It is promoted that we should all prioritize some simpler life improvements to live better lives.The explanations for how and why they better our life serve as powerful reminders that we might be prioritizing the wrong things,and undervaluing what makes life worth living.

    Smoking, drinking, exercise and even heart problems are not predictors of a person's longevity—a person's close relationships and social integration are.Our human connections have the positive impact on all aspects of our well-being, including our physical health. Those with intimacy(亲昵) in their lives, and those with frequent face-to-face interactions were not only physically and emotionally healthier, but they also lived longer.

    It's why women, who tend to prioritize spending time with their friends more than men, live an average of six years longer. It's not enough to text or email.The actual health benefits of socializing are only achieved through in-person contact because face-to-face contact releases chemicals that protect you now and well into the future like a vaccine.

    People who spend time on social networks, dating apps and even online news sites are found less happy. Most things we do for pleasure, like reading a book or watching a movie, have an end. But scrolling（卷动）on the phone is endless and we don't know when to break away. And those who do set limiting rules for their technology use are able to enjoy life more. Life becomes more colorful, richer, when you have better conversations with the person who is there with you.

    The chase for happiness doesn't make us happy.In fact,constantly evaluating our own happiness is actually contributing to feelings of hopelessness and depression. Happiness is a fickle （变幻无常的）emotion, based on a moment or an experience. It's not a lack of happiness but lack of meaning that's really making us feel sad.

    Meaning can be obtained in four forms: belonging, purpose, transcendence （卓越） and storytelling. The first is having people in your life who truly love and care about you. The second is having purpose. Most people find purpose through work because it's how we feel like we're adding value or contributing. So finding something to drive you forward is a crucial slice of having meaning. Transcendence is about finding something like art or church or doing yoga that can take you outside of yourself, that can make you feel like you're part of something bigger. With storytelling, that's all about our personal narratives. We're the author of our stories, and we can change how we're telling them. Your life isn't just a list of events.

    Most of us lead a busy life.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}We think, “If I reached my goal, then I would be happy”, or “If I could get a better job, then I would enjoy life.” But why not enjoy life right now?

    Firstly, take time to notice and appreciate the beauty in your own surroundings.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} “There is a great big world of wonder and beauty around us!” And as Brodersen explains, “Look for the beauty of the sunrise and of a friend's smile that brightens your day. Open your eyes to see the beauty you might not normally see. Doing so helps to cheer you up.”

    Secondly, taking time to experience some simple pleasures also can bring joy to your heart and ease your stress. Take me for example.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}One universal simple pleasure is finding things that make you laugh. Make time to laugh every day.

    Thirdly, don't take your family and friends for granted. Rich, rewarding relationships add greatly to the enjoyment of life. When you think of someone, why not call, e-mail or write them?{#blank#}4{#/blank#}As Wayne Lawton explains, “Invest time in relationships. Remove the attitude, what's in it for me? Happiness is found in putting other's interests, desires and concerns ahead of our own whenever possible. Selfishness is a dead-end street.”{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Be aware of beauty in nature.

B. So please treasure relationship.

C. You don't need to travel far to find beauty.

D. Driven by the “urgent”, we forget to enjoy life.

E. In my spare time, I enjoy collecting stamps and reading novels.

F. A short e-mail or phone call can make a world of difference to someone.

G. I delight in simple things like my favorite tea drink, a bubble bath or family photos.

    The Silk Road was a historical network of trade routes that connected China and the Mediterranean Sea, allowing cultural and economic interaction between the East and the West. Begun in the 2nd Century B C, the Silk Road carried goods, ideas, and even illness for thousands of miles between great civilizations for more than a thousand years. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It was the creation of Germany's Ferdinand von Richthofen, who traveled to China several times in the second half of the 19th Century.

    China's powerful Han Dynasty began expanding its trade routes towards the West in the years around 100 B.C. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Some shipments made it through to Europe and to northern and eastern Africa, through the port of Alexandria.

    As its name suggests, the Silk Road was home to large amount of silk, which made its way from China to the Mediterranean and, to Rome. It wasn't only silk, however, that was carried along the Silk Road  {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Chinese traders brought delicate porcelain plates and thin but durable paper money. Romans brought delicately carved pottery (陶器）and jewelry to China.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Merchants carried shipments from major center, and then others carried the foods farther on the route. Many merchants traveled in groups, called carvans (商队). Many carvans and individual merchants traveled with bodyguards because theft along the routes was not uncommon.

    Several cities along the Silk Road became major trading centers. Some of the more famous of these were Alexandria, Karakorum, Antioch, Constantinople, and Persepolis. Local taxes placed on goods traveling along the route were quite common. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. The name, however, is a modem idea.

B. Diseases also spread along the Silk Road.

C. It sent silk and other goods to other civilizations.

D. Merchants would prepare some supplies in advance.

E. Goods did not travel with the same person all along the route.

F. As a result, many goods traveled only part of the way due to the high cost

G. Many other things made their way from the East to the West, or from the West to the East.

    Robert F. Kennedy once said that a country's GDP measures "everything except that which makes life worthwhile. "With Britain voting to leave the European Union, and GDP already predicted to slow as a result, it is now a timely moment to assess what he was referring to.

    The question of GDP and its usefulness has annoyed policymakers for over half a century. Many argue that it is a flawed(有缺陷的) concept. It measures things that do not matter and misses things that do. By most recent measures, the UK's GDP has been the envy of the Western world, with record low unemployment and high growth figures. If everything was going so well, then why did over 17 million people vote for Brexit, despite the warnings about what it could do to their country's economic prospects.

