Many students have hobbies, such as reading, painting, growing vegetables and looking after animals. Some hobbies are relaxing and others are active．Hobbies can make you grow as a person, develop your interests and help you learn new skills.21·cn·jy·com

 David Smith is a student，and one of his hobbies is writing．During the summer of 2010，he spent four weeks at a summer camp．Besides the usual activities，such as sailing and climbing , there was a writing class．"The teacher was a writer, and she asked us to talk about our lives and tell interesting stories. Then she envouraged us to  write about our experiences at the camp,”says David.

 Back at school, David wrote a story about the life of a sixteen-year-old boy, and it came out as a book in 2012. Mang young people love his book, and as a result, David has become a successful young writer.

 David has been very lucky because his hobby has brought him pleasure and success. But writing is not his only hobby. He is also interested in many other things. "I like playing volleyball，too，"says David．"I spend some of my free time playing volleyball for my school team．Maybe I'll write about my volleyball team in my future books.”

    Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, has become the richest man in China with a fortune of 150 billion yuan ($24.4 billion), according to the "Hurun Rich List 2014".

    Jack Ma was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. As a child, Mr. Ma was interested in English. He improved his English by volunteering as a tour guide. Later in his youth, he attended Hangzhou Normal University and graduated in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in English. He later became a teacher in English and International Trade at the Hangzhou Dianzi University. Then he set up his own translation company. In 1999, Mr. Ma founded Alibaba in his apartment in Hangzhou with 17 friends. He pointed out that there had never been an organization that is as large as Alibaba in the world. It welcomes about 100 million shoppers a day.

    Mr. Ma is often called China's Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates. He remains executive chairman of the company, but his decision focuses less on the blind wealth and more on improving the state of the world.

    There was a boy and his family was very rich. One day his father took him on a trip to a place. He wanted to show his son how poor people were there. They spent several days on a farm. There were many poor families living on the farm.

    On their way home, the father asked the son, "How was the trip?" "It was great, Dad," the son answered. "Did you notice how poor people were there?" asked his father. "Oh, yes," said the son. "So, tell me," said his father. The son said, "Well, we have one dog and they have four. We have a pool in our garden, while they have a river that has no end. We have expensive lanterns(灯), but they have stars above their heads at night. We have only a small place of land to live on, while they have the endless fields。We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have high walls around our houses to protect us, but they don't need walls, because their friends will protect them."

    The father had nothing to say. Then the boy added, "Thank you, Dad, for letting me see how poor we are."