Sleep Struggle

     One in every five young people has a sleep problem, so you're not alone. Getting enough sleep has become as important as eating vegetables and exercising regularly. It's very important for your body.

     Most young people only get seven hours of sleep each night, when they actually need nine hours. And making up for lost sleep during the week by sleeping on weekends doesn't really work. In fact, sleeping late on weekends may actually do you more harm than good, if you have sleep problems.

     What happens if you don't get enough sleep? If your sleep problem continues for a few nights, you could suffer serious problems. Lack of sleep can affect learning and memory. Worse, if your sleep difficulties last a long time, that could lead to anxiety (焦虑). Therefore, you've got to have some healthy sleep habits. Below are some suggestions:

     •Go to bed at the same time—including weekends, if possible.

     •Wake up around the same time every morning. When you sleep late just one morning during the week, it may disturb your body clock. This will make it hard for you to sleep that night.

     •Do something relaxing before going to bed.

     •Exercise during the day. Don't exercise right before going to bed.

     •Avoid drinking. Alcohol (酒精) makes you excited. This prevents you from falling asleep or wakes you up during the night.

     •Don't smoke. Smoking is always bad for the body. Smoking before bedtime keeps you awake.

     If trying these tips over a couple of weeks does not help you, speak to your doctor. Do not take any medicine without first asking your doctor. Many of them have strong side effects.

    Why not write in a foreign language? If people feel free to choose their profession, their religion, and even their sex, why not just decide which language you want to write? Ever since Jhumpa published In Other Words in Italian, people have been asking me, “Why don't you write in Italian, Tim? After all, you've been in the country 35 years. What keeps you tied to English?” Is it just a question of economic convenience?

    Certainly economics can be important. It was the factor that pushed Conrad to abandon his Polish mother tongue. If it is not possible to publish at home, or to publish there as one would wish to publish, then one is likely to go elsewhere. And if to publish elsewhere one has to change language, then some authors are willing to take that step.

    Something of the same logic has driven many writers from Africa, Asia to write in French and English in recent years. There is also the fact that people in Europe and the West are interested in the countries they grew up in. Just as in the nineteenth century, novelists like Thomas Hardy could “sell” their familiarity with peasant life to a middle-class metropolitan public, so these writers have interested us with stories that might seem common in their home countries.

    There is also a real internationalism in the decision to change language. If you have “a message” and if English is the language that offers maximum spread, then it would seem appropriate to use it.

    All these make sense. Critics tend to pay attention only to those who have made a success of writing in a new language. In April 2014, a New York Times article essentially listed young literary stars who had switched to writing in the main Western languages. At this point, the native English speaker almost begins to feel at a disadvantage for having been born into the dominant culture. Should we perhaps head for Paris, like Beckett or Jonathan Littell, just to be between two worlds? Or look for something more exotic(异国的) and have ourselves translated back into English afterward? However, one fact is that changing languages doesn't always work.

    I did write a novel in Italian. But after rereading it, I decided against it. My work lost power with the switch of language. My real subject matter still had to do with England and it was to my home culture that my books were addressed. The second language never seems to mean quite as much as the first. In any event, after my early experiment, I never went back to write in Italian. Changing language is not the only way to bring energy to your writing.

    Think twice the next time you decide to copy your boss in an email. That simple little “CC” box (抄送框) could send a message that ruins your relationship with the other receivers.

    A study in Harvard Business Review asked working adults to imagine that their coworker always, sometimes, or rarely CC'ed their boss in emails. The study results show that employees felt less trusted when their coworker “always'' copied the boss than when they ''sometimes” or “almost never” did. The results of the survey aren't surprising, says career expert Bruce Tulgan. Sometimes the boss really does need to stay in the loop (在圈内) with an email chain. But most times, employees are purposely sending the message that they don't think the receiver follow through with what they're asking unless the boss gets involved, says Tulgan. “That is an expression of lack of trust,'' he says.

    Breaking down that trust level in your office can have serious consequences. Like in any relationship, coworkers need trust to keep things running smoothly. “When people have trust, there is a much higher level of wanting to deliver for each other,” says Tulgan. “When people have enthusiasm, they try harder.” That means more willingness to take risks and make decisions, he says. Even if you don't trust your coworker to follow through for you, copying the boss in an email is not the best strategy, says career expert Todd Dewett, PhD. “CC'ing is the adult version of being a tattletale (告密者),” he says. “It tells your colleague you didn't agree without telling it to their face, and you want your boss to know without talking about it.”

    As a rule of thumb, only about 20 percent of what you do in the office is truly urgent, and those are the only times you should consider getting your boss involved in, says Tulgan. “The most important people, the most important project, key relationship,” she says. “That's when you might consider the occasional use of CC.”

