“Were you Mark’s math teacher?” An old man came to my office and asked. I nodded. “Mark talked about you a lot. I want to show you something,” he said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. “They found this on him when he was killed in the battle. We thought you might recognize it.”

Opening the wallet, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. I knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which I had listed all the good things each of Mark’s classmates had said about him. And that happened 20 years ago.

Mark was in the third grade class I taught. All 34 of my students were dear to me, but Mark was one in a million. Very neat in appearance, he had that happy-to-be-alive attitude that made even his occasional misbehavior delightful.

Mark also talked without stopping. I tried to remind him again and again that talking without permission was unacceptable. What impressed me so much, though, was the sincere response every time I had to correct him for misbehaving. “Thank you for correcting me, Sister!” I didn’t know what to make of it at first but before long I became accustomed to hearing it many times a day.

One morning my patience was growing thin when Mark talked once too often. I made a new-teacher’s mistake. I looked at Mark and said, “If you say one more word, I am going to tape your mouth shut!”

It wasn’t ten seconds later when Chuck shouted, “Mark is talking again.” I hadn’t asked any of the students to help me watch Mark, but since I had stated the punishment in front of the class, I had to act on it.

There was something in the elderly woman’s grace（优雅）that caught my eye. Although slow and unsure of her steps, the woman moved with deliberation（从容），and there was no hesitation in her gestures.

It was a few years ago, and I had taken a part-time holiday-season job in a video store at the local shopping mall. From inside the store, I could see the people outside rushing by.

The elderly woman entered the store, along with her daughter, who was displaying a serious case of impatience, rolling her eyes, sighing and checking her watch every few seconds. I guessed if she had possessed a rope, she would have fastened it to her mother to drag her along to keep step with the rush of other shoppers.

The elderly woman separated from her daughter and began to seek through the DVDs on the nearest shelf. After the slightest hesitation, I walked over and asked if I could help her find something. The woman smiled up at me and showed me a title written on an old piece of paper.

Rather than rush off to locate the DVD for the woman, I asked her to walk with me so I could show her where she could find it. Looking back, I thought I wanted to enjoy her company for a moment.

Something about her deliberate movements reminded me of my own mother, who'd passed away the previous Christmas. I missed my mom and still felt regretful about the moments when I’d used my impatience to make her life unhappy.

As we walked along the back of the store, I introduced its floor plan: old television shows, action movies, cartoons, science fiction. The woman seemed glad of the unrushed company and casual conversation.

We found the DVD and she thanked me, saying that it was the one she’d enjoyed when she was her daughter’s age. Unwillingly, I accompanied her to the cash register. I realized I had to return the elderly woman to her daughter, who was still tapping her foot at the front of the store.

Reading a book and watching a film are two very different experiences, but it’s normal to have high expectations when a film of a favourite book is made. There are very many times I have been disappointed by a film of a book I love. The films can be adapted from classic novels, short stories, comic books and stage plays, as well as non-fictions, even those written by ghostwriters. All can work well, but why do many adaptations fail with both cinema audiences and critics?

A key question is obviously how close to the original the film is. Since a typical film is only around two hours long, it becomes a question for the screenwriters to decide what to leave out and how to write the dialogue. Sometimes there may be changes to the plot, additions, and even different endings. I, like many people, have often left the cinema feeling “the film is not like the book”.

Another problem is the cast. Finding actors acceptable to film audiences can mean the difference between success and failure. Readers have their imaginations about how characters look and sound. This is where I think many film adaptations fall down.

Some books are just too difficult to film for technical reasons, although movies like The Life of Pi are very successful. CGI (Computer Generated Image) technology has had a huge impact on the movie industry. It allowed the previously unfilmable to become a reality.

One may think that it is the book writer who is in the best position to do film adaptations. In fact, this can actually be a bad thing because they may be too close to the material and find it difficult to adapt. Also, some writers have been very unsatisfied with the film versions of their work. Roald Dahl and Stephen King are examples of this. For me, anyway, it is always a bad idea to watch a film of a book you love.