1 . Welcome to the “Chicken Soup” family

The first Chicken Soup for the Soul book was released in 1993 and quickly became a holiday favourite. Thereafter, more than 250 books have been put together based on inspiring stories submitted by readers.

On this part of the website, you will find a list of our new book topics, our writing guidelines and our submission form. We welcome your stories, written in English, from all over the world!

Guidelines for a Chicken Soup for the Soul story

1. Tell an exciting, heart-warming or funny story about something that has happened to you or someone you know. Your story should be written in the first person.

2. Don’t be afraid to speak from the heart. We do let you use a pen-name for your story.

3. Keep your story to 1,200 words or less.

4. We love poems that tell a story, but we do not publish poems that seem overly focused on rhyming (押韵) or those which read more like greetings cards.

A few more tips about submitting your stories

1. The only way to submit your stories is via our website. If you have any problems when trying to fill out the form to submit your work, please contact us.

2. Please submit stories that have not been previously published. The only exception to this is if your work has only been published in a small local publication with limited circulation (发行量) or on your own blog.

3. Please do not send us any book manuscripts (手稿), unless through a literary agent (作家代理人), as they will be automatically discarded.

What happens after you submit your story?

Please complete all fields in the submission form. After you press the SUBMIT button, wait for the next screen to come up with a message that says: “Thank you! Your information has been received.” This is the only confirmation that your story has been entered into our database.

We do not send rejection letters, and we occasionally will save a submission for consideration for a future book. But in general, if you have not heard from us 60 days prior to the book’s on-sale date, that probably means we have decided not to use your story.

If we choose your story for a future book, we will notify (通知) you by email and request your permission to print it. You will be paid $200 one month after the publication of the book and receive ten free copies of the book your story appears in. You will also be entitled to buy books from us at half price.

1. According to the article, a Chicken Soup for the Soul story may be anything but a ________.

A．work of fiction	B．narrative poem
C．humorous story	D．tale of adventure

2. According to the article, your writing won’t be taken into consideration by Chicken Soup for the Soul’s editors if ________.

A．you don’t submit it on your own

B．you don’t use your real name in the story

C．it has already been published on a large scale

D．it seems similar to a story that has already been published

3. According to the article, you’ll hear from Chicken Soup for the Soul’s editors ________.

A．as soon as you submit your story on its website

B．after your story has been published in a new edition

C．when your story has been chosen for a future edition

D．45 days before its new edition is available for purchase

2 . With gas prices rising and airport security lines snaking longer than ever, why not book your next domestic vacation on a train? Compared to other alternatives, it’s comfortable and relaxing. Here is some advice on how to make a trip by rail as pleasant as possible.

Plan ahead. Most long-distance trains, especially the sleeping car accommodations, sell out very quickly.     1     But no matter when you travel, it’s a good idea to make your reservations at least 90 days in advance.

Use a travel agent. Consider turning your travel plan over to a travel agent and letting him double-check all the details, make suggestions, and then handle the actual reservations. A good one can sometimes find you discounted tickets.     2     Then you won’t have to walk through several cars on a moving train three times a day for your meals.

Bring a blanket. When you’re riding on trains, you won’t be provided with a blanket for free, even if your trip is an overnight one.     3     In the summer in particular, the air conditioning can make them quite cold.

Arrive early. Most trains operate just once a day and some run only three times a week, so missing yours can be a disaster.     4     Note: The times listed on the schedules are departure times, not arrival times.

Have fun.     5     Read a book, knit, do a crossword puzzle, or simply watch the world unfold outside the window. To calculate your speed as you do, divide 3,600(the number of seconds in an hour)by the number of seconds it takes you to travel one mile(the distance between two mileposts). If it takes the train 53 seconds to travel one mile, you’re going 67.92 mph.

A．Train trips aren’t for impatient types.

B．You’ll have views from both sides of the train.

C．The temperature on rail cars is often hard to control.

D．That’s particularly true during busy summer months.

E．You might have to wait longer than 24 hours to catch the next one.

F．Chances are the cost will be a lot less than the cost of one bedroom.

