My mom works hard. She _______ me and my younger brother. Every day when she gets home from work, she makes dinner for us.

One day, I decided to cook dinner for her. I didn’t _______ a lot about cooking. But it doesn’t look so difficult. Right? Noodles are easy to cook. All I need to do is to pour and boil water in a _______. Then add the noodles and keep boiling. This was _______ I saw my mom doing it many times. I was really excited. “Today, when Mom comes back home, dinner will be _______. How happy she will be!” thought.

After school, I ran home and started cooking. I boiled the water in the pot and _______ the noodles. I was very careful. I cooked the noodles for a long time.

Just _______ Mom got home, I turned off the stove. The noodles were not like the kind my mom _______ made. They were very mushy（糊状的）. Mom was _______ when she came home. She put the noodles in the bowl and sat with me and ate her noodles. “Mmm! These are the best noodles in the world. I know you are ________ to help out. Thank you, my daughter,” she said.

Last Friday, my friend Deborah asked me if I would like to learn how to make tofu.

I couldn’t think of any good reason not to be interested in, so I said. “Yes.” So the next day I met her and the other three nice people at the Hodo Soy Beanery in Oakland. I enjoyed the tour. I got a lot from the trip. The following is what I learnt.

Tofu has a history of 2,000 years. Although the word “tofu” is from Japanese, the food may come from China. There are two main kinds of tofu—soft tofu and firm tofu (老豆腐). In some parts of Asia, people use tofu as a kind of meat.

Douhua is one kind of soft tofu. It is a popular breakfast food in China. Because it is very soft, people can’t eat it with chopsticks, but with a spoon. People often eat it as a dessert and often add spring onions and sauce to it. In Malaysia, people usually eat douhua with white or dark sugar water.

You know that exercise is good for helping you relax, but do you know balancing (平衡) your diet is also important? How to balance your diet? Let me tell you.

Remember that breakfast is the most important meal of a day. If you don’t have time to sit down and have a healthy breakfast, try vegetable juice before you go to school. This is much better than coffee.

It’s a good idea to eat less salt. Food like hot dogs have lots of salt in them. So give them up.

You should also stay away from food with much fat (脂肪). You can eat vegetables, fruit, fish and chicken. They are healthy for you and help you relax as well. For example, you can eat chicken hamburgers instead of beef hamburgers.

Don’t often go out for lunch. You can let your mother make lunch at home and take it to school. Eat some cabbage or salad with chicken. Drink lots of water every day.

Balancing your diet to relax is as important as exercise. I hope you have a good meal today.

What can you do when someone hurts you? Most people may be angry or even fight with the one who hurts them. The best way is to forgive (原谅) him or her.

Although it is not easy for us to forgive people who hurt us, it is possible as long as we try our best. “Forgiveness makes us more hopeful.     31    ” says Frederic Luskin, Ph. D, the writer of Forgive for Good.

    32     The following ways may help you.

First, think of something beautiful and try to make yourself happy.

Second, don’t wait for others to say sorry to you. If people hurt you, they won’t say sorry to you. They may just want to hurt you or they just don't see things in the same way.

    33     You can write a letter to yourself from the offender’s (冒犯者) point of view. That can make you understand others better and make yourself happier.

    34     For some people, forgiving themselves is the biggest challenge (挑战). As we know, nobody is perfect, so learn to forgive yourself. And in this way, it makes you feel happier and more relaxed.