It was a cold snowy morning after the winter vacation. And it was my first day at my new school. I was walking alone slowly and worrying about lots of things. It was early and there weren't many people on the road. Suddenly a girl who was riding a bike on ice fell down. She was trying hard to get up but fell again. Without thinking, 1 went over and helped her. She said" thank you" with a smile and then rode away. Her words warmed me a lot.

    Finally, I got to school. The teacher led me to the classroom and introduced me to the class. Then he asked me to sit down beside a girl. I felt so nervous that I didn't dare to look at her. Soon the first class, English, started. Their textbooks were different from those in my old school. As I was wondering what to do, an English book appeared in front of me. "Let's share," the girl beside me said. "Hi, I'm Carrie." I looked up. It was the girl I helped this morning. Later on, we became good friends.

    From that I learned: To help others is actually to help ourselves!

    I am a karate(空手道) player. I still remember my first karate competition. Like other players,

I was very excited about my event. I watched every player's skills so that I could carefully avoid their moves.

    Somehow, I got into the semifinals(半决赛). In the semifinals, I fell down and hurt myself. I still didn't give up, so I fought back and got into finals. After all, getting the gold medal was my dream.

    In the final competition, there were no supporters on my side, as I was a new face. Instead, the crowd was cheering for my opponent(对手). I could hear only my opponent's name.

    I didn't mind the crowd's cheering. I kept one thing in mind: focus, wait and attack. I had confidence in myself, and I knew that no matter how strong my opponent was, I had to give it my best shot and fight well.

    When the time was up, I was leading with a 3—0 score. One thing I learned from that event is, no matter how strong your opponent is, don't think you are weak or strong. Just give your best shot, and you will make your way to success.

    Win or lose, you will gain important experiences. Learn from every step you take.

    "Colour, colour, colour!" are the words of the artist Eric Carle. Eric is like the king in the world of children's books. He has written over 70 children's books. His most famous book. The Very HungryCaterpillar, is common on children's bookshelves all over the world. What most people don't know is that Eric also makes art for adults, which is called "ArtArt". People didn't know about it, because he didn't show it to the public until he was 84 years old!

    Like Eric's children's books, his "ArtArt" is full of bright and clear colour. He says that he loves colour so much because he missed it during the war in Germany. Eric was born in New York in 1929, but moved to Germany with his family when he was 6. When he was 10, World War Ⅱ began. He noticed that all the houses and buildings in his town were painted grey, brown or dark green. It was a sad time, and it seemed like there was no colour anywhere.

    At the end of the war, "when colour came back", Eric explains, "I just loved it so much. I keep saying that I wish our eyes could see more colour. Colour is a very important part of my work."

    That's true. Eric paints bright colours on Paper, cuts out shapes, and then glues them onto another piece of paper. This method is called collage (拼贴画). In fact, it is what led Eric to his "ArtArt".

    Eric's "ArtArt" includes large collages as well as paintings, photographs and even costumes. In all these works, he uses all kinds of colours—everything from purple to light green to orange. Now that's a lot of colour!

    Have you ever seen the film Nuan? Have you ever seen the TV play To Be a Better Man? Do you know the beautiful girl in the picture? She is still a student in Beijing Film Academy. But she is already famous in China because she has been in many films and TV plays in the past few years. Her name is Guan Xiaotong.

Guan was born on September       1997 inBeijing. She has had a talent for acting ever since she was a kid. She was first in the movie Nuan in the year 2001. She was Ya in the movie. She became famous because of the character

    Xiaoqingcheng in the movie The Promise (无极) directed by Chen Kaige. She was Jiang Lingling in the movie Electric Shadows (电影往事) in 2005. At the age of 17, Guan Xiaotong played in the movie The Left Ear directed by Su Youpeng. She was Jiang Jiao in the movie. In 2014, she acted in the TV play A Servant of Two Masters. She was Yang Shumiao.

    Although Guan was in many movies and TV plays, she didn't fall behind in study. Although she is an acting star, she gets on well with her classmates.  After the national examination, she became a new student in Beijing Film Academy.

    On the way back from work every evening, more often than not there would be a homeless man standing at the exit of the freeway(快车道). He looked to be in his late 40s but was probably a lot younger. He had shoulder length straight black hair and a short beard.

    Every day after work I would remember to gather any spare change, and put it aside to give to him if I saw him. A feeling of joy would come over me every time I saw him, while coming off the ramp(坡道). So did he. Sometimes the red light would be on for a minute and we would ask each other about our day. His answer would always be the same, "I'm blessed!"

    Then one day I was called into my boss's office and was told that I was being laid off. For the rest of that day all I could think of was "how am I going to provide for my kids as a mother, how am I going to pay rent?"

    Needless to say that on my way home that day I was very sad and upset. I didn't remember to look for my spare change and keep it ready like I usually did. Yet there he was as always, as I turned the ramp. He set his eyes on me, while still smiling and waving at others as usual.

    While I was waiting for the red light to turn, he strolled(闲逛) over to my car. He had a big smile. He looked at me straight in the eyes and said, "Today I will give you a dollar." He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a dollar bill.

    You see that day he taught me a valuable lesson more than a dollar bill. No matter what material things are taken from you, no one can take away your choice to be joyful. Every time I'm faced with challenges, I think of the homeless man's valuable lesson and remember that I am blessed.