Tom is a schoolboy.He is only seven years old, but he is very busy on weekdays.One Saturday he decided to relax himself, so he went to the cinema.

    It was the first time for him to do that.He bought a ticket and then went in.But after two or three minutes he came out, bought a second ticket and went in again.After a few minutes he came out again and bought a third ticket.Two or three minutes later he came out and asked for another ticket.Then the girl in the ticket office asked him, “Why did you buy so many tickets? How many friends did you meet?” Tom answered, “No, I have no friends here.But a big boy always stops me at the door and tears(撕) my ticket.”

    Michael Jackson was one of the world's best singers. He was born in the middle west of the city of Gary， Indiana， in 1958. He began singing with his four brothers. They called the group， “The Jackson Five”. The group became very popular after appearing on a television program. In 1970 the group made their  first record with the name of I Want You Back. It was very popular. One of their hit records was Never Say Goodbye.

    Michael was good at dancing as well as singing， for example， his dance moves and moon walking. He was asked to act in a film in 1978 for the first time， and in the same year he made a record on his own， which was sold eight million copies all over the world.

    Michael nearly didn't go out because he was too famous. Once his fans went off in a faint(晕倒）when they saw him at the concert. No one can do it by now. He lived in a large house and kept lots of animals. He never ate meat. He often raised money for charity. This made him win the Guinness world Records（吉尼斯世界纪录）in 2006. He died on June 25th， 2009， but he would live in our hearts forever.

    Mrs Smith is going shopping with her son. They are looking for a present for Mr Smith's birthday. Mrs Smith wants to buy her husband a new camera and Tom wants to buy his father a jumper.

    They drive to the department store on the high street. Mrs Smith uses the lift to go to the Electrical Department on the third floor and Tom goes straight to the Men's Clothing Department on the first floor.

    When Mrs Smith gets to the Electrical Department, she finds that cameras are sold in the Photography Department on the ground floor. So she takes the lift down and asks the sales assistant there for some help. She doesn't know much about cameras and needs some advice. The sales assistant recommends(推荐) an automatic camera by Olympus, but it is too expensive. She asks the assistant if he has anything a little cheaper and he tells her about a special offer on the Pentax range. It still seems expensive, so she thanks the assistant and decides to shop around first.

    Meanwhile, Tom is looking at the jumpers. He only has ￡10, so he can't buy most of them. He sees his mother and they decide to go to the smaller shops round the corner.

    When my brother and I were children, we spent a few weeks each summer in the countryside with our uncle. He was a geologist（地质学家） and loved to go on long walks to find stones to his collection in his spare time. We often followed him.

    One day, we left early, and this time, our uncle had bought us backpacks to help him carry the sample（样本）. The whole day, we walked around the countryside, and every now and then, our uncle put stones in our bags. We were a bit surprised that he also took some stones out from our bags at times, but we thought maybe he had just found better samples than the ones we already had.

    When we reached the house in the late afternoon, we were tired out. The backpacks were so heavy that we gave a big sigh of relief when we put them on the ground.

    Yet our uncle's backpack was half-empty.

    "Why did you give us so many stones?" we asked.

    "I didn't. You did, "he said, "You did not know it, but I made you go through a little attitude（态度） test today."

    "What do you mean an 'attitude test'?" we wondered. "It is something someone once did to me. You see, I listened to every word you said. And whenever you complained about anyone or anything, I added a stone to your bags. And whenever you talked about something with an attitude of gratitude（感恩） and positive（正面的） thinking, I took out a stone. And now look at your backpacks."

    We did. They were full.

    "Your negative（负面的） thoughts are like stones. You carry them in your mind just like those stones in a backpack. The more negative thoughts you have, the heavier your mind is. So look at those bags and start paying attention to what you say and how you say things."

    This little lesson was one of the most important I ever had. And I remember my uncle with great love for teaching us one of the most important lessons in life-the power of attitude.