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    Justin Bieber used to be an ordinary Canadian boy, but his life totally changed in 2008. With his great musical talent, this seventeen-year-old boy has become a superstar in the music industry.

    Justin Drew Bieber was born in 1994 in Stratford, Ontario and was raised by his single mother. Bieber learned to play musical instruments when he was very young. In 2007, he took part in a local singing competition in his hometown, and he did it just for fun. He never took singing lessons before but surprisingly he placed second in the competition. Then, with the help of his mother, he uploaded (上传) videos of him singing on a website and they successfully attracted the attention of thousands of viewers. His videos got popular through word of mouth and some of them have received up to 10,000,000 views.

    Justin Bieber would have never gotten a career in the music business without his videos. Scooter Braun, a former marketing executive (主管) of So So Def Recordings, had watched Bieber's videos and he was impressed by the boy's talent. Braun then contacted Bieber and he flew the boy into Atlanta seven months after the first video was posted. Bieber showed his talent in singing as well as his ability in playing musical instruments. He then got a record deal.

    In 2009, Justin Bieber released (发行) his first single “One Time” while he was recording the debut album (首张专辑). The single “One Time” tells a story about love. This song had success not only in Canada and the US, but also in the international market. Then he released his debut album “My World 2.0” in 2010 and the song “Baby” became the lead single. This album successfully entered the Top Ten Charts in seven countries. In June 2010, he started his first world tour in Hartford, Connecticut. One month later, he started recording his second album.

    Kunta wondered why the white people had done this to him. Born a free man, he was now in chains. Heavy iron chains around his feet and hands were fixed to a metal bar that ran round the hall about ten centimeters off the ground. He was just able to lie down on the ground, but could not stand up.

    Kunta had been seized in the forest and then hit on the head with a hard object. When he woke up, his hands and feet had already been tied together. What shocked him most was that the men who carried him were black. He reasoned with them, and tried to persuade them to set him free. But they would not listen to him. When they came to the river, a white man was waiting in the boat for them. There was an argument about money, so it seemed, in a language that Kunta did not understand. Finally, Kunta was thrown into the bottom of the boat and covered with an old smelly cloth. The men took him in their boat to the castle on the coast where he was now held prisoner.

    Another thing which shocked Kunta was that women were held in the castle too. He could hear their crying, also children's voices. What was to become of them all, he wondered. For all his life, he had known that people suddenly disappeared from their villages. He had known that it was not safe to travel alone in the forest near the coast. But why did white people want to catch Africans and put them in chains? Would they be killed or even eaten? The situation seemed hopeless and he knew his life was in danger.

    Worse was to come. A few days later about 140 black people were taken and put on a tall sailing ship waiting off the coast. Once on the boat, they were taken below and their chains were fixed to two bars that ran the length of the ship. Their feet were fixed to one bar and their hands to another bar. Thus they lay on hard wooden boards, unable to stand up or move around.

    The sea journey lasted over sixty days and nights. They had rough weather and Kunta's back bled from rolling over on the hard wooden boards. Many of the men fell sick with fever. They sighed and cried out for more water, but food and water were only given out once a day. Once in a while sailors came down, Kunta thought, to carry sick men upstairs for treatment. When the ship finally arrived in a port, the wooden cover was opened wide and Kunta could see in daylight for the first time across the part of the ship where he had been chained. About a third of the people who had been chained up below at the beginning of the journey were missing.

    Typing with one hand when the other one is occupied can be a real pain, so imagine having to type with just one foot. It's got to be a nightmare, but 21-year-old Hu Huiyuan from China's Anhui Province is using her only functional foot to write not just a few sentences, but an entire fiction novel!

    Born prematurely(过早地), Hu was diagnosed with cerebral palsy(脑瘫) when she was only 10 months old. This left her permanently paralyzed—the only parts of her body she can move are her head and left foot. As she grew older, she learned how to perform everyday tasks using her foot.

    Despite not having received formal education, Hu is surprisingly well-spoken. Over the years, with the help of her mother, she taught herself to read and write. “I'm not a genius, but I'm very focused,” she said, modestly. “When I watched TV in my childhood, I often learned words on the screen.”

