You wake up in the morning, the day is beautiful and the plans for the day are what you have been looking forward to for a long time.Then the telephone rings, you say hello, and the drama starts. The person on the other end has a depressing tone in his voice as he starts to tell you how terrible his morning is and that there is nothing to look forward to. You are still in a wonderful mood? Impossible!

Communicating with negative people can wash out your happiness. It may not change what you think, but communicating long enough with them will make you feel depressed for a moment or a long time.

Life brings ups and downs, but some people are stuck in the wrong idea that life has no happiness to offer. They only feel glad when they make others feel bad. No wonder they can hardly win others' pity or respect.

When you communicate with positive people, your spirit stays happy and therefore more positive things are attracted. When the dagger of a negative person is put in you, you feel the heavy feeling that all in all, brings you down.

Sometimes we have no choice but to communicate with negative people. This could be a co-worker, or a relative. In this case, say what needs to be said as little as possible. Sometimes it feels good to let out your anger back to the negative person, but all this does is to lower you to that same negative level and they won't feel ashamed of themselves about that.

Negativity often affects happiness without even being realized. The negative words of another at the start of the day can cling to you throughout the rest of your day, which makes you feel bad and steals your happiness. Life is too short to feel negative. Stay positive and avoid negativity as much as possible.

One day a famous teacher was walking with his students. On the way, they saw a lake. They stopped and the teacher told the student, "I'm thirsty. Get me some water from that lake."

  Just when the student reached the lake, a cow was walking in the lake. So the water became very dirty. He thought" I can't give the dirty water to my teacher!"

  He came back and told the teacher," The water is very dirty. We can't drink it." After about half an hour, the teacher asked the students to get some water again. So he went back to the lake.

  But the lake was still dirty. So he told the teacher the same thing. After some time, the teacher asked him to go back again. But this time, he found the water was clean. The mud in the water came to the bottom. So he got some water.

The teacher looked at the water and said to him," You did nothing to make the water clean. You just let it be... Your mind is also like that! When it is bothered, just let it be. Give it some time."

A little boy invited his mother to the first teacher-parent meeting(家长会) of his middle school．To his surprise, she said she would go．This would be the first time that his classmates and teacher met his mother．She was a beautiful woman, there was a scar (伤疤) that covered nearly the right side of her face．The boy never asked his mom why or how she got the scar．

At the meeting, other people were impressed by the kindness and natural beauty of his mother, but the little boy felt embarrassed for his mom’s looks, and hid himself from everyone．However, he heard the conversation between his mother and his teacher．

    “How did you get the scar on your face?”the teacher asked．

The mother replied,“①When my son was a baby, his room caught fire one day．Everyone was too afraid to get into the room, but I rushed into it．While I was running towards his bed, a beam(横梁) fell down and I placed myself over him trying to protect him．I was knocked and I knew nothing．②我们是如此的幸运有人救了我们。”She touched the burned side of her face. “But I have never regretted(后悔) doing what I did,” she added．

Having heard that, the little boy was so moved that he ran towards his mother with

tears in his eyes．He hugged (拥抱) her and held her right hand tightly for the rest of the day.

It is very common for students’ marks to fall. Sometimes it is because of situations outside school such as problems at home. Sometimes it is only because the exams get harder.

When your marks start to fall, you should try talking to a friendly teacher. He or she will be able to help you with the subjects you feel difficult. Stop（62）把自己同其他的学生比较. It doesn’t matter if other students get higher marks than you. What is important is that you do your best. Before each exam, you should go through your notes from class. You should remember the most important things you have written in a shorter form.

Look through your notes again before the exam. You will be surprised when you find you remember so much. It may take hard work and you may not improve your marks straight. But let your confidence rise by every mark. Soon they should begin to climb again. Remember:（63）Nothing is possible if he or she doesn’t have confidence.Besides（64）this, right ways are also needed by you. Keep on working hard, sooner or later, you will be successful.

As teenagers, you have many dreams. These dreams can be very big, such as winning the Nobel Prize. Or they can be small. You may just want to become one of the ten best students in your class.

  Once you find a dream, what do you do with it? Do you ever try to make your dream real?

  Follow Your Heart by Australian writer Andrews tell us that making our dreams real is life’s biggest challenge.

  You may think you’re not very good at some school subjects, or that it is impossible for you to become a writer. These kinds of thoughts stop you from getting your dream, the book says.

