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Passage 1
The Road to Happiness
There are a great many people who have all the material conditions of happiness, i.e. health and a sufficient income, and who, nevertheless, are profoundly unhappy. In such cases it would seem as if the fault must lie with a wrong theory as to how to live. In one sense, we may say that any theory as to how to live is wrong. We imagine ourselves more different from the animals than we are. Animals live on impulse, and are happy as long as external conditions are favorable. If you have a cat, it will enjoy life if it has food and warmth and opportunities for an occasional night on the tiles. Your needs are more complex than those of your cat, but they still have their basis on instinct. In civilized societies, especially in English-speaking societies, this is too apt to be forgotten. People propose to themselves some one paramount objective, and restrain all impulses that do not minister to it.
A businessman may be so anxious to grow rich that to this end he sacrifices health and private affections. When at last he has become rich, no pleasure remains to him except harrying other people by exhortations to imitate his noble example. Many rich ladies, although nature has not endowed them with any spontaneous pleasure in literature or art, decide to be thought cultured, and spend boring hours learning the right thing to say about fashionable new books that are written to give delight, not to afford opportunities for dusty snobbism.
Passage 2
Love Is Difficult
It is good to love, but love is difficult. For one human being to love another human being is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us — the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation. That is why young people, who are beginners in everything, are not yet capable of love: it is something they must learn. With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered around their solitary, anxious, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love. But learning time is always a long, secluded time ahead and far on into life, and is solitude, a heightened and deepened kind of aloneness for the person who loves. Loving does not at first mean merging, surrendering or uniting with another person; it is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world in himself for the sake of another person; it is a great, demanding claim on him, something that chooses him and calls him to vast distances. Only in this sense, as the task of working on themselves, may young people use the love that is given to them. Merging and surrendering and every kind of communion is not for them, who must still, for a long, long time, save and gather themselves; it is the ultimate, it is perhaps that for which human lives are as yet barely large enough.
Passage 3
Business of Insurance Companies
Insurance companies do two types of business. One is general insurance against various forms of risk, and the other is long-term insurance which is mainly life insurance.
General insurers will agree to pay a person or company a sum of money in the event of something happening or not happening. It’s a big business today. If the project succeeds, shareholders in your company will expect to be paid a dividend. If you ask an insurer to【大学英文周记】
underwrite your project, then he will require a payment in advance, a premium. If the project succeeds, he keeps the premium, but you don’t pay him anything else. Paying a premium to an insurer or underwriter is often cheaper than paying a dividend to shareholders. If fewer dividends are paid to shareholders, then more money can be kept as retention to finance the company’s next project.
Another type of insurance business is the life insurance. It differs basically from general insurance in that it is based not on risk but on certainty — the certainty that each of us will one day die. Life insurance is the basis of pension funds which provide for retirement and guard against other contingencies such as ill-health, but is best seen by the financial economist as a means of collecting many small savings to put together into large investments, in short, as a form of intermediation.
Passage 4
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Some people feel sad or depressed during the winter months in northern areas of the world. They may have trouble eating or sleeping. They suffer from a condition known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or S-A-D.
Victims of S-A-D suffer its effects during the short, dark days of winter. The problems are most severe in the months when there are fewer hours of daylight. When spring arrives, these signs disappear and S-A-D victims feel well again.
The National Mental Health Association reports that S-A-D can affect anyone. The group says young people and women are at the highest risk for the disorder. It says that an estimated 25 percent of the American population suffers from some form of S-A-D. About 5 percent suffer from a severe form of the disorder. Many people in other parts of the world also have the condition.
The idea of health problems linked to a lack of light is not new. Scientists have discussed the issue since the beginning of medicine. More than two-thousand years ago, the Greek doctor Hippocrates noted that the seasons affect human emotions.
Today, experts do not fully understand S-A-D, and yet they agree that it is a very real disorder.
To treat the disorder, victims of S-A-D do not need to wait until spring. Experts know that placing affected individuals in bright light each day eases the condition. There are other things people can do to ease the problem. They can increase the sunlight in their homes and workplaces and spend more time outdoors in the fresh air during the day.
One study found that walking for an hour in winter sunlight was as effective as spending two-and-one-half hours under bright light indoors.
Passage 5
Success Is a Choice
All of us ought to be able to brace ourselves for the predictable challenges and setbacks that crop up everyday. If we expect that life won’t be perfect, we’ll be able to avoid that impulse to quit. But even if you are strong enough to persist the obstacle course of life and work, sometimes you will encounter an adverse event that will completely knock you on your back.
Whether it’s a financial loss, the loss of respect of your peers or loved ones, or some other traumatic events in your life, these major setbacks leave you doubting yourself and wondering if
things can ever change for the better again.
Adversity happens to all of us, and it happens all the time. Some form of major adversity is either going to be there or it’s lying in wait just around the corner. To ignore adversity is to succumb to the ultimate self delusion.
