Want to add some hours to your day? Ok,you probably can't change the fabric of time. But a new study suggests that theway you feel about your goal can change your concept of time and that somesimple strategies could make you feel less rushed.

In a series of experiments, JordanEtkin, a professor of marketing at Duke, and her co-authors, LoannisEvangelidis and Jennifer Aaker, looked at what happens when people see theirgoals as conflicting with one another. In one, they asked some participants tolist two of their goals that they felt were in conflict, and others simply tolist two of their goals. Those who were forced to think about conflicting aimsfelt more time pressure than those who weren't. In another experiment, the researchersgave participants a similar prompt regarding goal conflict, but this timemeasured their anxiety levels as well as their attitudes toward time. Theyfound that participants who thought about conflicting goals had more anxietythan those who didn't, and that this, in turn, led to feelings of being shorton time.

"Stress and anxiety and timepressure are closely linked concepts," D. Etkin explained. "When wefeel more stress and anxiety in relation to our personal goals, that manifestsas a sense of having less time."

Technological advances that allow peopleto do lots of things at once may increase the fe'eling of goal conflict, shesaid."I think the easier it is for us to try to deal with a lot of thesethings at the same time," She said"the more opportunity there is for us to feel this conflictbetween our goals."She isn't the first to suggest that actual busynessisn't the only thing that can make us feel busy At the Atlantic, Derek Thompson wrote that "as a country, we'reworking less than we did in the 1960s and 1980s." He offered a number ofpossible reasons some Americans still feel so overworked, including "thefluidness ffl±) of work and leisure." As he put it:"The idea thatwork begins and ends at the office is wrong. On the one hand, flexibility isnice, On the other, mixing work and leisure together creates an always-onexpectation that makes it hard for white-collar workers to escape the shadow ofwork responsibilities."

And Brigid Schulte writes in her 2014book Overwhelmed: How to Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time thatsome researchers believe "time has no sharp edges. What often matters morethan the activity we're doing at a moment in time, they have found, is how wefeel about it.Our concept of time is indeed,our reality.”

Fortunately, Dr. Etkin and her team didfind ways of making us feel better about time—or, at least, of reducing thenegative influence of goal conflict. When participants performed a breathingexercise that reduced their anxiety, the impact of such conflict on theirperception of time was less pronounced. Reframing anxiety as excitement (byreading the phrase "I am excited!" aloud several times) had a similareffect.

Breathing and reframing may not solveeveryone's time problems—Ms. Schulte writes that some Americans are indeedworking more than they used to. She cites the work of the sociologists MichaelHout and Caroline Hanley, who have "found that working parents combinedput in 13 more hours a week on the job in 2000 than they did in 1970. That's676 hours of additionally paid work a year for a family. And that's on top ofall the unpaid hours spent caring for children and keeping the housetogether." Sometimes, we may feel short on time because we actually are.However, Dr. Etkin believes her findings suggest we may "have the abilityto influence our experience of time more than we think we do."

"We're all going to have times inour lives when our goals seem to be in more conflict than others," shesaid. But with techniques like the ones her team tested, "we really canhelp ourselves feel like we have more time."

    In the U. S., speaking more than one language fluently is not very common except in Los Angeles, California.

    The city has one of the largest population in the U. S. of young people between the ages of 18 and 34. This generation is often called millennials (新千年一代). More than half of millennials in Los Angeles are bilingual (双语的), which means they speak more than one language.

    Maria Elena Burgos is cooking a Mexican breakfast. She says making Mexican food is just one of the many traditions in her home. Another is speaking Spanish to her children.

    “We want them to be bilingual. We want to keep the Spanish somewhere in their learning too, not only at home.”

    When Ms Burgos first came to the United States from Mexico, she learned English. She knew her children would learn English quickly. So she wanted them to speak Spanish at home and study the language at school.

    She says being bilingual will give them more opportunities in the future. Knowing Spanish also means the children can talk with their relatives in Mexico.

“When we had our children, one of the decisions we as parents made was to name them with a name that was easily pronounced in English and Spanish.”

    Elizabeth wants to know her family's culture.” “The culture-to go back to our roots because that's part of who we are.”

    Monica wants to pass on the culture to her children.

    “It's nice to know our culture and then to be able to pass it onto our children and grand- children and everyone to let them know where we come from.”

    And, Monica says she does not speak only English and Spanish. She has even learned some Korean in school.

    Women make better drivers than men for many reasons. Why is that? If you ask me, I'd like to say, men know that women are better drivers but do not have the courage to admit the truth—women are queens of the road.

