Think of life as a game in which you are playing with five balls in the air. You name them work, family, health, friends and spirit and you keep all of them in the air. You will soon understand thatwork is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will jump back.

But the other four balls, family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be broken. They will never be the same. You must understand that and try to have the balance in your life. But how?

Don’t look down on your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different and each of us is special.

Don’t let other people set goals for you. Only you know what is best for yourself.

Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

Don’t be afraid of difficulties. We learn how to be brave by taking chances.

Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible. The quickest way to receive love is to give it; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going.

Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is a treasure, you can always carry easily.

Don’t use time or words carelessly. You can’t get them back. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift; that’s why we call it “the present”. Life is not a competition, but a trip, step by step.

  Everyone gets angry. Many things may make you angry. Maybe your teacher gave you too much homework. Or maybe a friend borrowed your favorite book and then lost it. You may get angry when something doesn’t go your way. Maybe you get mad at yourself when your team loses an important game. Or maybe you become a road rager (路怒族) when a driver suddenly cuts in front of you. That makes yo angry! You need to know what to do with your anger. Here are some things you can do do when you feel angry:

Talk to a friend you can trust.

Count to 10.

Take some exercise.

Draw a picture of your anger.

Run around the outside of the house five times as fast as you can.

Sing along with music.

Never getting angry is impossible. But when you are angry, you can do something and it can make things better or worse. Don’t let anger be the boss of you. Take charge of it!

 Getting into the habit of giving and receiving helps build good relationships. It makes us feel more care. It stops stress from building because we know someone else is thinking about us. And if there is a problem, we're sharing it before it gets too big. It just feels great to help.

   Try these small things at home, and see how they make you feel:

   ▲ Help your little brother or sister with a homework problem.

   ▲ Help your morn prepare dinner.

   ▲ Help your dad carry living goods (物品).

   ▲ Offer to do a chore that's not usually yours.

   There's more to it than just feeling good: kindness is contagious (有感染力的). It can create more kindness, so you might start to notice your friends reaching out to help more.

   Just don't fall into the trap (陷阱) of expectation. If we help out only because we expect other persons to do something in return (回报), we will probably end up feeling disappointed and angry instead of feeling satisfied and happy. So decide to help simply because of the helpful feelings it creates. Then, when someone else does something nice for you, it's a wonderful surprise.

   Giving and receiving is one of the most basic friendship skills. With a good network (关系网) of supportive people, we are less stressed. We feel loved and understood, so we're better able to solve problems, bounce (弹) back from disappointments and try again.

  Most people have ambitions（雄心）. An ambition is something we wantto do, want to be or want to have. A student’s ambition, for example, might be to pass his or her exams and then get a good job. A player’s ambition could be to win an important competition. A businessman’s ambition is usually to make a lot of money.

    Not all ambition are about success at work, however. Some people just want to be good people, have a family or help others.

    Ben’s ambition is to be a sports writer. He writes sports for his class newspaper. He likes most sports, and swimming and football are his favorites. Trudy’s ambition is to be a concert pianist. She is very serious about it and practices every day with her best friend Lily. It is very important to her.

    Harry’s ambition changes every day! One day he wants to be an astronaut. The next day he wants to be a pop singer. The next day hen wants to drive a racing car（赛车）. His mother would be happy if his ambition was to get up in time for school every day!

    What ‘s your ambition?

根据短文内容，选择正确答案。

 Sometimes people come into your life and you know at once that they were sure to be there.They serve some certain purpose，teach you a lesson or help find out who you are or who you want to become.You never know who these people may be：your classmate，neighbor，teacher，long­lost friend or even a real stranger.But you know that every moment they will influence your life in some serious way.

Sometimes things happen to you. At the time they may seem terrible, painful and unfair. But later you realize that without overcoming those difficulties, you would have never realized your further ability and advantages.Everything happens for a reason and nothing happens by chance or with good or bad luck.

The people you meet influence your life，and the success and failure you experience create who you are.Even the bad experience can be learned from.In fact，they are probably the most poignant and important ones.

Enjoy every day even every moment and take from it everything that you possibly can，for you may never be able to experience it again.Talk to people whom you have never talked to before，and really listen.You should set your goals high，hold your head up，tell yourself you are a great one and believe in yourself.

