A couple of days ago, as the test results came out, my son and a group of his 13-year-old friends piled into the back seat of my car, ready for the last-day-of-school party at McDonald's. “Jack got a laptop for getting straight A's, and Laurie got a cell-phone,” one boy said. “Oh, yeah, and Sarah got an iPad, and she's only in third grade,” said another. “And how about Brian? He got $10 for each A.”

    I suddenly became concerned. These payoffs might get parents through grammar school, but what about high school and beyond? What would be left after the electric guitar, the cell-phone, and the DVD player?

    I saw the road ahead:As the homework load increased, my income would decrease.I saw my comfortable lifestyle disappear before my eyes — no more of those $5 bags of already-peeled organic carrots. No more organic anything!

    I started to feel surprised and nervous. Would every goal achieved by my two children fetch a reward? A high grade point average? A good class ranking? Would sports achievements be included in this reward system: soccer goals, touchdowns? What about the orchestra? Would first chair pay more than second? I'd be penniless by eighth-grade graduation.

    “We never paid anything for good grades,” said my neighbor across the street, whose son was recently accepted at MIT. “He just did it on his own. Maybe once in a while we went out for pizza, but that's about it.”

    Don't you just hate that? We're all running around looking for the MP3 player with the most updates, and she's spending a few dollars on pizza. She gets motivation; we get negotiation. And what about the primary grades? What do these students get? “When the teacher asked if anyone got rewards for good grades, everyone in my class raised their hands and said they got ice cream cones ,” said one third-grader.

Fixed or growth mindset — which do you have?

    We live in an uncertain world with all the technological advances we are experiencing， which meanse is a requirement for a change in midset (思维模式）. In order to be on top of our game both personally and organizationally, we need to develop a growth mindset.

    A fixed mindset supposes that you have native abilities and are naturally clever or skilled in certain areas of life. When you receive infonnation about how you have performed in a test or set of tasks t you may worry about how you are judged. Our parents probably said to us when we were young,"Since you scored really well in the test, you must  be clever." However, by being repeatedly told “You are clever” or “You are really good at your job”，a person's self—respect is actually dainagcd.

    The  growth—mindset  person a view life as a series of exciting challenges and  want  to constantly  learn. Brain activity occurs in this mindset when they receive information about what they could do belter or improve. They do not view their abilities as fixed or us failure. Learning is king and the more they practice , the more they know they will succeed.

    What is important is giving praise around process and not around ability. For example , instead of saying"Since you got a great score, you must be clever" f say " You got a great score, and you must have tried really hard". This creates challenge in individuals and the meaning of mindsets is massive for business. Fixed-mindset managers are not fans of giving feedback (反馈）. They do not want to stretch themselves or others because they fear failure. Therefore their business may stand still because there is no risk or innovation (创新） occurring.

    Listen from your own fixed mindset — for example ," I can't  do that” — and answer with a growth-mindset response — “I can't do that yet!" Remember  there is no such thing as failure and there is s only learning. If you don't fail occasionally ，you will never learn to change and grow.

    When I was watching a sports event yesterday, I met with an amazing sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world record broken, but a show of pure courage and determination.

    The event was swimming. I watched a man dive off the blocks and knew right away that something was wrong. I'm not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a good dive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced, it was evident that the man was not out for gold — his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle.

    I heard the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes (划水) and you could tell he was worn out. But in those few awkward strokes, the crowd changed. No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer. Some even began to stand and yell things like, "Come on, you can do it!" He did. The crowd went wild.

    Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, let alone race. His country had been invited to take part in the event. Even though he recorded the slowest time, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors—a man that gave his all, knowing that he had no chance but to compete because of the spirit of the games.

    The Leaning Tower of Pisa was straight like a pole when the construction began in 1173. It started to shift direction soon after construction because of poor foundation in addition to the loose layer of subsoil(底土). At the beginning, it leaned to the southeast before the shaky foundation started to shift leaning towards the southwest. After the period of structural strengthening at the beginning of the 21^st century, now the Leaning Tower of Pisa leans at an angle of 3.97 degrees.

