“Class, please line up!” called Ms. Baroni,Jenna’stae kwon do (跆拳道) instructor. Jenna wasexcitedwhen Ms. Baroni announcedMarti, Jenna’s best friend, would be taking lessons too. Everyone’s warm welcome made Marti blush, and Jenna walked over to comfort her.

After warm-up exercises, Ms. Baroni divided everyone into color-belt groups. Even though Jenna was a yellow belt and a level above Marti, Ms. Baroni asked them to work together. Jenna nodded and demonstrated (展示) a front kickconfidently. Marti copied it. Her kick was as high as Jenna’s shoulder. Then came a burst ofcheersfrom Ms. Baroni behind. She then spent the next five minutes showing Marti moves.

Jenna threw herself against the wall, staring at Marti copying everything Ms. Baroni did. The more Marti did, the more praise she earned from Ms. Baroni. What if Marti became better than her? What if Marti became Ms. Baroni favorite student? Jenna waspracticingher form (招式) halfheartedly when she heard a scolding. “Watch your form!” Jenna turned and noticed Ms. Baroni looking directly at her. Nothing could have been worse. But afterwards, she heard Ms. Baroni’s encouraging words. “You’ve memorized your form perfectly, but your moves could be better. Try the sidekickagain.”

However, the encouragement didn5t work. The moment the class was over, Jenna grabbed her bag and hurried outside. She had planned to wait for Marti, but now she preferred to be left alone.

For the next several weeks, Marti continued to impress their teacher with her skills. And as Marti turned into a star student, Jenna became less and less excited about tae kwon do.

One day, Marti told Jenna the good news that she was ready totestfor her new belt with Ms. Baroni’s recognition. Jenna stopped in her tracks and said sourly. “It’s more challenging than you imagine.” Marti looked disappointed. “You don’t think I’m skillful enough to test yet?” Jenna felt her face flushed and denied. She didn’t like feelingunhappy, but she couldn’t help it. She wasn’t ready to test for her next belt because she hadn9t been practicing every day.

A week later, at the belt testing, Jenna saw Marti warming up.

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Jenna thought, “I don’t practice that much in a week!”

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The canteen was crowded with summer campers from high schools across the city, all extremely hungry after a days’ activities. I spotted an empty place and walked there. Just as I put my tray (餐盘) down, I felt a bump against my hip. The tray dropped on the table and the soup spilled all over my camp shirt and jeans. And I heard a burst of laughter.

“Can’t you look where you are going, you clumsy fool!” I shouted, glaring at the troublemaker, a tall boy with wild hair.

“Sorry! Can’t help laughing! You look so funny!” said the boy, bending over with laughter. I was too annoyed to respond and just walked away to change my clothes.

The next morning, we all assembled for roll-call (点名), when I saw the same boy run out of the dorm，with his unbuttoned shirt flying behind him. Before he could slide into his place，he was spotted by the Camp Commandant. As a punishment for being late，he was made to do a hundred push-ups. As I walked past him later. I let out a loud laugh, saving, “Sorry. I can’t help laughing. You look so funny.”                        

So the war of words continued in the following three days with the wild-haired boy, whose name, I found out, was Ben.

A mountain hike marked the last day of the camp. On the way back, I found myself left far behind my team. Soon, they were out of sight. The camp site was a long way away and I was getting anxious as night fell. I risked taking a short-cut (近路) clinging to the mountain side, but suddenly, I tripped off the path and slid right down the slope (斜坡).

Fortunately, my fall was stopped by a bunch of bamboo. I saw I was about ten meters below the track. There was no way I could climb up the slope as evidently I had my ankle broken. After making several vain attempts, I waited hopelessly. It got dark and I became increasingly afraid.

Then, I saw a faint light, and heard a voice calling out my name.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next day, as we were boarding the buses which would take us back to our own homes, Ben came up to me.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Quiet Virtue: The Conscientious

The everyday signs of conscientiousness(认真尽责)—being punctual,, careful in doing work, sef- disciplined. and scrupulous(一丝不苟的) in attending to responsibilities—are typical characteristics of the model organizational citizen, the people who keep things running as they should. They follow the rules, help out, and are concerned about the people they work with. It's the conscientious worker who helps newcomers or updates people who return after an absence, who gets to work on time and never abuses sick leaves, who always gets things done on deadline.

Conscientiousness is a key to success in any field. In studies of job performance, outstanding effectiveness for almost all jobs, from semi-skilled labor to sales and management, depends on conscientiousness. Among sales representatives for a large American car manufacturer, those who were most conscientious had the largest volume of sales.

Conscientiousness also offers a buffer(缓冲) against the threat of job loss in today's constantly changing market, because employees with this quality are among the most valued. For the sales representatives, their level of conscientiousness mattered almost as much as their sales in determining who stayed on.

But conscientiousness in the absence of social skills can lead to problems. Since conscientious people demand so much of themselves, they can hold other people to their own standards, and so be overly judgmental when others don't show the same high levels of model behavior. Factory workers who were extremely conscientious, for example, tended to criticize co-workers even about failures that seemed unimportant to those they criticized, which damaged their relationships.

When conscientiousness takes the form of living up to expectations, it can discourage creativity. Success in creative professions like art or advertising calls for a balance between wild ideas and conscientiousness. Without enough conscientiousness to follow through, people become mere dreamers, with nothing to show for their imaginativeness.

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Yesterday, when I arranged my old things, I found a friendship bracelet with several names on it. Looking at it, all those old memories came flooding back to me.

It was when I was a freshman in high school. My only close friend was Sabella, who I had known since kindergarten. Bella is and always will be one of my best friends. But she had other close friends too. However, I didn’t. I was on the volleyball team, and on the court I knew exactly who I was and where I was supposed to be. I loved all of my teammates, but when we were sitting together before and after games I would just sit there quietly, totally unsure of myself. So I felt never really fit in.

At school, it seemed like the only time anyone talked to me was just to jokingly say, “You are so quiet...Do you ever talk?” I wanted to talk; I just couldn’t find the words. I never felt like I knew what to say in a big group of people.

One Saturday after our game, Bella was supposed to come over and spend the night at my house. We always had a lot of fun together. I wished that I could talk to the other girls in the way I talked to her. But before we left the gym that day, some of the other volleyball girls invited her to go to the movies with them. Since Bella had already made plans with me, they asked if I would like to go to the movies with them too.

One of the moms drove us, and we all piled into the back seat of her Suburban—Rhiannon, Destinee, Christine, Sabella and me. I was kind of nervous at first, but once it was just us five, I came out of my shell. For the first time in my life, I really felt like I was a part of the conversation, instead of just sitting there listening. It turned out that I had a lot to say, which even surprised me. All the way there, and all the way back, we talked and laughed.

That was a night that changed my life and everyone noticed my change.

Finally, I had friends too.