You can make your life anything you wish.Create your own life and then go out and live it.

In order to tell you what I believe, I must bring up something from my personal history. 

The turning point of my life was my decision to give up my business job and study music. My parents, although sharing my love of music, didn’t think it was a good choice that I took up music as a job. Considering my family background, this was understandable. My grandfather had taught music for nearly forty years at Spring Hill College in Mobile, and though he was much loved by his students, he didn’t earn(挣钱)enough to provide for his large family. As a result of this example in the family, my parents strongly asked me to go to the college instead of a conservatory(音乐学院)of music although I loved my violin and spent most of my spare time practicing.

Before my graduation from Columbia, the family ran into some money problems and I felt it was my duty to leave college and take a job. That was why I took a business job, which I always think of as the wasted years. I went into it for money, for being able to help the family. Money is all I go out of it. It was not enough. I felt that life was passing me by.

My wish was to save enough to quit(退出)and then go to Europe to study music. I continued to make money, and finally, bit by bit, I earned enough to make myself able to go abroad. The family got out of the trouble and _______________. I felt like a free man and sailed for Europe. I stayed for four years, worked harder than I had ever dreamed of working and enjoyed every minute of it.

“Enjoyed” is too soft a word. I walked on air. I really lived. When I broke away from business, it was against the advice of all my friends and family, but if I had stayed in business, I do not believed I would have made a success of living.

As teenagers, you have many dreams．These dreams can be very big，or they can be small. You may just want to become one of the best students in your class. If you find a dream, what do you do with it? Do you ever try to make your dream come true?

  Follow Your Heart, by Australian writer Andrew Matthews, tells us that making our dreams real is life’s biggest challenge．

   You may think you’re not very good at some school subjects，or that you can’t become a writer. These kinds of thoughts stop you from getting your dream.

In fact, everyone can make his dream come true. The first thing you must do is to remember what your dream is. Don’t let dreams just be dreams. Keep telling yourself what you want. Do this little by little and your dream will come true. You must also never give up（放弃）your dream. There will be difficulties on the way to your dreams. But the biggest difficulty is yourself. You need to decide what is the most important．For example, studying will make you have better grades，and saving 10 yuan means you can buy a new book.

When you get closer to your dream, it may change（改变）a little. This is good because you will learn more and find new hobbies．

Everyone was moved when he or she watched the volleyball game between the Chinese and Serbia women’s teams on TV.

As we sat before the television set, watching the game, we experienced every kind of feeling. When the two teams played neck and neck(难分上下), we were nervous, wondering what would come next, and when our team fell behind our hearts were in our mouths. Watching the game between those two teams is not only a matter of great joy, but it also provides food for thought. Just see how the Chinese women won the game——by their cooperation (合作), by their excellent skill, their effort and strong will.

A Chinese saying goes, “When two competent opponents (比赛双方) meet, the strong-minded one will win. ” This is the spirit of the Chinese Women’s Volleyball Team.

If every Chinese showed some of the spirit, never losing heart in times of difficulty and remaining clear -minded in times of advantage (优势), then our nation would stand in the vanguard (前列) of the world family of nations, just as the Chinese Women’s Volleyball Team has done, is doing and will do.

There are many things we need to know that we do not learn at school. For example, if we want to use our money wisely, we need to shop carefully. We need to know how to compare the prices of things in different shops. We need to be able to compare the quality of different brands. We need to know how to make a choice when we shop.

Knowing how to make such choices is a “life skill”, and we need these skills if we want to live useful and happy lives.

Some of these choices are small. For example, will I take an apple for lunch or a pear? Will I go to school by bus or on foot? Will I wear the red T-shirt or the blue one to the movies? Other choices are more important. For example, will I eat healthy food for lunch or will I eat junk food because it is tastier? Will I work hard in all my classes or will I only work hard in the classes I enjoy? We make choices like these every day.

We have to realize that the choices we make can affect the rest of our lives. Just as importantly, our choices can also affect other people. The next time you decide to waste time in class, play a joke on someone or talk loudly at the movies, think about this: who else does your choice affect?