Paul was the best table tennis player in his school and hardly ever lost a match. He hated (讨厌) losing anything. When he won, he would feel really good. If he lost, he would feel very terrible. It seemed to Paul that losing was the worst thing in the world.

   A new kid, Jack, came to Paul's school. He was good at table tennis, too. Soon there would be a match between Paul and Jack. Paul worked hard to get ready for the match, but Jack didn't seem to think much of it. When the match began, Jack was a real player. There was always a smile on his face, while Paul looked serious all the time. Paul thought it was so important to win the match that he even wanted to cheat (作弊), but he lost in the end.

   "You played very well, Paul. I think we can play again sometime," Said Jack.

   But Paul didn't feel happy and couldn't fall asleep that night.

   One day, Paul saw Jack playing basketball. Although he lost again and again, the happy smile never left his face. Paul found Jack was great at table tennis, but bad at basketball. However, he enjoyed both of them.

   No matter (不管) he won or lost the game, Jack enjoyed it. Paul came to realize that enjoying a game was much more important than winning or losing it. He felt happier than ever before.

My friend’s grandfather came to America from a farm in Thailand. After arriving in New York, he went into a cafeteria (自助餐厅) in Manhattan to get something to eat. He sat down at a table and waited for someone to take his order. Of course nobody did. Finally, a young man with a big plate full of food came up to him. He sat down next to him and told him how a cafeteria worked.

“Start out at that end,” he said, “Just go along the long table and choose what you want. At the other end they’ll tell you how much you have to pay (付钱).”

One of the secrets(秘诀)of successful people is that they have good habits. The good habits help them to be successful. What are good habits? How can you get into good habits? Here is some advice for you.

First, everyone has his good points(优点).You should always look for the good points in people and learn from them.

Second, you should try to learn good new things every day. Reading a few pages of a book or newspaper every day also helps you.

Third, tell yourself you are good. When you get up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror(镜子)and tell yourself you can do things well.

I think the last one is the most important. No matter what good habits you want to have, you should try to keep them，work hard everyday. Then you can live a successful and happy life.

Mrs. Black is sixty-nine years old. She only has a daughter named Sandra. Mr. Black died twelve years ago. Mrs. Black was very sad and lived in her house alone. Two years ago her daughter had a baby. The young woman was busy all the time and had no time to look after her son James. She asked her mother to live with them. The old woman had to sell her house and moved there. She was strong and could do all the housework. And the family liked her.

Last autumn Mrs. Black went to do some shopping. A car hit her and her leg was hurt. She had to be in hospital for three months. She couldnˈt do anything after she came back.

At first her daughter was kind to her, but soon she began to be tired of (厌) her. The old woman wanted to leave, but she had no money to buy a house and nobody could take care of her. She didnˈt know what to do.

One morning Mrs. Black broke a plate. It made her daughter angry. She told James to buy a wooden plate for his grandma. That afternoon James came back with two wooden plates. She was surprised and asked, "Why did you buy two plates, son ""One is for grandma," answered the boy, "the other is for you! You will also have to use a wooden plate when youˈre old, I think."

The woman heard this and was sad. She cried for long. Now she is kind to her mother as she was before.

Once, a circle(圆环) broke. It missed a small part of itself. The circle wanted to be whole, se it went around and looked for its lost piece. But, because it wasn't completed, it could roll (滚动) only very slowly. It smelled the flowers along the way. It talked with the worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different parts, but none of them fit. It left them all by the side of road and kept on searching.

    One day, the circle found its lost piece. It was so happy. It could be whole, with nothing missing. It fixed itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, and it rolled too fast to notice the flowers or to talk to the worms. The circle missed the flowers and the worms. It left its perfect piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly again.

   Perhaps we are more whole when we are missing something. In some ways, a man who has everything is a poor man. He will never know what it feels like to hope and dream of something better. He will never know the experience of finding something he has always wanted and never had.

