When Jan and Brian Dutcher moved to San Diego for Brian's new job at San Diego State University, the neighbors smiled and introduced themselves. But there were no “ bring a plate” invitations, no car pooling for her daughters Liza, 12 and Erin, 15.

    “The family really didn't know each other, and we missed that,” says Jan.“We are far from relatives. Neighbors are our family.”

    So Jan, an artist, decided to repeat a project she had done for Liza's fifth-grade class: ask each person to paint his or her face on a big canvas(帆布).The finished piece would become the new family photo.

    First , Jan painted a grid(网格) on the canvas and put it up in the garage with a table of paints nearby. Then whenever she was home, the “art room” door was up , with an open invitation for neighbors to paint. The first to stop in were kids riding by. “They thought it was cool,” says Jan, but the adults weren't so keen. “ Most said they hadn't picked up a paint brush since kindergarten,” she says. “They were afraid they'd mess it up.” But as word slowly spread, they came, some using their driver's license photos as models.

Then something started to happen. They returned —to see who had painted, or if they could recognize who was who. In Jan's garage, they began to chat about schools, jobs, and families. Almost daily. Wendy, who lived across the street and was seriously ill, came in her wheelchair to watch the fun. Neighbors began to offer their support.

    When the worst things happened and Wendy died, they stood by her husband, Bill and invited him over for dinners.

    This year has been different in the neighborhood. Families take turns hosting happy hours. “We're watching over each other now just like in the painting.” says Jan.

    One day, a baby snail（蜗牛） found that he had to carry a big and heavy shell（壳） at any time. He was confused(困惑的), so he went up to his mother and asked, “ Why was I born with a shell that grew so hard and heavy?” His mother said, “Because we don't have bones（骨头） to hold us up. We can only move slowly, so we need a shell to protect us.”

    The baby snail asked again, “The caterpillar(毛毛虫) has no bones, either, and she can't move quickly. Why can she live without a shell?” The mother snail answered, “That's because a caterpillar will become a butterfly. She can fly high into the sky. The sky can protect her.”

    The baby snail had one more question, “But the earthworm(蚯蚓) moves like us. He has no bones and he won't turn into a butterfly. Why doesn't he carry a hard and heavy shell?” His mother said, “He can dig a hole and hide in the ground, and then the earth can protect him.”

    The baby snail then cried, “We are so poor! We have no protection from the sky or from the ground!” His mother smiled at him, “That's why we have a shell. My dear, imagine that if we don't have the shells, what will happen to us? Hot sun will dry out our bodies and we'll have nowhere to sleep. What's worse, we'll die in the heavy rain. How terrible it is! We don't depend on the sky or the ground for protection. We should depend on ourselves.”

    Mike is the manager of a computer company. He is going to Shanghai for an important meeting. The meeting will start on September 24th.When he calls the booking office for a ticket, he is told that there are only flights to Shanghai on September 23rd.One is at 10：30 in the morning, and the other is at 3：30 in the afternoon. Mike can't leave until lunchtime, so he has to take the3：30flight.The flight number is BA345.He has to pay 800 yuan and another 50 yuan for the airport construction fee(建设费) .

    We all have our own ways of sharing our life experiences with others.

    Photographers use cameras, artists use brushes, musicians use songs and writers use stories.

    Spencer Johnson's story Who Moved My Cheese? shows changes exist in(存在于) our life. Life changes and so do we. We must change ourselves to face the changing environment, or we will fail.

    Just look at the cycle (循环) of        Trees bud (发芽)in spring and in summer their leaves turn green. In autumn, their leaves start to fall onto the ground. When winter arrives, there are no leaves on trees. Next spring the cycle begins again. Since we know there are cycles in nature, we can prepare for them. We know it is colder in winter and hotter in summer, so we can dress properly.

    Since we accept the cycles of nature, we should also accept the changes in our life.

    We can prepare ourselves for changes by becoming more flexible(灵活的).We can regard the changes in our life as chances. As long as we keep changing ourselves, we can keep up with the changes in our life.

    It was Saturday again. Grace and Karen disliked, Saturdays. Unlike their classmates, they had to get up early at seven every Saturday to prepare for their lessons. Grace had to attend the drawing lesson and Karen had to attend her ballet lesson. "How I wish I could do something different today," said the twins with one voice. All at once, an idea came to Grace and Karen at the same time. "Do you want to be me for a day?" they asked each other. It seemed like a wonderful plan to them. After giving each other a description of their own friends, Grace put on Karen's ballet dress while Karen put Grace's brushes and paints into her bag. Then they left for their classes.

    When the drawing lesson started, Karen was lost. Unlike Grace, Karen was poor at drawing. When the drawing lesson finally ended, Karen didn't dare to hand in her work.

    Meanwhile, Grace was struggling in the ballet class as well. As she had no idea about the dance steps, she had to follow her classmates blindly. As a result, she kept knocking into them. Their ballet teacher became impatient with her, "Karen, you should remember the basic steps. You can't rely on copying what others are doing."

    When Karen and Grace got home, they were tired out. They decided that they would never try to be someone else they were not. It seemed that the grass was not always greener on the other side.