2 . When I spent the summer with my grandmother, she always set me down to the general store with a list. Behind the counter was a lady like no one I’d ever seen.

“Excuse me,” I said. She looked up and said, “I’m Miss Bee.”

“I need to get these.” I said, holding up my list. “So? Go get them.” Miss Bee pointed to a sign. “There’s no one here except you and me and I’m not your servant, so get yourself a basket from that pile.”

I visited Miss Bee twice a week that summer. Sometimes she shortcharged me. Other times she overcharged. Going to the store was like going into battle. All summer long she found ways to trick me. No sooner had I learned how to pronounce “bicarbonate of soda” and memorized its location on the shelves than she made me hunt for it all over again. But by summer’s end the shopping trip that had once taken me an hour was done in 15 minutes.

“All right, little girl,” she said. “What did you learn this summer?” “That you’re a meanie (小气鬼)!” I replied. Miss Bee just laughed and said, “I know what you think of me. Well, I don’t care! My job is to teach every child I meet life lessons. When you get older you’ll be glad!” Glad I met Miss Bee? Ha! The idea was absurd…

Until one day my daughter came to me with homework troubles. “It’s too hard,” she said. “Could you finish my math problems for me?”

“If I do it for you, how will you ever learn to do it yourself?” I said. Suddenly, I was back at that general store where I had learned the hard way to add up my bill by myself. Had I ever been overcharged since?

3 . From now on, never spend your precious time thinking of reasons for your failures and shortcomings. Instead, realize that the seeds of success were planted within you when you were born. Only you have the power to make those seeds grow.

The seeds, and the power to grow them, are contained in the most awesome (令人惊叹的) machine ever created: the human mind. Success is a choice and not a chance. You were born a winner. You were born rich. You can be a success if only you make the right choice.

You cannot be successful without first developing your self-esteem (自尊). Your level of self-esteem is always based on the degree of control that you are able to exercise over yourself, and thus over your life. People with low self-esteem are people who do not believe that they have any power, or responsibility for their lives. They are leaves tossed(摇摆)by the winds of chance blown about with any sudden change in the weather.

You can exercise control over your life only to the degree that you believe that you are responsible for everything that happens in your life. Failures think that everything happens by accident and chance. Successful people realize that they are responsible.

Everything happens as a result of something. If we can identify the cause, we can control the effect. We are responsible for what we choose to think and believe. One generally rises to the level that one expects. We are responsible for setting our expectations. Our success is dependent upon our level of confidence.

If you associate with positive-thinking people, you are definitely going to achieve success. On the contrary, the opposite happens. We are responsible for finding, planting, and nurturing (养育) the seeds that contain future victory, born from setbacks (挫折).

In short, in all areas of your life, whether they be financial, physical, emotional, or spiritual, you are responsible. Once you recognize this, accept it, and firmly believe it, you are on the road to success.

4 . When I was a kid,I was the girl who kept the training wheels on my bike as long as possible.Even my younger sister had got rid of them much earlier than me.But as I began to grow older,this changed.

All this happened on the Bike Safety Day.It is supposed to be a fun day at school when all of us kids bring our bikes to school and the school provides us with the opportunity to ride outside and learn proper bike safety.Sounds like fun,right?No.In fact,it caused me to panic.What was I going to say when my friends asked me about my training wheels?

With the pressure of everyone seeing my training wheels,I determined to let them go.This was the first big change I’d ever made on my own.

I went to my parents and told them all about my dilemma.They were more than happy to help.We went outside and got my bike.Instead of running away and hiding behind,I stood in front of my bike and took great pride in my decision as my dad removed the training wheels.

I got on and steadied myself.My heart raced but my feet and hands were calm.My dad started to push before my feet even moved and suddenly I was off.The fear faded away and a relaxed mind came into its place.It was crazy to think how quickly I learned something that took so long for me to even try!

My confidence soared (高涨).This was going to be the start of a brand new world for me.My accomplishment would carry me forth to new goals and wins.I realized that if I set my mind on doing something,I could achieve it.

