A soap opera called "Tiger Mother and Cat Father" is popular in China now. The tiger mother is pretty strict with her daughter and the little girl is not allowed to watch TV or play computer games. On the other hand, she makes all efforts to buy the expensive house near the key school, in order to let her daughter have a better education. However, the cat father has an opposite view of how to raise their child. He gives her daughter more independence and doesn't make many rules for her. Which one is better, "Tiger Mother" or "Cat Father"?

    In China, it seems that in each family, there is tiger mother and a cat father, even worse, some families have two tigers. Children can't decide anything for themselves. What's worse, Chinese mothers believe key school will bring a better future to their children. This soap opera fully shows us a common problem in China. And maybe it is the real reason why such kind of TV shows can get popular.

    Whether the tiger mother or the cat father, respecting(尊重)children and growing together are the keys to family education. Confidence, kindness, honesty and independence are the most important qualities to develop a child, not the grades. Just like a poem said, "Educating children is like walking with a snail(蜗牛), and the steps are gentle and slow."

    When our son Bradley was ten, the new bicycle he had received earlier that year was stolen. Owning a bicycle was a big deal to our children when they were little. They spent hours and hours, day after day, on their bicycles, riding up and down the footpath, and at the front of the house. We also rode together as a family a lot. Bicycling was a great way to get the kids out of the house and into the fresh air without spending any money.

    Bradley had discovered that his bicycle had been stolen from our backyard in Campbelltown, South Australia, when he and his sister went outside for a morning ride. He couldn't believe that someone would do this.

    He got a large piece of cardboard, painted a sign begging for the bicycle to be returned, and tied the sign to the letterbox. The following morning, when I went out to collect the mail, I found a white envelope with the magical words, "Buy yourself a new bicycle". There was a $100 banknote inside.

    We were very touched that someone had the heart to do this, We've never been able to thank the person but we suspect(猜想) that it may have been one of our wonderful neighbors. Bradley painted a big"______!"on the sign and we left it outside for a couple of weeks afterwards, hoping the kind stranger would drive down our street.

    A delighted Bradley was able to buy a new bicycle. As the years went on, the bicycles became bigger and more expensive but remained just as important for those family bicycle rides. Now Bradley is 25. Sometimes I miss the days when receiving a bicycle was the best thing in the world to them.

    All these years later we are still thankful for the stranger's kindness. We were a young family with three little children and it meant a lot to us. We still talk about it and, even now, wonder who the kind stranger was.

    Once, Einstein gave a lecture in a university. After his speech, the audience started asking questions.

    A girl asked, "Do you think you're a giant of science？" Einstein said with a smile, "A giant is a person who is tall in height. You see I'm so small, how can I be a giant? Maybe I see a bit farther, only because I stand higher！"

    Then a boy asked, "You mentioned you stand higher than the others. It reminds me that you had a talk with a lady on the top of the Alps (阿尔卑斯山).I don't want to ask what you talked, but I want to know whether you realised you have been a top in the history of science when you stood on the top."

    Looking at the boy carefully, Einstein replied, "Well, my height cannot become a top. And there is no top that no one can get to, so we don't want to be a top, but we want to be a person to climb the top！"

    Then he took up a piece of chalk and wrote on the blackboard, "Standing on the top, you are not tall, but even smaller！"

    Then he said, "Though I stand tall, in the eyes of the world I'm still small! Finally, I can tell you a sentence, which was the last one I told the lady on the top of the Alps, 'Any top can be reached, for there is no giant in the world but the one who stands higher！'A storm of applause(掌声) sounded. The lady who listened to Einstein's instruction on the Alps that year was no other than Madam Curie!

    The designer of the Apple Computer, Steve Jobs, was not quite successful in his early years. He was not among the best students at school, and from time to time he got into trouble with either his schoolmates or his teachers. But he was full of new ideas, which few people saw the value of. Things remained the same when he went up to college and he dropped out halfway.

    Steve Jobs worked first as a video game designer at Atari. He worked there for only a few months and then he set out to tour India He hoped that the trip would give him more ideas and give him a change in life for the better.

    After he returned from India, he began to live on a farm in California. And then, in 1975, Steve Jobs set about making a new type of computer. Along with his friend Stephen Wozniak, he designed the Apple Computer in his bedroom and built it in his garage(车库). He chose the name 'Apple' because it reminded him of a happy summer he once spent on an orchard(果园) in Oregon. His Apple Computer was so successful that Steve Jobs soon became worldwide famous. But unluckily, he died of illness in 2012.

    In ancient Greece, Socrates was a knowledgeable philosopher(哲学家). One day one person met him and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?". "Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test(三重过滤测试). Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the Triple Filter Test. The first filter is truth. Have you made absolutely(完全地) sure that what you are about to tell me is true? ""No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and…". "All right," said Socrates. "So you don't know whether it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?" "No, on the contrary…". "So, "Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of Usefulness(有益性). Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?" "No, not really." "Well," said Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me?"

    Mr. Brown got up late this morning. He was going to be late for work. It was raining hard and the streets were wet. He drove so fast that he didn't see the red lights. He couldn't stop his car and hit a car. An old man got out of the car and called out angrily, "What are you doing? How can you drive so fast?"

    "I'm sorry, sir," said Mr. Brown, "l didn't see the lights turn red." "Then he brought out a bottle of wine (酒)and gave it to the old man.

    It's cold today, sir," said Mr. Brown. "Please drink a little, and then you'll get warm."

    The old man drank some wine and became happy. He asked, "I'm feeling much better now. Why don't you drink any?"

     "I can't drink anything now, sir," answered Mr. Brown" I'm waiting for the policeman. Only drunkards(酒鬼)cause accidents, you know!"