Whenever the sun dropped and the blue sky came up, my father and I used to climb the mountain near my house. Walking together, my father and I used to have a lot of conversations through which I learned lessons from his experiences. He always told me," You should have goals like climbing the mountain." Without the mountain-climbing that we both enjoyed, we couldn't have enough time to spend together because my father was very busy. I really got a lot from the mountain-climbing. It gave me time to talk with my father and to be in deep thought as well as develop my patience（耐力）.

    Once we climbed a very high mountain. It was so challenging（挑战性的） for me because I was only ten years old. During the first few hours of climbing, I enjoyed the flowers and trees, and the birds' singing. But as time passed, I got a pain in both of my legs. I wanted to quit climbing, In fact, I hated it at that moment, but my father said to me, "You can always see a beautiful sky at the top of the mountain, but you can't see it before you reach the top. Only there at the top, can you see all of the nice things, which is just like your life."

    At that time, I was too young to understand his words. But later after that, I got new hope and confidence. I found myself standing at the top of the sky, which was as clear as crystal（水晶）.

    I’ve loved my mother’s desk since I was just tall enough to see above the top of it as mother sat doing letters. Standing by her chair, looking at the ink bottle, pens, and white paper, I decided that the act of writing must be the more wonderful thing in the world.

   Years later, during her final illness, mother kept different things for my sister and brother. “But the desk,”she’d said again, “it’s for Elizabeth.”

   I never saw her angry, never saw her cry. I knew she loved me, she showed it in action. But as a young girl, I wanted heart-to-heart talks between mother and daughter. They never happened. And agulf opened between us. I was “too emotional(易动感情的)”. But she lived “on the surface”.

   As years passed I had my own family. I loved my mother and thanked her for our happy family. I wrote to her in careful words and asked her to let me know in any way she chose that she did forgive(原谅) me. I posted the letter and waited for her answer. None came.

My hope turned to disappointment, then little interest and, finally peace, it seemed that nothing happened. I couldn’t be sure that the letter had even got to mother. I only knew that I had written it, and I could stop trying to make her into someone she was not.

   Now the present of her desk told, as she’d never been able to, that she was pleased that writing was my chosen work. I cleaned the desk carefully and found some papers inside --a photo of my father and a one-page letter, folded and refolded many times.

 Give me an answer, my letter asks, in any way you choose. Mother, you always chose the act that speaks louder than words.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案。

I learned about life from an ant farm. It was when I was seven years old, my family created one. First, we put clean sand in a thin glass box, and then we waited for the live ants to arrive. Shortly after the ants were dropped into the glass structure, they got to work making tunnels. I was amazed that each of them knew exactly what to do .After hours of staring, I discovered that the ants hadassignedjobs.   

With the help of mom, I kept a diary of what happened each day and named the ants. One day an incident struck the ant farm. The pages of the diary, still wrinkled(皱巴巴的)where tear drops fell, indicate the great loss. I had put my face so close to the structure that I accidentally knocked it over and all the tunnels caved in. Although the ants survived(幸存) their earthquake, one by one they began to die. 

I was terrified as I watched them give up their tunnel-building to carry the bodies to a corner of the farm. My mom reported that the ants were dying of frustration. They simply could not stand the reality that their tunnels had been destroyed.   

Although much time has passed, I still think of that ant farm. Mom had hoped it would teach me about the natural world, but it taught me much more. Over the years, I came to realize the ants were a study in the benefits of teamwork. Working together, they were able to create an amazing world for themselves. I also learned that they should be admired for their hard work. Day in and day out, each worked hard at their task.   

The ant farm showed that teamwork and perseverance(持之以恒）are indeed two keys to success. But there was an even larger lesson that I did not realize until recently: Adversity is a natural part of life, and must be accepted. Unlike the ants, humans cannot give up when they face disappointment. Unlike the ants, we have to realize that if a tunnel caves in, we just have to build another. Giving up, I say, is not a choice.

