【推荐1】①How do you feel when you make a mistake? No one likes making mistakes. It often makes you feel unhappy. However, the feeling you get after making a mistake helps your brain adjust (调整) itself and learn. For example, you can’t learn how to ride a bike without falling off it, or make friends without sometimes saying things you regret. Getting things wrong helps us adjust ourselves, so we can do things differently.

② ▲ . Accepting and learning from our mistakes gives us the courage to try harder next time. Psychologists (心理学家) at Michigan State University call this a “growth mindset”. A growth mindset means you see failure as something you can learn from, instead of something you regret. Elsie, 13, said it was hard to accept mistakes but they made her a better learner. “I once made a cake that came out like two big biscuits. I was upset but I realized I hadn’t read the cookbook properly. Now I always read the cookbook twice.”

③Alexandra Eidens from a magazine for kids said we should be open to mistakes because learning from them can help us believe in ourselves and face difficulties bravely. Try talking about one of our mistakes with family or friends. Whether the experience is funny or painful, sharing the story with others will help make it clear how the mistake happened. Eidens also suggests writing down our mistakes. She believes it gives us a chance of self-expression, creativity and learning. It’s also a good way for us to learn from our mistakes.

【推荐2】One day, Tom went to ask his teacher a question. “You always tell us to be kind and compassionate（有同情心的）. But what is compassion, Mr. Smith?”

After thinking, the wise teacher led Tom to the window. There was a beggar（乞丐） sitting on the street corner. While looking at him, they noticed that a well-dressed businessman passed by and gave the beggar five coins. After a while, a mother and a young girl went across the street. The girl noticed the beggar and handed him a flower in her hand.

Then Mr Smith asked Tom, “Who do you think is more compassionate?”

“I think the businessman showed his compassion because he gave the beggar coins,” Tom replied.

Mr Smith smiled and said, “You see, the businessman looked so proud after giving the beggar five coins. He wanted to show off his money to people around him. At the same time, he wanted to tell people that he is kind-hearted and likes to help others. However, the girl didn’t show anything off. She gave the beggar a flower just to share her happiness with him.”

“So, to understand what compassion is, we must realise that all people are the same. We are neither different from nor superior to（优越于）anyone,” said Mr. Smith.

【推荐3】One day, Mr Smith went to a dinner party. He was wearing very old clothes. He came into the room. But people in the room didn’ t look at him. They didn’ t ask him to sit at the table. He wasn’ t happy. But he said nothing.

Mr Smith went home quickly and put on his best clothes. He went back to the party. Everyone in the room stood up and looked at him. They gave him good food to eat.

Mr Smith took off his coat, and put it on the food and said, “Eat, coat!” The other people were surprised and asked, “What are you doing? Why do you do that?”

Mr Smith answered, “I am asking my coat to eat food. When I wore old clothes, you didn’ t look at me. You didn’ t ask me to sit down. Now I am wearing these nice clothes. And you give me good food. Now I see, you give the food to my coat, not to me.”

【推荐2】Long ago, an old man kept a sparrow(麻雀)which he loved very much. One day the sparrow flew away and the old man was very sad.

He went out to look for him. At last, he met his sparrow in the mountains. The old man said that he missed him very much and asked him to go home.

Though the sparrow was happy to see the old man, he shook his head. The old man wanted to see how the sparrow was living. The sparrow led the old man to his home. There were many other birds. They all looked healthy and enjoyed each other’s company(n.陪伴). The old man was very happy. When the old man left, the sparrow gave him a basket to take home with him as a present.

When he got home, his wife was very angry and asked him where he had been all day. He told her the truth. When the old man opened the basket, she was surprised to find it was full of gold. She could hardly believe it. After all, she used to treat the sparrow badly.

A few days later, the old woman went to the mountains, too. But the sparrow said nothing to her. Before she left, she unashamedly asked for a present. The sparrow offered her two choices. One basket was light and the other was heavy. But she could only choose one. The old woman took the heavy one. The sparrow told her she couldn’t open it until she got home. She carried it all the way breathlessly(气喘吁吁地). When she arrived home and opened the basket, it was full of stones.

There was once a boy called Mario who loved to have lots of friends. He showed off a lot, always talking about how many friends he had at school, and how he was friendly to everyone.

One day his rich grandpa said to him, "Mario, I bet you a big bag of popcorn. You don't have as many good friends as you think."

Mario accepted the bet. However, he wasn't sure how he could test whether or not his schoolmates were real friends, so he asked his grandpa.

“Take it. It's a very special chair. It's invisible, but if you take it to school and you try to sit on it, you'll be able to tell who your real friends are," said his grandpa. The old man seemed to carry something in his hands, but Mario could see nothing there.

Mario took the strange chair to school. At break time he told his friends to form a circle, and he put himself in the middle with his chair.

"Nobody moves. You're about to see something amazing. "

Mario tried sitting on the chair. But he missed and fell straight onto his backside. Everyone had a good laugh. He kept trying to sit on the chair, and kept falling to the ground…until, suddenly, he tried again and didn't fall. Looking around, Mario saw George, Lucas and Diana, three of his best friends, holding him up. However, many others did nothing but make fun of him.

Leaving with his three friends, he came to understand what his grandpa wanted to tell him—true friends are those who really care for us.