1 . When someone asks me what my goals are for the coming year, I don’t usually know how to reply. Of course I, as most people do, want to see an improvement in my grades. This year, however, I’m hoping for something different.

Through the course of my school life, I’ve gradually developed a new understanding of the word “prioritization (优先次序)”. The first thing I wish to get in Senior One is the ability to manage my time better. I’ll surely become busier with the coming semester, and proper organization is important. From school clubs to academic competitions, everything should be set up in a way that doesn’t influence my health, which leads me to my second goal.

My mother has always told me put my health first, so in the future, I hope to be both physically and mentally healthy. A person can’t study without the energy to do so. In order to stay energetic, they must put their health first, no matter how busy they are, or how much work they have to complete.

And finally, I hope that I won’t be discouraged by my failure and never give up on my dreams. I hope that I’ll have the courage to try new activities and clubs. I believe my final goal can apply to every student around the world. We should all respect one another’s likes and dislikes, and focus on each other’s strengths, not our weaknesses. Everyone should try to make use of all of life’s opportunities.

Albert Einstein once said, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” In my case, it’s the other way around. In order to keep moving, I must keep my balance—the balance between studies and activities, efficiency and procrastination(拖延症), academics and health, passions and dislikes. The new journey is going to be a hard one, but if I set these goals, I believe I will make it through to the end.

4 . Life is for living according to the well-used expression. Sometimes what we wish to do is not completely up to us.     1     Many of us write a list of things we’d like to do before we leave this world—often called a bucket list (人生愿望清单).

Bucket lists have been called “the greatest hits of your life” and have helped some people get over anxiety to follow their dreams. Some of us may choose to write one to fill our life with new experiences, from skydiving to swimming with sharks.     2    

This is something the BBC radio programme “All in the Mind” has been looking at. It heard from a blogger called Julie, who said she made a promise to live her bucket list.     3     Such a list can be exciting and can indeed help plan your life and give you focus.

    4     But some people have argued it can be used as a strategy to try to control something that is actually uncontrollable. Clinical psychologist Linda Blair told the BBC that she was “not really in favour of bucket lists, which take you away from the natural chances.”

It’s probably true that a list can encourage people to follow someone else’s idea. But why not at least dream of what we would like to do?     5     Whether we want to plan it or just see what happens, we should have our dreams.

5 . Good afternoon. I am Sullivan. Now think about a question: What determines the way we are when we grow up? Let's start with the TV program Seven Up. Do you still remember it? It started following the lives of a group of children in 1973. We first meet them as wide-eyed seven-year-olds and catch up with them at seven-year intervals: nervous 14-year-olds, serious 21-year-olds and then grown-ups.

There are ups and downs in their lives, but interestingly, in almost all the cases the children's early hopes and dreams are shown in their future lives. For example, at seven, Tony is a lively child who says he wants to become a sportsman or taxi driver. When he grows up, he goes on to do both. How about Nicki? She says, "I would like to find out about the moon." And she goes on to become a space scientist. As a child, soft-spoken Bruce says he wants to help "poor children" and ends up teaching in India.

But the program would have been far less interesting if the lives of all the children had followed this pattern. It was the children whose childhood did not prepare them for what was to come that made the program so fascinating. Where did their ideas come from about what they wanted to do when they grew up? Are children influenced by what their parents do, by what they see on television or by what their teachers say? Many film directors, including Steven Spielberg, say that an early visit to the cinema was the turning point in their lives. One of my colleagues, Dr. Margaret, who has devoted herself to researches in this area and published her findings in Science, thinks that the major factors are parents, friends and the wider society.

6 . I always dreamed of studying abroad, to learn at a world-class university while further exploring the grounds on which these nations achieved new milestones of development with each passing day.

To study abroad after my graduation, I could not stop seeking my dream. To take the first step, I did some brainstorming and explored opportunities on the Internet and finally decided to go for China. There were a number of reasons behind it - its advanced education system and thousands of centuries of rich culture inspired me to study there. The primary one was my curiosity how a nation has left many nations behind in a short time at its fast pace of development.

So just like that, I applied, along with some of my friends, for a master's degree program at Communication University of China. I was the only one who got selected in the said program and in addition, the Chinese Scholarship Council sponsored all of my expenses. This good news was welcomed by my family.

