick. During Governor Smith's last term, her state lost one million jobs and gained three million jobs. Then she seeks another term. One of her opponents says, "During Governor Smith's term, the state lost one million jobs!" That's true. However, an honest statement would have been, "During Governor Smith's term, the state had a net gain of two million jobs."

Advertisers will sometimes use half-truths. It's against the law to make false statements sol they try to mislead you with the truth. An advertisement might say, "Nine out of ten doctors advised their patients to take Yucky Pills to cure toothache." It fails to mention that they only asked ten doctors and nine of them work for the Yucky Company.

This kind of deception happens too often. It's a sad fact of life: Lies are lies, and sometimes the truth can lie as well.