Ali and his younger sister, Zahra, lived with their parents in a poor neighborhood. Their mother was very sick and their father was struggling to find a job, and they had only a little money with which to buy food. As they had not paid the rent for several months, the landlord was breathing down their necks.

One day, Ali took Zahra's shoes to a shoe repairman to be fixed, but he lost them on the way home. It wasn’t until he got home that he realized he had lost the shoes. He was afraid that his parents would be angry and disappointed, so he begged his sister to keep it a secret. Zahra agreed and the two decided to share Ali’s running shoes. Zahra's school hours were in the morning, so she would wear them first. After school, she would rush back and give them to Ali. He could then run to his school, which began in the afternoon. Although he ran as fast as he could, Ali often arrived late and was warned by the school.

Ali heard about a long distance race that was held for the boys in the city.When he learned that the third prize was a new pair of shoes, he decided to take part. He ran home excitedly and promised his sister that he would win her the new shoes.

The day of race arrived. Ali had a strong start, but halfway through the race he began to get tired and his legs began to ache. Getting more and more exhausted he thought only of Zahra and his promise to her. Dreaming of the new shoes he would win for his sister gave him strength, and he stayed right behind the two fastest runners, determined to finish third. Suddenly, as the finish line drew near, another runner collided(碰撞) with Ali from behind and he crashed to the ground.

Ali looked up and saw the other boys rushing ahead.

Filled with delight, Ali walked home quickly.

It took place in a teacher’s family. One day, Ben was playing basketball in the living room after school, when he accidentally threw the ball at a vase sitting on the shelf. The vase dropped to the floor and a large piece broke off. What made Ben more upset was that the vase was not a common decoration but an antique (古董), which was handed down through generations from the 18th century. It was also his mother’s favourite possession. To cover his terrible action, the terrified boy glued the pieces together hurriedly and put the vase back to its place.

As the mother herself dusted the vase every day, she naturally noticed the cracks (裂纹) that evening. To her surprise, the repair work was actually very good. At dinner time, she asked her boy if he broke the vase. Fearing punishment, the suddenly inspired boy said that a neighbour’s cat jumped in from the window and he couldn’t drive it away no matter how hard he tried. It raced around the living room and finally knocked the vase off its shelf. His mother was quite clear that her son was lying, for all the windows were closed before she left for work each morning and opened after she returned. However, in the face of her son’s nervous eyes and the suspicious looks of the other family members, Ben’s mother remained calm. She realized she shouldn’t just simply blame and punish her son for lying. She came up with another idea.

Before going to bed, the boy found a note from his mother in his room, asking him to go to the study at once. The boy thought he would now be punished but, as he had already lied, he was determined to deny everything to the end, no matter how angry his mum became.

In the study, calmly bathed in the light, his mothers face showed no sign of anger. On seeing her son push open the door and cautiously enter, she took a chocolate box out of a drawer and gave him one.

The mother said, “This chocolate is a reward for your imagination: a window-opening cat!”

Now with some chocolates in hand, the boy’s bad attitude disappeared.

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid named Kyle from my class walking home from school with all of his books. I thought to myself, “Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Thursday? He must really be a nerd (书呆子).” Thinking of a football game with my friend the next day, I shrugged (耸肩) my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and he fell down in the dirt. His glasses went flying and landed in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes. My heart went out to him. So, I rushed towards the kids shouting “Hey! Leave him alone!”

I jogged over to him and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw tears in his eyes. As I handed him his glasses, I said, “They shouldn’t have done that.” He looked at me and said, “Hey, thanks!” There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me. We talked all the way home, and I carried his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play football on Saturday with me and my friends. He said yes. We hung all that weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. Graduation day was around the corner. As the top student of our class, Kyle was to deliver a speech on the graduation day. I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So, I patted him on the back and said, “Hey, don’t worry. You’ll be great!” He looked at me and smiled. I knew that we would always be friends.

On the graduation day, I saw Kyle and he looked great.

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met.

My father asked me to chat with him for a while. Actually, I was unwilling to listen to his talking endlessly as he always did. My father was a lawyer, but I never wanted to go to law school or follow his path through life.

