Article: An easy way to stand out to your colleagues and superiors is by offering help without being asked for it. If you're practicing empathy and working on your leadership skills, you should be able to notice when others are having a hard time on a project. Most people you work with will help when they're asked, but offering your assistance before anyone else has to ask will set you apart from your peers. Don't just offer general or vague help. Take note of what others are working on or struggling with and offer specific ways to assist on that project. Depending on the field you work in, it may be easy to feel that your job is more important than other peoples' jobs. However, that simply isn't true. No position at your place of employment could function without the tireless efforts of countless other workers, many of whom may remain largely unseen from your office. If you want to build strong professional relationships, you must respect and appreciate everyone you work with and everyone who works for you.  If someone makes a mistake, don't jump right to confrontation. Let your colleague or employee know that you appreciate his/her efforts and understand that they tried. Praise that person for what was done correctly and offer guidance (rather than criticism) on how that task could be better completed in the future.  Be sincere in your praise of others. Let others know that you appreciate the work they do and the effort they contribute towards all of the projects that come through your office. In many corporate jobs, it's easy for employees to feel like cogs rather than individuals. If you want to build and foster strong professional relationships, take a real interest in your coworkers' and employees' lives. Remember that each employee is a human who has meaningful experiences and has personal thoughts and feelings.  Remain professional when you show an interest in others at work. Don't ask inappropriate questions and don't poke fun at anyone. Instead, ask whether your coworkers or employees had a good weekend/holiday/vacation, and if the individual you're talking to elaborates on what he did, use that as an opportunity to get to know him better.  Practice listening instead of talking. Get to know what others in your workplace like or dislike, and try to understand them on a human level without judging them. A good business retains employees, not just recruits them. Networking is an important way to build and expand on professional relationships. But a poorly-executed networking attempt smacks of desperation and desire. Instead of going into a situation hoping blindly for some kind of connection to form, go in prepared to network and equipped with the proper skills.  Attend networking events in your field, and consider any professional get-together through your work as a potential opportunity to network with others. Don't dismiss anyone. You may want to hone in on the person you perceive to be most "valuable" to you or your career, but there's a good chance that person doesn't want or need to network. Anyone you meet in any professional capacity could be important, and you could be important to that person.  Have a plan, but not an agenda. It's important to know what you want to talk about and what kind of professional relationship you'd like to develop, but don't go into an interaction thinking you'll be able to walk away with an offer from a stranger.  Be open, honest, and friendly at all times. This will help you come across as the kind of person others want to work with and invite into their own professional networks.  Follow up with contacts you made, and be sure to follow through on any offers you may have made to others. It will show others that you're a person of your word and that you may be a mutually beneficial person to network with in the future.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Offer help without being asked. Show appreciation at every step. Take an interest in coworkers and employees. Practice networking.
Article: Expect clean water alone to get the job done most of the time. Save yourself the time and money and use chemical cleaners only when absolutely necessary. Expect these to leave behind streaks and film if you don’t thoroughly rinse them off. Rinsing your roof with water at least once a year should reduce the need for using chemical cleaners. Don’t expect a simple splash of water to accomplish much. Use pressurized water to blast dirt away. For a light job, start by using your garden hose and a wand or spray nozzle attachment and see if its jet setting is strong enough to work. If not, rent or invest in a power washer and use that instead. Avoid stepping directly onto dirt, grime, and debris. Treat any material other than the roof itself as unstable. Before climbing onto or advancing along your roof, use your hose or power washer to clear a path for yourself to reduce the chance of slipping. If you have to first clear a path in order to attach safety lines and other gear to the roof, wait until the washed path has dried before climbing onto the roof. Make washing easier by cleaning the highest points first so the dirty runoff flows over yet-to-cleaned sections. Continue blasting dirt and debris by advancing downward along the roof’s slope while steadily pushing dirt and debris down toward its edge. However: Roof designs vary greatly, so don’t treat this as an absolute must. If your roof is particularly steep and/or has sections well out of reach, always opt for safety and hose it down from a lower, safer point. Don’t rush the job. Opt for a slow and steady approach to ensure safety. Advance along your roof at a safe pace while minding your footing at all times to minimize the risk of slipping.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Favor using plain water over chemical cleaners. Use pressure. Clear a path first. Start from the top if possible and blast downward. Work slowly and patiently.
Article: The following terms will be used throughout the examples, and are common in problems involving algebraic fractions:   Numerator: The top part of a fraction (ie. (x+5)/(2x+3)).  Denominator: The bottom part of the fraction (ie. (x+5)/(2x+3)).  Common Denominator: This is a number that you can divide out of both the top and bottom of a fraction. For example, in the fraction 3/9, the common denominator is 3, since both numbers can be divided by 3.  Factor: One number that multiples to make another. For example, the factors of 15 are 1, 3, 5, and 15. The factors of 4 are 1, 2, and 4.  Simplified Equation: This involves removing all common factors and grouping similar variables together (5x + x = 6x) until you have the most basic form of a fraction, equation, or problem. If you cannot do anything more to the fraction, it is simplified. These are the exact same steps you will take to solve algebraic fractions.  Take the example, 15/35. In order to simplify a fraction, we need to find a common denominator. In this case, both numbers can be divided by five, so you can remove the 5 from the fraction:  15    →     5 * 335   →       5 * 7 Now you can cross out like terms. In this case you can cross out the two fives, leaving your simplified answer, 3/7. In the previous example, you could easily remove the 5 from 15, and the same principle applies to more complex expressions like, 15x – 5. Find a factor that both numbers have in common. Here, the answer is 5, since you can divide both 15x and -5 by the number five. Like before, remove the common factor and multiply it by what is “left.”15x – 5 = 5 * (3x – 1) To check your work, simply multiply the five back into the new expression – you will end up with the same numbers you started with. The same principle used in common fractions works for algebraic ones as well. This is the easiest way to simplify fractions while you work.  Take the fraction: (x+2)(x-3)(x+2)(x+10) Notice how the term (x+2) is common in both the numerator (top) and denominator (bottom). As such, you can remove it to simplify the algebraic fraction, just like you removed the 5 from 15/35:  (x+2)(x-3)    →     (x-3)(x+2)(x+10)   →       (x+10) This leaves us with our final answer: (x-3)/(x+10)
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Know the vocabulary for algebraic fractions. Review how to solve simple fractions. Remove factors from algebraic expressions just like normal numbers. Know you can remove complex terms just like simple ones.