HOW DO VIRUSES JUMP FROM ANIMALS TO HUMANS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjcsrU-ZmgY
LISTENING 1

At a Maryland country fair in 2017, the prize pigs were not looking their best. Farmers reported feverish
hogs with inflamed eyes and running snouts. But while fair officials worried about the pigs, the
Maryland department of health was concerned about a group of sick fairgoers. Some had pet the pigs,
while others had merely been near their barns; but soon, 40 of these attendees would be diagnosed
with swine flu. More often than not, sick animals don’t infect humans. But when they do, these cross-
species infections, or viral host jumps, have the potential to produce deadly epidemics. So how can
pathogens from one species infect another, and what makes host jumps so dangerous? 

00:58
Viruses are a type of organic parasite infecting nearly all forms of life. To survive and reproduce, they
must move through three stages: contact with a susceptible host, infection and replication, and
transmission to other individuals. As an example, let’s look at human influenza. First, the flu virus
encounters a new host and makes its way into their respiratory tract. This isn’t so difficult, but to survive
in this new body, the virus must mount a successful infection before it’s caught and broken down by an
immune response. To accomplish this task, 

01:36
viruses have evolved specific interactions with their host species. Human flu viruses are covered in
proteins adapted to bind with matching receptors on human respiratory cells. Once inside a cell, the
virus employs additional adaptations to hijack the host cell’s reproductive machinery and replicate its
own genetic material. Now the virus only needs to suppress or evade the host’s immune system long
enough to replicate to sufficient levels and infect more cells. At this point, the flu can be passed on to
its next victim via any transmission of infected bodily fluid. 

02:16
However, this simple sneeze also brings the virus in contact with pets, plants, or even your
lunch. Viruses are constantly encountering new species and attempting to infect them. More often than
not, this ends in failure. In most cases, the genetic dissimilarity between the two hosts is too great. For
a virus adapted to infect humans, a lettuce cell would be a foreign and inhospitable landscape. But
there are a staggering number of viruses circulating in the environment, all with the potential to
encounter new hosts. And because viruses rapidly reproduce by the millions, they can quickly develop
random mutations. Most mutations will have no effect, or even prove detrimental; but a small
proportion may enable the pathogen to better infect a new species. The odds of winning this
destructive genetic lottery increase over time, or if the new species is closely related to the virus’ usual
host. For a virus adapted to another mammal, infecting a human might just take a few lucky
mutations. And a virus adapted to chimpanzees, one of our closest genetic relatives, might barely
require any changes at all. 

03:33
It takes more than time and genetic similarity for a host jump to be successful. Some viruses come
equipped to easily infect a new host’s cells, but are then unable to evade an immune response. Others
might have a difficult time transmitting to new hosts. For example, they might make the host’s blood
contagious, but not their saliva. However, once a host jump reaches the transmission stage, the virus
becomes much more dangerous. Now gestating within two hosts, the pathogen has twice the odds of
mutating into a more successful virus. And each new host increases the potential for a full-blown
epidemic. 

04:14
Virologists are constantly looking for mutations that might make viruses such as influenza more likely
to jump. However, predicting the next potential epidemic is a major challenge. 

04:27
There’s a huge diversity of viruses that we’re only just beginning to uncover. Researchers are tirelessly
studying the biology of these pathogens. And by monitoring populations to quickly identify new
outbreaks, they can develop vaccines and containment protocols to stop these deadly diseases. 

QUESTIONS
1. Why was the Maryland department of health concerned about a group of sick
attendees after the fair?
A. Because they had pet infected pigs.
B. Because they reported feverish activity and inflamed eyes.
C. Because they might have been infected from an animal virus.

2. What’s dangerous about cross-species infections?

A. They can become viral host initiators.
B. They can potentially produce an epidemic.
C. They can be deadly for animals and humans.

3. Which are the stages a virus must move through to survive and reproduce?
A. Infect a suceptible host, replicate and transmit to another through contact.
B. Contact with a vulnerable host, infect, replicate and transfer to others.
C. Replicate with a suceptible host, infect and transmit to other individuals.

4. Why do viruses try to steal the host cell’s reproductive sytem?

A. Because this allows them to replicate their own genetic material to sufficient
levels.
B. Because in this way a virus can hijack the reproductive machinery and evade the
immune system.
C. Because this allows them to reproduce and crush the immune system to infect
more cells.

5. Why a vegetable would be inhospitable for a virus?

A. Because the virus is not adapted to infect humans.
B. Because a vegetable would be a harsh landscape for a virus.
C. Because there is genetic similarity.

