A man hated his wife’s cat very much and decided to get rid（摆脱）of the cat one day by driving him 20 blocks from his home and leaving him at the park.

As he was getting home, the cat was walking up the driveway.

The next day he decided to drive the cat 40 blocks away. He put the cat out and headed home.

When he reached his driveway, there was the cat!

The man got a bit angry. He didn’t understand why the cat could always find his way home.

Finally, he decided to drive hundreds of kilometres away. He drove out of town, through the desert（沙漠）and into the next state until he reached what he thought was a perfect place. He believed the cat couldn’t remember the way this time so he let the cat out and headed back.

Hours later the man called home to his wife: “Honey, is the cat there?”

“Yes,” the wife answers. “Why do you ask?”

“Put him on the phone,” the man replies. “I’m lost and need directions.”

At school, students learn different subjects like English, math, art and so on. They learn these subjects in the classroom. These days, a new subject becomes popular in many schools! That is school gardening. Students learn it outside the classroom. It is not only an interesting subject, but also a great way to keep healthy.

In the gardening class, students can go outside and get fresh air. More importantly, they can learn a lot. When some young students have food, they always ask, “Where does the rice come from?” In this class, they can get the answer. And they can learn to do things with their own hands. They can also learn some teamwork-skills and care about nature, others and themselves.

Keeping a school garden is difficult, but teachers are trying to make it work. Some schools can have gardens inside, but other schools are small. So teachers turn to gardens and parks near the school.

The school garden doesn’t have to be very big. Students can have a lot of fun in it. At first, teachers decide what vegetables to grow. Then they grow them with students. Carrots and tomatoes are their favorites because it is nice for them to get a carrot or a tomato, wash it and eat it right in the garden. Some vegetables are easy to grow, but others need a long time. This can teach students hard work pays off.

Gardening is as important as any other subject. Students should learn it at school.

Nobody wants to lose, but we must accept that losing is a part of life. After all, we can’t win all the time. However, we can learn something valuable from every failure. This may help us succeed in the future. So we must know how to be a good loser.

We must not be afraid of losing. When we lose, just take it with a smile and look on the bright side of it. Failure can’t be avoided in our life. Edison failed 10, 000 times before he invented the light bulb (灯泡). When he was asked how he felt, he said that he hadn’t failed 10, 000 times but had learned 10, 000 things which didn’t work. We must know that history is full of examples of men and women who achieved success although they failed many times.

Losing is not very disgraceful. We must accept our failure and learn to take advantage of it. Remember that it can be helpful. Take action to walk out of it. When we lose, think about what we did and how we can improve. If someone else can help, we’ll be lucky enough. Maybe he or she has been through the same experience before. Many people enjoy helping others work out problems. This can save us a lot of time in learning how to avoid the same mistakes in the future.

We should face our failure when we lose. There is only one winner in every competition. Some win, while some lose. That is a usual way of life. If we offer our congratulations to the winners and share in their happiness, we won’t feel sorry for our failure.

In a word, being a good loser will help us to succeed in life. It might be painful at the start, but there are many advantages. Good losers set examples to us, and most importantly, they finally win.

There are so many expressions in American English that sound nice but are not.     16     When someone says they have to “face the music”, it does not mean they are going to a concert. “Facing the music” means to accept the punishment of an action.

Americans often use the word “face” in this way. For example, “I can’t face another night of camping! It’s cold and rainy.” Or “In life, you must face your fears.”     17    

Back to facing the music: Imagine a friend asks you to take care of her expensive sports car. She gives you the keys and says, “Thanks so much for watching my car while I’m away. But please, do not drive it. It is an extremely fast car.”     18     You want to show off to some friends. So, you drive it around town one night. As bad luck would have it, you lose control of the car and drive it into a stop sign. Bang!

When your friend returns, you must tell her what you have done and “face the music”.     19     It could be losing her friendship or paying to repair her car, or both. Whatever the music is, you must face it.

    20     To “take your medicine” means to accept the results from something bad you have done. And if someone says, “You made your bed. Now lie in it,” they mean you created a bad situation and now you have to experience the results!