Have you heard about "Survival(生存) Holidays"? "Survival Holidays" is for children to go into the lonely place for exciting activities. Now about 1,100 companies are allowed to take children into the great outdoors without their parents.

    The reason why people like "Survival Holidays" is that they think being close to nature is good for children. Many children in big cities spend all time watching TV and playing computer games. "Survival Holidays" gives them an important change.

    Is "Survival Holidays" a wonderful idea? Maybe it is. Children need more free time to play. They need to be left on their own, without adults disturbing(打扰) them. Parents care too much about their children. They like to see the children being busy with activities that are controlled by adults, but children don't know what to do when they are in danger. Even something like crossing a small river seems to be a hard challenge. Children are not comfortable with danger. Even small danger like getting their feet wet or falling down seems very terrible to them.

    Many people think the survival activities are good for children. Even years later, they will still remember what they have learned. Some have learned to stay calm in different times. Some have learned how to keep safe. Others have learned how to work in a team. All these skills will help them a lot in their lives.

    Prana was a beautiful dog, whose name means “breath of life”. Although he died several years ago, I can still remember the days we spent together and what he has taught me about love.

    I have two apple trees in the garden. Prana loved apples. When he went outside, he'd catch an apple and take it into the house to eat later. The apples had been on the ground and were often dirty so I wasn't always happy that Prana had brought them into the house.

It was an autumn day in America, but it was very cold. A big snow fell and we had not done anything for its coming. On that special day, Prana went outside and I watched him through the window. I noticed that he was madly digging(挖) holes and bringing the apples to the ground so they could be seen above the snow. I did not know why he was doing this. He seemed to want to do something special.

    When I called him back, he had his usual one apple in his mouth. About five minutes later, I looked outside. The garden was completely covered with birds. Prana had dug up all those apples for his bird friends to eat. He knew that they wouldn't have stored enough food for the coming winter!

    In the ancient Arabic story called Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the young hero Ali Baba said "Open Sesame" and a door to hidden treasures was opened to him. The old story had a special meaning for Ma Yun. He drew inspiration from it for Alibaba.com--Chinese largest ecommerce(电子商务) website.

    In 1995, Ma Yun was working for a US trading company when he was introduced to the Internet. "I know nothing about computers and has never touched a keyboard," he said. He searched the word "beer" and nothing came up about Chinese products.

    Ma Yun had an idea. Why not build a large Internet market to connect customers with companies from all over the world? They could do business online in that way. That was how Alibaba began. His company grew quickly. But that didn't mean everything went smoothly. In 2000, many Internet companies failed including Alibaba. But later, he was successful because he managed to attract investment(投资) into his company. "You should stick to your dream," he said. "Everyone thought I was daydreaming when I started. But the most important thing is that we believe in our dream from past to today and tomorrow. Of course we made many mistakes, but we never give up."

    Ma Yun is also smart. For him, success in business is like trying to catch a rabbit. "If there are nine rabbits, focus on catching one--don't try to catch them all," he said. "Change your ways if you need to, but don't change the rabbit. Get one first, put it in your pocket and then catch the others. "

    There is an old man in a house. In the house there are many mice. The old man has a cat. Every day the cat catches the mice and eats them. One day, the old mouse says "All mice must come to my room this evening. We must find a way to deal with the cat." All the mice come. Many mice speak but they don't know what to do. At last a young mouse stands up and says "We must put a bell on the cat. When the cat comes near we can hear the bell and run away. So the cat can't catch us." "Who can put the bell on the cat" asks the old mouse. But no one answers.