As was expected, he cleared his throat and started to say, “Er … What … What do you really want to do in the beautiful future?”

I was silent for a moment playing with the cell phone. I kept thinking, “Should I tell him my true thoughts? What if he gets angry? What if I let him down?” Later I replied, “Well, I want to be a writer.”

I guessed this may not be the answer he would expect. But surprisingly, “Interesting idea!” he answered. I was shocked, speaking in a low voice with hesitation.

“Are you serious, Dad?”

“Well, you need confidence and good preparations, and you still have plenty of time. You need to find out what you really enjoy now. Look, it’s late. Let’s take the boat out tomorrow morning, just you and me. Maybe we can catch some crabs (螃蟹) for dinner, and we can talk more.”

Early next morning we packed up the equipment and set off along the coast. We didn’t talk much, but enjoyed the sound of the seabirds and the sight of the coastline.

There were no big waves and blinding sunlight at that time. “Let’s see if we get lucky,” he said, picked up a web basket with a rope tied and threw it into the sea. We waited a while. Then my father stood up and said, “Give me a hand with this,” and we pulled up the crab cage onto the deck.

To our joy, the cage was filled with dozens of soft shell crabs. Squatting (蹲) down, we watched them for a moment. At first they fought against each other to climb out hard, trying to escape. Many were pulled back into the cage. Later, some gave up, but there were still some crabs trying to escape again and again.

At that moment, my father pointed to the cage, “Look at that crab, there!” Staring at the crab, I found that every time he wanted to escape, he was pulled back into the cage. However, he didn’t give up his fight. Fortunately, he survived from the struggle eventually. Shocked and amazed, I suddenly understood why my father had suggested catching crabs that morning. I thought the future would be filled with many possibilities. Everyone would need to find out what he enjoys and hold on to it.

When Monty Roberts was a little boy, his father, struggling to support the family, would go from farm to farm and ranch (牧场) to ranch, training horses. As a result, the boy’s high school career was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up.

That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of someday owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings, the stables, and the track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4, 000-square-foot house that would sit on a 200-acre dream ranch.

He put a great deal of his heart into the project and the next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a large red “F” with a note that read, “See me after class.”

The boy with the dream went to see the teacher and asked, “Why did I receive an F?”

The teacher said, “This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You come from a poor horse-training family. You have no money nor any resources. Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for the reproduction of horses and later you have to pay for more facilities. There's no way you could ever do it.” Then the teacher added, “If you will rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.”

After going home, he thought about it long and hard, and decided to talk with his father.

The next day, he went to his teacher and said, “Miss Smith, I'll keep my dream anyway.”

During my first seven semesters as a medical student at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, I spent most of my time studying in classrooms and I rarely spoke with real patients in a hospital setting．

Then I started visiting the neurology ward（神经内科病房）at Dr．Sardjito Hospital, where I was gathering data for my paper．At the hospital I would review the medical records of newly admitted stroke patients, and interview them to find out if they took the pills．

One cold, rainy evening last October, I was in the hospital desperately "hunting" for the final three patients I needed to complete my study．The records showed that there was a 43-year-old stroke patient, whom I will call Ms A．Holding a patient questionnaire, I walked towards her room．Ms A was lying on bed 4B, clearly still weak．There were no nurses, relatives or friends with her．I sat down on a chair next to her, and asked how she was doing．She softly replied that she was getting better．When I told her that I wanted to gather some information from her, she agreed．

After I finished, I prepared to leave so that I could go through more medical records．Before I could stand up, Ms A spoke up in her weak voice, "T haven't seen you here before, doc．Are you new?" "Not really．I don't come here every day," I replied．She started making conversation, asking why I was working so late in the evening．I was surprised someone in her condition would want to talk．

Soon Ms A started talking about herself．She told me that she had three children in primary school, who were staying with a neighbour．"My husband died a year ago and I'm the sole breadwinner of my family," said she．

I didn't know what to say.

A single tear suddenly fell from the corner of her eye.