Three travelers, Allan, Carl and Paul were sitting on the chairs in a train station. They were waiting for a train that was late.

      To pass the time, they began talking to each other.

      At first, they talked about the weather and their work. Then Paul said, “Tell me-what would you most like to do if your doctor tells you that you have only three months to live?"

      The other two men thought about this for a while, then Carl spoke.

      "Well," he said, "if I have only three months to live, I'll take all my money out of the bank and go to foreign countries for holidays with my best friend, Erik. I'd like to travel to the places in the world as many as possible. And I'll stay at the best hotels and then eat the best food. I think I'll have a wonderful time."

      "That's very interesting." Paul said. With these words, he turned to the other man, saying, "And what about you?"

"I'll tell you a secret," Allan said. "I always want to be a racing driver. So if I have only three months to live, the first thing I'd like to do is to sell my house. With the money I'll buy the fastest car in the world. Maybe I can enter all the big motor races. " Then he laughed, "I might even end up with (以......而告终) a world champion."

      "Now it's your turn," Allan went on. "If your doctor tells you the bad news, what would you most like to do?"

        "Oh," said Paul with a smile. "I'll go and see another doctor."

                                                                                                             C   

    Ricardo Semler became the boss of his father's company in Brazil at the age of 21. The name of the company is Semco. It sold parts for ships. Semler worked like a mad man, from 7:30 in the morning to midnight every day. One afternoon, while he was visiting a factory in New York, he fell down. The doctor said, “ There's nothing wrong with you. But if you continue like this, you'll find a new home in our hospital.” Semler got the message. He changed the way he worked. In fact, he changed the ways his workers worked, too.

    At the same time, Semler changed the office. Instead of walls, they have plants at Semco, so the boss can't shut himself away from everyone else. And the workers are free to decorate their workplace as they want. As for uniforms, some people wear suits and others wear T-shirts.

    Semco has flexible working hours: the workers can decide when they need to arrive at work. Also, Semco lets its workers use the company's machines for their own projects, and makes them take holidays for at least thirty days a year.

    It sounds perfect, but does it work? The answer is in the numbers: in the last six years, Semco's revenues (收益) have gone from $35 million to $212 million. The company has grown from 800 workers to 3,000. Why?

    Semler says it's because of “peer pressure” (同辈压力). Peer pressure makes workers work hard. It means if someone isn't doing his job well, the other workers will not allow the situation to continue. In other words, Semler treat his workers like adults rather than children, and expects them to act like responsible (负责任的) adults. And they do.

    It was raining heavily. I had to wait inside the supermarket like a lot of other people did. A little girl and her mother were waiting, too. The girl looked like 5 or 6 years old. She made me think of my daughter Alice. They are about the same age.

    After a few minutes, the girl got bored and she said to her mom, "Mom, let's run through the rain!"

    "No, dear. We'll wait until it slows down a little." said Mom.

    This young child waited about one more minute and said again, "Mom, let's run through the rain!"

    "We'll get wet if we do," her mom said.

    "No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning," the young girl said.

    "This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?"

    "Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer (癌症), you said, 'We have got through (已经熬过) this, and then we will get through anything!'

    All of the people stopped talking. It was a time when innocent trust (纯真的信任) could grow into faith (信心). The mom thought for a minute and said "You are right, sweetheart. Let's run through the rain! If we get wet, maybe we just need washing." Then they ran out.

    They got wet. But some people followed them  ▲  .

    And yes, I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed washing.

    William Shakespeare is one of the greatest writers in English literature. His plays can be divided into three categories: histories, tragedies (悲剧) and comedies. Shakespeare wrote eighteen comedies, although two were lost. These comedies usually have happy endings and a light-hearted tone and style that are quite different from his tragedies.

    All of Shakespeare's comedies have five acts and the most important or exciting point always takes place in the third act. The hero does not appear until after other characters have talked about him. Shakespeare had some themes that he usually wrote about: the fight between good and bad, love's great effect on people, and the difference between first appearance and a person's true personality or face. Shakespeare also wrote his play in a certain style. For example, Shakespeare used words in such a clever and humorous way that they had more than one meaning. Some of the characters changed their appearances so that people didn't know who they were.

    Even though the tone is lighter in these plays. Comedies in Shakespeare's day were quite different from modern-day comedies because their purpose was not to make people laugh. Shakespeare's comedies are very emotional (有感染力的) and often include serious topics to think about.