It's 10:00 on a beautiful Sunday morning in California. To my left is some of the most beautiful coastline. I'm walking along a road ordinarily packed with cars on days like this, but today, thanks in part to my $135 entry fee, it is closed to traffic.

    There's only one problem: I should be running, not walking. Over the past year, I've spent hundreds of dollars on running gear(设备) and race entry fees. I've jogged than 1,600 miles training for this event.

    Dozens of runners pass me on either side, each of them experiencing varying degrees of sadness similar to my own. Most of them, like me, have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles to get here, spending $500, $1,000 or more to participate in this event.

    Actually I'm by no means a competitive athlete. My best finish ever was fourth place, in a 5-kftometer race with only 74 participants, many of whom were walking the entire course.

    Last year, over 500,000 runners completed a marathon in the U.S. alone. Nearly all of these runners had absolutely no chance of victory. The PR-personal record-is everyone's definition of a “good race,” whether he finishes in first or 301st.

    I should buy a new watch that not only tracks my location by GPS, but also by counting steps. This can more accurate and much more expensive. Finally, I have reached the finish line. I know that the official race photographers will be taking photos as I cross the line, so I raise my arms in “victory” I finish, in a time of 3:37:55, good for 354th place.

    A few days after the race, the race organizers email me a link to a site where I can preview my official photos 一 and download them, for a fee, of course.

    I wish I could say the feeling was unique; it's probably not Indeed probably a feeling most runners get in most marathons. Running a lot of marathons 9 in fact, may not even be good for your health.

    In America, marathoning is a rich person's sport.

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    Once upon a time, a daughter complained to her father that her life was unhappy and that she was tired of struggling all the time.

    Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes, eggs and coffee beans in them. After 20 minutes, he took them out, putting the potatoes and eggs in a bowl and the coffee in a cup. Turning to his daughter, he said, “Look closer, and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to taste the coffee. Its good smell brought a smile to her face.

    “Father, what does this mean?” she asked. He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and the coffee beans were in the same adversity (逆境)—the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently.

    The strong and hard potato became soft and weak in boiling water. The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. However, the coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new. “Which one do you want to be like?” he asked. “When adversity knocks on your door, how will you respond?”

    In life, challenges happen to us all, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

    He must have had that nice window seat all the way from London. An Indian, he looked under 40, medium height, slim and wore a suit. I got an aisle seat next to him. I looked at him and tried to smile as I sat down. But there was a blank, distant look that made me stop mid-smile. One of those, I thought.

    Each time I take a flight, I try to chat with a fellow passenger. Most people are responsive when they're alone at 40,000 feet. But the man wearing the suit on my left was a puzzle. One of those non-resident Indians, I thought. What do you lose if you just smiled at a fellow human being? Most of the time, he stared fixedly at the seat in front of him. Why are some people so full of themselves?

    When the stewardess brought lunch, the unfriendly man had his eyes shut. She gave me a should-I-wake-him-up look. I didn't say anything, and he didn't get his lunch. Serves him right. He soon woke up and saw me eat. But he didn't ask for his meal. He could just have pressed a button. That's his problem.

    We still have almost two hours of flying left. I read a magazine. I try to play a video game. I listen to music. He does nothing. At times our eyes meet, but he isn't all there. He's like no other passenger I've ever sat next to. By the time our jet lands in Mumbai, I find his presence almost uncomfortable. As we taxi down the runway, I hear the man speak for the first time—on his mobile phone. He seems to be discussing his connecting flight. About somebody receiving him… Just before the aircraft comes to a halt, he's the first to stand up. “Excuse me,” he says to me. “May I leave? I can't miss my connecting flight.”

    Hmm…! I get up to make way for him when he goes on mechanically, “My wife and child died in a road accident in Delhi.” I'm shocked by his words. Suddenly, everything falls in place.

    Despite his terrible loss and the sufferings he has been enduring, he was calm, controlled throughout. And, maybe, in the midst of his soul-crushing sorrow, he didn't want to burden a stranger with his pain.

    Organic food, grown without artificial chemicals, is increasingly popular nowadays. Consumers (消费者) have been willing to pay up to twice as much for goods with organic labels (标签). However, if you think paying a little more for organic food gets you a more nutritious and safer product, then you'd better save your money. A study led by researchers at Stanford University says that organic products aren't necessarily more nutritious, and they're no less likely to suffer from disease-causing bacteria, either.

    For their new study, Smith-Spangler and her colleagues conducted a review of two categories（种类）of research, including 17 studies that compared health outcomes between consumers of organic against traditional food products, and 223 studies that analyzed(分析) the nutritional content of the foods, including key vitamins, minerals and fats.

    While the researchers found little difference in nutritional content, they did find that organic fruit and vegetables were 20% less likely to have chemicals remaining on the surfaces. Neither organic nor traditional foods showed levels of chemicals high enough to go beyond food safety standards(标准). And both organic and traditional meats, such as chicken and pork, were equally likely to be harmed by bacteria at very low rates. The researchers did find that organic milk and chicken contained higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, a healthy fat also found in fish that can reduce the risk of heart disease. However, these nutritional differences were too small, and the researchers were unwilling to make much of them until further studies confirm the trends.

    Organic food is produced with fewer chemicals and more natural-growing practices, but that doesn't always translate into a more nutritious or healthier product. The U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) states that "whether you buy organic or not, finding the freshest foods available may have the biggest effect on taste." Fresh food is at least as good as anything marketed as organic.

    Thirteen can be a challenging age. Not only did I have to adapt to my changing body, I also had to deal with my parents' bitter divorce, a new family and the upsetting move from my country home to a crowded town.

    When we moved, my beloved companion, a small brown pony had to be sold. I was heartbroken and terribly lonely. I couldn't eat or sleep and cried all the time. Finally, realizing how much I missed my pony, my father bought me another horse, Cowboy.

    Cowboy was without doubt the ugliest horse in the world. But I didn't care. I loved him beyond all reasons.

    I joined a riding club. When Cowboy and I entered the events where the horse was judged by appearance, we were quickly "shown the gate". I knew nothing could turn Cowboy into a beauty. My only chance to compete would be in the timed speed events. I chose the jumping race.

    For the whole next month we practiced running and jumping for hours in the hot sun and then I would walk Cowboy home, totally exhausted.

    All of our hard work didn't make me feel confident by the time the show came. One girl named Becky rode a big brown horse in the race events. She always won the blue ribbons. I sat at the gate and sweated all out while I watched Becky and her horse charge through the court and finish in first place.

    My turn finally came. At the signal, we dashed toward the first fence, jumped over it without trouble and raced on to the next one. Cowboy then flew over the second, third and fourth fences like a bird and I turned him toward the finish line.

    No cheers filled the air. The end of our run was met with surprised silence. Cowboy and I had beaten Becky and her fancy horse by two seconds.

    I gained much more than a blue ribbon that day. At thirteen, I realized that no matter what the odds, I'd always come out a winner if I wanted something badly enough to work for it. I can be the owner of my fate.

    Not many years ago, a wealthy and rather strange old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money in trading with foreign countries. When he was seventy – five, he gave $ 60,000 to the village school to buy land and equipment for a children's ground.

    As a result of his kindness, he became famous. Many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaperman. During their talk, Johnson remarked that he was seventy-five and expected to live to be hundred. The newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at seventy-five. Johnson had a sense of humor. He liked whisky and drank some each day. "I have an injection (注射) in my neck each evening," he told the newspaperman, thinking of his evening glass of whisky.

    The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was seventy-five and had daily injection in his neck. Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain, asking him for the secret of his daily injection.