Long ago, a young man often said that he was very poor and had nothing. One day, an old man walked past. He heard the young man's words and said, "Hello, young man! What are you talking about? You have nothing? That's not true! You have the most expensive things in the world, so you are a rich person." The young man was very surprised and asked, "Why do you say that? You can see I have nothing. What are these expensive things?" Then the old man said, "If you sell your eyes to a rich blind(盲的) man, you'll make a lot of money and can get everything you want. Would you like to sell them?" The young man didn't want to be blind, so he said, "No." The old man asked again, "Then what about selling your hands for some gold(金子)?" The your and shook his head for the second time. At last, the old man said, "Now you understand. You have the most expensive things in the world." So the old man taught both the young man and us a lesson—-health is the most important for us.

    One weekend, Taylor, an eight-year-old girl, went shopping with her parents. She asked her parents to buy a toy she wanted. Instead of giving her money to buy the toy, Taylor's father encouraged her to make money by herself. "How can I make money?" Taylor thought for a while and had an idea, "Why not make cakes and sell them at church to raise money to buy the toy?"

    The next day, Taylor started her plan. She first needed some money for tools and materials. So she borrowed $40 from her parents and promised to pay it back. Then she began to make cakes by herself. To her parents' surprise, she made $175 by selling the cakes that Sunday.

    Everyone thought Taylor would buy the toy she wanted. She certainly had made enough money for it, but she didn't. Instead, Taylor decided to buy business cards and had her father's phone number on them. Then she began handing the cards out. More people knew Taylor and came to buy her cakes. Even large companies began to try buying her delicious cakes.

    Though Taylor has made a lot of money, she still works hard at school. She also likes to take part in other activities. So Taylor must carefully manage her time. For example, instead of watching TV after school, Taylor might have to bake (烘焙) a lot of cakes for customers. When she has dance lessons on some days, she needs to get her baking done on time so she isn't late for class.

    Making cakes may take time and be hard work, but Taylor sees the fun in it. "I think making cakes is mostly my hobby," she says. She also decorates the boxes that are used to pack the cakes. Taylor uses all kinds of decorations to make sure each box looks special for her customers. People love the extra feeling Taylor gives them by decorating the boxes, so more and more people come for her cakes.

    Taylor's cakes are becoming very popular. She achieves a sweet success.

A group of boys stand around a tree. "1 tall tree!" they say to each other. "It will be exciting to climb to the top."

The boys then decide to play a game to see who 2 climb to the top of the tree first. One of the climbers is 3 8-year-old boy named David. He is 4 child in the group. Nobody thinks he will win.

Then the game starts. All of the boys try their best to climb as 5 as they can. Though the other boys climb faster than David 6 the beginning, he gets to the top of the tree fastest in the end.

His mother is proud. She asks him, "David, 7 do you reach the top of the tree so quickly?"

"It is easy," David says. "8 children keep looking down as they climb. When they realize how high they are, they are afraid of falling down. However, I only look up. When I see how close I am to the top, I keep going higher and higher until I 9 the top."

It is true in life that if we just keep going forward without 10 back, we are more likely to reach our goals.

One day, a(n) 1 woman came in the store where I worked. I welcomed her to the store, and she immediately started up a conversation, telling me her name was Barbara and asking me about my day. I stepped out to walk with her and nodded along while she 2 .

As we chatted, Barbara stopped to look at a shirt, "I really like the pattern. I used to wear colors like this when I was younger."

I asked, "Oh? What changed?"

Barbara chuckled (轻笑). "Well, as I started to get older, these sorts of clothes just didn't look good on me anymore. Maybe it will 3 for you, since you're a very pretty young girl."

"Don't say that, Barbara! You're still very beautiful."

Laughing, Barbara replied, "Thank you, sweet girl, but it's all right. I'll just 4 to what I normally wear. Patterns like this are made for young people like you."

I always hate it when older people believe their 5 is ugly. Older women buy wrinkle (皱纹) correctors, dye (染) the white and silver out of their hair, and do everything they can to cover their age until they 6 and say to themselves, "I'm just old and ugly now."

I don't see things that way at all. So, I 7 her to try it on.

When Barbara stepped out of the dressing room, I was 8 . The dress fit her 9 perfectly, the colors brought out the warmth in her skin, and most importantly, she looked really, really happy in it. She didn't just like the dress; she liked HERSELF in the dress, clearly feeling more 10 . She even turned in a circle to show us how the skirt flared (展开)!

Before Barbara left, she said, "Thank you for making me feel forty years younger today."

 Hello, everyone! I'm Li Ming. I am a student in No.1 Middle School. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Do you want to know him? {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Peter is my good friend. He is an English boy. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} He likes sports. He has a great collection. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Peter has much free time(空闲时间) for sports. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} After school, he plays baseball with his friends.