选择知识点

      C

    Velma Lyrae spends up to 18 hours a day limited to a cage because she is allergic(对…过敏) to modern technology. The 51-year-old can’t use a mobile phone, music player, or WIFI. She can’t even use a hairdryer to dry her hair. Instead, she spends her days reading books, doing artwork, and writing letters, all from the comfort of her Faraday cage.

    She suffers from an increasingly common condition called electromagnetic(电磁的) hypersensitivity syndrome(EHS), which means she cannot stand to be near electromagnetic fields. Velma’s condition happened with the arrival of 3G mobile phones, although having an electric shock before is believed to make people more likely to have the disease.

    As a teenager, Velma suffered a shock when she touched the switch during an electric fire in her bathroom. At first, the symptoms were hardly noticeable, but they have gradually become worse over time.

    Velma worked as a secretary for a number of companies in the 1980s, but was forced to leave her job. She said, “Even back then, I could feel a huge agitation when using the computer, but I thought it was just because I didn’t have the technological skills. Now I know that I was starting to feel anxious because of the symptoms of my EHS.”

Dr. Erica Mallery-Blythe said, “The symptoms of EHS can cover a broad range of systems, often start subtly(微妙的), and can be mistaken for other medical conditions. Adults and children today are exposed to very high levels of electromagnetic fields that no life on the planet has ever witnessed before. It is no surprise that the number of those with EHS is rising. One of the tragedies is that people use these approaches－cages , shades, necklaces－to try to protect themselves, but those are not long-term solutions. They are simply survival means. The long-term solution is building the internal adaptive(适应) ability that enables those with EHS to be like the rest of us.”

D

     Conventional wisdom is a major barrier to innovation that threatens the survival of companies everywhere. It’s based on the        assumption that old ideas will always work, so they shouldn’t be challenged. While this may be a valid assumption in situations that don’t change, it’s unlikely to hold true in a changing situation. In today’s rapid changing global environment, old methods often don't work, and stubbornly using them can lead to major problems.

     Most people seem to agree with conventional wisdom because it gives one a false sense of security. If everyone else believes it,     then it must be true. Individuals who use conventional wisdom are certain that they are right, and being right is good. They want to continue using old ideas rather than take risks with changes that might not work. In 1977, Ken Olsen, co-founder and CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), stated “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” Despite being a dominant leader in the computer industry, DEC no longer exists.

    People seem to forget that since innovation is a change, there can be no innovation without change. Unfortunately, conventional  wisdom prevents leaders, followers and companies from changing and therefore innovating. If companies don’t innovate, but their competitors do, the future is likely to be problematic. Breaking from conventional wisdom has led to many of the most innovative companies and products in history across many industries, so it has a powerful effect on business success.

    Ted Turner (founder of CNN) knew little, if anything, about the news business, but he knew it was inconvenient to watch news only at the dinner hour, as was common before CNN. Turner’s solution was to create a cable channel dedicated to news 24 hours a day. The news establishment reflected conventional wisdom at the time, and predicted his idea would fail because no one wanted to watch the news all day. However, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that viewers don’t have to watch the news all day for the CNN to work. Viewers just have to watch when they want to get information. Due to conventional thinking, the critics failed to recognize the opportunity that was clear to Ted. They assumed that only what was familiar to them could work in the future.

    Conventional wisdom prevents creativity, flexibility and risk-taking, so unconventional leaders enthusiastically break from it. To       survive, thrive and maintain competitive advantage, companies must be flexible when reacting to change.

 Two of the saddest words in the English language are “if only”. I live my life with the goal of never having to say those words, because they convey regret, lost opportunities, mistakes, and disappointment.

      My father is famous in our family for saying, “Take the extra minute to do it right.” I always try to live by the “extra minute” rule. When my children were young and likely to cause accidents, I always thought about what I could do to avoid an “if only” moment, whether it was something minor like moving a cup full of hot coffee away from the edge of a counter, or something that required a little more work such as taping padding (衬垫) onto the sharp corners of a glass coffee table.

