Everyone needs a break, and vacations are not meant for serious study. 【小题1】 The Spring Festival is coming up so this is the perfect time to discuss some great English language literature to take on a long train journey.

Before getting into the recommendation, you need to determine your English reading comprehension level. If you’re at the beginner level, there are two options: reading a children’s book or reading a book that you’ve read in Chinese translation. 【小题2】 If you’re at the intermediate level, popular books like pop fiction, mysteries and thrillers are good options. For advanced readers, classic works of literature or modern prize winners (Nobel, Pulitzer) are good options.

【小题3】 When I pick up a book I like, even though the first few chapters are really hard to get through, I would try to get accustomed to the language the author uses. Generally, after the first few chapters, things get a lot easier, especially if I get involved in the story.

Another great way to keep yourself motivated is to find a friend who’s interested in reading the same book. You can make goals that you both want to achieve. 【小题4】

Some quick recommendations: Harry Potter, start with the first book and go on from there; the Narnia series; anything by US writer Michael Crichton; and if you like horror, US writer Stephen King is always unusual and fun. 【小题5】 Happy reading!

   Our most commonly held code for success is broken. Conventional wisdom（普遍看法）holds that if we work hard we will be more successful，and if we are more successful，then we’ll be happy. If we can just find that great job，win that next promotion，lose those five pounds，happiness will follow. But recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this code is actually backward：Happiness fuels success，not the other way around. When we are positive，our brains become more engaged，creative，motivated，energetic，and productive at work. These discoveries have been repeatedly proved by rigid research in psychology and neuroscience（神经科学），management studies，and the bottom lines of organizations around the globe.

In The Happiness Advantage，Shawn Achor，who spent over a decade living，researching，and lecturing at Harvard University，draws on his own research—including one of the largest studies of happiness and potential at Harvard and others at companies like UBS to fix this broken code. Using stories and case studies from his work with CEOs of Fortune 500 in 42 countries，Achor explains how we can reprogram our brains to become more positive in order to gain a competitive ability at work.

Based on seven practical，actionable principles that have been tried and tested everywhere from classrooms to boardrooms，stretching from Argentina to Zimbabwe，he shows us how we can capitalize on The Happiness Advantage to improve our performance and maximize our potential.

A must-read for everyone trying to stand out in a world of increasing workloads and stress，The Happiness Advantage isn’t only about how to become happier at work. It’s about how to get the benefits of a happier and more positive mode of thinking to achieve the extraordinary in our work and in our lives.

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