Marvin, a friend of mine, was the kind of guy who was always happy and had something positive to say. Being a natural motivator, Marvin was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation whenever he or she was having a bad day.

Several months ago in his restaurant, Marvin was held at gunpoint by four armed robbers. They panicked and shot him. Luckily, Marvin was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local hospital. After 18 hours of the operation and weeks of medical care, Marvin recovered with pieces of the bullets（子弹）still in his body.

It is really a miracle（奇迹）for Marvin's surviving the robbery. When I met Marvin after the terrifying accident, I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. Marvin replied,“As I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices:I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I refused to choose to die. ”Marvin continued,“The nurses kept telling me that I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and from the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses,I read,‘He's a dead man. 'I knew I needed to take action. ”“What did you do?”I asked. “Well,there was a big nurse shouting questions at me ,”said Marvin. “She asked if I was allergic（过敏的）to anything. ‘Yes,’I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled,‘Bullets. ’Over their laughter I told them,‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as  if I am alive,not dead. ?’”

“Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining,I can choose to accept their complaining or to point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life,”Marvin concluded.

   Of course, she wasn’t really my aunt and, out of fear, I never called her that to her face. I only referred to her as “My Aunt Fannie” because the name always made my father laugh quietly and gave my mother cause to look strictly at both of us — at me for being disrespectful to my elder and at my father for encouraging my bad behavior. I enjoyed both reactions so I looked for every opportunity to work the name into as many conversations as possible.

As a young woman, my mother had worked in the kitchen of a large Victorian farmhouse. During those years my mother helped Aunt Fannie make the best blueberry jam ever tasted by anyone in Glenfield. She was well-known for her jam and for never sharing the recipe (食谱) with others. Even though my mother knew the recipe by heart, as long as Aunt Fannie was alive, she never made the jam without Aunt Fannie in our kitchen to direct the process and kept the secret.

Each August, my mother would prepare me for Aunt Fannie’s visit. One year, after I had helped with the jam process Aunt Fannie gave me a coin and then made me promise that I would never spend it. “Hold onto this coin,” she said, “and someday you will be rich. I still have my very first coin, given to me by my grandmother.” So I kept the coin in a small box and waited to become rich.

I now have the blueberry jam recipe and the coin from Aunt Fannie. In people’s eyes Aunt Fannie’s success resulted from that secret recipe. But to me, it was just a common recipe. Neither has made me become a rich person, but 1 keep them as reminders (提醒人的事物) to hold onto the valuable things in life. Money can make you feel rich for a while, but it is the relationships and the memories of time spent with friends and family that truly leave you wealthy. And that is a fortune that anyone can build.

   Mrs. Green told her pupils to draw a picture of something for which they were thankful. She thought what these little children in a worsening neighborhood had to be _____ for. Most of the _____ drew pictures of turkeys or Thanksgiving tables full of everything _____ to eat. That was what they believed was _____ from them.

What made Mrs. Green _____ was David’s picture. David was so disappointed and _____ in his own world as other students went outside for break. David’s drawing was _____ this: A hand. Whose hand? The class were strongly attracted by his _____. “I think it must be the _____ of the cook ______ our food,” said one student.

“A hand of a ______,” said another, “because he raises the turkeys.”

“It looks more like a policeman’s, and he ______ us.” “I think,” Lucy said ______, “it is ______ to be all the hands that help us, but David could only draw one of them.”

Mrs. Green had almost forgotten David in her ______ of finding the class so responsive (积极的). Having the others working on another project, she bent over his ______ and asked whose hand it was.

David whispered, “It’s yours, Mrs. Green.”

Then Mrs. Green ______ she had taken David by the hand from time to time; she often did that with the children. But what surprised her was that it should have ______ so much to David…

Perhaps, she thought this was her Thanksgiving, and everybody’s Thanksgiving — not the things ______ to people, but the ______ that others give something to people.

Last week, I have the honor of experiencing teaching. Our school asked some volunteer to teach some kids which lived in the countryside.

I treasured this chance so much and joined in the team. When I met those kids, they were so happily to see me and listened to me carefully. Given the warmest welcome by them, I enjoyed being their teacher. However, I tried my best to teach them and play games with them.

Back to school, I missed our students so much. They liked me a lot but some of them even kept in the touch with me. I felt so proud being a teacher. This precious experience helped me make up my mind to realizing my dream.

I, together with my father, went to Zhangjiajie this summer vacation, where they paid a visit to Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. In 1982, it listed as the first national forest park of China, that covers an area of 48. 1 square kilometers. Zhangjiajie, lie in the northwest of Hunan Province, is one of the most important tourism city. What’s more, it was recognized for China’s excellent tourism city in 2000. We were deep impressed by the natural scenery there. Therefore, we had kept on taking photos. In my opinion, a journey was worthwhile, because we were tired.