【推荐1】One day, Confucius(孔子)led his students to the State of Chu. In a large forest, they saw an old man standing under a tree, catching cicadas(蝉)with a bamboo stick. Confucius said, “You’re very good at catching cicadas. You must have some special skills.” ______ “The cicadas are little clever insects. ______ So people must train their hands to hold a bamboo stick without shaking.” He then added, “But that is not enough. ______ Right now, I am standing under a tree like half of a tree. Last of all, one must be attentive. When I am catching cicadas, I only stare at their wings. ______”

Hearing this, Confucius turned to his students and said, “Whatever you do, you can only succeed if you love what you’re doing and pay attention to it. This is what this old man has taught us.”

【推荐2】My name is Tony. I’m the youngest of the three boys in my family. When I was small, my brothers did most of the housework. Although they were tired sometimes, they never let me do anything. I lived comfortably and spent most of my time playing outside. But when I grew older, both of my brothers moved out of our home. My father never did anything because of his bad health. I had to start to do the housework. For example, I cleaned the house and grew vegetables. At first, I complained (抱怨). But later I found joy in helping my parents. I sang to myself when I did some work. I also learned something important: as long as you do your work for love, it isn’t work.

【推荐3】This story is about Mrs. Jones, an 82-year-old lady. Although her life was hard, she was always nicely dressed every day. This morning Mrs Jones was moving to the nursing home. The nursing home was very busy. After hours of waiting, Mrs Jones still smiled sweetly when she was told that her room was ready.（1）在去她房间的路上，我告诉她房间是什么样子的。

Suddenly she said, “I love it!”

“But Mrs Jones, you haven’t seen the room yet!” I was surprised at her reply. She stopped and said, “Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is placed. (2) It depends on how I decide to think about the room. I have already decided to love the room before I actually see it.”

Then she continued, “I have a choice. I can spend the day in bed and consider how tiny my room is. Or I can just get out of bed and be thankful that I can still enjoy a new day. Each day is a gift. (3) I’ll enjoy my life and all the happy memories. I have stored them in my bank account (账户) before.”

Life is like a bank account. You can take out what you’ve put in. (4) If you have put a lot of happiness in your bank account, you can take out some of it when you feel sad.

Attitude (态度) is everything.

【推荐2】Mr. Smith is a famous writer. He is good at telling interesting stories to make people happy. One day, Mr. Smith gave a speech(演讲) in the town. After the speech, he met a young man at lunch. The young man said his uncle never laughed and nobody could make him laugh.

“Bring your uncle to my speech this evening,” said Mr. Smith. “I’ll tell some funny stories. I’m sure I can make him laugh.”

That evening the young man came to Mr. Smith’s speech with his uncle. They sat in the very front of the hall. Mr. Smith told some funny stories and they made almost(几乎) everyone in the hall laugh. But the young man’s uncle didn’t. Mr. Smith then told the funniest story. That still didn’t work. At last, Mr. Smith stopped. He felt very tired and discouraged(气馁).

Some days later, Mr. Smith met a friend on the street. He told him about his experience(经历) in that town. “Oh,” said his friend, “I know that young man and his uncle. His uncle couldn’t hear for years.”

【推荐3】About 10 years ago, when I was a student in college, I was working in a shop near my school. One day, I saw an elderly couple come in with a little girl in a wheelchair（轮椅）.

As I looked at this girl, I saw that she was seated in her chair. I realized she was disabled, without arms or legs, just a head, neck and body. She was wearing a little white dress with red dots（圆点）。

As the couple wheeled her up to me, I was looking down at the cash register（收银处）. I turned my head toward the girl and gave her a wink（眨眼）. As I took the money from her grandparents, the girl gave me the biggest smile I have ever seen. All of a sudden, her disability disappeared. All I saw was this beautiful girl, whose smile gave me a new sense of life. She took me from being a poor, unhappy college student and brought me into her world of smiles, love and warmth.

That was 10 years ago. I’m a successful businessman now. Whenever I am down and thinking about the troubles of the world, I think about that little girl’s smile and the life lesson she taught me.

I am Peter. As a university student, I decided to learn German. For some reason I really liked the language, but I was not very good at learning it. The grammar troubled me a lot and even drove me crazy. My only advantage (优点) was spelling—I got an A on every word test I took. After two years of studies, I struggled to communicate in broken German and signed up to study in Germany to complete my degree. It was the hardest term I would ever have.

The moment I arrived in Germany, I felt like I was starting from scratch. The German I’d learned in university wasn’t practical for everyday conversation. My book knowledge fell by the wayside as I thought about the basics of getting around, reading emails and talking with my classmates, I was often nervous at school, worried about whether the teachers would call on me in class and whether I’d understand their questions. I only relaxed a little around my eight roommates, who were willing to speak German slowly to me.

I chose to study three courses-reading & writing, grammar and history. All were in German and difficult, but the history class was the worst. The teacher spoke so quickly that almost everything he said flew right over my head. I sat in the front, took notes and even recorded every single word he said in class, but nothing helped. I had no idea what the class was really about…

Years have passed, but I still remember how it felt to struggle so hard at learning another language. That trip was a difficult but valuable lesson. I think my failure that term taught me just as much as my success.