One day, my wife and I went shopping. We took the car as we had a lot of things to buy, because my brother and his family were going to spend the weekend with us. We stopped the car in front of the shop. An hour later we came back to the car with a lot of things. Then the trouble(麻烦) started. We could not open the door.

    "Oh, dear," said my wife, "what are we going to do?"

    "Let's ask that policeman," I said.

    The policeman was very kind and glad to help us. Soon he got the door open. Just at that moment, an angry man came up and shouted. "What are you doing with my car?" We looked at the number of the car, and our faces turned very red.

    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 skills so that I could carefully avoid their moves.

    Somehow, I got into the semifinals(半决赛). In the semifinals, I fell down and hurt myself. I still didn't give up, so I fought back and got into finals. 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(对手). I could hear only my opponent's name.

    I didn't mind 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 give it my best shot and fight well.

    When the time was up, I was leading with a 3—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 gain important experiences. Learn from every step you take.

    Jill Jones got a new job in a different part of the city. She had to go to work every day by train.

    There was only one other person on the train with her. He was a well-dressed man reading a newspaper. Suddenly, about halfway through the journey, the man began tearing（撕） his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces. Then he picked them up, opened the window and threw them all out. Then he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the rest of the journey again.

    The next day, Jill got on the same train. The same well-dressed man was there, reading a newspaper. As before, about halfway through the journey, the man began tearing his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces. Then he picked the pieces up, opened the window and threw them all out. This done, he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the rest of the journey. This happened every day for a week.

    At last, on Friday, Jill spoke to the man. "Excuse me, sir," she said, "I don't want to be rude, but I must ask you a question. When we are halfway through our journey, you tear your newspaper into hundreds of pieces and then throw them all out of the window. Please tell me, sir. Why do you do this?"

    The well-dressed man smiled. "There is a simple reason," he said. "I like to sleep for part of the journey, but I cannot sleep if the train is full of elephants. So I throw the pieces of paper out to the elephants. It stops them from coming into the train."

    "But there aren't any elephants on the train," Jill said. "I know," the man said. "It works well, doesn't it?

    The doctor handed me my medicine and said sorry to me because his register had already closed. He asked if I would mind using the register at the front of the store. I told him not to worry and walked up front. One person was in line ahead of me, a little girl no more than seven with a bottle of medicine on the counter. She held a little green and white coin purse closely to her chest.

    The purse reminded me of the days when, as a child, I liked dressing myself up in my grandma's clothes. One day, wearing her large clothes and hat, I went out to buy something. I gave a fake dollar to the shop owner, but he handed back some real coins for my purse. "Keep the change!" he told me with a smile.

    Now, with both hands shaking, the little girl pulled out a dollar bill and some coins for her medicine. As she tried to count her money, I could see right away that she was about a dollar short. Quickly, I put a dollar bill onto the counter. The child collected her change into her coin purse and ran out.

    As I walked to my car, I felt a tug on my shirt. There was the girl, looking up at me with her big brown eyes. She gave me a smile, and put out her little hand. It was full of coins. "Thank you," she said.

    "That's OK," I answered, smiling. "Just keep the change!"

    Charlotte's Web (《夏洛特的网》) is a classic children's novel written by an American author, E.B. White. The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a spider (蜘蛛) named Charlotte.

    Wilbur is the 11th baby of his mother. Since his mother can only feed ten babies at one time, the farmer plans to kill Wilbur. Kind-hearted little Fern saves him and scents him to a nearby farm. Animals on the farm refuse to befriend Wilbur, so Wilbur feels lonely. However, Charlotte welcomes this new member and is glad to make friends with him.

    Knowing what is going to happen to Wilbur (as the farm owner plans to kill him for sale), Charlotte promises to make a plan to save his life. She writes a lot of good things about Wilbur on her web and makes him famous. Charlotte succeeds in saving Wilbur's life, but she dies as she is too old. Luckily, she leaves three baby spiders. More and more generations of spiders continue to be with Wilbur.

    When you are ill, you should go to see a doctor. After the doctor looks you over, he will write you a note to take to the chemist for some medicine. Chemists are usually good at reading doctors' notes. But sometimes doctors write too badly and even the chemist can not read them.

    One day a woman wrote to a doctor to invite him to have dinner with her family in the restaurant. The doctor wrote an answer, but he wrote too badly and the woman could not read it. "What shall I do?" she asked her husband, "I don't know whether he is going to come or not. I don't want to call and say that I don't understand him."

    Her husband thought for a few minutes and then he had an idea. "Take it to the chemist," he said, "He will be able to read it for us."

    "Thank you," the woman said, "That's a good idea." She went to the chemist's shop and gave the doctor's note to him. The chemist looked at it for a long time.

    "Could you wait a moment, Miss?" he said. Then he went to the back of the shop. After a few minutes he came back, carrying a large bottle. He gave the bottle to the woman.

    "Take one spoonful(一匙) every day." He told the woman.