Sometime ago I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn't think there would be any difficulty in getting it repaired, as there are a lot of antique (古董) shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception.  I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't even look at my chair.

    The second shop, though a little more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth. I realized that my approach must be wrong so I decided to try another way. I entered the fifth shop with a plan in my mind.  I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, "Would you like to buy a chair? Twenty pounds," I said. "OK. I'll give you twenty pounds for it,"he said. "It's got a slightly broken leg," I added. "Yes, I saw that.  It's nothing," the shopkeeper replied.

    Everything was going according to the plan and I was getting excited. "What will you do with it?" I asked. "Oh, it will be easy to sell after the repair is done.""I'll buy it," I said.  "What do you mean? You've just sold it to me," the man asked in surprise.  "Yes, I know. But I've changed my mind.  I am sorry. I'll give you twenty-seven pounds for it." "You must be crazy," he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. He shouted, "I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair." "You're right,"I said, "And what would you have said if I had walked in and asked you to repair my chair?" "I wouldn't have agreed to do it. We don't do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble.  But I'll repair this for you.  Five pounds will be the cost,"the man answered. He was a very nice man and was greatly amused by the whole thing.

    Popeye the Sailor first became a popular cartoon in the 1930s. The sailor in that cartoon ate lots of spinach (菠菜) to make him strong. People watched him, and they began to buy and eat a lot more spinach. Popeye helped sell 33 per cent more spinach than before! Spinach became a necessary part of many people's diets. Even some children who hated the taste began to eat the vegetable.

    Many people thought that the iron in spinach made Popeye strong, but this is not-true. Spinach does not have any more iron than any other green vegetables.

    People only thought spinach had a lot of iron because the people who studied the food made a mistake. In the 1890s, a group of people studied what was inside vegetables. This group said that spinach had ten times more iron than it did. The group wrote the number wrong, and everyone accepted it.

    Today, we know that the little iron there is in spinach cannot make a difference in how strong a person is. However, spinach does have something else which the body needs—folic acid.

    It is interesting to point out that folic acid can help make a person strong. Maybe it was really the folic acid that made Popeye strong all along.

Think "small tasks, big contributions"(小任务，大贡献)

Offer{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(chance) for the child to help {#blank#}2{#/blank#}the chore you're doing. Give them a task that is appropriate(适当的) with {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(they) skill level. Maybe it's holding a measuring cup while {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(make) bread, moving a chair while sweeping. The task can be tiny, but the key part, Coppens says,{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (be) that it has to make a real contribution to the chore. It can't be a "fake" project or {#blank#}6{#/blank#}action that has nothing to do with the real chore. Then everyone isn't working together for a common goal.

"In one of our studies, the middle-class, European families reported giving children what we called 'mock work,'" Coppens says. For example, a mom would sweep the kitchen{#blank#}7{#/blank#}afterward, she would give the broom to her young child to "resweep" the kitchen." The parents{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(know) that the child wasn't contributing to chore, and pretty{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(quick), the kid will pick up on the same idea," Coppens says. And the kid loses out on the pride and sense of{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(succeed) that comes from making a real contribution.

Favorite Food

James Dyson is a famous British inventor. One of his well - known inventions is the bagless vacuum cleaner（真空吸尘器）. It {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (invent ) in 1978. Today, Dyson still remembers that day. " I felt very {#blank#}2{#/blank#}( excite ) at that time because I was the only man in the world with a bagless vacuum cleaner, " he said. 

Dyson is over seventy years old now. At first, he wasn't {#blank#}3{#/blank#}inventor. Later, he {#blank#}4{#/blank#} ( discover ) his talent. When he studied art at the Royal College of Art in London, he did well{#blank#}5{#/blank#}making new things. In 1975, he invented his own {#blank#}6{#/blank#}( produce )- the Sea Truck. It was a boat for carrying things between islands. 

Then he set up a company with his partners to make and sell another invention, the Bllbarrow, a kind of vehicle. But later, Dyson left his company {#blank#}7{#/blank#}he didn't agree with his partners. After that, Dyson began to improve on the vacuum cleaner. In 1985, Dyson took his invention to Japan to{#blank#}8{#/blank#}( sell ) it. However, few people paid money for this. And he didn't mike much money. Several years later, Dyson decided to produce and sell the machine by {#blank#}9{#/blank#}( he ). By 2005, Dyson controlled both the European and American markets. Along the way, Dyson discovered the secret to success, "People{#blank#}10{#/blank#}( buy ) your products if they're better. "