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How to Survive Embarrassing Moments

    Have you ever done something embarrassing? At that moment, you probably wished you could disappear into thin air. Unfortunately, embarrassing things happen to everyone at one time or another. The good news? You can keep the damage to the minimum．Here's some help．

Laugh it off

    You're staring at your crush （意中人） so hard that you walk into a wall．You trip over your own feet and drop all your books．The best thing you can do? As long as you're not seriously hurt, laugh it off．Say like "Hey, I can teach you to do that if you want to!" or "It took me years to learn that!" By laughing at yourself, you show people you're confident and still in control of the situation．That's bound to make a stronger impression than the fact that you dropped a stack of books．

Move on

    Some situations are too personal to laugh off．Your underwear falls out of your backpack. Your bathing suit falls off in the pool．You pass gas while giving a presentation．Making a joke would just call more attention to what happened — and that's the last thing you want．What  now? You can just pretend nothing happened and go back to what you were doing, or you can acknowledge it with a "Oh, that was awkward" and then move on．

    If there's a joker who thinks it's a good idea to point out how badly you just embarrassed yourself, fix him with a glare and then go back to whatever you were doing．Tell yourself he's a  little bug on the ground, not even worth thinking about．Remind yourself that it's over, done．Move on．

Apologize and move on

    Some embarrassing situations pack a double punch．Not only do you embarrass yourself,  but you make someone else feel bad．You say to a friend that another friend is such a copycat, and then realize the copycat is standing right behind you．You imitate your teacher's unusual accent just as the teacher walks in．Now you're embarrassed and they're mad or hurt．

    Making a joke now would make the situation even worse, so don't go there．Although you might feel like running away or even crying, neither of those responses will make you look better．Instead, apologize, "I'm so sorry．That was really mean of me．"

    If you've been disrespectful to a teacher or a parent, accept whatever consequences without complaint．If you've hurt a friend, do your best to make it up to them．Once you've done all you can to make things right again, move on．If someone else brings it up, just say, "I feel bad enough about that —can we just let it go, please?"

    The next time you're stuck in an embarrassing moment, remind yourself that you're a strong person and you can get through this．Stay calm and act confident and the moment will pass．

UK schools try Chinese math

    It's well known that Chinese students often outperform their peers from other countries in math contests. This is why the UK is going to try out Chinese math books and exercise papers in many of its schools.

    According to China Daily, international publisher Collins Learning signed an agreement with Shanghai Century Publishing Group on March 14 to publish translated copies of Shanghai's primary school math books. Under the agreement, Collins will print a series of 36 books, named Real Shanghai Mathematics. The series includes math textbooks, supplementary(补充性的) textbooks and teacher's textbooks. Some primary schools in the UK will use the books for first to sixth graders in September.

    The aim of this is to improve UK students performance in math by learning from the way Chinese schools teach their students the subject.

    Chinese schools, represented by those in Shanghai, have marked high in math scores in all three rounds of the Program for International Student Assessment(PISA) since 2009. However, the UK scored far less, according to The Guardian Still, some people worry that textbooks alone cannot solve the UK's problem with math, as the fundamentals of the education systems are so different.

    One key difference is that Chinese schools focus on students as a whole, while those in the UK value individual performance. In Chinese schools, students are taught together as a class, with students all moving through their lessons one step at a time. However, in the UK, students in the same class are often given different work to do depending on their progress.

    There are also huge differences in teacher training and deployment. Primary school math teachers in Shanghai teach only math for perhaps two hours a day, and the rest of the day is spent debriefing(报告) and improving lessons. English primary teachers, in contrast, are teaching all subjects, rather than specializing in a single area like math.

    Another key difference is that students in China are likely to get far more homework than UK student. Many will also have private tutoring and attend weekend school.

    With so many differences in the two education systems, it remains to be seen whether Chinese math books will benefit students in the UK. However, UK Schools Minister Nick Gibb believes that they will be a huge help. “I am confident that the steps we are taking now will make sure young people are properly prepared for further study and the 21st century workplace, and that the too often heard phrase can't do math' only exists in the past,” he said in a press release.

    All company leaders will face major business decisions throughout their time as the heads of their organizations. Difficult decisions related to activities such as M&A, leadership changes, restructuring, and massive growth plans will directly impact the company's employees.

    If you've already established trust with your workforce, you can significantly minimize potential negative impacts and make sure your employees will buy into your decisions, even if they don't necessarily agree with them. But earning their faith takes time. As a leader, you are trusted only to the degree that people believe in your ability, consistency, and commitment to deliver. The good news is that there do exist some strategies to help you earn confidence.

    Instill trust through an employee engagement program

    By encouraging consistent feedback and establishing an honest environment, employees will trust the direction and information you give them. Create a highly engaged culture by prioritizing real-time recognition, continuous feedback, and ongoing goal-setting.

    Change and react with meaningful conversations. You've likely had to adjust your business plan in the middle of the year. Real-time, continuous communication helps you keep employees in the loop and adjust to expectations as your organization's needs change.

    Giving timely feedback is the most effective way to communicate expectations. Not only that, but saving your big praise until the end of the year isn't just ineffective—it makes it more difficult to deliver.

    Ongoing goal-setting can help people understand where their contributions fit within the organization and where they need to aim. Better yet, these can be transparent across the organization so everyone is held accountable for the outcomes and behaviors that drive your business and cultural success.

