Twenty years ago, my father, John, wanted to be a businessman. He wanted to be rich. So he worked very hard and every day he went home very late.

    One night when he came home from work, a robber stopped him and wanted to take his money. My father was very afraid. He didn't want to lose his money. But he didn't know what to do. Luckily a policeman came and caught the robber. My father thanked the policeman politely.

    Now my father is a policeman. He wants to help other people.

    This was a very interesting story. I 1 thousands of classes since I started school nine years ago. But one class was 2 of all.

    It happened last term just after I had got a bad result in 3 exam. I was sad and had lost my confidence. I decided 4 to a class 5 can tell me how to be successful. The speaker walked into the room. 6 he did not start talking like a teacher. Instead, he held up a twenty yuan note!

    "Who wants this?" he asked. Unsurprisingly, 7 of us in the class held up our hands. The speaker smiled. Then he put up the note on the blackboard and asked the same question. Again, we put up our hands. The speaker kept 8, but said 9 . Suddenly, he threw the note onto the floor! Then he asked the same question for  10time.

    I didn't understand the speaker. Why was he asking the same question again and again? I didn't know 11 to do. I wanted the note, so I put my hand up again. "You have all just told me how to become successful." He said to us 12 the note in his hand. "The note is worth twenty yuan. It is always worth twenty yuan, even though I throw it on the floor. You are like the note. No matter what happens to you, you still have your worth."

    Hearing those words, I 13 deeply. Suddenly, I realized I was worth a lot. I may have failed, but it doesn't mean I 14 do well in the future. If I believe in15I will be successful!

Give water, save lives

A bottle of water may not seem like much to you, but thousands of bottles will be of great help for people who live in drought-hit(遭受旱灾) areas in China.

Since last autumn, there has been very little rain in Southwest China. Some places, especially in Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, have experienced a serious drought. Crops (庄稼) died, the land cracked(裂开), and wells (井) and rivers dried up. More than 20 million people are having difficulty in finding safe drinking water.

After learning about the drought, many people around the country helped by giving water, money and other things.

Last week, every member of the Communist Youth League (共青团员) and Young Pioneers(少先队员) were encouraged to give one bottle of water to the drought-hit areas. Students in primary schools and middle schools quickly joined the activity. In Yuhua Primary School in Xi' an, 900 students bought over 1,000 bottles of water with their pocket money. They also wrote their wishes on the bottles.

The serious drought has also made students realize the importance of saving water. Students from Nanshan Middle School in Huizhou, Guangdong went on the street to tell people to take part in water-saving activities.

"I've heard that some children in drought-hit areas don't have enough drinking water. They have to drink muddy ( 含有泥土的 ) water. I feel really sad about that," said one student. "I decide to take a shower twice a week instead of every day to save water," he said.

Have you ever had lucid (清醒的) dreams? Recent studies suggest that the number of people having them is on the rise. Someone having a lucid dream realizes they are dreaming and may from then on" direct" the action, or they may simply " watch" the dream unfold. The sense of awareness (知道) makes it different from a dream that is simply very lively and true to life. And although the description may seem strange, the process is far from alien to many of us.

Studies suggest that the number of people in the Western world experiencing lucid dreams, which happen once in a while, has risen by between 10 and 40 per cent since the 1980s. Today, they are so common that about one in eight of us will have one in our lives. But still, little is known about what causes them or what is behind the rise.

Research carried out at the respected Harvard University in the US shows that the brain is working hard during lucid dreams. In fact, the level of the mental (精神

的) activity in some parts of the brain is similar to that of a person who is awake. Lucid dreamers seem to share certain personal characters. For example, in general they are quite creative. They are also good at digging deep into problems and going out of their way to solve them. Furthermore, they always believe in personal responsibility rather than letting society carry the can.

Our nightmares (噩梦) may show our waking worries, with the five most common ones-- falling, being run after, feeling disabled, being late and the death of a loved one. Men are more likely to have nightmares about fights or being fired while hair and tooth loss appear more in women's nightmares-perhaps showing worries about losing their looks. Research has also found that women have more nightmares than men. Their dreams are also scarier and more unforgettable.

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