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．

    My mother is a kind woman. She is very busy from morning till night. As a teacher, she works hard. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Both my brother and I love her dearly as she loves us. My mother has been teaching math at a middle school in my hometown. She goes to work early in the morning and does not return home until late in the afternoon. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} She treats them with patience and teaches them well.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Every day, when she comes back home from work, she sets about doing housework, sweeping the living room and bedrooms. As she has been very busy working every day, she looks older than her age. But she looks as cheerful and happy as ever. Mother never buys expensive dresses for herself. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Often she says to us, “Work while you work, and play while you play. That is the way to be a happy person. If you do not work, you will become lazy and be of no use to society". What a piece of good advice this is! {#blank#}5{#/blank#} This advice of hers will always serve as a guide to my behavior. My mother is great indeed, and I always feel proud of her.

A. She enjoys listening to classic music.

B. As a mother, she takes good care of us and gives us every comfort.

C. She loves her students and cares for them.

D. She often buys expensive and high quality clothes for us.

E. My mother is hard-working and never wastes money.

F. I never forget it and always bear it in my mind.

G. Can you tell us something about your mother？

Jealous Ken

    Dick and Ken lived in the same street. Both children had a good home and lots of nice things. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} In other words, Ken was a jealous(嫉妒的) boy.

    Dick and Ken grew up and got jobs. At first, they both cycled to work every morning. Then Dick bought a motorcycle. Every morning, Dick on his motorcycle rode past Ken on his bicycle, and Ken felt jealous. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} He was happy until Dick bought a car.

    Ken worked hard until he had enough money for a car. He bought a car, and it was as good as Dick's car. There were a lot of other cars on the road, so the journey to work was slower, but Ken was happy.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} So Ken worked very hard, and yesterday he bought an expensive new car. This morning Ken left home in his new car. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} But Ken was happy because his car was bigger, better and faster than Dick's car.

    Then he saw Dick behind him, but Dick was not in a car. Dick was riding a bicycle. It was a new bicycle. The cars moved very slowly, so Dick cycled past them easily. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} He watched from his big, expensive car and felt jealous.

A.     Dick was very proud of his new car.

B.     But after a year, Dick bought a bigger car.

C.     Both Ken and Dick walked to work every day.

D.    So Ken bought a motorcycle and he was happy.

E.     Ken watched as Dick cycled away in front of him.

F.     But Ken was unhappy because some of Dick's things were better than his.

G.    There were cars in front as far as he could see, and none of them could move.

    Decades of research has demonstrated how junior employees benefit from being mentored (指导). Guidance from senior colleagues has also been shown to enhance mentees' job performance and satisfaction.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    We were especially interested in understanding how mentoring might help mentors who work in stressful occupations. Mental health is a growing concern within occupations that play important social roles, such as medical professionals, firefighters, and police officers. And because policing is one of the most stressful occupations, with high levels of mental health and well-being difficulties, we conducted a study of a formal mentoring program in an English police force.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} It was designed to support the development of junior officers by giving them a way to discuss concerns and receive guidance. Our study involved two parts. First, we conducted a field experiment: we compared the mental health of 17 mentor-mentee pairs to a control group of 18 pairs of senior and junior officers that did not participate in the program. Second, we interviewed both the mentees and their mentors separately.

    Our experiment results showed that people who served as mentors experienced lower levels of anxiety, and described their job as more meaningful, than those who did not mentor. We learned from our interviews that mentoring afforded senior officers, as well as junior officers, a chance to discuss and reflect on concerns. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}By acknowledging that these anxieties were common, both mentees and mentors grew more comfortable in discussing them and in sharing different coping mechanisms.

    Why does mentoring have this impact on mentors? {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Despite the pressures that comes with their roles — including abuse, difficult decision making, and the risk of death — police officers tend not to seek support from other officers, including more senior colleagues. This is to avoid negative stigma, a shameful reputation, associated with mental health disorders. Mentoring thereby offered a way to build trust within a relationship that laid a foundation for open and honest communication of sensitive topics.