But you must recognize that history is full of examples of men and women who achieved greatness despite facing hurdles so steep that easily could have crashed their spirit and left them lying in the dust. Moses was a stutterer, yet he was called on to be the voice of God. Abraham Lincoln overcame all difficulties during the Civil War to become our arguable greatest president ever. Helen Keller made an impact on the world despite being deaf, dumb, and blind from an early age. Franklin Roosevelt had polio.
There are endless examples. These were people who not only looked adversity in the face but learned valuable lessons about overcoming difficult circumstances and were able to move ahead.【大学英文周记】
Passage 6
Is Television a Blessing or a Curse?
It is universally accepted that television is playing an important part in people’s lives. But, there is an ongoing heated discussion as to whether television is a blessing or a curse.
Television keeps one better informed about current affairs, allows one to follow the latest developments in politics and science, and offers a great variety of programs which are both instructive and stimulating. The most distant countries, the strangest customs and the most attractive scenes of nature are brought right into one’s room or household.
However, some people insist that television is a curse rather than a blessing. They argue that it has brought about many serious problems. The major one is its effects on young people. Children are now so used to getting their information and entertainment from television that their literacy as well as physical ability has been greatly weakened. Even worse than that, vulgar commercials and indecent programs may cultivate their bad tastes, distort their view-points towards human life to such a degree that their minds might be corrupted.
To sum up, television has both advantages and disadvantages. What ever effects it has, one point is certain, television in itself is neither good nor bad. It is the use to which it is put that determines its value to society.
Passage 7
Few US Workers Who Could Telecommute Do So
One-quarter of the U.S. work force could be doing their jobs from home if all those able to telecommute chose to do so, and all those people working from home could translate into annual gasoline savings of $3.9 billion, according to the National Technology Readiness Survey. However, many still select to work at the office. The study found that 2 percent of U.S. workers telecommute full-time and another 9 percent do so part-time. But another 14 percent of workers have the option of telecommuting, or have jobs conductive to the practice but choose not to. “The numbers suggest that many people would rather work at the office even if their job allowed telecommuting,” said Professor P.K. Kannan, of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. “That seems to suggest that even if employers were to say tomorrow that everybody had the option of telecommuting and you would save a lot of gas, that’s not going to happen. An hypothesis could be that people still need the ‘face time’ with their bosses. Another
thing is people miss the social interaction, just being at home.” And with a median one-way commute of 10 miles and a median one-way commute time of 20 minutes, the daily trip for many workers is not that bad, he added. Of those who can already telecommute, most do so only one, two or three days per week, the study found.
Passage 8
The Wholeness of Life
There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive, she can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.
Life is not a trap set for us by God so that he can condemn us for failing. Life is not a spelling bee, where no matter how many words you have gotten right, you are disqualified if you make one mistake. Life is more like a baseball season, where even the best team loses one third of its games and even the worst team has its days of brilliance. Our goal is to win more games than we lose. When we accept that imperfection is part of being human, and when we can continue rolling
through life and appreciate it, we will have achieved a wholeness that others can only aspire to. That, I believe, is what God asks of us — not “Be perfect”, but “Be whole”.
If we are brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive, generous enough to rejoice in another’s happiness, and wise enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all, then we can achieve a fulfillment that no other living creature will ever know.
Passage 9
Workplace Friendships
A study into workplace relationships has found having a close friend at work can be a major distraction.
Respondents cited excessive chatting, having too much fun and an inability to separate work from play as contributing to a lack of focus.
“When faced with a work-related problem many people will prioritize their friendship over their responsibilities to their organization, which businesses may find concerning,” said psychologist and Auckland University of Technology lecturer, Dr. Rachel Morrison. “Workplace friendships are like a double-edged sword. The benefits of a friendly workplace can be really positive, but organizations should be aware of the potential difficulties and how to manage friendships at work.”
According to the study, many people were concerned about going “softer” with their friends and being expected to treat them with special privileges.
“People naturally want to make their friends feel special, but this conflicts with organizational practices or norms that are set up around fairness and equality. Difficulty in managing these expectations can create tension in the relationship.”
Respondents also experienced a great deal of anxiety about speaking to close friends about substandard work. A basic rule of friendship is being non-judgmental and accepting your friends weaknesses, but giving critical performance feedback conflicts with this.
“We also found issues related to confidentiality practices, which could mean friends have to refrain from sharing information. This can be really challenging for close friendships that have
norms of openness and disclosure,” Dr. Morrison said.
Dr. Morrison said organizations should try to provide friendly environments and encourage workplace friendships, but have policies in place to manage potential difficulties.
Passage 10
Love Your Life
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it or call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the window of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. The town’s poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. Maybe they are simply great enough to receive without misgivings. Most think that they are above being supported by the town; but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn to the old, turn to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
Passage 11
Man Is Here for the Sake of Other Men
Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, and yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.
From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know that man is here for the sake of other men — above all for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men.
