Why is setting goals important? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Instead of just letting life happen to you, goals allow you to make your life happen. Successful people imagine how their life should be and set lots of goals.

    By setting goals you are taking control of your life. It's like having a map to show you where you want to go. Think of it this way. There are two drivers. One has a destination in mind which can be found on a map. She can drive straight there surely without any wasted time of wrong turns. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} She starts off at the same time from the same place as the first driver, but she drives aimlessly around, never getting anywhere, just using up gas. Which driver do you want to be?

    Winners in life set goals and follow them through. They decide what they want in life and then get there by making plans and setting goals. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Goals aren't difficult to set and they aren't difficult to reach.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} You are the one who must decide what to achieve and in what direction to aim your life.

    Research tells us that when we write a goal down we are more likely to achieve it. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Like a contract(合同) with yourself, they are harder to neglect or forget. Also when you write your goals in a particular way, you are able to make yourself continuously aware of situations that will bring you nearer to your goal.

    Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of Deniliquin, a country town in New South Wales, misses the constant whir（嗡嗡声）of the rice mill whose giant fans dried the rice. The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere (南半球), once processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people globally. But six years of drought have had a destructive effect, reducing Australia's rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December.

    Drought affects every agriculture industry based in Australia, not just rice – from sheep farming, the country's other backbone, to the cultivation of grapes for wine, the fastest-growing crop there, with that expansion often coming at the expense of rice. The drought's effect on rice has produced the greatest impact on the rest of the world, so far. It is one factor contributing to skyrocketing prices, and many scientists believe it is among the earliest signs that a warming planet is starting to affect food production.

    Researchers are looking for solutions to global rice shortages – for example, rice that blooms earlier in the day, when it is cooler, to fight against global warming. Rice plants that happen to bloom on hot days are less likely to produce grains of rice, a difficulty that is already starting to emerge in inland areas of China and other Asian countries as temperatures begin to climb. 'there will be problems very soon unless we have new varieties of rice in place,” said Reiner Wassmann, climate change director at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The recent reports on climate change carried a warning that could make the news even worse: that existing models for the effects of climate change on agriculture did not yet include newer findings that global warming could reduce rainfall and make it more variable.

    Yet the effects of climate change are not uniformly bad for rice. Rising concentrations (浓度) of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, can actually help rice – although the effect reduces or disappears if the plants face unnecessary heat, inadequate water, severe pollution or other stresses. Still, the flexibility of farmers here has persuaded some climate experts that, particularly in developed countries, the effects of climate change may be relieved, if not completely avoided. “I'm not as negative as most people,” said Will Steffen, director of the Fenner School of Environment and Society at Australian National University. “Farmers are learning how to do things differently.”

    Meanwhile, changes like the use of water to grow wine grapes instead of rice carry their own costs, as the developing world is discovering. “Rice is an essential food,” said Graeme Haley, the general manager of the town of Deniliquin. “Wine is not.”

Parents Model Healthy Eating

    It should come as no surprise that the more stressed parents are at work, the greater the burden on their family is{#blank#}1{#/blank#} After all, the more time parents spend working, the less time and energy they have to plan and prepare healthful meals.

    For years, most studies have focused on the role of working mothers while fathers were ignored. They didn't look at the family as a whole{#blank#}2{#/blank#} adds a new wrinkle（褶皱）to the relationship between work stress and family nutrition.

    Mom's work related stress is still a central factor in low well families eat because they typically do most of the food shopping and cooking{#blank#}3{#/blank#} The study found that when mom or dad experience high levels of work related stress, their families are eating one-and-a-half fewer family meals per week, and the parents themselves report eating fewer fruits and vegetables, more fast food, and are less likely to eat breakfast regularly.

    It's worth nothing that the study looked mainly at low income families who belonged to ethnic（民族的）or minority groups{#blank#}4{#/blank#} But the implications are wide ranging.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Teaching kids, especially teenagers, to help with grocery shopping and to cook actual meals, instead of just putting a frozen pizza in the microwave, could be an important piece of the puzzle in helping families improves their eating habits.

A. And the role of fathers in particular

B. But dad's work related stress has a large impact, too.

C. Yet, the kids' stress may influence the families' nutrition, too.

D. So the findings don't necessarily apply directly to other types of families.

E. When it comes to family nutrition, the entire family plays a role even kids.

F. It's also probably not a surprise that this can negatively affect a family's nutrition.

G. It is parents who give their kids a good model to develop a good eating habit.

Digitalization could Pay Off in Health and Sustainability

With technology permeating (渗透) everything we do, it has led to a significant transformation in the workplace — specifically, how, where, who is working and what work employees do. The speed of change across industries has also caused greater uncertainty as many businesses rethink the way they manage their talent and real estate.