6. Which species may enable a pathogen to be hosted?

A. Distantly related species in the same environment.
B. Closely related species in the same environment.
C. Closely related species in a different environment.

7. Why are chimpanzees a potential source of infectious diseases in humans?

A. Because a virus from a chimpanzee might require to make cell changes.
B. Because chimpanzees are human’s closest relatives.
C. Because a virus from a chimpanzee can easily adapt to human cells.

8. Why a cross-species infection increases the potential for a full-blown epidemic?

A. Because various hosts can boost the chances of mutation of a virus.
B. Because more hosts can get infected trough blood or saliva.
C. Because this helps viruses to reach a wider transmission stage.
5 WAYS TO LISTEN BETTER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSohjlYQI2A
LISTENING 2

We are losing our listening. We spend roughly 60 percent of our communication time
listening, but we're not very good at it. We retain just 25 percent of what we hear. Now -- not
you, not this talk, but that is generally true. 

Let's define listening as making meaning from sound. It's a mental process, and it's a
process of extraction. 

00:35
We use some pretty cool techniques to do this. One of them is pattern recognition. (Crowd
noises) So in a cocktail party like this, if I say, "David, Sara, pay attention" -- some of you just
sat up. We recognize patterns to distinguish noise from signal, and especially our
name. Differencing is another technique we use. If I left this pink noise on for more than a
couple of minutes, (Pink noise) you would literally cease to hear it. We listen to differences;
we discount sounds that remain the same. 

01:05
And then there is a whole range of filters. These filters take us from all sound down to what
we pay attention to. Most people are entirely unconscious of these filters. But they actually
create our reality in a way, because they tell us what we're paying attention to right now. I'll
give you one example of that. Intention is very important in sound, in listening. When I
married my wife, I promised her I would listen to her every day as if for the first time. Now
that's something I fall short of on a daily basis.

But it's a great intention to have in a relationship. 

01:42
But that's not all. Sound places us in space and in time. If you close your eyes right
now in this room, you're aware of the size of the room from the reverberation and
the bouncing of the sound off the surfaces; you're aware of how many people are
around you, because of the micro-noises you're receiving. And sound places us in
time as well, because sound always has time embedded in it. In fact, I would
suggest that our listening is the main way that we experience the flow of time from
past to future. So, "Sonority is time and meaning" -- a great quote. 

02:16
I said at the beginning, we're losing our listening. Why did I say that? Well, there are
a lot of reasons for this. First of all, we invented ways of recording -- first writing, then
audio recording and now video recording as well. The premium on accurate and
careful listening has simply disappeared. Secondly, the world is now so
noisy, (Noise) with this cacophony going on visually and auditorily, it's just hard to
listen; it's tiring to listen. Many people take refuge in headphones, but they turn big,
public spaces like this, shared soundscapes, into millions of tiny, little personal
sound bubbles. In this scenario, nobody's listening to anybody. 

02:59
We're becoming impatient. We don't want oratory anymore; we want sound
bites. And the art of conversation is being replaced -- dangerously, I think -- by
personal broadcasting. I don't know how much listening there is in this
conversation, which is sadly very common, especially in the UK. We're becoming
desensitized. Our media have to scream at us with these kinds of headlines in order
to get our attention. And that means it's harder for us to pay attention to the quiet,
the subtle, the understated. 

03:32
This is a serious problem that we're losing our listening. This is not trivial, because
listening is our access to understanding. Conscious listening always creates
understanding, and only without conscious listening can these things happen. A
world where we don't listen to each other at all is a very scary place indeed. So I'd
like to share with you five simple exercises, tools you can take away with you, to
improve your own conscious listening. Would you like that? 

04:05
Good. The first one is silence. Just three minutes a day of silence is a wonderful
exercise to reset your ears and to recalibrate, so that you can hear the quiet again. If
you can't get absolute silence, go for quiet, that's absolutely fine. 

04:21
Second, I call this "the mixer." (Noise) So even if you're in a noisy environment like
this -- and we all spend a lot of time in places like this -- listen in the coffee bar to
how many channels of sound can I hear? How many individual channels in that mix
am I listening to? You can do it in a beautiful place as well, like in a lake. How many
birds am I hearing? Where are they? Where are those ripples? It's a great exercise
for improving the quality of your listening. 

04:49
Third, this exercise I call "savoring," and this is a beautiful exercise. It's about
enjoying mundane sounds. This, for example, is my tumble dryer. 

04:59
It's a waltz -- one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three. I love it! Or just try this
one on for size. 

