Remembering names is an important social skill. Here are some ways to master it.
Recite and repeat in conversation.
When you hear a person's name, repeat it. Immediately say it to yourself several times without moving your lips. You could also repeat the name in a way that does not sound forced or artificial.
Ask the other person to recite and repeat.
You can let other people help you remember their names. After you've been introduced to someone, ask that person to spell the name and pronounce it correctly for you. Most people will be pleased by the effort you're making to learn their names.
Admit you don't know.
Admitting that you can't remember someone's name can actually make people relaxed. Most of them will feel sympathy if you say, "I'm working to remember names better. Yours is right on the tip of my tongue. What is it again?"
Use associations.
Link each person yon meet with one thing you find interesting or unusual. For example, you could make a mental note: "Vicki Cheng — tall, black hair." To reinforce (加强) your associations, write them on a small card as soon as possible.
Limit the number of new names you learn at one time.
When meeting a group of people, concentrate on remembering just two or three names. Free yourself from remembering every one. Few of the people in mass introductions expect you to remember their names. Another way is to limit yourself to learning just first names. Last names can come later.
Go early.
Consider going early to conferences, parties and classes. Sometimes just a few people show up on time. That's fewer names for you to remember. And as more people arrive, you can hear them being introduced to others — an automatic review for you.
Culture shock is a broad term for a series of personal difficulties that people go through in new places ant is usually most extreme for those who can not speak the language of the place they have moved to or for those who aren't familiar with the social rules. Both of these things applied to me in China when I moved there in 2011. So, naturally I went through the full well-known stages of culture shock: the honeymoon, frustration, adjustment and acceptance.
When I arrived I was excited and optimistic but I quickly became annoyed by cultural differences, missing how things worked back home.
By the end of my first year I had totally lost my self confidence and I became a bit clumsy and sensitive person and I thought it was China that made me that way.
Then in my second year I started to pick up some language skills and I found fun activities to do in my spare time. I made great foreign and Chinese friends and later I developed an interest in Chinese history and culture. Based on the above I learned to consider myself a confident and happy foreigner.
Today I'm back in the US where I'm pursuing a PhD at university in my hometown. It's been a little tough to readjust to the life in my home country. I suffered at first from reverse culture shock, experiencing the four stages in the opposite order.
I'd complain loudly about the little things like I could no longer shout " fu wu yuan" to get a waiter's attention in a restaurant. But eventually I came to realize that my home had become an entirely new place when I was away. That, by itself, was exciting.
Macinley Buston was just sixteen years old when she first had the idea to try and protect women from a modern necessary radiation during breast cancer treatments and now her invention could be a game changer in the medical field.
Buston whose father works in medical physics has always been interested in science but she only began researching the harmful side effects of radiation treatments after her father discussed his experience with ineffective cancer treatments in his work. Since Buston had also recently lost a relative to breast cancer, she felt inspired to conduct her own research on the subjects. She tried to begin her medical research by consulting scientific journals but she found their academic terms almost impossible to understand.
She then turned to the Internet to find videos that taught how to read scientific journals as she went deeper in her research she stumbled upon a key bit of information: Copper(铜) has been shown to be effective at protecting skin from radiation. An idea hit this Australian teen as she was viewing the film on medieval wars in her tenth grade history class. When she saw the scaled patterns of the mail(盔甲), she was inspired to create a wearable protective tool out of copper. She then headed back online and watched the videos on how to put together tiny scales. She made her own flexible scale mail, which she now calls SMART: Scale Mail For Radiation Therapy.
When her invention was tested in a laboratory setting it reduced a surface exposure to unnecessary radiation by seventy five per cent and now Buston is working on getting her SMART into clinical settings for use.
Giving your brain a workout
Mental agility does not have to decline with age, as long as you keep exercising your mind, says Anna van Praagh.
