Over the past two months, I have given presentations in 6 different cities across China and interacted with hundreds of Chinese students, parents, and edUCators. During these talks, the question that arises time and time again is what activities I participated in throughout high school and college. I normally mention doing laboratory research, co-founding the business club in my high school, and playing basketball for my high school team. But many times I hesitate to share, because I feel that others think that as long as they do the same as I did, they will be guaranteed admissions. Every student is different, and they should pursue their own interests, rather than conforming to some generic mold of “sUCcess.” With that said, I still think there is still one big take-away from my high school and collegiate experience that may help current Chinese students. Exercise.
　　在過去的兩個(gè)月中，我已經(jīng)在中國(guó)6個(gè)不同的城市進(jìn)行了演講，并與許多中國(guó)學(xué)生、家長(zhǎng)和教師進(jìn)行了互動(dòng)交流。在交流過程中，關(guān)于我在高中和大學(xué)參加過什么活動(dòng)的問題被提及好多次，我一般都會(huì)說到在學(xué)校進(jìn)行實(shí)驗(yàn)研究、合作創(chuàng)建商業(yè)俱樂部以及效力于高中籃球隊(duì)這些事情。但是很多次我都會(huì)猶豫到底要不要分享這些事，因?yàn)槲矣X得其他人會(huì)認(rèn)為，只要跟我做的一樣，他們就能獲得錄取。但是每個(gè)學(xué)生都是不一樣的，比起去遵從一些所謂的“成功”模式，他們更應(yīng)該去追求自己的興趣愛好。不過，話雖如此，我仍然認(rèn)為就我的高中和大學(xué)經(jīng)歷來看，有一點(diǎn)可以幫助到目前的中國(guó)學(xué)生，那就是體育鍛煉。
　　Personally, I have always been someone who loved to stay active; I played soccer growing up, basketball throughout high school, and boxing in college. Looking back on these experiences, I think my passion for exercise not only kept me physically healthy, but also preserved my mental well-being and even helped improve my studies.
　　就我個(gè)人而言，我一直是一個(gè)喜愛運(yùn)動(dòng)的人。我從小踢足球長(zhǎng)大；到了高中以后開始打籃球；到大學(xué)里開始練搏擊?；叵脒@些經(jīng)歷，我認(rèn)為對(duì)鍛煉的熱情不僅僅使我保持身體健康，同時(shí)也使我的精神保持良好狀態(tài)，甚至能幫助我提高學(xué)習(xí)。
　　The physical benefits of exercising as a means to stay healthy and prevent disease are well-documented, so I won’t delve into that here. Equally important, and perhaps less talked about in China, are the psychological benefits of staying active.
　　體育鍛煉的一個(gè)好處是它可以幫助我們保持身體健康和預(yù)防疾病，然而這已經(jīng)是顯而易見的了，所以在此我就不再深入探討。另外有一個(gè)好處同樣重要但在中國(guó)卻很少被提及的，是心理健康層面上的好處——體育鍛煉能夠幫助我們保持活力。
　　I remember in college, during finals week, we would need to study cram months of material in just a few days. I found it to be overwhelming at times. In one more extreme instance, I would study while walking to class, eating my meals, and dream about the coursework during my sleep. However, no matter how mUCh I needed to get done, I always made it a point to go run on a treadmill or shoot around on the basketball courts for half an hour as a study break.I found these short periods of exercise to be therapeutic, as they reenergized me mentally and physically, and allowed me to refocus my mind for further study afterwards.
　　我記得在大學(xué)期末考試周期間，我們需要在幾天之內(nèi)復(fù)習(xí)幾個(gè)月的學(xué)習(xí)內(nèi)容。有時(shí)候，我認(rèn)為它可以壓倒一切。舉一個(gè)十分極端的例子，我會(huì)在去上課的路上學(xué)習(xí)，在吃飯的時(shí)候?qū)W習(xí)，甚至在睡覺的時(shí)候都?jí)舻轿业恼n程作業(yè)。但是，不論有多少學(xué)習(xí)任務(wù)需要完成，我都會(huì)在學(xué)習(xí)休息期間抽出半個(gè)小時(shí)，在跑步機(jī)上跑跑步或者在籃球場(chǎng)上投投籃。我發(fā)現(xiàn)這些短時(shí)間的鍛煉有助于我放松精神，使我在生理和心理上恢復(fù)活力，并且?guī)椭以诮酉聛淼膶W(xué)習(xí)中重新集中注意力。 　　But don’t just take it from me, there is a growing body of research on the advantages of exercise on improving the mind. John Ratey, a professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School wrote a book entitled Spark, where he talks about the neurobiological benefits of exercising. Simply put, 20-30 minutes of moderately intense exercise primes the brain to learn. There have been plenty of scientific articles about the cognitive benefits like improved memory and increased ability to learning novel concepts. As a case study, Ratey highlights this school district in a suburb of Chicago, where an entire school of students improved in their average reading, science, and mathematics levels due to a mandatory physical edUCation class before school started. I am not going to get into the details here, but I would encourage those interested to search for this book to further understand the cognitive benefits of exercise.
　　這些并不是我的一面之詞，有越來越多的研究證明，體育鍛煉確實(shí)可以改善精神狀態(tài)。John Ratey是哈佛醫(yī)學(xué)院的一個(gè)精神病學(xué)教授，他寫了一本名為《Spark》的書。在書中他談?wù)摿诉\(yùn)動(dòng)在神經(jīng)生物學(xué)方面的好處。簡(jiǎn)單來說，20-30分鐘的中度鍛煉能使大腦更好地工作。目前有許多科學(xué)論文都介紹了鍛煉在心理和認(rèn)知方面的好處，例如增強(qiáng)記憶力和提高學(xué)習(xí)新知識(shí)的能力。Ratey以一個(gè)在芝加哥郊區(qū)的學(xué)校作為案例進(jìn)行了研究。在這個(gè)學(xué)校中，所有學(xué)生在課前都要參加一個(gè)強(qiáng)制性的體育課程，正因如此，學(xué)生平均的閱讀能力，科學(xué)和數(shù)學(xué)水平都有所提高。在此我就不作細(xì)節(jié)方面的介紹了，但是如果有對(duì)這方面感興趣的學(xué)生，我鼓勵(lì)你們?nèi)ラ喿x這本書，來更好地理解體育鍛煉對(duì)于認(rèn)知方面的好處。
　　Of course, I am not proposing that exercise is this silver bullet that will solve all students’ study woes and miraculously turn mediocre pupils into academic superstars. 
　　當(dāng)然，我并不是說體育鍛煉能解決所有學(xué)生的問題并能奇跡般地把平庸的學(xué)生變成學(xué)術(shù)精英。
　　What I am saying is that, based on my own experiences and the growing scientific literature, there are concrete benefits of exercise on cognition and physical and mental health. All these positives, for just 30 minutes of time a day. And it’s free. Compare this to the other enrichment classes you spend many hours a week and tens of thousands of renmenbi for. Why wouldn’t you give this a shot?
　　我想要說的是，基于我自己的經(jīng)歷和越來越多的科學(xué)依據(jù)，體育鍛煉對(duì)于學(xué)生的認(rèn)知、身體和精神健康有切實(shí)的好處 。只要每天30分鐘，你就能從中受益，并且不會(huì)花費(fèi)你一分一毛。相比于其他花費(fèi)你大量時(shí)間和金錢的強(qiáng)化班，為什么不嘗試一下這個(gè)呢？
本文作者：前哈佛面試官、哈佛知名校友Mr. Patrick LI