A. We believe it offers a way to receive support that is often lacking.

B. The mentoring program was launched in 2013 in one of the police forces in England and Wales.

C. Formal mentoring programs provide an opportunity to encourage the discussion of difficult and sensitive topics.

D. However, what we are wondering is why mentoring has such great impact on mentors as well as mentees.

E. Mentors heard their mentees' accounts of anxiety and realized these feelings — which they also shared — were common.

F. We know far less, however, about how mentoring might benefit mentors themselves.

Dear Mum,

    Today I went to a conference. In the conference, ⑴两个学生就因特网的优缺点进行了辩论。They made diverse points about the Internet that I had never thought about before. For example, some experts think that⑵花过多的时间上网的后果就是很难建立社会联系。 They were also quite explicit about how heavy Internet users spend more time with their Internet friends than with their real­life friends from school and work. ⑶This is another drawback of the Internet that alarms me. They addressed good points of the Internet, as well. For example, with the Internet, up­to­date information is only a click away. ⑷We can also correspond with people in distant places. This is very important for disabled people who can't always leave their homes.

    ⑸Both sides presented lots of statistics to support their arguments. My own judgement is that the Internet is beneficial. Otherwise, I would unable to write this e­mail to you!

Love from your son,

Xiaokun

⑴{#blank#}1{#/blank#}⑵{#blank#}2{#/blank#}⑶{#blank#}3{#/blank#}⑷{#blank#}4{#/blank#}⑸{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

On the surface, one would be hard-pressed to find many similarities between German chancellor Angela Merkel, Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — except for the fact that they are all female leaders of nations. Merkel, for example, spent more than a decade as a chemist before going into politics, while Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh's first president, served as her father's political assistant while at college, and Johnson Sirleaf worked at multiple financial institution s before running for vice president. Is there something deeper than they share?

    The researcher Susan R. Madsen of Utah Valley University interviewed women in some countries about their paths to leadership. She was surprised by the similarities among the women when they spoke about how they became leaders. "Every single one of them talked about finding their voices and their confidence at dinner-table conversations with their families. Their parents talked about politics, about what was happening in the community, and when the women had something to say, their parents didn't stop them," Madsen said.

    As part of a series of interviews on women and leadership, I spoke to three women from different countries who have each become leaders in their respective fields: Agnes lgoye of Uganda, who works with her government to counter human trafficking; Ikram Ben Said, the founder of Tunisian women's rights organization Aswat Nissa; and Sairee Chahal of India, who started a digital platform that helps women get back into the workforce.

All three of my interviewees pointed to the family environment they had been raised in — particularly a father figure who taught and empowered the women in the family to learn, ask questions, and form their own opinions. Also, mothers broke convention by displaying leadership within the family.

    Igoye, for example, credited her father with having the foresight to send his daughters to school despite opposition from others in their village. Her mother went back to school as an adult to improve her career as a teacher, which lgoye described as being a big influence on her. Similarly Ben Said talked about how her father encouraged political debate among the family when she was growing up, even when her opinions contradicted his. Meanwhile, Chahal said that even in her younger days, her parents went against the general convention of expecting their daughters to aim only for a good husband.

Another conclusion from Madsen's work is that women's leadership development doesn't look like men's. "Men tend to follow a more straight path to becoming a leader. Women's paths are much emergent. They tend to not necessarily look ahead and think, ‘I want to be on top.' Women would point to a number of experiences— motherhood, or working with a non-profit, or sitting on a board, as shaping their path to becoming leaders," she said.

    Actually, women leaders tend to be held to higher standards than their male counterparts, lgoye has felt this in Uganda. "Women who take up leadership positions in my country have to be tough, it's not easy at all," she said. "You are always aware that you are representing all women. You have to work extra hard to deliver, to perform, because if you do something wrong, they will say, 'Ah, you see, women!' "

    Therefore, merely having women leaders can change the opportunities available for generations of women in a country. What leadership looks like in their country, how much of a voice the women leaders are having, influences what leadership is and what it means to its women.

    What do women leaders have in common?