A group of old classmates, who have succeeded in their work, got together to visit their teacher. Their conversation soon turned to complaining(抱怨) about the stress(压力 ) in their work and life. The teacher went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and many cups. Some of the cups are expensive and lovely, but some are cheap and not beautiful.  The teacher told them to help themselves to the coffee.

     When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the teacher said, "Have you noticed all the nice looking expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the cheap ones? It's OK for you lo want only the best for yourselves, but that is why you have the stress in your work and life even if you're very successful now. "

    "All of you really wanted the coffee, not the cups, but you cheese the beast cups and were eyeing each other's cups.

    "Now think about this: life is the coffee, and money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold life. They do not change the quality (质量) of life. Sometimes, we just care about the cups, and we fail to enjoy the coffee. So, don't let the cups drive you; enjoy the coffee instead. "

    Can you write down a Chinese word being read to you? Sometimes it can be difficult when you find the word is not included in most dictionaries.

    Lu Jialei, 14, from Hangzhou Foreign Language School, won the CCTV Chinese Character (汉字) Spelling Contest on Oct 18^th, 2013. About 160 people competed. The host read a word to the contestant, explained its meaning and gave sample sentences. The contestant was required to write down the word.

    Winning the contest was a “surprise” to Lu. “I was not the smartest one,” she said. “But I paid attention to details.” To prepare for the contest, she and her teammates studied the Modern Chinese Dictionary for 10 days. There are more than 56,000 entries (词条) including characters, words and phrases in it. She also had a secret weapon. She studied how Chinese characters were formed.

    “When others paid attention to the plot of a story, she looked at how authors use words and sentences to express themselves,” said Su Yunsheng, Lu's Chinese teacher. Su is happy to see students like Lu find the beauty of Chinese language.

    “Besides using something Chinese and having Chinese traditional festivals, learning to write Chinese characters is also an important part of inheriting (传承) Chinese culture,” said Su.

    A little boy was playing in his sandbox on a Saturday morning．While he was building roads and houses in the soft sand, he discovered a large stone in the middle of the sandbox．

    The little boy pushed and pulled, but every time he thought he had made some progress, the stone tipped (倾斜) and then fell back into the sandbox．The little boy tried his best, but his only reward was to have the stone roll back．

    Finally the boy cried．All that time the boy's father watched him from his living room window．At the moment tears fell, his father came to the boy and the sandbox．Gently but surely he said, "Son, why didn't you use all the strength that you had?" The boy said sadly, "But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had! No, son," corrected the father．"You didn't ask me．"With that, the father reached down, picked up the stone and removed it from the sandbox．

    Do you have "stones" in your life that need to be removed? Are you discovering that you are too weak to lift them? There is ONE who is always ready to give us the strength we need．Isn't it funny how we try so hard to do things on our own?

    You may have heard of people who are allergic（过敏）to seafood, smoke or pets. But did you know that some people were allergic to Wi-Fi signals(信号)?

    Rose White, a 44-year-old woman from Britain, first found herself being allergic to Wi-Fi signals in 2015.She had a cough, heart trouble and great pains in her head when she stayed at the places covered with Wi-Fi signals.

    Rose has tried many ways to keep away from Wi-Fi signals. In the past six months, she either slept in her car or in tent which she had put up in the woodland and in the fields. She even tried sleeping in a shed(棚子). Being completely tired, Rose had no choice but to quit her job and moved 370 kilometers away from her home to avoid Wi-Fi signals, but failed. Because of the hard life, she got a stomach problem.

    She is now living in a small house in the rural(乡下的) area in England. There are far fewer Wi-Fi signals. However, the house, which belongs to her friend, will be sold to others, so she has to move again soon.

    Rose is planning to move to a more rural area. She is also planning to buy a camper van(野营车) so that she can drive away from Wi-Fi signals whenever she is feeling uncomfortable. As she can not work to make money, she has to raise money online. She is hoping to raise 15,000 pounds. So far, she has raised over 1,600 pounds. She still has a long way to go.

    Helen is a kind and hard-working girl. Her father is a bus driver, and her mother is a worker. They're busy every day and sometimes they have no time to cook for their daughter. So her mother teaches her to cook some simple food. Helen learns very quickly and soon she can cook pancakes(煎饼) and hot dishes.

    Today is Sunday. Helen is free. She hopes her parents can eat hot food when they get home. She cooks some pancakes first. Then she wants to cook tomato soup, but she doesn't know how much salt(盐) she should put into the soup. She puts spoons(勺) of salt. Her parents are very happy after they see the hot pancakes and soup on the table. But they look very painful(痛苦的) after having the soup. "Oh dear Helen, how much salt did you put into the soup?" Her parents ask and begin laughing.

    As usual, Betty was sitting alone during break. As she sat, she heard a quiet "meow" nearby and found a little cat with a band showing the name "Lucky".

    She picked up the cat and went to ask her teacher if she could help the cat find his home as a class project.

    "Are you willing to organize this project?" Mrs. Smith asked. She had tried for months to get Betty to speak up in class, but Betty had stayed quiet. Maybe this was her chance to shine!

    Betty thought for a moment and then said, "Okay, we need to put up signs around the neighborhood and call the local newspaper." Tony also suggested that they call the Animals' Home. Soon students were busy drawing posters. Two students were making phone calls. Mrs. Smith was surprised to find Betty was so confident and really showed an ability to lead.

    Betty, however, was not thinking about being a leader or being shy. Her mind was on finding this lost cat's home.

    The two students making phone calls came back and announced, "The Animals' Home said that a family reported a lost cat named Lucky! They said they'd call the family to come and get him!" The class cheered. Ten minutes later, a woman showed up and said with joy, "Thank you for returning Lucky! He was very 'lucky' to have been found by such a caring group of students!"

    The class celebrated their success. Mrs. Smith celebrated, too. Betty sat comfortably with her classmates for the first time, laughing and joking. Mrs. Smith believed it was indeed lucky that Betty had found the cat—lucky for both of them!