Different people have different skin（皮肤）. Some have black skin. Some have yellow skin, and some have white skin. There was a woman in Alaska. Her skin was orange. It was almost the color of orange juice.

    How did her skin become orange? She ate lots of tomatoes, carrots, and squashes (南瓜). She ate too many orange things. That's why her skin turned orange.

    The woman didn't want her skin to be orange, so she went to see the doctor. The doctor said. “Stop eating orange things. Eat some green things.” The woman did so, and her skin wasn't orange any more.

C

    One night, when I was eight, my mother gently asked me a question I would never forget. "Cindy, my company wants to promote (升职) me but needs me to work in Brazil. This is like your teacher telling you that you've done well and allowing you to skip (跳) a grade, but you'll have to leave your friends. Would you say yes to your teacher?" She gave me a hug and asked me to think about it. I was lost in thought. The question kept me wondering for the rest of the night. I had said "yes" but for the first time, I realized the difficult decisions adults had to make.

    For almost four years, my mother would call us from Brazil every day. Every evening I'd eagerly wait for the phone to ring and then tell her everything happened during the day. A phone call, however, could never take her place and it was difficult not to feel lonely at times.

    During my fourth-grade Christmas break, we flew to Rio to visit her. Looking at her large empty apartment,   ▲    It was then I started to understand the difficult choices she had to make. She needed to think about both family and work. Faced with difficult decisions, she used to tell me, you wouldn't know whether you make the right choice, but you could always make the best out of the situation, with a positive attitude.

    Back home, I reminded myself that what my mother could do, I could, too. If she managed to live in Rio all by herself, I, too, could learn to be independent. I learn how to take care of myself and set high but achievable goals.

    My mother is now back with us. But I will never forget what the experience has really taught me. I've learned a lot because of this separation. There are lots of difficult decisions that we have to face in our life. We need to have a positive attitude no matter what happens.

    There was once a man called Mr. Flowers, and flowers were his only joy in life. He spent all his free time in one of his four glass-houses and grew flowers of every color, with long and difficult names, for competitions（比赛）. He tried to grow a rose of a new color to win the silver cup（银杯）for the Rose of the Year.

    Mr. Flowers' glass-houses were very near to a middle school. Boys of around thirteen of age were often tempted（引诱）to throw a stone or two at one of Mr. Flowers' glass-houses. So Mr. Flowers did his best to be in or near his glass-houses at the beginning and end of the school day.

    But it was not always possible to be on watch at those times. Mr. Flowers had tried in many ways to protect his glass, but nothing that he had done had been useful. He had been to school to report to the headmaster; but this had not done any good. He had tried to drive away the boys that threw stones into his garden; but the boys could run faster than he could, and they laughed at him from far away. He had even picked up all the stones that he could find around his garden, so that the boys would have nothing to throw; but they soon found others.

    At last Mr. Flowers had a good idea. He put up a large notice（布告）made of good, strong wood, some meters away from the glass-houses. On it he had written the words: DO NOT THROW STONES AT THIS NOTICE. After this, Mr. Flowers had no further trouble; the boys were much more tempted to throw stones at the notice than at the glass-houses.

    A company wanted to get the best employee(雇员). After the competition, only three people were left.

    In the last competition, the three people entered a room with a monitor(监视器). Inside the room, there was everything they needed but no telephone and they couldn't surf the Internet. The three people just waited patiently for the exam questions.

    The first day, three people were very excited, watching TV, reading books and listening to music.

    The next day, because they still didn't know the exam questions, two of them were worried and often changed TV channels.

    Five days later, the winner was the one who could keep a happy life. The leader of the company thinks happiness is a kind of ability(能力). If you keep a happy heart, you will succeed finally!