【推荐1】A poor farmer had a friend who was famous for the wonderful apples he grew.

One day, his friend gave the farmer a young apple tree and told him to take it home and plant it. The farmer was pleased with the gift, but when he got home, he did not know where to plant it.

He was afraid that if he planted the tree near the road, strangers would steal the fruit. If he planted the tree in one of his fields, his neighbors would come all night and steal some of the apples. If he planted the tree near his house, his children would take the fruit.

Finally he planted the tree in his woods where no one could see it. But without sunlight and good soil, the tree soon died.

Later the friend asked the farmer why he had planted the tree in such a poor place. “What’s the difference?” the farmer said angrily. “If I had planted the tree near the road, strangers would have stolen the fruit. If I had planted the tree in one of my fields, my neighbors would have come at night and stolen some of the apples. If I had planted it near my house, my own children would have taken the fruit.”

“Yes,” said the friend, “but at least someone could have enjoyed the fruit. Now you not only have robbed everyone of the fruit, but also you have destroyed a good apple tree!”

【推荐2】I’m a TV show host. One Sunday, I took my7-year-old daughter by the sea for lunch. On arriving at the beach, I saw JoJo, a wealthy man in the hotel business. We sat down to chat in an open air café.

Suddenly our conversation was interrupted（中断）by a stranger, who politely asked permission(容许) to speak to me. Often people want to tell me something about my controversial（有争议的）TV show, when I’m out on the streets.

He asked to speak to me privately, so we stood a bit away from my table. He said, “I’m James, 35 years old, father of a 7-year-old girl, who’s very sick. She needs treatment abroad. The doctors said that if she was treated in the UK, she would probably survive. But I’m poor, so can you please help me?”

Speechless, I stared in the man’s eyes full of tears and asked how I could help. After we talked for a while, I went to sit back at the table. JoJo asked me,“What’s wrong with you? Your face changed.” I told him. JoJo was very sorry for this family and said I had the means through the media to help him. Later we headed off to our destinations.

All weekend I thought about James, his daughter and his family. I even considered doing a special TV show to raise money for this sick child.

On Monday morning I was at the office after I finished presenting my show, when my secretary said a man needed to speak to me. It was JoJo. He walked into my office. Actually JoJo is so busy with his hotel business that I never imagined he had time to come and see me at the studios.

“Please, call the man with the sick child and tell him that I’ll pay all expenses for his sick daughter’s treatment,”JoJo said, with a check in his hand. “I’ve been married for 35 years. I wasn’t lucky enough to have a child. I want to help this child now.” I picked up the phone to call James.

Now James’ daughter is well and living a normal life. JoJo often visits her. I’m so happy that there are so many good people on this earth.

【推荐3】Growing up, I understood one thing about my dad: He knew everything. This was our relationship :     1    

In my teen years, he taught me things I’d need to know to survive in the real world. When I moved out on my own, I called him at least once a week, usually when something broke in my apartment and I needed to know how to fix it.     2    I got married, and my husband had most of the knowledge I lacked. For everything else, we had Google.

I don’t know when it happened, but our conversations when I called changed into six words. “Hi, Dad, sweets. Here’s Mom.” (Because I still needed her. ) I loved my dad, of course, but I wondered at times if maybe he had already shared everything I needed to know.    3     Then, this summer, my family and I moved in with my parents for three weeks while our house was being renovated (翻新). One day, Dad asked me to help him rebuild the board at their dock. As we put the new board together piece by piece, my dad knowing exactly what went where. I looked at him. “How do you know how to build it?” The heavy hammer he was swinging paused in midair. “I spent a summer in college building them on the Jersey Shore.”    4    But I never knew this. I realized that maybe it’s not that there’s nothing left to say.

A few weeks later, after my family moved back into our house, I called my parents. Dad answered. “Hi, sweets,” he said. “Here’s Mom.” “Wait, Dad,” I said. “How are you?” We ended up talking about what he was working on. To anyone else, it would sound like a normal conversation between a dad and his daughter.     5    I spent the first part of my life needing to talk to my dad. Now I talk to him because I want to.

【推荐1】While waiting to pick up a friend at an airport in Portland, Oregon, I had one of those life changing experiences that you hear other people talk about — the kind that happens to you unexpectedly. To me, this happened and was only two feet away from me.

Locating my friend among the passengers, I noticed a man coming toward me carrying two light bags. He stopped right next to me to greet his family.

First he walked to his youngest son (maybe 6 years old) as he laid down his bags. They gave each other a long, loving hug. As they separated enough to look in each other’s face, I heard the father say, “It’s so good to see you, son.   I missed you so much！” His son smiled somewhat shyly, and replied softly, “Me too, Dad！”

Then the man stood up, gazed into the eyes of his oldest son (maybe 9 or 10) and while cupping his son’s face in his hands said, “You’re already quite a young man. I love you very much, Zach！” They too hugged a most loving, tender hug.

