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nothing special 一般，马马虎虎 1.Mr Larry is nothing special as a boss, but I can tell you I've worked for people a lot worse. He's lazy and not too smart, but at least he's easy to get along with.
拉瑞先生作为一个老板也只能说是一般，但是，我可以告诉你，我以前有的老板要比他糟得多。他很懒，脑子也不太灵，但是他至少还很容易相处。
2. That party I went to last night was nothing special. The food was okay, but there wasn't enough of it. 我昨晚去参加的聚会没什么特殊，一般而已。吃的东西倒还可以，不过量不足，不够吃。
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Today Topic： Lost in the Big Apple迷失纽约
Today Vocabulary: travel agency 旅行社
Host：Jeffrey & Adey (People’s Square Center, Shanghai)
Tourist: Excuse me， I’m a little lost (adj.迷失的) right now.
游客：不好意思，我现在有点迷路了。
Policeman：Where are you trying to go?
警察：你准备去哪里？
Tourist：I’m trying to find the Statue of Liberty（n.自由女神像）, can you help me?
游客：我想找自由女神像。你能帮我吗？
Policeman: Of course you can take the number 4 train until you hit Bleecker St(n.街道的简写).
警察：当然你能搭乘4号地铁到布里克街下。
Tourist ：I think I might get even more lost on the subway(n.地铁).
游客：我想我可能在地铁里更容易迷路。
Policeman：If you would like, you can cross (v.穿过) the street, go into the travel agency（旅行社）, and they will have tours going there daily.
警察：你可以穿过街，走进旅行社，他们每天都有去那里的旅游线。
Tourist：Thank you so much for all your help
游客: 很感谢你的帮助。
Policeman：No problem. Enjoy your stay.
警察：没事，祝你旅行愉快。
Let’s go over some phrases now. 让我们一起来回顾一下有用的短语吧！
Big Apple: 美国纽约的别称。
the Statue of Liberty 自由女神像
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【智慧】恨不得早点明白的9个道理 9 Things I Wish They Had Taught Me in School
1. The 80/20 rule.
This is one of the best ways to make better use of your time. The 80/20 rule – also known as The Pareto Principle – basically says that 80 percent of the value you will receive will come from 20 percent of your activities. So a lot of what you do is probably not as useful or even necessary to do as you may think. You can just drop – or vastly decrease the time you spend on – a whole bunch of things. And if you do that you will have more time and energy to spend on those things that really brings your value, happiness, fulfilment andso on.
2. Parkinson’s Law.
You can do things quicker than you think. This law says that a task will expand in time and seeming complexity depending on the time you set aside for it. For instance, if you say to yourself that you’ll come up with a solution within a week then the problem will seem to grow more difficult and you’ll spend more and more time trying to come up with a solution. So focus your time on finding solutions. Then just give yourself an hour (instead of the whole day) or the day (instead of the wholeweek) to solve the problem. This will force your mind to focus on solutions and action.
The result may not be exactly as perfect as if you had spent a week on the task, but as mentioned in the previous point, 80 percent of the value will come from 20 percent of the activities anyway. Or you may wind up with a better result because you haven’t overcomplicated or overpolished things. This will help you to get things done faster, to improve your ability to focus and give you more free time where you can totally focus on what’s in front of you instead of having some looming task creating stress in the back of your mind.
3. Batching.
Boring or routine tasks can create a lot of procrastination and low-level anxiety. One good way to get these things done quickly is to batch them. This means that you do them all in row. You will be able to do them quicker because there is less “start-up time” compared to if you spread them out. And when you are batching you become fully engaged in the tasks and more focused. A batch of things to do in an hour today may look like this: Clean your desk / answer today’s emails / do the dishes / make three calls / write a grocery shopping list for tomorrow.
4. First, give value. Then, get value. Not the other way around.
This is a bit of a counter-intuitive thing. There is often an idea that someone should give us something or do something for us before we give back. The problem is just that a lot of people think that way. And so far less than possible is given either way. If you want to increase the value you receive (money, love, kindness, opportunities etc.) you have to increase the value you give. Because over time you pretty much get what you give. It would perhaps be nice to get something for nothing. But that seldom happens.
5. Use your reticular activation system to your advantage.
I learned about the organs and the inner workings of the body in class but nobody told me about the reticular activation system. And that’s a shame, because this is one of the most powerful things you can learn about. What this focus system, this R.A.S, in your mind does is to allow you to see in your surroundings what you focus your thoughts on. It pretty much always helps you to find what you are looking for. So you really need to focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. And keep that focus steady. Setting goals and reviewing them frequently is one way to keep your focus on what’s important and to help you take action that will move your closer to toward where you want to go. Another way is just to use external reminders such as pieces of paper where you can, for instance, write down a few things from this post like “Give value” or “Assume rapport”. And then you can put those pieces of paper on your fridge, bathroom mirror etc.
6. Gratitude is a simple way to make yourself feel happy. Sure, I was probably told that I should be grateful. Perhaps because it was the right thing to do or just something I should do. But if someone had said that feeling grateful about things for minute or two is a great way to turn a negative mood into a happy one I would probably have practised gratitude more. It is also a good tool for keeping your attitude up and focusing on the right things. And to make other people happy. Which tends to make you even happier, since motions are contagious.
