In fact, all decisions come down to choosing whether to open a door or to close it. I have learned that opening a door always makes life more interesting.

    A few years ago, I was living in a small world. I worked as a teacher in a very small high school. My life was quite simple. Then one day I had an opportunity to teach in a large school. The students there came from different countries. But the school was far away from my village. So I asked myself, "Should I go to that strange place to teach? Or should I stay at home?" In my home town I was safe and comfortable.

    Finally, I decided to go. I thought this was the best decision in my life. In that large school, I learned a lot about very different cultures. I also found that just a smile or a hug could make people understand each other. My new students made me feel welcome. We had a lot of fun. It was wonderful to live in a very different area of the country. So I was lucky that I didn't close the door to the chance, or I would miss all of those wonderful experiences.

    Once upon a time in a land far away, there was a wonderful old man who loved all kinds of small animals, such as spiders, insects and butterflies and so on.

    One day while walking through the woods, the nice old man found a cocoon（茧） of a butterfly. He took it home.

    A few days later, a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to make its body out of that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared it could go no farther.

    Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then got out of the cocoon easily.

    But it had a swollen（肿胀的） body and small shriveled（枯萎的） wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge to be able to support the body, which would contract（收缩） in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.

    What the warm-hearted man in his kindness did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were Nature's way of forcing fluid（体液） from the body of the butterfly into its wings, so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

    Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were allowed to go through our life without any difficulties, it would be bad for us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

    It was Mother's Day. Chatham was driving his new blue car and enjoying the beauty of nature. A flower shop by the road came into his eyes. So he stopped his car and took a look at some of the flowers. Just then he found a small, cute girl standing next to the shop. She was counting the money in her hand. It seemed that she was a little unhappy.

    He went up to her and asked, "Can I help you?"

    "I want to buy some red flowers for my mother. But I have only eighty rupees(卢比)," said the girl.

    Chatham smiled and asked her to take him to the shop. He bought a big bouquet(花束)for her and said, "I can take you to your mother." The girl was very happy.

    Finally they got to a grave. "Thank you, Uncle." Then she ran to the grave and put the roses in front of it.

    Chatham stood there without words in a minute. He then made a U-turn(掉头)and drove back to the same flower shop. He picked some pink roses and drove down two hundred miles to meet his old mother.

    His mother was happy to see him. But she said, "Why do you drive down all the way? You could talk to me over the phone. "

    He just kissed his mother and said, "Happy Mother's Day!"

    There were two men who lived next to each other. One of them was a retired teacher and the other was a businessman. Both of them had planted many different plants in their gardens. The retired teacher seldom watered his plants and didn't pay a lot of attention to them. But his neighbor was very careful with his plants and watered them often.

    The retired teacher's plants were small, but still looked okay, while the businessman's plants were much bigger and greener. One night, there came a storm with a heavy rain and strong wind. The next morning, both of the neighbors came out to check in their gardens. The businessman saw that his plants had come out from the earth, and were totally out of life. But the retired teacher's plants nicely stood where they were.

    The businessman was surprised. He went to consult (咨询) the retired teacher. "We both grew the same plants and I cared for my plants better than you did. How could your plants still be okay?"

    The retired teacher smiled and said, "Because you gave your plants too much attention. You made it too easy for them to grow. I gave my plants just a little bit of water, so they had to grow deeper to absorb(吸收) more water. That is why my plants survived."

I'm Tony. From a young age, I began to love skiing.I have skied since I was eight or nine years old. But once in the USA I was close to death.

It was April 1st, 2011. I skied in the Tetons with my friends Jeremy and Xavier. While I was skiing, they were watching me in a safe area, Then I turned  around and saw the whole mountain start to move behind me. It was a massive avalanche. Thousands of tons of snow was coming down the mountain behind me. I felt that the snow pushed me forward hundreds of meters,and then covered me.

It was so heavy that I couldn't move. And then it pushed me forward again.

I looked down into the bottom of the valley(山谷).  "OK, I'm going all the way to the bottom! " I thought. Then the snow pushed me again down the mountains. I thought the snow would destroy me. But in the end, I felt the avalanche slow down and I just jumped out of the snow at the bottom of the valley.

It took Jeremy and Xavier about 20 minutes to find me. They couldn't believe it when they saw me. I was so lucky.

Has the experience changed me? Do I think about life differently? I don't know, but I do know that it's important to live your life seriously. Life is a gift, so use it wisely.

It was a cold night. I went to sleep in a tree for the {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(two) time, and the next day I went on {#blank#}2{#/blank#}my trip. Soon I came to an opening in the hills. In front of {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(I), everything was green, and there were flowers everywhere. There were also many different birds {#blank#}4{#/blank#}other animals.

I saw that my house {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(be) on the worst side of the island. But I didn't want to move from there. It was my home now. I stayed away for three {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(day), and then I came home. But I often went back to the other, {#blank#}7{#/blank#}.(green), warmer side of the island.

And so my life {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(go) on. Every month I learned to do or to make something new. But I ha troubles and accidents too. Once there was {#blank#}9{#/blank#}terrible storm with very heavy rain. The roof of my ca ve fell in, and {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(near) killed me! I had to build it up again with many pieces of wood.