While this was happening, a baby girl (perhaps one or one­and­a­half­year old) was squirming (扭动) excitedly in her mother’s arms, never once taking her little eyes off the wonderful sight of her returning father. The man said，“Hi, baby girl！” as he gently took the child from her mother. He quickly kissed her face all over and then held her close to his chest while rocking her from side to side. The little girl instantly relaxed and simply laid her head on his shoulder, motionless in pure contentment.

After several moments, he handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared, “I’ve saved the best for last！” and went to give his wife the longest, most passionate kiss I ever remember seeing. He gazed into her eyes for several seconds and then silently mouthed, “I love you so much！” They stared into each other’s eyes, beaming big smiles at one another, while holding both hands.

For an instant they reminded me of newlyweds, but I knew by the age of their kids that they couldn’t possibly be. I puzzled about it for a moment then realized how totally attentive I was in the wonderful display of unconditional love not more than an arm’s length away from me.   I suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if I was invading something sacred, but was amazed to hear my own voice nervously ask，“Wow! How long have you two been married？”

“Been together fourteen years total, married twelve of those.” he replied, without breaking his gaze from his lovely wife’s face. “Well then, how long have you been away？” I asked. The man finally turned and looked at me, still beaming his joyous smile. “Two whole days！”

Two days? I was stunned. I had assumed he’d been gone for at least several weeks — if not months. I know my expression betrayed me. “I hope my marriage is still that passionate after twelve years！”

The man suddenly stopped smiling.

He looked me straight in the eye, and with forcefulness that burned right into my soul, he told me something that left me a different person, “Don’t hope, friend ... decide！” Then he flashed me his wonderful smile again, shook my hand and said, “God bless！”

With that, he and his family turned and walked away together.   I was still watching that exceptional man and his special family walk just out of sight when my friend came up to me and asked, “What are you looking at？” Without hesitating, and with a curious sense of certainty, I replied，“My future！”

【推荐2】Happiness is for everyone. You don’t need to care about those people who have beautiful houses with large gardens and swimming pools or those who have nice cars and a lot of money and so on. Why? Because those who have big houses may often feel lonely and those who have cars may want to walk on the country roads in their free time.

In fact, happiness is always around you if you put your heart into it. When you are in trouble at school, your friends will help you; when you study hard at your lessons, your parents are always taking good care of your life and your health; when you get a success, your friends will say congratulations to you; 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 happy, too. All these are your happiness. If you notice a bit of them, you can see that happiness is always around you.

Happiness doesn’t mean money. It is a feeling of your heart. When you are poor, you can also say you are very happy, because you have something that can’t be bought with money. When you meet with difficulties, you can say loudly you are very happy, because you have more chances to challenge yourself. As the saying goes, life is like a revolving door. When it closes, it also opens. If you take every chance you get, you can be a happy and lucky person.

【推荐2】Because Skyler and Kreed are speechless teens with autism (自闭症), making friends hasn’t always been easy for them. Now that they have each other, their friendship is stronger than what any word could ever describe.

Aside from having autism, 14-year-old Skyler is currently deaf and is losing his sight. He also has no effective means to communicate. Kreed, 17, uses a device to communicate and has multiple medical conditions. Once Kreed learned Skyler was also speechless, their friendship began.

“We were able to explain to Kreed that Skyler is deaf and also speechless like him,” Kreed’s mother, Erin Polk, said. “He seemed to understand and ever since then has wanted to be with Skyler and calls him his best friend.”

The best friends, who live down the street from each other, hang out just like typical teenagers. They eat pizza and French fries and watch movies together. They also give each other a helping hand.

“Kreed will help Skyler by leading him to places he is afraid to walk into,” Polk said. “We think his lack of good sight makes it scary for him in new places, so Kreed will always offer his hand to help him through those times.”

For Kreed, his best friend role has given him confidence. According to his mom, being able to help others helps him as well.

“Skyler has given Kreed more social confidence. By having a friend, he can 100 percent be himself and finally to be able to actually help another peer rather than being the person always helped,” she said.

Even though they're speechless, the teens communicate in their own way by giving certain looks or connecting through touch. Kreed doesn’t mind if Skyler gets close to him or touches him, which seems to please Skyler. According to Polk's blog, the teens simply want to be around each other.

It's clear that something unites Kreed and Skyler, but it's more than their autism or speechless communication. It's their beautiful friendship --- that clearly has no boundaries.

【推荐3】Small talk is a good way to make friends. If you travel to other countries or have friends from abroad, do you know how to use small talk to make conversation?

In Britain, the best topic is the weather. British weather is changing all the time.     1    

Besides weather, it’s good to talk about gardens with British. You could say “Those roses look really beautiful, don’t they?”     2     .So it’s also nice to start with “What a lovely dog! What is his name?”

In America, people like to talk about sports news ,such as American football and basketball.    3     So you might say “It’s a nice shirt! Where did you get it?” Weather is a safe topic there, too.

    4     Don’t ask people “How old are you?” Never ask: “How much money do you make?”It makes people uncomfortable. Don’t ask strangers weather they are married.     5     There are others in our daily life.