G．He may also book you in a sleeping car that’s right next to the diner.

3 . For Sandra, the teachers who stuck in her mind were the ones that gave her their time and effort and really prepared her for her future.    1    In this way she hoped to provide that same, high quality education for young people and give something back.

She saw herself as a teacher who helped students and gave them love for what they had to do, whether they wanted to do it or not.    2    One of them was that a GCSE student who simply aimed to get a D at the very beginning later achieved an A in his RE exam. Every time when hearing such news, she was just smiling with pride. No one knew how much she had done for such a day.

    3    She always said to them, “Ignore that goal, and put yourself at the goal you want to achieve. Even if you are not good at your subject, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to get a D. I believe you’re going to get something far greater.”

Giving students that push to get better grade made a great difference to them. When they got it, the result was just amazing.”    4    You’ve helped them with something that’s going to make their lives much easier and better,” she explained.

Based on this teaching concept, Sandra focused on making each student a better “himself”. And what’s more, she has been among one of her former teachers and really has given something back. She once received a huge bunch of flowers with a card in it, writing, “Dear Sandra, you’ve given me the time and energy to help me get what I needed.     5    ”

A．She kept encouraging her students

B．It is useful to make friends with students

C．Her encouragement turned out to be of great use

D．It makes you feel like you’ve done your job so well

E．It is you and your teaching style that make it possible

F．So she chose to train as a teacher after college graduation

G．Looking back, there were many moments to make her proud

4 . About 600,000 people die of heart attacks at home each year. And the survival rate (存活率) of out-of-hospital heart attacks is much lower than those that happen at the in-hospital setting.

Pumpstart, a program created by students at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) which is meant to teach hands-only CPR (心脏复苏术) to the general public, is effective in both teaching high school students a life-saving skill and providing medical students with a chance to take part in public health and medical education after several surveys.

High school students in the Boston area who joined in the Pumpstart program completed pre-/post surveys. The pre-surveys were carried out before they watched a 60-minute training session (培训课程) on hands-only CPR. And the post surveys were done after the training session. Medical students also completed surveys judging their comfort in learning CPR both before and after they took part in the program. The high school students reported huge improvements in CPR skills following their training from Pumpstart. And it was reported that the medical students had higher confidence levels regarding their abilities to answer questions about CPR and helping new medical students to better understand the training sessions after they joined in Pumpstart.

“Getting the general public to feel comfortable performing CPR is important to overall improved survival from heart attacks,” explained Anita Knopov, a fourth-year medical student at BUSM. “Using educational resources provided by the city medical center and offering training to inner-city high school students allow medical students to serve as both educators and experienced people in CPR within the community, while making high school students interested in the healthcare field (医疗领域). That’s what Pumpstart does.”

Knopov believes Pumpstart can serve as a model for other organizations and can have a long-term (长期的) public health influence as the bystander CPR continues to be one of the most useful factors in out-of-hospital (医院之外) heart attack survival. “Although Pumpstart is offered only in Boston, we hope that our work may stimulate the development of similar programs in other areas. And in that case we can use lots of new ‘Pumpstarts’ in other regions.”

1. What is the main purpose of Pumpstart?

A．To change people’s lifestyle.

B．To train students to be healthy

C．To improve CPR skills of the public.

D．To provide medical care for communities.

2. What does Paragraph 4 imply?

A．Pumpstart improves students self-confidence

B．Pumpstart performs CPR for people independently.

C．Pumpstart obviously reduces the risk of heart attacks

D．Pumpstart encourages students to work in the healthcare field

3. What does Anita Knopov think of the program?

A．Pretty useful.	B．Widely popular
C．Partly confusing.	D．Fairly interesting

4. What does the underlined word “stimulate” in the last paragraph mean?

A．Check	B．Prevent
C．Encourage	D．Slow

5 . My new teacher is cool. Her name is Paula so we call her Miss Paula.

The first time we met her she said we are going to be good friends and that good friends are always nice to each other.

