Once there was a king. He had two old ministers. One was kind and the other was bad. The bad minister often said bad words about the kind minister before the king. The king was very angry.

One day the king said to the bad minister , “Write two words on two pieces of paper. Write ‘live’ on one piece and ‘die’ on the other . Then put them in a jar and tell him to choose. If he takes out the paper with ‘live’ on it , I will let him go. If he takes out the paper with ‘die’ on it ,I will kill him at once.”

The bad minister was quite happy. He got two pieces of paper ready. He wrote “die” on each piece of paper.

The kind old man came. He knew the bad minister wanted to kill him. He also knew the words on the two pieces both “die”, but he knew what to do. Later the king had to keep his word and let the old minister go. Do you know what the kind man do about this at that time?

 It was something she had dreamed of since she was five. Finally, after years of training and hard work, Deborah Duffey was going to play in her first high school basketball game. The goals of becoming an outstanding player and playing for a college were never far from Deborah's mind.

   The game was against Mills High School. With 1:42 minutes left in the game, Deborah's team led by one point. A player of Mills had the ball, and Deborah ran to guard against her. As Deborah ran to stop the player, her knee went out and she fell on the court (球场) in great pain. Just like that, Deborah's season was over.

   After suffering the bad injury, Deborah found that, for the first time in her lift, she was in a situation beyond her control. Game after game, she could do nothing but sit outside watching others play the game that she loved so much.

   Injuries limited Deborah's time on the court as she hurt her knees three more times in the next five years. She had to spend hours in a physical therapy clinic (物理治疗诊所) to receive treatment. Her frequent visits there gave her a passion and respect for the job. And Deborah began to see a new light in her life.

   Currently a senior in college, Deborah focuses on working on a degree in physical therapy. After she graduates, Deborah plans to use her knowledge to educate people how to best take care of their bodies and deal with the feelings of hopelessness that she remembers so well.

I was born in the city of York, in England, in 1632. My father was a man of some wealth, able to give me a good home and send me to school. It was his wish that I should be a lawyer but my head began to be filled very early with thoughts of travel, and I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea. One day, being at Hull, I met one of my friends who was about to sail for London in his father's ship, and he invited me to go with him. Without telling my father, I went on board.

   On the way to London, our ship was destroyed by a storm, and we almost lost our lives. I went on foot to London, where I met with the master of a large ship which did business with countries on the coast of Africa. He offered me a chance to go with him, which I gladly accepted.

   A great storm came up, and the ship was tossed (颠簸) about for many days, until we did not know where we were. Suddenly we hit a bank of sand, and the sea broke over the ship in such a way that we could not hope to have her hold many moments without breaking into pieces. So we used a boat instead. After we had been driven four or five miles, a mountainous wave hit us so hard that it overturned the boat at once. I swam well but the waves were so strong that I was pushed against a rock with such force, and left unconscious. But I recovered a little before the waves returned, and, running forward, got to the mainland safely. I never regretted my decisions.

Occasionally, life can be impossibly difficult, and it can be hard to keep going. But you always have a choice.

   In 2012, I got a call from my family to say that my father's cancer had fiercely progressed. He died only six months later. My father was a complete inspiration to me. He was always so strong that I honestly thought he would come back to life. I couldn't believe I would never again hug him.

   Shortly after that, my oldest sister complained of a backache. The doctors discovered that she had highly advanced cancer in her bones and that there was nothing they could do. She died a month later. She was my favorite person in the whole world. I never thought I would have to live without her. I was overcome by the shock and extreme heartbreak. Then, something was wrong with my knees and I ended up in the hospital myself.

  I remember lying in the hospital bed, looking up at the ceiling and seeing my sister's beautiful face. I realized that night that I had a choice. I could end my life or I could live it. I looked in my sister's eyes and decided not to go with her just yet. I decided to stay and complete my journey here. I also decided that I would live the life that I absolutely love.

   I now live in an adorable cottage with an amazing boyfriend. I spend quality time with the rest of my precious family and cherish every moment I have with them. I connect with my heart often to ensure that I am following my joy. I love myself more deeply every day. Not a day goes by when I don't miss my father's huge character or my beloved sister's gentle eyes, but I know that I will be with them one day. What I have now is so precious that I must grasp the joy in every moment I can.

   You choose life every day. But do you choose the life that you love every day?

While driving home after work, Jane Hodgson noticed a car pulled over at the side of the road and a crowd beginning to gather around someone who was lying on the ground.

Jane, who had completed a first aid at work course, pulled over to see if she could offer any help — and it turned out to be lucky for the young injured girl that she did.

Describing the scene she came across, Jane says: “The onlookers were ashen-faced and looking lost. They were so shocked that they hadn’t even thought to call for an ambulance yet.”

After speaking to the emergency services, Jane started finding out what had happened and what injuries the young girl called Jenny had. The girl had been hit by a car and gone over the handlebars of her bike, landing on her head and shoulder. Her shoulder and arm were twisted (扭曲) underneath her.

“She hadn’t been wearing a helmet (头盔) when she got knocked down, and I thought that she should not be moved as I couldn’t be sure about a spinal injury (脊椎损伤), but after looking her over and checking the circulation in her injured arm I did feel fairly confident that she had escaped relatively unhurt.

