A teenage girl couldn't stand her parents' family rules, so she left home.
She wanted to be famous. But she had poor education and several years later she had to ask for food on the street for a living. Now her father has died. Her mother is an old woman. But she is still looking for her daughter. She has been to every corner of the city. Everywhere she goes, she puts up a big photo of herself on the wall. At the lower part of the photo she writes,“I still love you . . . , come back home!”
One day, the daughter saw one of the photos. The face was familiar（熟悉）. “Is that my mother?” she moved closer and read the words“I still love you ...” She cried. When she got home, it was early morning. She knocked on the door. The door opened itself. She rushed to her mother's bedroom. Her mother was sleeping. She woke her mother up,“It's me! Your daughter is back home!” The mother and daughter held each other, full of happy tears. The daughter asked, “Why is the door not locked? A thief could get in.” The mother answered softly, “The door has never been locked since you left.”
The door of parents' love for their children will never be closed.

    “Homestay is a form of study abroad program．It allows visitors to rent a room from a local(当地的)family to better understand the local lifestyle．It also helps to improve the visitor's language ability，"said a teacher during a school meeting last term．“Students who wish to learn more about foreign cultures or to get foreign experience should join this kind of holiday．I am sure you won't be disappointed(失望的)．”

    After this special meeting，I always thought about this kind of holiday．Last month I had a chance at last to go on such a holiday with some of my schoolmates and we went to London．a place where I had wanted to go since years ago．

    As we were still young，we had a group leader who planned things for us and looked after us．After we got to London. we went to stay with different families．I was lucky that my host family(寄宿家庭)was a white couple who had a daughter about my age．They treated me as a daughter of their family during my stay there．They were interested in me and I learnt a lot of things from them，too．

    The holiday was filled with activities every day．After breakfast，a local teacher would come to take us in his car．Then we would have classes or go on a sight—seeing trip to different places of interest like the Big Ben，the London Bridge，and the Buckingham Palace．We would go back to our own homes after the activities．

    The holiday was a valuable experience for me．I enjoyed every minute of it．Yet，time really flew fast．Three weeks later，we had to leave “home” for Hong Kong．

    Although people everywhere seem to enjoy drinking coffee, they don't all have the same coffee culture. In Europe for example, coffee shops are common places for people to meet friends and to talk while they drink coffee. On the other hand, places like this were not as common in North America in the past. Instead, people in North America liked to drink coffee in their homes with friends. The coffee culture in the USA changed when Starbucks coffee shops spread across the country.

    The first Starbucks coffee shop opened in 1971 in downtown Seattle, Washington, in the USA. It was a small coffee shop that cooked its own coffee beans. The coffee shop's business did well, and by 1981 there were three Starbucks stores in Seattle.

    Things really began to change for the company in 1981.That year, Howard Schultz met the three men who ran Starbucks. Schultz worked in New York for a company that made kitchen equipment（设备）. He noticed that Starbucks ordered a large number of special coffee makers, which caused his great interest. Schultz went to Seattle to see what Starbucks did. In 1982, the original Starbucks owners hired （雇佣）Schultz as the company's head of marketing(市场营销).

    In 1983, Schultz traveled to Italy. The special environment of the espresso（浓 咖啡） bars there caught his eyes. Back in the USA, Schultz created an environment for Starbucks coffee shops that was comfortable and casual, and customers everywhere seemed to like it. Starbucks began opening more stores across the USA. Then the company opened coffee shops in other countries as well. Today, there are more than 16,000 Starbucks coffee shops all over the world.

    However, that does not mean Starbucks has not had problems. In fact, many Starbucks stores have closed over the past few years. On the one hand, this is because there were too many coffee shops competing for business in one small area. On the other hand, stores in some countries closed because the coffee culture there did not match with the “feel the same everywhere” environment offered by Starbucks.

    One day, when I arrived at school, an ice cream truck was parked in the schoolyard. Ice cream men usually drove their trucks to primary schools. I had never thought one ice cream truck would come to bring ice cream to us older kids. When I went up to the truck, I was quite surprised to hear the man call out, "Free ice cream!" To make sure of his words, I asked, "I'm sorry. What did you say?"" Free ice cream. Choose whichever you like," he said, smiling.

    After I was certain that the man was just giving away the ice cream, I talked with him for a long time. He told me that his dream was to travel around, giving away ice cream, and that's what he was now doing. With his mother's support, he kept doing what he loved even during hard times. Now, some large companies were helping him with his plan.

    The man said he wanted to encourage people to do exactly what their hearts told them to do during their lives. I kept asking him, "So your dream was just to drive around and give away ice cream? It seems like a very unusual goal." "Yes, just meeting people and making them smile," he replied. At that point he handed me my ice cream. I thanked him, but what I got from him was much more than just ice cream. It can't easily be expressed in words. I believe what he was doing is exactly what great people do all the time: small acts of big love.

    My father is seventy-five years old this year. But he looks very young. He looks like a sixty-year-old man. Now he can do everything all by himself. For example, he cooks, washes clothes, does the housework and so on.

    Every morning, my father goes out with a radio. He listens to the music or the news and goes to the park to play taijiquan. In the park, he talks and laughs with other old people. After coming back from the park, he begins to have breakfast and then he goes to the university (大学) for the old. He learns to draw there. In the afternoon, he plays on the computer for about one or two hours. After supper he watches TV and learns about the world. He goes to bed at about eight o'clock. He never stays up. He likes to share his ways of keeping healthy with others.

    Are you healthy? If not, what do you learn from my father's secret of keeping healthy?