Our room was on the second floor but you could still hear the roar of the ocean and see the stars at night. I used to take long walks along the water. The food in town was wonderful and the people were very friendly. The area was very quiet and peaceful, and fairly deserted.

    The last evening of our vacation, however, we all heard strange footsteps following closely behind us as we were walking up to our room in the holiday centre. We turned around and noticed a fairly young man moving very rapidly across the beach and getting closer to us. He was tall and wore a baseball cap. We couldn't see his face and he was approaching us very rapidly. The man's actions made my dad very nervous. Dad warned us that we'd better try to make it to our hotel room as quickly as possible. I didn't like my dad's voice; I could hear fear in it. It was late and we were all alone. We didn't have any cell phones on us. I never saw Dad as worried as he was then and I knew that something was terribly wrong. The sense of fear started to overwhelm Mom and me. We had had such a good time in town. Now, the night was rapidly turning into a dangerous situation.

    We could hear the man's footsteps getting closer. Dad's face was almost pale. The so-called intruder (侵入者) had moved nearer and nearer when all of a sudden, the nearby vending (自动贩卖) machine started going crazy and spitting out cans of soda! The noise actually scared the intruder and he ran out of sight. My parents were shaking, but we all turned around to see who had put money into the vending machine downstairs, and actually saved us, but no one was around at all. Not a soul.

    It's one vacation I will never forget.

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    Brian was a funny student. He loved watching comedies（喜剧） best and hoped to become a comedy actor one day.

    When he heard about the talent show to be held at this school, Brian decided to take part in. He had never acted on stage before, and he was very excited. But some students laughed at him. “You are not funny but silly，” Ken, one of his classmates, said to his face. “No one will like what you do，” another boy also said to him, loudly.

    Brian couldn't understand why they were so unkind to him. For a moment, he thought about giving up the show. But he remembered how much his friends liked his jokes, and also his teachers said he was very funny. So he decided to prepare for the show.

    Brian did a great job at the talent show. Everyone loved his performance, and he won the first prize! His teachers and friends were proud of him. Even so, Ken told Brian that he was not funny, and that he would never be successful. Brian didn't understand why Ken said so, but he realized that it had nothing to do with him. He confidently continued to work towards his goal.

    As the years went on, Brian met more people like Ken. “You'll do a terrible job，” they said to him. Luckily, most people encouraged him and some helped him to become even funnier. He got a lot of opportunities to perform in movies. He was even invited to appear on television. His fans thanked him because his comedies made them feel good when they were unhappy.

    Now Brian is a big comedy star! He is doing what he loves best. He never feels stressed like those unkind people, and he laughs all day long!

    Across Britain, burnt toast will be served to mothers in bed  this morning as older sons and daughters to deliver their supermarket bunches of flowers, But, according to a new study, we should be placing a higher value on motherhood all year.

    Mothers have long known that their home worked was just heavy as paid work. Now, the new study has shown that if they were paid for their parental labors, they would earn as much as￡172,000 a year.

    The study looked at the range of jobs mothers do, as well as the hours they are working, to determine the figure. This would make their yearly income ￡30, 000 more than the Prime Minister earns.

    By analyzing the numbers, it found the average mother works 119 hours a week,40 of which would usually be paid at a standard rate 79 hours as overtime. After questioning 1,000 mothers with children under 18,it found that ,on most days, mums started their routine work at 7am and finished at around 11pm.

    To calculate just how much mothers would earn from that labor, it suggested some of the roles that mums could take on, including housekeeper, part-time lawyer, personal trainer and entertainer. Being a part-time lawyer, at ￡48.98 an hour, would prove to be the most profitable of the “mum jibs”, with psychologist（心理学家）a close second.

    It also asked mothers about the challenges they face, with 80 percent making emotional（情感的）emand as the hardest thing about motherhood.

Over a third of mums felt they needed more training and around half said they missed going out with friends.

    The study shoes mothers matter all year long and not just on, Mother's Day. The emotional, physical and mental energy mothers devote to their children can be never-ending, but children are also sources of great joy and happiness. Investing（投入）in time for parenting and raising relationships is money well spent.