A Use your brain and it will grow — it really will. This is the message from neuropsychologist Ian Robertson, professor of psychology at Trinity College, Dublin and founding director of the university's Institute of Neuroscience. His book, Puzzler Brain Trainer 90-Day Workout, contains puzzles which he devised to stretch, sharpen and stimulate the brain. The puzzles, from 'memory jogs' to Sudoku to crosswords to number games are all-encompassing, and have been specially formulated to improve each and every part of the brain, from visual-spatial ability to perception, attention, memory, numerical agility, problem-solving and language.
B Professor Robertson has been studying the brain for 57 years, in a career dedicated to changing and improving the way it works. During this time there has been a remarkable paradigm shift in the way scientists view the brain, he says. "When I first started teaching and researching, a very pessimistic view prevailed that, from the age of three or four, we were continually losing brain cells and that the stocks couldn't be replenished. That has turned out to be factually wrong. Now that we know that the brain is "plastic" — it changes, adapts and is physically sharpened according to the experiences it has."
C Robertson likens our minds to trees in a park with branches spreading out, connecting and intertwining, with connections increasing in direct correlation to usage. He says that the 'eureka' moment in his career — and the reason he devised his 'brain trainer' puzzles — was the realisation that the connections multiply with use and so it is possible to boost and improve our mental functions at any age.' Now we know that it's not just children whose brains are "plastic",he says. 'No matter how old we are, our brains are physically changed by what we do and what we think.'
D Robertson illustrates his point by referring to Dr Eleanor McGuire's seminal 2000 study of the brains of London taxi drivers. That showed that their grey matter enlarges and adapts to help them build up a detailed mental map of the city. Brain scans revealed that the drivers had a much larger hippocampus (the part of the brain associated with navigation in birds and animals) compared with other people. Crucially, it grew larger the longer they spent doing their job. Similarly, there is strong statistical evidence that, by stretching the mind with games and puzzles, brainpower is increased. Conversely, if we do not stimulate our minds and keep the connections robust and intact, these connections will weaken and physically diminish. A more recent survey suggested that a 20-minute problem-solving session on the Nintendo DS game called 'Dr Kawashima's Brain Training' at the beginning of each day dramatically improved pupils' test results, class attendance and behaviour. Astonishingly, pupils who used the Nintendo trainer saw their test scores rise by 50 per cent more than those who did not.
E Robertson's puzzles have been designed to have the same effect on the brain, the only difference being that, for his, you need only a pencil to get started. The idea is to shake the brain out of lazy habits and train it to start functioning at its optimum level. It is Robertson's belief that people who tackle the puzzles will see a dramatic improvement in their daily lives as the brain increases its ability across a broad spectrum. They should see an improvement in everything, from remembering people's names at parties to increased attention span, mental agility, creativity and energy.
F 'Many of us are terrified of numbers,' he says, 'or under-confident with words. With practice, and by gently increasing the difficulty of the exercises, these puzzles will help people improve capacity across a whole range of mental domains.' The wonderful thing is that the puzzles take just five minutes, but are the mental equivalent of doing a jog or going to the gym. 'In the same way that physical exercise is good for you, so is keeping your brain stimulated,' Robertson says.' Quite simply, those who keep themselves mentally challenged function significantly better mentally than those who do not.'
G The puzzles are aimed at all ages. Robertson says that some old people are so stimulated that they hardly need to exercise their brains further, while some young people hardly use theirs at all and are therefore in dire need of a workout. He does concede, however, that whereas most young people are constantly forced to learn, there is a tendency in later life to retreat into a comfort zone where it is easier to avoid doing things that are mentally challenging. He compares this with becoming physically inactive, and warns of comparable repercussions.' As the population ages, people are going to have to stay mentally active longer,' he counsels. 'We must learn to exercise our brains just as much as our bodies. People need to be aware that they have the most complex entity known to man between their ears,' he continues, 'and the key to allow it to grow and be healthy is simply to keep it stimulated.'
Which TWO of the following are claims that Roberson makes about the puzzles in his book?
