One day, a farmer was walking along a road with his son Thomas. The father said. “Look! There's a horseshoe. Pick it up and put it in your bag.” Thomas said, “It isn't worth the trouble.” His father said nothing but picked it up himself. When they got to a nearby town, they had a rest. There the farmer sold the horseshoe and with the pennies he bought some grapes.

    It was very hot, and there wasn't a house or a tree where they could have a rest. Thomas felt too thirsty to walk on. At this time. his father dropped a grape on the ground and Thomas picked it up quickly and ate it. After a while, his father dropped another grape and once again. His son picked it up and put it in his mouth.

    And so they went on. The old farmer dropped the grapes and the son picked them up. When Thomas had eaten up all the grapes, his father said to him. “My dear son, if you had bent down early to pick up that horseshoe. It would not have been necessary for you to bend so many times for the grapes, always remember the lesson(教训):  A person who does not worry about the little things

    will find that he can not do the great things.”

    A girl who graduated from a world famous university wanted to do translation work for authority leaders. She was so happy when she entered the British Embassy (大使馆). She thought it was the greatest happiness in her life as many graduates wanted to get that job and she was one of the few people who got it!

    But when she started her new job, she realized that it was just a job of answering calls and recording staff members' arriving and leaving times. It was supposed to have no future. For some time, she felt disappointed and didn't know what to do. However, she didn't want to give up this job. She thought about it for one or two days and finally she decided that she would try her best to do this job. From then on, she learnt to appreciate her own job. She wrote down the names and phone numbers of the staff members on a notebook so that he could remember them. She found great pleasure in dealing with the daily chores. When a phone call came in, she picked up the phone as soon as possible. When someone asked her about who was not in the office, she would give the right name and even the time when he or she left. Nobody could do that except her.

    Her excellent work received praise not only from the embassy's members, but also from people in the local government. A leader of a famous company in Britain was deeply impressed by her, so he invited her to work for him. After that she became the leader's personal translator and she was appreciated by the foreigners.

    We cannot choose our destiny (命运), but we can choose the attitude with which we face our life. Maybe me attitude could change our destiny.

    My grandfather Jack is 96 years old, and he has an interesting life. He has travelled a lot in his life in the Far East. He visited the Taj Mahal in India and the Pyramids, in Egypt. He hunted (狩猎) lions in Africa, and rode a camel in the Sahara Desert. He says the most beautiful place he has travelled to is Kathmandu in Nepal.

    Jack has married twice. His first wife died when she was 32. He met his second wife Maria while he' was cycling round France. They have been married for 50 years, and they have lived happily in a small village since they got married.

    Jack says that he has never been ill in his life. The secret of good health, according to my grandfather, is exercise. He goes swimming every morning. He has done this since he was a boy. He also has a glass of wine every night! Perhaps that is his secret!

    "I am a selfish child.

    I hope the sunshine lies only upon me, so I can feel its warmth.

I am a selfish child.

    I hope there is a corner of the world that can comfortable for me when I am sad,

    I am a selfish child.

    I hope my mom belongs only to me, so I can enjoy the sweetness of love. "

    This poem was written by a middle school student in a lonely mountains town in Yunnan Province during her first poetry class. The girl missed her mother, who died when she was 5.

    Kang Yu, the teacher who taught the girl how to write the poem, graduated from Renmin University of China in Beijing in 2015. Soon after her gradation, Kang moved to a town in Yunnan, and worked as a teacher at a middle school there.

    Kang said, "Compared with students in the city, perhaps students in the countryside need a way to express their feelings and be heard more." Supported by the headmaster and other teachers, the school held eight poetry classes for students every year.

    As the classes grew in popularity, Kang became the school's favourite teacher. After she finished her teaching at the school in June 2017, she returned m Beijing and planned to study abroad.

    However, on Teachers' Day in 2017, Kang received a big box full of poems and Letters written by students at her old school. She felt she was needed and decided to abandon her plan of studying abroad. Instead, she set up Enlighten our Future, a charity that reaches students in the countryside how to write poems.

    "Now, I go to several places every week I sleep less than six hours a night and the job  provides no vacations and little money, but the happiness and satisfaction I feel is rewarding enough." Kang said.

    One weekend, Taylor, an eight-year-old girl, went shopping with her parents. She asked her parents to buy a toy she wanted. Instead of giving her money to buy the toy, Taylor's father encouraged her to make money by herself. "How can I make money?" Taylor thought for a while and had an idea, "Why not make cakes and sell them at church to raise money to buy the toy?"

    The next day, Taylor started her plan. She first needed some money for tools and materials. So she borrowed $40 from her parents and promised to pay it back. Then she began to make cakes by herself. To her parents' surprise, she made $175 by selling the cakes that Sunday.

    Everyone thought Taylor would buy the toy she wanted. She certainly had made enough money for it, but she didn't. Instead, Taylor decided to buy business cards and had her father's phone number on them. Then she began handing the cards out. More people knew Taylor and came to buy her cakes. Even large companies began to try buying her delicious cakes.

    Though Taylor has made a lot of money, she still works hard at school. She also likes to take part in other activities. So Taylor must carefully manage her time. For example, instead of watching TV after school, Taylor might have to bake (烘焙) a lot of cakes for customers. When she has dance lessons on some days, she needs to get her baking done on time so she isn't late for class.

    Making cakes may take time and be hard work, but Taylor sees the fun in it. "I think making cakes is mostly my hobby," she says. She also decorates the boxes that are used to pack the cakes. Taylor uses all kinds of decorations to make sure each box looks special for her customers. People love the extra feeling Taylor gives them by decorating the boxes, so more and more people come for her cakes.

    Taylor's cakes are becoming very popular. She achieves a sweet success.