Miss Paula has been teaching us a lot of things. Some of us used to get in trouble for talking in the hallway (过道). Miss Paula says she can’t change the rule that we can’t make noise in the hallway but we can still talk to each other. She is teaching us sign language. I already know how to say “hello” and “how are you” with my hands. Now we love it when we have to walk somewhere and we are always quiet except for a laugh or two.

Miss Paula likes everybody even Sam and nobody likes Sam. He never does what he’s told but now he is doing better. Miss Paula says every single one of us is perfect and beautiful just the way we are. I guess that includes Sam.

This week at school was really the best ever. I didn’t even get in trouble when I thought I would because I spilled (洒) milk on my homework and had to hand it in when it was still wet. Miss Paula just smiled and asked “What’s this?” So I told her what happened. Miss Paula put it near the window to make it dry. She said the sun had been waiting for such an important job as this and would be happy to help us.

Well I have to go and get ready for bed now. I have school in the morning and I want to wake up early so I will have time to pick Miss Paula some flowers.

1. From the passage we know that Miss Paula ________.

A．is strict with the writer	B．changed the school rules
C．is very kind to her students	D．uses sign language in class

2. From Paragraph 4 what do we learn about Sam?

A．Sam dislikes his new teacher.	B．Sam has made some progress.
C．Sam is often praised by Miss Paula.	D．Sam is one of the writer’s best friends.

3. How did the writer probably feel when he handed in his homework?

A．Bored.

B．Excited.

C．Relaxed.

D．Worried.

4. We can learn from the passage that the writer ________.

A．loves and respects her new teacher	B．is a bit afraid of her new teacher
C．always picks her teacher some flowers	D．wrote this article in the morning

6 . When The Alchemist was first published twenty-five years ago in my native Brazil, no one noticed. A bookseller in the northeast corner of the country told me that only one person purchased a copy the first week of its publication. It took another six months for the bookseller to unload a second copy. And who knows how long it took to sell the third. At the end of the year, my original publisher decided to cancel our contract. I was forty-one and upset.

But I never lost faith in the book. Why? Because it was me in there, all of me, heart and soul. I was living my own fantasy. A man sets out on a journey, dreaming of a beautiful or magical place, in search of some unknown treasure. At the end of his journey, the man realizes the treasure was with him the entire time. I was following my personal legend (传奇) and my treasure was my talent to write. And I wanted to share this treasure with the world.

I started knocking on the doors of other publishers. One opened, and the publisher on the other side agreed to give The Alchemist a second chance. Slowly, through word of mouth, it finally started to sell — three thousand, then six thousand, ten thousand — book by book, gradually throughout the year.

Eight months later, an American visiting Brazil wanted to translate the book and help me find a publisher in the United States. But it still took some time to sell, slowly finding its audience in the United States by word of mouth, just as it did in Brazil. And then one day, Bill Clinton was photographed leaving the White House with a copy. Then people from different walks of life were suddenly talking about it.

The Alchemist became a phenomenon. The book hit the New York Times bestseller list and stayed there for more than three hundred weeks. It has since been translated into more than eighty different languages, and is widely considered one of the ten best books of the twentieth century.

1. How many books did the writer sell in the first year?

A．One.

B．Two.

C．Three.

D．Unknown.

2. Why did the writer have faith in his book?

A．It’s about treasure seeking.	B．It’s a fantasy story.
C．It’s about his talent to write.	D．It’s a mirror of his life.

3. What finally helped the book become popular in the US?

A．The door-to-door sale.	B．Good word of mouth.
C．A photo with the book.	D．An American publisher.

4. Which of the following is the best title?

A．A Personal Legend	B．Time Tries All
C．The Alchemist	D．All Roads Lead to Rome

7 . Anyone who has studied a foreign language knows how difficult it is to become really fluent.     1    

Find a conversation partner

Try to find someone in your school who is a native speaker and ask him or her to meet with you regularly to have conversations in that language.     2    

Watch TV

Try to find a foreign language TV station and watch often. At first the actors will seem to speak too quickly, but try to recognize a few words or phrases.     3     Pay attention to patterns of pronunciation and the way that the voices rise and fall when questions are asked and statements are made. Children’s shows are great for learning and reviewing basic concepts.