    Gather and measure sentiment (情感) during times of change

    Part of the difficulty in making tough business decisions is that leaders don't want to surprise or disappoint employees. Think about the last time you made a major company-wide announcement. Did you know if employees were happy? Were they shocked? Or even worse, did you have no insight into their reactions at all? If you regularly measure employee sentiment through real-time pulse surveys—especially during times of change—you can more accurately pinpoint reactions and cope with issues immediately. The results of these pulse surveys empower your leadership team to be more forthcoming, moving forward, earning the trust of employees and strengthening a transparent company culture.

    If there is a strong link between employees and managers to the goals of the organization, the vision and values of the company will be embraced by all.

    At the end of the day, the mindset shouldn't be about how you can make tough decisions easier, but how you can make those decisions in a way that won't negatively impact your employees or your organization's objectives. Create a cooperative feedback culture, and when the time comes to make difficult decisions, you know that with your team's insights in mind and trust in the leadership, the decision will be accepted willingly.

Not all English is the same

    To many learners of English, it's easy to think that all native speakers have no trouble communicating with one another.

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    Well, it turns out that being a native English speaker from one country doesn't mean that you're able to perfectly understand a native English speaker from another country, and vice versa (反之亦然)

    Take the UK and the US for example.

    As a Briton, I grew up hearing American accents alongside British ones – on TV shows, movies and in songs.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} and how they would eat “cookies” instead of “biscuits”.  And it took me a while to figure out that the “trunk” (n. 后备箱) of a car is what us Britons call its “boot”.

    The confusion didn't stop at just vocabulary –{#blank#}3{#/blank#} For example, when talking about shopping malls, Americans pronounce it “mawl” instead of “mal”. And for some reason that's hard for Britons to understand, Americans remove the “H” sound from “herb”, pronouncing it “erb”.

    These small differences may not change much in a day-to-day conversation between a Briton and an American.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Recently, for example, an American friend told me that she liked my pants. “You can see them?” I asked, shocked. Pants means “underpants” to most British people, which explains my horror.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} In the US, for example, a “bum” is a homeless person, while the same word in the UK is used to describe one's backside（n.臀部）.

    And, more amusingly, “trump” was only ever really used as a verb in the UK – meaning “to pass gas” – until the US' current president came into the spotlight.

But as long as you can speak one version of English, it's easy enough to understand any other – and any confusion just makes your day more interesting.

A. English is changing as it spreads around the world.

B. After all, English is English, isn't it?

C. I soon noticed how Americans would put “gas” in their cars instead of “petrol” .

D. However, confusion can still happen every now and then.

E. There are different words that mean the difficult thing.

F. Some words can even be offensive (adj.无礼的) without you realizing it.

G. I discovered that many words are even pronounced differently.

    It's important that parents talk with their kids. But some kids hardly talk to their parents. How can parents get their kids to talk to them more? Here is how I do it.

    From the time my boys were little, we had strict rules about screen time in the car. We did not watch movies unless we were going to be in the car for more than an hour. Now that they are older, we have the same rule about earphones, let alone phones.

    I have watched about 11 billion YouTube videos featuring everything from stupid kid stunts (特技) to stupid professional stunts and sports highlights. These are not interesting to me but they are interesting to my kids, so I watched them all. I also try to find funny things in the news to use as conversation starters.

    Listening is the key to more talking, right? But sometimes kids just need to talk instead of having a two-way exchange. Or there are other kids in s the car who have somehow forgotten that the driver is an actual mom, and they talk about some serious news. I just listen to them quietly. Make note of things to circle back to if necessary. Just let the words flow when what they really need is your listening.

    My kids love stories about the older days. They want stories about me falling in the dining hall, getting in trouble at school or crashing my car, but not the, “I walked 10 miles to school in the snow”. Luckily I have plenty of examples and provide just enough information to cause questions for more details.

    After a long day at work, coming home is a breath of fresh air. Home is a comfortable place to sit back and relax. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Below are a number of things we can do to create a healthy home environment that will help to ease the workday stress and promote our physical and mental health.

    Cleaning the house regularly is the first thing we should do. It may seem like a tiring thing to clean but there is a reason for doing so. We can remove dust by cleaning the house. Leaving layers of dust everywhere means that there is a build-up of dust. And where do these layers of dust go?{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Making sure the rooms are full of sunlight is also important. We may not realize it but sunlight is an important part of our growth. We all know that sunlight promotes better working conditions. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Think about using a Parans system where sunlight does not reach. This technology gathers the sunlight by using solar panels. It can send out sunlight wherever we are.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Going green will help to remove toxins(毒素)in the air. They also give off oxygen, which can lower stress and improve our moods.

    Along the lines of being green, it can also be vital to think about what things we are bringing into the house. Try to avoid specific plastics that are harmful to health. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} They may contain poisonous chemicals that can be breathed in, or simple absorbed through the skin.

A. However, is it as healthy as it can be?

B. Is our home as comfortable as it used to be?

C. Into our lungs.

D. The same thing applies to certain carpets and paint.

E. Besides, it can reduce both stress and high blood pressure.

F. It is also a good idea to add more plants in our house.

G. It is acknowledges that a greener lifestyle is linked to better health.