【推荐2】I wrote a note to my parents when I was a young boy. I didn’t write anything to them before. That night, I just had a strong desire (渴望) to let Mom and Dad know how much I loved them, how much they meant to me, and how thankful I was for what they gave me. Because I was too shy to tell them my feelings face to face, I wrote the note and put it on the desk in their bedroom. I imagined how they would feel after they read the note thousands of times before going to bed.

Early the next morning, I heard a soft knock at my door. As soon as I opened the door, I found my mom and dad standing outside. They kissed me and thanked me for the note. Mom said that she was thinking I was a little child, but to her surprise, I grew into a young boy unconsciously (不知不觉地). Dad said he was happy that I could share my true feelings with them.

Seeing the smiles on their faces made me laugh happily. At the same time, I was surprised that my simple words could touch them so much. On that day, I saw my dad cry for the first time. The beautiful memory (记忆) stayed in my heart from then on.

【推荐3】It is believed in some ways that the daughter is father’s lover. But my experience has taught me in a different way. For a long time, my father has been a very vague figure (模糊的形象) to me. He was a man of few words, tall but slim and nothing else.

When I was in primary school, my father was never there to pick me up, and he never came to any of my parent-teacher meetings. He was always busy doing projects. I remember when I was in middle school and my head was badly hurt in a PE class. During my operation (手术), my father was nowhere to be found. This hurt me most. At that moment, I thought my father was a cold-blooded man who did not care about me at all.

But things seemed different. I was so lucky to be the host at the graduation ceremony (毕业会) of my class and give a speech. My father, once again, told me he had a business trip in a place outside the city and would be unable to show up (露面). “Don’t come. I will be very nervous if I see you,” I told him.

I remember my speech very well. After the ceremony was over and I was about to leave. I suddenly saw a familiar (熟悉的) looking man sitting in a corner of the hall. It was my father! I was so surprised that I rushed to him with tears (眼泪) running down my face. “Well done,” he said. His eyes were also filled with tears.

Later, I found out that my father had tried to finish his work by staying up late, and he drove for eight hours to get back. He had been sitting in the corner because he didn’t want me to see him. My father remembered every word in my speech.

For much of my life, I described my father as a cold-blooded man who only cared about his work. But when I thought about this, it wasn’t the truth. At my graduation ceremony. I could feel my father’s love. The fact is that seeing is not believing, and seeing may not be the fact if we don’t perceive (感知) the world with our hearts and minds. Life is full of love, but sometimes our eyes have trouble seeing it.

【推荐1】Everyone wants to be happy, but sometimes it can be difficult to feel happy. That’s because we have misunderstandings (误解) about happiness. The good news is that changing the way you think about happiness can help you to feel more joy each day.

Dr. Mark Williamson from the charity Action for Happiness says, “Happiness is not about denying (拒绝承认) terrible feelings or being joyful all the time. It’s about making the most of good times and learning to deal with bad times.” He believes that happiness comes when we feel good about who we are and where our life is going.

Noticing when you feel happy and what you’re doing can help you to find more happiness. For example, you may realize that working out a difficult puzzle makes you feel better than watching a favorite TV show. What helps you feel happy might be different from what makes someone else happy.

Start a list of things that make you happy and keep adding to it as you discover new ones. Make time to do what you know makes you happy and remember that joy isn’t only found in what you do for yourself—being kind to other people helps you feel happier, too.

There are misunderstandings that can make it hard to feel happy. One is that it’s selfish to be happy when other people are sad. However, stopping yourself from being happy doesn’t make other people less sad. In fact, happy people spread happiness to others. Another thing is thinking that you need lots of money and things to be happy. Studies have shown that when people win the lottery (彩票), they feel a sudden short period of happiness but they soon feel the same as they did before they won. So it’s important to notice the simple things that make you feel happy.

Anger is a kind of feeling.     1     When your teacher gives you too much homework, when your team loses an important game, when a friend borrows your favorite thing and then breaks it, you may get really angry.

    2     For example, you breathe faster, your face turns red, and you may want to break something or hit (打) someone, but sometimes, you hide (隐藏) your anger. For example, you may hide it in your heart. The problem is that if you do this, you may get a headache or your stomach may hurt.

In fact, it’s not good to hide your anger, and it’s normal for you to get angry sometimes.     3     When you get angry, you can talk about it with other people. It’s helpful to talk about your anger with an adult, such as parents, a teacher, etc.     4     Here are some other things you can do when you start to feel angry: talk to a good friend; count from 1 to 100; give someone a hug (拥抱); go for a bike ride; think about good things, etc.

Remember that how you act when you are angry can make everything better or worse.     5    

【推荐3】Did you watch the grand National Day celebration on TV on Oct.1 this year? There were many student performers. What would it feel like to be part of such a great event? Three teenagers shared their stories with us.

Zhou Jingqi, 14, Beijing

I was in one of the 36 formations (方阵). We were wearing yellow T-shirts, holding flowers and flags in our hands. I shouted loudly “Long live our motherland”. It may not seem hard to walk in a formation. But we started training (训练) as early as July. We learned to walk at a certain pace-walking 116 meters every 90 seconds.

On October 1, we waited at Dongdan at 2 a.m. But I didn’t feel sleepy that day. Instead, I was full of joy and pride.

Ma Conglin and Ma Congyuan, 15, Beijing

We are twin brothers. We sang in a choir (合唱团). Our choir performed 16 songs, including My Motherland and Me and On the Hopeful Field. We practiced hard over the summer. Sometimes we had to stand and sing for a whole day. We canceled (取消) our family vacation because we needed to practice. On the night of performance, we were surprised by the strong sound of the people singing together. Our hard work paid off and it was a great honor to be there!