How to Win a Debate Competition

    Debating doesn't mean that you can end up arguing with your opponents(对手). {#blank#}1{#/blank#}．The following tips on how to win a debate will further help you out.

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    This is very important. If you already know the debate topic that you are going to debate on, learn as much about it as you can. Research on it and then form opinions about it. Only if you know something in and out, will you be able to talk convincingly on it.

    2 ) Be confident.

    When you are putting your point in front of your opponents as well as the audience, be sure of yourself. Along with the words, your body language, voice modulation (语调) and eye contact, will play a major part in your success in debating. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    3 ) Give real life examples.

    While debating, make use of very simple language, which your audience can understand very easily. Give as many real examples as you can when making a point. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}．Thus, the judges and audience will find you much more convincing.

    4 ) Be descriptive.

    To win any debate, there is something about the human mind that you should be aware of. The thing with us humans is that if we see something, we believe and remember it much more than something we merely hear! {#blank#}5{#/blank#}．Tell you point of view in such a way that they can actually "see" what you are saying. If you are somehow able to pull this off, there is no doubt that you will be the winner of the debate competition!

    Follow the tips mentioned above, and with time, you will see yourself winning over your judges and audience.

    When we can see well, we do not think about our eyes very often. It is only when we cannot see perfectly that we come to see how important our eyes are.

    People who are nearsighted can only see things that are very close to their eyes. Many people who do a lot of close work, such as writing, reading and sewing（缝纫）, become nearsighted. Then they have to wear glasses in order to see distant things clearly.

    People who are farsighted（远视的）suffer from just the opposite problem. They can see things that are far away, but they have difficulty reading a book unless they hold it at arm's length. If they want to do much reading, they must get glasses too.

    Other people do not see clearly because their eyes are not exactly the right shape. This, too, can be corrected by glasses. Some people's eyes become cloudy because of cataracts（白内障）. Long ago these people often became blind. Now, however, it is possible to operate on the cataracts and remove them.

    When night falls, colors become fainter to the eye and finally disappear. After your eyes have grown used to the dark, you can see better if you use the sides of your eyes rather than the centers. Sometimes, after dark, you see a small thing to one side of you, which seems to disappear if you turn you head in its direction. This is because when you turn your head, you are looking at the thing too directly. Men on guard duty sometimes think they see something moving to one side of them. When they turn to look straight at it, they cannot see it any more, and they believe they were mistaken. However, this mistake happens because the center of the eye, which is very sensitive(敏感的) in daylight, is not as sensitive as the sides of the eyes after dark.

    Next time a customer comes to your office, offer him a cup of coffee. And when you're doing your holiday shopping online, make sure you're holding a large glass of iced tea. The physical sensation（感觉）of warmth encourages emotional warmth, while a cold drink in hand prevents you from making unwise decisions—those are the practical lesson being drawn from recent research by psychologist John A. Bargh.

    Psychologists have known that one person's perception（感知）of another's “warmth” is a powerful determiner in social relationships. Judging someone to be either “warm” or “cold” is a primary consideration, even trumping evidence that a “cold” person may be more capable. Much of this is rooted in very early childhood experiences, Bargh argues, when babies' conceptual sense of the world around them is shaped by physical sensations, particularly warmth and coldness. Classic studies by Harry Harlow, published in 1958, showed monkeys preferred to stay close to a cloth “mother” rather than one made of wire, even when the wire “mother” carried a food bottle. Harlow's work and later studies have led psychologists to stress the need for warm physical contact from caregivers to help young children grow into healthy adults with normal social skills.

    Feelings of “warmth” and “coldness” in social judgments appear to be universal. Although no worldwide study has been done, Bargh says that describing people as “warm” or “cold” is common to many cultures, and studies have found those perceptions influence judgment in dozens of countries.

    To test the relationship between physical and psychological warmth, Bargh conducted an experiment which involved 41 college students. A research assistant who was unaware of the study's hypotheses（假设）, handed the students either a hot cup of coffee, or a cold drink, to hold while the researcher filled out a short information form: The drink was then handed back. After that, the students were asked to rate the personality of “Person A” based on a particular description. Those who had briefly held the warm drink regarded Person A as warmer than those who had held the iced drink.