  In fact, everyone can make his dream come true. The first thing you must do is to remember what your dream is.

Don’t let it leave your heart. Keep telling yourself what you want. Do this step by step and your dream will come true faster because a big dream is, in fact, many small dreams.

  You must also never give up your dream.

  There will be difficulties on the road to your dream. But the biggest difficulty comes from yourself. You need to decide what is the most important. Studying instead of watching TV will lead to better exam results, while saving five yuan instead of buying an ice-cream means you can buy a new book. As you get closer to your dream, it may change a little. This is good as you have the chance to learn more skills.

Many kids think they are too common. They think they are not the prettiest or smartest. Sometimes kids don’t know how special they are. When they see excellent actors or cool pop stars, they often think: Am I excellent? What am I going to be when I grow up?

Growing up means understanding what you can do and what you can offer to the world. When you are young, you don’t see that. But when you get older, you may know that just by being yourself, you do offer something to other people.

Maybe you aren’t the best, but that doesn’t make you “not special”. Think about your friends. Write down some things that you like about them. Think about why you are friends. You are going to know that in the end, though they aren’t the smartest or the prettiest or the most talented, they are great in their way. And they feel just the same as you!

In fact it is great to be the best at something, but it’s OK if you can’t be the best. If you just live your life and try hard, you are still pretty amazing. And you can make your dream come true.

A famous teacher was speaking to the students at our school. He began his lesson by holding up a￥100 bill. Then he said to the three hundred students, “Who would like this 100 bill?” The students began to put up their hands at once.

Then he said, “I am going give this 100 to one of you, but first, let me do this.” He then made the bill into a ball. Then he said, “Who wants it now?” The hands went back to the air.

“Well,” he said, “what if I do this?” and he dropped it on the floor and stepped on it. He picked up the dirty bill and said, “Who still wants it?” Hands went back into the air.

“My friends,” he said, “you have learned a valuable lesson today. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not go down in value. It was still worth 100!”

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and stepped on by the chances we take and the things that happen to us. We feel as if we are worth nothing. But remember, no matter what has happened to you, you will never lose your value: you are always valuable to those people who love you. Your value doesn’t come from what you do or whom you know, but WHO YOU ARE.

You are special and valuable. Don’t ever forget it!

One day Mrs. Wilson went shopping with Tracy and Ben. They went to the supermarket in the new shopping centre.

   “Why do you buy things here?” Tracy wanted to know.“Because they are cheaper here than at the corner store near our home，” Mrs. Wilson said，“Help me check the prices, please.”

     The Wilsons were not rich and Mrs. Wilson was always careful with her money. She looked carefully at the price of things. She bought lots of things in the supermarket. When they got home, the children said,“We don’t think you saved money by going to the supermarket.”

   “Of course I did,” Mrs. Wilson said.“Everything was cheaper there.”

   “We know，” the children said，“but we came home by taxi because we had too much to carry. The taxi fare was more than the money that you saved！”

    Mrs.Wilson added everything up. Her children were right.

   “Well done，” she said，“next time we’ll do the shopping nearby.”

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A peaceful mind（平静心态的） is very important for our effectiveness（效率）. It keeps us calm, no matter what the situation is, and it allows us to stay happy during the day. So, here, I would like to share some ways to have a “mind like water”, a state of mind that is as peaceful as calm water. Pick the ones that work for you.

◆Listen to your heart

Your heart tells you what is the right thing to do. It is where your deepest values（价值观） live. Following what your heart says helps you be true to yourself, and that helps you get a peaceful mind. So learn to listen more to your heart, and do what it tells you to do.

◆ Don’t take in too much information

Getting more information often means introducing more noise into your mind. That’s why not taking in too much information is important for a calm and peaceful mind. You should take in no more information than necessary.

◆ Slow down（放慢速度）

Whatever you do, you do not need to be in a hurry. Doing so will only take you faster in the wrong direction . First of all, you need to know the right direction to go. Slow down so that you can hear the voice of your heart.

Don’t think too much about yourself and do something for other people

We usually think about our own needs and problems most of the time. But self-centered（自我为中心的） thoughts can’t bring peace into our mind. Instead, it may make us feel stressed,. So don’t think too much about yourself, forget yourself for a while. Think about other people more often and think what you can do for others, then do it. Giving will make you happy and give you peace of mind.