05:16
Wow! So, mundane sounds can be really interesting -- if you pay attention. I call that
the "hidden choir" -- it's around us all the time. 

The next exercise is probably the most important of all of these, if you just take one
thing away. This is listening positions -- the idea that you can move your listening
position to what's appropriate to what you're listening to. This is playing with those
filters. Remember I gave you those filters? It's starting to play with them as levers, to
get conscious about them and to move to different places. These are just some of
the listening positions, or scales of listening positions, that you can use. There are
many. Have fun with that. It's very exciting. 

05:55
And finally, an acronym. You can use this in listening, in communication. If you're in
any one of those roles -- and I think that probably is everybody who's listening to this
talk -- the acronym is RASA, which is the Sanskrit word for "juice" or "essence." And
RASA stands for "Receive," which means pay attention to the person; "Appreciate,"
making little noises like "hmm," "oh," "OK"; "Summarize" -- the word "so" is very
important in communication; and "Ask," ask questions afterwards. 

06:27
Now sound is my passion, it's my life. I wrote a whole book about it. So I live to
listen. That's too much to ask for most people. But I believe that every human being
needs to listen consciously in order to live fully -- connected in space and in time to
the physical world around us, connected in understanding to each other, not to
mention spiritually connected, because every spiritual path I know of has listening
and contemplation at its heart. 

06:54
That's why we need to teach listening in our schools as a skill. Why is it not taught?
It's crazy. And if we can teach listening in our schools, we can take our listening off
that slippery slope to that dangerous, scary world that I talked about, and move it to
a place where everybody is consciously listening all the time, or at least capable of
doing it. 

07:16
Now, I don't know how to do that, but this is TED, and I think the TED community is
capable of anything. So I invite you to connect with me, connect with each
other, take this mission out. And let's get listening taught in schools, and transform
the world in one generation to a conscious, listening world -- a world of connection, a
world of understanding and a world of peace. 

QUESTIONS 0,5 pts each 3,5pts total

9. The man defines listening as _making meaning from sound_________________.

It’s a mental process, and it’s a process of extraction.

10. We use patter recognition to distinguish noise from

signal____________________________________, especially our name.

11. The speaker states that filters, such as intention, create our reality in a way, as
they tell us what we’re paying attention to.
 12. It’s suggested that our listening is a way in which we experience the flow of
time, so a great quote for this is that sonority is time and meaning.

13. As we live in a noisy world, people take refuge in headphones turning

everything in little personal bubbles.

14. People want sound bites instead of oratory. The art of conversation is being
replaced by personal broadcasting.

15. Listening gives people access to understanding, but only conscious listening can
create this.

COMPLETE THE CHART ABOUT EXERCISES TO IMPROVE OUR CONSCIOUS LISTENING 4,5 pts
total

NAME OF EXERCISE EXTRA INFORAMATION

16. silence Practice 17. 3 minutes of silence.

The mixer It’s great from improving the 18 quality of

listening.

Savoring Enjoy mundane sounds. I call that the 19

hidden choir.
20 listening positions This is about playing with filters.

RASA This stands for: 21receive, appreciate, 22

summarize and ask.

Choose the best answer to the following questions:

23 What does the speaker mean by “scary world” when he suggests that listening should be
taught in schools.

A. A world where people are connected.

B. A world where people practice conscious listening.
C. A world where people are enclosed in personal capsules.
D. A world where everyone uses headphones.

24. By teaching listening in schools, we can get to transform the world into:

A. A world of connection, unconsciousness and peace.

B. A world of peace, understanding and connection.
C. A world of conscious generations.
D. A world of connection and conscious listening.
HOW BURNOUT MAKES US LESS CREATIVE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvhu2OK7ffg
LISTENING 3
A few years ago, my obsession with productivity got so bad that I suffered an
episode of burnout that scared the hell out of me. I'm talking insomnia, weight gain,
hair loss -- the works. I was so overworked that my brain literally couldn't come up
with another idea. That indicated to me that my identity was linked with this idea of
productivity. 

00:25
Do you feel guilty if you haven't been productive enough during the day? Do you
spend hours reading productivity hacks, trying new frameworks and testing new
apps to get even more done? I've tried them all -- task apps, calendar apps, time-
management apps, things that are meant to manage your day. We've been so
obsessed with doing more that we've missed the most important thing. Many of
these tools aren't helping. They're making things worse. 