John, a famous musician, took his priceless violin and played it in the crowded subway station. The music from the violin was streaming throughout the whole station. However, during the one-hour play, only six or seven people were truly appreciating the music. A three-year-old kid was so fascinated by the music that he forgot everything around. John only got 52 dollars for his work that day.

However, in normal days, when John is about to hold a concert, one ticket can be sold at more than 100 dollars and it is really hard to buy a ticket even at such a high price. Therefore, later, many passers-by in the station that day felt deeply regretful for not recognizing the famous musician and missing such a valuable but cheap music feast(盛宴).

I have a very busy friend called Charles. He had totally changed after knowing that his wife came down with incurable illness. He cooked by himself for the family and took a walk with his wife every day. But even so, his wife still did notconquerthe illness and passed away. After that, he often sighed. Due to his past busy life, he had missed a lot of beautiful time with his wife. But now, it is impossible to make up for it.

   But It is no use crying over spilt milk. We have missed a lot of precious things without knowing to treasure them. The reason is less than simple :we had thought that we could still own them tomorrow.

There was a famous Buddhist monk saying that in many people’s lives, they have only done two things: waiting and regretting. The result is that they were always too late to treasure what they had before they lost it. We should often expect to do something when we grow up, or when we have money or when we become old, ect. However, when we reach the condition we have expected, we could no longer realize our wish, because we have lost it by then.

Have you ever noticed that you’re treated (对待) differently in stores based on your sex (性别), age, race (种族) and even the way you dress? I certainly have, so I wanted to see exactly what happens inside these stores that are meant to be run with “customer (顾客) service”.

A young man in ripped (撕破的) jeans and an old jacket went into a car shop and asked for a price on the top of the line vehicle (汽车). The salesman looked him up and down and said, “I don’t think you can afford a car like this. Have a look at theinferiorcars over here.” 

As you can imagine, the young man was angry and left the showroom. Two days later, the young man walked back in, and he walked up to the salesman who had served him two days before and asked, “Hi, do you remember me? You said I should look at the inferior cars the other day.” The salesman nodded and said yes.

The young man then asked him to just quickly come outside and have a look at something. They walked out and the young man pointed to the brand-new (全新的) top of the line Ford and said, “I paid with cash (现金), do you like my new car?” And then the salesman quickly left.

Maybe many businesses don’t understand a fact if they don’t treat their customers equally, they will lose business. Not every one of the above people will ever go back to those companies and they won’t recommend them to anyone. You will not only lose repeat business but also lose up to 10 customers, for every person you treat badly will not recommend your companies and will tell people not to go to these places.

 Lots of kids hate school, a new study found. Usually this kind of feeling doesn't last long. But what happens if you feel this way too much? School is a fact of life and getting a good education can help you build the kind of future life you want. So let's talk about school and what to do when you don't like it.

   If you don't like school, the first step is to find out why. You might not like school because you don't have enough friends, or maybe you don't get along with your teacher. Sometime it's a big problem with your classes and school-work. You may be getting farther and farther behind, and it may seem like you'll never catch up.

   When you know why you don't like school, you can start taking steps to make things better. It's a good idea to talk to someone about your problems with school. Your mum, dad, teacher or school counselor(顾问)will be able to help you. Another good idea is to write down your feelings about school in a notebook. It's a great way to let out emotions(情绪).Remember, you don't have to share what you've written with others.

In the middle of a dark forest，there lives an owl(猫头鹰）. All the animals know that he is the wisest among all of them. So they often go to him and tell him their troubles. Then the owl always teaches them what they should do.

One day，a little bird goes up to the owl. She is crying. “What’s wrong with you?”asks the owl.

“I’m not happy at all. “I don’t want to be a bird,” the bird says.

“Why don’t you want to be a bird?” asked the owl.

“I am so small，weak and useless，” she cries.“I want to be big and strong like the lion. He

is very important , but I am not.”

