A few days ago my family and I were out for an evening walk. As we headed home, dark 1 started rolling in and we knew we probably wouldn't make it back without getting wet. 2 enough, the rain started falling just as we3our neighborhood. We all 4 down the street and into the house but when we got there I noticed that one of my sons was5I went back out in the rain and found him  6 in an irregular pattern in front of the house. His face was one of 7as he seemed to be going in circles. This is my child that usually hates getting 8.

    I shouted to him, “What are you doing?!!”

    “I hate getting wet!” he 9 back.

    “Then why are you running around in the 10 ? Hurry inside!”

    “I'm trying to but I have to 11 the rain drops!”

    He was getting more wet than any of the rest of us12 he was trying to avoid the raindrops. As I went and put him 13 my arm and walked him inside, I realized that there is a good14in this story.

    How often do you15life “avoiding the raindrops”? How often do you get so worried about the little 16that might happen, the failures that you miss out on the great 17 that you could be having? We can spend all of our time running around in circles trying not to fail or we can accept that failure is going to come and 18forward anyway. Any happy and successful person will tell you that the road to success is 19with failures.

    But every time you fail, you learn. Every time you learn, you improve. The more you improve, the more20 you will be.

    In the United States there was an unusual tale telling of the daughter of a mechanic（技工）. One day while walking along the bank of a lake, the girl 1 to see 20 eggs laid by a wild goose. After some time the girl 2 the mother would not return to her eggs and she 3 to take them home. There she carefully 4 the eggs in the heat of a lamp. Several days 5 the eggs broke and the baby geese came into the 6.

    Geese are known to take the first living thing they see as their mother. 7, to these young geese, the girl was their mother.

    As they 8, the girl was able to 9 her birds to run across the grass, but she could not teach them to 10. The girl became increasingly worried about this, both when 11 and in her dreams. Later, she had a(n) 12: She would pilot a plane to guide them in 13. She asked her father for a plane and he assembled（组装）a small aircraft for her.

    Caring about 14 safety, the father decided to pilot the plane himself. However, the birds did not 15 or follow him, and 16 slept in the grass.

    One day, the girl 17 into the plane, started it and soon left the 18. Seeing their mother take to the air, the birds 19 flapped（拍打）their wings and 20. She flew the plane freely in the sky, her young birds following.

    One sunny afternoon, a seven-year-old girl went for a walk. She crossed a large area of grassland into the woods 1 she realized that she was lost.

    Sitting on a rock and2what to do, she began crying.  After a while. She3 to walk along a wide path lined with tall trees and thick bushes.4 it was getting dark, she saw a small, dark wooden house. She opened the door and 5 stepped in. Suddenly, she heard a strange noise, and she ran out the door and back to the 6. Cold and tired, she fell asleep near a 7.

    The girl's parents were out and her dog, Laddy, was at home. Laddy8 that his mistrees（女主人）was in danger. He jumped 9 a window, breaking the glass. He looked in the fields. But he couldn't find his mistress anywhere. However, from the ground came a 10 scent (气味) as he lowered his head. He 11the scent and walked across the grassland. Barking 12 into the air, the dog 13 through the woods until he found the 14. But the girl was not there, so he headed back to the woods. Much to his 15 , he saw his mistress' blue shirt in the distance. He 16 over some bushes and saw the little stream, where the girl was 17.

    When she opened her eyes and18 her dog standing beside her, the girl said, “you 19me, Laddy,” and she kissed him several times. Seeing their daughter and dog coming back, the parents burst into tears of20 . That night Laddy had a heror's supper: a huge meal of steak

    Dad loves fishing very much. Fishing is as much a part of Dad's life as 1. Going fishing with him is a very 2 thing for me and my twin brother. Jumping into a 3 stream on a hot day, sleeping under the bright 4, fishing with Dad and eating freshly caught fish that has been fried over a 5 seems like the heaven to a couple of 10-year-old boys.

    One day, Dad drove us to Cottonwood Stream. An hour after we got there, he 6 some fish. He suggested that we take them back to our camp, 7 we stayed to watch Dad skillfully cast his 8 another time. We sat quietly until Dad's fishing pole 9 and he began winding the line on. Knowing this could be a very 10 fish, we jumped up and down and 11 for Dad to catch that fish. When he did, Dad's wide smile lit up his face like the sun. He 12 the hook, but an unexpected thing happened. The huge fish slipped out of Dad's hands and jumped back into the stream!

    We thought Dad would 13 , but he didn't. Although the sun was dropping 14 the mountains, my father sat down again and waited 15 . At last, the big fish took the bait once more. However, it slipped back into the 16 again as Dad tried to remove the hook. This time, Dad jumped into the stream, 17 for that fish again and again and 18 caught it, wrapping it in his shirt and walking back to the 19. Both my brother and I shouted wildly, cheering for his success.

What Dad did that day taught me a good lesson. I learn that we should never give up if we want to 20 something.

    From childhood, Moira loved to write. Throughout school she1writing, but pursuing it2was never a possibility. Her father was a doctor, her mother a nurse. "Medicine was a fairly3choice," Moira says, "and writing was a career where it wasn't a4that you'd have high income."

    She became a doctor but still wanted to write something. However, being a doctor was so5that she didn't take up writing until her thirties. She6a novel – a fictionalized version of her travel in China after university. She got excellent7. Moira sent it off to as many agents as she could find, and found one who wanted to8her. Suddenly, it seemed she was on her9as an author.

    "I had one lengthy phone call with the agent where we10all possible areas that she thought needed11. I worked on those and sent it back to her but didn't hear anything." It wasn't long12Moira found another agent who was13if she was willing to rewrite it from the first person to the third person. She did the hard work and sent it off again. "I got back a really brief letter: 'Thank you, I'm no longer interested.' It was really14."

    A decade went by, and Moira found herself eager to write again, this time15for her own enjoyment. She16herself the challenge of creating a thriller and chose Western Australia as her setting.

    As she was writing just for herself, something surprising began to happen. "The characters17a life of their own; they started doing things I hadn't thought about. It just18." One day, an agent called from Australia. Three weeks later, Moira had a publication deal. Her novel, Cicada, was published in March.

    "19it hadn't been published I still gained so much from the20," says Moira.

The Chinese Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu is often called the sage(圣人) of poetry. Unlike Li Bai, this poet wrote in various styles, and his works were often innovative(创新的) in language and subject matter. His poems were also filled with meaning. 

His innovation was not at all welcome. The readers of his time rarely showed much appreciation of his original and innovative works. The masses in fact hated and scolded them. Like many artists, Du Fu was only recognised for his genius long after his death. 

Du Fu was born in Luoyang, Henan Province. Although he came from an influential literary family, his early attempts to gain a position in the government by way of the exam system failed repeatedly. He was 43 years old when he finally managed to hold an official position. This was the time when Emperor Xuanzong was attracted to the beautiful Yang Yuhuan and made her his concubine(妃子), which Du Fu severely criticised in his Song of the Beautiful Ladies. 

As the emperor got distracted from important government affairs, some military leaders were becoming too powerful. Du Fu took office in 755, and in the same year a rebel(叛乱) leader An Lushan led his army into the capital of Tang Dynasty. The emperor fled to the west and left the governing of the state to his son. Du Fu and his family took the road north to escape the rebels. 

The poet left his family and tried to get to the headquarters of the new emperor, but he was caught and held prisoner by the rebels in Chang'an. After order was restored again, Du Fu got back his position in the capital. However, he did not enjoy the favour of the new emperor and was given a minor provincial post. In 759 he finally left this disgraceful position and spent the rest of his life wandering around the country.