Monty was the son of a horse trainer. When he was in his ninth grade, he was asked to write a 1 about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up.

That night he wrote a seven-page paper saying that someday he'd 2 a horse ranch (牧场). He wrote about his dream in great detail and he 3 drew a picture of a 200-acre ranch with all the buildings.

 He put a great deal of his 4 into the project and the next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a large red “F”5 a note that read, “See me after class.”

The boy went to see the teacher after class and asked, “Why did I receive an ‘F'?”

The teacher said, “This is an unrealistic (不现实的) dream for a young boy like you. Your family is not rich. Having a horse ranch needs a lot of 6 . You have to buy the land. You have to pay for other things. There is no7 you could ever do it.” Then the teacher added, “8 you rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I'll reconsider your grade.”

 The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do. His father said, “Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. But I think it is a very important 9for you.”

Finally, after thinking about it for several days, the boy handed in the same paper, making10 changes at all. He said to the teacher, “You can keep the ‘F'and I'll keep my dream.”

    Sam is my new classmate. He is 1 American boy. He is from New York. He is thirteen.

    Sam often gets up at about 6: 30 on2. And he often 3 a cup of tea, an egg and some bread for his breakfast. Then he goes to school at 7: 30 a.m. and gets there 4 8: 00 a.m. . They have four classes in the morning and two in the 5. At 3: 50 p.m. they play games. He studies hard and studies 6. He likes English and is good at it. He teaches us 7 and we teach him Chinese. He can speak a little Chinese now, but not 8 . Mike is his good friend. They go home together(一起). He does 9 homework at home, but sometimes at school. On Saturday and Sunday, he likes 10 football games on TV. He often goes to bed at about nine.

    Jeff is fifteen now, but he's still in Grade One. He likes playing1, he often plays it with his friends, but he does not like to use his head. He does not listen to his2in class, so he can not do his homework. His teachers don't like him. They tell his parents3it, and they do not know what to do.

    It's Sunday today. Jeff gets up4in the morning. After breakfast, his mother tells him to do his homework. He goes to his bedroom.5his mother is busy with her housework, Jeff goes out with a ball. Now it's time for lunch, but she can't 6Jeff.

    Later he comes back. His parents look very angry, but say7. After lunch, Jeff wants to go out again. His father stops him and8, “Is your homework over?''

    “No,” answers the boy, “I can't do it.” His father pulls(拉、拽)him by the9and says, “Where is your ear?” “Oh，dear!" Jeff calls out, “It's in your10.”

    One day a young man Jeff asked a wise man why he wasn't able to reach all of his goals.

    1a smile，the wise man listened to Gary's story and told him，"First come to help me boil a kettle（水壶）of water!"

    Gary saw a big kettle2next to small stove（火炉），but he didn't find any wood.He3 up the kettle with water and started a fire. Because the kettle was too4 when the wood burned up, the water did not boil. He ran out of 5 when he returned, the water had 6 turned cold.“How can I boil the water?”he asked himself. Then he learned his 7 and prepared more wood in advance (提前). This time the water boiled quickly.

    “if there is not enough wood8would you boil the water?” the wise man asked. Jeff thought for a moment but shook his head.

    “Well, just pour out some water!” the wise man said. Jeff nodded9 .

    “At first, you set too many goals,”said the wise man, “it's like the large kettle full of water. You didn't have enough wood10 you couldn't boil the water. If you want to make the water boil, you will have to either pour some out or prepare more wood!”

    With a hat by his feet, a blind boy sat on the steps of a building. He held up a sign which said," I'm blind, please help."

    Only a few people put1in the hat. A man was walking by. He dropped some coins into the hat, then turned the sign2wrote some words, put the sign back and left.

    Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people began to give money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man came to see3things were going. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, " Were you the one who 4 my sign this morning? What did you write?"

    The man said, I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a(n)5way." What he wrote was. "Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it."

    Both the6told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by throwing some money into the7. The second one, 8, told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day. But the boy couldn't.

    There are at least two lessons we can learn9this story. First, be thankful for what you have. Someone else has less Help them if you can. 10, be creative. Think differently. There is always a better way.