Yesterday, when I was in class 113, I told them that they didn't do very well on English mid-term exam. Although their average grade is the second best among all the first-graders, they only won the third best by 0.2 point. This is not a good performance for them considering that they are a talented class. So, in class, I asked them to close their eyes and I would do some survey. I asked them questions like, how many of them thought that they had done their utmost and how many of them hadn't. As I had expected, almost half of them thought they didn't try their best. However, there are still about a dozen students who thought they had tried their best but still couldn't do well on tests. Today, when I was in their class and they were writing some tests, an idea flashed into my mind, which I could use to encourage them and teach them some conceptions. I thought of my experience of riding the foldable bike on the mountain road to Pin-ling, which is really an unforgettable experience for me. The following is my "speech" I made in front of them:

The Sunday before the last week, I went biking on the Pei-Yi highway to Pinglin. We started off from Taipei and passed Sin-Tien to get on the mountain road. I didn't have a good bike, so I borrowed a foldable bike to ride. When my friends told me we would ride on the mountain road, I wouldn't mind at all because I was quite confident of my physical strength and endurance. After all, I have exercised regularly for almost three years. So, I thought the trip would be just a little challenging but wouldn't scare me at all. With such innocence, we hit the road at nine in the morning. At first, being excited, the mountain road didn't really bother me. Panting and sweating was normal, I thought. And some part of the road is a little steeper but I just had to push myself a little bit and then I could go on riding. So, riding uphill about 1.5 hours, we reached the highest point of the highway and took some rest. We knew that we would feel easy the rest of the trip because we had got to the highest point and the road would be downward all the way to Ping-ling. After we took some rest, eating some chocolate and drinking some water, we started off again. When we were gliding down the mountain road, enjoying the cool breeze and the excitement of the high speed, we felt more complex than simply joyful. We were thinking that the high speed at which we were gliding down meant that it would be more difficult to ride back. We had already worried about the difficulty we would encounter when riding back uphill and that was why we couldn't enjoy the high speed and the breeze to the fullest.
About half an hour of gliding, we finally reached Ping-ling. There, we enjoyed an inexpensive good lunch. We also went to the Tea Museum to take a rest and do some strech there. At that time, I already felt sore in my thighs and legs. But when I thought of having to ride back on the same route, I told myself I had to forget the pain, or else, I would be unable to get on my bike again. So, I had no choice but to gather up my courage, get on the bike and hit the road again. It was more difficult than I had thought. It only took five minutes for me to realize how hard it would be to ride back to Taipei. I felt pain all over my legs after I just started riding. And there were still 8 kilometers of uphill road to go. I knew at that moment that it was only my will power that I could depend on to continue pedaling because I had used up all my strength. It was like competing with myself. I had to keep telling myself not to give up. I even begged my companions not to talk to me while riding because I was afraid that I might get distracted. I knew I had to pay all the attention to my pedaling and breathing. I had to have conversations with my own body. There were a few times I really felt as if I had no more strength and almost fell off the bike, but still, I clenched my teeth and made some growling sound to "squeeze out" some more strength from nowhere and kept pedaling. After an hour and half, we eventually got to the highest point. I felt a great sense of achievement. I felt an excitement that I had never felt before. We stopped for a while and had some tea and snacks to restore ourselves. After all, we were only on half way back to Taipei although the other half would be much easier. We finally got to Taipei at around six p.m. and this biking trip took almost 8 hours. This was the first time I rode on a mountain road for such a long time and I made it! I was proud of myself not only for my conquering the mountain road but also for that I made it with a foldable bike!

After I returned from the trip and went to work the next day, I told one of my colleagues who sometimes goes biking as well what I had achieved. I told her how challenging the biking tour was and how I suffered during the trip. To tell the truth, I was proud to tell her this experience because I thought there were not many females who could do that without much practicing. She listened but showed not much surprise and admiration. Then, one week after I told her, she told me that she also went biking on the same route. I asked her what it was like. She said it was "O.K." It was indeed challenging but she didn't feel worn-out as me. She blamed my sufferings on the foldable bike I rode and she also said that she didn't feel very exhausted because she had some professional friends to tell her when to change gears and speed. She also added that it took practice before you went mountain biking and she had gone biking several times.

I am now telling you my own experience of biking because I want to tell you that you might think that you have done your utmost and you have paid as many efforts as you can to study English but those who do better than you might pay more efforts than you do. Take my biking experience for example. I thought that I had tried my best and used up all my strength. However, my colleague seemed to use only half of her strength to finish the same biking tour. It is not because she is born a better biker than me but because she has practiced more times than I. We can always think that we have done our best but actually other people are doing more than us and that's why they are better than us. So, there is still a lot you can do and there's still something you can improve. If you really think that you have already paid every effort you can and there's no more you can do, maybe you can contemplate whether you are using a right and effective method or not. My colleague had professional friends to teach her some tips so she could do it without much pain while I didn't have any so I suffered a lot. Therefore, if you find your method of studying is not effective, you can consult your teachers or discuss with your classmates to find out a method that is more suitable for youself.....

Then I encourged them to do better next time on English exam and made a deal with them that they have to raise their average grade by 3 points at least. I also told them that if they could improve by 5 points, I would treat them to some goodies. They were glad to make this promise to me and I hope they can really keep the promise, for I had spent so much time telling my story to encourage them in class. I hope my words can really affect them and inspire them.