Once upon a time, two hungry people received gifts from an old man. One received a fishing rod(竿), while the other got a basket of fresh fish. 【小题1】 The person who got the fish built a fire and cooked the fish. The fish was delicious and he enjoyed his meal. 【小题2】 Soon, he starved(挨饿) to death, as he had nothing left to eat. What about the other person? The person with the fishing rod was still hungry. He walked to the beach step by step, but was too tired to go fishing by the time he got there. He also starved to death.

【小题3】 They received the same things that the first pair of people had, but they didn’t go their own separate(分离的) ways. They agreed to find the sea together. 【小题4】 Then, they arrived at the sea. They started to take turns fishing. 【小题5】 Both of them lived happy and healthy lives.

The first pair of people failed to cooperate(合作) with each other. The second pair achieved(实现) more and realized their dreams by working together. What lesson can you learn from this?

Parents are our first and most important teachers. But sometimes we don't get on well with them. Sometimes we don't like to take their advice--We even rebel (叛逆) against them. Many of us have unhappy moments with our parents. Why? It may be because of the generation gap (代沟).This is when family members do not understand each other. They have their way of doing things and can not agree.

Then how can we get on better with each other?

If we want to have independence (独立) from our parents, we should act in a responsible (负责的) ,grown-up way. When we are more grown-up, have a talk with our parents.

Parents are busy working to give us a better life. They may seem to have no time for us, but they care about us and love us.

Tell them our feelings. When we are in trouble, take to them. They will be able to help us. In this way, we can also improve (提高) the understanding between our parents and us.

I'm David Brown, a student from Grade 8. I'm sitting in the classroom to write you this letter because I really have something to say about the school lunchtime.

Well, I know that school is for learning. It is important to have good reading and Maths skills. But I think school is also important for another reason. It helps people learn to get along with others.

It may seem that lunchtime is not important. As you see, lots of us spend most lunchtimes just talking with our friends. But this activity is more important than it looks.

I'm learning how to get along with others. I'm learning how to solve problems. I'm finding out new things from others. I'm learning how to say sorry. These are all important skills to learn.

My problem is that the time for lunch keeps getting shorter. I know this is happening so we can spend more time in class learning. But please do not forget that we are also learning at lunchtime. We are learning people skills. It is important that we have enough time to spend with our friends.

I really hope that you can make our lunchtime longer. A little more time spent with friends each day would benefit everybody.

Yours,

David Brown