A lesson in “heart” is my little 10-year-old daughter, Sarah, who was born with a muscle(肌肉)missing in her foot and wears a brace all the time. She came home on a beautiful spring day to tell me she had competed in “field day” 一 that's where they have lots of races and other competitive events.

    Because of her leg support, my mind raced as I tried to think of words of encouragement for my Sarah, things I could say to her about not letting this get her down-things I have heard many famous coaches tell the players when they were faced with defeat(失败)—but before I could get a word out, she looked up and said, “Daddy, I won two of the races.”

    I couldn't believe it! Then Sarah said. “I had an advantage.”

    Ah. I knew it. I thought she must have been given a head start……some kind of physical advantage. But again, before I could say anything, she said, “Daddy, I didn't get a head start…My advantage was I had to try harder!”

Our village carpenter（木匠）, John Hill, came one day and made a dining table for my wife. He made it just the right size to fill the space between the two windows. When I got home that evening, John was drinking a cup of tea and writing out his bill（账单）for his job.

My wife said to me quietly, “That's his ninth cup of tea today.” But she said in a loud voice, “It's a beautiful table, dear, isn't it?” “I'll decide about that when I see the bill,” I said. John laughed and gave me his bill for the work. I read:

One dining table                        10^th November, 2011

      Cost of wood                  ＄17.00

      Paint                         ＄1.50

      Work, 8 hours(＄1 an hour)       ＄8.00

      Total                         ＄36.50  

When I was looking at the bill, John said, “It's been a fine day, hasn't it? Quite sunny.”

“Yes,” I said. “I'm glad it's only the 10^th of November.”

“Me, too,” said John, “you wait—it will be a lot colder by the end of the month.”

“Yes, colder—and more expensive! Dining tables will be ＄20 more expensive on November 30^th, won't they, John?”

John looked hard at me for half a minute. Was there a little smile in his two blue eyes? I gave his bill back to him.

“If it's not too much trouble, John,” I said, “please add it up again. You can forget the date…”

I paid him ＄26.50 and he was happy to get it.

Dear Tom,

    How are you? I'm at a new school this term. And I'm writing to tell you about my school. My new school is big and nice. There are one thousand and four hundred students and one hundred and forty teachers at my school. I like the teachers. They are very kind to me. My classmates are very friendly too. They teach me Chinese and I teach them English. There are trees, flowers and green grass at my school. They are very beautiful. Behind my school there is a small river. The water in it is quite clean. We can swim in it. We have no classes at weekends. Sometimes I play football or basketball with my classmates. Sometimes I stay at home and watch TV. Sometimes I go shopping with my father and mother. We all like China.

    Please write to me soon!

Yours,

Jack

    "All right, everyone, listen up!" said Rey." I have something important to say."

    Rey had always had something important to say since the first day of primary school. "This is really a big project," said Rey. "Trust me. As long as I'm in charge, we'll have the most wonderful project ever!"

    "It seems like Rey is always in charge," murmured(小声说)Jake.

    It was true. Rey always seemed to be in charge of everything. He wanted everything to be as perfect as possible, and he just believed that he was the only person who could make that happen.

    This time, Rey decided to do a play about the Wright brothers and the first airplane flight. He announced that he would be the director, and he had also decided on the role that everyone would play. He would play the part of Orville Wright. He even had made the costumes, which Hannah would like to do.

    The next day, Rey announced he was going to play Wilbur Wright.

    "How can you play both of the Wright brothers?" asked Hannah.

    "I'll just put on different hats for each one," said Rey.

    The next afternoon, no one showed up at the rehearsal (排练) except Rey. An hour had passed, and he still hadn't heard from others.

    Finally, Rey called Stephen. "I quit the play," said Stephen. "In fact, we all quit. We're going to do something else."

    Rey spent the rest of the afternoon working on the play. Moving the set himself took too long, and running around to change costumes left him out of breath. Worst of all, half the airplane dragged on the ground as Rey pulled it across the stage. Rey felt upset and confused.

    He knew now that he couldn't do the play alone. He needed his friends' help if it was going to work at all.

    The next day at school, Rey had a talk with his friends, "I'm going to change. I promise I will listen to you. What do you want to do?

    "Hannah thought the play should he shorter and Jake wanted to make a new airplane that would be easier to handle. Stephen thought everyone should get a chance to play a real part like Wilbur Wright. Fern wanted to be able to act her part the way she wanted.

    "You are probably right," Rey said. "Let's try it your way.

    "Everyone smiled.

    Mark Twain, as you know, was famous in his day as a public speaker. In his public speeches he always tell funny stories. He also liked to listen to funny stories and to play jokes on his friends. One day one of his friends lost his wallet and asked Mark Twain to pay his train fare for him. "But I don't have enough money to pay both your fare and mine, "Mark Twain said. The friend didn't know what to do. "We can do this, "said Mark Twain." We can get on the train and when the conductor comes to check the tickets, you can hide under my seat." Later, however, when the conductor came to check the tickets, Mark Twain gave him two tickets, one for his friend and one for himself. Then he explained in a loud voice, "My friend is a strange man. When he travels on a train, he doesn't like to sit on the seat." Of course everybody in the train looked at the poor friend and laughed at him loudly.