The story of the movie Inside Out mostly takes place inside the mind of 11-year-old Riley as she moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. The main characters are Riley's emotions—Joy, Sadness, Disgust Anger and Fear, which guide her decisions and often compete with one another for control of her brain.

    Fear is tall, thin, looks like a frayed（焦燥的）nerve and is purple. Not only that, this eyes are purple, too. Anger, which is red, looks like a brick and has red eyes. Disgust, who is green, has green eyes. Sadness, not surprisingly, is completely blue, and even looks like a teardrop. But Joy, who is mainly yellow, has more than one color in her. She has blue eyes and blue hair. Why? Well, if blue represents sadness, then the message is clear: there is no such thing as “pure joy”. Instead, even in our most joyous times, there is often sadness mixed in.

    After all, one of the most joyous moments we can experience is a wedding, but it may end with the breaking of a glass. It reminds us that our world is still broken. In other words, even at our highest moments, there is always a little sadness.

    But the comfort is that the reverse is often true. Think about how you feel after crying. When you cry, your body is releasing some chemicals that often make you feel good. And that's why you feel at ease after a good cry.

    Indeed, Inside Out reminds us that even the emotions that appear “negative” have value.in other words, Inside Out shows us that the goal of life isn't “to be happy”. We will feel sad, angry or frightened. But we need our whole range of emotions for developing our sense of self and our relationship with others.

    When I was younger, I was too shy to the point where I could not even make eye contact（接触）with people I didn't know. If someone greeted me in the hallway, I would lower my head and hurried passed.

    Funnily enough, this would not have been such a big deal if I had connected with their values and interests. However, everyone in my school was much wealthier than me, and focused on partying and fashion which were contrary to my interests. Although I had a few acquaintances（熟人）, no one seemed to understand me, unable to share my sometimes dark humor and interest in science fiction.

    Halfway through ninth grade, I was once again thrown into a school of strangers. Making friends was difficult, and I sat alone at lunch for the rest of the year. In tenth grade, however, I took part in my school's theatre program, where I met some of my closest friends. The theatre forced me to overcome my shyness and taught me to speak up for myself. Furthermore, pretending to be someone else gave me a sense of previously unknown confidence.

    Although I have a lot going for me right now, I will never forget the struggles I had to overcome when I was younger. This is why, whenever I see someone struggling or standing by themselves, I always invite them to sit with my friends and me. I may not be able to give them my full attention all of the time, but the main point is to let them know someone recognizes their existence and is willing to connect with them.

    You can't imagine how terrible I felt at that time. A month before my first marathon, one of my ankles was injured and this meant not running for two weeks, leaving me only two weeks to train. Yet, I was determined to go ahead.

    I remember back to my 7th year in school. In my first P.E. class, the teacher required us to run laps and then hit a softball. I didn't do either well. He later informed me that I was "not athletic".

    The idea that I was "not athletic" stuck with me for years. When I started running in my 30s, I realized running was a battle against myself, not about competition or whether or not I was athletic. It was all about the battle against my own body and mind. A test of wills!

    The night before my marathon, I dreamt that I couldn't even find the finish line. I woke up sweating and nervous, but ready to prove something to myself.

    Shortly after crossing the start line, my shoe laces(鞋带) became untied. So I stopped to readjust. Not the start I wanted!

    At mile 3, I passed a sign: "GO FOR IT, RUNNERS!"

    By mile17, I became out of breath and the once injured ankle hurt badly. Despite the pain, I stayed the course walking a bit and then running again.

    By mile 21, I was starving!

    As I approached mile 23, I could see my wife waving a sign. She is my biggest fan. She never minded the alarm clock sounding at 4 a.m. or questioned my expenses on running.

    I was one of the final runners to finish. But I finished! And I got a medal. In fact, I got the same medal as the one that the guy who came in first place had.

    Determined to be myself, move forward, free of shame and worldly labels(世俗标签), I can now call myself a "marathon winner".