【推荐3】Most people will rest and relax when they are old. They do not work. But Grandma Moses is different. She started a new job at the age of 70. She was born in a poor farmer’s family in 1860. Her parents named her Anna Mary Robertson. She married Thomas Moses in 1887. He was a farm worker.

It was 1930. Anna Mary Moses was 70, and was a grandmother. She began to paint pictures. She did paintings of country life. One day, her daughter took her paintings to a store in the town. Her paintings were put in the window. A man from New York saw the paintings in the window and bought them. And he wanted more!

The man liked Grandma Moses’s paintings. He wanted to help her. So he took her paintings to galleries(美术馆) in New York City. Otto Kallir had a famous gallery there. He liked the paintings by Grandma Moses. It was 1940 and Grandma Moses’ paintings were in Kallir’s gallery. She was 80 years old.

Grandma Moses suddenly became famous. Everyone wanted her paintings. So she painted more and more. She won many prizes for her paintings. She become famous in the United States and Europe. When she was 100 years old, the State of New York made her birthday “Grandma Moses’ Day”. After her 100th birthday, she painted 6 more paintings. She died at the age 101 and a lot of people thought she was amazing.

【推荐2】When I was young, I lived on an island in the north of Scotland, but I went to school in Edinburgh. It was a music school, and I studied the violin. We practiced for six hours every day. Our school was a boarding school. At the end of the term, we all packed our bags and our instruments to go home for the holidays. Most kids went by train, or bus, or their parents took them home by car. Not me! I went home by ferry (渡船) — 14 hours overnight on the open sea. I loved it!

One summer I packed my suitcase and violin and said goodbye to my friends. I took the train to the ferry station and then got on the ferry. When we started moving away, I remembered a terrible thing! I left my violin on the train! I went to ask one of the crew (船员) what to do, but he said he couldn’t stop the ferry for me.

What should I do? What would my dad say? He’d be really angry! I was worried, and didn’t sleep all night. The next morning I got off the ferry to meet my dad. I didn’t want to look at him. I told him what happened. He laughed. I looked at him and couldn’t believe it. Why was he laughing?

In my violin case, I always have a label with my address and a telephone number. My dad told me, “A cleaner found your violin by the label on the train in London and took it to the police. They called me. They put the violin on a plane and it arrived an hour before you did.” My dad had it in his car! Thanks to those people, my violin was safe home!

【推荐3】As Teachers’ Day approached, I received an interview assignment to talk with a very special figure about teaching. President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam talked with me about life’s toughest lessons and his mission of being a teacher to the Indian youth. He was now a leader and a wise old man. There was still a child in him though, and he was still curious about learning new things. To this day, he still remembered his first lesson in life and how it had changed his life.

“I was studying in fifth grade and must have been 10 years old. My teacher, Sri Sivasubramanialyer was telling us how birds flew. He drew a diagram of a bird on the blackboard, drawing the wings, the tail, the body and the head and then explained how birds flew into the sky. At the end of the class, I said I didn’t understand. Then he asked the other students if they had understood, but nobody had understood how birds flew.” he recalled.

“That evening, the entire class was taken to Rameshwaram shore by our teacher,” the President continued. “My teacher showed us sea birds. We saw wonderful formations of them flying and how their wings waved. Then my teacher asked us, ‘Where is the bird’s engine and how is it powered?’ I knew then that birds are powered by their own life and motivation. I understood all about birds’ dynamics. At last, he said to us with relief that we were very good.”

“That day from not understanding to the final understanding, as well as the gratitude to the teacher, has always impressed me. A proper education would help develop a sense of dignity (尊严) and self-respect among our youth,” said President Kalam.