Joe，75，lived very happily and had a beautiful family．He had four grandchildren，and they all visited him in their holidays.

    But while he was working，he lost his favorite watch．Before they came to visit，Joe was getting ready for his home for the kids：cleaning the house, buying their favorite foods and cooking delicious food..．

    The watch was a gift from his deceased(已故的)wife when their first child was born．Joe loved the watch very much．He was very unhappy．

    When his grandchildren came，they promised him they would find the watch．

    One granddaughter asked：“Grandpa，do you remember when you lost your watch?

    Joe answered：“I guess when l cleaned the barn!”

    The children looked for more than two hours but could not find it．

    One grandson went to search(搜寻) the barn again，and Joe asked why he was going there．The little boy asked the others not to follow him and to keep silent(安静的)．

    He was there for about 15 minutes and then ran to his grandfather．He found the watch!

    Joe was surprised and asked how he was able to find it．The little boy said：“I sat there without making a noise，and the barn was so silent．After a few minutes，I heard the ‘tick，tick' sound and found the watch．”

    Joe hugged him and thanked the little boy．

    This shows the power(力量)of silence．If we stay calm（冷静的），we are better able to find a solution(解决方法)!

    Michelle Wie, from America, is like a lot of other young girls in many ways. She is a good student, and she likes reading, drawing, and computers. However, in some other ways, she is very different. She doesn't spend much time going out with friends or shopping or going to parties. She's very busy practising golf.

    Michelle Wie is the best woman golfer for her age in the world. She was born in 1989. In 1999, at the age of 10，she began to win games. At 13, she could hit the ball farther than most of the women in the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). At 14, she showed she could hit the ball farther than most men.

    Wie began playing golf at the age of four. When she grew older, she played about four hours a day on weekdays and seven hours a day at weekends. Another thing that helped her was that she was tall. Now Wie is about six feet tall. She has the flexibility of a dancer and also is very strong. And it's clear that she loves the game.

    Kian Hamer has become one of the youngest members of Mensa. Mensa is an international organization(组织) for IQ(智商). His IQ is 162 and it's two points higher than Albert Einstein's and Professor Stephen Hawking's. Mensa has 110,000 members all over the world, including 20 , 000 in the British Isles(不列颠群岛). Only eight percent of members are under 16.

    Mensa sent a letter to Kian's home. The letter wrote, "Kian is one of the cleverest people in the world. "Kian feels proud to have got such a good score and he's really excited to join Mensa. He always works hard on everything he does and he's always ready for自challenge. Although people call him a genius(天才), he still wants to be a professional footballer when he grows up. He loves playing football very much.

    His dad Rich Hamer, who works as a firefighter, said, "Kian is clever but I'm not allying him a genius like others. I want him to keep his feet on the ground. He needs to study hard forever. Never be proud. A lot of people have joked that he's too clever to be a footballer. I don't think Kian realized what a good score it was at first. He's always done really well at school. He works really hard and always tries his best."

I always think my daughter Kendall is the best. When she was only three, she 1  for the people, like a little angel.

When Kendall was five, we noticed that she 2  had a tic(抽搐). When the problem got worse, we took her from doctor to doctor. During the treatment(治疗), Kendall kept on singing. 3  , her tics disappeared when she sang.

When Kendall was sixteen, we thought she would be cured (治愈) soon. However, a(n) 4  thing happened.

At a party, Kendall jumped on Jim for a piggyback ride. But he bent lower than she thought and she jumped higher than 5  thought. Kendall flew over his back and landed on the floor—on her neck. People sent her to 6  immediately, and she became paralysed (使瘫痪) from the neck down. She couldn't 7  . But to my daughter, the biggest 8  wasn't whether(是否) she would walk again, but was whether she could take part 9  a famous show.

As the days went on, feeling on her left side 10  , but she was still paralysed on the right side of the body. One day, a friend 11  with a microphone(麦克风) and put it on her bed. Every day, Kendall tried hard to pick it up. It was more 12  for her to pick up that microphone than a spoon or a fork.

Sometimes she had to bite a toothbrush to take her mind off the 13  . We all cried because of the pain we saw. But on the day —only three months after her accident — we cried with joy when she sang, 14  she didn't enter the Top of the show.

When she was a little girl, she asked," 15  me?" My heart hurt, but I told her,"Kendall, you have a pure heart, a fantastic voice and a strong mind. You're everything to me."

When I was a child, I spent each Thanksgiving with my large family at my {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (grandparents) in Maryland, US. It's a wooden cabin (小屋) on the side of a hill, in {#blank#}2{#/blank#} small and green forest. For me, that cabin meant Thanksgiving. 

Our {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (one) greeting (打招呼) was from Grandma's dog, Jesse. He met us at our car and jumped up and down {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (excited) when we carried our bags into the house. Inside were my grandparents, aunts uncles and cousins. Aunt Sue touched my face and told me how big I'd gotten. Grandpa {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (shake) my hands to welcome us. 

The next day, by the time I woke up, Grandma and Mom had already begun cooking. We all helped out. Dinner was finally {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (serve) at about 4 p.m. Before we ate, Grandma asked each person to say at least one thing that he or she was thankful for. I said, "I want to say {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (thank) to my parents, my grandparents and the food!" I was too hungry to think of anything better. {#blank#}8{#/blank#} everyone finished speaking, we enjoyed ourselves together. It was all delicious food. What we like the {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (good) was the homemade apple pies. 

Then, we took a long walk through the forest. Under the late-autumn stars, we made a campfire (营火) and talked {#blank#}10{#/blank#} things when we were together. I looked back up the hill at the cabin, and one word appeared: "Happiness" . 

 One day, two fishermen fished in a pond (池塘). Both of them were looking forward to getting a big catch. 

 The first fisherman caught a big and beautiful fish within a few minutes. He was very happy. 

He put the fish in his icebox. He would cook it in the afternoon. 

 Soon, the second fisherman also caught a large fish. Surprisingly, he threw it back into the pond. Later, he caught many more big fish, only to throw them back into the water again. 

 The first fisherman was surprised. "Why are you throwing the fish back into the water? They were beautiful and big!"

 The second fisherman answered, "I know they were big, but I don't have a big enough pan(平底锅) to cook big fish! So I'm looking for a smaller fish that fits my cooking pan. "

 The first fisherman was surprised by the answer. He told the second fisherman that he could just cut the big fish into smaller pieces to fit them into the small pan. 

 Many of us are just like the second fisherman. We don't think carefully and this sometimes causes us to lose opportunities (机会).