One day, a farmer was walking along a road with his son Thomas. The father said, “Look! There’s a horseshoe, pick it up and put it in your bag.” Thomas said, “It isn’t worth (值得) the trouble.” His father said nothing but he picked (捡起) it up himself. When they got to nearby town, they had a rest. There the farmer sold the horseshoe and with the few pennies he bought some cherries (樱桃).

The father and the son continued (继续) their way. The sun was well up in the sky, and there wasn’t a house or even a tree where they could have a rest. Thomas felt too thirsty to walk. At this time, his father dropped a cherry on the ground and Thomas picked it up quickly and ate it, after a while, his father dropped another cherry and once again, his son lost no time in picking it up and putting it in his mouth.

And so they went on. The old farmer dropped the cherries and the son picked them up. When Thomas had eaten up all the cherries, his father said to him, “My dear son, if you bent down early to pick up that horseshoe, it would not have been necessary for you to bend so many times for the cherries. Always remember the lesson that he who does not worry about the things will find that he cannot do the great things.”

The day was like any other day in his life, Tom walked past the shop on the street corner. He stopped to look at the front row of shoes, and he was happy to see that the pair of shoes he wanted very much was still there. Looking down, he felt sorry for himself. He really wanted to have them for his birthday.

He sadly walked away and thought how to tell his mother about it. He knew she would give him anything he liked if she could. But he also knew very well she had little money. He decided not to go home at once, as he looked worried and his mother would notice it. So he went to the park and sat on the grass. Then he saw a boy in a wheelchair (轮椅) . He noticed that the boy moved the wheel with his hands. Tom looked at him carefully and was surprised to see the boy have no feet. He looked at his own feet. “It's much better to be without shoes than without feet, ” he thought. There was no reason (理由) for him to feel so sorry and sad. He left and smiled, thinking he was happier.

On my first day in America,I was excited, but nervous as well. My dear neighbor Susan helped me get used to my new life. She visited my new home with a home-made apple pie. She hugged me and said with a big smile,“Alice, I am sure you have never tasted a home-made apple pie before! You are going to love it so much!”To be honest, I was greatly surprised by this welcome from a stranger. And the apple pie made me feel at home.

Susan was very helpful to me. When I was thinking about what to wear on Halloween, she suggested I dress up like a traditional Chinese girl.“I happen to have a traditional Chinese dress and I think I am a great make-up artist!”she said. After an hour of hard work, she pushed me to the mirror to examine our work.The clothes were so beautiful and suited me fine! I was sure that I would stand out among so many people at Halloween. I thanked Susan for her help.

My first Thanksgiving was another highlight. On the festival morning, I was surprised to find a gift box in my front yard. There was a note on it:“Hello Alice, I am the Thanksgiving bunny! Enjoy your gift!”I looked around and caught Susan looking at me from the porch. Susan is such a lovely person.

I saw that the spirit of the Chinese saying, that“Neighbors carry more weight than distant relatives,”is alive and well in America. Susan filled my heart with warmth and joy, just as angels(天使) do.

There was once a lonely girl who longed so much for love. One day while she was walking in the woods, she found two starving birds. She took them home and put them in a small cage. She cared them with love and the birds grew strong. Every morning they greeted her with a wonderful song. The girl felt great love for the birds.

   One day the girl left the door to the cage open. The larger and stronger of the two birds flew from the cage. The girl was so frightened that he would fly away. As he flew close, she grasped him wildly. Her heart felt glad at her success in catching him. Suddenly she felt the bird go limp. She opened her hand and stared in horror at the dead bird. Her desperate love had killed him.

   She noticed the other bird moving back and forth on the edge of the cage. She could feel his great need for freedom. She lifted him from the cage and tossed him softly into the air. The bird circled once, twice, three times.

   The girl watched delightedly at the bird's enjoyment. Her heart was no longer concerned with her loss. She wanted the bird to be happy. Suddenly the bird flew closer and landed softly on her shoulder. It sang the sweetest melody that she had never heard.

   The fastest way to lose love is to hold on it too tightly, the best way to keep love is to give it WINGS!