6 . My teacher held up a piece of broken glass and asked, “Who broke this window?”

Thirty boys tried to think about not only what they had done, but also what the teacher might have found out. She seldom became angry, but she was this time.

“Oh,” I thought. I was the one who broke the window. It was caused by a naughty throw of a baseball. If I admitted guilt, I would be in a lot of trouble. How would I be able to pay for a big window like that? I didn’t even get an allowance. “My father is going to have a fit as a result of it,” I thought. I didn’t want to raise my hand, but some force much stronger than I was pulled it skyward (朝向天空). I told the truth, “I did it.” It was hard enough to say what I had done.

My teacher took down a book from one of our library shelves and I had never known my teacher to strike a student, but I feared she was going to start with me.

“I know how much you like birds,” she said as she stood looking down at my guilt-ridden face. “Here is the field guide about birds that you are constantly checking out. It is yours now. It’s time we got a new one for the school anyway. You will not be punished, but remember that I am not rewarding you for your misdeed (恶行), but I am rewarding you for your truthfulness.”

I couldn’t believe it! I wasn’t being punished and I was getting my own bird field guide — the very one that I had been saving up money to buy.

The lesson my teacher taught me stays with me every day, and it will echo forever.

7 . The quality of patience goes a long way toward your goal of creating a more peaceful and loving self. The more patient you are, the more accepting you will be of what life is, rather than insisting that life be exactly as you would like it to be. Without patience, life is extremely frustrating.     1     Patience adds some ease and acceptance to your life. It’s important for inner peace.

    2     If you are stuck in a traffic jam, late for an appointment, being patient would mean keeping yourself from building a mental snowball before your thinking gets out of hand and gently reminding yourself to relax. It might also be a good time to breathe as well as an opportunity to remind yourself that, in the bigger scheme of things, being late is “small stuff”.

Patience is a quality of heart that can be greatly enhanced with deliberate practice.    3     They are the periods of time that I set up in my mind to practise the art of patience. Life itself becomes a classroom, and the curriculum is patience. You can start with as little as five minutes and build up your capacity for patience over time. What you’ll discover is truly amazing. Your intention to be patient, especially if you know it’s only for a short while, immediately strengthens your capacity for patience. Patience is one of those qualities where success feeds on itself. Once you reach little milestone—five minutes of successful patience—you’ll begin to see that you do indeed have the capacity to be patient, even for longer periods of time. Over time, you may even become a patient person.

Being patient will help you to keep your perspective. You will see even a difficult situation, say your present challenge, isn’t “life or death” but simply a minor obstacle that must be dealt with.     4    

Choose a career is a very important stage in people’s life. Almost everything depend on your choice. I’d like to be a interpreter. It’s a very interesting profession where requires advancing knowledge of the foreign language as well as excellent social skills. In my opinion, English and literature is the most important subjects for my future profession, because of my knowledge of English will help me communicate with foreigners fluently and accurately. Literature will not only help me broaden my horizons, but also give me some background knowledges of different cultures. To sum, I’d like to say that the choice of our future career path is extremely important, so we must think twice after making our choice.

There is a tradition in my school     1    when the College Entrance Examination is less than a month away, students in the    2    (low)grades, from Senior 1 to Senior 2, all     3    (gather)together on the ground in front of the teaching building and cheer on the Senior 3 students who are standing upstairs. It wasn’t until I    4    (person)took part in the activity that I understood the real     5    (mean)of it.

I was in Senior 2 at the time.     6    that special night, all the Senior 3 students stood in the corridors(走廊)and looked down at the younger students below. Various     7    (cheer)started to resound throughout the school, wave after wave. “Believe in yourself!You deserve to win!”

    8    (see)everyone’s smiling faces around me, I thought of     9    famous quote from the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau: What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

Soon it will be my turn     10    (bless)in this way, which also means I will have to say goodbye to my school. Sad as it will be, being cheered on by so many students will still be one of the brightest times of my life.