Do you think you could learn a language in an hour?

    We know, we know! We would expect you to be skeptical. It's ridiculous to think you can learn a language in 60 minutes. You wouldn't even get through the As in a bilingual dictionary in that amount of time! Best-case situation: in an hour, most of us could probably stuff a few words and ready-made phrases into our short-term memory (with a high likelihood of forgetting it all by the following day). Accomplishing anything more than that in one hour? Impossible. Unless…

    We posed the one-hour language challenge to four polyglots(通晓数种语言的人) who are experts on how to study languages. To keep the challenge from becoming completely impossible, we gave them a bit of a break: to learn Romanian in one hour. Why Romanian? Because it's a Romance language and shares many similarities with the languages that the polyglots already know: French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese. And to make sure their hour of learning was as effective as possible, all of them were assigned a personal Romanian tutor to help coach them on their way to success.

    Although each polyglot has a different technique for picking up and remembering a new language, all four methods offer valuable insights to anyone, from casual learners to hard-core language enthusiasts.

Alex Rawlings — UK

    "I'm a bit nervous. This is probably the craziest language-learning thing I've ever done, but learning languages has always been about fun. I expect that, after this, I'll be prepared to have a simple chat over a coffee in Romanian. Is that reasonable?"

    Method: Learn the verbs first

    With only an hour until he had to start demonstrating his grasp of Romanian, Alex knew he had to start talking quickly. He chose to focus first on commonly used verbs and how to conjugate（动词变形） them. Once he had some verbs down, he could start collecting nouns from his tutor and plugging them in to make more interesting and relevant sentences.

Luca Lampariello — Italy

    "Every time I have a conversation with native speakers, it really motivates me. Human contact is really important when learning a language."

Method: Start speaking right away

    Speaking doesn't mean speaking perfectly. Speaking even a little bit is a huge confidence boost. When you can say something in a new language and people actually understand you, it's very motivating. Yes, you'll make mistakes, but you'll also learn faster than if you try to get it all perfect in your head first.

Michael Youlden — UK

    "We all speak a variety of Romance languages which I think will help us get into Romanian quickly."

Method: Write everything down

    Language learning is about recall; there's no use learning something if you don't remember it. Speaking new words aloud is very important, but so is writing them down — after all, words exist as sounds and in written form. Taking notes is a proven way to put new vocabulary and grammar into your memory. Writing supports memorizing which supports speaking... it's a cycle. Plus, you have an easy reference when you want to review what you've learned.

Matthew Youlden — UK

    "I'm going to look for the patterns and similarities with languages I already know. We won't be able to speak fluently after an hour of study, but we should be able to get by with some basic vocabulary and phrases."

Method: Look for cognates

    Cognates are words in different languages that look and sound similar and have the same meaning, due to a common origin. Almost every language combination contains cognates (even if two languages aren't seemingly related), but languages from the same language family have many more. Whichever language you are learning, identify the familiar words and then use them to anchor the new words that aren't so familiar. To use English as an example, because it's a sort of Germanic-Romance hybrid, English already has many words that cognate with German, Dutch and Swedish on one hand, and on the other hand it also has lots of words that cognate with French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and, of course, Romanian!

    Learn a language with courses designed by the experts. Start here, today!

    Pick a language to learn. German, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Swedish.

                                                                           Ways to Free Your Mind You're Feeling Stuck

    Have you ever like you were racing around in without making much forward progress? If you're stuck and you don't know how to rise, don't look outside yourself. Look below.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Go back to what's important

    When we get stuck, it can be extremely useful to come back to these three things: core values, beliefs and goals. Why?{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Ask for help

    Very often, highly happy and successful people have a supporting group of friends, family and others who help them{#blank#}3{#/blank#}And don't be afraid to reach out and help someone who's even more stuck than you.

    Embrace the natural pathways

    When you get stuck, there's no need to go back to the drawing board. Ask the people around you about the systems that are working for them, read insightful books and blog articles, and use the same methods and pathways that others have used to get unstuck.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Relocate yourself to an inspiring environment

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}You can go for a walk in a nearby park. You can come out of the office for a cup of coffee. Or if you are at home, you can simply go to a different room in the house. Whether it's urban spaces, parks, libraries, museums or even our own backyards, there are plenty of available sources that we can draw inspiration and strength from.

A. Goals are the outcomes in life that we strive for.

B. Here are some useful ways to help yourself get unstuck.

C. When you are stuck, don't be afraid to ask for help.

D. One way to get unstuck is to simply change your environment.

E. Because they form the basics of what is important to us as individuals.

F. Break the circle of worry and work on something else.

G. In fact, the system is nothing more than a natural pathway of thought that someone has created with their mind.

    Nobody likes to think they are “that guy” at work.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. So, what are some of the rudest things that people do at work — and why shouldn't you do them?