    “When I was teaching her how to speak, I had to repeat every single word a thousand times before she got it, ”Hu's mother said. “But once she mastered the word. I felt satisfied.”

    With time going by, Hu's language got so proficient that she set out to write a story about the pursuit of dreams and love. She's doing this by typing out every single word on her computer using only one foot.

    In spite of all these setbacks, Hu is able to type 20 to 30 words a minute. She has already written six chapters—that's 60,000 words—and says she only has two more chapters to go before the novel is complete.

    Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, France on December 27, 1822. His family was poor, and during his early education Pasteur was an ordinary student who enjoyed art and singing. However, when Pasteur was exposed to science as a teenager, he knew he had found his career.

    In 1838, Pasteur went to college to become a science teacher. He then became a chemistry professor at the University of Strasbourg. He got married in 1849 and had five children. However, three died young from typhoid fever (伤寒症). It was the deaths of his children that drove Pasteur to investigate the infectious disease in order to find a cure.

    During Pasteur's time, people believed that bacteria (细菌) appeared due to “spontaneous generation (自然发生)”. They thought that the bacteria just appeared out of nowhere. Pasteur earned out experiments to see if this was true. Through his experiments he proved that germs (细菌) were living things that came from other living things. They didn't just spontaneously appear. This was a major discovery in the study of biology and earned Pasteur the title of Father of Germ Theory.

    As Pasteur learned more about bacteria, he began to think they may be the cause of diseases in humans. When the French silk market was threatened by a disease to silkworms (蚕), Pasteur decided to investigate. He discovered that this disease was caused by germs. By killing them from the silkworm farms, he was able to cease the disease and save the French silk business.

    Today Louis Pasteur is known as one of the most important scientists in history. His discoveries led to an understanding of bacteria and diseases that has helped save millions of lives.

    I stepped on the red carpet and smiled as the cameras rushed up to take pictures. I slowly walked into the large hall of my first Hollywood premiere(首映). I had designed the special effects for the hottest movie on the market. Later, a friend of mine came with a big smile on her face. “I'm sure you have never thought that you would be here,” she said excitedly. I calmly smiled back in return.

    Having never had great opportunities, I've worked long and hard to create a bright future. Though I grew up in a poor family, I never doubted that my future goals would be connected with computers. In middle school I became the producer of a daily news television show.

    My future goal became even more possible when a new high school in my area held a technology program created for students interested in technology related jobs. Through the program I was able to learn about computer design and gain experience through a part-time job with a local computer company. Whenever a new movie came out, I would find out the company which created the special effects for the movie. At the same time, I researched job positions on the Internet. The companies on the Internet suggested universities and degrees on their websites. I planned on studying Computer Science.

    Though I didn't give up my dreams, I continued to pay my attention to daily events. I took part in a large number of activities to broaden my view on life. I worked hard in school to develop my mind. I communicated with people who could give me advice about any problem I might meet along the way. And now, after years of preparation, my hard work is paying off. I know I have succeeded because I put my goals into action.

    Johnny Jennings is 86 years old, but he first visited the Georgia Baptist Children's Home when he was 18, and the visit changed his life forever.

    A child ran up to Jennings, begging to be adopted, and it was at that moment that Jennings realized his life's mission. From that day forward, Jennings did everything he could to help, and that turned out to be quite a lot. Since he wasn't ready to adopt a child of his own, he decided to contribute financially. Since he wasn't wealthy, he did so by collecting paper and aluminum (铝) products and cashing them in for money. That may not sound like it would amount to much, but Jennings has donated more than US$400,000 over the past 30 years. That's a lot of paper products.

    Over those 30 years Jennings has become a cornerstone of the children's home.

But how does he get all that paper? Now that people know about his efforts, the paper pretty much comes to him. People drop it off at his house after collecting it through churches, organizations or in their own lives. Jennings also collected pennies, and as they say: A penny saved is a penny earned. Well, he's saved 24 miles' worth of pennies. It's the truth. "84,480 is a mile of pennies," Jennings said. "We finished 24 miles. We had most people from church collecting pennies." Each and every mile was a donation to the church.

