Cordia Harrington owns three McDonald's restaurants in Illinois. Being a single mom, she is very successful. Now let's talk about her story.

There was an old mule(骡子). One day accidentally he fell into the farmer's well. The farmer thought for a while and said to himself that neither the well nor the old mule was important to him. So he decided to use soil to bury the old mule in the well.

    Then the farmer called his neighbours and they started to put the soil into the well together. The old mule was quite afraid in the beginning. But soon one hopeful idea came to his mind - every time when a shovel(铁铲) of soil landed on his back, he would shake it off and step up!

He said these words to himself again and again, "Shake it off and step up." This way he could fight against the panic (恐慌) and encourage himself. After some time, the mule had stepped over the well's wall. Although terribly tired, he was the winner and he saved his own life. He decided to face his difficulty bravely and not to give up, and finally he won.

    My grandfather is eighty years old now．He always complains about how fast things have changed, and he often says that life used to be better．

    Families aren't families they used to be．A lot of families have broken up．If husband and wife have problems with their marriage, they no longer stay together．And mothers used to stay at home and take care of their children, but now not any more．Everyone is busy working．Mother used to spend all day cooking in the kitchen．But now the family don't eat home-cooked food any more．

    And the cars! No one walks any more．More and more people drive．Students used to walk 5 miles to school every day, even in winter．But now students don't．And in school, children don't have to think any more．In math class, for example, they used to add, subtract, multiply and divide(加减乘除)in their heads．Instead, they use calculators(计算器)．

    And people today have TV and computers, and they don't talk to each other any more．They are too busy to talk, too busy to eat, too busy to think…．

    Life used to be simple, but it isn't any more．

C

    TF boys, a boy band that has three middle school students, many people like them very much. The band name TFBOYS means The Fighting Boys(拼搏少年).

    Wang Junkai, 14, from Chongqing. Wang is a student at TF-Entertainment when he is 8. He still goes to school like other kids on weekdays. But his weekends are busy with training(训练) classes. He learns how to sing and dance. Many boys can't do it, but Wang can.

    Wang Yuan, 13, from Chongqing. Fans like to call Wang “Er Yuan” because he is a funny boy. Because he likes telling jokes(笑话). The boy's life is easy. His phone is only 300 yuan.

    Yiyang Qianxi, 13, from Hunan. Yiyang is short. He is a good student. He is a great dancer. He joins in TV shows. He plays different roles in many movies. He is good at calligraphy(书法). When other children show their new clothes on Weibo, Yiyang shows his calligraphy work. How can he be good at so many things? “I am practicing dancing when others are playing.” he says.

To Borrow Arrows with Thatched Boats

One day, Zhou Yu ordered Zhuge Liang to make 100,000 arrows（箭）in ten days. Zhou Yu thought it was impossible, but Zhuge Liang said, "Give me three days." Then he asked Lu Su to lend him 20 boats, and the soldiers put some scarecrows（稻草人）in line on the boats. He reminded Lu Su not to tell Zhou Yu what was happening. 

When Lu Su came again to see Zhuge Liang, he found nothing unusual. Nothing happened on the second day, either. In the small hours（凌晨）of the third day, Zhuge Liang invited Lu Su for a boat ride. The 20 boats were tied together with strong ropes. Zhuge's fleet went towards the camp of Cao Cao. The surface of the river was covered with thick mist（雾）all over. People could hardly see each other on the river. When Zhuge's fleet got close to the Cao camp before dawn（黎明）, Zhuge Liang ordered his soldiers to shout and beat drums heavily to pretend an attack. But Zhuge and Lu Su only sat inside one boat drinking wine to enjoy themselves. 

As soon as the Cao camp heard the shouting and drum beating, they mistook it for a surprise attack by the Zhou Yu camp. Since they could see nobody on the river, they had to order 3,000 soldiers to shoot arrows to stop the unexpected attack. The front of the scarecrows was quickly full of arrows. After a while, Zhuge Liang had his fleet turned around to get the other side of the scarecrows to face the Cao camp. When both sides were full of arrows, the day broke. Zhuge Liang ordered his soldiers to return. The soldiers shouted in excitement, "Thank you, Cao Cao, for your arrows." After they got back to their camp, they collected more than 100,000 arrows in total from the scarecrows.