哈佛知名校友的留学建议：适度锻炼，助你成功

　　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.
　　在过去的两个月中，我已经在中国6个不同的城市进行了演讲，并与许多中国学生、家长和教师进行了互动交流。在交流过程中，关于我在高中和大学参加过什么活动的问题被提及好多次，我一般都会说到在学校进行实验研究、合作创建商业俱乐部以及效力于高中篮球队这些事情。但是很多次我都会犹豫到底要不要分享这些事，因为我觉得其他人会认为，只要跟我做的一样，他们就能获得录取。但是每个学生都是不一样的，比起去遵从一些所谓的“成功”模式，他们更应该去追求自己的兴趣爱好。不过，话虽如此，我仍然认为就我的高中和大学经历来看，有一点可以帮助到目前的中国学生，那就是体育锻炼。
　　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.
　　就我个人而言，我一直是一个喜爱运动的人。我从小踢足球长大；到了高中以后开始打篮球；到大学里开始练搏击。回想这些经历，我认为对锻炼的热情不仅仅使我保持身体健康，同时也使我的精神保持良好状态，甚至能帮助我提高学习。
　　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.
　　体育锻炼的一个好处是它可以帮助我们保持身体健康和预防疾病，然而这已经是显而易见的了，所以在此我就不再深入探讨。另外有一个好处同样重要但在中国却很少被提及的，是心理健康层面上的好处——体育锻炼能够帮助我们保持活力。
　　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.
　　我记得在大学期末考试周期间，我们需要在几天之内复习几个月的学习内容。有时候，我认为它可以压倒一切。举一个十分极端的例子，我会在去上课的路上学习，在吃饭的时候学习，甚至在睡觉的时候都梦到我的课程作业。但是，不论有多少学习任务需要完成，我都会在学习休息期间抽出半个小时，在跑步机上跑跑步或者在篮球场上投投篮。我发现这些短时间的锻炼有助于我放松精神，使我在生理和心理上恢复活力，并且帮助我在接下来的学习中重新集中注意力。 　　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.
　　这些并不是我的一面之词，有越来越多的研究证明，体育锻炼确实可以改善精神状态。John Ratey是哈佛医学院的一个精神病学教授，他写了一本名为《Spark》的书。在书中他谈论了运动在神经生物学方面的好处。简单来说，20-30分钟的中度锻炼能使大脑更好地工作。目前有许多科学论文都介绍了锻炼在心理和认知方面的好处，例如增强记忆力和提高学习新知识的能力。Ratey以一个在芝加哥郊区的学校作为案例进行了研究。在这个学校中，所有学生在课前都要参加一个强制性的体育课程，正因如此，学生平均的阅读能力，科学和数学水平都有所提高。在此我就不作细节方面的介绍了，但是如果有对这方面感兴趣的学生，我鼓励你们去阅读这本书，来更好地理解体育锻炼对于认知方面的好处。
　　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. 
　　当然，我并不是说体育锻炼能解决所有学生的问题并能奇迹般地把平庸的学生变成学术精英。
　　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?
　　我想要说的是，基于我自己的经历和越来越多的科学依据，体育锻炼对于学生的认知、身体和精神健康有切实的好处 。只要每天30分钟，你就能从中受益，并且不会花费你一分一毛。相比于其他花费你大量时间和金钱的强化班，为什么不尝试一下这个呢？
本文作者：前哈佛面试官、哈佛知名校友Mr. Patrick LI