清晨朗读每周回顾3

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今天讲的是浪漫小说的读者多是女性这一话题
Stop dissing romance novels already
对无礼
By Ron Charles

What does a woman want?
If you're in publishing, this is not an idle — or sexist —question. As Ian McEwan said more than 10 years ago, “When women stop reading, the novel will be dead.”

The economic power of reading women was on full display Friday night at Politics and Prose, one of the nation's premier independent bookstores, in Washington. 重要的For the first time, the store held a romance event, dubbed 称为“Passion and Prose.” The panel of four authors was moderated by Diane Gaston, a writer of Regency romances and a member of the Washington Romance Writers Association. The event was a welcome if late acknowledgment that romance accounts for a full third of all the fiction sold in the United States. If that doesn't get your heart racing, you may be dead.感受到心跳get your heart racing

But for Politics and Prose, a happy ending wasn't guaranteed. Summer isn't the busiest season. Friday nights are tough. Would local romance readers get the word about this innovative panel讨论小组 discussion?

Oh, they got the word. A hundred chairs filled up quickly, and many more eager readers stood listening around the edges. Yes, the crowd was almost entirely female, but it skewed倾斜 younger and more racially diverse than other readings I've attended. And the energy level was fabio. Clearly, these readers — voracious readers — were thrilled to be at an event that embraced their literary passion.

So why must this uniquely successful genre keep enduring slights微不足道 and insults? After all, snobs dismiss all kinds of pop culture — from hip-hop to sitcoms — but romance novels elicit a special degree of fervent condescension.虔诚的优越感 That denigration 贬低fits a larger historical pattern that regards any of the particular interests of women — from midwifery助产 to knitting编织 to “old wives' tales” — as inferior to the particular interests of men. Are romance novels any more formulaic or unrealistic than the spy novels and thrillers that attract a male readership? Is there any reason — besides stale misogyny陈腐的厌恶女性 — to question the intelligence of romance authors and their fans.

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今天讲的这个小习惯可以用在很多方面，随手整理，随时复习，随时清洁，随时笔记......
The Clean-as-You-Go Principle

By Leo Babauta

I'm not obsessive about neatness, but I've learned ways of keeping my house neat and clean in a simple, stress-free way.I call it the “Clean-as-You-Go Principle.”

That's pretty self-explanatory, but of course I can't resist going into the details. And also, I've found this principle to be great for other areas of my life: finances, email, work tasks, etc.

The basic idea is that, instead of waiting for the house to get really dirty and then having to spend a lot of time cleaning it, you just clean a little bit at a time.

Here are some of the ways I apply it (most of the time, not perfectly of course):

1. When I'm done eating, I (usually) wash my dishes instead of leaving them in the sink. I'll also often put away any food that's leftover剩饭, wash cooking dishes like the pan, knife and cutting board, and wipe up the counters. It just takes a few minutes, actually.

2. When I'm done brushing my teeth, I wipe the bathroom sink and counter to keep it clean. Having a washcloth nearby makes this easy.

3. When I use the bathroom, I will use the toilet brush to clean it if it's getting a little dirty. So my toilet is usually fairly clean.

4. If I see a mess as I walk through the house, I'll usually put a few things away. Takes just a minute, and no more mess!

5. I'll often sweep up the kitchen if I see some crumbs食物碎屑 on the floor. Not every day, maybe every other day.

6. If I see dust on the floor, I'll wipe it up or get the broom and sweep it up.

7. If I lift weights in the garage, I use my rest periods to clean the garage, a little at a time.

8. When I cook, if something has to simmer for a minute, I clean up my cooking area as I wait, in between stirring the food. So when I'm done cooking, there's not a big mess.

You get the idea. None of these takes more than a minute or three, but by doing it as I go, it takes very little effort and I never have a really messy house.

