Everyone needs friends. There is an old saying, "Friends are God's way of taking care of us." But how do you find real friendship and keepit?

    The American writer Sally Seamans tells young students some smart ways to find friends. Sally says finding friendship is just like planting a tree. You plant the seed(种子) and take care of it to make it grow.

    First, you should choose a friend. What makes a good friend? It is not because a person has money or good looks. A good friend should be kind and patient(耐心的). For example,  if you have a bad day, a good friend should listen to your complaints(抱怨) and do his orher best to help. To make a friend, you can't betoo shy. You should make each other happy.

    But things can't lways be happy. Even the best friends have fights. What should you do when you have a fright with your friend? You have to talk to him or her. When there isno one around, have an honest talk. If he or she doesn't want to talk, you could write a letter. There are three steps to being friends again:

    Tell him or her how you are feeling; say what your friend has done wrong, and explain(解释) why you did this or that;  remember that friendship is the most important thing in your life.

An old carpenter was ready to retire. His boss was 1 to see the good worker go. He asked the carpenter 2 he could build one more house. The carpenter said yes, but his mind was no 3 on his work.

    He used poor materials and worked on the house 4. When the carpenter finished his work, the boss 5 the front-door key to him. "This is your house," he said. "A 6 for you."

    What a surprise! What a 7! If he had known he was building his 8 house, he would have done it differently. Now he had to live in the house he had poorly built.

    9 it is with us. Sometimes we build our 10 carelessly. At important points we do not try our best. Then with a pity we look at the situation we had 11. We find that we are now living in the house we have poorly built. But we don't have a 12 to make it all over again.

    Think of 13 as the carpenter. Think about your life. Build it 14. It is the only life you will ever build because life is a do-it-yourself project.

    Your life today is the 15 of your attitudes and choices you made in the past. Your life tomorrow will be that of your attitudes and choices you make today.

I'm living in a small village in the countryside. My wife and I run(经营) a cake shop. We live a very peaceful life. Someone might say our simple life is boring. But we love it. We know all the people in the village. I have much time for my hobbies-- gardening, fishing and walking in the countryside. I love the outdoor activities.

 Three years ago, in 2020, I had a really terrible job in a company. I used to work very late in the office from Monday to Thursday. Usually I went home the latest on Thursdays. Luckily I could go home early on Fridays, but I had to bring work home on weekends. Because of the job, I used to smoke and drink too much.

 One day, my wife, a P. E. teacher, decided to leave me. She complained(抱怨) that she seldom saw me. She also said that I had become not humorous but serious since having the job. This made me realize what was really important to me. We talked and decided to start a new and happy life together. Last year,I gave up the job. Of course, I also gave up smoking and drinking and took up new hobbies.

Cai Xuzhe dreamed of flying high when he was young. He was a new face on the Shenzhou-14 team. He spent 12 years as an astronaut（宇航员） getting ready for his first trip to space.

"I am happy and proud but feel more about my duty（责任）," Cai told reporters. Cai and other two team members, Chen Dong and Liu Yang, left the earth on board the Shenzhou-14 spaceship in June of 2022, for a six - month stay in space. They finished the work of building the Tiangong space station.

Cai was born in 1976 in the countryside of Shenzhou City, Hebei Province. He showed interest in planes as a child. When he heard a plane flying past, he ran out and looked at it till it flew away.

Cai went to an Air Force flight college（空军飞行学院）. After finishing college, he began to work at an airport. The airport was in poor condition. However, he studied and trained his flying skills there carefully. InMay 2010, Cai became a Chinese astronaut and underwent（接受） hard training. He did best in his training and finally became a Shenzhou-14 team member. He tried his best to make his dream come true.

Sometimes I really want to know if （是否） there is love between my parents. Every day they are very busy making money for our life. One day, my mother was sewing a quilt （缝被子）. "Mum, is there 1 between you and dad?" I asked. 

With surprise in 2 eyes, my mum stopped her work for a moment. Then she said, "Susan, look at this thread （线）. You can't see it easily, 3 it's really there. It makes the quilt strong. If life is a quilt, love should be a thread. Love is inside."

The next spring, my father 4 ill. After they were back from hospital, my mother helped my father walk 5 the country road every day. They were kind and happy. 

After two months, my father still couldn't 6 . "Dad, how are you feeling now?" I asked him one day. "Susan, don't 7 me," he said, "I just like walking with your mum. I like this kind of life." 8 his eyes, I knew he loves my mother 9 . 

Now I know that love is just a thread in the quilt of our life. Love is inside. It makes life strong and 10 .

There was a little kid studying in the 5th grade. Everyone in his class thought that he was one of the1 kids. His grades were so terrible that he himself thought the same. 

However, his poor progress didn't2 him as he cared nothing about studying but reading novels. He used to say to his mom, "Nothing matters except for reading." His mother was aware that her boy was not reaching his full potential (潜能) and decided to give him a way to do it. So, she set two rules for him. First, he was3 to watch TV shows or play outside only after finishing his homework. Second, while reading two books each week, he had to write a book report on each of them. 

The kid felt4 about these new rules and tried hard to talk his mother out of them. But his mother stood firm and the kid couldn't5 her. Before long, he saw the6 of his hard work, when he was the only one who knew the answer to a question the teacher asked the class. All his classmates and teachers, even the kid himself, felt surprised. The kid noticed that his7 came from books he was reading. He began to realize that he could8 his love for reading into learning. If he could learn just a few facts from books, he could learn anything. 

This was the way pointed out by the mother who knew what her boy was9 to do. The kid10 on his path of growth. Who was considered as the most stupid kid of class is now a world famous doctor, writer and politician.