I was ten when I first sat with my grandmother behind the cashier（收银台）in her general store. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} I quickly learned the importance of treating customers politely and saying “thank you.”

    At first I was paid in candy{#blank#}2{#/blank#} I worked every day after school, and during the summer and on weekends and holidays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. My father helped me set up a bank account. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    By the time I was 12, My grandmother thought I had done such a good job that she promoted me to selling cosmetics（化妆品）. I developed the ability to look customers directly in the eye. Even though I was just a kid, women would ask me such things as “What color do you think I should wear?” I took a real interest in their questions and was able to translate what they wanted into makeup（化妆）ideas. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

The job taught me a valuable lesson: to be a successful salesperson, you didn't need to be a Rocket scientist—you needed to be a great listener. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Except they are no longer women purchasing cosmetics from me; instead, they are kids who tell me which toys they would like to see designed and developed.

    Sarah Hutchins has won a prize from Amazon.com in a competition for young inventors. She invented “camoculars”! Now what are “camoculars”?  Camoculars are binoculars(双筒望远镜) and a camera combined. Amazon.com, a web company, organized a competition for young inventors. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Sarah was at a concert when she thought of her invention. “I was sitting a long way from the stage and I was watching the band through my binoculars. While I was watching, I thought,' {#blank#}2{#/blank#} 'Then I got an idea. Why not have binoculars with a camera inside them?”

    When she got home, she took some plastic binoculars and a cheap camera and put them together. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} So Sarah sent her idea to Amazon.com and two months later, she got a surprise. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} They didn't give her the top prize in the competition, but she won $1,000 and a trip to New York.

    People are already asking Sarah what she is going to invent next. “I don't know,” says Sarah. “If you just sit there and think, you won't invent anything, because you get ideas at strange moments. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Sarah likes music very much.

B. I'd love to be able to take a picture of this!

C. Amazon.com phoned to say that she was a winner.

D. I have always dreamed of travelling around New York.

E. The only thing you can do is keep your eyes and ears open!

F. Her sister was watching her and told her about the competition.

G. Sarah was one of thousands of young people who took part in this competition.

You must have written your research paper, your personal essay, your book review—-whatever your school class requires. You think you have provided good information in the needed number of words.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    But is it really done? Many teachers and professional writers believe that writing is revision.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

Revision of writing is a necessary skill for students. The classroom is a good place to practice patience, concentration and listening. There are rewards with spending time with your thoughts and really taking time to compose your ideas in an orderly and reasonable way. You should put away your paper after you have written a first version, or draft. Wait several hours, maybe overnight, before working on it more.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Not only are you refreshed, but you're looking at things through different eyes. That's what revision literally means—to see again through different eyes.

Following a four-step process may help you with your paper. The first step in the process is invention. It includes forming many questions about your subject. It is called “question-storming”.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Then comes the revision period. Take your time to read what you've written, to think about it, and maybe to re-shape it based on what you see now, as a kind of new person looking at it with a reader's eyeglasses rather than a writer's. The fourth step is called “publication”.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}In a sense, anytime you turn it over to another person, that's publication.

    Probably, the process takes away some of the tension of writing. And worry about the quality of your writing often disappears when you share that writing.

    There was once a lonely girl who wanted love very much. One day while she was walking in the woods， she found two birds.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} She took care of them withlove and the birds grew strong. Every morning they greeted her with a beautiful song.

    The girl felt great love for the birds. She wanted their singing to last forever.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} The larger and stronger of the two birds flew out of the cage. The girl watched worriedly as he flew above her. She was so afraid that he would fly away and she would never see him. So as he flew close, she caught him quickly. She felt very happy.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Her love had killed him. She noticed the other bird standing at the door of the cage. She could feel his great need for freedom and his need to fly into the clear, blue sky.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} The bird flew around her once, twice, three times. The girl looked happily at the bird's enjoyment. Her heart did no longer care about her loss. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Suddenly the bird flew closer and landed softly on her hand. It sang the sweetest song she had ever heard.

    The fastest way to lose love is to hold on too tight; the best way to keep love is to give it wings!

A. One day the girl left the door to the cage open.

B. She lifted him from the cage and freed him.

C. She took them home and put them in a small cage.

D. The birds were so beautiful that she loved them very much.

E. She wanted the bird to be happy.

F. She realized her mistake.

G. However, when she opened her hand, she found the bird had died.

    Florence Nightingale was named after her birthplace, Florence. Italy. When she was almost a year old, she returned with her family to England.

    Florence often helped her mother deliver (运送) food to the poor and sick. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Her family was shocked because nursing was not a respected profession (职业).

    But Florence was determined. She studied books on medicine. Later, she visited hospitals in France, Germany and Ireland and learned everything she could.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    In 1854, Britain was at war with Russia, Florence went to the British hospital in Scutari and she was shocked. The hospital left men lying on the floor, and rats were running everywhere.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Many soldiers died before receiving help.

    The doctors wouldn't listen to Florence because they didn't like the idea of women in army hospitals – until one day 500 unexpected casualties (伤亡者) arrived.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Florence made changes, making sure the men were washed and their injuries were cared for. Every night she would check the patients with her lamp.

    When she returned home after the war, a fund had been set up in her honor. Many of the soldiers she had nursed had made contributions (捐款). Now she could set up the Nightingale Training School in London.

    After years of hard work, Florence Nightingale saw cleaner and more cheerful hospitals.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}All of this was because of the “lady with the lamp”.

A. Nursing became an honored profession.

B. There was no running water and no heat.

C. She knew she had much to learn about nursing.

D. Florence saw the soldiers' health had improved.

E. As she grew older, she decided to become a nurse.

F. They soon realized that Florence could give a hand.

G. Upon returning home, she was an expert on hospital management.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    It takes faith to live by principles, especially when you see people close to you get ahead in life by lying, cheating, indulging, manipulating, and serving only themselves. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Take the principle of honesty. If you're a big liar, you may be able to get by for a while, even for a few years. But you'd be hard-pressed to find a liar who achieved success over the long haul. As Cecil B. DeMille observed about his classic movie The Ten Commandments, "It is impossible for us to break the law." {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Unlike all the other centers we've looked at, principles will never fail you. They will never talk behind your back. They don't get up and move. They don't suffer career-ending injuries. They don't play favorites based on skin color, gender, wealth, or body features. A principle-centered life is simply the most stable, immovable, unshakable foundation you can build upon, and we all need one of those.

To grasp why principles always work, just imagine living a life based on their opposites —a life of dishonesty, loafing, indulgence, ingratitude, selfishness, and hate. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Ironically, putting principles first is the key to doing better in all the other centers. If you live the principles of service, respect, and love, for instance, you're likely to pick up more friends and be a more stable boyfriend or girlfriend. Putting principles first is also the key to becoming a person of character.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}In whatever situation you find yourself, ask, "What is the principle in play here?" For every problem, search for the principle that will solve it.

    If you're feeling worn out and beaten up by life, perhaps you should try the principle of balance. If you find no one trusts you, the principle of honesty might just be the cure you need.

A. Decide today to make principles your life-center, or paradigm.

B. What you don't see, however, is that breaking principles always catch up to them in the end.

C. Everybody has his principle

D. Principles Never Fail.

E. I can't imagine any good thing coming out of that.

F. We can only break ourselves against the law.

G. Law is inseparable from our life.