    One of Jennings' favorite events is the church's annual meeting, which is when he presents his check each year. During this time, the kids who live in the children's home are also in attendance and he loves the opportunity to spend time with them. Jennings has served on the board for 45-year terms. "I've been a trustee for 20 years," Jennings said. "I'm just part of the family." And what a special family it is, thanks in large part to Johnny Jennings.

    Jane Austen, a famous English writer, was born at Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, and died on July 18, 1817. She began writing early in life, although the prejudices of her times forced her to have her books published anonymously (匿名).

    But Jane Austen is perhaps the best known and best loved of Bath's many famous local people and visitors. She paid two long visits here during the last five years of the eighteenth century and from 1801 to 1806, Bath was her home. Her deep knowledge of the city is fully seen in two of her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, which are largely set in Bath. The city is still very much as Jane Austen knew it, keeping in its streets and public buildings the well-ordered world that she described so well in her novels. Now the pleasure of learning Jane Austen's Bath can be enhanced (增强)by visiting the Jane Austen Centre in Gay Street. Here, in a Georgian town house in the heart of the city, you can find out more about Bath in Jane Austen's time and the importance of Bath in her life and work.

    The Centre has been set up with the help and guidance of members of the Jane Austen Society. After your visit to the Centre, you can look round the attractive shop, which offers a huge collection of Jane Austen related books, cards and many specially designed gifts. Jane Austen quizzes are offered to keep the children busy.

    You can also have walking tours of Jane Austen's Bath, which is a great way to find out more about Jane Austen and discover the wonderful Georgian city of Bath. The tour lasts about one and a half hours. The experienced guides will take you to the places where Jane lived, walked and shopped.

    Judy Wright and her husband decided to move closer to their son, Chris, who lived in Georgia. About a month after the move, Judy fell ill, suffering from her ongoing (不间断的) battle against Parkinson disease.

    Her condition worsened rapidly and she required medical care at home. The family hired a nursing aid who canceled at the last minute. Instead, a woman named TunDe Hector showed up in her place.

    One day, TunDe shared a story with Judy and her family. She remembered a particularly difficult day in 2014, when a stranger had helped her with a kind gesture. She had run out of gas, and with only $5 in her pocket, was walking to a gas station. A man saw her walking and turned his car around. He paid for her gas and gave her all the cash left in his wallet. Upon hearing the story, Judy's son, Chris, took off his hat and said, "That was me!" He was the stranger that had helped TunDe on that difficult day.

    During the care of Judy, the Wright family learned about TunDe's family and her own dream. The nursing aid, TunDe hoped that one day she could become an OB-GYN nurse. Her tuition was past due (逾期) and she had a family to care for, but she was determined to achieve that goal for herself and her family.

    Judy died on July 9,2017. Instead of flowers, her family asked mourners (悼念者) to donate to TunDe's education, to assist her in paying for her nursing school. In less than a week, they raised more than $8,000 and presented her with the surprise check.

    When Johnny, a homeless man, spent his last $20, he wasn't looking at it as an investment — but it's about to pay him huge profits. After he helped a woman who ran out of gas, she returned the favor by raising a lot more on the Internet.

    Kate McClure, 27, was driving to visit a friend when she ran out of gas halfway. “He saw me pull over and knew something was wrong,” she wrote. “He told me to get back in the car and lock the doors. A few minutes later, he came back with a red gas can, using his last 20 dollars to make sure I could get home safe.”

    She couldn't repay him at that time because she had no cash with her. “I have been stopping by his spot for the past few weeks. I repaid him for the gas and gave him some clothes.”

    Kate decided to do more for him, so she started a crowdfunding(众筹) campaign on GoFundMe.com, and it quickly gained far beyond its initial $10,000 goal. When it reached $100,000, the fundraising page was shut down for a time at Johnny's request. Because he didn't want to seem like he was taking advantage of the situation. Finally, Kate said that she restarted it because the public interest had not decreased. She also added that Johnny planned to donate the rest to a good cause.

    According to the New York Post  Johnny wants to get a job at an Amazon warehouse and a department manager from the tech company has already reached out, saying he wants to help Jonny.

