A boy wanted to learn about the secret of happiness from a wise man. He had imagined the wise man living a ________ lifestyle like a sage(圣人). But to his surprise, the man lived in a large castle and enjoyed delicious food. After hearing the boy’s thoughts, the wise man ________ the boy to walk around his castle and return in two hours. He also gave him a(n) ________. He handed a spoon with two drops of oil over to the boy. “________ you walk around, carry this spoon without spilling(洒) the oil.” said the wise man. The boy began walking around, keeping his ________ on the spoon. After two hours, he returned. The wise man asked, “What is my castle like? Can you ________ it?” The boy shook his head. “Then ________ and enjoy the beauty of my castle.” The boy did as he was told. This time, he noticed how beautiful the castle was and enjoyed ________. Upon returning, he talked about everything he had seen. “But ________ are the drops of oil?” asked the wise man. Looking down at the spoon he held, The boy found that the oil was gone. The wise man continued, “Remember, a balance(平衡状态) needs to be created between things. When you enjoy the beauty and pleasure of the world ________, carry out your duty(责任) as well. That’s the secret of happiness.”

A man cut a lot of firewood in the hills and put it on his cart. He was smoking his pipe on his way home.

The sparks from the pipe set fire to the firewood. When he looked back, the man was shocked to find that the firewood was on fire. He jumped off the cart at once.

“What can I do?” the man asked himself. Just then, he saw a cup on the ground and picked it up. He quickly ran down the hill and soon came back with a cup of water. He poured the water on the fire.

However, the fire was becoming stronger and stronger. At last, all the firewood was burned out. The man was very sad. A passer-by heard his story and said, “How can you put out the fire with a cup of water? You were just making useless efforts. You should choose a right way to deal with a problem.”

How many machines does your family have? What machines do you use every day? Can you live a life without machines? When I was a boy, we had a small machine. It only had one channel. Still, I would always be in my chair when cartoons came on.

The one I liked best was The Jetsons. It was a cartoon about the future that was full of fantastic machines that could do anything. I always laughed when I watched it and dreamt of a day when I would have machines like this to do all my work, so I could just sit back and relax.

Now my life is full of machines like these. ___*___ Just today I had to spend most of the morning on my computer because there was something wrong with it. Last week, I spent most of another morning trying to get my new coffee maker to work right. There seems to be many rules and problems after we have new technology.

But don’t get me wrong. Computers and machines truly help all of us a lot. I just want us to use them without them using us. We always seem to be busy because we’re spending all of our time using these machines.

I hope that in the future, machines can be more user-friendly so we don’t spend all our time on them. With machines we can live an easier life, but they have to work for us.

When I was a girl growing up, I could not once ever remember either my mum or my grandma wasting food.

Anything we didn’t eat at one meal was leftovers(剩菜). I can remember my grandma making a huge pot of potatoes. We would all eat until we were full enough, but there were always about half of the potatoes leftover. A few days later, Grandma would take those potatoes out of the fridge, boil some noodles, add some vegetables and mix them all together. And I also remember when I watched my mum fry bacon (煎培根)for us in the mornings, she would always take the oil carefully and pour it into a bottle. Then she would use it later to add flavor(风味) to so many other dishes. I was an adult before I realized that potatoes didn’t actually taste like bacon!

I learned their lessons well, and after I grew up, I tried to never waste food myself. I always planned the week’s meals ahead of time and only bought what was on my shopping list so that nothing went to waste. Every meal went into our stomachs and any leftovers were later eaten by either myself, my boys, my husband or my dogs. To me, throwing food into the bin was just wrong.

However, when it comes to life, there are no leftovers. Life is just like a feast. Each moment that you don’t live is lost forever. Life cannot be saved or stored. Each day is a fresh beginning. Live each moment of your life to the fullest, then.

As school kids, we have many dreams. These dreams can be very big, such as winning the Nobel Prize. Or they can be small.     47    

Once you have found a dream, what do you do with it? Have you ever tried to make your dream come true?Follow Your Heart by Australian writer Andrew Matthews tells us that realizing our dreams 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.     48    

In fact, everyone can realize their dream. 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, and you will realize your dream faster. Do this step by step. A dream cannot be realized in one day.     49     There must be problems on the road to realize. But the biggest problem 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.     50    . This is good as long as you have the chance to learn more skills and find new interests.

Memory is important. It helps you remember who you are , where you live, what you have learnt and what you plan to do in the future.

Some scientists believe that there are three types of memory- immediate, short-term and long-term.

Immediate memory holds information for less than a second, e.g. the name of a road you have just seen. Then it either forgets it or passes it into short-term memory. Short-term memory can hold about seven items of information at a time , e.g. telephone numbers. It holds them for about 30 seconds. Then it either forgets them or passes them into long-term memory. Long-term memory can hold information for the whole of our lives, e.g. the names of countries or the meanings of words.

So, how can you improve your memory?

It is important to exercise your brain. For example, you can do new things and change your daily habits. If you walk a different way to school or take a different bus, you will keep your brain active. You can try to memorize something new. You can try a Maths puzzle.(益智游戏). You can also try to learn new skills or study a foreign language. Your brain gets lots of regular exercise if you do any of these things.

If you live a healthy life, your memory will work better . Your must have a balanced diet (均衡饮食). You must give your brain enough time to rest. Unless you get enough sleep every night, you will not remember things well.

If you want your brain to work well, you also need to relax. If you get too worried, your brain will slow down, and your memory will become less excellent.

So,to improve your memory, you should exercise your brain, live a healthy life and stay relaxed.