Of course, a deeper cleaning is still required sometimes, but not as often, and it's not as hard.
Overall, this is an easy system that works really well for me. (Note: My kids don't always follow it, but I either pick up after them or ask them to clean their messes whenever I see them.重新开始，接过来pick up

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这首诗写的是对网络进化与退化方面的的思考值得深思。
evolution vs devolution two roads diverge in the Web
by Henry H. Walker

evolution is at war with devolution in the Internet:
与 交战at war with
so many answers to so many questions just a click away, crowd-sourcing where the brilliance of the aggregate
群众外包crowd-sourcing集体aggregate
finds the amorphous middle where neither sycophant nor cynic rules,
无定型的中间派，几步谄媚也不愤世嫉俗
Trip Advisor helps us know where to eat, sleep, people share tips from where they've hiked, Wikipedia works to hold and improve answers we need, Uber organizes rides with collective power and efficiency, our son answers questions online, specifically for programmers, just because he can and wants to help, cooperation leads us forward, together, even in finding the best way through traffic by crowd-sourcing others' current experiences, the same Internet also allows the worst within us to find support for our hate in others' posts, no fact-checking and correction by the aggregate, but rather the wisdom of the mob, the bully, the lesser, the fever of paranoia that once yelled from a street corner now amplified and insinuated into vulnerable readers, who spread contagion and not healing, with a click of the mouse, two roads diverge in the Web, and woe be unto us if we continue to take the darker

扩大和暗示给那些易受感染的读者amplified and insinuated into vulnerable readers
暴徒，恐吓，小人物，狂热的狂想症of the mob, the bully, the lesser, the fever of paranoia

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一篇政治人物的点评
Trump's golf game tells us an awful lot about Trump坏的awful
By Dana Milbank

The late golf legend Bobby Jones called his sport “the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots — but you have to play the ball where it lies.”

Unless you are Donald Trump.

I just read one of the best pieces of political journalism of the Trump age. It's Sports Illustrated's report on the president's golf game.

Golf is a game of humility: Even the best players are brought low by nature and chance. And it's a game of honor: You keep your own score and are often unseen by other players.

Then there is Trump golf. He breaks rules, exaggerates scores and ignores the game's decorum. Sound familiar? He is, Sports Illustrated asserted, “easily the best golfer” ever to occupy the White House. Likewise, he is an enormously talented politician, with a genius for marketing. Yet in golf, as in life, he doesn't leave it at that. He gilds the lily with dishonesty.
端庄稳重decorum他用不诚实的行为给自己脸上贴金He gilds the lily with dishonesty

“Trump will sometimes respond to a shot he duffed by simply playing a second ball and carrying on as if the first shot never happened,” SI reports. “In the parlance of the game, Trump takes floating mulligans, usually more than one during a round. Because of them it is impossible to say what he has actually shot on any given day, according to 18 people who have teed it up with Trump over the last decade.”草率的duffed常用话语In the parlance of the game浮动的第2杆，连杆 floating mulligans开球teed it up
The famed 20th-century golf pro and instructor Percy Boomer said that the game reveals much about the man. “If you wish to hide your character, do not play golf,” he said. But Trump plays, and reveals more than we'd like to see？
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这篇讲的是Derek Sivers在创业过程中发现的两个问题，一个是人们创业要么没有点子就想创业，要么就是有想法和点子，但是离实际的客户真正需求还有距离。第二种情况显然更多一些。所以作者希望想创业的人不妨拿烘焙做类比，看看自己是否有那些基本的材料或者是条件。具体的有几个，1是否解决了一个市场上要解决的问题，2这个问题是不是客户的真实需求，3从一对一探求客户刚需到最后确定需求正式成立公司。
Don't start a business until people are asking you to
By Derek Sivers

When you bake a cake, you need to do first things first.

You need to get the ingredients before you turn on the oven.You need to bake it before you frost it and slice it.
frost 在上面撒糖霜，切薄片

I meet a lot of people who want to start a business.Some don't have an idea yet. I don't understand this.
It's like wanting to wear a bandage when you don't have a wound.
好类比

Most have an idea but no customers. For them I always say, “Don't start a business until people are asking you to.”

