When Dave was eighteen, he bought a secondhand car for 200 so that he could travel to and from work more1 than by bus. It worked quite well for a few years, but then it got so old, and it was costing him 2much in repairs that he decided that he had better3it.

    He asked among his friends to see if anyone was particularly4 to buy a cheap car, but they all knew that it was falling to pieces, so5of them had any desire to buy it. Dave's friend Sam saw that he was 6 when they met one evening, and said, "What's 7, Dave?"

    Dave told him, and Sam answered, "Well, what about advertising it in the paper? You may8more for it that way than the cost of the advertisement!" Thinking that Sam's9was sensible(合理的),he put an advertisement in an evening paper, which read "For sale: small car, 10 very little petrol, only two owners. Bargain at 50."

    For two days after the advertisement first appeared, there was no 11.But then on Saturday evening he had an enquiry(询问).A man rang up and said he would like to12 him about the car. "All right," Dave said, feeling happy. He asked the man whether ten o'clock the next morning would be13or not. "Fine," the man said, "and I'll 14my wife. We intend to go for a ride in it to 15it."

    The next morning, at a quarter to ten, Dave parked the car in the square outside his front door, 16to wait there for the people who had17 his advertisement. Even Dave had to18that the car really looked like a wreck(残骸).Then, soon after he had got the car as clean19 it could be, a police car stopped just behind him and a policeman got out. He looked at Dave's car and then said, "Have you reported this 20 to us yet, sir?"

    One day when I was 12, my mother gave me an order: I was to walk to the public library, and borrow at least one book for the summer. This was one more weapon for her to 1my strange problem—inability to 2. In the library, I found my way into the “Children's Room.” I sat down on the floor and pulled a few books off the 3 at random. The cover of a book 4 my eye. It 5 a picture of a beagle(小猎兔狗). I had recently had a beagle, the first and only animal companion I ever had as a child. He was my secret sharer, but one morning, he was gone, 6 to someone who had the space and the money to care for him. I never forgot my beagle.

    There on the book's cover was a beagle which looked 7 to my dog. I ran my fingers 8 the picture of the dog on the cover. My eyes ran across the title, Amos, the Beagle with a Plan. 9, I had read the title. Without opening the book, I borrowed it from the library for the summer.

    Under the shade of a bush, I started to read about Amos. I read very, very slowly with difficulty. 10 pages were turned slowly, I got the main idea of the story about a dog who, like mine, had been 11 from his family and who finally found his way back home. That dog was my dog, and I was the little boy in the book. At the end of the story, my mind continued the final 12 of reunion, on and on, until my own lost dog and I were, in my mind, running together. My mother's call returned me to the 13 world. Something 14 me: I had read a book, and I had loved reading that book. Everyone knew I could not read. But I had read it. Books could be incredibly 15 and I was going to read them. I never told my mother about my “miraculous” (奇迹般的) 16 that summer, but she saw a slow but remarkable 17 in my classroom performance during the next year. And years later, she was 18 that her son had read thousands of books, was 19 a PhD in literature, and authored his own books, articles, poetry and fiction. The power of the 20 has held.

Be Happy

    Twenty years ago I was living in Seattle and going through hard times. To my 1 I was driving a school bus to make ends meet although I had a Masters degree. I had been through five interviews with a company and one day they called to say I did not get the job. I went to the bus bay like a zombie(僵尸))of 2.

    Later that afternoon, I had an inner wave, like a scream, "why has my life become so 3?" Immediately after the scream I pulled the bus over to 4a little girl who handed me an earring saying I should keep it in case somebody got back for it. The earring5"BE HAPPY"

    I got angry but then it hit me. I had been putting all of my energies into what was wrong with my life rather than what was right. I should be grateful for what I had. I decided to make a list of 50 things I was 6 for.

    At first it was hard, then it got 7. One night there was a phone call for me from a 8 who was a manager at a large 9. She asked me if I would do a one-day lesson for her 200 hospital workers. I said yes and 10 my job as a driver.

    My day with the hospital workers went very 11. I got a standing ovation(热烈鼓掌)and many more days of 12. To this day I know that it was because I changed attitude 13 gratitude.

    I spent the next year conducting training workshops and then decided to go back to Scotland where I had lived 14. One month later I met my wonderful English wife and best friend of 15 years now. We live in a small beautiful cottage.

    "The only attitude is gratitude" has been my motto for 15 now and yes, it completely changed my life.

    I did very badly at school. My headmaster thought I was1and when I was 14 he said, "You're never going to be2but a failure."

    After five years of3jobs, I fell in love with a very nice middle-class girl. It was the best4that could have happened to me. I 5I wanted to do something positive (积极地) with my life because I wanted to prove to 6that what people said about me was7. Especially her mother, who had said to me, "Let's8it, you've failed at everything you've ever done." So I tried hard with my9and went to college. My first novel10while I was at college.

    After college I taught during the 11in high schools and attended evening classes at London University, where I got a 12in history. I became a lecturer at a college and was thinking of13that job to write full time14I was offered a part-time job at Leeds University. I began to feel 15of myself — here was a working-class boy who'd16school early, now teaching at the university.

    My writing career (职业) took off when I discovered my own style. Now I'm rich and17, have been on TV, and met lots of film stars. 18what does it mean? I19wish all the people that have put me down had20: "I believe in you. You'll succeed."

Night fell. Loug Falter returned home, teary-eyed and1. The 33-year-old professional photographer had just run from one end of Hawaii's Waimea Bay to the other, scanning the water2his "baby", a custom-made blue surfboard.

When back home, Falter took his search on line. "Was surfing tonight and 3my baby," he wrote on Facebook. He hoped it would wash ashore in the coming days and that whoever4it would have also seen his Facebook post. But instead of pushing Falter's surfboard to shore, the currents of Waimea Bay swept it out to sea, 5Oahu.

Weeks passed with no 6of the surfboard. Then months. Lyle Carlson, who had customized the board, comforted Falter with the possible reunion but nobody knew when.

Falter never completely forgot about the board. It 7on the remote island of Sarangani in the southern Philippines—six months after and over 5,000 miles away. The local fisherman sold the unusual8to Giovanne Branzuela, a 36-year-old elementary school teacher for $ 40. For Branzuela, 9the big waves had been his dream.

The once-blue board had turned pale during its journey, with its10markings still there: the elephant logo and the words "Lyle Carlson Surfboards, Oahu, Hawaii."

On realizing how far the surfboard had traveled, he11 Carlson online, who, in turn, contacted Falter. Falter confirmed the board was his with extra shots and was12to learn his "baby" had floated across the World's largest ocean and13.

He was thrilled, but not only for himself. Seeing interest in the sport grow14a lot to Falter and he couldn't imagine a better15to the story.