At thirteen, I was diagnosed with kind of attention disorder. It made school difficult for me. When people else in the class was focusing on tasks, I could not.

    In my first literature class, Mrs. Smith asked us to read a story and then write on it, all within 45 minutes. I raised my hard right away and said, “Mrs. Smith, you see, the doctor said I have attention problems. I might not be able to do it.” She glanced down at me through her glasses, "you are no different from your classmates, young man.”

    I tried, but I didn't finish the reading when the bell rang. I had to take it home.

    In the quietness of my bedroom, the story suddenly all became clear to me. It was about a blind person, Louis Braille. He lived in a time when the blind couldn't get much education. But Louis didn't give up. Instead, he invented a reading system of raised dots（点）,which opened up a whole new world of knowledge to the blind.

    Wasn't I the “blind” in my class, being made to learn like the “sighted” students? My thoughts spilled out and my pen started to dance. I completed the task within 40 minutes. Indeed, I was no different from others; I just needed a quieter place. If Louis could find his way out of his problems, why should I ever give up?

    I didn't expect anything when I handled in my paper to Mrs. Smith, so it was quite a surprise when it came back to me the next day-with an “A” on it. At the bottom of the paper were these words: "See what you can do when you keep trying?”

    The best way of learning a language is using it. The best way of learning English is talking in English as much as possible. Sometimes you'll get your words mixed up (混合) and people will not understand you. Sometimes people will say things too quickly and you can't understand them. But if you keep your sense of humor, you can always have a good laugh at the mistakes you make. Don't be unhappy if people seem to be laughing at your mistakes. It's better for people to laugh at your mistakes than to be angry with you, because they don't understand what you are saying. The most important thing for learning English is: "Don't be afraid of making mistakes because everyone makes mistakes."

    An experiment was carried out at British school into the performance of new pupils. At the start of the year, the pupils were each given a rating, ranging from "excellent prospect" to "unlikely to do well". These were totally untrue ratings and did not reflect how well the pupils had previously performed. However, these ratings were given to the teachers. At the end of the year, the experimenters compared the pupils' performance with the ratings. Despite their real abilities, there was an astonishingly high connection between performance and ratings. It seems that people perform as well as we expect them to.

    The Self-fulfilling Effect is also known as the Pygmalion Effect. This comes from an old Greek story. The story was also the basis of George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion", later turned into the musical "My Fair Lady". In Shaw's play, Professor Henry Higgins claims he can turn a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle into a duchess. But, as Eliza herself points out to Higgins' friend Pickering, it isn't what she learns or does that determines whether she will become a duchess, but how she's treated.

    The implication (含义) of the Pygmalion Effect for leaders and managers is massive. It means that the performance of your team depends less on them than it does on you. The performance you get from people is no more or less than what you expect, which means you must always expect the best. As Goethe said, "Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be."

    WHERE TO STAY

    With its modern art museums, hidden basement bars and fast-developing food scene, Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital, is one of the most attractive cities in Latin America. Contact us, and we offer you some special hotels.

    Querido

    This is a cheerful seven-room townhouse in Villa Crespo. Its rooms are big, and each is specially designed. A hearty breakfast is served in the dining room. Querido's convenient location means Palermo Soho is a short walk away.

Doubles from ￡73, querido.com

    Home Hotel

    Design and comfort are key at this 20-room hotel in Palermo Hollywood. From Florence Knoll furniture to William Morris wallpaper, every detail has been hand-picked by the British-argentinian owners. There's an outdoor swimming pool and a garden with green trees. Weekend brunch（早午餐）is a welcome choice for tourists.

    Doubles from ￡90, homehotel.com

    Tango Hotel

    A big makeover（翻新）changed this former sewing machine factory in Monserrat into a 59-room hotel. Despite the busy location, the environment is good.

    Doubles from ＄75, tangohotel.com

    La Querencia

    Close to Constitucion, this comfortable four-room hotel in San Telmo is run by a Frenchman, Yann. Decoration is simple but the place is spotless. Guests can make use of the kitchen where Yann prepares breakfast and enjoy their meals in the dining room or in the yard.

    Doubles from ＄55, laquerencia.com

    World-famous scientist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76. He was often called the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Albert Einstein. But his amazing career actually started as a young man who struggled to get around to doing his homework at Oxford University where he studied physics. He then went on to Cambridge to research cosmology, the study of the origin of universe.

    When he was 21, Hawking's life hit a big hurdle. He was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. The disease causes the brain to stop sending messages to a person's muscles. At the time, doctors said he would only live for around 2 years, but he proved them very, very wrong.

    And with the help of a special wheelchair and speech computer, Hawking spent much of his time researching the beginning of the universe and black holes. His most famous discovery was probably when he demonstrated that black holes emit some radiation, which has since become known as Hawking Radiation. He also spent a lot of time thinking about what existed before the big bang.

    Hawking wrote books that explained his big ideas in ways that could be understood by the average person. In 1988 he published A Brief History of Time. It became really popular and sold more than 10 million copies. However, he wasn't just known for his books. He also had a lot of fun becoming a regular on TV screens around the world. He even had a big Hollywood film made about his life.

    Throughout his life Stephen Hawking inspired people to look beyond our planet and expand our knowledge of the universe. His family says that he'll be greatly missed and the legacy of his amazing ideas will live on.

Jim Curry lights a stove in the parking lot of Christ Episcopal Church in Guilford. It'll get up to 2,000 degrees, hot enough to soften the metal of shotgun parts so they can be reshaped.

A crowd is watching, and Curry picks out a 9-year-old named Oliver to help him. "This is really magic," Curry says. "Right before your very eyes, you're gonna see Oliver transform this gun, this instrument of potential harm, into something that could never be a gun ever again. It's gonna be a trowel (泥铲), which could be used to plant flowers in a garden."

"It is exciting," Oliver says. "I love the fact that you can take metal that's random and shape it into something useful."

Curry, a retired priest, is a co-founder of Swords to Plowshares (犁) Northeast, the organization putting on this event, which helps police departments manage their gun buyback programs and repurpose the weapons into gardening tools.

The finished tools are donated to community gardens and agricultural high schools and the harvested vegetables donated to soup kitchens and homeless shelters, according to the group's website.

Retired priest Mary Ann first volunteered with Swords to Plowshares when a family member fell victim to gun violence. She helps collect guns through police buybacks. "When there's such despair now in our country, people need to know that we can change. There is hope," she says.

Curry wears a constant reminder of that hope around his neck. It's two large pieces of metal molded into the shape of a cross. "It's made out of pieces of an AK-47 used for killing", he says. "But God's love breaks it apart, reshapes it, then transforms it into the sign of greatest hope — the cross. And that's why I wear it."