Lasting a Lifetime

      Sidney Wilson's watch was old and it did not work well. It was either too fast or too slow. It spent more time in the repair shop than on his wrist (手腕). So he decided to buy himself a new watch.

      He went into a jewelry shop and said to the saleswoman behind the counter.

      “I want to buy a new watch, please. Show me the best watch you have.”

      The saleswoman smiled happily. This was the kind of customer she liked.

     “Certainly, sir,” she said, and showed Sidney a gold watch.

      “This watch is made of gold and has twenty-four jewels,” she explained.

      “How much is it?” Sidney asked.

      “$5,000,” the saleswoman said.

      “Oh,” Sidney said. “I'm sorry. You did not understand me. I want to see the best watch you have for under $100.”

      The sales woman now lost interest in Sidney. She pushed some cheap watches at him. “Choose one from these,” she said rudely.       “They are all under $100.”

      Sidney picked up one of the watches, “Will it last me a lifetime?” he asked.

     “Of course,” the saleswoman said.

     “Then I'll buy it,” Sidney told her. He paid for the watch and left the shop.

      Two days later the watch stopped. Sidney could not make it work again. He took it back to the shop.

      “This watch is broken,” he said to the saleswoman. “You told me it would last me a lifetime.”

     “When you bought it, sir,” the saleswoman said, “you didn't look very well.”

Choose the best answer to each question about the story.

    Charles Dickens was an English writer. He was born in 1812. He created some of the world's best-known characters and many readers think he is the most important writer of the Victorian era (1837-1901). Some of his famous novels are Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Great Expectations. Most people in his novels lived in London.

    In 1824, Dickens' father went to prison(监狱) because he couldn't pay money to someone. In those days, a man's wife and young children went to prison with him. Charles was 12, so he left school to work in the prison. Life was hard, and a lot of children worked in those days. Dickens' own experience helped him to write about poor children without a mother or father. Dickens' success began with the publication (出版) of The Pickwick Papers in 1836. And his book Oliver Twist is about a boy without father. Important people were more interested in the problems of poor people after reading Dickens' books.

    Dickens' novels are often very long and he wrote them in different parts for a newspaper each week. His novels have a lot of exciting and sad things in them. He wanted his readers to buy the newspaper every week. And the readers wanted to finish the story! Dickens' novels are popular because many of his stories are about social(社会的) problems and family life. Dickens was successful in writing and he has been praised by other writers for his style and characters.

One afternoon, I went to pick up my mother from work. I got there a little early, so I stopped my car by a small park and waited for her in the car. 

As I looked outside the car window, I saw a little boy, around two years old, running freely on the grass as his mother watched him from a short distance. The boy had a big smile on his face as if he had just been set free after being indoors for too long. He would then fall to the grass, get up, without even looking back at his mother, run as fast as he could, again, still with a smile on his face, as if nothing had happened. 

At that moment, I thought to myself "Why aren't adults this way? "Most adults, when they fall down, make a deal of it and don't even make a second attempt (尝试). They would be so embarrassed that they would not ty again if someone saw them fall. Or, because they fall, they would find a good excuse for themselves that they are not fit for it. They would end up too afraid to attempt again for fear of failure. 

However, with kids, when they fall down, they don't consider their falling as a failure. Instead, they treat it as a learning experience. They try again and again until they succeed. The answer must be that they have not connected "falling down" with the word "failure". As a result, they are not discouraged in any way. Besides, they probably think to themselves that it is quite okay to fall down and it is not wrong to do so. In other words, they allow themselves to make mistakes, so they remain energeti C. 

I was deeply impressed by the boy's persistence and the manner in which he did. 

One autumn afternoon, Maddie was moving her towel at the window."I wish I didn't have to wash these windows," she said 1 ."I think washing windows is the worst housework in the world."

As she washed her towel into the buckets (水桶) again, Maddie saw Mr. Smith, her 2 . standing in his front yard (院子) next door. He looked so 3 .

" Mr. Smith," Maddie called," How are you?"

" Well, Maddie, but I have to rake(用耙子耙) these leaves (叶子)," Mr. Smith said." Raking is the 4 housework for me."

"I' ll ra ke them for you," Maddie said happily."I5 building piles(堆) of fallen yello w leaves."

" You would do that for me, Maddie?" Mr. Smith asked.

" Sure," Maddie answered."I'd be glad to 6 . I' ll finish washing my windows later."

" Thank you," Mr. Smith said, handing Maddie the rake."I really 7 the help." Then he went away.

Maddie raked and finally got all of her small leaves together into one high mountain." It's time to wash my 8 ." she thought. But when she reached her yard, she 9 .

Tom, her neighbor, was standing there, facing the living room window." What is Tom doing?" she thought.

" He's 10 the windows!" she suddenly realized.

" Tom, why are you washing 11 windows?" Maddie asked.

Hearing Maddie's loud voice, Tom was 12 . He turned around and said," Oh, after I came back, I saw Mr. Smith washing my clothes in my yard. I asked him what I could do for him. Then he remembered you didn't finish cleaning your windows 13 you were raking his leaves."

" And I", Tom said," love to wash windows,"

Maddie laughed."I guess there's 14 for everyone," she said." Thank you for doing my windows, Tom. The housework chain(联手) is really 15 !"