“As we were waiting for an ambulance, the amount of pain the girl was in was increasing. To distract (分散注意力) her and minimize the risk of her going into shock I kept her talking. She held my hand tightly when the pain got too much and this helped. I told her I could handle it — we laughed about that,” describes Jane.

Later, a doctor from the local hospital’s ICU stopped at the scene too. The ICU doctor decided that Jenny should lie on her back, making her much more comfortable until the emergency services arrived.

Thinking back, Jane says: “For me, knowing that in a small way I helped that girl through what was a frightening experience is all the reward I need. I felt great to know I’d made a difference and I’d do it again.”

 When her five daughters were young, Helene An always told them that there was strength in unity (团结). To show this, she held up one chopstick, representing one person. Then she easily broke it into two pieces. Next, she tied several chopsticks together, representing a family. She showed the girls it was hard to break the tied chopsticks. This lesson about family unity stayed with the daughters as they grew up.

Helene An and her family own a large restaurant business in California. However, when Helene and her husband Danny left their home in Vietnam in 1975, they didn't have much money. They moved their family to San Francisco. There they joined Danny's mother, Diana, who owned a small Italian sandwich shop. Soon afterwards, Helene and Diana changed the sandwich shop into a small Vietnamese restaurant. The five daughters helped in the restaurant when they were young. However, Helene did not want her daughters to always work in the family business because she thought it was too hard.

Eventually the girls all graduated from college and went away to work for themselves, but one by one, the daughters returned to work in the family business. They opened new restaurants inSan Franciscoand Los Angeles. Even though family members sometimes disagreed with each other, they worked together to make the business successful. Daughter Elisabeth explains, "Our mother taught us that to succeed we must have unity, and to have unity we must have peace. Without the strength of the family, there is no business."

Their expanding business became a large corporation in 1996, with three generations of Ans working together. Now the Ans' corporation makes more than $20 million each year. Although they began with a small restaurant, they had big dreams, and they worked together. Now they are a big success.

 In 2004 three friends and I headed from Tucson to Tombstone for the day as two of my friends were from RAF in England and had never been there. It was also my first trip.

   After hitting a show, taking a picture where we dressed up in clothes from that time, we headed for a bite to eat. I think we ate the Long Horn's Restaurant. After drinking lots, I hit the bathrooms. The bathrooms were like regular bathrooms; two of them, each with their own separate room, I took the one to my left. There was a strange sign on the wall in the bathroom, it read something along the lines of: If you don't wash your bands you can die! Of course I washed my hands, but when I did I had this overcoming feeling like someone was watching me. I shook off the feeling since the bathroom was small, and met back with my friends and we drove hack tn Tucson.

   The next day, after returning home from work alone, I found my kitchen cabinets open, as well as my dishwasher. It was strange since nobody was there besides my dogs. All night long my dogs kept barking, their stares always in direction of the kitchen but they wouldn't step foot in there.Which was very weird as this had never happened before, and the kitchen is where I kept their food and water.

   This happened over the course of the week and I moved out of the apartment so I'm not really sure what happened to the ghost. Maybe it went back home.

Last week when I was sitting in my office，I heard an elderly lady talking on the phone about her husband．Her husband’s name was Ed．He dropped her off for her doctor’s appointment and was going to park the car and wait for her．She was so upset that she started to cry．I knew I should take action．

The lady told me her name was Helen and she called the restaurant she and her husband were going to have lunch at after her appointment to see if he was waiting for her there．She explained that she thought her husband parked the car in the parking lot and waited for her in the car but she didn’t find him there so she returned to see if he entered the medical building，but Ed was not there either．She regretted making her husband park the car alone since some signs of Alzheimer’s(早老年性痴呆病)had happened in his behavior．I asked a few nurses to help look for Ed inside and outside the medical building according to Helen’s description．Then I offered to drive Helen to the restaurant to see if Ed was waiting for her there．

On arriving at the parking lot of the restaurant，Helen began to search for Ed’s car but she failed，which suggested Ed wasn’t there．We decided to have a talk with the manager before we returned to the hospital．On our way to the manager’s office．I received a call from a nurse，who said they had found Ed．What a relief! But we still needed to go on searching since he forgot where he parked his car! Fortunately, we didn’t have much difficulty finding it．

As I waved good-bye to the couple, I thought “This is true love in life．The love is not romantic but it stays with us all the time．’’

   Hobbs was an orphan(孤儿). He worked in a factory and every day he got a little money. Hard work made him thin and weak. He wanted to borrow a lot of money to learn to paint pictures, but he did not think he could pay off the debts.

   One day a lawyer said to him, "One thousand dollars, and here is the money. "As Hobbs took the package of notes, he was very dumbfounded．He didn't know where the money came from and how to spend it. He said to him-self, "I could go to find a hotel and live like a rich man for a few days;or I give up my work in the factory and do what I'd like to do: painting pictures. I could do that for a few weeks, but what would I do after that? I should have lost my place in the factory and have no money to live on. If it were a little less money, I would buy a new coat, or a radio, or give a dinner to my friends. If it were more, I could give up the work and pay for painting pictures. But it's too much for one and too little for the other. "

   "Here is the reading of your uncle's will(遗嘱), "said the lawyer, "telling what is to be done with this money after his death. I must ask you to remember one point. Your uncle has said you must bring me a paper showing exactly what you did with his money, as soon as you have spent it. "

   "Yes, I see. I'll do that, "said the young man.