Do you have a suit or dress in the closet that you haven’t worn for years but are reluctant to get rid of? Maybe you say, “I can’t throw that away because I paid good money for it?”. If you recognize this in yourself, then you are suffering from commitment to the sunk cost fallacy (谬论). It occurs when we feel that we have invested too much to quit. This psychological trap causes us to stick with a plan even if it no longer serves us and the costs clearly outweigh the benefits.
Arkes and Blumer conducted a survey showing that people are influenced by sunk cost fallacy in their decisions. Participants imagined spending $100 on a ski trip to Michigan and $50 on Wisconsin, realizing later they were for the same weekend. They were told Wisconsin would be more enjoyable. When asked which trip to take, 54% chose Michigan despite the reasonable choice being Wisconsin, because they had made a greater initial investment.
Sunk cost fallacy takes place when we let emotions cloud our decisions. Once we’ve invested in a choice, we feel guilt or regret if we don’t follow through. We fail to realize that past costs won’t be recovered. Instead, we base decisions on past costs, ignoring present and future costs and benefits. This may be due to loss aversion (厌恶), where losses feel worse than gains. We avoid losses, making choices based on avoiding the “loss” of our past investment instead of considering the benefits gained if we don’t continue our commitment.
No one can deny the fact that we benefit a lot from perseverance. So our society loves to emphasize perseverance. Never give up! Don’t waste. But only you know the right path for you. Sometimes walking away is the hardest choice of all. You might realize a path you’re on is no longer the right one or never was. That’s a painful realization.
【小题1】What phenomenon does the author describe at the beginning of the text?| A．People benefit from sticking with a plan. | B．People’s consumption view has changed. |
| C．People refuse to give up the past commitment. | D．People’s clothes are becoming more expensive. |
| A．To save more of the loss. | B．To appear more reasonable. |
| C．To make a greater investment. | D．To enjoy more of themselves. |
| A．When we don’t follow through our choices. |
| B．When we don’t continue our commitment. |
| C．When we stop feeling guilty and regretful. |
| D．When we make decisions based on past costs emotionally. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Objective. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
Who doesn’t like to work with someone who makes them laugh? If you’re going to spend eight hours or more per day at work, you don't want it to feel like a prison. Telling a joke or sending a comedic reaction GIF is a great way to make friends at work and generally create a positive image for yourself.
If you’re feeling tense and anxious due to the day’s tasks, sending out some funny emojis or your favorite video can brighten the mood of the entire office!
The positive atmosphere that humor brings into the office doesn’t only help your personal work performance.
Humor is a great icebreaker and can cut through tension in certain situations. Since humor is key in creative thinking, and can help problem-solving skills in times of conflict, it can help you in business situations.
Many people assume you can’t work and play at the same time, but that's far from the truth.
| A．People who use humor tend to be more approachable. |
| B．It also improves overall performance for the company. |
| C．They are more likely to be chosen for a leadership position. |
| D．Research shows humor can increase effective communication. |
| E．Studies have revealed that those who told jokes were seen as more confident. |
| F．Using innovative ways to solve problems can help any leader in any kind of business. |
| G．Once you're done watching that funny video, you’ll feel less stressed and more productive. |
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Life can be overwhelming (令人不知所措的).We want to do as much as we can, see the world, learn new things — and it can all get a bit too much. Sometimes we reach a point when we feel that we can no longer be interested in everything. We have to shut some of life out, and we don’t like that. We are living under the false assumption that to know anything worthwhile takes years of study, so we might as well forget it.
But sometimes inside us rebels. We still want to learn new things and make new things. They don’t have to be big things. Coping with too big a challenge can be daunting (令人怯步的）.The secret is to be a “micromaster” by perfecting lots and lots of small things — for a big payoff.
A micromastery is a self-contained unit of doing, complete in itself, but connected to a greater field. You can perfect that single thing and move on to bigger things. A micromastery is the way we learn as kids. You never absorb all the fundamentals straight away 一 you learn one cool thing, then another. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has written about “flow” 一 a state in which time seems to be suspended because our involvement in what we’re doing is so great. A micromastery，because it is repeatable without being repetitious, has all the elements that allow us to enter a flow state, which produces great contentment.
As we get older our default setting (默认设置）becomes “off” not “on”. We stop getting interested in new things because we haven’t got enough time or energy. This is an excuse but who can blame us when we hear we need 10,000 hours to “master” something. Micromastery slices through all the excuses. You start with something so small and easy that it doesn’t impact on your life except positively.
We envy the person who has a perfect French accent, who can roll kayak, or compose a poem that isn’t laughable， who can lay a brick wall that doesn’t fall down. These are regarded as hard things to learn which mean a greater mastery of the filed concerned. But with micromastery you can start with the test piece and then — and only then — do you go back upstream to learn anything more about the new world.
Seeing the world in terms of micromasteries makes anything seem possible. Fancy bookbinding? Yoga? Tap dancing or tank driving? All have their micromasteries. It’s very liberating — you no longer have to feel trapped in your day job. You will start, in a small way, to get your life back from the idea that the world seems to push on us that we should do just one thing all our lives.
| An annoying situation | • We are too ♦We take it for granted that anything worthwhile doesn’t have an |
| A practical approach | ♦ Instead of accomplishing big things, the secret is to be a micromaster by starting |
| Facts about a micromastery | ♦It is connected to a greater field. We can ♦It enables us to have a good command of important things in a ♦It can help enter a flow state when we are |
♦For the adults who lack time and energy to try new things， it can have a ♦Instead of envying the achievers, we can | |
| starting with the test piece. | |
| Conclusion | ♦A micromastery can help us to liberate our minds and ♦For a satisfied life, be a |
Dry ice is carbon dioxide in frozen form, with a temperature of about -78.3℃.
Experiment: Healthy Dry Ice Yogurt Popsicles (冰棍)
This dry ice experiment is a simple project, but it’s certainly wonderful.
Materials
One large block of dry ice
Large spoon or tube-shaped piece of metal
Four Popsicle sticks
One cup of your favorite juice
Tall glass filled with water
Directions
Use the large spoon, or tube-shaped piece of metal to make a Popsicle-shaped hole in the middle of the block of dry ice. You can set the ice on a towel on your counter to do this work.
Add a Popsicle stick to the middle of the space so that when you pour in the liquid, it will freeze around the Popsicle stick.
| A．Prepare all the necessary materials. |
| B．Otherwise, it will be too cold to enjoy. |
| C．It has appeal to a wide range of audiences. |
| D．Unlike regular ice, dry ice doesn’t melt into a liquid. |
| E．Keep in mind that it’s okay if it’s not exactly Popsicle-shaped. |
| F．The number of experiments you can perform using dry ice is endless. |
| G．Hold the Popsicle stick in place and wait a few minutes for your Popsicle to harden. |
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