    Mr. Bean is an internationally recognized comedy character on TV and in films. He constantly gets into awkward and absurd situations, which greatly amuses audiences regardless of their nationalities or culture. The humour is always made clear through a series of simple and funny acts that rely purely on body language, which is universal.

    One of my favourite shows is that Mr. Bean has a meal in a fancy restaurant. After being seated at his table, Mr. Bean takes out a card, writes a few words on it, seals (密封) it in an envelope and places it on the table. After a moment, he looks back at the envelope but this time he looks surprised, as if he did not know it was there. He opens it to find a birthday card and delightedly puts it on the table for everyone to see.

    When he looks at the menu, an astonished look swiftly appears on his face. He takes all the money out of his wallet, counts it and puts it in a saucer (茶托). He then looks from the menu to the money with concern until he finds one thing that makes him smile. Then he orders a dish called "steak tartare". When the dish arrives, he is shocked to discover that "steak tartare" is actually raw hamburger. He makes an attempt to eat it, but it is clear from the look on his face that he finds the taste truly disgusting. He cannot hide his feelings, except when the waiter asks if everything is all right. When this happens, he smiles and nods, indicating that everything is fine. When the waiter is not looking, however, he busies himself hiding the raw meat anywhere he can reach-the sugar bowl, the tiny flower vase, inside a bun (小圆面包) and under a plate. He becomes so desperate in the end that he even hides some inside the purse of a woman sitting near him and throws some down the trousers of the restaurant's violinist!

    I like to watch Mr. Bean on TV, but I wouldn't like to meet someone like him in real life and I certainly wouldn't like to have dinner with him!

    There was no one quite like my father in our town. When any other man had an extra dollar, he bought a drink; when Father had an extra dollar, he bought a book. Other people had pictures on their walls; we had books, 3000 of them, lining every vertical surface of our little four-room house.

    Father was the most persistent scholar I ever knew. He earned seven degrees, attended 11 different colleges and universities, and in 1951, when he was 82, sent us a cheerful little note from England to say that he had just enrolled for a graduate course in Elizabethan literature at Oxford.

    I was the immediate beneficiary of Father's unbelievable hunger to learn. Every spring, he would take me hiking through the mountains to study mineral formations. On clear winter nights, he would set up a telescope and wake me to view the stars. After I grew up, wherever I traveled around this earth, the stars remained my friends.

    Plain, distinct speech was a particular concern of my father and he was constantly drilling me in the art of elocution (演讲技巧).Before I was three, he was reading aloud to me from the Bible, Shakespeare and Mark Twain. Thereafter, read aloud to him so he could work on my diction. By the time I was in the fifth grade, I could recite from a whole range of classical literature and poetry.

    Of course, there had been times as a young man, when I got tired of study and devoted my time to playing. Then Father would admonish me succinctly by quoting a saying from Shakespeare, "If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious (乏味的)as to work."

    Obviously, his efforts were not entirely in vain, for my voice has enabled me to earn a fair livelihood. But that fact doesn't begin to define the enormous debt I owe my father.

    The great-grandmother is learning English with the help of her family when she is at the age of 91. She hopes to use the language at next year's Olympic Games in Tokyo. Takamizawa was one of the more than 200, 00 people who requested to volunteer for Tokyo's 2020 Games. English is not required for service, but it is a useful skill for volunteers to have.

    But Takamizawa had not been able to learn the language when she was young. Takamizawa said that she was in high school when World War Two started. She said, “In my second year there, English was banned because it was the enemy language.”

    Takamizawa said her grandchildren helped persuade her that she was not too old to learn. "When I talked to my grandchildren about my wish, they said, ‘It's not too late. We will teach you one word a day'". Natsuko is Takamizawa's granddaughter and main English teacher. Natsuko sends a new English word to her grandmother's phone every day. They also often work together directly on phrases that Takamizawa will need for the Olympics. "Welcome to Tokyo, this is the Olympic stadium, how can I help you?" Takamizawa answers when asked to say an English phrase she has learned. Natsuko explains that she wanted to give her grandmother something to enjoy. "I can clearly see her English is getting better. It's my joy now."

