My father was born in a poor village in the north of Jiangsu, China. When he was a young boy, he went to school in the morning, and then 1 in the fields till sunset. And then he did his homework until midnight. Life was hard, because they had no 2!

    At the age of 14, my father heard of the United States of America. It was the 3 of gold, the land where poor people can become rich.

   “Why don't I go to America?” he thought to himself, full of 4.

    So, my father came to America. “I had thought it was easy to 5 money in America.” he told me. “But when I arrived there, I realized it's not 6. They didn't like to hire(雇佣) me because I spoke little English. Later, I worked in a small restaurant, cleaning up tables, 7 dishes and sweeping the floor. Life was hard for the first few years. I worked from 10 a. m. to 11 p. m. I wanted to go to school to learn English, but it's impossible. I couldn't 8 the schooling(学费).”

    My father 9 working hard，and reached his goal.

  “Alan,” he often told me. “If you want something, you have to work for it and never give up. Things do not come  10 in life.” That's what I learned from my father.

    One evening last summer, when I asked my 14- year- old son, Ray，for help with dinner, his response(回答)shocked me. "What's a colander(漏勺)?" he asked. I could only blame 1. In the family, nobody else went into the kitchen except me. But that night, as I2to him that a colander is the thing with holes in it，I wondered what else I hadn't3Ray for.

    As parents，while we focus on our sons' confidence and character，we perhaps don't always consider that we are4raising someone's future roommates，boyfriends，husbands，or fathers5I came up with a plan: I would offer Ray a private home economics course. I was 6to find that he didn't say no. For two hours, three days a week, Ray was all mine.

    I knew that he would rather have been playing basketball with friends than7to mend socks with his mother，but in fact he was learning, and more than just housekeeping. "I appreciate(感激)what you do8a mom," he told me one day. Ray now realizes there's9masculine(男子气概的)about being helpless.

    Now，not only can he make his own dinner, but also he can make a big meal for his family. That's 10I call a man. I'm glad that I prepared so great a present for my future daughter in-law.

    A small "shop" by the road in Japan has a dog "shopkeeper". It's selling roasted(烤的)Sweet 1there.

    The friendly dog is 2 Kenkun. Because the shop is a self—service one, what the dog should do is just to be cute for customers and he does well3that. The roasted sweet potatoes are kept in a heated "box" outside the shop. So customers can help4directly They need to5100 yen(日元)into the money box for each potato they take. It seems to be working fine now. 6, who would steal a dog? Actually, the three-year-old dog is a good "shopkeeper. It's 7cute and lovely that some of the customers come to see him and of course, they will leave with 8 one or two potatoes.

    People online have different opinions about this. Some of them think that's interesting and they say the dog is the 9 one they've ever seen. But others think it's crazy to keep a dog 10 near a "box" for several hours a day. In their opinion, dogs should run and play hers and there in the sun.

    I'm a middle school student. In the past, I had some bad1. I hardly had breakfast2I usually got up late. I didn't like exercising. I3exercised one to two times a month. In the evening, I always watched TV4more than two hours. Then I5the Internet. I liked to play computer games. So I often stayed up late. My parents thought(认为) staying up late was bad for my health, so they were not6with that.

    One day, I fainted(昏倒)in a P.E. class. When I7, I was in the hospital. The doctor said that my classmates sent(送)8there. He said that I was in poor (差的)9Then he told me to eat breakfast every day and do more exercise.

    From then on, I10to give up (戒掉) my bad habits. Now I usually get up early and have a good breakfast. After school, I always play sports with my friends. It's fun and good for my health.