When something goes wrong, it can be very satisfying to say, "Well, it's so-and-so's fault. "or "I know I'm late, but it's not my fault; the car broke down. " It is probably not your fault, but once you form the habit of blaming somebody or something else for a bad situation, you are a loser. You have no power and could do nothing that helps change the situation. However, you can have great power over what happens to you if you stop focusing on whom to blame and start focusing on how to remedy the situation. This is the winner's key to success.

    Winners are great at overcoming problems. For example, if you were late because your car broke down, maybe you need to have your car examined more regularly. Or, you might start to carry along with you the useful phone numbers, so you could call for help when in need. For another example, if your colleague causes you problems on the job for lack of responsibility or ability, find ways of dealing with his irresponsibility or inability rather than simply blame the person. Ask to work with a different person, or don't rely on this person. You should accept that the person is not reliable and find creative ways to work successfully regardless of how your colleague fails to do his job well.

    This is what being a winner is all about - creatively using your skills and talents so that you are successful no matter what happens. Winners don't have fewer problems in their lives; they have just as many difficult situation to face as anybody else. They are just better at seeing those problems as challenges and opportunities to develop their own talents. So, stop focusing on "whose fault it is. " Once you are confident about your power over bad situations, problems are just stepping stones for success.

    It's common knowledge that the woman in Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting seems to look back at observers (观察者), following them with her eyes no matter where they stand in the room. But this common knowledge turns out wrong.

    A new study finds that the woman in the painting is actually looking out at an angle (角度) that's 15.4 degrees off to the observer's right—well outside of the range that people normally believe when they think someone is looking right at them. In other words, said the study author, Horstmann, "She's not looking at you." This is somewhat ironic, because the entire phenomenon of a person's gaze (凝视) in a photograph or painting seeming to follow the viewer is called the "Mona Lisa effect (效应)". That effect is absolutely real, Horstmann said. If a person is illustrated or photographed looking straight ahead, even people viewing the portrait from an angle will feel they are being looked at. As long as the angle of the person's gaze is no more than about 5 degrees off to either side, the Mona Lisa effect occurs.

    This is important for human interaction with on screen characters. If you want someone off to the right side of a room to feel that a person on—screen is looking at him or her, you don't cut the gaze of the character to that side—surprisingly, doing so would make an observer feel like the character isn't looking at anyone in the room at all. Instead, you keep the gaze straight ahead.

    Horstmann and his co—author were studying this effect for its application in the creation of artificial—intelligence avatars (虚拟头像) when Horstmann took a long look at the "Mona Lisa" and realized she wasn't looking at him.

    To make sure it wasn't just him, the researchers asked 24 people to view images of the "Mona Lisa" on a computer screen. They set a ruler between the viewer and the screen and asked the participants to note which number on the ruler intersected (横切) Mona Lisa's gaze. To calculate (估测) the angle of Mona Lisa's gaze as she looked at the viewer, they moved the ruler farther from or closer to the screen during the study. Consistently, the researchers found, participants judged that the woman in the "Mona Lisa" portrait was not looking straight at them, but slightly off to their right.

    So why do people repeat the belief that her eyes seem to follow the viewer? Horstmann isn't sure. It's possible, he said, that people have the desire to be looked at, so they think the woman is looking straight at them. Or maybe the people who first created the term "Mona Lisa effect" just thought it was a cool name.

    An island with beautiful beaches and clear blue water full of colorful fish... this is Socotra (索科特拉岛). It sounds nice，but it doesn't sound very unusual, doesn't it? Well, there is a lot more to Socotra than that. You can see things there that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

    Socotra is in the Indian Ocean, 250 kilometers east of Africa and 340 kilometers south of Yemen. The island separated (分离) from Africa six million years ago, and over that time it has developed its own special plant life. If you travel away from the beautiful beaches and up into the rocky mountains in the middle of the island, you may feel like you're going back in time.

    Perhaps you will see the desert rose with its pretty pink flowers. The desert rose is a "bottle" tree. It stores water in its fat trunk. Like many of Socotra's plants, it has developed to survive in the island's hot, dry weather.

    One of the most unusual plants on Socotra is the "dragons' blood "tree. It is shaped like an umbrella, with a lot of branches under a green top. The tree gets its name from the red sap (树液) that comes out when it is cut. This sap has been used for centuries as a medicine and to make red dye and paint.

    Socotra isn't an easy place for tourists to visit. To get there, you need to fly from Yemen. There are only a few Hotels in its largest town, Hadibo, and the island doesn't have many good roads. The people there live a very simple life. But more and more visitors are coming to Socotra to see its special natural beauty.