“I have lots of dreams,” said Laurie. He lay down and looked up at the sky.

“Tell us about your favourite dream, Laurie.” Meg said.

“Only _______ you tell me about yours.” the boy replied.

The girls _______, so Laurie began.

“I want to travel around the world. Then I would like to become a famous musician. _______ wants me to be a businessman like him. But I don’t care about money or business. I just want to enjoy myself.”

“Why don’t you get on a _______ and sail (航行) away?” said Jo.

“No, Jo,” said Meg quickly.

“That isn’t right. Laurie, you must do _______ your grandfather wants you to do. He loves you.”

“Perhaps you are right, Meg,” Laurie said. My grandfather is old and he doesn’t have anything else. He only has me. Tell us about your favourite dream, Meg!”

“I’d like a lovely house, full of good food, pretty clothes and _______ furniture,” Meg said.

“And what about a husband (丈夫) and some beautiful children in your lovely house?” said Jo, _______. Meg looked at Laurie and her face turned red.

“I suppose you want horses and books in your house, Jo!” she replied.

“You’re right! Lots of Arabian horses and rooms full of books,” said Jo. I want to _______ books and make money through it. That’s my favourite _______. And yours, Beth?”

“I dream about staying at home with Father and Mother and looking after the family. I don’t want anything else,” said Beth quietly.

“My favourite dream is to be a(n) ________. I want to paint wonderful pictures,” said Amy.

“Let’s meet again in ten years and see how many of us have got our wishes,” said Jo.

—Taken from Little Women

The day pass. Dorothy works very hard in the kitchen. She remembers Uncle Kerry and Aunt Em in Kansas. She remembers her friends the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. She’s very sad and she often cries. At night she goes to see the Lion. The Witch doesn’t give him anything to eat or drink, so Dorothy takes him food and water from the kitchen. Then she lies down next to him, puts her head on his warm body and sleeps until the morning.

The Witch watches Dorothy all the time. She’s waiting for the right moment to take the silver shoes. Dorothy wears them all the time. She loves them. The only time she takes them off is when she has a bath. The Witch doesn’t like water, so she’s afraid to go near the girl when she’s in the bath.

One day Dorothy is cleaning the kitchen and she slips on the wet floor. She falls over and one of the silver shoes comes off. The Witch is watching. She picks it up quickly and puts it on.

“Give me back my shoe!” Dorothy says.

“No! It’s my shoe now?” the Witch replies.

“You are a wicked woman!” Dorothy shouts. “I want my shoe!”

There’s a bucket of water near the door. The girl picks it up and throws the water over the Witch.

“Aarrgh!” The Witch cries. “Water is the end of me!” And she starts to disappear in front of Dorothy’s eyes.

“I’m going.” she says. “Going, going, going.”

Ever wonder why you can go over a book again and again and still be lost when tested on what you read? It may be because you haven’t practiced remembering.

Remembering is a useful way to help us learn. Some of us remember best by listening; others by re-reading; and others learn best by using pictures and diagrams (图表). Schools try many of these different ways to help students “download” new information.

But a recent study from Purdue University, US, says that successful learning means being able to recall information at any moment.

“Our view is that learning is not about studying or getting knowledge ‘in memory’,” said Jeffrey Karpicke, the lead researcher. “Learning is about retrieving(寻回，检索). So it is important to make retrieval practice an important part of the learning process.”

The researchers studied two groups of students. Both groups learned something from a text. One group made diagrams about the text. This method(方法) is called concept mapping. The other group put the text away after learning it and tried recalling the concepts from memory.

Then, both groups were tested(被测试) on the information they had learned. Both groups scored well at recalling the learned information. However, when they were asked to return one week later, the group who made diagrams scored better than the group who did not use concept mapping. So by drawing concept maps, we are able to recall information far better, which will help us to study.

Our mind, just like our body, has to practice activities to become good at them.