It was not a good morning for Maya. Everything was going wrong. First, she woke up late and had to get ready for school quickly. She almost didn’t have time to eat breakfast. And when she put on her shoes, the laces were in a knot.

“Quickly, Maya,” called her mother. “You will miss the bus.” “I can’t get this knot out,” said Maya, almost ready to cry.

“Let me help you,” said her brother, Abdul. He got the knot out and quickly tied the laces. “Let’s run,” he said. “We will just make it.”

“Thanks!” said Maya as they ran out of the door.

However, her problems weren’t over. She forgot to bring her homework and the teacher was not happy about that. The teacher gave her a special writing task to do for the next day. On the way home, it started to rain and she dropped her books into a puddle as she got off the bus.

Abdul got off the bus just behind her. “Don’t worry,” he said. “If we take them home and dry them quickly, they will be all right.”

“Thanks, Abdul,” said Maya.

That night Maya was sad as she sat down to do her homework. But when she looked at the special writing task, she smiled. The teacher wrote at the top of her notebook: “Write a short story explaining what you like best about one of your friends.” And Maya started to write, “The best thing about my brother Abdul…”

When my daughter was in primary school, she brought home four little trees from school to plant. None of them looked very strong, but with hope for the future, I planted them in our garden that had enough sunlight. Over the years, because of the poor earth, three of them died. Only one survived.

However, it grew very slowly. It looked more like a fat bush than a tree. Later, I noticed that it was starting to die. The lower branches were becoming bare. Only the top third of the tree was still green. I did my best to save it by feeding it a lot of fertilizer (肥料), but it didn’t work.

Later one morning, I went out and looked at the tree again. I was wondering whether it would be better to just cut it down. Maybe it would make the yard look cleaner. As I walked over to take a closer look at it, however, I noticed something moving within the leaves. It was a bird patiently building a nest in the top branches. I smiled when seeing it. I thought this old tree might not be healthy or pretty, but it was still giving a bird a home.

This tree reminded me that all of our lives have a purpose. It doesn’t matter if we are young and strong or old and sick. Until our last breath, we have things to do, love to give, and joy to share. We can help to make this world a better and more beautiful place.

“Lin Tao, 40. Wang Hai, 35..."My heart beat faster and faster when Mr. Tao, our English teacher, announced everyone’s score of the last practice exam(模拟考试) in class. Everyone couldn't help groaning (叹息) when they received papers from Mr. Tao. In fact, this was the last but most difficult practice exam before the High School Entrance Exam( 中考). Hearing others' low scores, I could even guess my score might be worse than I had expected.

“Here is your paper. "Mr. Tao put my paper on my desk. There in big red numbers, circled to catch attention, was my score-55!"I also fail the exam! " I almost passed out (昏倒)at the poor score.“Li Hai got the highest score this time,” Mr. Tao said in a serious voice. "None of you passed it! "I couldn't believe my ears at the surprising news. I got first place

Although I failed the exam! I even thought Mum would praise me for my good performance. However, when I reached home, Mum became unhappy at my low but high score.

“My son, you should have done better!" she told me seriously. "But this is the highest score in my class. "I was still kind of proud. "I don’t care what scores others got, but you failed this time. The important thing is what you have done! "my mother said seriously.

My mother has only cared about whether I have done something excellently since Then. Also, her words will make a difference to my life.