For one, automation and artificial intelligence will change many job functions—particularly jobs and tasks that are manual or process driven. Research has found that the future workforce will be divided into three parts；core employees，freelancers（自由职业者）and consultants．Core employees will be concentrated in smaller and fewer locations, ideally in central business districts with transportation and amenities(便利设施) concentrated nearby —reducing their energy and resource usage. This smaller core workforce could mean smaller office footprints requiring less energy from power and less waste produced. In parallel, the appearance of the “liquid workforce”— freelancers, consultants and more — means potentially less commuting(通勤) and perhaps a cleaner way of working. The need for flexibility to accommodate the uncertain operating environment and more project-based work could require possibly less material and waste in the building process.

We've seen how many forward-thinking organizations have already adopted more efficient real estate management in the form of smart buildings and smart offices. This is essentially powered by the Internet of Things(物联网) to drive efficiency and real-time optimization (最优化）of building operations such as automatic monitoring and optimization of air conditioning— of particular interest in Asia, where indoor as well as outdoor air quality is a long-time issue.

    Some features of smart buildings and workplaces also announce a shift to a less paper-based workplace. Companies are also accepting a whole view of sustainability. They're thinking about more than cost-savings or making the most of space. They are considering creating a healthy, fulfilling, and productive environment for employees.

We now speak about healthy buildings instead of simply sustainable ones. In fact, the World Green Building Council now promotes the concept of healthy green buildings—buildings that are not only environmentally sensitive but also provide for the well-being of staff. For instance, buildings with more access to nature and greenery make a significant difference to workers. A survey done last year found that over 90% of those surveyed felt more productive and creative with access to fresh air, indoor light, healthy food, fitness centers and even mental health services.

    Overall, the drive towards a digitized workplace and improved employee experience could just lead us to a healthier, happier life and a more sustainable future.

How to make a successful apology

    Have you done something that you feel bad about? Is there a person who you have treated badly? Do you need to say "I am sorry" to someone? Here are five things you can do to have a successful apology.

    Make your apology real. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}People can tell if you take responsibility for what you did or if you are lying.

    Do not make excuses.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}It is saying that you were wrong to do it.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}An apology should show that you have learned from what you did. Show that you mean what you say.

    Make it clear that you are apologizing. Just saying "I am sorry" is not enough. Talk about what you did and then say that you feel bad about doing it. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Be prepared for the unexpected. Be prepared for it to take some time for your apology to be accepted. This may be a long moment, a few minutes, or even days or weeks. The person may stay angry with you. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} 

A. Be patient and hopeful.

B. Make a promise to change.

C. Choose the right time to apologize.

D. An apology will be better accepted if it is sincere.

E. An apology is not explaining why you did something.

F. You can give your apology to the other person as a letter.

G. It is important that the person knows you are apologizing.

    Why Is Recycling Important?

    When you throw things away, you might be very glad to do it. Unfortunately, that's not the end of the story. The things we throw away have to go somewhere－usually they go off to be buried underground in a landfill (垃圾填埋) or burnt in an incinerator (焚化炉). Landfills can be terribly polluting. They look awful, they smell terrible, they take up space that could be used for better things, and they sometimes create harmful soil and water pollution that can kill fish in our rivers and seas.

    One of the worst things about landfills is that they're wasting a huge amount of useful material. It takes a lot of energy and a lot of resources to make things, and when we throw those things in a landfill, at the end of their lives, we're also saying goodbye to all the energy and resources instead of burying it in landfills. That certainly has advantages: it reduces the amount of waste that has to be buried and we can get useful energy from it. But it can also produce harmful air pollution, and burning almost anything adds to the problem of global warming and climate change.

    The trouble is, we're all in the habit of throwing things away. In the early part of 20^th century, people used materials much more wisely－especially in World War Ⅱ, but in recent decades we've become a throwaway society. We tend to buy new things instead of getting old ones repaired. A lot of men use single-use razors (剃须刀), for example, instead of buying reusable ones, while a lot of women wear single-use stockings. Partly this is to do with the great convenience of throwaway items. It's also because they're cheap. But wasteful period in our history is coming to an end.

    We're finally starting to realize that our lifestyle is creating problems for future generations. Earth is soon going to be running on empty if we carry on as we are. Americans have a much richer life than almost anyone else on Earth. What happens when people in developing countries such as India and China decide they want to live the same way as us? According to the environmentalists, we'd need two Earths to satisfy all their needs.