On the very first day, God created the cow and said to him, “As a cow, you must go to the field, working under the sun all day long! And I will give you 40 years to live.” The cow objected, “What? You want me to live such a tough life for 40 years? Let me have 20 years, and I’ll give the rest back to you.” So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the dog and said, “You’ll be man’s best friend, guarding his house and eating his leftovers. I’ll give you a life span of 30 years.” The dog shook his head. “Eating leftovers for 30 years? No way! I’ll give half back to you!” So God agreed.

Then, God created the monkey, saying, “Your job is to entertain people. You’ve got to do monkey tricks and make them laugh. And you’ll live 20 years.”“Do monkey tricks to make them laugh? 10 years will do.” the monkey said. So God agreed.

Finally, God created the man. “You will be the man. All you need to do is to sleep, eat, and play, simply enjoying your life. And I’ll give you 20 years to live.” Thinking for a while, the man replied, “I can be the man, but I want to take all the years that the cow, the dog and the monkey didn’t want.” So God agreed.

Since then, man eats, sleeps and plays in the first 2 decades, marries and spends the next 2 decades like a cow, working very hard to support his family. Then when he has children, he lives 15 years like a dog, taking care of the house and eating whatever is given to him. And when he is old, he retires and lives 10 years like a monkey, doing tricks to amuse his grandchildren.

MacArthur’s love for sailing dates back to when she was just four years of age, when she first got the opportunity to have a try. “I’ll never forget that feeling as a kid of setting foot on a boat for the first time,” MacArthur said. “It’s kind of struck me that this boat had everything we needed to take us anywhere in the world. And as a child, that opened up everything,” she explained how it felt like the “greatest sense of freedom”.

This experience lighted a passion within MacArthur. She knew then that she wanted to sail around the world. She had no idea how to achieve it — growing up in the countryside, it wasn’t the most obvious career path — but she knew that was what she wanted to do at some stage. So, she acquired knowledge and saved up for years to seek a career in sailing. She would have potato and beans every day for eight years so that she could save up to buy the right equipment. By reaching certain financial goals and asking technical questions about sailing, MacArthur felt as though she was getting closer to her ambitions.

“When you know where you’re going, you can actually get there — even if it seems impossible. The impossible could be possible and aiming high is not necessarily such a crazy thing to do.” And it seems that MacArthur’s drive to become a sailor went beyond her expectations. At the age of 24, she started to receive media attention after participating in the Vendee Globe, a single-handed non-stop yacht (游艇) race that goes around the world. She came in second place. Some three to four years later, MacArthur chose to sail for 71 days and 14 hours, covering more than 26,000 miles during the course of her journey. This led to MacArthur scoring a new world record in 2005, as the fastest person to sail around the globe single-handedly. While this record has since been surpassed, MacArthur is still considered as Britain’s most successful off shore racer.

An old English saying says， "Laughter is the best medicine．" One person who certainly would have agreed with this is Norman Cousins．

Norman Cousins worked for a magazine called Saturday Review for almost forty years． He also wrote articles about peace， traveling to many different countries to share his ideas．

In the 1960s， after returning to the United States from a busy and tiring trip to Europe， Mr． Cousins got sick． In less than a week after he got back， he could not stand． Every move that he made was painful． He was not able to sleep at night． The doctors told Mr． Cousins that they did not know how to cure his problem and he might never get over the illness． Mr． Cousins， however， refused to give up hope．

Mr． Cousins thought the illness could be caused by unhappy thoughts． He did not want to take medicine to cure himself． Instead， he felt that happy thoughts or laughter might cure his illness．

He began to experiment on himself while still in the hospital by watching comedy shows on television． Mr． Cousins quickly found that ten minutes of real laughter during the day gave him two hours of sleep without pain at night．

Deciding that the doctors could not help him， Mr． Cousins left the hospital and checked into a hotel room where he could continue his experiments with laughter． For eight days， Mr． Cousins rested in the hotel room watching comedy shows on television， reading funny books， and sleeping whenever he felt tired． Within three weeks， he felt well enough to have a holiday to Puerto Rico， where he began running on the beach for exercise． After a few months， Ms． Cousins was able to carry on his work． He had laughed himself back to health．