In life, everyone once struggles for a dream, whether it's successful or not. I still clearly remember one day when I was in high school. I saw on a website that China's. Got Talent's mass-election（海选）for the best singers was going on. I was very excited and decided to go and try out. But it wasn't as easy as I had thought. When I got there, I saw at least 100 people already waiting in line. My hands started to sweat and shake as my turn got close. I got up and started singing, but I sang so badly that I stopped before I even finished the song. Afterwards I quickly said goodbye to my friends and walked home crying. I thought that I would never be able to show my face in public again.
    However, after about a year, that terrible experience became a funny memory. I realized that I didn't need to care about losing that dream, because I made a new and more realistic one. I'm good at English, as well as other subjects. I made it my goal to get accepted into Columbia University. Columbia is hard to get into, and about 1,300 students from all over the world are accepted every year. Though it is hard to get into, I think my dream will come true someday by working hard.

    Jane is only four years o1d and she doesn't go to school. But she is very clever and learns a lot from her grandpa—an old teacher. One day, Jane's mother, Mrs John takes her to a party. The guests（客人）all praise（表扬）a rich woman's son. Mrs John asks him a few questions, but his answers are wrong. Jane begins to laugh.

    The rich woman is angry.  She te11s her friend—a teacher to ask Jane some questions, but the little girl answers all. Then she asks, "There are three birds in a tree. How many will be left（被留下）if I kill（杀死）one?”

    “One” answers Jane. “You're wrong!” calls out the rich woman. “All of them will fly away”,“Do you think a dead（死的）bird can fly?”asks the little girl.

    The guests begin to 1augh and the woman's face turns red.

    Mr Black is a football fan. Every morning he goes to work by train. As he has a long trip, he always buys a newspaper. It helps to make the time pass more quickly. One Wednesday morning, Mr Black turned the important football matches. He knew the Football World Cup would be held in his city soon. He decided to go to watch the football game.

    While Mr Black was excited to be at the Football World Cup, he was disappointed（失望的）at the location of his seat. Peering（仔细看）across the stadium through his telescope（望远镜）he saw an empty seat far away and made his way there. Mr Black asked the man in the next seat, “May I sit here?” “Sure,” the man replied. “This was my wife's seat. She was a super football fan, and we used to come to the games together all the time until she passed away.”

    “I am sorry for your loss,” Mr Black said. “But I am curious（好奇的）. Why didn't you give the extra（多余的） ticket to a friend or a relative?” The man replied, “They are all at the funeral（葬礼）.”

    Tom is a good boy, but he cannot get up early. He often sleeps until nine or ten o'clock in the morning. His mother doesn't want him to be late for school. So she buys him an alarm clock. She says to him, "You must get up when you hear the clock ring" "Yes, Mum." Tom says. And from then on, Tom gets up when he hears the clock ring at six thirty every morning. One day his mother forgets to ring up the clock. And the next morning Tom doesn't get up at six thirty. It's time for breakfast. Mother goes to wake him up. Tom is in bed and his eyes are open. He says to his mother, "I wake up very early."

    "Then why don't you get up?" Mother asks.

"But," answers Tom, "You tell me that I must get up when I hear the clock ring. So I am now waiting for the clock ring."

    One morning I met a man in my shop. He wanted to buy some new clothes. First I gave him a pair of trousers. He put them on to try, then ________ and gave them back to me and said, "No, give me a coat instead of them." I gave him a coat and told him, "This one is worth as much as the trousers." To my surprise he took the coat without saying a word and walked out of the shop with it. I ran quickly after him and said, "You haven't paid for that coat!" "But I gave you the trousers for the coat," he said. "They are worth (相当于……的价值) the same as the coat, aren't they?" "Yes," I said. "You didn't pay for the trousers, either!" "Of course I didn't!" answered the man, "I didn't take them. I am not foolish! Nobody gives things back and then pays for them."

    That year, I was a Junior 2 student. Falling off the stairs hurt me in the head. Almost everyone thought I was dead. But they were wrong. However, it was difficult to get back to normal life. I had to leave school and learn everything, walking, talking, and yes, maths.

    To help me with that task, Mrs. Pillar volunteered to come to the hospital and later to my house once a week. We began with basic maths skills. As time passed by, I made progress.

    I remember very vividly how she came to my home on Sundays, sat with me at the kitchen table and threw different coins on the table. She asked me to show her 38 cents, 17 cents, 63 cents. It was challenging, but she also made it fun.

    After a year and a half, I had progressed a lot, both in body and mind, to return to school. Seven years later, I graduated from the University of Texas at the top of my class.

    As years went by, I always kept in touch with Mrs. Pillar. Unluckily, one day my parents told me that Mrs. Pillar had been in hospital because she suffered a stroke (中风).

    Now it was my turn to help her. Mrs. Pillar lay in bed, unable to speak or know anybody around. I pulled some coins out of my pocket, dropped them on her bed, and asked her to show me 12 cents. The nurse thought that my action was very strange until one day Mrs. Pillar smiled happily as I began working with—just as she had worked with me years before. She made progress every day and was moved out of ICU (重症监护室) and finally out of hospital.

    One day, I called to wish her a happy New Year. She spoke into the phone excitedly, "Happy New Year to you and your family, Michael. Thank you for everything you've done for me."

    Mrs. Pillar was one of my Junior 2 teachers, but she taught me so much more about life than only maths.