For a better IELTS writing band
2017-10-13
She and her colleagues found that individuals with high self-control in childhood (as reported by teachers, parents and the children themselves) grew into adults with greater physical and mental health, fewer substance abuse problems and criminal convictions, and better savings behavior and greater financial security. Those patterns held even after the researchers controlled for the children’s socioeconomic status, home lives and general intelligence.
2017-10-12
RESTLESSLY waiting to be taken to a friend's house, my 12-year-old is badgering me alta voce to hurry up. I shout at him to leave me alone and let me finish what I am doing. He makes for the door, upset, bumps into a file of papers and scatters them everywhere. I screech at him. He leaves, slamming the door and protesting in a tearful voice that I never have time for him. A couple of hours earlier I'd told my elder son, on holiday from boarding school, that I was too busy to go to a show with him. Like flies, I swatted them away and was left with that familiar guilty feeling that I'd short-changed them. I'd failed to create an idyllic, Laurie Lee-style childhood for them.
2017-10-11
While it can be difficult to watch our kids struggle, they'll never know the thrill of mastery unless we allow them to risk failure. Few skills are perfected on a first try. It's through practice that children achieve mastery. And through repeated experiences of mastery, they develop the can-do attitude that lets them approach future challenges with the zest and optimism that are central to a happy life.
2017-10-10
Divorce was uncommon in the Seventies and unheard of in my family, and my classmates tended to have very similar domestic arrangements to mine: a hard-working, well-paid father and a stay-at-home mother. Real life, as I knew it, was easy, sunny and unproblematic.
But when I reached my teens, I started to realise there was a different side to life — and it scared me. While other girls turned 16 and started to go clubbing, I was doing jigsaws at home. School was full of gossip about boys and illicit drinking, while I was playing with my Barbies and writing stories.
2017-10-9
My own experience, though, is that having an expectation of success without any drive to succeed is a recipe for disappointment. Good things had always happened to me — so fame and fortune would land in my lap. I would be a millionaire by the age of 30. All I had to do was say the word.
Even now, it shocks me that this has never happened. When I walk past the beautiful houses in town, I know they are mine by rights — but someone else is living in them.
2017-10-8
An unhappy childhood can cripple, but so can one as blessed as mine. You go through life with the sense that something has been mislaid, something you think that, with luck, you can find again. Only you can't, because what you're looking for is unconditional love. My family was too strict to spoil a child, but I knew, even before I knew the words, that they would betray me only by dying. As long as they lived, my cradle would never fall.
2017-10-7
AMERICAN presidents have a habit of describing their Chinese counterparts in terms of awe. A fawning Richard Nixon said to Mao Zedong that the chairman’s writings had “changed the world”. To Jimmy Carter, Deng Xiaoping was a string of flattering adjectives: “smart, tough, intelligent, frank, courageous, personable, self-assured, friendly”. Bill Clinton described China’s then president, Jiang Zemin, as a “visionary” and “a man of extraordinary intellect”. Donald Trump is no less wowed. The Washington Post quotes him as saying that China’s current leader, Xi Jinping, is “probably the most powerful” China has had in a century.
2017-10-6
Mr Trump may be right. And were it not political suicide for an American president to say so, he might plausibly have added: “Xi Jinping is the world’s most powerful leader.” To be sure, China’s economy is still second in size to America’s and its army, though rapidly gaining muscle, pales in comparison. But economic heft and military hardware are not everything. The leader of the free world has a narrow, transnational approach to foreigners and seems unable to enact his agenda at home. The United States is still the world’s most powerful country, but its leader is weaker at home and less effective abroad than any of his recent predecessors, not least because he scorns the values and alliances that underpin American influence.
2017-10-5
The flaw in rereading—failing to know if you have learned the material—points to our first good study technique: self-testing. Self-testing may involve flash cards, it may mean answering questions at the back of a book chapter or it may be fielding questions lobbed by a study buddy.
There are two main benefits to self-testing. First, in contrast to rereading, self-testing offers an accurate assessment of what has been learned and whether one needs to keep studying. Second, scores of studies show that self-testing is a great way to cement material into memory. It is even better than equivalent time spent perusing the material.
2017-10-4
Another useful technique is to periodically pause when reading to ask why a statement in the text is true. We have all had the experience of passing our eyes over words but not really thinking about what we have read. Pausing every few paragraphs to ask, “Why does that make sense?” prompts thinking and learning.
A third technique is to spread out study sessions instead of cramming. Much research shows that memory is more enduring when material is reviewed days or even weeks apart. This is a practice that teachers can promote by giving more frequent assignments and quizzes that require a review of material covered earlier in the course. Even brief memory refreshers can result in big returns in learning.
2017-10-2
Lack of willpower isn’t the only reason you might fail to reach your goals. Willpower researcher Roy Baumeister, PhD, a psychologist at Florida State University, describes three necessary components for achieving objectives: First, he says, you need to establish the motivation for change and set a clear goal. Second, you need to monitor your behavior toward that goal. The third component is willpower. Whether your goal is to lose weight, kick a smoking habit, study more, or spend less time on Facebook, willpower is a critical step to achieving that outcome.
2017-10-1
Moffitt and her colleagues found that individuals with high self-control in childhood (as reported by teachers, parents and the children themselves) grew into adults with greater physical and mental health, fewer substance-abuse problems and criminal convictions, and better savings behavior and financial security. Those patterns held even after the researchers controlled for the children’s socioeconomic status, home lives and general intelligence. Such findings underscore the importance of willpower in nearly all areas of life.
2017-9-30
Keyword: failure
I won’t deny it— failure is a tough pill to swallow. It can be pretty brutal, and definitely enough to knock the wind right out of your sails. Believe me, I get it.
But, as with anything, there are helpful lessons to be taken from those situations that tie your stomach into knots and make your eyes well with tears. It’s up to you to glean what you can from them.
2017-9-29
When it comes to self-control, it is so easy to focus on our failures that our successes tend to pale in comparison. And why shouldn’t they? Self-control is an effort that’s intended to help achieve a goal. Failing to control yourself is just that—a failure. If you’re trying to avoid digging into that bag of chips after dinner because you want to lose a few pounds and you succeed Monday and Tuesday nights only to succumb to temptation on Wednesday by eating four servings’ worth of the empty calories, your failure outweighs your success. You’ve taken two steps forward and four steps back.
2017-9-28
keyword: stress
A little bit of stress can be a good thing as it motivates us to knuckle down and work hard. But exams can make stress levels get out of hand, which can stop us from performing our best. So it's important to address it and get it back under control.
Ultimately, don't lose sight of the fact that there is life after exams. Things might seem intense right now, but it won't last forever.