Go out and practice

If you are visiting a foreign country and trying to learn the language, you’ll want to take every chance to go out and practice.     4     Successfully making a purchase (购买) or getting information in a foreign language will help you become more confident. Going grocery shopping in your hometown may not be very interesting, but in a foreign country things are different.     5    

A．They actually became less fluent speakers.

B．Later it’ll become easier to follow the dialogues.

C．Any situation can be an interesting learning experience.

D．Are you trying to learn a new language in a foreign land?

E．Here are some suggestions to help you practice your language skills.

F．Each day make a habit of going to a place like a shop, restaurant or bank.

G．Talking to someone with whom you feel comfortable is a great way to get experience with actual usage.

8 . Swap, Don’t shop!

You keep hearing about recycling, right? But it doesn’t end with bottles, cans, and paper. Clothing takes a huge amount of natural resources(资源)to make, and buying loads of new clothing(or throwing out old clothing)is not healthy for the environment. So what to do with all those perfectly-good-but-you’re-maybe-a-little-sick-of-them clothes piled on your bedroom floor?     1    . It’s the best way to get rid of your used clothes, score clothes from your friends, and have a party all at the same time.

A successful swap depends on the selection of clothes, the organization of the event, and, obviously, how much fun is had. It’s really easy to do! Here are a few pointers.

●Invite 5—10 people so you have a nice selection.     2     , and there may not be enough things to choose from; more than that, and it becomes uncontrollable.

●    3    . They should also prepare plenty of reusable bags to carry their “new” clothes home.

●Put different types of clothing on different surfaces in the room.    4    . Place a few mirrors around your room so people can see how things look when they try them on. One of the ground rules of the swap should be that everyone must try on the clothes before they take them—things always look different when you put them on.

●Set a starting time. Maybe you say “go,” or turn on a certain song, or whatever.     5    . And don’t forget to put out some cookies and fruits. Remember, it’s a party!

A．Less people than that

B．Hold a clothing swap

C．If two people are competing

D．Just keep music playing throughout

E．Donate whatever clothes are left over

F．Have everyone put their clothes in the right spots

G．Tell everyone to bring clean clothes in good condition

9 . Rome can be pricey for travelers, which is why many choose to stay in a hostel (旅社). The hostels in Rome offer a bed in a dorm room for around $25 a night, and for that, you’ll often get to stay in a central location (位置) with security and comfort.

Yellow Hostel

If I had to make just one recommendation for where to stay in Rome, it would be Yellow Hostel. It’s one of the best-rated hostels in the city, and for good reason. It’s affordable, and it’s got a fun atmosphere without being too noisy. As an added bonus, it’s close to the main train station.

Hostel Alessandro Palace

If you love social hostels, this is the best hostel for you in Rome. Hostel Alessandro Palace is fun. Staff members hold plenty of bar events for guests like free shots, bar crawls and karaoke. There’s also an area on the rooftop for hanging out with other travelers during the summer.

Youth Station Hostel

If you’re looking for cleanliness and a modern hostel, look no further than Youth Station. It offers beautiful furnishings and beds. There are plenty of other benefits, too; it doesn’t charge city tax; it has both air conditioning and a heater for the rooms; it also has free Wi-Fi in every room.

Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes

Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes is located just a 10-minute walk from the central city station and it’s close to all of the city’s main attractions. The staff is friendly and helpful, providing you with a map of the city when you arrive, and offering advice if you require some. However, you need to pay 2 euros a day for Wi-Fi.

1. What is probably the major concern of travelers who choose to stay in a hostel?

A．Comfort.	B．Security.
C．Price.	D．Location.

2. Which hotel best suits people who enjoy an active social life?

A．Yellow Hostel.	B．Hostel Alessandro Palace.
C．Youth Station Hostel.	D．Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes.

3. What is the disadvantage of Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes?

A．It gets noisy at night.	B．Its staff is too talkative.
C．It charges for Wi-Fi.	D．It’s inconveniently located.