Once, a farmer lost his watch in his barn (谷仓).     1    , because it was a gift from his father. After searching the barn for a long time, he gave up and asked for help from a group of children playing nearby.

He told them to look for the watch, and the people who found the watch would get a reward (奖励).     2    . They searched everywhere but still could not find the watch. Then the farmer thought , “     3    ” Just then, a little boy went up to him and asked for another chance.

The farmer looked at him and thought. “Why not try? After all, this kid looks honest.”       4    . After a while the little boy came out with the watch in his hand!     5    . The boy answered, “Sit quietly and listen for the sound of the watch only.” This tells us that sometimes a peaceful mind can think better than an excited one.

Do you want to become an early bird? Try out these tips:

★    1    

You need 8—10 hours of sleep a night. It will be hard to wake up if you don’t get enough sleep. Get into bed five minutes earlier. The next night, get into bed five minutes earlier than that. You’ll get into bed over an hour earlier in just two weeks.

★    2    

What gets you excited in the morning? Is it 20 minutes of reading? Or is it taking your time to enjoy your breakfast? You’ll get up much easier when you’re getting up for something you’re looking forward to.

★    3    

Don’t put your alarm near your bed. Move it to the other side of the room and turn up the volume (音量) so you have to get out of bed to turn it off. Once you’re out of bed, it is far easier to stay out of bed.

★    4    

Sunshine helps you start a new day. Natural light tells your body that it’s time to wake up. After your alarm goes off, open your curtains (窗帘) so you can get light right away.

★    5    

Becoming a morning person is like creating any new habit—it takes time. If you’re serious about being a morning person, get up early every day, even on weekends.

I’m an English man living in China. Chinese people are friendly and I have some new friends here.     1     Now I’ m in a restaurant with my friends. I see four women speaking loudly and waving (挥舞) their money around. “Why are they fighting like that?” I ask my friends.     2    

In England, people don’t do that. They only pay for their own (自己的) food. It’s called “going Dutch”.

There is one reason (原因) for the differences between the Chinese and the English.     3     In Chinese restaurants, a group of people order some food and eat together.     4     In England, things are different. Each person orders what he or she wants to eat and then pays for their own food.

For me, either way is OK. It’s nice to have dinner with my friends.     5     We just enjoy the taste of the food and talk happily.

Volunteering is really great. It can help make a difference in the neighborhood and even the world. It can also be a wonderful time to meet new people and learn new skills. If you’d like to give something to an organization including money, consider lending your time and talents to organizations that are important to you.

    1     Do you want to help the world or the neighborhood? Do you want to build your own skills or make new friends? Ask yourself these questions before volunteering. It can help you choose the right volunteer work.

    2     Some volunteer work calls for some special skills. If the volunteer work is above your skills, you will have no strong feeling to do it well. So you need to get some training in order to do a good job.

    3     If you already have a busy schedule, you can volunteer for an hour or two every week or perhaps one day every month. If you keep on doing that, you might be surprised how much you’ve succeeded doing.

    4     You will face some difficulties in the volunteer work. At that time, you should not give up. Instead, you can ask for help from other teammates.

    5     Look for some volunteer work that fits your interests well. You will get more if you love what you do. Also, what you do will make a difference in others.

So why not sign up for some volunteer work in your school or in your neighborhood?

Asking for advice is not so easy. In a recent study, 74 percent of people said they were afraid to ask for advice. But people who ask for advice are more likely to succeed at a task. So how do you ask for advice?     1    

●Look for the best person to give you advice. It might be easy to ask all your friends on social media for advice at once, but will you value all the advice equally (同等地)?     2     It might be better to choose one or two people whose opinions you value most. Ideally (最理想的是), you can ask for advice from people who have experience in the topic you’re asking about.

●Provide enough information clearly. For example, imagine you can’t decide how to organize a club activity. When you ask for advice, you should mention the topic, the place and the time.     3     If your questions require a lot of thought, you should ask the person for advice when he or she is clear-headed.

●Be specific (具体的) when you ask questions. Imagine you want to own a business someday. Do you ask a business owner, “    4    ” No, because it’s not specific enough. Instead, try asking, “What college classes did you find helpful for starting a business?”

●    5     If you can’t solve your problem by following the first person’s advice, why not ask someone else who may think differently? The key is: Don’t be afraid to ask for advice.

John and his family just moved from Mexico (墨西哥) to Canada in December. He missed the warm sun back home and the holidays on the beaches.

One morning,     1    He quickly dressed up and went into the kitchen. His mother said to him, “John, it snowed last night. There’s no school day today.”

    2    Everything has a white coat of snow. Few people were on cars on the roads. John put on his coat and gloves and ran outside.     3    Then he made a snowball and threw it at a tree. “Wow!” he shouted happily. It was his first snowball.

    4    They had a snowball fight. John got hit on the face a few times. He also fell to the ground for many times, but he felt excited.     5    They even agreed to teach him how to sled.

Playing in the snow was so much fun that John didn’t even feel cold.

The most common disease in the world is the cold. It often starts with a sore throat.     1     You usually have a headache, too. Often you have a cough later. It’s not a serious disease, but you can feel quite bad.

There isn’t a cure (良药) for a cold, but you can take some medicine to make you feel better.     2     It is good to drink a lot of water. A doctor once told me, “With the right medicine, a cold will last for several days.     3    ”

A long time ago, people understood that some plants made them feel better.     4     In modern times, scientists have found out which chemicals (化学药品) are in them.     5     There are some diseases that we can’t cure yet. And nobody has found a cure for old age. But on average, people now live longer than their grandparents because of modern medicine.