I am writing tell you a piece of good news. Last week our school hold a Spoken English Competition. I stood out in the competition and won a first place. In my view, it is your kind help which has helped me gain the achievement. During your spare time, you often spent such much time helping me with my speaking English that I made rapid progress. In the competition, I followed your advices on how to behave, which led to my success. I'm grateful to you for your help and decide that you will make more efforts and try to make great progress in the future.

I'm looking forward to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

   “Are you happy？”I asked my brother，Ian，one day.

“Yes. No. It depends on what you mean，”he said.

“Then tell me，”I said，“when was the last time you think you were happy？”

“April，1967，”he said.

It served me right for putting a serious question to someone who has joked his way through life. But Ian’s answer reminded me that when we think about happiness，we usually think of something extraordinary，a pinnacle（顶点）of delight. And those pinnacles seem to get rarer as we get older.

For a child，happiness is simple，such as playing with friends. In the teenage years，the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it’s conditional on such things as excitement，love and popularity. For adults，happiness is complicated—love，marriage，responsibility and the risk of loss.

My dictionary defines happiness as“luck”or“fortune”，but I think a better definition of happiness is“the capacity（能力）for enjoyment”. The more we can enjoy what we have，the happier we are. It’s easy to overlook the pleasure we get from loving and being loved，the company of friends，the freedom to live where we please，and even good health.

I added up my little moments of pleasure yesterday. First I had my breakfast and enjoyed myself in the house. Then I spent an uninterrupted morning writing，which I love. When the kids came home，I enjoyed their noise after the quiet of the day.

You never know where happiness will turn up next. When I asked friends what makes them happy，some mentioned seemingly unimportant moments.“I hate shopping，”one friend said.“But there’s a shop assistant who always chats and really cheers me up.”Another friend loves the telephone.“Every time it rings，I know someone is thinking about me.”We all experience moments like these. Too few of us think of them as happiness.

Happiness isn’t about what happens to us；it’s about how we think of what happens to us. It’s not wishing for what we don’t have， but enjoying what we do have.

My name is Zhang Meng.

Best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Zhang Meng

   Old friends They finish your sentences, and they tell you the truth when you've had a bad haircut. ____ mostly, they are always there for you-whether it's in person or late-night phone calls-in good times and _____. But as the years pass, it becomes increasingly _____ to see each other, to make new memories. ___, my high school friends and I promised to have reunions.

A few months ago, we met up for a two-day _____ in the American Southwest. We grew up together in Maine and have said for years that we should have a（n）_____ event, yet it was often put off or _____ due to schedule conflicts（冲突）. Not this year.

The weekend _____ long talks by the pool, wonderful meals, and a hike that brought the entire group to _____. Not tears of sadness or anger, but a close tie with such physical ______ between us. It's heartbreaking that we can't spend our days together in the same neighborhood. But that's ______. Grown-up life.

The most ______ is the group's adaptability to one another. The time we ______ apart is non-existent. No need to get reacquainted, we jump back in the saddle（车座）and it's as comfortable as ever. Old friends—friends with an ever-present ______ of support and sisterhood, friends that know each other-are hard to come by and yet we ______ today as we were years ago, laughing in the back row of Mr. McKechnie's 9th grade math class.

Life today,______, has no math class. Our world is full of ______, full of fear. Yet it ______ me— now, more than ever—how important it is that we stay ______. We may have questions about our future, but we have true faith in our past, and though this reunion of friends has come to a close, we are already ______ our plans for the next one.