The View from the Slow Lane As we pulled...

    Let's face it: The last hour of anyone's workday is not always fruitful. As the hours of peak productivity start to decline, most people begin watching the clock, waiting for nothing.1.“How positively you end your professional day can promote success both inside and outside of the office,” says Randi Levin, a transitional life strategist. Let's see how successful people end their workday with a bang.

Successful people reflect on their accomplishments. While many of us spend our last hour of work making a to-do list for tomorrow, they review the day they just had, instead.2.Similarly, Levin recommends writing down the day's wins rather than setbacks or to-dos, as well as reviewing your list of successes once a month. It will prove your professional growth and bring more joy into your job.

Also, successful people brainstorm solutions for today's setbacks.3.Instead, they end their day by thinking carefully about the problems they met, brainstorming possible solutions, and then leaving it for tomorrow. They will settle those problems after a good night's sleep.

4.Rather than detailing the tasks that need to get done, this kind of list encourages people to focus on finding solutions for their projects. “Forget the horrible 'to-do' list,” Levin says, “before heading to happy hour, write down three to five goals you have for the next 24 hours.5.It will provide you with not only a concrete and positive way to begin tomorrow, but also it will allow you to see much more possibilities.”

A.This list is a promise to yourself.

B.Successful people make a to-do list.

C.It will make people understand the problems better.

D.They never bring the day's failures home with them.

E.Another work these people do is to create an action list.

F.But ending the workday with purpose can make a difference.

G.They typically choose a case and consider what led to that success.

Camaraderie over Competence

The importance of liking people is the subject of an article in the Harvard Business Review, which has carried out an experiment to find out who we’d rather work with. Hardly surprisingly, the people we want most as our workmates are both: brilliant at their jobs and delightful human beings. And the people we want least are both unpleasant and useless. More interestingly, the authors found that, given the choice between working with lovable fools and competent jerks (性情古怪的人), we irresistibly choose the former. Anyway, who likes those stupid men who annoy or hurt other people? We might insist that competence matters more, but our behavior shows we stay close to the people we like and sharing information with them.

What companies should therefore do is get people to like each other more. The trick here is apparently to make sure staffs come across each other as often as possible during the day. They also should be sent on bonding courses and so on to encourage friendliness and break down displeasure. However, more outdoor-activity weekends and shared coffee machines inspire no confidence at all.

The reality is that people either like each other or they don’t. You can’t force it. Possibly you can make offices friendlier by tolerating a lot of chat, but there is a productivity cost to that. In my experience, the question of lovable fool against competent jerk may not be the right one. The two are interrelated: we tend not to like our workmates when they are completely hopeless. I was once quite friendly with a woman whom I later worked with. I found her to be so outstandingly bad at her job that I lost respect for her and ended up not really liking her at all. Then is there anything that companies should be doing about it?

By far the most effective strategy would be to hire people who are all pretty much the same, given that similarity is one of the main determinants of whether we like each other. I think this is a pretty good idea, but no one dares recommend this anymore without offending the diversity lobby group. There is only one acceptable view on this subject: teams of similar people are bad because they stop creativity. This may be true, though I have never seen any conclusive proof of it.

Not only do we like similar people, we like people who like us. So if companies want to promote more liking, they should encourage a culture where we are all nice to each other. The trouble is that this needs to be done with some skill.

1.According to the research, which kind of colleagues would most people tend to choose?

A.Nice but unintelligent.

B.Creative but unattractive.

C.Competent but unfriendly.

D.Humorous but unambitious.

2.The author talks about her experience to show that ______.

A.people respect outstanding leaders

B.people tend to like optimistic workmates

C.a workmate’s working ability is important

D.talkative workmates makes offices friendlier

3.Some people think that similar people working together may ______

A.offend each other

B.create fewer new ideas

C.talk more and work less

D.be likely to stick together

4.To encourage workmates to like each other, companies could ______.

A.set more coffee machines in the work place

B.organize team-building activities outside the office

C.encourage a diversity of opinions in workplace

D.employ staff who have a lot in common

    Smart cities are coming. And you can be sure that hackers(黑客) won’t be very far behind.

We’ve already gotten a glimpse of that future, as cities across the globe start to use technology to connect their services and residents in ways that was science fiction just a few years ago. They are using sensors to collect data — such as traffic, garbage collecting, and road conditions —and then using that data to deliver services to more people and more efficiently.

But this rush to become a smart city has a major drawback: The more connected a city is, the easier it is to cyber-attacks. Hackers have, in recent years, effectively held cities hostage through ransom ware(赎金器), sometimes damaging critical systems for months at a time. The damage can cost millions to repair, as Baltimore and Atlanta have discovered.

And this is just the beginning. As cities add connectivity to their streetlights, power grids, dams, transit lines and other services, they are adding more targets that have the potential to be hacked. What’s more, as additional information on residents is collected, officials worry the result —lots of data could attract nation-states or terrorists who could incorporate the data into physical and cyber war.