00:50
OK, let's talk about productivity for a second. Historically, productivity as we know it
today was used during the industrial revolution. It was a system that measured
performance based on consistent output. You clocked into your shift and were
responsible for creating X number of widgets on the assembly line. At the end of the
day, it was pretty easy to see who worked hard and who hadn't. When we shifted to
a knowledge economy, people suddenly had tasks that were much more
abstract, things like writing, problem-solving or strategizing, tasks that weren't easy
to measure. Companies struggled to figure out how to tell who was working and who
wasn't, so they just adopted the old systems as best as they could, leading to things
like the dreaded time sheet where everyone is under pressure to justify how they
spend every second of their day. 

01:37
There's just one problem. These systems don't make a lot of sense for creative
work. We still think of productivity as an endurance sport. You try to churn out as
many blog posts or we cram our day full of meetings. But this model of constant
output isn't conducive to creative thought. Today, knowledge workers are facing a
big challenge. We're expected to be constantly productive and creative in equal
measure. 

02:02
But it's actually almost impossible for our brains to continuously generate new
ideas with no rest. In fact, downtime is a necessity for our brain to recover and to
operate properly. Consider that according to a team of researchers from the
University of Southern California, letting our minds wander is an essential mental
state that helps us develop our identity, process social interactions, and it even
influences our internal moral compass. Our need for a break flies in the face of our
cultural narrative about hustling, in other words, the stories that we as a society tell
each other about what success looks like and what it takes to get there. Stories like
the American Dream, which is one of our most deeply rooted beliefs. This tells us
that if we work hard, we'll be successful. But there's a flip side. If you aren't
successful, it must mean that you're not working hard enough. And if you don't think
you're doing enough, of course you're going to stay late, pull all-nighters and push
yourself hard even when you know better. 

03:03
Productivity has wrapped itself up in our self-worth, so that it's almost impossible for
us to allow ourselves to stop working. The average US employee only takes half of
their allocated paid vacation leave, further proving that even if we have the option to
take a break, we don't. 

03:20
To be clear, I don't think that productivity or trying to improve our performance is
bad. I'm just saying that the current models we're using to measure our creative
work don't make sense. We need systems that work with our creativity and not
against it. 

03:34
[SO HOW DO WE FIX IT?] 

03:35
There is no quick fix for this problem. And I know, I know, that sucks. No one loves a
good framework or a good acronym better than me. But the truth is everyone has
their own narratives that they have to uncover. It wasn't until I started digging around
my own beliefs around work that I began to unravel the root of my own work
story, finally being able to let go of destructive behaviors and make positive, long-
lasting changes. 

04:00
And the only way to do that is by asking yourself some hard questions. Does being
busy make you feel valuable? Who do you hold up as an example of
success? Where did your ideas of work ethic come from? How much of who you are
is linked to what you do? 

04:15
Your creativity, it has its own rhythms. Our energy fluctuates daily, weekly, even
seasonally. I know that I'm always more energetic at the beginning of the week than
at the end, so I front-load my workweek to account for that fact. As a proud night
owl, I free up my afternoons and evenings for creative work. And I know I'll get more
writing done in the cozy winter months than during the summer. 

04:38
And that's the secret. Dismantling myths, challenging your old views, identifying your
narratives -- this is the real work that we need to be doing. We aren't machines, and
I think it's time that we stopped working like one. 
 25. When the speaker suffered and episode of burnout, she… (___) B
26. Productivity, in the industrial revolution, was… (___) I
27. Companies adopted old systems to answer who… (___) E
28. It`s impossible for knowledge workers to… (___) D
29. People need systems that toil with their creativity, (___) A
30. The speaker started to unravel the root of her work until, (___)G
31. How much of who you are is… (___)H
32 As a proud night owl, (___)C

A. and not against it.

B. experienced sleeplessness, weight problems, hair loss.
C. the speaker frees up her afternoons and evenings for creative work.
D. create new ideas with no rest.
E. was working and who wasn’t.
F. people to justify what they do every second of their day. EXTRA
G. she started digging around her own beliefs.
H. linked to what you do?
I. a system to measure performance on consistent output.
J. she gets more work done in cozy winter months. EXTRA

HOW TO MAKE FASTER DECISIONS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTIUiN6inIQ
LISTENING 4 (KEEP THIS JUST IN CASE WE NEED ANOTHER LISTENING FOR THE EXAM, SO FAR
I ADDED THREE LISTENINGS)

You're probably familiar with FOMO. 

00:03
That's short for "Fear Of Missing Out." It's that feeling you get when it seems
everyone else is doing something better than what you're doing now. But there's
another FO you need to know about, and it's far more dangerous. It's called
FOBO, and it's short for "Fear Of a Better Option." 