    The EF English Proficiency Index is a measure of the level of English spoken in a country. Japan ranks 49th among countries where English is not the first language. This situation is slowly changing as younger generations welcome English. However, Takamizawa believes real change will not happen unless Japanese people become more open to the rest of the world. With around 500 days to go until the games begin, the whole Takamizawa family is ready to welcome the world to Tokyo.

    We lived in a very quiet neighborhood. One evening I heard a loud crash in the street. Earlier that evening my wife had asked me to go to the store to get some soft drinks. It seemed that this would be a good time to let my teenage daughter Holly practice her driving, so I sent her to the store in my truck. At dinner my son talked about how much he liked my truck. I enjoyed having it, but I said: "Guy, my heart is not set on that truck. I like it but it is just metal and won't last forever. Never set your heart on anything that won't last." After hearing the loud noise, the whole family ran outside. My son shouted: "Dad! Dad, Holly crashed your truck."

    The accident had occurred in my own driveway. Holly had crashed my truck into our other vehicle, the family van. In her inexperience, she had confused the brakes(刹车) and the gas pedal (油门). Holly was unhurt physically but when we reached her, she was crying and saying: "Oh, Dad, I'm sorry. I know how much you love this truck." I held her in my arms as she cried.

    Later that week a friend stopped by and asked what had happened to my truck. I told her the whole story. Her eyes were wet and she said: "That happened to me when I was a girl. I borrowed my dad's car and ran into a tree that had fallen across the road. I ruined the car. When I got home, my Dad knocked me to the ground and began to kick me."

    Over 40 years later, she still felt the pain of the night. I remember how sad Holly was on the night she crashed our truck, and how I comforted her. One day, when Holly thinks back on her life, I want her to know that I love her a thousand times more than any piece of property.

    Stephen Edwin King, one of the best-selling authors of all time, has inked numerous novels. He once received the 'National Medal of the Arts' from the US President Barack Obama and was called "one of the most popular and productive writers of our time"

    His carrier as a novelist began with the creation of 'Carrie'. At that time he was a teacher and during the summer vacation he did part-time work to earn a little money to make his ends meet. However, the publication of 'Carrie' was a milestone in his life and it also helped to better his standard of living.

    His books earned him fame and money and not being able to deal with the sudden success that he turned to alcohol. His book 'Cujo' was written around that time and according to him, he does not remember having written it. The character of Jack Torrance in the novel 'The Shining' is a reflection of King himself, but after his family took to questioning him about his drinking habits, he quit and never went back to it.

    His book 'Rage' was about a school shooter and his violent doings, which the author wrote under the penname Richard Bachman. Years later, some school kids did such horrible crime and said they had read the book 'Rage'. For the greater good of the society, the author suggested the book not be printed any longer.

    All knows him as an author but very few know that King, together with contemporary writers Mitch Albom, Amy Tan and cartoonist Matt Groening forms the band ‘Rock Bottom Remainders' and they even perform once in a while.

    Though creating horror stories, King often skips 13 as it petrifies him. In an interview he said, "When I'm writing, I'll never stop work if the page number is 13 or a multiple of 13; I'll just keep on typing till I get to a safe number."

    King Midas used to love gold. One day he met a fairy who allowed him to make a wish for something. The king replied at once, “I love gold. I want everything I touch to change into gold”. “Very well, tomorrow morning, everything you touch will turn into gold.” Saying this, the fairy disappeared.

    The king waited excitedly till the next morning. To his joy, everything he touched changed immediately into gold. “I'm the richest man in the world now.” He shouted.

    Soon Midas became hungry. He sat down at his table. All the foods and drinks turned into gold in his hand. “I'm dying of hunger.” He cried.

    Just then his daughter came running in. “Why are you so sad, dad?” she asked, putting her arms around him. There and then she became a golden statue. The king loved his daughter very much. Seeing this, he began to cry. He looked up and suddenly saw the fairy before him. “Don't you like the golden touch?” asked the fairy. “Please take it away,” begged the king, “give me back my daughter.” “Well, you have learned your lesson. Go and wash in the river. Then the golden touch will be gone.” The king ran quickly to the nearby river.

    “Beauty isn't about having a pretty face,” begins a motivational quote. “It's about having a pretty mind, a pretty heart, and a pretty soul. Oh, and pretty nails!”