    In 1178, the shift in direction was observed for the first time when the construction had progressed further to the third floor. The tower was heavy for the three-meter foundation that was built on a weak area of land.

    For compensating(补偿) the leaning position, the builders started to construct the upper floors with one side higher than the other one. This caused the tower to lean in the other direction. This unusual structure led to the tower being actually curved. In spite of these efforts, the tower kept on leaning.

    The government of Italy started to plan prevention of the complete collapse of the tower in 1964. However, a request was put forward by the authorities to keep the leaning position because of the tourism industry of the region.

    After nearly two decades of careful planning by engineers, historians and mathematicians, the stabilization efforts for the Leaning Tower of Pisa started in 1990. The tower was closed for the general public and the people living nearby moved away. For reducing the total weight of the tower, its seven bells which represented the seven musical notes were removed. The tower was reopened for the general public on December 15, 2001.

    In May 2008, after removing another 70 metric tons of earth, the engineers announced that the tower had been finally stabilized and it would remain stable for at least 200 years.

    Paying a higher price than usual for a ticket to see a film in 3D is the annoyance of many a cinema-goer's life.

    But there may be a benefit to doing so, as a study has found that 3D films exercise the brain and improve short-term functioning in a similar way to brain-training tests.

    The research found that people who watched a movie in 3D improved cognitive (认知) skills, compared to those who watched it in 2D.

    The research was led by neuroscientist(神经学家) Dr Patrick Fagan from Goldsmiths University in London. More than 100 people took part in the experiment, where participants watched Disney film Big Hero 6 in either standard format or RealD 3D.

    They also carried out a brain-training-style test before and after seeing a section from the film. The test covered memory, reaction times and cognitive function and the results were compared later.

    According to the research, which was carried out in partnership with science group Thrill Laboratory, participants experienced a 23 percent increase in cognitive processing, as well as an 11 percent increase in reaction times.

     Fagan said that the results showed enough of an improvement in brain function to suggest that 3D could play a part in improving brain power in the future.

    “These findings are more significant than you might think,” he said. “It is a fact that people are living longer and there is a noticeable decline in cognitive brain function in old age which can worsen future quality of life. There has never been a better time to look at ways to improve brain function. The initial results of this study show that 3D films may potentially play a role in slowing this decline.”

    A second part of the experiment involved those watching the film being fitted with headsets that scanned brain activity and this too showed heightened (加强的) activity when watching 3D. According to the results, participants were seven percent more engaged with what they were watching, adding to argument that 3D movies are more like watching real-life—something Professor Brendan Walker from Thrill Laboratory agreed with.

    “As Professor Brendan Walker's test concluded, 3D films are more attractive and heighten the senses — this, in turn, makes the brain run at quicker speeds,” Dr Fagan said.

    China is a country on the move—especially around its Lunar New Year holiday. This year, the holiday crush（客流量） promises to be even heavier than before.

    Government officials estimate that Chinese people will take to the air, roads and railways 3.62 billion times over a 40-day period around the nation's most important holiday this year as people push their way home for family gatherings or to satisfy their new-found passion for travel.

    Getting tickets to all those would-be travelers is a discounting challenge that annually tries patience. And it is the railway system that routinely is most unable to cope. Railways are the transport of choice for low-cost long-distance travel, and that's where the ticketing system routinely falls down.

    Much of the criticism has, focused on the railway's online purchasing system, which has been unable to keep pace with the huge demand and also failed to stop scalpers（票贩子） from ending up with many of the hard-to-find tickets.

    While insisting that online sales were the fairest way to get tickets for travelers, railway officials told reporters that the public need to be patient. Efforts were being made to provide online identity checks that would reduce the ticket scalping problems. While officials had little good news for rail passengers, they did manage to bring a few smiles to those traveling by car as the country's extremely expensive highway tolls （通行费） will be free of charge for the period of the official holiday.

—I'd like to，but I ________Shanghai when you return.

—All right，I ________from a conference by then.I will be waiting for you.