【推荐1】Most of us hope to live happily. But what is real happiness? Real happiness is a matter of experience of the soul(灵魂). You don’t need to care about those people who have beautiful houses, nice cars and a lot of money. Why?

Because those people who have big houses may often feel sad and those who have cars may want to walk on the country roads in their free time.

In fact, happiness is always around you. It makes you put your heart into it. When you have problems at school, your friends will help you; when you have some problems with your lessons, your parents will always look after your life and health well; when you do something wrong, people around you will help you to correct it. And when you do something good to others, you will feel delighted too. All these are your happiness.

Money cannot always bring you happiness. When you are poor, you can also say you are very happy. When you meet with problems, you can say loudly you are very happy because you have more chances to challenge(挑战) yourself. If you take every chance you get, you can be a happy and lucky person.

【推荐2】Dear daughters，

Most parents tell their children, “You can be anything you want when you grow up.” I feel the same and I say this often. But I also want you to understand that a dream itself comes from hard work, some good luck and good timing. Girls, here are some words of wisdom as you make your way in the world.

Firstly, be open­minded to changing your path along the way. In high school, I wanted to be a politician. I left my hometown and went off to college in Washington, DC.There, I discovered that I loved to support women. It taught me that I'm creative, a strong leader and great at marketing. As a result, I moved on to be the head of a national healthcare nonprofit(非营利机构). Becoming a mother while in that job opened my mind to launching a breast pump bag business. Now I run a highly successful company that I started up on my own. In my opinion, you need to figure out what you are good at and what you are passionate about. Keep an open mind: the initial path you choose may lead you into other areas. Don't waste your money or time, but you can change what you are doing based on what you are learning about yourself.

Secondly and more importantly, remember that failure is vital to your success. I won't tell you to feel good about failure. Failure can be heartbreaking. But I will tell you that every failure I've had along the way absolutely made me better. Failing the math exam in high school and going to summer school was embarrassing but I've never failed an exam again.

Being deprived(剥夺) of the job for a significant job opportunity that I was more than qualified for because of unfair assumptions hurt me but I went out and got a big job at a national organization at age 27. It's okay to get angry! Take that and turn it into positive action.

I'm proud to be a role model to you as a mom and an entrepreneur(企业家). I hope I inspire you to believe that you can be anything you want and you can have anything on your list. It will be my pleasure to watch your lives unfold before my eyes.

Love，

Your Mom

【推荐3】Since I graduated from high school, I've worked in the factories surrounding my hometown every summer. However, making the transition(转变) between school and full-time blue-collar work during the break never gets any easier. For a student like me who considers any class before noon to be uncivilized, getting to a factory by six o'clock each morning is a torture.

There are few people as self-confident as a college student who has never been out in the real world. People of my age always seem to overestimate the value of their time and knowledge. In fact, all the classes did not prepare me for my battles with the machine I ran in the plant, which would jam whenever I absent-mindedly put in a part backward or upside down.

The most stressful thing about blue-collar life is knowing your job could disappear overnight. Issues like downsizing(裁员) and overseas relocation had always seemed distant to me until my co-workers told me that the unit I was working in would shut down within six months and move to Mexico, where people would work for 60 cents hour.

After working 12-hour shifts in a factory, the other choices have become only too clear. When I'm back at the university, skipping classes and turning in lazy rewrites seem too irresponsible after seeing what I would be doing without school. All the advice and public-service announcements about the value of an education that used to sound stale(没有新意) now ring true.

These lessons I'm learning, however precious, are always tinged(强烈地感觉到) with a sense of guilt. Many people pass their lives in the places I briefly work, spending 30 years where I spend only two months at a time. “This job pays well, but it’s hell on the body, " said one co-worker. “Study hard and keep reading,” she added.

My experiences in the factories have inspired me to make the most of my college years before I enter the real world for good.

【推荐2】On a Saturday afternoon, you find most kids outside playing games. Kids were made for the outdoors, with their endless energy and the easy way in which they make friends. It’s not different for Kameron, an ordinary, fun-loving 7-year-old girl who loves to draw out the world’s longest hopscotch(跳格子) on the sidewalk.

In between jump-rope games, basketball shootouts and skateboard races, Kameron takes time to do something special for her neighbors. Kameron’s community is home to a good mix of young families and elderly neighbors whose children have long since left home. Kameron first started waving to them. Most of them smiled back.

Then Kameron decides that some of them need a little pleasure. So she runs home, takes her violin and makes the rounds. “Can I play you a song?” she asks, after knocking on the door.

Gustav smiles wide. He has beautiful white hair and a soft accent. He grew up in Scandinavia and is a wood finisher. His wife Vivian has a smile that fills their tiny home. She stands awkwardly, and has difficulty moving about. It looks terribly uncomfortable. Vivian has had muscular dystrophy (肌肉萎缩) for over 20 years. Gustav is her full-time caregiver. They’ve replaced their daily walks with afternoon drives, but even those are getting too difficult for Vivian.

Gus lets Kameron in, and Vivian takes hold of both their arms and pulls to her chair. On the table beside her is a photo of her with Gus when they were young and energetic, traveling around Europe, Egypt and Iceland. In the photo, Vivian is very beautiful, and Gus is handsome.

“Want me to play your favorite song?” Kameron asks. “Of course,” Gus answers. It is the only song Kameron knows.

The small violin rests seriously under Kameron’s chin(下巴). She plays as best she can. Vivian beats her knee obviously to keep rhythm(节奏) for Kameron. Gus holds Vivian’s other hand. It’s not the performance that is moving, but the memories it brings.

【推荐3】III. 阅读理解

A

“As sure as you’re alive now, Peter Rabbit, some day I will catch you,” shouted Reddy Fox, as he put his black nose in the hole between the roots of the Big Hickory-tree which grows close to the Smiling Pool. “It is lucky for you that you were not one jump farther away from this hole.”

Peter, safe inside that hole, didn’t have a word to say, or, if he did, he didn’t have breath enough to say it. It was quite true that if he had been one jump farther from that hole, Reddy Fox would have caught him. As it was, the hairs on Peter’s funny white tail actually had tickled Reddy’s back as Peter ran wildly through the root-bound entrance to that hole. It had been the narrowest escape Peter had had for a long, long time. You see, Reddy Fox had surprised Peter eating sweet clover (苜蓿) on the bank of the Smiling Pond, and it had been a lucky thing for Peter to have that hole, dug long ago by Johnny Chuck’s grandfather, had been right where it was. Also, it was a lucky thing that old Mr. Chuck had been wise enough to make the entrance between the roots of that tree in such a way that it could not be dug any larger.

Reddy Fox was too shrewd (机灵的) to waste any time trying to dig it larger. He knew there wasn’t room enough for him to get between those roots. So, after trying to make Peter as uncomfortable as possible by telling him what he, Reddy, would do to him when he did catch him, Reddy walked across the Green Meadows. Peter remained where he was for a long time. When he was quite sure that it was safe to do so, he crawled out and hurried to the Old Orchard. He felt that that would be the safest place for him, because there were ever so many hiding places in the old stone wall along the edge of it.