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."

    Hello. I'm Jan from Mrs. Lake's class. My class wants to work together to help the public. We think we have found a great way to do this. Last month we did a class project on the highways near our town. We learned about the Adopt-a-Highway Program. This program brings people together to pick up litter along the roads. We think it would be a great idea for all students in our school to join the program and adopt（收养） a highway.

    Adopting a highway is not like adopting a pet. When a highway is adopted, only part of the highway is cared for by a group of people. The group agrees to work every week to keep its part of the highway clean. Each group gets its own sign that has the name of the group printed on it. The sign is put up at the side of the road. This sign lets drivers know who is keeping that area of the road clean.

    The Adopt-a-Highway Program is a great way for people to help their environment look nicer. Also, the government does not have to send out as many road workers. This saves money. Finally, people may try harder to keep roads clean if they see people, especially teenagers like us, cleaning them up.

    We will need helpers to care for our adopted highway. If you want to feel great and keep our roads clean，please come with your parents to the meeting next week. We will meet in Mrs. Lake's room on Wednesday at 6:00 P.M. At the meeting, we will talk about which roads are the dirtiest as a result of people's unkind acts. Then we'll try to pick an area to adopt and clean.

    I look forward to seeing you at the meeting. Remember to keep our roads clean!

     When Regina Spektor moved to the Bronx from Russia as a young child of 9, she could speak no English and her family was so poor that they could afford nothing. Yet she carried with her a love of the piano and music.

     "For me, the thing that I loved the most was playing the piano, so when we left Russia I was so afraid I would forget how to play and I would just find a little table and play my pieces," she told "When you spend your life doing something like playing the piano and then you take that away, it's so surreal."(离奇的)

     Her father, Ilya Spektor, said that, little by little, the family saved enough money to afford their first apartment.

     "I was a photographer and, in six weeks, I found my first job in a big photo lab in Manhattan," he said. On the subway one day, Ilya Spektor spotted a man carrying a violin case. The man also seemed to have an Eastern European accent. A conversation led to a visit and, eventually, Regina Spektor was introduced to Sonia Vargas, a piano teacher. She was a well-known professor who taught piano, took Spektor under her wing and trained her for years, at no cost. "I remember talking to Sonia," Spektor said. "She said that when a student is ready, a teacher appears. So she said that I must have been ready to study piano, and so that's why she came into my life."

     "Immediately, how she played," Vargas said. "You can tell the sound. The sound tell you whether the person loves the instrument, loves the music."

     Much later, while playing her own music and selling a CD that she'd created, Regina Spektor caught the attention of a music producer. The rest is history, complete with concerts around the world and performance in front of the Obamas at the White House.

Regina Spektor greatly appreciated her parents, piano teachers and friends for helping her become the musician she is. “I love the idea that if you're walking toward the world, the world will take some steps towards you,” she said.

    Universities are doing everything they can to become a green campus. But there are also items students can do to make your campus more eco-friendly.

1）Recycle everything, especially paper!

    There is a large amount of paper a college student goes through every term.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} We know that these things can't be avoided, but the way you handle the use of all the paper can really help create a better green campus.

2）Buy green.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Paper, cleaning products and water are products that can be bought as recycled goods. They're slightly more expensive than the normal products, but it's worth it to make a green campus.

3）Walk and bike to school.

    Most campuses, especially those that are trying to become a more eco-friendly campus, have pretty good public transit (公共交通系统).{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Walking or biking will help make your campus a green university.

4） {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    A water bottle can be refilled at any water fountain and can easily be drunk in class or while riding a bike. This will save the environment by decreasing the amount of plastic waste on your campus.

5）Buy used clothing.

    It is usually thought of as something to do to save money. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Recycling clothes minimizes the use of resources to make clothing and puts a dent in the problem of worldwide sweatshops.

A. Carry a water bottle.

B. It is also good for the environment!

C. Buy recycled goods as much as possible.

D. Paper made of this kind of wood is much stronger.

E. On top of that, almost all universities are pedestrian (步行者) friendly.

F. It includes class notes, term papers, student newspapers and so on.

G. Universities call on all the students to learn to recycle all the waste paper.

    Australian cities can keep their native wildlife — but only if they can kick their habit of urban sprawl (扩展). That's the finding of a new study by leading Australian environmental researchers Jessica Sushinsky, Professor Hugh Possingham and Dr. Richard Fuller of The University of Queensland.

    “While urban development usually reduces the number of birds in a city, building more compact (紧凑的) cities and avoiding urban sprawl can slow these reductions greatly,” says lead author Jessica Sushinsky. “Compact housing development leaves birds' homes untouched, leading to fewer losses of birds.”

    The researchers surveyed native and wild birds in Brisbane's urban areas, including living and industrial areas, public parks and gardens, major roadways and airports. They then used statistical modeling to find out what will happen to the birds as the city grows. The first setting was compact growth — where multiple homes are built on land that previously had only one house. The second setting was sprawling growth — a familiar pattern where homes are built here and there beyond the city's current boundaries.

    The team's forecasts showed that a much greater diversity of species was lost over 20 years in the sprawling setting compared to the more compact setting. “Urban sprawl resulted in the disappearance of many urban-sensitive birds — birds that only live in areas where there is native vegetation (植被), such as parklands and woodlands,” Ms. Sushinsky says.

    “On the other hand, we found the city with the compact development attracted more birds because it kept more of its parks and green areas.”

    Now the Queensland Government has adopted the more compact urban growth strategy, which, Dr. Richard Fuller says, is good news for Australia's native birds. These birds are environmental specialists — they need a particular environment to do well. “While compact development means smaller backyards, it can also make our entire cities more biodiverse,” according to Dr. Fuller. “The study shows that we should hold on to our green spaces instead of clearing them for sprawling development.”

    This is the first time science has modeled the effects of different urban growth strategies on birds, the researchers say. “Statistical models like these are important because they help us to understand the ecological consequences of a particular decision,” says Dr Fuller.

    "Don't answer it," I said to Sam. Our door in the inner city is constantly knocked on; our previous door in the suburbs rarely so. Sam has a full-time job and cannot spend his days answering requests to fix leaking baths or carry cash to the bank.

    Sam opened the door and it was Mervin.

    "There's a bird on the second floor," he said. "It's in trouble."

    Sam followed Mervin upstairs. Mervin pointed and turned to let Sam look. It was a pigeon, the most common of all birds, the bird most likely to foul (弄脏) your newly washed car. And it wasn't flying away. It was stamping in circles. As Sam bent to look, Mervin coughed, "Number two."

    Sam asked him to repeat that. "Number two," Mervin said. "The pigeon has been sitting in his own number two, and now it's stuck to his foot."

It had rained for five days, and the bird was young. It could have been sheltering in a     wet nest of its own waste, which had then dried on its foot, preventing it from flying away. The pigeon moved in a few more circles. Sam bent to take another look. Mervin said, "All right, then." and walked away.

    "Why does everyone think you must solve the problems around here?" I said to Sam when he returned with his story. "It's a bird. Just leave it on the stairs, and let nature take its course." Sam didn't agree. Then he went to the garage and emptied the cardboard box containing our imported camping mats. He returned with the gray pigeon in the box. He showed the bird to our children and they decided to keep it.

    They put its foot in the warm water bath and got rid of its waste. Immediately the pigeon erupted in a bomb of feathers and began flying.