    That may be Angela Peters' motto. Last July, Peters, rolled her wheelchair into a nail salon (沙龙) at the Walmart shopping center in Burton to have her nails done. But Peters, who has cerebral palsy (脑瘫), was turned away. The salon told her that they were afraid it would be too difficult to properly paint her nails given that her hands kept shaking. What was meant to be a day of beauty for Peters was now a disappointment.

    A Walmart cashier about to go on her break happened to see this. Ebony Harris recognized Peters as a Walmart regular. “She's just like everyone else. She wants to look pretty. So why can't she?” Harris said.

    Harris approached Peters. “Do you want me to do your nails?” she asked.

    A smile spread across Peters' face. “Yeah!” Harris led Peters into the supermarket, where they shopped for nail polish. They settled on a color that would catch every eye. They then made their way into a neighboring Subway, found a table for two, and started. Harris gently took Peters' hand into hers and carefully began painting her nails. “She moved her hands a little bit, and she kept saying she was sorry,” Harris said. “I told her, 'Don't say that. You're fine. ' She makes me look at life and appreciate it much more than I have.”

    Watching it all with surprise and admiration was Subway employee Tasia Smith. Smith was so taken by the scene that she wrote about it on Facebook. “She was so patient with her,” she wrote. “Thanks to the Walmart worker for making this beautiful girl's day!”

After 13 years with the Royal Mail, you might think Peter Willis could happily spend his retirement（退休）without ever seeing another post box.

But the postman has decided to keep himself busy by photographing as many of Britain's 115, 000 post boxes as possible.

The 67-year-old man has covered thousands of miles taking pictures of 2,500 post boxes since he started this great activity five years ago.

Mr Willis, who worked as a Royal Mail manager before he retired, said, "It started out as a bit of a hobby but has developed into a bit of an obsession（痴迷）. There is something wonderful about discovering a post box which is in a strange location or is particularly old but is still being used by people to communicate with each other. When I've taken a picture of a post box, I will remove it from the list. I'm not sure whether I can get round all 115,000. I've done around 2,500 boxes and I'm always looking out for the next one. "

He takes his wife Dianne, 64, with him along the way. "She often stands guard if I'm in the middle of the road taking pictures as I get down on my hands and knees to record the bases, which have details of the producers on them. She is usually telling the passing public that I'm not actually mad. I suppose she gets a bit bored sometimes. Sometimes she'll let me go off on my own." said Mr Willis.

Over the past years, Mr Willis has photographed post boxes in Inverness, Dublin and across England. His photos include unusual locations, such as several post boxes at the top of hills and even one inside a theatre.

When he finds a new post box, Mr Willis photographs the base to record the producer's name and gives a grid reference（坐标参考）on a map.

In 2004, when my daughter Becky was ten, she and my husband, Joe, were united in their desire for a dog. As for me, I shared none of their canine lust.

But why, they pleaded." Because I don't have time to take care of a dog." But we'll do it." Really? You're going to walk the dog? Feed the dog? Bathe the dog?" Yes, yes, and yes." I don't believe you." We will. We promise.

They didn't. From day two (everyone wanted to walk the cute puppy that first day), neither thought to walk the dog. While I was slow to accept that I would be the one to keep track of her shots, to schedule her vet appointments, to feed and clean her, Misty knew this on day one. As she looked up at the three new humans in her life (small, medium, and large), she calculated," The medium one is the sucker in the pack."

Quickly, she and I developed something very similar to a Vulcan mind meld (心灵融合). She'd look at me with those sad brown eyes of hers, beam her need, and then wait, trusting I would understand — which, strangely, I almost always did. In no time, she became my feet as I read, and splaying across my stomach as I watched television.

Even so, part of me continued to resent walking duty. Joe and Becky had promised. Not fair, I'd balk (不心甘情愿地做)silently as she and I walked." Not fair," I'd loudly remind anyone within earshot upon our return home.

