A boy was sitting on the steps of a door one day. He had a stick in one hand,1in the other hand a large piece of bread and butter, which somebody had kindly given him. While he was eating it and singing a song happily, he saw a poor little dog quietly2not far from him. He called out to it, “Come here, poor dog!”

    Hearing this, the dog woke up, rose with its ears3and wagged its tail. Seeing the boy eating, it came near him. The boy held out to it a piece of his bread and butter. As the dog stretched out its head to take the4, the boy quickly drew back his hand and hit it5on the nose. The poor dog ran away,6loudly, while the cruel boy sat, laughing at the trick he had done.

    A gentleman, who was looking from a window on the other side of street, saw what the7boy had done. Opening the street door, he called him to8over, at the same time9up one dollar between the finger and thumb.

    “Would you like this?” said the gentleman.

    “Yes, if you10, sir,” said the boy, smiling, and he quickly ran over to seize the11.

    Just as the boy stretched out his hand, the gentleman hit12on the knee with an umbrella. “Why did you do that?” shouted the boy angrily. He made a very13face and cried, “I didn't hurt you, nor ask you for money.”

    “14did you hurt that poor dog just now?” said the gentleman. “It didn't hurt you, nor ask you for bread and butter. As you served it I have served you. Now, remember it can feel as well as you, and learn to behave15towards animals in future.”

    I was doing some last-minute Christmas shopping in a toy store. A nicely dressed little girl was 1 the teddy bears beside her father 2 she saw a little boy walk in and stop in front of the Pokemon toys. His jacket was obviously too small. He had money in his hand. However, it looked no more than five dollars at most. He was with his father, and kept picking up the Pokemon video games. Each time he showed 3 to his father, his father shook his head, "No".

    Rather disappointed, the boy gave up the video games and chose a book of stickers 4. After they walked away, the little girl ran over to the Pokemon video games. She excitedly picked up one 5 on top of the others, and ran toward the check-out. I picked up my purchases（购买物）and 6 the girl and her father.

    Then, much to the little girl's satisfactory（满意）, the little boy and his father got in line 7 her and me. After the video was paid for and bagged, the little girl handed it back to the cashier（收银员）and said something to her in a low voice. The cashier smiled and put the 8 under the counter（柜台）. I was putting things in my bag when the little boy came up to the cashier. The cashier said, "Congratulations, you're my hundredth customer today, and you win a prize!" and she handed the boy the Pokemon game. The boy could hardly believe his ears. It was, he said, 9 what he had wanted! The little girl and her father had been standing at the doorway, and I saw the biggest and prettiest smile on that little girl I have seen in my life.

    I suddenly understood that the world is not 10 into the strong who care and the weak who are cared for. We must each in turn care and be cared.

    Mike was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always happy and always had something interesting to say. If someone asked him how he was doing, he would reply, "Couldn't be better!" He was really a care-free young man and never felt tired.

    Mike used to say, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'Mike, you have two choices (选择) today. You can choose to be happy or you can choose to be upset.' I choose to be happy. Each time something happens, I am always ready to learn a good lesson. I choose to learn from life."

    I tried to understand what he said. Indeed life is all about choices. Every situation is a choice. The bottom line is: You're living your life and you make it either happy or sad.

    Several years later I had a car accident and my legs were seriously injured. When I was lying on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or choose to die. I chose to live.

    People like to say, "Choose the one you love and love the one you choose." Why not choose the one we love and live happily?

    Everyone wants to be successful. But failure is a common (普通的) thing for us to meet with.

    1, sometimes we 2 the exams, sometimes in the sports meet, others 3 but we fail. So4 everybody meets with the failure in his life.

    However, different people have different 5 to deal 6 the failure. Some people lose hope when they fail. They seem to think that it is the 7 of the world. Others, 8, don't take failure 9. They seem to think that failure is the first step to success. They will keep up and try their best 10 the final success.

    Now let's imagine the ends of the two ways. If we are 11 of the failure and always feel12, and don't try our best to change ourselves, we may meet with more and more failures. But as long as we are hopeful and brave to face them, and never give up, we will 13 successful and our dreams will come true some day.

    So, please remember: Life doesn't give us the pleasure we want. But 14 we never give up and15 do little by little, it will make a big difference.

An old farmer lived with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was always up early to read. One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa! What good does reading do?"

Grandpa quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket to the river and bring me back a basket of water."

The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out(漏出) before he got back home. Grandpa laughed, "You'll have to move a little faster next time." This time the boy ran faster, but again the same took place. It was an impossible task.

The old man said, "You're just not trying hard enough." So the boy tried a third time and failed. He said, "See Grandpa, it's useless!"

"So you think it is useless? Look at the basket."

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had turned from a dirty coal basket into a clean one inside and outside.

"You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read, you will be changed, inside and outside."

Once a man walked to India where he had never been before. When he got there, he saw many kinds of fruits. But most were expensive. The man saw a big basket of red, long fruit. He thought it must be sour and sweet. 

He went up and asked, " How much per kilo?"And the shopkeeper said, "Two rupees(卢比). "

Two rupees in India is nothing. And it was the cheapest in the shop. So he bought a kilogram and started eating it. But after he ate some, his eyes watered, his mouth watered and burned, and his face became red. He even coughed while eating. 

But he still ate the fruit! Some locals who were looking at him shook their heads and said, "You're crazy, man. It's chilly! You can't eat so much! People use it as spice(调味品), but only a little bit to put into food for taste. They're not fruit!" But the man said, . "No, I can't stop! I can't waste my money. "

Do you think that man was stupid? In fact, we sometimes do a lot of things like that. We put money, time or effort into a relationship, business or job. Even though over a long time it won't work, and we know things will never change in the future, we still go on just because of the things we've put in. like the man. 

So even if you've lost something, let it go and move on. That's better than keeping losing.