    "You're going to do WHAT?" I asked my best friend, Julie, in alarm.

    "I'm going to try out for the cheerleading squad (啦啦队)," she said, eyes fixed on the ground. We had been best friends since second grade and we did everything together. We had made many plans about what we would do this year, but now she was going off on her own. I was sure that if she joined the cheerleading squad, she would become best friends with someone else and I couldn't stand the thought.

    "Why are you doing this? Do you really want to hang around with those girls instead of me?" I cried, my voice filled with anger.

    "It's not about the girls," Julie said. "It's about the sport. I want to be on the squad at the high school level because they win scholarships (奖学金) at state competitions, and I have a better chance if I'm on the squad here," she explained. "Besides," she added, "it's not like I'm leaving the country or something."

    "Goodbye," I marched off, leaving Julie standing with a sad look on her face.

The rest of that week I was unhappy, and I avoided Julie in the hall. I planned to watch the first game and ignore Julie. Instead, I was amazed by the enthusiasm and skill of Julie's cheering. Although she was the youngest member of the team, Julie enthusiastically led cheer after cheer. I saw how her face lit up with joy. I was stunned (目瞪口呆) as I realized that she loved the sport. Trying out for the team had nothing to do with me—maybe it was just something she wanted to do.

    I approached her shyly, but Julie smiled immediately. "Hey, you were really great." I began, and then added quickly, "I'm so sorry I've been rude to you about your joining the squad."

    Julie smiled and replied, "A group of us are going for ice cream. Why don't you come along?"

    Julie's quick forgiveness made my eyes burn, but I smiled in return. As I walked toward the cheerleaders, I realized there was room in Julie's life for all of us. We could save the competition for the game.

    Hobbs was an orphan(孤儿). He worked in a factory and every day he got a little money. Hard work changed him thin and weak. He wanted to borrow a lot of money to learn to paint pictures, but he did not think he could pay off the debts.

   One day the lawyer said to him, "One thousand dollars, and here is the money." As Hobbs took the package of notes, he was very dumbfounded (惊呆的). He didn't know where the money came from and how to spend it. He said to himself, "I could go to find a hotel and live like a rich man for a few days; or I give up my work in the factory and do what I'd like to do: painting pictures I could do that for a few weeks, but what would I do after that? I should have lost my place of the factory and have no money to live on. If it were a little less money, I would buy a new coat, or a radio, or give a dinner to my friends. If it were more, I could give up the work and pay for painting pictures. But it's too much for one and too little for the other."

    "Here is the reading of your uncle's will," said the lawyer, "telling what is to be done with this money after his death. I must ask you to remember one point. Your uncle has said you must bring me a paper showing exactly what you did with his money, as soon as you have spent it."

    "Yes, I see. I'll do that." said the young man.

Most people assume that the human brain is set on "automatic"—that means it learns all by itself. But this isn't always true. We need to train ourselves to be better learners—to actively take part in the learning process and to reflect on what we have learnt. These kinds of learning behaviours are called "active learning". I suggest doing four things to take an active role in your learning.

Listen to the outer voice

There are two kinds of voices: the inner voice and the outer voice. Your inner voice expresses your personal opinions, while the outer voice tells you about opinions from what you hear or read. Although your inner voice can be useful, it can also get in the way of learning. If you keep paying too much attention to it, you risk missing important information. Instead, active learners are open-minded and focus on what the speaker/ write is saying, not on what their brain is saying in the background. In this way, they are in a better position to make decisions.

Ask questions

Asking questions is the easiest way to promote active learning. When you get information from someone, from books or the Internet, ask two, three, even five question about the topic. The answers will lead you to further learning, and the very act of working out questions will help you to achieve a higher level of understanding about the topic. In short: Do not stop being curious.

Get to the truth

Active learners do not accept everything they learn. They attempt to find the truth at the heart of each idea. Even when an idea sounds entirely unlikely, there may be an aspect of it that is based on truth. So if someone says that dinosaurs still exist today, think about why they believe this. Where does the idea come from? Do they have enough data to support their views? If you try to find out the source of an idea, no matter how crazy it seems, you will increase your chance of learning something.

Focus on the message

Many people miss out on learning opportunities because they let their feelings get in the way. They refuse to learn or ignore what is said because of who the speaker/ writer is. It is true that we cannot help disliking some people —this is human nature, after all. But do not forget you can still learn from them. Active learners do not judge people based on firs impressions or personal feelings. Instead, they separate the message from the message. This goes the other way as well—do not just assume that some people are always right because of who they are or just because they are your friends.