He asked me seen him before.

    It was 9:15 as Marie hurried into the office building; her bus had inched along through heavy morning traffic, making her a few minutes late for her very first job. She decided to start out half an hour earlier the next day. Once inside the lobby (大厅), she had to stand in the elevators and wait several minutes before she could get on one going to the sixth floor. When she finally reached the office marked "King Enterprises", she knocked at the door nervously and waited. There was no answer. She tapped on the door again, but still there was no reply. From inside the next office, she could hear the sound of voices, so she opened the door and went in. Although she was sure it was the same office she had been in two weeks ago when she had the interview with Mr King, it looked quite different now. In fact, it hardly looked like an office at all. The employees (雇员) were just standing around chatting and smoking. At the end of the room, somebody must have just told a funny joke, she thought, because there was a loud of laughter as she came in. For a moment she had thought they were laughing at her. Then one of the men looked at his watch, clapped his hands and said something to the others. Quickly they all went to their desks and, in a matter of seconds, everyone was hard at work. No one paid any attention to Marie. Finally she went up to the man who was sitting at the desk nearest to the door and explained that this was her first day in the office. Hardly looking up from his work, he told her to have a seat and wait for Mr King, who would arrive at any moment. Then Marie realized that the day's work in the office began just before Mr King arrived. Later she found out that Mr King lived in Connecticut and came into Manhattan on the same train every morning, arriving in the office at 9:35, so that his staff (职员) knew exactly when to start working.

    Many years ago, when I was fresh out of school and working in Denver, I was driving to my parents' home in Missouri for Christmas. I stopped at a gas station (加油站) about 50 miles from Oklahoma City, w I was planning to stop to visit a friend. While I was standing in line at the cash register (收款台), I said hello to an older couple w were also paying for gas.

    I took off, but had gone only a few miles when black smoke poured from the back of my car. I stopped and wondered w I should do. A car pulled up behind me. It was the couple I had spoken to at the gas station. They said they would take me to my friend's. We chatted on the way to the city, and when I got out of the car, the husband gave me his business card.

    I wrote him and his wife a thank-you note for helping me. Soon afterward, I r a Christmas present from them. Their note that came with it said that helping me had m their holiday meaningful.

    Years later, I drove to a meeting in a nearby town in the morning. In late afternoon I returned to my car and found that I'd left the lights on all day, and the battery (电池) was dead. Then I n that the Friendly Ford dealership—a shop selling cars—was right next door. I walked over and found two salesmen in the showroom.

    "Just how friendly is Friendly Ford?" I asked and explained my trouble. They quickly drove a pickup truck to my car and started it. They would a(no payment, so when I got home, I wrote them a note to say thanks. I received a letter back from one of the salesmen. No one had ever taken the time to write to him and say thank you, and it meant a lot, he said.

    "Thank you"—two powerful words. They're easy to say and mean so much.

Lily to walk for another two hours?

    Chinese parents are very generous when they are educating their children. Not caring about the money, parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad—to England, the USA or Australia. The Chinese 1 that the more expensive the education is, the better it is. So parents will spend a lot of money on their children's education. Even 2parents will buy a computer for their son or daughter. Though they're not rich, they would rather pay for the education.

    Parents can see that their children's skills are different, skilled (有技能的) in some areas while poor in others. But most parents fail to realize that the children today need more self-confidence.

    The problem is that parents are only educating their children on how to 3 tests and how to study well, but they are not teaching them the most important skills that they need. And these skills are important to help them to become confident, happy and clever.

    Parents can achieve this 4 teaching their children the skills like cooking or doing other housework.

    Teaching a child to cook will improve many of the skills that he will need later in life. Cooking needs patience and time. It is an interesting but difficult experience. A good cook always tries to improve his cooking, so he will learn to work hard and gradually finish 5 job successfully. The result, a well-cooked dinner, will make him feel good and give him a lot of self-confidence.

    Some old machines, such as a broken radio or TV set that you give your child to play 6 , will make him interested in learning and want to know more. He will spend hours studying them and trying to fix them. Your child might become an engineer when he 7 . These activities are teaching a child not only to study well at school, but also to think, to use his mind. And that is more important.