It was nearly dark. The sun was dropping down the mountains far away. Little Tom came back home with tears in his eyes.

  “What's the matter, Tom? How's your trip?” his mother asked with a big smile. “I failed. The mountain is so high and full of big or small stones on the way. I still go ahead. But I was tired and it was so late that I had to come back.” Tom cried. “It doesn't matter. You are only 14 years old after all. You will have another chance(机会).” his mother said. “But, standing at the top of the mountain is my dream!” Tom said. His father came over and asked, “Did you see the green trees on your way to the mountain?” “Sure, and there are a lot of beautiful flowers by the side of the road.” Tom replied. “Did you hear the birds singing?” his father asked. “There are many kinds of birds singing in the trees, and the sound was very sweet.” Tom said. “Did you feel the beauty of nature?” his father asked. “Yes, the blue sky, the white clouds, the green trees and the colorful flowers made a nice picture.” Tom answered. “That's enough!” his father smiled and said, “Please remember, son. For often, achieving(获得) what you expect is not the most important thing. Although you didn't reach the top of the mountain, you got a lot on the way.”

    It is true that not every goal will be achieved, not every job will end up with a success, and not every dream will come true. The most beautiful scenery(风景) is on the way.

    Sydney Fredette has a lot of things to deal with. Not only is she a high school student, but she has also set up her own organization, Beary Merry Christmas. She volunteers（自愿）to serve poor kids and families in Orange Country in California, US.

To remember her best friend who died of cancer nearly 10 years ago, Fredette decided toy animal that is made by children themselves in the stores' workshops. Fredette then gave them as gifts to the homeless children in California during the holiday season.

    With donations at more than 100 bears a year, Fredette and volunteers host activities every year, where volunteers not only give out the bears, but also clothing, meals, and other things.

    Not wanting to limit（限制）the giving to just the holiday months, Fredette now hosts other activities for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Halloween, providing the chance for her volunteer team to make a difference through the year.

    "I love making relationships with the people I serve," Fredette said. "The thanks they have, hearing their stories and seeing how happy they are, it's so cool."

    Future plans for Fredette include building a public food bank and providing a self-development class for students in her school who will soon attend college.

    Heading to college herself in the fall, Fredette is looking to stay local and continue to help out in her hometown. In fact, she was regarded as a "Dreamer & Doer" not long ago for her work in improving her community, along with 32 other high school students.

    Hello，everyone！My name is Kate. I am from Toronto，Canada. I am 14 years old. I am a schoolgirl. I know China is a great country. I want to make friends with Chinese people and I want to learn Chinese.

    There are twenty-two students in my class. My classmates are from five countries. They are learning English. My father and mother are from France(法国). They speak French. I speak English and French. There are many Chinese in Toronto. I want to learn Chinese，but I don't have any Chinese textbooks. Can you help me?

    Miss Evans was going to give a speech on Friday afternoon. But on Thursday night she was told that she had to go to an important meeting the next day at the same time. "No one can be in two places at the same time. What should I do?" She thought. But soon, she had an idea.

    At five to three on Friday afternoon, Miss Evans went to the lecture room. There were twenty students waiting for her. "I'm sorry," she said, "I won't be able to give my speech today." The students looked surprised. Miss Evans explained that she had an important meeting. "However," she went on, "though I can't be with you myself, my voice can." Then she put a small recorder on the desk," You see, I've recorded my speech and you can listen to it without me." Miss Evans turned on the recorded and left.

    The meeting ended a little early. Miss Evans decided to go back to her students. She stood for a moment outside the room, listening to her own voice. Then she opened the door. To her surprise, the room was empty. As she looked around, she saw a number of small recorders "listening" to her speech!

    "Well." she thought, "If I can be in two places at the same time, why can't they?"

Our community library decided to offer a painting class. I told my friend Ella, and we both signed up.

On the big day, our first 1 was to paint a white vase of cheerful yellow sunflowers against a blue background.

We were asked to paint our canvas (画布) 2 . It was easy to follow the instructor to move the brush. Although I had never painted before, I could tell I was a 3 . I started thinking about where I would hang my new masterpiece.

Immediately after that, however, I began to run into 4 . The first curved (弯曲的) line of my vase looked perfect, but when I painted the line on the opposite side, my hand slipped (打滑). I tried to 5 that white streak (条痕) with blue paint, but it didn't work.

While I was busy fixing my messy painting, the instructor explained how to paint the sunflower leaves. Things went downhill fast after that. My leaves looked like fat, green caterpillars (毛毛虫). When I failed to clean my paintbrush, I accidentally made the sunflowers green. I felt 6 when I saw how good everyone else's paintings looked.

Ella sweetly praised my sunflowers, perhaps feeling sorry for me. When I said that hers were much better, she looked surprised. "No, they're not. I messed up in at least five places." After a few seconds, she asked, "Want to 7 paintings?"

Until that moment, I had felt only dislike for my painting. And yet for some reason, giving it away felt wrong. It wasn't a perfect painting, but it was mine—the first one I had ever created. I knew Ella must have realized that she felt the same way when she suddenly shook her head and said. "Never mind."

My sunflower painting still hangs directly above my bed. I often look at it. Every time I look at it. I 8 . It always brightens my day and brings warmth to my room. I really like it now.

On weekends, you might want to relax in some way. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} , do sports, listen to music and read books. Playing sports, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} climbing mountains is fun, and you can spend time with your family and friends together.