A. They will improve every mental skill.
B. They are better than other kinds of mental exercise.
C. They will have a major effect on people's mental abilities.
D. They are more useful than physical exercise.
E. They are certain to be more useful for older people than for the young.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.Write your answers in boxes 33-38 on your answer sheet.
Evidence supporting Robertson's theory
The research was carried out using in London as subjects. It showed that their brains change, enabling them to create a of London. Tests showed that their increased in size as they continued in their job. There is also evidence of a kind. Students playing a certain game involving for a period of time every day achieved significantly higher attendance, better examination results and .
Reading passage D has seven paragraphs, A-G.Which paragraph contains the following information? Choose the correct letter, A-G on your answer sheet.
a reason why some people don't exercise their minds.
examples of things that people commonly feel they are not very good at.
How to Feel Connected
It's easy to feel disconnected from what is going on around you in today's fastpaced world.
However, by following the tips below you can get in touch and feel connected.
Consider why you feel disconnected. Knowing what is making you feel disconnected can help you choose the best ways to address it. Ask yourself these questions: Are you keeping yourself occupied with work too much? Do you rely on electronic communication instead of face to face communication? Do you lack friendships that are satisfying?
Interact with people in person. Technology is a great way to stay in touch, but sometimes you need to spend time with other people in person. You can also take steps to feel more connected by making smalltalk with strangers who are sharing parts of your day.
Your loved ones could feel shy, so you may never know how to improve your relationship unless you ask the right questions. Asking them to open the doors can give you some insight on what you can do. Learning this information can help to strengthen your bond.
Show your commitment to them. Simply showing up and being there for your loved ones says a lot about how much you value your relationships. Putting in the time shows them that you are committed and want to stay connected.
Show appreciation. A simple "thank you" goes a very long way. Unfortunately, it is something that people who are close often take for granted. Telling someone you appreciate their time, love, and efforts can strengthen your bond and help you to become more connected.
A. Ask others what they need from you. B. Sometimes you can feel isolated and distant from the ones you love. C. Be brave to express your love. D. Reach out to people to schedule a time to get together. E. Attending family events, or simply visiting someone once a week can help to strengthen your relationship and keep it strong. F. Targeting your efforts toward those issues allows you to close that distance more effectively. G. You can have a gift delivered to friends on special occasions. |
For most of my life I had lived in the black and Latino community. Neither of my parents had graduated from middle school and I was the first in my family to ever enter a college campus. By contrast, most of my1 came from generations of well educated family and had grown up in2 white suburbs. In the college,3 sharing with others how I was feeling, I closed myself and thought I could get through it if I just4 study. However, during the weeks before the winter break, I finally decided I would drop out.5 , that wasn't the end of the story. I found6 and guidance to continue to finish my college.
Consulting provided me with space to7 my emotions. My consultant provided me with books and other8 to understand what I was experiencing and she helped me feel powerful. Volunteering with a campus organization provided me with a constant9 of why I was in college. My interactions with students, who reminded me so much of my own friends at home, inspired me to work for10 to higher education for low income youth. I also11 in a summer urban program, where I cooperated with a group of student leaders to start a conference to talk about12 of race and class.
13 is power. I read books and chose courses to learn more about topics14 to immigration, race, social class and urban education. These courses and books helped me15 a much deeper understanding of my own racial experiences of oppression. Most importantly, I was equipped with the knowledge I needed to work against injustice and inequality.
Perhaps no other scientist has had a greater impact China's aerospace science than Qian Xuesen. by the authors of the Story of Qian Xuesen as a man with "great scientific thought and scientific spirit" who was and served his homeland with effort, achievement, and , Qian was an well-respected man.
Finally, studying abroad provides a great opportunity to contribute to the development of our motherland. China's global , with projects such as the Belt and Road Initiative, has us make connections across the world. , China needs more talented young people with a global perspective who are highly with languages, have leadership and organisational skills, and have strong cultural awareness. Students study abroad will develop such skills and abilities, and these in turn will provide them with better career opportunities.