    Unlike men, women stop for directions when they have no idea as to where they are going. We don't drive around for hours pointlessly wasting a tank of gas only to find ourselves heading in the wrong direction. Have you ever been in a car with a man who is lost? He tells you to shut up when you begin to open your mouth. And every five minutes or so he takes a turn going forty-five miles per hour only to find out he's made another wrong turn.

    Speeding is what men do best on the road. There is a reason why men get more speeding tickets than women. Not because we trick to get out of tickets but only because we don't get pulled over as frequently. We don't speed. We have more intelligence than senselessly to put our own lives as well as the lives of others in danger.

    My largest issue with male drivers is how a majority of them drive with one hand on the wheel and the other hand doing only God knows what. The seat is backed as far as possible, and they're totally lost into loud music beyond a necessary level. You don't ever see women driving like that.

    I feel that the above evidence more than proves my points that women are not only better drivers but also safer drivers than men. We women rule the road. Oh, and men, if you want to continue criticizing（批评）women for being bad drivers, bring it on.

    An 114 kilograms mother, Cacia Griggs, was ashamed into losing weight after crushing her daughter, four-year-old Isabelle's bed while reading her a bedtime story.

    Just one year later she has lost 50 kilograms, dropped to a size 10, and even was employed by her dream company.

    One night, having asked her 29-year-old husband to carry Isabelle up to bed because she couldn't fit through the stair gate, Cacia followed them upstairs and lay down on the edge of the bed with her daughter to read her a story.

    “I heard a loud snap(噼啪声),” she said. “I'd broken the entire side beam of her bed because I was overweight. I was upset.”

    On her first family holiday with Chris and Isabelle in Turkey last year, Cacia had a similar moment when she couldn't fit the plane seatbelt around her.

    Cacia began the Cambridge Weight Plan in June 2011, changing her high-calorie diet into soups, shakes and bars. In August this year, Cacia reached her goal weight and dropped from a size 24 to a size 10.

    “My weight began to drop off,” she said. “In no time at all I was wearing smaller clothes and was over the moon the first time I brought a size 16, I couldn't believe it fitted.”

    Cacia says the best thing about losing the weight is being able to lie with her daughter again on her bed instead of sitting on the floor next to her.

    When an earthquake hit a small town, many houses fell down. After the earthquake, all the newspapers reported many stories about some of the families who were in trouble.

    One Sunday, when I was reading a newspaper, a special picture touched me. It gave the clothing sizes of each family member. I thought that this would be a good chance to teach my children to help those who were less lucky than themselves. I said to my seven-year-old twins, Brad and Brett, and three-year-old Meghan, "We have so much, and these poor people now have nothing. We'll share what we have with them."

    I filled a box with foods and clothes. While I was doing this, I encouraged the boys to choose their toys and donate some of their less favorite things. Meghan watched quietly as the boys took out their old toys and games and put them together. Then she walked away. A few minutes later she came back with Lucy, her much-loved doll. She put the doll on top of the other toys. "Oh, dear," I said. "You don't have to give Lucy. You love her so much." Meghan said, "Lucy makes me happy, Mommy. Maybe she'll make another little girl happy, too."

    I looked at Meghan for a long moment. She taught me a lesson. It's easy to give something that we don't want any more, but hard to give what we cherish (珍爱), isn't it?

    There are many places to go on safari (观赏野生动物) in Africa, but riding a horse through the flooded waters of Botswana's Okavango Delta must rank as one of the world's most exciting wildlife journeys.

    Several safari camps operate as the base for this adventure, providing unique rides twice a day to explore deep into the delta. The camps have excellent horses, professional guides and lots of support workers. They have a reputation for providing a great riding experience.

    The morning ride, when the guides take you to beautiful, shallow lakes full of water lilies, tends to be more active. It is unlike any other riding experience. With rainbows forming in the splashing water around you and the sound of huge drops of water bouncing off your body and face, it is truly exciting. You are very likely to come across large wild animals, too. On horseback it is possible to get quite close to elephants, giraffes and many other animals. The sense of excitement and tension levels rise suddenly though, as does your heart rate, as you move closer to them.

    In the evening, rides are usually at a more relaxed and unhurried pace, with golden light streaming across the grassy delta and the animals coming out to eat and drink. Sedate though they are, rides at this time of day are still very impressive. As the sun's rays pass through the dust kicked up by the horses, the romance of Africa comes to life.

    Back at the camp you can kick off your boots and enjoy excellent food and wine. Looking back on your day, you will find it hard to deny that a horseback safari is as close as you will ever come to answering the call of the wild.