Each morning a rich man found a poor man sitting on a park bench（凳）．The poor man always 1there, looking at the big   2  in which the rich man lived. One day the rich man got out of his car and said to the poor man, “Excuse me, but I just want to know 3 you sit here and look at my hotel    4 ”.“Sir ,” said the poor man, “I am a failure. I have no money, no family, no home. I sleep on this bench, and every night I dream that one day I'll sleep in that hotel.”

      The rich man said, “Tonight your dream will  5  . I will pay for the   6  room in that hotel for you   7  a whole month.”

      A few days later, the rich man  8 the poor man's room to ask him if he was enjoying  9  .To his  10 , he found that the man had moved out of the hotel, back to his   11 .When the rich man asked why, the poor man said, “You see,   12    I'm down here sleeping on my bench, I dream I'm up there , in that big hotel. It's a    13 dream. But when I was  14  there, I dreamed I was back to this cold bench. It was a terrible dream , and I   15  get any sleep at all.”

    It was nearly seven o'clock, when a man walked into a bar, ordered a drink and turned to watch the television.

    The seven o'clock news was on and it was showing a man standing on top of a tall building. He was looking down at the crowd of people below.

    On the ground, a police officer with a megaphone(扩音器)was trying to tell him not to jump.

    "Let's talk about your problem," the police officer was saying. "Perhaps we can help you."

    The man turned to the bartender(酒吧侍者)and said, "I bet you a hundred dollars he doesn't jump.

    The bartender looked at him. "You're offering me a hundred dollars if he jumps? Is that right?"

    "Yes. I don't think he'll jump."

    The bartender smiled. "OK. You've got a bet."

    The man turned back to the TV and watched it carefully. The bartender, however, did not seem to be very interested. He continued washing glasses and serving the other customers.

    Then, after about five minutes, the man on the building threw himself off the building and fell to the ground.

    The man in the bar turned to the bartender.

    "He jumped," he said. "You win."

    He held out a hundred dollar bill to the bartender, but the bartender would not take it.

    "I can't take your money," he said. "I knew I couldn't lose. That story was on the six o'clock news. I saw him jump."

    "Well, yes, so did I," the man said, "but I didn't think he'd do such a stupid thing twice."

    This is a story about a mountaineer named Phillip. Phillip belongs to a mountaineering team that planned to climb a mountain. He had a keen desire to be successful and well-known. Therefore, in order to enjoy the1of being the first to reach the mountaintop. Phillip went to climb the mountain alone one night while the other mountaineers were sleeping.

    Clearly, climbing at night wasn't a smart decision. But he still wanted to give it a go. After several hours' climbing, he2got to the top. How excited he was to see the top a few metres forward! But he suddenly slipped and started to fall. At that moment, his entire life flashed before him.

    While thinking about how close he was to death and how3he was, he felt the rope around his waist suddenly tighten around him. His body was hanging in mid-air.

    He screamed, "Somebody help me!"

    Suddenly, a low voice came from the valley(山谷), "Cut the rope!"

    "What？"He couldn't believe what he heard.

    "Cut the rope around your waist!"

    It was dark all around, so he couldn't see his surroundings. He4to cut the rope but to hold onto it as tightly(紧紧地) as he could

    The next morning, when his fellow mountaineers found him, he had died of exposure to the low temperature, holding tight to the rope in his hands. But he was only ten feet5a big rock!

    If he had cut the rope, he might have landed in a safe place, build a fire and6someone who passes by. Then he might have survived. So sometimes giving up is the way forward.

    Debbie is a very busy woman. She has ten children. Every morning she wakes up at 6: 00. The older children get up at 6: 30 and the younger children get up an hour later. After the older children leave for school at 8: 00, Debbie spends most of the day at home with her babies, cooking and cleaning. She doesn't have time to go out to work, but she doesn't mind. Debbie's husband Bob works in a bank. He doesn't enjoy it, but he makes lots of money. Debbie spends most of it on food and clothes for the children.

    Debbie likes the evening best. After dinner, she sits down in the living room and tells the children stories before they go to bed. She doesn't read from a book. She reads her own stories. Once the children are asleep, Debbie can relax. But she doesn't sit and watch TV with Bob. She writes stories in a notebook.

    Bob sent one of Debbies' stories to a competition and it won. The organizer of the competition said Debbie should become a writer, but Debbie wasn't sure. However, the children thought it was a great idea, so she decided to try. The children like elephants best, so Debbie wrote a story about them. One book company (公司) loved it and published (出版) it. People can now buy her book in shops.

With a birthday usually comes a party, as well as a cake, presents and wishes from friends. But beyond these, what does a birthday 1 mean?

One year I spent my birthday alone in a completely new place. Calls and messages poured in as usual.2 , I was uncertain what to do. I had nowhere to go, nor did I know anyone with whom I could go out and share the 3 of the event.

At that moment, my mother called me, asking, "What are you 4 for your birthday?"

"I'm not sure, Mum. There's 5 here," I said in a low voice.

"You don't always need a lot of people for your birthday. Just follow your heart and make this day yours." What Mum said made me feel less 6 .

Then I picked up a book and lost myself in it, with music on. I did exactly as my mother told me and 7 "my own day". Unexpectedly, I got connected with my inner self. It was a 8 but satisfying day. I realized for the first time that I had fully grown-from the preschool child who shared chocolate with the whole class on my birthday to someone who could now 9 it with myself.

When I lay in bed that night, I remembered my mother's words. "You came into our lives this day," she said. Her voice was filled with joy and 10 for the coming of my life. And indeed, that is the true 11 of birthday celebrations-the valuable gift of life itself.

I spent a birthday 12 a party. It made me realize the spirit of birthday itself.