Carol studies at Roosevelt High School. She is having a hard time passing exams. She has no interest in her homework, so she seldom finishes it on time.

     But there is one lesson she is doing well in. It is history. Carol always hands in her history homework on time. She respects the history teacher Mr Aragon. Carol feels that Mr Aragon treats her more than just a student. She feels other teachers look down on her.

      Carol's mother Maria told Mr Aragon that Carol wasn't doing well in her other lessons. Mr Aragon was surprised to learn that. "She is such a smart girl," he told Maria. Mr Aragon told Maria that he would talk to her daughter.

Carol felt embarrassed when Mr Aragon talked to her about the problems she was having in other lessons. But later Carol understood that Mr Aragon just wanted to help her. Mr Aragon and Carol had a discussion about what she could do to improve her marks in other lessons. They made a list of ways to help her to complete her homework on time, including setting a timetable for homework, cutting down some boring after-school activities, and having a friend help her with the homework. Carol decided to try these ways out to see which one would work best for her.

    Do you know any 9-year-olds who have started their own museums? When Theodore Roosevelt was only nine and two of his cousins opened the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History". The museum was in Theodore's bedroom. It had a total of 12 specimens(标本). On display were a few seashells, some dead insects and some birds' nests. Young Roosevelt took great pride in his small museum.

    Born in New York in 1858, Theodore Roosevelt was not always healthy. "I was a sickly, delicate boy, "he once wrote. Roosevelt had a health condition called asthma (哮喘). He often found it hard to breathe. Instead of playing, he watched nature and then read and wrote about it.

    Roosevelt's interest in nature sometimes got him into trouble. Once, his mother found several dead mice in the icebox. She ordered him to throw them out. This was indeed "a loss to science", Roosevelt said later.

    Because Roosevelt was often sickly as a boy, his body was small and weak. When he was about 12, his father urged him to improve his body. Roosevelt began working out in a gym. He didn't become strong quickly. But he did decide to face life's challenges with a strong spirit. That determination stayed with Roosevelt's whole life. And finally his body did get strong. As an adult, he was an active, healthy person. He enjoyed adventures and loved outdoors.

    In 1900, at the age of 41, Roosevelt was elected Vice President. A year later, President Mckinley was shot and killed. Roosevelt became the 26th president of the USA. At 42, he was the youngest leader the country had ever had.

    On Monday, I stopped my car in front of my daughter Juliet's middle school. She jumped in the front seat, feeling down. She asked me to help her study for her science test.

    "Dad I need to memorize a unit about the Reproductive Cycle of Plants. And I can hardly make it."

    "You know memorizing seems like the best way to study, but in fact you can do better in tests if you work on trying to understand the material."

    Juliet was open to my advice. It was Monday afternoon and we had two nights to study before the test on Wednesday. I suggested a plan. "Tomorrow night, you are going to teach the material to me. Tonight, read the unit. Prepare to teach."

    Asking her to teach me was an unusual idea but I was determined to do it. Studies show teaching somebody else is a very useful way to lean, Even if you don't do the teaching, the act of preparing to teach leads to more learning than just trying your best to memorize the material.

    On Tuesday afternoon, Juliet sat down with her Science book facing me said, "Okay Dad, let's study." I wanted her to teach me. But false starts happened. I couldn't be too hard on her. So instead we starred with me asking her some simple questions. She knew some but not other. When she didn't know the answers. I encouraged her to check the book.

    She started checking things that didn't make sense. And she was actively seeking to test her understanding. I was happy to see it. She wasn't memorizing, she was trying to make sense of things, which was exactly what I had hoped she would do.

    Ray's wedding had gone off smoothly. Everyone seemed to have had a good time. A few people had too good a time; they went home with designated (指派的) drivers. All evening, the gift table remained unguarded. Who would steal anything, Ray thought. He had never heard of such a thing happening at a wedding. But his best friend Aaron said there was a first time for everything. He strolled out regularly from the inside festivities (庆祝) to check on the gift table, making sure no one suspicious was hanging around it.

    Ray and Julia went on a 3-week honeymoon to Italy right after the wedding. When they got back, they opened all the gifts and sent out thank-you notes. But there was one problem. A married couple that used to be good friends had apparently given nothing. This surprised Julia, because Walt and Mary said they were thrilled to be invited. And, they actually seemed to have had a great time at the wedding. Frankly, Ray didn't even care if they hadn't given a gift. He just needed to know whether to send a thank-you note. Ray called Aaron. Aaron said maybe Walt had left an envelope on the gift table like Aaron had. "Yes, but we got your envelope with the cash inside," Ray said. "Maybe my envelope looked too thin, and some thief thought Walt's envelope looked nice and fat."

    Aaron asked Ray if he had looked everywhere for Walt's gift. Had he called up the wedding site to see if anything had been left behind? Ray said that he had looked everywhere and made a lot of calls that were fruitless.

    Ray didn't know what to do. If he sent Walt and Mary a thank-you note for a gift they hadn't given, they would be insulted. If he didn't send them a thank-you note for a gift they had given, they would get angry.

    "What would you do?" Ray asked. Aaron said he would call Walt up and tell him the problem.

    "You can't go wrong with simply being honest," Aaron said.

    "Oh, yes, you can," Ray contradicted (反驳) him. "Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie." But he thought about it, and finally decided that Aaron was right. He called Walt and told him the problem. Walt said that yes, he had given an envelope. In fact, the envelope contained $500 cash.

    "$500?!" Ray asked. "That's a lot of cash, Walt!" Walt admitted that it was, but he had gotten a fat raise (加薪) early that year and Ray's was the only wedding he'd been to in quite a while. Ray thanked him very much, and apologized sincerely for someone stealing Walt's generous gift. Walt told him that it was "only money".

    When Ray told Aaron about Walt's gift, Aaron laughed. "The only thief at the wedding was Walt! I quit playing cards with him last year because I caught him cheating. And it was only a $10 pot! I'm sure I told you about that."

    "Yes, you did tell me," Ray said. But, of course, he had to send Walt a thank-you note anyway.

    She used to sleep on the sidewalk of the Fifth Street Post Office. I could smell her before I came close. She wore dirty clothes and her mouth was nearly toothless. I hardly saw her talk with others. If she was not asleep, she talked to herself. I always had sympathy for her. What a poor old lady! She must be desperate （感到绝望的）and hungry.

    One Thanksgiving, we had lots of food left over. I thought about the old lady. She might be still hungry. So I packed the food up and drove over to the Fifth Street.

    It was a cold night. There was hardly anyone out. But I knew she would stay at the same place and I would find her easily.

    There she was, squatted against a fence near the post office. She was dressed as she always was.

    I drove my car over to her, rolled down the window and said, "I've brought you some food. Would you like some turkey and apple pie?"

    However, the old woman didn't seem to be very excited about this. She looked at me and said quite clearly, "Oh, thank you very much, but someone has given me food earlier and I'm quite full now. Why don't you take it to someone else who needs it?"

    Her words were clear and her manners were gracious. Soon her head sank into her arms again. I was the only person who didn't know what to say. An old lady who was clearly down on her luck still thought about others. Why don't more of us do that?