One day, while I was waiting for my father, I saw a little boy, around two years old, running freely on the grass as his mother watched from a short distance. The boy had a big smile on his face as if he had just been set free from some sort of prison(监狱) . The boy would then fall to the grass, get up, without looking back at his mother, run as fast as he could, again, still with a smile on his face, as if nothing had happened.

    At that moment, I thought to myself, "Why aren't most adults this way?" Most adults, when they fall down, make a big deal out of it and don't even make a second attempt. They would be so embarrassed that they would not try again if someone saw them fall. Or, because they fall, they would find a good excuse for themselves that they're not fit for it. They would end up being too afraid to attempt again for fear of failure(失败) .

    However, with kids, when they fall down, they don't consider their falling down as a failure, instead, they treat it as a learning experience. They try again and again until they succeed.  The answer must be that they have not connected "falling down" with the word "failure". What's more, they probably think to themselves that it's quite okay to fall down and that it's not wrong to do so.  In other words, they allow themselves to make mistakes, so they remain energetic.

    I was deeply impressed by the boy's persistence(坚持不懈) and the manner in which he did.

    A boy was sitting on the steps of a door one day. He had a stick in one hand,1in the other hand a large piece of bread and butter, which somebody had kindly given him. While he was eating it and singing a song happily, he saw a poor little dog quietly2not far from him. He called out to it, “Come here, poor dog!”

    Hearing this, the dog woke up, rose with its ears3and wagged its tail. Seeing the boy eating, it came near him. The boy held out to it a piece of his bread and butter. As the dog stretched out its head to take the4, the boy quickly drew back his hand and hit it5on the nose. The poor dog ran away,6loudly, while the cruel boy sat, laughing at the trick he had done.

    A gentleman, who was looking from a window on the other side of street, saw what the7boy had done. Opening the street door, he called him to8over, at the same time9up one dollar between the finger and thumb.

    “Would you like this?” said the gentleman.

    “Yes, if you10, sir,” said the boy, smiling, and he quickly ran over to seize the11.

    Just as the boy stretched out his hand, the gentleman hit12on the knee with an umbrella. “Why did you do that?” shouted the boy angrily. He made a very13face and cried, “I didn't hurt you, nor ask you for money.”

    “14did you hurt that poor dog just now?” said the gentleman. “It didn't hurt you, nor ask you for bread and butter. As you served it I have served you. Now, remember it can feel as well as you, and learn to behave15towards animals in future.”

    Mike was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always happy and always had something interesting to say. If someone asked him how he was doing, he would reply, "Couldn't be better!" He was really a care-free young man and never felt tired.

    Mike used to say, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'Mike, you have two choices (选择) today. You can choose to be happy or you can choose to be upset.' I choose to be happy. Each time something happens, I am always ready to learn a good lesson. I choose to learn from life."

    I tried to understand what he said. Indeed life is all about choices. Every situation is a choice. The bottom line is: You're living your life and you make it either happy or sad.

    Several years later I had a car accident and my legs were seriously injured. When I was lying on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or choose to die. I chose to live.

    People like to say, "Choose the one you love and love the one you choose." Why not choose the one we love and live happily?

Everyone wants to be successful, but failure (失败) is a common thing for us to meet with. 1, sometimes we fail the exams; sometimes in the sports meeting, others 2 but we fail. So almost 3 meets with the failure in his life.

However, different people have different 4 to deal with(处理)the failure. Some people lose hope when they fail. They seem to think that it is the 5 of the world. But others don't take failure 6. They seem to think that failure is the first step(步骤)to success. They will 7 and try their best to get the final success.

Now let's imagine( 猜想)the ends of the two ways. If we are afraid of the failure and always feel sad, and don't try our best to change ourselves, we may meet with more and more failures. But as 8 as we are hopeful and brave to face the failure, and never give up, we will become 9 and our dreams will come true some day.

So, please remember: Life doesn't give us the pleasure we want. But if we never give up and 10do little by little, it will make a big difference.

An old carpenter was ready to retire. His boss was 1 to see the good worker go. He asked the carpenter 2 he could build one more house. The carpenter said yes, but his mind was no 3 on his work.

    He used poor materials and worked on the house 4. When the carpenter finished his work, the boss 5 the front-door key to him. "This is your house," he said. "A 6 for you."

    What a surprise! What a 7! If he had known he was building his 8 house, he would have done it differently. Now he had to live in the house he had poorly built.

    9 it is with us. Sometimes we build our 10 carelessly. At important points we do not try our best. Then with a pity we look at the situation we had 11. We find that we are now living in the house we have poorly built. But we don't have a 12 to make it all over again.

    Think of 13 as the carpenter. Think about your life. Build it 14. It is the only life you will ever build because life is a do-it-yourself project.

    Your life today is the 15 of your attitudes and choices you made in the past. Your life tomorrow will be that of your attitudes and choices you make today.

I was walking along a busy road when I noticed a young man standing near the crossing selling toys.1I would hurry past such sellers. But I found this young man was 2, so I stood for some time without crossing the street. I wanted to see how he sold his things.

Soon, a young mother with a little girl came by and the child set 3 eyes on one of the teddy bears. The mother asked the 4 and it was only one dollar. She 5 out a 10­dollar note from her handbag and told the young man that she was giving him 10 dollars and wanted the 6 back. I was wondering how he was going to do it. He told the young mother to put the money in the bag 7 around his neck and take out her change.

I realized that this young man depended on believing people would not cheat him. There was no way for him to know 8 someone took out more than they should have done. I was so 9. I bought a car model from him that I did not need. As I walked down the street, I gave the car model to a kid walking with his father.

I kept thinking that the world would be a better place if we could all learn to 10others more, like the young blind street seller.