On a Wednesday night, a young man was playing the guitar at the underground station. Some people stopped and put some money into his hat.

    The next day, the young man came to the underground station again. There was a large piece of paper next to his hat. It said，"Last night, a kind man named Chris put something important into my hat. Please come to get it back soon."

    About half an hour later, an old man came and the young man said，"Yes, I knew you would come back."

    "What did you lose？"asked the young man. "$800，000，"answered the old man.

    Then the young man took out a check(支票)and gave it back to the old man. The old man was so happy and thanked the young guitar player.

    Victor's hobby was collecting stamps. He had stamps from many countries, like England, Canada and China. On his birthday, can you guess what people gave him? That's right-stamps.

    Victor's favourite stamps came from France. He had almost every stamp from 1954 to 2004. He only needed one. That was a 1974 special edition. It was very hard to find.

    He looked for it everywhere. He asked his friends and relatives to help him. But nobody could find the stamp. It made Victor very sad.

    "Don't worry. Never give up," his father said to him. If you have enough patience, you'll find it one day.

    "I hope so," Victor said

    Victor also liked writing. He had a penfriend in France. They wrote to each other every month. Victor's penfriend, Phillip, usually used new stamps to send letters. Sometimes, his mother gave him stamps to use. Once Phillip's mother gave him a big, green stamp. It looked old. When Victor received the letter, he was very surprised. On the envelope, he looked carefully at the stamp. It was the 1974 special edition stamp. Victor was so happy. He told his sister, his mother and his father. "You see," his father said. "You did find your stamp. So it's good to have two things in life."

    "What are they?" Victor asked.

    "Friends and patience," he answered.

    We spoke to three students from around the world about different national holidays. There are different customs for each festival.

    Tan Xiaodong,15, Hong Kong, China

    "It'll soon be the Chinese New Year. Before it, we'll clean the house and decorate it for good luck. Every shop is going to close for a few days and we'll go out a lot to celebrate on the streets. We might go and see the lion and dragon dances in the city center. I love this festival."

    Wendy, 16, Sydney, Australia

    "Australia Day is on 26th January and it's an important holiday here. We always have a Monday off, so we celebrate for three days. My parents and I go to the countryside for a picnic and friends always come over. Many people go to beach parties or street parties and there's lots of music and dancing. What fun!"

    Amy, 14, New York, the US

    "The first Thanksgiving was celebrated hundreds of years ago when Europeans who came to America thanked God for his help. It's still a very important day for family members to be together. This year we're going to visit my grandparents and we'll eat a delicious meal of turkey. Thanksgiving is on the 4th Thursday in November every year."

"Never give up!"It is my law(法则) of my life. It has brought me 1 . I learnt the law from my father's 2  story.

My father was 3  in a poor village in the north of Jiangsu, China. When he was a young boy, he went to school in the morning, and then 4  in the fields till sunset. And then he did his homework and didn't sleep 5  midnight. Life was hard, 6  the family had no money!

At the age of , my father 7  the United States. It was the land of gold. and8  people could become rich there.

"Why don't I go to America?"he thought to 9  , full of hope.

So my father came to America."I had thought it was easy to 10  money in America," he told me."But when I arrived there, I realised it was not true. They did not like to hire (雇用) me because I spoke 11  English. Later, I worked in a small restaurant, cleaning up tables, washing dishes and sweeping the floor. Life was 12  for the first few years, and I worked from am to pm. I wanted to go to school to learn English, but it was impossible. I couldn't 13  to go to school."

My father 14  working hard, and finally succeeded. He often says to me,"If you want something, you have to work for it and never give up."

Things do not come 15  in life. That is what I learnt from my father.