This is my seventh month in Beijing. In my experience so far, one thing that appeared to be missing was the internship (实习)which I tried to find because I want to work here after completion of my studies. After some struggles I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to work as an intern with the Center for China and Globalization (CCG). It' s very exciting to work on their team as a researcher. Now I can proudly say that my decision to choose China as a study destination was the best decision I have ever made.

This Way to Dreamland

Daydreaming means people think about something pleasant, especially when this makes them forget what they should be doing.     1     They can seem forgetful and clumsy. They stare off into space and wander by themselves. They annoy us because they seem to be ignoring us and missing the important things.

But daydreamers are also responsible for some of the greatest ideas and achievements in human history.     2     Can you imagine what kind of world we would have without such ideas and inventions?

So how can you come up with brilliant daydreams and avoid falling over tree roots or otherwise looking like a fool?

First, understand that some opportunities for daydreaming are better than others. Feeling safe and relaxed will help you to slip into daydreams.     3     And if you want to improve your chances of having a creative idea while you’re daydreaming, try to do it while you are involved in another task—preferably something simple, like taking a shower or walking, or even making meaningless drawings.

It’s also important to know how to avoid daydreams for those times when you really need to concentrate. “Mindfulness”, being focused, is a tool that some people use to avoid falling asleep.     4    

Finally, you never know what wonderful idea might strike while your mind has moved slowly away. Therefore, it’s a good idea to keep a notebook or voice recorder nearby when you are in the daydream zone.

Always remember that your best ideas might come when your head is actually in the clouds.

8 . The year I turned fifty, I resolved to do something new every day. However, balancing 365 new things with work and family, while still managing to do the laundry and get dinner on the table every night, was not always easy. In the early weeks of the project, I found it difficult to find so many new things.

It wasn’t long before my friends learned that I was open to almost anything I could consider a new thing, and the invitations began pouring in not just from friends, but friends of friends. As a result, my life was new. I went dog sledding. I attended a fashion show. I went to numerous lectures on all kinds of topics that I never would have previously considered useful or interesting and found something to appreciate in every single one. I even signed up immediately when learning about a local group trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by doing something unusual.

As time went by, whenever I learned about something that seemed remarkable, I did what I could to pursue it. Instead of “Why”, I began to ask “Why not”. Now I find it is easier to just keep my eyes open to the possibilities that surrounded me. It turned out that there were new things everywhere, and all I had to do was make a little effort to enjoy them.

I looked back on the year. It doesn’t matter to me that many of my “new things” weren’t exactly meaningful. What matters is how to make full use of them when discovering there is an endless number of new things for me. It seemed to me an obvious sign that at fifty, my life was full of promise. I could continue to grow, stretch my wings, and learn more every day for the rest of my life. I enjoyed the idea of something new, and it gave me a reason to welcome each day as an opportunity to experience the world a little differently.

9 . Once upon a time，there was a little boy who wanted to meet the king. He set off，walking towards the king’s castle. After many years of walking，the king’s castle came into his view. However，as the boy drew closer to the outside of the castle，the guards took notice of him.

“Get out of here！” commanded the guards.

Well，the little boy didn’t have to be told twice. He turned...and ran right away. All he wanted to do was to tell the king wonderful things，and see all the beautiful things in the king’s house. But he couldn’t even get near the castle! The boy finally stopped running，sat down and cried.

A young man happened to be coming down the path at the very moment. He saw the little boy and came up.“What’s wrong，young man？” he asked.

“Sir，I walked and walked just to see the king. But these guards made me frightened. I wanted to tell the king how lovely everything is and just tell the king that I just wanted to see him！”

The man looked at the little boy thoughtfully.“Look，why don’t you try again. Don’t lose heart. I ’ll come with you this time.”

The little boy got up and took the man’s hand. The king’s guards spotted them.

“Look，mister，we don’t have to do this...I don’t want you to get hurt. We can just turn around now.”

The man held the little boy’s hand and went on. The boy really thought the man might be crazy until he looked back up at the guards. They were all smiling now. The little boy was surprised.

“Who are you？” asked the little boy in surprise.

“Why，I’m the king’s son. You can enter the castle and be with the king，” said the man.

The little boy broke into a huge smile.