    A recent annual study of countries and their ability to convert growth into well-being sheds some light on that question. Across the 163 countries measured, the UK is one of the poorest performers in ensuring that economic growth is translated into meaningful improvements for its citizens. Rather than just focusing on GDP, over 40 different sets of criteria from health, education and civil society engagement have been measured to get a more rounded assessment of how countries are performing.

    While all of these countries face their own challenges, there are a number of consistent themes. Yes, there has been a budding economic recovery since the 2008 global crash, but in key indicators in areas such as health and education, major economies have continued to decline. Yet this isn't the case with all countries. Some relatively poor European countries have seen huge improvements across measures including civil society, income equality and the environment.

    This is a lesson that rich countries can learn: When GDP is no longer regarded as the sole measure of a country's success, the world looks very different.

    So, what Kennedy was referring to was that while GDP has been the most common method for measuring the economic activity of nations, as a measure, it is no longer enough. It does not include important factors such as environmental quality or education outcomes all things that contribute to a person's sense of well-being.

    The sharp hit to growth predicted around the world and in the UK could lead to a decline in the everyday services we depend on for our well-being and for growth. But policymakers who refocus efforts on improving well-being instead of simply worrying about GDP figures could avoid the forecasted doom and may even see progress.

Sustainable Cities Need More Than Parks, Cafes and a Riverwalk

    There are many standards that aim to rank how green cities are. But what does it actually mean for a city to be green or sustainable?

    We've written about what we call the "parks, cafes and a riverwalk" model of sustainability, which focuses on providing new green spaces, mainly for high-income people. This vision of shiny residential towers and waterfront parks has become a widely-shared conception of what green cities should look like. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Gentrification(住宅高档化) has become a catch-all term used to describe neighborhood change, and is often misunderstood as the only path to neighborhood improvement. In fact, its defining feature is displacement. Typically, people who move into these changing neighborhoods are wealthier and more educated than residents who are displaced.

    A recent flood of new research has focused on the displacement effects of environmental cleanup and green space initiatives. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Land for new development and resources to fund extensive cleanup of poisonous sites are scarce in many cities. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} And in neighborhoods where gentrification has already begun, a new park or farmers market can worsen the problem by making the area even more attractive to potential high-income people and pricing out long-term residents. In some cases, developers even create temporary community gardens or farmers markets or promise more green space than they eventually deliver, in order to market a neighborhood to buyers looking for green pleasantness.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} It makes deindustrialization seem both inevitable and desirable, often by quite literally replacing industry with more natural-looking landscapes. When these neighborhoods are finally cleaned up, after years of activism by longtime residents, those advocates often are unable to stay and enjoy the benefits of their efforts.

A. This phenomenon is often missing from development projects promoted as green or sustainable.

B. This phenomenon has variously been called environmental, eco-or green gentrification.

C. Greening and environmental cleanup do not automatically or necessarily lead to gentrification.

D. This creates pressure to rezone industrial land for residential towers or profitable commercial space, in exchange for developer-funded cleanup.

E. But it can drive up real estate prices and displace low- and middle-income residents.

F. Environmental gentrification naturalizes the disappearance of manufacturing and the working class.

On the surface, one would be hard-pressed to find many similarities between German chancellor Angela Merkel, Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — except for the fact that they are all female leaders of nations. Merkel, for example, spent more than a decade as a chemist before going into politics, while Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh's first president, served as her father's political assistant while at college, and Johnson Sirleaf worked at multiple financial institution s before running for vice president. Is there something deeper than they share?

    The researcher Susan R. Madsen of Utah Valley University interviewed women in some countries about their paths to leadership. She was surprised by the similarities among the women when they spoke about how they became leaders. "Every single one of them talked about finding their voices and their confidence at dinner-table conversations with their families. Their parents talked about politics, about what was happening in the community, and when the women had something to say, their parents didn't stop them," Madsen said.

    As part of a series of interviews on women and leadership, I spoke to three women from different countries who have each become leaders in their respective fields: Agnes lgoye of Uganda, who works with her government to counter human trafficking; Ikram Ben Said, the founder of Tunisian women's rights organization Aswat Nissa; and Sairee Chahal of India, who started a digital platform that helps women get back into the workforce.

All three of my interviewees pointed to the family environment they had been raised in — particularly a father figure who taught and empowered the women in the family to learn, ask questions, and form their own opinions. Also, mothers broke convention by displaying leadership within the family.

    Igoye, for example, credited her father with having the foresight to send his daughters to school despite opposition from others in their village. Her mother went back to school as an adult to improve her career as a teacher, which lgoye described as being a big influence on her. Similarly Ben Said talked about how her father encouraged political debate among the family when she was growing up, even when her opinions contradicted his. Meanwhile, Chahal said that even in her younger days, her parents went against the general convention of expecting their daughters to aim only for a good husband.

Another conclusion from Madsen's work is that women's leadership development doesn't look like men's. "Men tend to follow a more straight path to becoming a leader. Women's paths are much emergent. They tend to not necessarily look ahead and think, ‘I want to be on top.' Women would point to a number of experiences— motherhood, or working with a non-profit, or sitting on a board, as shaping their path to becoming leaders," she said.

    Actually, women leaders tend to be held to higher standards than their male counterparts, lgoye has felt this in Uganda. "Women who take up leadership positions in my country have to be tough, it's not easy at all," she said. "You are always aware that you are representing all women. You have to work extra hard to deliver, to perform, because if you do something wrong, they will say, 'Ah, you see, women!' "

    Therefore, merely having women leaders can change the opportunities available for generations of women in a country. What leadership looks like in their country, how much of a voice the women leaders are having, influences what leadership is and what it means to its women.

    What do women leaders have in common?