7. 80-90% of what you fear will happen never really come into reality.
This is a big one. Most things you fear will happen never happen. They are just monsters in your own mind. And if they happen then they will most often not be as painful or bad as you expected. Worrying is most often just a waste of time. This is of course easy to say. But if you remind yourself of how little of what you feared throughout your life that has actually appened you can start to release more and more of that worry from your thoughts.
8. Write everything down.
If your memory is anything like mine then it’s like a leaking bucket. Many of your good or great ideas may be lost forever if you don’t make a habit of writing things down. This is also a good way to keep your focus on what you want. Read more about it in Why You Should Write Things Down.
9. There are opportunities in just about every experience.
In pretty much any experience there are always things that you can learn from it and things within the experience that can help you to grow. Negative experiences, mistakes and failure can sometimes be even better than a success because it teaches you something totally new, something that another success could never teach you. Whenever you have a “negative experience” ask yourself: where is the opportunity in this? What is good about this situation? Onenegative experience can – with time – help you create many very positive experiences.
【参考翻译】
应尽早懂得的9个道理
1. 二八定律
掌握这条法则就能够合理优化地利用时间。二八定律（又称帕累托法则）简言之，就是80%的收获源于20%的付出。所以，你所做的未必有你想象的那么重要，很多事情根本不必去做，或是只用一点点时间就够了。如果你能遵循二八定律，就会有更多气力投入到那些能带来幸福感与成就感的有意义的事情上。
2. 帕金森定律
你的做事速度可以比你想象的更快。帕金森定律表述的是：为完成某件事预定的时间越长，所需的时间就越长，让人觉得难度也在增加 。打个比方，你告诫自己要在一周内找到解决某事，可这件事到时就变得越来越复杂，结果让你花去了越来越多的时间 。故此我们应集中精力去解决问题。如果完成目的只需一小时，就不要用一天时间，如果只需一天，就不要用一周时间，以此强迫自己专注于行动。这样的效果或许不如用一周时间的效果那么理想，但是前文告诉我们，80%的收获源于20%的付出。由于事情得以简化，或许最终结果还能更理想。运用帕金森定律不仅可以提高办事效率，加强专注度，还能节省时间以便解决当务之急，而不会让事情堆在脑后，让人焦虑。
3. 批量做事
日常琐事易让人拖拖拉拉，产生烦躁。有一记妙招，就是迅速批量地做事，也就是说把这些事情一起做完。由于压缩了准备时间，所以这样就比一件件分开做来得更快，而且可以使人更投入。平日里可在一小时内一起完成的事，举例：清理书桌、回邮件、刷碗、打上三个电话、列好明天的购物清单。
4. 先付出，再索取，切莫颠倒。
这个道理有一点悖离人的直觉，人们总觉得别人应该先给予，然后自己再回馈。问题在于有太多的人都是这么想的，而且这种好事很难发生。金钱、感情、友善、机遇这些你所享有的东西，索取的越多，要付出的便越多。时间流转，你的付出必有所获。未经付出便可索取看似美妙，实则是不可能的。
5. 充分利用网状激活系统
在学校里我学过人体构造，组织器官这些知识，但是我从没听说过“网状激活系统”。真是遗憾啊，因为这绝对是你所能掌握的一大利器。人通过大脑的网状激活系统可以在纷繁的外部环境中见到心中所想，所以我们才总能找到要找的东西。所以记得时常提醒自己：始终注视着你所追求的东西。若想专注去做重要的事，并向目标一步步前进，就该给自己立下目标，定期回顾。还可以用周围的事物提醒自己，比如在纸上写下几行字， 然后贴在冰箱上、浴室镜子上等等。
6. 常怀感恩之心是拥有快乐的最简单途径
总有人会教导我们要懂得感恩，也许是因为这么做有道理，也许是因为我们只得如此。不过，如果有人告诉我，感恩可以使人改善情绪，不再消沉，那我肯定照办。学会感恩不仅能使人积极向上，把心用在正地方；还能为别人带来快乐，而且因为彼此间情绪也会互相传染，你也会更开心快乐。
7. 你担心害怕的事情，十之八九不会成真。
你担心的事大多不会成为现实，恐惧不过是你的心魔罢了。即便真的发生了，也不会有你想象的那么痛苦不堪。无谓的忧虑无非是在浪费时间。确实，这话说起来很容易，可你如果好好回想一下，过去所担心的事又有多少
真的发生了呢，别再杞人忧天了。
8. 好记性不如烂笔头
希望你的记性千万不要和我一样，像个大漏勺。如果没有养成随时记录的好习惯，很多好想法可能就永远地“遗失”了。这个习惯还能使人专注于要做的事，详情请看：《我们为什么要记录》。
9. 凡事皆有机遇
可以这么说，凡事我们都可以从中得到启发，帮助自己成长。有时挫败甚至比胜利更有价值，因为失败中往往蕴含着全新的东东，而仅仅从胜利中是无法得到的。遭受挫败时，问下自己：能不能从中觅得机遇？能不能得到什么启发？真正读懂一次失败渐渐可以带来多次胜利。
你又有什么道理是恨不能早点知道的呢？ |
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