    Behaving in an unacceptable way

    The most common form of this is eating smelly foods at lunchtime. Other things alike include body smell and its opposite, the wearing of strong perfume, messy desks, or bad breath.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

    Checking email on your phone when you're talking to other people

    A recent survey shows that 49 percent of people said their bosses checked their phones while talking with them.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. If you've ever wondered why your team members are unmotivated, this may be why. In fact, when you're talking to someone at work, you should reject any non-important calls.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Do you like the sound of your own voice? Great. Perhaps it's time you learned to like the sound of other people's voices too. If you interrupt others when they speak, they'll dislike you and discount whatever you're saying. And if you routinely take up three quarters of the meeting with your monologues（独角戏）, people will turn off and, quite rightly, start checking email on their phones. However, if you listen to what others say and show interest by asking intelligent questions, they'll love you and be likely to give you their support when you speak.

    Showing off how much you earn

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. If you show off your income to someone and then discover you get less than them, you'll look like a fool. If you earn more, they'll feel tired of you. So keep them guessing and hide your earning power in quiet ways — like always paying for the team coffees.

A. Talking all the time

B. Being a good listener

C. Team-working can never be ignored

D. All these things will become part of your personal brand

E. It's better to be modest when you talk about your incomes

F. Bad behavior at work is common — and often we do it without thinking

G. An interesting email is more valuable than the person you are actually talking to

    English can be a difficult language to learn, but there are certain things you can do to learn the language a lot faster. People can master English as long as they take the time to practice speaking, reading and writing in English. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Start by taking a class that teaches beginning English. These classes are often named as “ESL” classes, or “English as a Second Language.” {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Buy an English audio(音频的) course. You can go over these classes in your spare time and learn quite a bit. Buy an audio course and listen to it in the car or while working, if possible. The higher the quality of the course, the quicker you'll learn.

    Practice speaking English with other people, especially with native English speakers. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}And make sure they are willing to help you learn English by having simple conversations with you. You will probably be surprised at how quickly you can start having a conversation in English.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Pay attention to the dialogue and try to figure out what the actors are saying. Congratulate yourself when you are able to pick out certain words and phrases that you understand.

    Read newspapers, books and magazines that are printed in English. At first they maybe very difficult, but as your knowledge grows so will your understanding of written English. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} It will help you a lot in learning to speak the language much faster.

A. Try to understand written English.

B. Watch television shows or movies that are in English.

C. Read and remember as many English words as possible.

D. Here we will show you how to learn to speak English quickly.

E. Every morning you should get up very early and read English.

F. Make friends with people speaking English as their native language.

G. The teachers of these classes have the experience to teach the students.

    Many people know that trash is a big problem on planet Earth. What many people don't know is that trash has become a problem in outer space too. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Statistically, there are more than 22,000 pieces of junk in space around the earth. And these are just the items that we can see from the surface of the earth by telescopes or radars. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Objects, like bits of old space rockets or satellites, move around the planet at very high speeds, so fast that even a very small piece can break important satellites or become dangerous to people, particularly astronauts. If the tiniest piece of junk crashed into a spacecraft, it could damage the vehicle. That's because the faster an object moves, the greater the impact if the object collides with something else.

    To help minimize additional space junk, countries around the world have agreed to limit the time their space tools stay in orbit to 25 years. Each tool must be built to fall safely into the earth's atmosphere, or the mass of gases that surround the earth, after that. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Many scientists are also proposing different ways to clean up space junk. The Germans have been planning a space mission with robots that would collect pieces of space trash and bring them back to Earth so that they can be safely destroyed.

    "In our opinion the problem is very challenging, and it's quite urgent as well," said Marco Castronuovo, an Italian Space Agency researcher who is working to solve the problem. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Many of these objects are tools that help people use their cell phones or computers.

    "The time to act is now; as we go farther in time we will need to remove more and more fragments," he says.

A. One reason that it's urgent is that countries are sending more and more objects into space.

B. There are also millions of smaller pieces of junk that we can't see.

C. Blowing up older satellites with a missile may create thousands of smaller pieces!

D. In the upper parts of the atmosphere, it will burn up.

E. When two objects in space collide, the two objects break into many smaller pieces.

F. Years of space exploration have left tons of "space junk" in orbit around the planet.

    One out of many important things for the whole family to do is to have dinner together. Researchers began reporting the benefits of family dinner about a decade ago, focusing mainly on how it affects children. Studies show that those families who eat dinner at least 3 or 4 times a week together, benefit in many ways.

    Eating together helps families achieve open communication and build stronger and healthier relationships. Children have better grades at school and are better adjusted as teens and adults, and the entire family enjoys healthier nutrition. For many families, eating dinner together proves to be a good and effective way to reduce the risk of youth rates of addiction, and helps to nurture healthier children. It is also a great time to share the events of the day, discuss news and ideas and just be together and enjoy each other's company.

    During dinner time parents have better opportunity to show that they are the prior to their children. Sitting at the same table and sharing meals is where and when parents can find out more about their children's school performance, daily activities and attitudes toward life. When parents have all this information they can better direct their kids toward positive things in life. They also have better chance to reduce the possibility that children will get involved with alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs.

    However, family researchers say that the benefits of family dinner by no means can be considered as automatic. Parents can sit down to dinner with their kids every day and achieve nothing. Family dinner may not benefit if there is too much arguing going on, if there is no meaningful conversation or, what is even worse, if there is just plain silence during gathering.