II.

Tina was not like many of her classmates. She didn’t listen to popular music or watch many movies, and she wasn’t interested in nice clothes. When she got together with her friends, they wanted to listen to rock and pop music. When Tina asked  if  they would  like  to  try classical  (古典的) music, they all looked at her strangely.“Classical music  is  for old people, ” one of  her friends said. Tina was worried that something was wrong with her. She decided to talk to her father. As she entered his study (书房), her father could feel something was wrong.

“Dad, am I strange?” she asked her father.“Of course not, ” he answered. “Why do you ask that?” “Because I don’t like the same things as my classmates do. They want to listen to Mariah Carey’s music. I like Yo Yo Ma’s.” “I can understand, Tina,  it’s all  right  to be your own person. You don’t have to copy (模仿) what other people do. Everybody has different tastes. Some of them are popular, and others aren’t. ”After talking with her father, Tina felt better. She realized (意识到)  that being different made her special.  It was an important lesson for her to learn.

One of the secrets 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 merits (优点). You should always look for the good in people and learn from them.

Second, you should try to learn new things and skills every day. Reading a few pages of a book or a newspaper every day may help you.

Third, start the day the right way. When you get up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself today you must keep your good habits.

I think the last one is the most important. No matter what good habits you decide to develop, you should try to keep them. Then you can have a life with success and happiness.

When I was a kid in Minnesota, watermelon was expensive. One of my father's friends, Bernie, was a rich businessman, who owned a large store in St. Paul.

    Every summer, when the first watermelon arrived, Bernie would call. Dad and I would go to Bernie's place. We'd sit on the edge of the dock (码头), feet dangling (摇晃), and got ready for a big meal.

    Bernie would take his knife, cut our first watermelon, hand us both a big piece and sit down next to us. Then we'd bury our faces in watermelon, eating only the heart—the reddest, juiciest, firmest, sweetest, most seed-free part—and throw away the rest.

    Bernie was my father's ideal of a rich man. I always thought it was because he was such a successful businessman. Years later, I realized that it was not Bernie's wealth itself but his way of dealing with it that my father liked. Bernie knew how to stop working, get together with friends and eatonly the heart of the watermelon.

    What I learned from Bernie is that being rich is a state of mind. Some of us, no matter how much money we have, will never be free enough to eat only the heart of the watermelon. If you don't take the time to dangle(悬荡) your feet over the dock and enjoy life's small pleasure, your work is probably hurting your life.

    For many years, I forgot that lesson I'd learned as a kid on the loading dock. I was too busy making all the money I could.

    Well, I've relearned it. I hope I have time left to enjoy the success of others and to take pleasure in the day. That's the heart of the watermelon. I have learned again to throw the rest away.

New York is 3 hours ahead of California, but it does not make California slow, or that New York is fast. Both are working based on their own “ Time Zone”（时区）.

Someone graduated at the age of 22, yet waited 5 years before finding a good job! And there is another who graduated at 27 and got hired immediately!

Someone became a CEO at 25, and died at 50.While another became a CEO at 50, and lived to 90 years.

Someone is still single, while someone else got married and waited 10 years having a child. There is another who had a baby within a year of marriage.

Obama retires(退休) at 55, but Trump starts at 70.

Absolutely everyone in this world works based on their Time Zone. People can have things worked out only according to their pace. (步调)

People around you might seem to go ahead of you; some might seem to be behind you. But everyone is running their own race, in their own time.

Don’t envy them or laugh at them. They are in their TIME ZONE, and you are in yours!

Life is about waiting for the right moment to act. Hold on, be strong, and stay true to yourself .Fight in your time zone.

So, RELAX. You’re not LATE. You’re not EARLY. You are very much ON TIME , and in your time zone destiny set up for you.

(B)

    This happened in London. It was November and the weather was very wet and cold. A Frenchman had caught a very bad cold. He coughed day and night, so he decided to go and get some medicine for his cough. As he did not know much English, he took out his dictionary and looked up the word “cough”. But the dictionary did not tell him how to pronounce(发音) the word. He thought it over and remembered that he had learned the word “plough”. He remembered that it was pronounced[plau]. So he thought that c-o-u-g-h must be pronounced [kau].

