1 . Chen Yuzhu, a 29-year-old young man, opened his first Chinese beef rice noodles restaurant in 2014 in the neighborhood of New York City’s Queens borough. He then took the flavor of his childhood memory to three other states in the US, building a recognized brand.

Actually, he started his own catering (餐饮) business after he lost his job and found noway out. It was at that time that beef rice noodles of his home village flashed in his mind.

However, the early days of setting up his business were not that easy. He frequently worked 18 hours a day, transported food at 2 am and promoted (推销) the restaurant near the New York City subway entrance by yelling, “Special noodles from my hometown, Guizhou!” But it didn’t work well. During the first two weeks. daily sales were only $200 at most, which wasn’t enough to pay the rent. He felt so anxious that he tried every possible means. Two months later, his Chinese beef rice noodles finally gained great popularity. His store has become hot spots for vloggers (视频博主) and he has made himself famous among locals as the“Rice Noodle Prince”.

“At first, running restaurants was for survival, but then I felt a sense of achievements. I became more open, inclusive and made a lot of friends. And the process to learn, make efforts and get inspired was really cool.” Chen said.

3 . It was a dark and cold night. The taxi driver didn’t have even one passenger all day. When he went by the railway station, he saw a young man coming out with two bags in his hands. So he quickly opened the door of the car and asked, “ Where do you want to go, sir?”

“To the Star Hotel,” the young man answered. When the taxi driver heard that, he didn’t feel happy any more. The young man would give him only three dollars because the hotel was not far from the railway station. But suddenly he had an idea. He took the passenger through many streets of the big city.

After a long time, the car arrived at the hotel at last. “You should pay me fifteen dollars,” the car driver said to the young man. “What? Fifteen dollars! Do you think I’m a fool? Only last week, I took a taxi from the railway station to this same hotel and I only gave the driver thirteen dollars. I know how much I have to pay for the trip. I won’t pay you one dollar more than I paid to the other driver last week.

4 . I came to work in New York about three years ago. Not long after I came to the city I learnt a good lesson.

I'm good at making friends. Soon after I came to New York, I made some very good friends. Loving parties, I often invited my colleagues and friends over. We often had fun together till late night. But people in the building disliked it. I was considered as a black sheep in the building.

One night, when I was throwing a big party for some Chinese students in New York, a neighbor could no longer stand the noise and he called the police. The police came, and many of my neighbors came, too. It was an unhappy night.

However, some days later, I found something very unbelievable. My neighbor Sam threw a big birthday party in his apartment. They sang and danced till midnight. But nobody went to ask them to stop the party. Feeling confused (疑惑的), I went to Sam the next morning and asked him why he could throw a party for his friends while I couldn't. He didn't say anything. Instead, he took me to a notice board in the hall of the building. It said, “My dear neighbors, Sam living on the sixth floor will throw a party tonight. About twenty people will come. We’ll sing and dance. The party will be over around midnight. We may make some noise tonight. Please accept my apology.”

He apologized even before the party began. People felt respected in this way. And that was why nobody bothered them that night.

5 . As the Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Jessica Pels is responsible for managing the content of one of the world’s largest young women’s media brands. Pels has ambitiously navigated her career to the top role relatively quickly, but the path she took wasn’t traditional.

Pels learnt ballet as a child and found her way to New York City dancing for a summer, but eventually gave up dance when she knew she “wasn’t good enough to be a star”. She didn’t give up her dream of working in the big city, though. Pels attended a film school at New York University and as a sophomore (大学二年级), got her first internship at The New Yorker. After graduation in 2008, many brands were in a hiring freeze. But Pels was not affected. She got a job doing communications for a charity.

Six months into her first job, Pels got a job at Glamour Magazine to work for the Editor-in-Chief Cindy Levy. She would turn this first assistant role into her career, and finally found her way to Cosmopolitan, where she became the youngest editor-in-chief in the magazine’s history.

Reflecting on her career and the worst advice she’s ever received, Pels said it was “to say yes to everything”. It was a habit she had to learn to break. And while she acknowledges the importance of seizing opportunities, she doesn’t think that strategically saying “no” would have been a damage to her career.

She remembers the conversation with her boss Kate Lewis that changed her perspective on over-committing. “I had just started at Marie Claire as the digital director, and she said, ‘I worry you’re going to burn out because you’re saying yes to everything and you are acting in such an aggressive way, and you need to take a step back and prioritize.’ And that really changed my life. I thought that was an incredible career moment.”

