【推荐2】A poor traveller stopped under a tree to eat the rice and vegetables which he had brought with him. A few metres away, there was a small shop by the side of the road where a woman was frying fish and selling it to travellers who were able to afford to pay for it. This woman watched the poor traveller carefully, and when he finished his food and began to go, she shouted rudely, “You have not paid me for the fried fish!”

“But I have not had your fried fish!”

“But everyone can see that you enjoyed the smell of my fried fish with your rice and vegetables,”argued the woman. “If you had not smelled the fish, your meal would not have been eaten so pleasantly!”

Soon a crowd collected. Although they supported the poor traveller, they had to agree that the wind was blowing from the shop to the place where he had eaten, and that it had carried the smell   of the fried fish to him.

Finally, the woman took the poor traveller to a judge(法官), who said, “The woman says that the traveller ate his meal with the smell of her fish. The traveller agrees that the wind was blowing from the woman’s shop to the place where he ate his rice and vegetables and that it carried the smell of her fried fish to his nose while he was eating, so he must pay for it. What does your fried fish cost?”

“Twenty-five cents a plate,” she answered happily.

“Then go outside together,” said the judge. “There the traveller must hold up a 25-cent piece so that its shadow(影子) falls on the woman’s hand. The price of the smell of a plate of fried fish is the shadow of 25 cents.”

【推荐1】It was my first full-time job as a teacher in a high school in Riverside, California. The Department Chair told me that I would teach a writing class. I felt very confident.

It was my first class. When I entered the classroom, I was surprised. These kids looked too tall and mature（成熟的）to be high school students! I still didn’t have a list of names, so I started by talking with them and asking questions. Everything was fine until I noticed a tall boy eating a piece of cake. Rule 1, clearly written on the board, was “NO FOOD OR DRINK IN CLASS”. I got a little mad and asked him to read the rule out aloud. He did so and he got mad too!

I asked him, “Did you understand what you read?” This made him even madder.

“Yes, I did.”

“Well, then, what were you doing just now?”

“I was eating a piece of cake,” he looked at me angrily.

“Well, get up, go outside and throw the cake away.”

And then both of us made a mistake. He said, “Here, I don’t even want it.” Then he put the piece of cake in my hand. The icing（糖衣）of the cake went among my fingers, making a real mess. I was so mad that I hit the cake on his hair!

The class started laughing and clapping. Somebody got up, went to the board and wrote “Teacher - 1; Mark - 0”. I didn’t know whether I was supposed to laugh or not, but I couldn’t help it. And then, Mark got up and left.

The story was all over the school later. Some students came to me and said, “I hear that terrible things will happen if somebody tries to eat cake in your class!” Oh, how embarrassing!

Now I still teach, but I’m much better at dealing with students.

【推荐3】During my time abroad in college, I traveled to 15 countries in Europe, and it completely changed my life. It changed my view (看法) of the world and of my life goals. So with that experience I always knew I wanted to travel more. During school breaks and right after graduation, I took three other long backpacking trips around Asia, the Middle East, and Europe again. I realized I had visited 50 countries. My goal was to visit 100 countries by the time I was 30. For whatever reason, I thought that sounded cool. I ended up achieving that goal at about 25.

In 2006, I got an email from a friend saying that there was actually a record of the youngest to visit every country in the world. I assessed (估算) how long it would take me to beat the record and planned where I had to go. Even if I didn’t beat the record, it’d still be fun and I’d get to see the whole world. It turned out that it was a great decision, and I had done so much around the world. I became the youngest American to visit every country in 2011.

But like most people, I also needed to make money, so I got a Wall Street job and did pretty well. But in 2008, I resigned (辞职) my position in a large Wall Street company. It happened right before the collapses (倒闭) of several large companies, so it made me look smart, but it was pure coincidence (巧合). I didn’t resigned to achieve my goal. I resigned because I needed a break.