    “We are grounded in our physical experiences even when we think abstractly,” says Bargh.

    "Everybody is a genius.But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."—Albert Einstein

    If you have a kid with special needs in the school system,chances are you have come across that saying hanging on a classroom wall.My five-year-old daughter Syona has cerebral palsy（脑瘫）and it means,combined with her communication and sight problems,that normal standard isn't always an accurate measure of her abilities.

    By now you have probably heard about Chris Ulmer,the 26-yearold teacher in Jacksonville,Florida,who starts his special education class by calling up each student individually to give them much admiration and a high-five.I couldn't help but be reminded of Syona's teacher and how she supports each kid in a very similar way.Ulmer recently shared a video of his teaching experience."I have seen their confidence increase rapidly."he said.All I could think was: how lucky these students are to have such good teachers.

    Syona's teacher has an attitude that can best be summarized in one word: awesome.Her teacher doesn't focus on what can't be done—she focuses on what can be done.Over the past several months,my husband Dilip and I have seen Syona's confidence increase tenfold.She uses words she wouldn't have thought of using before.She recently told me about her classmate's trip to Ecuador and was very proud when I understood her on the first try.

    I actually wonder what the influence would be if we did something similar to what Ulmer does with his students in our home.We've recently started our day by reminding each other of the good qualities we all possess.If we are reminded of our strengths on a regular basis,we will become increasingly confident about progress and success.

    Whether you prefer burning the midnight oil or going to bed early so you can get up at the break of dawn depends on your genes, according to experts.

    I jump out of bed each morning, eager to start an active day. But I can hear my neighbor's alarm clock ringing non-stop every morning and I doubt he gets to work on time.

    A lot of noise comes from his flat in the evening. He's happy to stay up watching TV till after midnight, while I go to bed early and try to sleep.

    Well, it might not be his fault after all. I'm called“a lark (百灵鸟)”and my neighbor“an owl (猫头鹰)”

    We all have inside “clocks”in the brain to control all kinds of bodily functions and it is reset every day by light. These inside clocks run to a different schedule in “larks” and “owls”. If you have a fast clock, you like to do things early, and if you have a slow clock, you like to do things late.

    Because we live in a 24/7 world, scientists believe it's important to understand a person's “chronotype?—the time of the day when they function the best. It could help us lead a healthier life.

    A US professor has studied sleeping patterns and thinks work times should be changed and made more individual to fit in with our chronotypes.

    And he has advice for those who can't choose their working hours:“If that's not possible, we should be more careful about light exposure,” says the professor. “You should try to go to work not in a covered vehicle but on a bike. The minute the sun sets we should use things that have no blue light, like computer, screens and other electronic devices.”

    Making decisions when shopping is often tough. Even if you're satisfied with the first dress you try on, would you go on looking for alternatives, comparing styles and prices, until you drop dead?

    According to a recent Wall Street Journal column, psychology researchers have studied how people make decisions and concluded there are two basic styles.“Maximizers” are people who want the best. They like to take their time and weigh a wide range of options—sometimes every possible one—before choosing.“Satisfiers” would rather be fast than thorough. They are people who want to be good enough.

    Schwartz and his colleagues followed 548 job-seeking college seniors at 11 schools from October through their graduation in June. They found that the maximizers landed better jobs. Their starting salaries were, on average, 20 percent higher than those of the satisfiers, but they felt worse about their jobs.

    There is no right choice.“The maximizer is kicking himself because he can't examine every option and at some point had to just pick something,” Schwartz says.“Maximizers make good decisions and end up feeling bad about them. Satisfiers make good decisions and end up feeling good. ”

    Faced with so many choices in our lives, we need to learn how not to waste time and energy on our decision-making, says Jane C. Hu in Slate online magazine.Hu suggests, decrease your range of options. Once you've arrived at a decision, stick with it. Just accept that no decision is ever completely perfect, and remind yourself that it is the best you can do at the moment.