What cyber security lesson can’t be taught in this hack? For example: Don’t open email attachments from unfamiliar sources; don’t click on unrecognized links; don’t leave sensitive information visible on the walls or surfaces of your office. But let’s just stick to the most important lesson: The information you share on social media can be used to profile and target you, whether that’s by engineering click bait(点击诱饵) aimed at your particular interests, guessing your password based on your birthday or figuring out your schedule and travels so that an intruder can access your home or office.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

1.What did people use to think of smart cities?

A.It was the product of science. B.It was bound to be popular.

C.It existed in imagination. D.It improved people’s life.

2.What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 3?

A.Introduce the harm of hackers. B.Show the danger of a smart city.

C.Add some background information. D.Summarize the previous paragraphs.

3.What is officials’ attitude to big data?

A.It is convenient to provide service. B.It is certain to bring about revolution.

C.There are actually potential dangers. D.There’s competition in high technology.

4.What does the underlined word "profile" in Para. 5 mean?

A.Describe. B.Protect. C.Pursue. D.Fund.

    A little boy almost thought of himself as the most unfortunate child in the world because poliomyelitis (小儿麻痹症) made his leg lame and his teeth uneven. He seldom played with his classmates; and when the teacher asked him to answer questions, he always lowered his head without a word.

One spring, the boy’s father asked for some saplings (树苗) from the neighbor. He told his children to plant a sapling each person. The father said, “Whose seedling grows best, I will buy him or her a favorite gift.” The boy also wanted to get his father’s gift. But seeing his brothers and sisters carrying water to water the trees happily, anyhow, he hit upon an idea: he hoped the tree he planted would die soon. So watering it once or twice, he never attended to it.

A few days later, when the little boy went to see his tree again, he was surprised to find it not only didn’t wilt, but also grew some fresh leaves, and compared with the trees of his brother and sister, his appeared greener and more vital. His father kept his promise, bought the little boy his favorite gift and said to him: from the tree he planted, he would become an outstanding botanist when he grew up.

Since then, the little boy slowly became optimistic. One day, the little boy lay on the bed but couldn't sleep. Looking at the bright moonlight outside the window, he suddenly recalled what the biology teacher once said, plants generally grow at night. Why not go to see the tree? When he came to the courtyard on tiptoe, he found his father was splashing something under his tree with a ladle (勺子). He returned to his room, tears running down his face.

Decades passed. The little boy didn’t become a botanist, but he was elected President of the United States. His name was Franklin Roosevelt.

1.Why didn’t the boy answer the teacher’s question?

A.He couldn’t concentrate on the class.

B.All the students looked down on him.

C.He lacked confidence because of his illness.

D.He was an unfortunate boy with learning disability.

2.Why did the father ask the children to plant trees?

A.The neighbor required him to do it.

B.He expected them to be botanists.

C.He wanted to encourage the disabled boy.

D.The children asked for their favorite gifts.

3.What does the underlined word “wilt” mean?

A.Become weak. B.Become strong.

C.Become beautiful. D.Become green.

4.What’s the best title for the passage?

A.An Unfortunate Boy

B.Nutrition of Growth

C.A Loving Father

D.The Unselfish Love

    FLEA MARKETS (跳蚤市场)

For the best selection of flea market product, get there as soon as it opens on the first day of the market. If it’s open Saturday and Sunday all year round, go early on Saturday morning. For seasonal or annual flea markets, go early in the season, preferably the first weekend. You’ll have first pick of the goods the vendors (小贩) gathered during the year.

For the biggest discounts, it’s just the opposite. Shop mid to late afternoon during the final day, or days, of the flea market. The vendors are tired and ready to get home –and they might just cut you some fantastic deals if you ask. You may have to haggle a bit, but you’ll probably go home with some bargains, especially if you’re buying large, heavy pieces the tired sellers don’t want to pack and load.

YARD SALES

Yard sale shopping is a lot like flea market shopping. You’ll find the best selections when the sale first starts. Go early on the first day of the sale. If the sale starts at 7 am, be there a few minutes before – but not so early that you’re labeled an early bird. Don’t wait until Saturday to visit a yard sale that starts on Friday.

Like flea market vendors, yard sale sellers aren’t as willing to haggle early in the morning, but the prices are usually pretty low to start. Don’t wait until the afternoon bargain hours to shop at yard sales.

THRIFT STORES (旧货店)

For the best thrift store selections, ask the employees when the new product arrives. It could be a certain day of the week or a certain time each day. Find out, and then plan your visits for those days and times.

Thrift store prices are usually low, so you might want to snatch things up as soon as you find them. If the prices seem unusually high, ask about their sale structure. Thrift stores don’t always state their sales clearly and sometimes the sales are confusing. Find out when they discount the items that interest you. That’s when you’ll find the best deals.

1.As for the biggest discounts in the Flea Markets, you’d better______.

A.get there about 6:50 am on Friday

B.go early on Saturday morning

C.ask the host when the new product arrives

D.buy items late afternoon during the last day

2.The best Thrift Store selections should be taken_______.

A.after the sale starts B.as soon as you find them

C.when new items arrive D.before the afternoon bargain begins

3.The text is most probably intended for ______.

A.antique collectors B.economical shoppers

C.product vendors D.wealthy people