When my brother and I were children, we spent a few weeks each summer in the countryside with our uncle. He was a geologist（地质学家） and loved to go on long walks to find stones to his collection in his spare time. We often followed him.

    One day, we left early, and this time, our uncle had bought us backpacks to help him carry the sample（样本）. The whole day, we walked around the countryside, and every now and then, our uncle put stones in our bags. We were a bit surprised that he also took some stones out from our bags at times, but we thought maybe he had just found better samples than the ones we already had.

    When we reached the house in the late afternoon, we were tired out. The backpacks were so heavy that we gave a big sigh of relief when we put them on the ground.

    Yet our uncle's backpack was half-empty.

    "Why did you give us so many stones?" we asked.

    "I didn't. You did, "he said, "You did not know it, but I made you go through a little attitude（态度） test today."

    "What do you mean an 'attitude test'?" we wondered. "It is something someone once did to me. You see, I listened to every word you said. And whenever you complained about anyone or anything, I added a stone to your bags. And whenever you talked about something with an attitude of gratitude（感恩） and positive（正面的） thinking, I took out a stone. And now look at your backpacks."

    We did. They were full.

    "Your negative（负面的） thoughts are like stones. You carry them in your mind just like those stones in a backpack. The more negative thoughts you have, the heavier your mind is. So look at those bags and start paying attention to what you say and how you say things."

    This little lesson was one of the most important I ever had. And I remember my uncle with great love for teaching us one of the most important lessons in life-the power of attitude.

    My friend Alice visited my city last week. She arrived in HongKong on Wednesday morning .She is from Australia. I showed her around the city.

    We visited the Clock Tower first. The Clock Tower was very tall. We took some photos there. Then we went to the City Museum. After that, we saw a good movie.

    The next day, we visited the Ladies' Street. There were a lot of clothes shops. The clothes were cheap and beautiful. Alice bought some clothes for her parents and friends. Then we went to the Seafood Street. We bought some seafood. We also had seafood in a restaurant. Both of us enjoyed the meal. Then we went to a concert in the evening. The music was fantastic!

    On the third day, the weather was very hot, so we decided to visit Hong Kong Wetland Park. We saw many kinds of plants and animals in it. They were very interesting.

    Alice went back to Australia on Friday evening. She enjoyed the trip. She invited me to visit Australia next summer.

    Lisa was a single (单身的) mother who lived with her little son. She lost her job two years ago and they had a very hard life. Her heart was broken every time her son asked, "Can I have some more bread and butter 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 was good at writing. To make some money, she began to write articles for magazines day and night.

    Things went better. The food bank started to give her 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(采访) 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.

    A six-year-old British girl, Mollie Price, is opening up her third candy store. She is said to be one of Britain's youngest bosses. Her stores are called "Mollie's." She sells both British and American candy. The girl would like to open more candy stores. "It might sound crazy, but believe me," Mollie says.

    "It was Mollie's idea to open up the shop. It is Mollie who runs the candy stores," her mother Becky, her "business partner" says.

    Her mother says all the stores are put together and stocked(进货)by Mollie. Mollie works in one of the stores every Saturday, then gets up early Sunday to go to the company's product supplier(供应商). She asks her friends to test the sweets to decide which ones are good. She's good at smart marketing. For example, if the weather is really cold, she sells the Mr Whippy ice cream cheaper than when it's hot outside.

    "Children have the best ideas. I tell my mum what I think and she always says I have good ideas. It's just because I know what other children like," Mollie says.

Mr. and Mrs. Wilson lived in a big crowded city, and one summer they took a 1 in the country. They enjoyed it very much, 2 it was a quiet, clean place and very different from the3 . One day, 4 went for a walk early in the morning and met an old man. He 5 sitting alone in the warm sun outside his front door. Mr. Wilson asked him, "Do you like living in such a6 place?"

The old man said, "Yes, I do. "

Mr. Wilson said, "What are the 7 things about it?"

The old man answered, "Well, everybody 8 everybody else. People often come and visit me, 9 I often go and visit them. And10 are a lot of children here. "

Mr. Wilson said, "That's interesting. And what are the bad things?"

The old man thought for a few minutes and said, "Well, the same things really. "