    Then he put on his coat and hat and went to a chemist's shop(药店).When the man in the shop asked him what he wanted, the Frenchman said, “I want something for my‘cow’ , please.” The man in the shop looked at him. Had he heard him correctly?

    “I beg your pardon, sir?” he asked.

    The Frenchman repeated, “I want some medicine for my‘cow’.”

    “For your cow?” asked the man, “are you a farmer?”

   “A farmer?” said the Frenchman in surprise, “What makes you think I'm a farmer? I come from Paris. I'm not a farmer.”

    “But where is your cow?”

    “It's here!” answered the Frenchman. He put his hand on his chest(胸口) and began to cough. “Here it is,”  he said, “I've a very bad ‘cow’ here.”

    Then the man in the shop understood what the Frenchman meant. He wanted some medicine for his cough.
 

“Can I take your order?” Night after night, I had to say this as I worked in my family’s restaurant. My father was a great cook. He wanted me to cook with him, but I didn’t like cooking. Because of the restaurant, my father was always busy. He never had time to play soccer with me.

     During my high school and college years, I worked with my family at night. But I always avoided the kitchen. I couldn’t wait to graduate(毕业) so I could move away from the family business(生意). Several days before my graduation day, my father and I started

looking at new cars. Finally, we found the right car. I was sure that my father would give it to me as my graduation gift.

     On my graduation day, my father gave me a book as a gift. It was his old cookbook.I was so angry that I give it back to him and ran out of my house. I soon moved away and started my own business. Although I often saw my father during holidays, we never talked

about the graduation gift. Then one day, I got a call that my father was ill. I went to see him because I was very worried.

     That night , I looked through my father’s books and saw the cookbook that he had given me years before. I carefully opened the cookbook and went through it. Then I found something that made me cry. It was a check(支票) for $30,000dated (注有日期)the day of

my graduation.  And the piece of the car my father and I chose all those years ago was $30,000.

There are many classic (经典的) cultures in China. All of them have a very long history. Here we introduce some of them.

 Some people love eating food right after it is cooked. I prefer food just taken out from the freezer (冰箱). Fruit, candies, nuts, chocolate, cake with buttercream frosting (糖果), even peas, all of them taste delicious when frozen. In fact, I often eat them that way.

    I was a kid when I picked up the habit. In my family, lots of things were thrown into the freezer--finally, two freezers--to prevent them from going bad. Among them were some of the candies my sisters and I had collected on Halloween.

    If we eat when they are still warm, we'll find ourselves taking the cookies more than we should. It's better if we can put them into the freezer and wait. That way we'll eat less and enjoy them more because they are hard and chewing (咀嚼) becomes a slower, more patient effort. That's the point about frozen buttercream frosting. Pm it in your mouth at room temperature, and it's gone very quickly. But when it's frozen, you can enjoy the taste much longer as it melts (融化) in your mouth.

    The freezer treats a lot of fruit kindly. Take frozen grapes for example, I keep a bowl of grapes in my freezer. They become a little icy, and somehow their sweetness is improved. They are perfect and healthy dessert (点心). This is the same with oranges, apples, bananas...You might think bananas would get super-hard when frozen. Wrong! They become cool, creamy and sweet. If you have wisely covered some or all of the bananas with melted chocolate before putting them into the freezer, they will have a double taste.

    As long as you aren't eating anything that truly has to be hot, go ahead and experiment.

   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.”

One day, on his way home, he met Mary. They were both happy. He asked the girl to his house, she agreed happily. He bought some fruit and drinks for her. And they talked about their school, teacher, classmates and their future. They talked for a long time.

"Have a look at your watch, please." said the girl ."What time is it now?"

"Sorry, something is wrong with my watch," said Jack.. "Where's yours?"

"I left it at home."

Jack thought for a moment and found a way. He began to stamp his foot on the floor, "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The sound woke his grandma up. The old woman shouted downstairs, "It's twelve o'clock in the night, Jack. Why are you still jumping upstairs?"