My problems started after I went to a boarding(寄宿)school. I was only 14, and at first I missed my family a lot. I often called them and cried on the phone. But after two weeks, I found I enjoyed being with my classmates at school. I had many friends who were boys. I thought of them as my best friends-but only friend. I never guessed my friendship with boys would become a problem.

    Then, two months later, my friends told me that some teachers and girls said I was hanging out with boys all day long to get attention(注意)from them. A few months after that, the class teacher James asked the class to choose some students to join the Student Union. I thought I could win for I was doing well at school. I came first in the English and Math exams. A week later, the list(名单)came out and it didn't include me. James came to me and said, "Don't be sad. I know you're excellent! Maybe you're a little distant(远的)from the girls in our class. They don't know much about you, so some of them didn't choose you. It doesn't matter. Do your best to get on well with everyone and I think you'll make it next time. "

    A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said, "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat.

    A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pock et and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

    Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized(听出) his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"

    The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."

    What he had written was, "Today is a beautiful day; I can not see it."

    Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply sign the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective (有效的)?

    Bell was a British teacher to deaf people. He was born in Scotland in 1847 and went to school in London. Bell was interested in helping deaf people to learn to speak. He taught people how to use their mouths to make the sounds needed for talking.

    Bell's family moved to Canada in 1870 and to the USA in 1871. For several years he taught the people who could not speak in Boston. But at the same time he was developing a way to use electricity to send the sounds of talking along a wire, and he made the first telephone in June, 1875.

    The telephone developed quickly in the USA over the next few years. The Bell Telephone Company started in 1877, and in 1878 the first telephone centre was built in New York. More than 150,000 people had telephones in their homes ten years later. Bell was a kind man and spent much of his money and time during the rest of his life helping deaf people. In 1922 he died in Canada.

    Lisa was a single mother who lived with her little son. She lost her job two years ago and they had a very hard life. Being poor was terrible. Her heart was broken every time her son asked, "Can I have some more bread and jam please, Mommy?"

    One day, when her son asked the same question again, she decided to prepare a big meal for him with the only 6 dollars in her hand. She went to the supermarket, bought some food and cooked at home. Lisa was a shy mother, but she was strong— minded. "It's time to make a change, "she thought. She used to love writing. In order to make some money, she began to write articles for magazines day and night.

    Things went better. The local food bank started to provide her with some free vegetables every month. Her son finally had enough to eat. Once he told Lisa that the dishes she made were delicious. Suddenly, an idea came to Lisa's mind, "Why not share my recipes (食谱) on the Internet? "She did. Many people liked her recipes and she became popular.

    Soon after that, some reporters interviewed her and asked her to write a book on cooking. When Lisa got the money for the book she wrote, she had a good sleep for the first night during the two years. Now Lisa has a well—paid job and a beautiful home, but she'll never forget the days when she worked hard for a good life.