This is not meant to be discouraging. It just means you need to get the ingredients before you turn on the oven. 不是泄气

First you find real people whose problem you can solve. You listen deeply to find their dream scenario. You make sure they're happy to pay you enough.
想象的情形

Don't announce anything. Don't choose a name.Don't make a website. Don't build a system. You need to be free to completely change or ditch your idea.
扔掉你的想法

Then you get your first paying customer. Provide a one-on-one personal service.
Then you get another paying customer. Prove a real demand.
Then, as late as possible, you officially start your business。
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这篇讲的是奥巴马卸任之后为自己订的下一个工作计划---培养年青一代的领导力。他在文章讲了对新一代年轻人的期许，也希望能助力年青一代把美国建设的更好。
Former President Obama
Excerpts from first post-presidency speech卸任总统之后的演讲

I'm spending a lot of time thinking about what is the most important thing I can do for my next job?
常用句式I'm spending a lot of time thinking about
And what I'm convinced of is that although there are all kinds of issues that I care about and all kinds of issues that I intend to work on, the single most important thing I can do is to help in any way I can prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton and to take their own crack at changing the world.
确定的是convinced of 以任何方式 in any way 接力棒take up the baton 尝试（crack）take their own crack at

Because the one thing that I'm absolutely convinced of is that yes, we confront a whole range of challenges from economic inequality and lack of opportunity to a criminal justice system（ that too often is skewed in ways that are unproductive to climate change to, you know, issues related to violence.）
is skewed in扭曲，倾斜的。括号内意思是司法系统在于暴力相关的大环境上是有扭曲有失公平公正的，低效的。

All those problems are serious. They're daunting. But they're not insolvable.
daunting令人畏惧的。

The only folks who are going to be able to solve that problem are going to be young people, the next generation. And I have been encouraged everywhere
I go in the United States, but also everywhere around the world to see how sharp and astute and tolerant and thoughtful and entrepreneurial our young people are.
精明的astute企业家精神的entrepreneurial
A lot more sophisticated than I was at their age. And so the question then becomes what are the ways in which we can create pathways for them to take leadership, for them to get involved? Are there ways in which we can knock down some of the barriers that are discouraging young people about a life of service?
knock down the barriers打破障碍a life of service 一生的事业
And if there are, I want to work with them to knock down those barriers. And to get this next generation and to accelerate their move towards leadership. Because if that happens, I think we're going to be just fine.
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这篇文讲了8个致命的工作上的坏习惯，排名第一的就是经常抱怨，然后是不分轻重的当老好人。文中说什么都做的人，长期看很难有好的表现，因为精力有限，自己的工作也需要做好。适当地配合上司完成工作之外的小部分内容可以增加自己的亮点，但是不懂得拒绝，则会被人看得轻贱。穿着上还是要干净整洁的，就算没有正式工作服要求，也要对得起别人，尊重自己和他人。不要散发政治煽动性言论，也不要散播耀眼，无意或者恶意揭人短处，这都是基本的道德要求。还有职业要求，上班不要过分打私人电话，更不能吃同事的午餐。休假与病假在盈利为目的的老板那里都是一样的，没有产出。所以若果病得严重还是提前打个招呼，放松的在家休息吧。
8 things you should never do at work
by Maurie Backman

We all know we're supposed to show up to work on time, respect our managers, and meet deadlines as assigned. But here are a few things not to do if you want to succeed on the job.
出席show up

1. Complain too much

It's one thing to occasionally express your displeasure with the way work situations are being
handled, but if you get into a routine where you're griping to your coworkers on a consistent basis, you'd better change your ways.
griping to your coworkers跟你的同事抱怨 on a consistent basis基调

2. Volunteer all the time

Going above and beyond the regular call of duty is a good way to get in your manager's good graces, and possibly even advance your career. But one thing you shouldn't do is be that
person who's constantly volunteering to take on more work or pick up other people's slack. Not only will you risk having others take advantage, but you'll potentially spread yourself too thin, at which point your overall performance might suffer.
get in your manager's good graces得到你的经理的青睐，slack懒散的，you'll potentially spread yourself too thin把自己搞得太轻贱

