Love, joy, and the warm feeling of pulling together to get through tough times don’t cost a thing. But gifts do cost money. So, what’s a poor family to do?

When Christmas season rolled around again, I told my mother that the only thing I wanted was a pogo-stick (弹簧单高跷). However, my mother told me they were too expensive and that we simply couldn’t afford one.

On a Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks before Christmas, my mom and dad told me we needed to go to Sears to pay our-credit card bill. While my mother and I were at the counter paying the bill, my dad said, “I’ll be right back — I need to see something in the tool department.” A little later, my dad came back with a long box. I remember wondering at that very moment if it was a pogo-stick in that box.

When we arrived back at home, my dad put the box in the garage. While my parents were busy with their chores, I quietly walked out to the garage and found the box. I was so excited and I knew that as soon as I opened that magical box my bright, shiny pogo-stick would appear. No such luck! Inside the box was a silly old broom. And so Christmas morning was both great and disappointing. I got some nice gifts but I didn't get the present that I really wanted.

After all the wrapping paper was cleaned up my dad said he needed to tend to something in the garage. When he came back in, he was carrying a beautiful pogo-stick. I couldn’t believe it! My parents probably got quite a laugh from the trick they played on me.

Although we didn’t have much money, my parents gave me the most important gift of all: lots of love. My dad worked hard to provide for us and my mother knew how to stretch a dollar. That was over 60 years ago and I still think about those wonderful Christmas memories every year during the holiday season. My parents were the best and I will never forget all the joy they brought into my life.

What is a mistake? A mistake is something wrong. It can be an action, a concept (概念), or a thing that was not done correctly. It can leave you feeling negative and unsuccessful. However, research shows that making mistakes is beneficial to you. Whether mistakes are beneficial or harmful depends on how much you know about them. 【小题1】

There are many reasons why humans make mistakes. A lack (缺乏) of experience in a certain field or situation may result in the mistakes. 【小题2】 This is because, by having confidence, you can think that nothing bad can happen to you, but it turns out that it is not true. You have to be ready for anything at all times since life is very uncertain.

What do I do when I make a mistake? 【小题3】 You must ask yourself: Why did l make this decision? Why was it not the correct decision? After answering these questions internally, the best thing you can do is try to make up for the mistake you made to prevent it from further harming you. Consider that all people make mistakes, and it is common that at first, you do not know what to do to correct them. You should calm down a little and then let everything go to find the best solution.

【小题4】 Some do not even allow themselves to be wrong because they want to be perfect. The destructive goal is to push yourself to exhaustion (精疲力竭) in search of perfection. The healthy goal is to seek excellence in the result while enjoying the process of improvement.

【小题5】 What is now an unwanted result, in the future may become what helps you to achieve it, because it makes you worry, get back to work, expand the information you had and develop new skills to deal with the situation.

Thinking is something you choose to do as a fish chooses to live in water. To be human is to think. But thinking may come naturally without your knowing how you do it. Thinking about thinking is the key to critical thinking. When you think critically, you take control of your thinking processes. Otherwise, you might be controlled by the ideas of others. Indeed, critical thinking is at the heart of education.

The word “critical” here has a special meaning. It does not mean taking one against another view, as when someone criticizes another person for doing something wrong. The nature of critical thinking is thinking beyond the easily seen-beyond the pictures on TV, the untrue reports in the newspapers, and the faulty reasoning.

Critical thinking is an attitude as much as an activity. If you are curious about life and desire to dig deeper into it, you are a critical thinker. If you find pleasure in deep thinking about different ideas, characters, and facts, you are a critical thinker.

Activities of the mind and higher-order reasoning are processes of deep and careful consideration. They take time, and do not go hand in hand with the fast speed in today’s world: fast foods, instant coffee, and self-developing film. If you are among the people who believe that speed is a measure of intelligence, you may learn something new from a story about Albert Einstein. The first time Banesh Hoffman, a scientist, was to discuss his work with Albert Einstein, Hoffman was too nervous to speak. But Einstein immediately put Hoffman at ease by saying, “Please go slowly. I don’t understand things quickly.”