6 . A long time ago, there was a farmer who had ten donkeys (驴). One evening, after a long day of hard work, the farmer returned home with the donkeys and began to tie them to the stakes(桩). When he finished nine donkeys, he found that the tenth rope was gone.

What now? He could not let the last donkey run around all night. It would surely run away. Suddenly, he saw that, under a tree, there was a monk(和尚). The farmer ran to the monk and asked for advice. The monk said, “The only thing you have to do to the tenth donkey is make the movements (动作) you would have made with a rope in your hands. Pretend (假装) to tie the donkey. That’s all.”

The farmer returned to the tenth donkey, pretended to fasten (拴紧)a rope around its neck and then to tie the rope to a stake. He then entered his little house, half trusting the monk’s advice, half worried that his donkey would run away in the middle of the night.

When he went outside very early the next morning, all the donkeys were still standing nicely next to their stakes, even the tenth one. The farmer untied the donkeys and wanted to take them to the field. But to his surprise, donkey number ten refused to move an inch. The farmer pulled and shouted, but the animal just didn’t move.

Suddenly, the farmer thought of what he had done to the donkey the night before. With a great “ah ha”, he returned to donkey number ten, and just after a simple movement the donkey happily walked with him to the field.

7 . Pennsylvania-When Connie Beck and her husband awoke to strange noises last weekend, they thought high winds were rattling their home. What they found was even more unexpected: A deer was taking a bubble bath in their bathtub. “I wasn’t exactly dressed for company,” Mrs. Beck said. “We were just waking up.” The deer burst through the front door early on Saturday, ran past the couple’s bedroom and into the bathroom. Somehow he managed to turn on the water in the bathtub and knock over a bottle of bubble bath into the bathtub. He then got himself into the bubbly water. “You could hear the water running over the kicking,” Beck said. The Becks called State Game Commission officials, who arrived with tranquilizers and a lot of laughter. “A guy said, ‘There’s nothing wrong… he’s just in there taking a bubble bath,’” Mrs. Beck said. The animal was soon brought under control, removed from the house and released. “He was unharmed except for a little cut above the eye,” said Mrs. Beck. “We were also fortunate. There wasn’t much damage, except for the front door, some marks on the tub, and a few hoof prints on the floor.”

9 . Leanne Carrasco ordered 95 pizzas (比萨饼). The high school senior and her friends filled up goody bags. But this was not your typical graduation party.     1     Instead, she decided to mark her high school graduation by giving back to the community. So she threw a pizza party at a homeless shelter for women and children in Houston, Texas. It took her a month to prepare.

Carrasco had volunteered before, with her family, at the Star of Hope Family Development Center. But this time was different.     2     In the month leading up to the party they collected toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap (肥皂). They packed them into 400 bags to hand out to residents (居民) of the shelter.

On Sunday, it was party time. The pizza was a hit, and so were the bags.     3     They had respect for these people. They made sure the residents knew that someone cared.

In all Carrasco and her friends served about 200 people. For the shelter residents, it was a magical day.     4    

Carrasco did a good job but she won’t let it go to her head anytime soon. The graduating senior plans to study nursing at Briar Cliff University in Iowa in the fall.     5     “I’d rather make a difference in the lives of the homeless residents at Star of Hope than have a big party,” she said.

10 . The Decision That Changed My Life

We make decisions every day. Whether it is a small decision like what to wear that day or a big decision like where to go to college, these decisions have at least some influence on the rest of our lives. I wanted to talk about a decision I made that has changed my life forever.    1    I know that it seems like such a tiny decision, but it truly has changed my life.

I gave up soda about a month and a half before my trip to the Bahamas as a healthy step towards “getting in shape” for my trip. At first I thought it was going to be really hard giving it up, but after that first two weeks I wasn’t thinking about soda at all. One tiling led to another and I started eating better, working out more and just generally living a healthier life. I had already seen a difference in my life following this healthier life style.    2     During my trip I was extremely tempted to drink soda because all we were drinking was water.    3    

That was because I wanted to show those who maybe thought I wouldn’t be able to do it that they were wrong. Soon the urge to drink soda somewhat disappeared and I really did not even become tempted by it by the end of the trip. I got home to the States and when I got back home I decided to weigh myself. I had lost 20 pounds on my trip!

I also wanted to give some advice for those who were in the same situation as I was, where you wanted/needed to give up something that you think you can’t live without.    4     My friends really helped me out by supporting me and reminding me of the reason why I was doing it. Lastly, remember why you are giving it up. Use the goal of you losing weight or being generally healthier to motivate you through the struggle. In the end, giving up soda changed my life and I don’t regret my decision what so ever.