I really love my job because I enjoy working with small children and like the challenges and awards from the job. I also think my work is important. There was a time when I thought I would never have that sort of career.

    I wasn't an excellent student because I didn't do much schoolwork. In my final term I started thinking what I might do and found I didn't have much to offer. I just accepted that I wasn't the type to have a career.

    I then found myself a job — looking after two little girls. It wasn't too bad at first. But the problems began when I agreed to live in so that I would be there if my boss had to go out for business in the evening. We agreed that if I had to work extra hours one week, she'd give me time off the next. But unfortunately, it didn't often work out. I was getting extremely tired and fed up, because I had too many late nights and early mornings with the children.

    One Sunday, I was in the park with the children, and met Megan who used to go to school with me. I told her about my situation. She suggested that I should do a course and get a qualification（资格证书）if I wanted to work with children. I didn't think I would be accepted because I didn't take many exams in school. She persuaded me to phone the local college and they were really helpful. My experience counted for a lot and I got on a part-time course. I had to leave my job with the family, and got work helping out at a kindergarten.

    Now I've got a full-time job there. I shall always be thankful to Megan. I wish I had known earlier that you could have a career, even if you aren't top of the class at school.

    People often ask which is the most difficult language to learn, and it is not easy to answer because there are too many factors to take into consideration. Firstly, in a first language the differences are unimportant as people learn their mother tongue naturally, so the question of how hard a language is to learn only makes more sense when learning a second language.

    A native speaker of Spanish, for example, will find Portuguese much easier to learn than a native speaker of Chinese, for example, because Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, while Chinese is very different, so first language can affect learning a second language. The greater the differences between the second language and our first, the harder it will be for most people to learn. Many people answer that Chinese is the hardest language to learn, possibly influenced by the thought of learning the Chinese writing system, and the pronunciation of Chinese does appear to be very difficult for many foreign learners. However, for Japanese speakers, who already use Chinese characters in their own language, learning writing will be less difficult than for speakers of languages using the Roman alphabet.

    Some people seem to learn languages easily, while others find it very difficult. Teachers and the circumstances in which the language is learned also play an important role, as well as each learner's motivation for learning. If people learn a language because they need to use it professionally, they often learn it faster than people studying a language that has no direct use in their day to day life.

    Obviously , British diplomats and other embassy staff have found that the second hardest language is Japanese, which will probably come as no surprise to many, but the language that they have found to be the most problematic is Hungarian, which uses a similar alphabet to English but has 35 cases (forms of a nouns according to whether it is subject, object, genitive, etc). This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest language to learn for everyone, but it causes British diplomatic personnel, who are generally used to learning languages, the most difficulty. However, Tabassaran, a Caucasian language has 48 cases, so it might cause more difficulty if British diplomats had to learn it.

    Different cultures and individuals from those cultures will find different languages more difficult. Therefore, it is impossible to say that there is one language that is the most difficult language in the world.

    In Western countries, bread is one of the most important foods. When they get up in the morning many people eat toast (烤面包). They spread butter and jam on their toast. People eat bread at other times of the day too. For example, at main meals, they often eat bread with soup.

    It's also very common to eat sandwiches. A sandwich is two pieces of bread with a filling inside - salad, cheese or fish. A hamburger is a kind of sandwich.

There are many different kinds of bread. Some are special to some countries. For example, the baguette (法国棍子面包) is a long, thin loaf that began in France.

    There is also white bread and whole-wheat (全麦面) bread. What's the difference? White bread is refined (精制的). It has things taken out of it to make it softer and easier to eat. The trouble is, white bread also has lots of goodness taken out. Although some people dislike the taste of whole-wheat bread, it is much healthier.

    Some kinds of bread have additives (添加剂). They are put into the bread for many reasons. Some additives are good for you - for example vitamin C. Others are there to make the bread last longer. Still others to make it taste better - but they do not necessarily make the bread healthier to eat!

    Her Fearful Symmetry

    By Audrey Niffenegger

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    Julia and Valentine Poole are normal American teenagers. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn't know has died and left them her flat in London.

    Published: 05 July 2010

    Format: Paperback 496 pages

    Sales rank: 114

    The Book Thief

    By Markus Zusak

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    Liesel, a nine-year-old girl is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the people of her street when the bombs begin to fall.

    Published: 01January 2008

    Format: paperback 560 pages

    Sales rank: 188,505

    The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

    By John Boyne

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    The book tells the story of a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. And sooner or later the reader arrives with Bruno at a “fence”, which is not meant to be crossed.

    Published: 11 September 2008

    Format: paperback 224 pages

    Sales rank: 113

    The Help

    By Kathryn Stockett

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    It's Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. No one would believe they'd be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in search of truth.

    Published: 13 May 2010

    Format: Paperback 464 pages

    Sales rank: 16

    Ever walked to the shops only to find, once there, you've completely forgotten what you went for? Or struggled to remember the name of an old friend? For years we've accepted that a forgetful brain is as much a part of aging as wrinkles and gray hair. But now a new book suggests that we've got it all wrong.

    According to The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, by science writer Barbara Strauch, when it comes to the important things, our brains actually get better with age. In fact, she argues that some studies have found that our brain hits its peak between our 40s and 60s — much later than previously thought.

    Furthermore, rather than losing many brain cells as we age, we keep them, and even produce new ones well into middle age. For years it's been assumed that brain, much like the body, declines with age. But the longest, largest study into what happens to people as they age suggests otherwise.

    This continuing research has followed 6,000 people since 1956, testing them every seven years. It has found that on average, participants performed better on cognitive (认知的) tests in their 40s and 50s than they had done in their 20s. Specifically, older people did better on tests of vocabulary, verbal memory (how many words you can remember) and problem solving. Where they performed less well was number ability and perceptual speed — how fast you can push a button when ordered. However, with more complex tasks such as problem-solving and language, we are at our best at middle age and beyond. In short, researchers are now coming up with scientific proof that we do get wiser with age.

    Neuroscientists are also finding that we are happier with aging. A recent US study found older people were much better at controlling and balancing their emotions. It is thought that when we're younger we need to focus more on the negative aspects of life in order to learn about the possible dangers in the world, but as we get older we've learned our lessons and are aware that we have less time left in life: therefore, it becomes more important for us to be happy.