Jane Austen(1775-1817),an English novelist, started writing young and completed six novels in her life. Today Austen's books are more popular than ever. In the last 10 years, five of her six novels have been made into Hollywood films, while her books continue to be best-sellers.

Richard Jenkyns, a professor of English at Oxford University, says that her novels are about marriage, friendships and the family, which are still with us today. “The stories are timeless," Jenkyns said.

Pride and Prejudice(偏见)(1813) is Austen's most famous work. It is a love story about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. At first, these two dislike each other. Elizabeth is pretty ,smart and lively. She is proud because Darcy doesn't know about her family.  Mr. Darcy is handsome, rich and has a better family background. So, he is proud as well. At the same time, Darcy holds a prejudice against the Bennet family. He has no understanding of why the family, especially its mother and daughters should try so hard to find wealthy and powerful husbands. He thinks they are vulgar. Anyway, Elizabeth and Darcy finally fall in love and become a romantic couple but their families don't want them to.

In Pride and Prejudice, some of the main things that Jane Austen wants to teach people are as follows.  Opposites can attract each other. Lovers should not ony make each other feel relaxed or comfortable, but also educate and improve each other.

 Austen is often called the greatest romanti writer, so it is surprising she remained unmarried. "Maybe she was too romantic, waiting for the perfect man,”Jenkyns says.

      A few years ago, the company I worked for sent my wife and me to live in New York for a year. I've always loved running, so I was happy when I found out the house we lived in was next to Central Park. This means I could go to the park to run every morning before I went to work.

      A lot of people had told me to be careful of robbers in the park, so usually I didn't take any money with me. But one morning, my wife gave me a $10 bill and asked me to buy some bread on the way.

      While I was running through the park, another runner knocked into me. Just as I was wondering what was happening, he said sorry to me and went on running. I thought it was kind of strange, and suddenly I thought of my money, so I checked my pocket and found that my money was missing. Without thinking twice, I ran after that runner. The minute I held him by the arm, I shouted, “Give my money back! Now!” I'm not usually a hot-headed person, but I got really angry this time. He seemed to be afraid and he took out the money and gave it to me. Then he ran away as quickly as he could.

      I bought the bread and went home. As soon as I got home, I began to tell my wife my story. “You won't believe what happened to me.” I started. She immediately stopped me, “I know, you left the money for the bread on the kitchen table.”

    It's Sunday. Children don't go to school on Sundays. But Kate gets up early in the morning. “It's my birthday. I'm eight years old today.” she thinks, “Where are Dad and Mum? I want to know what they can give me for my birthday.”

    Her father and mother are not at home. They are going shopping. And now they are talking about what to buy for Kate.

—Dad: How about the doll? It looks nice. I think Kate would like the doll.

—Mom: I don't think so. She is not a little girl. I think she likes a new dress. Girls often like new dresses very much.

—Dad: But she has a few new dresses and some new blouses. Oh, I think she must be very happy to have a box of colorful pencils and some picture books. Do you think so?

— Mom: Yes. Let's go over there and buy them.

    On the morning of the day when he left Compton High School in Los Angeles, 18-year-old Allan Guei asked seven of his classmates to come together. Guei, a star on the basketball team, expressed he was giving away he $40,000 he'd won in a competition and was dividing it among them. The room filled with shouts and cheers. "Everyone went mad with excitement," he says. "They were surprised that I would do something like that for them."

    In November 2000, Guei's family moved from the Ivory Coast to the United States, and he immediately took up basketball." When I first came to California, the Lakers were winning: it was Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal era (时代),"he recalls." I just fell in love with the game."

    A few years later, he was playing for the school. Then, in March, he entered a free-throw competition at the school, and the town saw just how big a team player Guei really is—both on and off the court (球场).

    In the first round, each of the eight contestants (竞争者) took ten shots, and the top four shooters advanced." I was one of the final four, but I really didn't shoot that well," Guei says." I was nervous!"" In the second round, however, he took the winning shot. He went home with the prize of $ 40,000.

    A few months before Guei left school, he was offered a full scholarship (奖学金) to California State University, and he had an idea." I could have kept the prize money, but I was already going to college for free," Guei says. "I know the others were going to have a lot of difficulty paying for school. They needed it for their futures, so I just decided to give it away."

    Now wearing No.25 on Northridge's Matadors basketball team, Guei has little time for anything but training and studying, though he keeps in touch with most of his classmates." I know those kids. Whatever they decide to do in life is going to be something good," he says." It was just the right thing to do."

    As for his own future, Guei is still learning. "I work really hard at everything I do," he says. "But whatever happens in my future, I'm just happy that I was able to help somebody else along the way."

    When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings (缺点). Sometimes she said I was thin. Sometimes she said I was lazy. Sometimes she said I wasn't a good student. Sometimes she said I talked too much, and so on. I tried to put up with (忍受) her as long as I could. At last, I became very angry. I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.

    He listened to me quietly, and then he asked, "Are the things she said true or not? Mary, didn't you ever wonder what you're really like? Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said."

    I did as he told me and to my surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true.

    I brought the list back to my dad. He refused to take it. "That's just for you," he said. "You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. When something said about you is true, you'll find it will be helpful to you. Don't shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you think is right."

    Many years have passed. The situation often appears in my mind. In our life we often meet with some trouble and we often go to someone and ask for advice. For some advice you will treasure (珍惜) all your life!