You may think the best way to solve a tough problem is to keep working on it, even overnight. But the truth is just the opposite: Your best chance to get to the bottom of a problem is actually to sleep on it.
A team of researchers at Northwestern University, US, found that sleeping is useful in both strengthening and re-organizing memory. This can help you solve problems.
The researchers did an experiment with 57 students. They asked them to solve 42 difficult puzzles on the first day. The students worked on each puzzle while listening to different music. The research encouraged students to remember the music they heard while solving the puzzles. By the end, there were six puzzles that the students still hadn't solved.
The students then went back home to sleep. They were given special sleep-monitoring (睡眠监测) and music devices (设备). The devices played music linked with the unsolved puzzles while the students were in the slow-wave sleep stage. This stage is when people are likely to dream and re-organize their memories.
The next morning, the students tried the unsolved puzzles again. Researchers found they were 55 percent more likely to solve them. The music activated (激活) the memories they had of the puzzles while they were sleeping. It allowed them to "work" on the puzzles in their sleep.
Earlier studies of both people and animals have shown that sleep cannot only strengthen memory, but also help us organize information in our brains. This study seems to support that understanding. So the next time you face a difficult problem, sleep on it. Then play some music to remind yourself of the problem.
Facing the increasing pressure to raise students' scores on standardized tests, schools are urging kids to work harder by offering them obvious encouragements. Happy Meals are at the low end of the scale. With the help of business, schools are also giving away cars, iPods, seats to basketball games, and—in a growing number of cases—cold, hard cash. The appeal of such programs is obvious, but the consequences of tying grades to goods are still uncertain. It's been a common tradition in middle-class families to reward top grades with cash as a way to teach that success in school leads to success in life. But for many disadvantaged minority children, the long-term benefits of getting an education are not so clear, according to experts.
No one knows for sure how well cash and other big-ticket rewards work in education in the long run. But there are plenty of concerns that the kind of practice could have negative effects on kids. Virginia Shiller, a clinical psychologist, says that it's worth experimenting with cash encouragements but that tying them to success on a test is not a worthwhile goal. "I'd rather see rewards based on effort and responsibility — things that will lead to success in life, " she says.
Even if rewards don't lead to individual achievement on a test, they could have a meaningful effect in the school. Charles McVean, a businessman and philanthropist(慈善家), started a tutoring program which pays higher-achieving students $10 an hour to tutor struggling classmates and divides them into teams. During the course of the year, students bond(团结) and compete. The team posting the highest math scores wins the top cash prize of $100. McVean calls the combination of peer tutoring, competition, and cash encouragements a recipe for "nothing less than magic".
For its part, the Seminole County Public School System in Florida plans to continue its report card encouragement program through the rest of the school year. The local McDonald's restaurants help the poor district by paying the $1, 600 cost of printing the report card. Regina Klaers, the district spokeswoman, says most parents don't seem bothered by the Happy Meals rewards. "There are many ways we try to urge students to do well, and sometimes it's through the stomach, and sometimes it's the probability of students winning a car," she says. "One size doesn't fit all."
The Chinese government ends its one-child policy (政策) and allows families to have three children. The policy is meant to balance population development, stop a falling birth rate (出生率) and strengthen the country's labor force (劳动力).
China, with the largest population in the world, started the one-child policy in 1980. But the government allowed only a small number of couples to have two children. For example, some families in the countryside could have two children, if the first-born child is a girl. In 2016, the Chinese government gave other couples a chance to have two children if one of them was an only child. Because of aging of population, in 2021, it allowed families to have three children.
To the newest policy, different families have different opinions. "Too many young people in the cities are no longer interested in having two or three children," an official said. "People in the countryside are more interested."
At the end of 2021, China had a population of more than 1.4 billion people. A total of 900 million of them have jobs. But the labor market population will drop in 30 years. That is to say, the country will be in great need of labor by the year 2050. With the three-child policy, an increase in births can solve this problem.
Boys and girls, what do you think of the three-child policy? Do you want to have new-born brothers or sisters?
When I was 12 years old, I already knew that my teen years were going to be the worst years of my life. I was a total outsider, bullied (欺凌) at school. I felt completely alone in my small town.
But by starting to do volunteer work when I was 14, I turned my problem into a passion for helping others. The opportunity to practice kindness made me feel like my life had a greater purpose. The more positive energy I shared, the more kindness and appreciation I received, I realized that my purpose (目的) in life would be to reach out to people, specifically teenagers, and help them feel less alone.
Books were my true friends back then. I was so thankful that the authors wrote those books. The kindness they offered me with their books saved my life. One of my biggest dreams was to become an author so I could write books that would help other teenagers the way those books helped me.
After surviving the terrible experiences at school and at home, 1 made a choice to take the optimistic, positive road in the next steps of my journey. My dream career, one I thought was only possible for the authors I loved, is what I am doing now. I have been a full-time author of teen novels since 2007 and am grateful (感激的) for this amazing opportunity to reach out to readers every single day.
Kindness saved me when I needed help the most. Even small acts of kindness can change someone's life. You never know what someone else is going through. But by practicing daily kindness, you become an architect of positive change.
