Jack is in bed. Mr. Smith sits beside him.

    “What kind of day do you have today?” Mr. Smith asks.

    “It is a bad day for me,” Jack answers. “I have a fight with Tom. Then the teacher calls you and tells you about it, right?”

    “Yes , part(部分) of the day is bad,” Mr. Smith says. But there are good parts, too. Now it is time to go to sleep. So tell me the best thing to you today.

    Jack is happy and he says, “After school, I go swimming. I make a new friend in the swimming pool.”

“I am happy you have a good time,” Mr. Smith says. “Think about it before you go to sleep. Now I'm going to turn off the light(关灯). Have a nice dream!”

    “Good night, Dad,” Jack says.

    Every night Mr. Smith and Jack have a talk like this.

    Every night Jack answers the same question, “What is the best thing to you today?

    Every night Jack goes to sleep thinking about the best thing. It's really a good way to end(结束) a day.”

    Mary and Peter were having a picnic with some friends near a river when Mary shouted, "Look! That's a spaceship up there and it's going to land here. "

    Frightened by the strange spaceship, all the young people got into their cars and drove away as quickly as possible except Peter and Mary. They were more curious（好奇的）than frightened. They watched the spaceship land and saw a door open, but nobody came out, so they went to look into it. In the centre of the floor, there was a lot of food. Peter followed Mary into the spaceship and did not hear the door close behind him. The temperature fell in no time and very soon the two young people didn't know anything.

    When they came to, they were surprised to see that they were back by the river again. The spaceship had gone. Their car was nearby.

    "What happened?" asked Mary.

    Peter scratched（搔）his head, saying slowly, "Don't ask me. Perhaps we had a problem. Come on. It's time to go home."

    After driving about fifty metres, they found a thick wall made of something like glass stood in their way. On the other side of the wall, a few strange aliens were looking through the wall and reading a notice, which translated into（译成）English said, "New comers at the zoo, a pair of earth villagers in their house on wheels. "

    A man came out of the airport. A lot of taxis were there. He asked the name of every taxi-driver. Then he took the 3rd one. It costs 5 dollars from the airport to the hotel. "How much does it cost for the whole day?" the man asked. "One hundred dollars, "said the taxi-driver. This was very expensive, but the man said it was OK.

    The driver took the man everywhere. He showed him all the parks and museums in the city. In the evening, they went back to the hotel. The man gave the driver100dollars and said, "What about tomorrow?" The taxi-driver looked at the man and said, "Tomorrow? It's another 100 dollars. "But the man said, "That's OK!

    See you tomorrow. "The driver was very pleased.

    The next day the driver took the man everywhere again. They visited all the parks and museums again. And in the evening they went back to the hotel. The man gave the driver 100 dollars again and was going home tomorrow. The driver was unhappy because he liked the man and above all, 100 dollars a day was a lot of money. "So you're going home. Where do you come from?" he asked. "I come from New York. ""New York!" said the driver. "I have a sister in New York. Her name is Lucy. Do you know her? ""Of course I know her. She gave me 200 dollars for you!"

    Hello, my name is Peter. I'm 12 years old. I have a picture. In the picture are two boys and a dog. Do you know the two boys? I know them. They are Jim and Frank. Jim and Frank are brothers. They have yellow hair and big blue eyes. They are my good friends. Now they are in China with their parents. We are in the same middle school and the same class. Their mother Mrs. Green is our English teacher. She is very nice. All my classmates love her. Harry is the name of the dog. He is yellow and big. He is my friend, too. We four often play together on Sunday.

    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 techniques (技巧) so that I could carefully avoid their movements.

    Somehow I got into the semi-finals. In the semifinals, I got injured. I still didn't give up and got into the final. 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. I could hear only my opponent's name.

    I ignored 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 do my best and fight well.

    When the time was up. I was leading with a3 -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 learn from every step you take.

When I was in Grade Eight, one thing made me sad. I could never get good grades in my1 exam.

One day, I talked to my mom about that. She asked me to think about the2 . I thought about it seriously. And then I3 what my problem was.

"Mom, the math questions are really4 . So I work them out quickly."

"Oh?" Mom listened carefully.

"Yes. They're so easy that I get careless. Sometimes I take notes （笔记）5 in class. And when I see them again, I can't understand them."

"I see," Mom said. "Good6 habits are important. Although you are clever and quick, you are not careful enough."

"You're right, Mom. I will try to be7 and careful, too."

"You cannot learn things well in a short time. You should keep on practicing it8 you use it easily."

"I will keep your word in my heart, Mom."

After that, I9 my learning habits. I studied as carefully as I could. When I did math exercises, I would read each word and find the key words. Then I connected （联系） them with what I learned, so I could do the exercises right.

You know what? A few weeks later, I did finally get a(n)10 grade in math! What a difference good habits make!