00:22
We live in a world of overwhelming choice. Even decisions that used to be
simple, like choosing a restaurant or making everyday purchases, are now fraught
with overanalysis. Technology has only made the issue more pronounced. If you
want to buy a pair of white shoelaces online, you have to sort through thousands of
items and read through hundreds of reviews. That's an astounding amount of
information to process to just buy two pieces of string that cost less than your
morning latte. 
Chances are you've experienced FOBO when you've struggled to choose just one
from a group of perfectly acceptable outcomes. It's a symptom of a culture which
sees value in collecting and preserving as many options as possible. 

00:58
You might wonder why all of this is so bad. It seems counterintuitive. Shouldn't it be
a privilege to have so many good options to choose from? The problem is, FOBO
induces such severe analysis paralysis that it can negatively impact both your
personal and professional life. When you can't make decisions with conviction, you
waste precious time and energy. 

01:16
Luckily, there is a way to overcome FOBO. Here's a secret. With any decision you
make, you first have to determine the stakes, as this will inform your decision-
making strategy. When it comes down to it, you only really face three types of
decisions in life: high stakes, low stakes and no stakes. 

01:31
Let's start with no-stakes decisions. These are the minor details of life, where there
is almost never an incorrect answer, and in a few hours, you won't even
remember making the decision. A good example of this is choosing what to watch
on TV. With thousands of shows, it's easy to get overwhelmed, yet no matter what
you pick, the consequences are basically nonexistent. So spending more than a few
moments on FOBO is a massive waste of energy. You just need to move on. 

01:55
When it comes to no-stakes decisions, the key is to outsource them to the
universe. For example, you can whittle down your choices to just two and then flip a
coin. Or try my personal favorite -- ask the watch. Assign each one of your choices
to one half of your watch, then let the second hand tell you what you're going to
do. Looks like I'll be having the fish. 

02:14
That brings us to low-stakes decisions. These have consequences, but none are
earth-shattering, and there are plenty of acceptable outcomes. Many routine things
at work, like purchasing a printer, booking a hotel or choosing between possible
venues for an off-site are classically low-stakes in nature. Some thinking is
required, but these aren't make-or-break deliberations, and you'll probably forget
about them in a few weeks. Here, you can also outsource decision-making, but you
want some critical thinking involved, as there are some stakes. This time, you'll
outsource to a person. 

02:45
Set some basic criteria, select someone to present a recommendation, and then
take their advice. Make sure to avoid the temptation to canvass. Your goal is to clear
your plate, not to kick the can down the road. 
Now that you tackled low-stakes and no-stakes decisions, you've created the space
and time you'll need to handle high-stakes decisions. These are things like "which
house should I buy" or "which job should I accept." Since the stakes are high and
there are long-term implications, you absolutely want to get it right. 

03:10
Before we get to work, let's establish a few basic principles to guide you through the
process. First, think about what really matters to you, and set your criteria
accordingly. 

03:19
Second, gather the relevant facts. Make sure you collect data about all of the
options, so you can be confident that you're truly making an informed decision. 

03:27
And third, remember that FOBO, by nature, comes when you struggle to choose just
one from a group of perfectly acceptable options. So no matter what you
choose, you can rest assured that the downside is limited. 

03:38
Now that you've established some ground rules, the process can begin. Start by
identifying a front-runner based on your intuition, then compare each of your options
head-to-head with the front-runner, one-by-one. Each time, choose the better of the
two based on the criteria, and discard the other one. Here's the trick to avoiding
FOBO. When you eliminate an option, it's gone forever. If you keep returning to
discarded options, you risk getting stuck. Now repeat this process until you get down
to one final choice. 

04:04
If you follow this system, you will usually end up with a decision on your own. On the
rare occasion that you get stuck, you will outsource the final decision to a small
group of qualified people who you trust and who are equipped to provide you with
guidance on this particular topic. Engage a group of five or less, ideally an odd
number of people so that you have a built-in tiebreaker if you need it. 

04:24
Now that you've made your choice, one last challenge remains. You have to
commit. I can't promise you that you'll ever truly know if you've made the perfect
decision, but I can tell you this: a significant percentage of people in the world will
never have to worry about FOBO. Unlike the billions of people who have few
options, if any, due to war, poverty or illness, you have plentiful opportunities to live
decisively. You may not get everything you want, but the mere fact you get to decide
is powerful. 

04:51
In fact, it's a gift. Make the most of it.