Little Tommy was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything—tutors (家庭教师), cards, special learning centers—in short, everything they could think of. Finally they took Tommy to a catholic (天主教的) school.

   After the first day, little Tommy came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn’t kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread (铺开) out all over the room and little Tommy was hard at work. His mother was surprised. She called him down to dinner and as soon as he finished eating, he went back to his room, without a word. In no time he was backhitting the booksas hard as before. This went on for some time, day after day while the mother tried to understand what was happening.

   Finally, little Tommy brought home his report card. He quietly put it on the table and went up to his room and hit the books. His mom looked at it and to her surprise, little Tommy got an A in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity (好奇心). She went to his room and asked, “Son, what was it? Was it the nuns (修女)?”

   Little Tommy looked at her and shook his head, “No.”

“Well then,” she asked again. “What was it?”

Little Tommy looked at her and said, “Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that man nailed (钉) to the plus sign (加号), I knew they weren’t joking.”

    Suppose you work in a big firm and find English very important for your job because you often deal with foreign businessmen. Now you are looking for a place where you can improve your English. Here are some advertisements about English language training from newspapers. You may find the information you need.

For Sparky, school was all but impossible. He failed every subject in the eighth grade. He didn’t do much better in sports. Although he played for the school’s golf team, he lost the only important match of the season.

Sparky was a loser. He, his classmates…everyone knew it. Sparky never asked a classmate to go out in high school. He was too afraid of being refused.

However, one thing was important to Sparky – drawing. He was proud of his artwork. Of course, no one else appreciated it. In his senior year of high school, he sent some cartoons to the editors of the Yearbook. Although the cartoons were turned down, Sparky was so confident about his ability that he decided to become an artist.

After completing high school, he wrote a letter to Walt Disney Studios. He was told to send some samples of his artwork, and the subject for a cartoon was suggested. Sparky spent a great deal of time on it. Finally, the reply came from Disney Studios. He had been rejected（拒绝）once again. Another loss for the loser.

So Sparky decided to write his own autobiography（自传）in cartoons. He described his childhood – a little boy loser and underachiever. The cartoon character would soon become famous worldwide. For Sparky, the boy who had little success in school and whose work was rejected again and again was Charles Schulz. He created the Peanuts comic strip and little cartoon character – Charlie Brown.

    Chen Guangbiao was born in Jiangsu in July,1968. He is the chairperson of a company in Jiangsu. Now he is one of China's richest men and he has donated a great amount of money to charity projects. He says he will donate everything he has to charity after he dies.

    When people are in need of help, he will appear at once. He helped people during the Wenchuan earthquake, the Yunnan earthquake and the Taiwan earthquake. He also gave a helping hand in Japan's earthquake. He has built many Hope Primary Schools to support the education in poor areas.

    He doesn't do charity for honour. He wants to encourage more people to make contributions to charity. After announcing he would donate everything to charity after his death, many businesses, overseas(海外)Chinese people and common people encouraged by him have also promised to do something for charity.

    As a philanthropist(慈善家),he is asked for help every day. Sometimes he gets very tired, but he has never stopped caring.

    So far, he has received a lot of awards, including Pioneer of the Year, and National May Day Labour Medal(全国五一劳动奖章). He is considered as one of china' s top philanthropists.

 The day was warm and the sun shone down like a new beginning in my life. I was waving goodbye to my son, the last one of my children to leave home and go to a new place — university. I felt so light-hearted after spending many years looking after my four children — cooking, washing, ironing, teaching them hew to look after themselves and manage many other things — that I actually thought "At last, I was free".

   But, as I watched my last one leave, although it was joyful, I realized I had not been really prepared for this day. I was too busybringing upthese adults of the future to realize that they would all leave the nest and live by themselves.

   At first I didn't know what I wanted to do. I tried a part-time job, the result of which was that I ran out in tears. I started another business, but that didn't work, either. I grew my own vegetables and fruit, which lasted 3 years. But one day my doctor advised it was not fit for me to do this because of the pain of my feet.

   I began wondering whether I had a future of my own. I cried for the life I was used to, and hadn't known or wanted anything different.

   Then one day I saw an advertisement for foster(代养的) parents. I discussed it with my husband who was always behind everything I tried and then I rang up the number. A week later, a girl named Tracy became a member of my family.

   I now laugh and sing with my 14-year-old foster daughter, even when my kitchen is dirty and in a mess and my bathroom is totally out of order. I now know, 8 years later, the meaning of my doing all these things with the spare hours, days, and weeks when my last child flew the nest. The sun shines once again in my home.

“I sometimes get up at three or four in the morning and I surf the net.”

“I often check my e-mail forty times a day.”

“I often spend more than three hours during one time on the net.”

“I spend more time in chat rooms than with my ‘real-life’ friends.”

Do you know any people like these? They are part of a new addiction(瘾) called Internet addiction. Internet addicts spend at least thirty to forty hours online every week. The use of the Internet can be an addiction like drug(毒品) use. People lose control of the time they spend on the Internet

For example, one college student was missing for several days. His friends were worried, and they called the police. The police found the student in the computer lab，he was surfing the net for several days straight.

Studies show that about 6 to 10% of Internet users become addicted. And people worry about the teens because the Internet is changing the playing field for some of them. They spend more time in cyberspace（网络空间）than in the real world of friends and family.

Is “surfing the net” a hobby or an addiction for you? You may have a problem if you have these symptoms:

●You do not go to important family activities or you do not do school work because you like to spend hours on the Internet.

●You can’t wait for your next online time.

●You plan to spend a short time online, but then you spend several hours.

●You go out with your friends less and less.

According to scientists’ research, the month in which babies are born could affect(影响) them in some ways.

Babies born in spring get sick easily. Children born under Aquarius (Jan. 21st—Feb. 19th) may be less clever than those born in other seasons. They may also have shorter lives than those born in autumn. Scientists believe many of the differences can be explained by the mother’s exposure to sunlight in pregnancy (怀孕). Sunlight helps lead to the production of vitamin D in the body. The lack (缺乏) of vitamin D in the first months of life may have a bad effect on health.

Vitamin D is called the “sunshine vitamin”. It has a good effect on health. A study showed that people born from April to June had slightly shorter lives than those born in October, November or December. Similar studies in the US showed that people born in autumn lived about 160 days longer than those born in spring.

Professor Russell Foster said the conclusions were surprising and interesting. He added, “These are small effects but they are very, very clear. I am not giving voice to star signs and they are just for fun. But it is true that we are affected by our season of birth.”

  At the first day of my senior high school, I met a nice teacher. She looked at me and said, "I am happy to have an international student in my class." I was very excited.

      One day I was three minutes late for school. She told me to write my name and the word "late" on a piece of paper. In that way she could know I was late for the first time. At the beginning, I was angry. But later I understood why she did that. She did it because she wanted to teach me an important lesson(教训): time is valuable(宝贵的).

      I learnt another important lesson during my first exam. After finishing my exam paper, I did not review the answers because it was the end of the exam time. One week later, she returned my exam paper. I found that one of my answers was wrong. Although A, B and C were the only choices(选择) on the paper, I chose D, but not C. I tried to explain my mistake, "I chose D although I knew C was the right answer." However, she told me, "I do believe you, but I am not going to forgive your mistake. This will remind(提醒) you to be more careful before you hand in your papers." I knew she was right.

                                                            Linda.