3. Dress inappropriately不当地

Many offices these days are adopting a casual dress code, and while that might be good for your comfort and wallet, it also opens the door to poor decisions. No matter how laid-back your office environment might seem, don't make the mistake of wearing clothing that's too revealing, ripped, or just plain unlaundered.
adopting a casual dress code采用随意的上班服装规范laid-back 懒散的，悠闲的，松弛的 too revealing, ripped暴露，撕破不完整的 just plain unlaundered明显的没有洗熨烫的

4. Talk politics

Most office environments lend themselves to non-work-related conversations from time to time.
But while it's OK to rehash your weekend plans or engage in some mild sports-related trash talk, bringing politics into the workplace is generally a bad idea (especially today).
rehash your weekend plans重复讲你的周末计划trash talk场上说脏话；废话；说别人坏话

5. Spread rumors

Nobody likes a gossip, but that's not the only reason to avoid spreading rumors or badmouthing your coworkers, even if justifiably. Under the wrong circumstances, you could end up with a serious HR violation on your hands.
gossip闲话badmouthing your coworkers恶意中伤，说你同事的坏话even if justifiably即使情有可原a serious HR violation违反人力资源的（一个警告）

6. Spend too much time on personal calls, social media, or anything else that isn't work-related

Even if you work in a busy, bustling office, there's a good chance someone is keeping track of your work habits. It might be your manager or a coworker with a chip on his shoulder, but that person is bound to notice if you're spending hours browsing on social media or chatting away on the phone.
bustling office熙熙攘攘的keeping track of 跟踪a chip on his shoulder脾气不太好，愤愤不平的样子chatting away on the phone.在电话里聊天

7. Come in contagious有传染疾病

Many companies don't distinguish between vacation and sick days, which means that if you're under the weather, you might be tempted to drag yourself into the office and reserve your time off for something fun. But while it's OK to come in with a moderate case of the sniffles, if you're running a fever, coughing up a lung, or experiencing any sort of serious digestive upheaval, you'll be doing your coworkers a favor by just staying home.
under the weather身体不适，不太舒服 reserve your time off 提前打招呼 a moderate case of the sniffles轻微流鼻涕running a fever发烧 coughing up a lung肺部咳嗽 or experiencing any sort of serious digestive upheaval任何严重的消化紊乱doing your coworkers a favor 帮了同事的忙

8. Steal your coworkers' food
   This one should really go without saying, but of all the workplace sins to commit, there's perhaps none more egregious than busting into the communal fridge when no one's looking and helping yourself to a meal that isn't yours.
   communal fridge公用冰箱 busting into闯入 egregious 过分的helping yourself to a meal 自助

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The Most Direct Solution to Any Problem
By Steve Pavlina

When trying to solve various problems in life, an approach I find very useful is to first identify what I'd consider the most direct solution, regardless of how I feel about actually
implementing it. What's the clearest, most direct path to my goal or the most efficient way to get around an obstacle?

Many problems will have multiple direct solutions, but often these solutions will be unsavory at first glance because they'll require courage, self-discipline, creativity, or persistence to implement. But if we can somehow get ourselves to follow through, we know the solutions will actually work.

For example, suppose you want to lose weight. And suppose we can say that one (of many) direct solutions is to eat the same as you're eating now, and boost your exercise output by 500 calories a day. If you implement this rather simplistic solution, you'll lose weight. It may require discipline and persistence, but most people would agree that it will work if you follow through.

Another example: Suppose you're interested in starting a relationship with someone, but you don't know how that person feels about you. One direct solution would be to simply walk up, explain your thoughts and feelings, and ask if s/he is interested in discussing the possibility of a closer relationship.

This will take less than a minute to say, and regardless of the outcome, at least you know where you stand. Of course this solution may require a lot of courage to overcome the possibility of rejection, but it's very simple and straightforward.

See if you can identify the most direct solution to some of your problems. What's the simplest and quickest way to reach your goals, assuming you had limitless courage and discipline