Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers urged, "Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience."

    How right they were. Enthusiastic people can turn a boring drive into an adventure, extra work into opportunity and strangers into friends.

    ''Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste that helps you hang in there when the going gets tough. It is the inner voice that whispers, I can do it! " when others shout, "No, you can't."

    It took years and years for the early work of Barbara McClintock, a geneticist（遗传学家） who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted． Yet she didn't let up on her experiments. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.

    Author and poet Samuel Ullman once wrote, "Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul".

    Enthusiastic people also love what they do, regardless of money or title or power. If we cannot do what we love as a full-time career, we can treat it as a part-time interest, like the head of state who paints, the nun(修女) who runs marathons, the official who handcrafts（手工制作）furniture.

    We can't afford to waste tears on "might- have-beens". We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after ''what-can-be".

    We need to live each moment wholeheartedly, with all our senses—finding pleasure in the fragrance of a back-yard garden, the crayoned（蜡笔的）picture of a six-year-old, the enchanting beauty of a rainbow. It is such enthusiastic love of life that puts a sparkle in our eyes, a lilt in our steps and smooths the wrinkles from our souls.

    The morning of March 2, 2012, was a busy one for the students in Mrs. Goodknight's class in Henryville, Indiana. There was morning meeting with poems to read, jokes to share, and tests to prepare for. "It was just an ordinary day," says student Lyric Darling, 12.

    At noon, while students played basketball under a sunny sky, a huge tornado (龙卷风) was forming 50 miles away. Around 2:25 p.m. 20 minutes before school was supposed to let out, a huge tornado touched down in Fredericksburg, 20 miles away. As word spread, parents rushed to the school. Teachers rushed to get kids onto buses or into waiting cars. By 2:45, the skies were darkening.

    "I was crying," says Lyric. "All around me, kids were crying." Two buses returned to the school with students whose parents had not been home. Teachers brought the kids to the office, where they all took cover under desks. Suddenly the power went out. And then the tornado attacked the school, filled with wood and trees and glass. The tornado was over the school for less than one minute. In that time, it almost completely destroyed the school. Teachers were about to lead the group out of the office when a second tornado was upon them. When it finally ended, the group made its way out of the building.

    Over the next few hours, parents arrived, overjoyed to find their children. The next day, it was clear: All of Henryville's people were safe.

    There were so many sad and frightening stories. Some students saw the tornado with their own eyes. Some lost their homes. But many described how the community (社区) came together to help and support each other. "You learn what's important," Mrs. Goodknight says.

    Americans think much about time .From children they learn to value( 珍惜) time .As children, they are taught to be on time to go to school, to work and to do everything .When they are having a good time , they say that time flies .When a person is dying, they say he is living on borrowed time.

    Time is money. Time is knowledge. Time is everything in America. A working American has to work hard for 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. This is the working time. In his spare time, he also works hard for money .Even on Saturday and Sunday he also works hard as usual. In the street you can hardly see that a man walks slowly. They walk very fast. In fact, they are running.

    They love time because time can bring money and a lot of things .But sometimes they also hate time, because they feel they have become servants of the clock.

    When my father married my mother in 1943, he gave my mother a 1937 crown coin and told her to keep it in the back of her purse and not to spend it. This would mean that she always felt that she was protected and would always have money if she really needed it.

    When I was married in 1970, my husband, who had heard this story, obtained a 1937 crown coin for me and I have always kept it in my wallet, and I have always had enough for my needs.

    A friend recently fell on hard times, partly through external (外部的) circumstances and partly through poor planning. Friends and I have loaned her money, paid her bills, given her food, and even tried to teach her budget techniques, but none of them has been a solution. She has just slipped deeper and deeper into financial trouble and depression.

    Last week she looked pale and unwell, very depressed and hopeless, very sad for a friend to see and I then thought about how the crown coin, a physical reminder of another's care and love had protected me, so I went to the bank for a $ 100 dollar-bill.

    I told my friend the story and asked her to keep the $ 100 in the back of her wallet. It turned out that she didn't have a wallet, so she put the money in a little pencil case where she kept her coins. She immediately felt better—"I feel rich, and thank you for being a good friend," she said, and we were both a bit teary.

    I went home and remembered a little wallet I had that I'd never used, and thought, "I'll give that to my friend." I opened it, and inside, found $ 100.

Riding clubs

    You can start horse-riding at any age. Choose private or group lessons any weekday between 9 am and 8:30 pm (3:30 pm on Saturdays). There are 10 kilometres of tracks and paths for leisurely rides across farmland and open country. You will need a riding hat.

    Opening Hours: Monday through Friday: 9:00 am—8:30 pm

    Phone: (412)396—6754 Fax: (412)396—6752

Sailing Club

    Our Young Sailor's Course leads to the Stage 1 Sailing qualification. You'll learn how to sail safely and the course also covers sailing theory and first aid. Have fun with other course members afterwards in the clubroom. There are 10 weekly two—hour lessons (Tuesdays 6 pm—8 pm).

    Opening Hours: Tuesdays: 6:00 pm-8:00 pm

    Phone: (412)396—6644 Fax: (412)396—6644

Diving Centre

    Our experienced instructors offer one-month courses in deep-sea diving for beginners. There are two evening lessons a week, in which you learn to breathe underwater and use the equipment safely. You only need a swimming costume and towel. Reduced rates for couples.

    Opening Hours: Monday and Friday: 6:30 pm—8:30 pm

    Phone: (412)396—6312 Fax: (412)396—6706

Medical Center

    The staff of the Medical Center aim to provide convenient and comprehensive medical care to students and staff of the university. The center is well equipped and the staff here are trained to deal with a broad range of medical problems. Both female and male doctors as well as nursing staff are available for consultation. Also, all kinds of medicines are sold here and are cheaper for students than other drugstores.

    Opening Hours: 24 hour from Monday to Sunday

    Phone: (412)396—6649 Fax: (412)396—6648

Watersports Club

    We use a two-kilometre length of river for speedboat racing, and water-skiing. A beginners, course consists of ten 20-minute lessons. You will learn to handle boats safely and confidently, but must be able to swim. The club is in a convenient central position and is open daily from 9a.m to 4p.m, with lessons all through the day.

    Opening Hours: Monday through Friday: 9 am—4 pm

    Phone: (412)396—6899 Fax: (412)396—6890

    "Our aim is to take our art to the world and make people understand what it is to move," said David Belle, the founder of parkour.

    Do you love running? It is a good exercise, yet many people find it boring. But what if making your morning jog a creative one? Like jumping from walls and over gaps, and ground rolls? Just like James Bond in the movie Casino Royale? Bond jumps down from a roof to a windowsill and then runs several blocks over obstacles on the way. It is just because of Bond's wonderful performances that the sport has become popular worldwide.

    Yes, that's parkour, an extreme street sport aimed at moving from one point to another as quickly as possible, getting over all the barriers in the path using only the abilities of the human body. Parkour is considered an extreme sport. As its participants dash around a city, they may jump over fences, run up walls and even move from rooftop to rooftop.

    Parkour can be just as exciting and charming as it sounds, but its participants see parkour much more than that.

    Overcoming all the obstacles on the course and in life is part of the philosophy behind parkour. This is the same as life. You must determine your destination, go straight, jump over all the barriers as if in parkour and never fall back in your life, to reach the destination successfully. A parkour lover said, "I love parkour because its philosophy has become my life, my way to do everything."

    Another philosophy we've learnt from parkour is freedom. It can be done by anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world. It is a kind of expression of trust in yourself.