It's Saturday afternoon. It's 1 and warm. There is a little wind. There are many people in the Yongtai District. What are they 2 there? Some 3 are playing chess. Some 4 are walking 5 the garden. Some boys are 6 basketball. Two girls are 7 a storybook. What 8 those old women? They're 9 exercise to keep healthy. Look! Two cats are 10 the tree. There are some birds in the tree. They want to catch the birds!

    Souanis Kim was an archery (射箭) teacher in a sports school and had trained many outstanding archers. So many parents sent their children to 1 One morning, Souanis Kim took the students to a tall tree for2. He walked to the tree about 20 meters ahead, put a toy bird on the trunk and said, "The task is to shoot the toy bird 3.

    The students stood in a line quickly. The first one was Sandy. He walked a few steps 4 , put the arrow on the string (弦), drew the bow (弓 ) and aimed at the toy bird.

    "What's 5 the bird?" asked Souanis Kim suddenly.

    "The blue sky," Sandy answered.

    Souanis Kim smiled. He asked Sandy to stand aside. The students 6 what the teacher's meaning was, but none of them asked.

    The 7was Keston. Like Sandy, he walked up. Just as he was ready to shoot the arrow, Souanis Kim asked him the 8question.

    "I see the trunk and the leaves," answered Keston. Souanis Kim 9 and asked Keston to stand aside, too.

    The third one was Jobes. Just 10 he was drawing the bow, Souarus Kim asked, "What's over the bird, Jobes?" Jobes stared at the toy bird and said, "I have seen 11but the toy bird."

    "Great!" said Souanis Kim. Then he shouted,"12!" Jobes shot the arrow and the toy bird fell.

    The students 13 with one voice. Souanis Kim looked at the 14 students and said seriously, "Remember: When an archer is showing, he must have only the 15 but nothing else."

    "What you want," she said," isn't always what you need." My mother always told me.

    1my husband and I were talking 2Christmas. "I want a real tree," I said.

    "Why?" he asked. "What's wrong with our fake(假的)one?" "A real 3makes a perfect Christmas." "Fine," he muttered(咕). So we4one home and set it up. Then I poured a bottle of water in the tree.

    "That's plenty," said my husband. "No," I said, "a little more." I began pouring again. Then suddenly, the tree started to swim. We5 the water with every towel(毛巾)in the house. "Sorry," I said. He didn't reply. 6later the floor was dry and he was7to me again. "The tree smells good," he said. I 8. Then we finished the lights and put the angel on top.

    Still, it wasn't quite…9So the next day I added snowflakes10the tree. It's still not perfect, but it's done. And I'm done, 11. But it's still not perfect. The lights on the tree are in a mess. The top snowflakes are showing their age. The berries are falling on the floor. 12at least it smells good. I will always remember that lovely 13 and the look my husband gave me.

    My mother was 14. What we want isn't always15we need. I don't need a perfect Christmas. I only need the perfect gifts that Christmas brings: joy and laughter with family.

    My stutter(口吃) had always been much of a problem. I'd had so many specialists(专家) for my speech over the years. It hurt me until I met a new one in the hall.

    "Hello! I'm Mrs. Claussen. I hear you're from Texas!"

    "Ye-Ye-Ye-Yes m-m-m-m-m-m-aam I am..."My heart felt like it was pounding (剧烈跳动)through my chest and my hands were dripping wet.

    "Well," she said with a 1smile. "I've always like Texas."

    She turned out to be the best speech specialist I've ever had, not like 2who told me to clap my hands while speaking. She was different from others. She spent the first several weeks just talking to me — asking me all kinds of questions about myself, 3my feelings. And she listened. She then began to teach me about the speech. Not just about my speech, but about everybody's.

    I 4in my old school and was a pretty good tenor(男高音), but I learned that the new school's singing group was all 5. It was such bad news, for I thought that was the one thing I could really do well- and I could do it .However, Mrs. Claussen finally got me in the group. I felt like she really cared about me as a person, not just a 6student.

    During the next two years, my speech didn't get much better - except with her. When I was in college(大学), things got worse. I once even wanted to know 7I would ever be able to communicate! It was a very sad time, and I often felt alone. When I was feeling really sorry for myself, I remembered Mrs. Claussen had told me whether I could change my speech was all up to me. She had told me to fight for perfect speech, just 8speech. She was right about that. I finally improved my speech greatly.

    Many years have passed, but I think of her from time to time, wondering (想知道)if she had as much 9on her other students as she had on me. I like to think that she did. Her name was Mrs. Claussen... and she 10me. I'll never forget her.

The other day, my husband called me to the balcony(阳台). "Come, dear, look at that car!" 

"What's up?" I asked, looking down at the square in front of our apartment building. A driver was trying to park between two cars. 

"That must be a woman," my husband said.

"How do you know?"

"I've watched the car move back and forth twenty times. Men can't be so bad at driving!"

"What if the driver is a man?" I asked.

"I bet you 50 yuan that the driver is a woman!"

We stood on the balcony and watched the car. It felt a little silly. Five minutes later, the car was finally parked perfectly, and a man slowly got out.

"Fifty yuan please," I said to my husband as he silently walked away.

My husband is not alone in looking down on female drivers. On weekends, my friend Lily likes traveling around the city by bus. But she always hesitates to get on a bus if the driver is a woman. "I can't trust a female driver," she told me one day. "Women are not born to drive, you know."

"Sorry, but I don't know," I said. I go to work by bus every day, and I never think female drivers are any worse. In fact, they are often more careful than men. Research also shows that female drivers are 8.8 times less likely to cause accidents than male drivers.

There are not many female bus drivers, though. And in the history of Formula One(一级方程式赛车), only 0.26 percent of drivers have been women. Without role models, many girls may think they are not meant to be good drivers. But the ability to drive has nothing to do with gender. Women can drive well, too. It's time to stop making jokes about female drivers.