      Then the owl whispers(耳语）something in her ear. At once the bird dries her tears and goes away. One week later, the bird came back. “Oh, thank you very much. You are a very wise owl，” she says to the owl.“I am very happy now. Every day，I sit on top of the tallest tree and watch for(监视）lions and tigers. When they come near, I shout at the top of my voice. Then my friend all run and hide. They are very thankful to me. I am useful and important now.”

      The wise owl smiles and says，“No one in this world is useless.”

Starling is a little bird. He lives in the forest. His favorite thing is singing. He feels very happy because all the animals love his songs. They say,”Your songs are very lovely and they make us relaxed and happy.”

But one day, another bird comes in the forest. Her name is Nightingale. She can sing softly(温柔地) and sadly. All the animals are moved by her songs. They say,“You are the best singer. Nobody can sing like you.”When Starling knows this, he isn’t happy. Then he thinks hard and has a good idea. Every morning, he gets up early and practices singing skills of Nightingale.

The next month, he sings the songs slowly and softly in front of the animals. But all the animals go away one by one. They don’t like his songs. The frog jumps out and shouts“Stop! Stop! Don’t sing, please!”Starling is so sorry that he wants to cry. He asks,“Why don’t you like my songs?”The frog answers,“Different people have different styles (风格). You needn’t copy others. The right is the best.”

When you make a mistake, big or small, cherish (珍视) it like it’s the most valuable thing in the world, because in some ways, it is.

Most of us feel bad when we make mistakes, beat ourselves up about it, feel like failures, get mad at ourselves.

And that’s only natural. Most of us have been taught from a young age that mistakes are bad, and we should try to avoid mistakes. We’ve been blamed (责备) when we make mistakes—at home, school and work. Maybe not always, but probably enough times to make feeling bad about mistakes an unconscious (无意识的) reaction.

Yet without mistakes, we could not learn or grow. If you think about it that way, mistakes should be cherished and celebrated for being one of the most amazing things in the world. They make learning possible; they make growth and improvement possible.

By trial and error—trying things, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes—we have thought about how to make electric light, to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, to fly.

Mistakes make walking possible for the smallest toddler, make speech possible, and make works of talent possible.

Think about how we learn: We don’t just use up information about something and know it at once or know how to do it. You don’t just read about painting, or writing, or computer programming, or baking, or playing the piano, and know how to do them right away. Instead, you get information about something, from reading or from another person or from watching, then you build a model in your mind...then you test it out by trying it in the real world...then you make mistakes...then you make a mistake and repeat, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, until you have pretty much learned how to do something. That’s how we learn as babies and toddlers, and how we learn as adults. Mistakes are how we learn to do something new—because if you succeed at something, it’s probably something you already knew how to do. You haven’t really grown much from that success—at most it’s the last step on your journey, not the whole journey. Most of the journey is made up of mistakes, if it’s a good journey.

So if you cherish learning, if you cherish growing and improving, then you should cherish mistakes. They are amazing things that make a world of great brightness possible.

There once was a very honest shopkeeper. He would open his shop at 8:00 a.m. after having his breakfast and at 1:00 p.m. he would go for lunch. In the evening at 8:30 p.m. he closed his shop.

However, to get time for lunch was really difficult because he didn’t have anybody to help him at that time. So any customer who was shopping at 1:00 p.m. would be asked to watch the shop until the shopkeeper returned from lunch.

One day, four thieves planned to steal from his shop while he was gone for lunch. One of the thieves went at 1:00 p.m. He hoped to be asked to watch the shop.

The thief, pretending (假装) to be a customer, went in at 1:00 p.m. And started buying several things. As planned, the shopkeeper asked the thief to sit on his chair for thirty minutes until he returned. The thief agreed and sat on the chair.

Then, the other three thieves quickly came and told the pretended customer to help. But something had changed in his mind. He knew that if he was given responsibility, he should not perform any dishonest acts during that time. His friends did not agree and began stealing things. The now-honest man tried to stop them. Then a fight started. And at the same time the shopkeeper returned and asked why they were fighting. The now-honest man explained the whole thing.

The shopkeeper had been searching for an honest man to watch the shop. The shopkeeper realized that he had found the right man.