For years we have been told that encouraging a child’s self-respect is important to his or her success in life. But child expert are now learning that too much praise can lead to the opposite effect. Praise-aholic kids who expect it at every turn may become teens who seek the same kind of approval from their friends when asked if they want to go in the backseat of the car.

      The implication（含义）of saying “You are the prettiest girl in class ,” or talking about the goals she scored but not her overall effort, is that you love her only when she looks the best , scores the highest , achieves the most. And this carries over to the classroom.

     Social psychologist Carol Dweck, PhD, tested the effects of overpraise on 400 fifth graders while she was at Columbia University. She found that kids praised for “trying hard” did better on tests and were more likely to take on difficult assignments than those praised for being “smart”.

      “Praising attributes (品质) or abilities makes a false promise that success will come to you because you have that quality, and it devalues effort, so children are afraid to take on challenges,” says Dweck, now at Stanford University. “They figure they’d better quit while they’re ahead.”

D

    Scientists are trying to make the deserts into good land again. They want to bring water to the deserts，so people can live and grow food. They are learning a lot about the deserts. But more and more of the earth is becoming deserts all the time. Scientists may not be able to change the deserts. Scientists think that people make deserts. People are doing bad things to the earth.

    Some places on the earth don't get much rain. But they still don't become desert. This is because some green plants are growing there. Small green plants and grass are very helpful to dry places. Plants don't let the hot sun make the earth even drier. Plants don't let the wind blow the earth away. When a little bit of rain falls，the plants hold the water. Without the plants，the land can become a desert much more easily.

   Many people who work in London prefer to live outside it, and to go to their offices or schools every day by train, car or bus, even though this means they have to get up early in the morning and reach home late in the evening.
  One advantage of living outside London is that houses are cheaper. Even a small flat in London without a garden costs quite a lot to rent. With the same money, one can get a little house in the country with a garden of one’s own.
   Then, in the country one can rest from the noise and hurry of the town. Even though one has to get up earlier and spend more time in trains and buses, one can sleep better at night and during weekends, and on summer evenings, one can enjoy the fresh, clean air of the country. If one likes gardens, one can spend one’s free time digging, planting, watering, and doing the other jobs which are needed in a garden. Then, when the flowers and vegetables come up, one has the reward of one who has shared the secret of nature.
   Some people, however, take no interest in country things: for them, happiness lies in the town, with its cinemas and theatres, beautiful shops and busy streets, and dance halls and restaurants. Such people would feel that their life was not worth living if they had to live it outside London. An occasional walk in one of the parks and a two-week-visit to the sea every summer is all the country they want: the rest they are quite prepared to leave to those who are glad to get away from London every night.

Dear Max,

    Your mother and I don't yet have the words to describe the hope you give us for the future. We believe all lives have equal value, and that includes the many more people who will live in future generations than live today. Our society has an obligation to invest now to improve the lives of all those coming into this world, not just those already here.

    Our hopes for your generation focus on two ideas: advancing human potential and promoting equality.

    Today your mother and I are committing to spend our lives doing our small part to help solve these challenges. I will continue to serve as Facebook's CEO for many, many years to come, but these issues are too important to wait until you or we are older to begin this work. By starting at a young age, we hope to see compounding benefits throughout our lives.

    As you begin the next generation of the Chan Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation. Our initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities. Over short periods of five or ten years, it may not seem like we're making much of a difference. But over the long term, seeds planted now will grow, and one day, you or your children will see what we can only  imagine.

    We will give 99% of our Facebook shares --currently about $45 billion -- during our lives to advance this mission. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others.