Then one day — January 1, 2007, to be exact — my husband's doctor uttered an unthinkable word: leukemia (白血病). With that, I spent eight to ten hours a day with Joe in the hospital, doing anything and everything I could to ease his discomfort. During those six months of hospitalizations, Becky, 12 at the time, adjusted to other adults being in the house when she returned from school. My work colleagues adjusted to my taking off at a moment's notice for medical emergencies. Every part of my life changed; no part of my old routine remained.

Save one: Misty still needed walking. At the beginning, when friends offered to take her through her paces, I declined because I knew they had their own households to deal with.

As the months went by, I began to realize that I actually wanted to walk Misty. The walk in the morning before I headed to the hospital was a quiet, peaceful time to gather my thoughts or to just be before the day's medical drama unfolded. The evening walk was a time to shake off the day's upsets and let the worry tracks in my head go to white noise.

When serious illness visits your household, it's not just your daily routine and your assumptions about the future that are no longer familiar. Pretty much everyone you know acts differently.

Not Misty. Take her for a walk, and she had no interest in Joe's blood counts or bone marrow test results. On the street or in the park, she had only one thing on her mind: squirrels! She was so joyous that even on the worst days, she could make me smile. On a daily basis she reminded me that life goes on.

After Joe died in 2009, Misty slept on his pillow.

I'm grateful—to a point. The truth is, after years of balking, I've come to enjoy my walks with Misty. As I watch her chase after a squirrel, throwing her whole being into the here-and-now of an exercise that has never once ended in victory, she reminds me, too, that no matter how harsh the present or unpredictable the future, there's almost always some measure of joy to be extracted from the moment.

I am a strong believer that if a child is raised with approval (认可) he learns to love himself and will be successful in his own way.

Several weeks ago, I was doing homework with my son in the third grade and he kept standing up from his chair. I kept asking him to sit down, telling him that he would concentrate (集中注意力) better. He sat but seconds later, as if he didn't even notice he was doing it, he got up again. I was getting angry, but then it hit me: I started noticing his answers were much quicker and right when he stood up. Could he concentrate better while standing up?

This made me start questioning myself and what I had been raised to believe. I grew up to believe that a quiet child was more likely to succeed. This child would have the ability to study hard, get good grades and become someone important in life. Kids that were active and loud would only be losers.

Now people perhaps come to realize that their kids are born with their own sets of DNA, and all they can do is loving and accepting them. As parents, throughout their growing years and beyond that, we need to guide them and help them find their way.

I have stopped asking my son to sit down and concentrate. Clearly, he is concentrating, just in his own way and not mine. We need to accept our kids, and their ways of doing things. There is nothing sweeter than seeing our children being themselves. It makes us happy and that's just the way I want my kids to live a happy life.

A young woman sits down at the piano. Her long flowing brown hair frames a friendly face. And then she begins to sing. Her unexpectedly mature voice attracted everyone in the room. This is Norah Jones, award-winning singer and songwriter.

Norah Jones was born on March 30, 1979, in New York City. She is the daughter of the legendary Rxdyi Shankar, a very famous guitar player; but Norah was brought up entirely by her mother Sue. At 4 years old, she and her mother moved to the Dallas suburb, Texas. Her earliest musical influence came from her mother's extensive LP collection. She began singing in church choirs at age five, took piano lessons two years later, and briefly played alto saxophone in junior high.

In the course of serving customers and laying tables in a fast restaurant, Jones soon started a band in which she was a lead singer, of course, and played piano as well. In October 2000, the band ambitiously brought a demo （试 样 唱 片） to EMI Blue Note Records.

At a meeting with Blue Note president Bruce in the following year, Jones played her three-song tape, hoping to earn a break. Bruce was so impressed with this young girl's talents that he signed her on the spot. After a year of work, Norah Jones released her debut (首次) album, Come Away with Me. Norah Jones has already sold 2. 6 million copies of the album, which is 10 times more than any album in Blue Note history. Despite the lack of advertisement, her album was inching its way up the music charts while the debut single Don't Know Why was climbing up the Adult Top 40 Chart.

The singer already enjoyed a success at the Grammy Awards in 2003, where she picked up five trophies (奖) in the major categories (Album of the Year, Record of the Year Trophy for Don't Know Why, Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Don't Know Why, and Best Pop Vocal Album) . It's clear that this was only the beginning for Miss Jones.