Ou Pingqin was a teacher in a special school (for deaf and mute (聋哑) students), who has recently been considered the Most Beautiful Teacher in China.

After graduating from a college, she went to this school alone and worked there for nearly twenty years. The headmaster of the school said, “She worked hard and taught well. She was a backbone teacher in our school. She was also the most welcome teacher among the students. For students, she was like a mother. They called her Little Mother.”

One day, when she was talking with her students in the dormitory (宿舍). It looked as if something heavy would fall off. It was dangerous. At that time, without any hesitation (犹豫), she pushed two students away, but she was hit heavily. However, she continued working with great pain later.

One of her office mates said, “Ou Pingqin was not only a teacher but also a mother to her students in her class. She cared about their studies and even their life. She was very strict in her work.”

A student’s parent said, “She was very warm-hearted. My son lost his father who supported the family. Every month, the teacher gave him 100 yuan to buy books from her own income (收入).” She gave all her life to the teaching and her students, but she didn’t marry when she died at the age of 36.

Ou Pinqin’s deeds have drawn much attention in the country. She was the students’ Little Mother, but gave them great love.

Penny was a five-year-old girl. One day when she and her mother were in a store, Penny saw a plastic pearl necklace (珍珠项链). What a beautiful necklace! She wanted it very much, so she begged (乞求) her mother to buy it for her. The mother said, “Well, I can buy you the necklace, but when we get home, we should discuss what you can do to pay for it. Can we do that?” Penny agreed with much happiness, and she got the necklace.

How much Penny loved the necklace! She wore it everywhere and every minute. Penny also did part-time jobs to make pocket money. She worked very hard. Soon she succeeded in paying off the price for the necklace.

Penny’s dad knew how she tried her best to get the necklace. He also knew how much Penny eared about it.   One night, he asked Penny if she loved him. “Sure, Dad.” the little girl said. “Then how about giving me your necklace?” “Oh, no, Dad! Not my necklace! Penny cried. “Oh, dear, it’s fine. Her father gave her a kiss.

Several days later. Penny went to her dad, with her lips (嘴唇) trembling (颤抖). “Here, Dad. I love you.” She held out her hand. Inside it was the plastic pearl necklace that she loved so much.

When he saw this, Penny’s father smiled with surprise. He then pulled a cute box out of his pocket. Inside the box was a real and colorful pearl necklace, which was waiting for Penny for so long.

Now people depend more on the Internet to store information. Do people remember less? If you know your computer will store information, why do you put it in your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what and how we remember.

In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow did some experiments（实验）. She and her team wanted to know if the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts and then stored them into a computer. The first group of people were told that the computer had stored the information. But the second group didn’t know that. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.

In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the Internet. The information was in a certain computer folder（文件夹）. Surprisingly, people later remember the folder’s location（位置） better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Instead, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory（交互记忆）”.

According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories, that is, people are learning how to organize a great deal of information so that they are able to find it at a later date. This doesn’t mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.