To ponder interminably over the reason for one’s own existence or the meaning of life in general seems to me, from an objective point of view, to be sheer folly. And yet everyone holds certain ideals by which he guides his aspiration and his judgment. The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort and happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.
Passage 12
The Ways to Duck out of Work
Want to watch the World Cup in peace without the boss over your shoulder? Simple, con him.
A British Internet site offered fans an ingenious range of ways to duck out of work so they can watch games in comfort. The timings of the games, in the early morning or at midday, have posed a dilemma to millions of soccer-mad Britons used to watching games in the evenings or at weekends and desperate to follow England and Ireland’s World Cup progress live. The British government has already urged employers to bow to the inevitable and take a flexible attitude to
Class: 13- 2 Name: Will Chow Student No.: 13406030240 Journal No.:02 The Second Week
This is the second week I study and live at NBUT. I gradually adapted to the college life and learning. My college life is different from my imagination before I went to here. Previously, I think at university, students have more time to do what want to, such as playing video games, doing some sports and so on. But the fact is that we have many courses and almost everyday we have full classes. What’s worse, our courses are taught in English which puzzled me a lot.
This week, I have taken part in the Badminton team race, I like playing badminton very much but I can’t play it very well so I didn’t enter the badminton team. But I will always like playing badminton.
Yesterday, we went to West Campus to take part in the sports meeting. My event was javelin throwing, many athletes have never trained in this event including me, so most of us couldn’t get grades. So we think we were just gone there to get some sauce……【大学英文周记】
This week, I bought some books, two books for my study and one for my interests. Books are our friends; I didn’t read many books before, but now I decide to read as many as possible.
1
on the other hand,shopping in stores as a traditional way has been well received by people,in which way the consumers can try the clothes on personally to see whether it fits them well or not.but we will spend a lot of time on shopping,which is not so good for the busy people.
in a word,we can choose different ways according to our demands.shopping in stores and shopping online as two different
ways has greatly facilitated and eiched our lives.篇二：实习周记200字大全 第一个礼拜的实习，我可以简单的总结为几个字，那就是：多看，多问，多观察，多思考！赵经理主要让我了解一些我们公司的背景、产品、发展方向等。另外，尝试了跟同事多沟通，因从交谈中也能够学到不少东西。同事们都很热心，很照顾我，经常在我碰到困难的时候便主动伸出援助之手，他们耐心地教我如何使用打印机、传真机、复印机等一些常用的办公用品，如何接打电话。还从我是大学刚毕业的学生的角度来替我考虑，鼓励我做事要放手去做，不懂就问，没关系的，令我非常感动和欣慰。为了能够真正的学到知识，我很严格的要求自己去做好每一件事情，即使再简单的事情（整理文件资料）我都会认真考虑几遍，因此，虽然做得不算快，但能够保证让人满意。篇三：三年级周记200字
三年级周记200字 今天，我和外婆去菜市场买菜，菜市场很杂闹，路坑坑洼洼人很多。我和外婆拥过来，挤过去，路上有很多菜叶。残渣。我和外婆东看看，西瞧瞧，菜市场里的菜很多很多，让我眼花缭乱。
看。那一棵棵小白菜齐齐楚楚站在那里，像一个个水水灵灵的小姑娘，抖着翠绿的裙子，骄傲地昂着头。
瞧。那一行行的黄瓜早已上架，绿叶黄花，真是好看。
最后，我和外婆，买了一大袋的菜，绿得滴翠，紫得闪光，红得流油，实在可爱。 这一周，最让我记忆犹新的就是探寻蚂蚁的奥秘。
周三下午放学回家，我在院子里发现了一个蚂蚁洞，好奇心驱使着我，我拿了一些很小的面包渣，放在蚂蚁洞的周围。过了一阵子，我见几只蚂蚁出洞了，像是闻到了空气中的面包味。有一只蚂蚁回洞了，应该是去请帮手的吧!剩下的几只蚂蚁沿着气味，找到了面包渣。这几只蚂蚁试图将它搬起，它们失败了。帮手找来了，他们一起将面包渣搬起，准备回洞了，在上坡的时候，一只蚂蚁不幸跌了下去，我以为它死了。可它并没有死，又朝墙上爬去，我感到疑惑不解，它明明跌了下去，为什么又死而复生了呢？
为了 找到这个答案，我翻阅了许多书，终于在《十万个为什么 》 中找到了答案。原来蚂蚁在下落时，六条足在剧烈划动，使身子保持平衡，这样一来，蚂蚁就摔不死了。 一只小小的蚂蚁点燃了我一颗探索动物界奥秘的心。
逛街
啊！今天空气真新鲜啊，我和妈妈打算去逛街哦。我们先是把自己打扮打扮一翻，然后各自拿着自己的小包包一起走上街去咯！我一到街上就吵着要吃糖要吃东西，妈妈听了就说：”你一上街就要吃东西，下次不带你上街了。”我听了妈妈这儿话，马上就闭嘴了，一声不响的跟着妈妈逛街了。