A man came out of the airport. A lot of taxis were there. He asked the name of every taxi-driver. Then he took the 3rd one. It cost 5 dollars from the airport to the hotel. "How much does it cost for the whole day?" the man asked. "One hundred dollars," said the taxi-driver. This was very expensive, but the man said it was OK.

    The driver took the man everywhere. He showed him all the parks and museums in the city. In the evening, they went back to the hotel. The man gave the driver 100 dollars and said, "What about tomorrow?" The taxi-driver looked at the man and said, "Tomorrow? It's another 100 dollars." But the man said, "That's OK! See you tomorrow." The driver was very pleased.

    The next day the driver took the man everywhere again. They visited all the parks and museums again. And in the evening they went back to the hotel. The man gave the driver 100 dollars again and was going home tomorrow. The driver was unhappy because he liked the man and above all, 100 dollars a day was a lot of money.  "So you're going home. Where do you come from?" he asked. "I come from New York." "New York!" said the driver. "I have a sister in New York. Her name is Lucy. Do you know her?" "Of course I know her. She gave me 200 dollars for you!"

    Once upon a time, there was a child ready to be born. One day he asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to the earth tomorrow but how am I going to live there? I'm too small and helpless." God answered, "I'll choose one of the angels for you and she will look after you". But the child said," But I'm happy here. I sing and smile every day. I don't want to leave."

    "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile at you every day. And you will feel your angel's love and be happy."

    "And how can I understand what people say?" the child asked.

    "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweetest words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak.

    At that moment, the child knew he had to start on his trip very soon. He asked God one more question, "God, I am leaving now, so could you tell me my angel's name?"

    God smiled at the child and answered, "Your angel's name is not hard to remember. You will call her Mother."

"Everything happens for the best." Whenever things weren't going my way, my mother would say this to me.

After I finished college in 1932, I decided to find a job in radio as a sports announcer(广播员) . I went to Chicago and knocked at the door of every station. But unluckily, I got turned down every time.

In one station, a kind lady told me that big stations wouldn't hire (雇用) a person without any experience and suggested that I try my luck at smaller stations. Following her advice, I went back to Dixon, where I had grown up. There were no such jobs in Dixon, and my father said a newly-opened store wanted a local person to work for it. I wanted this job, but I was refused again.

"Everything happens for the best," Mum reminded me. Dad offered me the car to look for a job. I tried WOC Radio in Davenport, Iowa. The programme director, Peter MacArthur, told me they had already hired an announcer.

As I left his office, I felt so frustrated. "How can I become a sports announcer if I can't get a job in a radio station?" I asked aloud.

While I was waiting for the elevator, I heard someone calling. It was MacArthur. "What was that you said about sports? Do you know anything about football?" Then he asked me to have a try. He was pleased with my performance, and he offered me a chance to work there.

On my way home, I thought of my mother's words: "If you carry on, one day something good will happen. Something wouldn't have happened without the failure before."

 Do you like watching old movies? Maybe you will see one with Carole Lombard. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} She died when she was only 

34. In her short life, she made 70 movies. 

 Lombard's real name was Jane Alice Peters. In 1921, she was playing baseball in the street near her school. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} he was only 13 at the time. The movie was one of the last movies without sound. She acted so well that she won the hearts of some people. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

{#blank#}4{#/blank#} The studio(制片厂) gave her a new name, and she acted in several films. Then at age 18, she was in a bad car accident. The accident left scars(疤痕) on her face. The studio broke the agreement, but she did not give up. She continued to act. 

 It was Paramount Studio that made Lombar d a star. She made many movies for the studio. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Lombar d was married to actor William Powell for only 23 months. But seven years later, she married the great love of her life, actor Clark Gable. It was a great Hollywood love story. 

Some people like to collect stamps. Others prefer posters or coins. But Pinky Bhutia is different. She collects children. In her mountain village, in Sikkim, she is known as the wonderful young woman who adopts (领养) all the children she can. 

Pinky was 14 when she adopted her first child, a Nepali baby girl, whose patents died. Pinky's parents did not mind. Pinky left school and started working full time because she had a baby to feed. Today, she has twelve adopted children, and two sons from her marriage. 

Pinky is about 30 years old and she comes from a common family. If you passed her on the street, you wouldn't give her a second look. She lives in a brown mud-washed（泥刷的） house. There is a vegetable garden outside. Red hens with noisy chicks run all over the garden looking for food.

If you ask her why she provides a home to so many kids, she smiles shyly. But her eyes are serious. "I know what it is to be poor and hungry. "As a child, her only dream was to eat a full meal, and her favorite amusement was watching people with shoes and imagining what it felt like. By adopting poor and homeless children she is making sure that they never feel that hopeless. 

Pinky feels very proud when she sees her children happy and bright, Her oldest baby, Aarita Rai, is now 20 years old. Then, there is 19-year-old Nimbe who came to Pinky because her mother was unable to look after her. She started to work in a government office two years ago. 10-year-old Bhim and 14-year-old Kumar came to Pinky five years ago, after their father died. They started living on a patch of land given by Pinky and grew vegetables for sale.

"I like children. It's not one more mouth to feed but one more soul saved, "Pinky says. 

I started learning English at the 1 of 22. It is kind of 2 to start studying a language. However, age is never a problem if you really want to 3 something.

I was preparing myself to study engineering in the USA. To enter my dream university, I had to 4 a TOEFL score of 90 or higher. After careful thought, I signed up for a six-month program to study English.

It was difficult to get 90 in six months for someone who started learning English from the very beginning, but I decided to have a try. In order to join the 5 ,I moved to a different city and rented (租用) a house with a friend. We were in the same program. We did not have any distractions(使人分心的事物) in 6 house, such as televisions, computers or smartphones.

We had classes every day from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with a lunch break only. After the classes were over, we had something for dinner and started 7 what we had learned and doing homework. We would study 8 we became sleepy and usually, we would finish it by midnight.

My friend and I encouraged each other and we did our best.9 , we 10 got perfect TOEFL scores and went to the USA at last.