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.

B

    Some people like to collect stamps. Others prefer posters or coins. But Pinky Bhutia is different. She collects children. In her mountain village, in Sikkim, she is known as the wonderful young woman who adopts(领养) all the children she can.

    Pinky was 14 when she adopted her first child, a Nepali baby girl, whose patents passed away. Pinky's parents did not mind. Pinky left school and started working full time because she had a baby to feed. Today, she has twelve adopted children, and two sons from her marriage.

    Pinky is about 30 years old and she comes from a common family. If you passed her on the street, you wouldn't give her a second look. She lives in a brown mud-washed(泥刷的) house. There is a vegetable garden outside. Red hens with noisy chicks run all over the garden looking for food.

    If you ask her why she provides a home to so many kids, she smiles shyly. But her eyes are serious. “I know what it is to be poor and hungry.” As a child, her only dream was to eat a full meal, and her favorite amusement was watching people with shoes and imagining what it felt like. By adopting poor and homeless children she is making sure that they never feel that hopeless.

    Pinky feels very proud when she sees her children happy and bright, Her oldest baby, Aarita Rai, is now 20 years old, Then, there is  19-year-old Nimbe who came to Pinky because her mother was unable to look after her. She started to work in a government office two years ago. Ten-year-old Bhim and 14-year-old Kumar came to Pinky five years ago, after their father's death. They started living on a patch of land given by Pinky and grew vegetables for sale.

    “I like children. It's not one more mouth to feed but one more soul saved,” Pinky says.

    Roger, a young man from China, has taught Chinese in a primary school in England for 3 years．A lot of children like his class and he enjoys teaching them very much．All the pupils are quite interested in what Roger teaches them．They learn quickly and do everything carefully．

    One day he said to the children, “People in a lot of Asian countries wear white clothes at funerals(葬礼), but people in America and in Europe wear white in the weddings because white means purity and happiness．What colour does an English woman wear when she gets married?”

    Mary said, “White, sir, because she is happy．” “That is good, Mary,” Roger said．“You are quite right．She wears white because she is happy．”

    But then one boy in the class put up his hand．“Yes, Dick?” Roger said, “Do you have a question?” “Yes,” Dick said．“Why do men wear black in our country when they get married, sir?”

    Four years ago when I was a boy of 11, I got into the biggest trouble as a kid. It was a Saturday morning. Both my parents were out, leaving me and my 10－month－old sister home alone. Anyway, my sister was still asleep in her room. In fact I had the house to myself. I decided to do some drawing. Soon I gave up. Nothing was on TV, so I felt bored and touched the candles on the shelf…I had an idea! What would happen if I set fire to some kitchen paper? Well, of course it went on fire, but it wasn't the tiny flame(火苗) I'd expected, and I couldn't blow it out. I threw it on the floor, and then I got my dad's boots(靴子) and stamped it out.

    But there was a huge hole left on the floor. When my mum came home later, she smelt the smoke immediately. She dropped the shopping bag, luckily for me, over the hole. I thought this meant she would never see it. However, after running round the house checking for a fire, she of course picked up the bag and saw the hole. Next I was grounded(关禁闭)  for months. Even worse though, the hole was still there, reminding me of what I did.