      I don’t only avoid those “if only” moments when it comes to safety. It’s equally important to avoid “if only” in our personal relationships. We all know people who lost a loved one and regretted that they had foregone an opportunity to say “I love you” or “I forgive you.” When my father announced he was going to the eye doctor across from my office on Good Friday, I told him that it was a holiday for my company and I wouldn’t be here. But then I thought about the fact that he’s 84 years old and I realized that I shouldn’t give up an opportunity to see him. I called him and told him I had decided to go to work on my day off after all.

      I know there will still be occasions when I have to say “if only” about something, but my life is definitely better because of my policy of doing everything possible to avoid that eventuality (可能). And even though it takes an extra minute to do something right, or it occasionally takes an hour or two in my busy schedule to make a personal connection, I know that I’m doing the right thing. I’m buying myself peace of mind and that’s the best kind of insurance for my emotional well-being.

If a woman has an extra piece of cake, don’t blame it on greed, blame it on her brain.

Scientists have found that women’s brains react to food very differently—and much more strongly—than men’ s. Academics found that decades of dieting pressure on women and advertising have programmed certain parts of the female brain to react strongly when faced with any kind of food. Men, on the other hand, are not usually as obsessive (着迷的) about what they eat.

Dr. Rudolf Uher and his colleagues at the Institute of Psychiatry in King’s College London used brain scanning technology, known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI), to look at the brains of eighteen men and women.

The volunteers were given images of food to look at, as well as food to taste. Their brain reactions were observed by the scientists.

They found that the female brains reacted much more strongly than those of males.

The same reaction did not happen when they were shown non-food images. The team believe this means women think more about food than men tend to.

Dr. Uher said, “This could be related to biological differences between men and women. But the more likely explanation is that women have a more complicated reaction to food because of social pressure.”

Professor Carey Cooper, psychology and health professor at Lancaster University, said, “for centuries women have had a providing role—preparing and cooking food for their families. And it’s part of that role to make sure the food is safe. They will therefore be much more sensitive to food than men are, and I would not be surprised if that was now built into their DNA. If the female brain react to food because it historically has developed neural (神经的) pathways to do this, then food will be the way they express their stress. Food actually, is a comfort for women.”

But other experts have said that more research must be done before the results can be proved.American scientist Angelo del Parigi of the John B. Pierce Laboratory in New Haven, Connecticut, said, “Looking at an FMRI alone cannot make sure whether the stronger reaction in women is due to innate (天生的) differences or a learned process.’’

The technology is great. Without it we wouldn't have been able to put a man on the moon, explore the ocean's depths or eat microwave sausages. Computers have revolutionized our lives and they have the power to educate and pass on knowledge. But sometimes this power can create more problems than it solves.

    Every doctor has had to try their best to calm down patients who've come into their surgery waving an Internet print-out, convinced that they have some rare incurable disease, say, throat cancer. The truth is usually far more ordinary, though: they don't have throat cancer, and it's just that their throats are swollen. Being a graduate of the Internet “school” of medicine does not guarantee (保证) accurate self-health-checks.

    One day Mrs. Almond came to my hospital after feeling faint at work. While I took her blood sample and tried to find out what was wrong, she said calmly, “I know what's wrong; I've got throat cancer. I know there's nothing you doctors can do about it and I've just got to wait until the day comes.”

    As a matter of routine I ordered a chest X-ray. I looked at it and the blood results an hour later. Something wasn't right. “Did your local doctor do an X-ray?” I asked. “Oh, I haven't been to the doctor for years,” she replied. “I read about it on a website and the symptoms fitted, so I knew that's what I had.”

    However, some of her symptoms, like the severe cough and weight loss, didn't fit with it-but she'd just ignored this.

    I looked at the X-ray again, and more tests confirmed it wasn't the cancer but tuberculosis (肺结核) -something that most certainly did need treating, and could be deadly. She was lucky we caught it when we did.

    Mrs. Almond went pale when I explained she would have to be on treatment for the next six months to ensure that she was fully recovered. It was certainly a lesson for her. “I'm so embarrassed,” she said, shaking her head, as I explained that all the people she had come into close contact with would have to be found out and tested.  She listed up to about 20, and then I went to my office to type up my notes. Unexpectedly, the computer was not working, so I had to wait until someone from the IT department came to fix it. Typical. Maybe I should have a microwave sausage while I waited?