4 . In the cold and plain living room, Matt is sitting in his chair. His eyes don’t shine anymore. His skin is wrinkled (有皱纹的) and pale. He looks extremely old and weak. Today is his birthday, and he is by himself. The only thing that he has been doing all day is thinking about how sad and lonely his life is. As he was looking at some old pictures, he found one special with him and his friends from college. This picture brought back the days when he had friends and his life was full of happiness. Also, it brought him a sad memory. This memory happened forty years ago, during his last year of college.

Through college, Matt has a friend named Mark. Mark was tall and thin. He wore a thick glass. He was shy, smart and responsible. Also, Mark didn’t have as many friends as Matt did. He considered Matt as his best friend. As good friends, Matt and Mark went bowling together, they knew everything about each other, and they hung out. Also, they overcame many problems together. They were really good friends.

On his twenty-fourth birthday their life changed. On the night before Matt’s birthday, Mark called Matt, but his voice sounded strange. He said, “I have an important project to work on. I am having some problems with this. Maybe, you could come over and help me with it. Could you?” Matt asked, “What time?” Mark kept in silence for a minute, then he said, “Is 8 p.m. good for you?” Then Matt answered, “OK! See you later.” At the night, it was Matt’s birthday. So, he didn’t want to spend his birthday helping Mark with his project. Matt went to a club with some other guys.

A man came home from work late, tired and unhappy, to find his 5—year—old son waiting for him at the door. How the boy wished to have fun with his father at home even for a short time.

“Daddy, may I ask you a question?”

“Yeah sure. what is it?” replied the man.

“Daddy, how much do you make an hour?”

“That’s none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?” the man said angrily.

“I just want to know. Please tell me. How much do you make an hour?” pleaded the little boy.

“If you must know, I make $20 an hour.”

“Oh,” the little boy replied with the head down.

Looking up, he said. “Daddy, may I please borrow $10?

The father was angry. “If the only reason you asked that is that you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard every day for such childish behavior.”

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s questions. “How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?” he thought to himself.

After about an hour or so, the man calmed down, and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he really didn’t ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door. “Are you asleep, son?” he asked.

“No, daddy, I’m awake.” replied the boy.

I’ve been thinking. maybe I was too hard on you earlier,” said the man. “It has been a long day and I took out my anger on you. Here’s the $10 you asked for.”

The little boy sat straight up, smiling. “Oh. Thank you, daddy!” he shouted. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled(皱巴巴的)bills.

Once there was a little boy called Adam who came from a rich family. He was a young student at primary school and was very clever. He always gained good marks in his exams.

Adam got everything he wanted, such as toy cars, airplane models, water guns and so on. His parents bought him whatever he wanted. One day he went out to a store with his mother and in the toy section he found a very cool toy car. He was surprised to see that kind of toy car, so he ran to his mother and told her everything about it. Adam took his mother to the toy section to show how it worked. However, his mother refused to buy it for him because he already had a lot of toy cars. Adam was sad and wondered why his mother did not buy it for him.

Two weeks later, Adam and his mother went to the same store again. Adam thought that his mother would buy it for him this time, so he asked his mother for the toy car again. His mother ignored him because she was looking for something else. But Adam really wanted the toy car.

So, while his mother was busy looking for some other items, he took the toy car and put it inside his backpack. The salesman saw Adam stealing the toy car and tried to stop him. Adam tried to run but the salesman caught him. Adam started to cry. His mother heard his voice and ran to him. She was shocked to see the salesman holding her son.

“what happened?”she asked with concern.

After they got home, Adam went to his room and regretted having done that.

I grew up in a small town where the primary school was a ten-minute walk from my house. When the noon bell rang, I would race breathlessly home. My mother would be standing at the top of the stairs, smiling down at me.

One lunchtime when I was in the third grade will stay with me always. I had been picked to be the princess in the school play, and for weeks my mother had rehearsed (排练) my lines so hard with me. But no matter how easily I acted at home, as soon as I stepped onstage, every word disappeared from my head. Finally, my teacher took me aside. She explained that she had written a narrator’s (旁白的) part to the play, and asked me to change roles. Her words, kindly expressed, still hurt, especially when I saw my part go to another girl.

I didn’t tell my mother what had happened when I went home for lunch that day. But she sensed my pain. Instead of suggesting we practice my lines, she asked if I wanted to walk in the yard.

It was a lovely spring day and the rose vine (藤蔓) was turning green. Under the huge trees, we could see yellow dandelions (蒲公英) in the grass in bunch, as if a painter had touched our landscape with gold. I watched my mother casually bend down by one dandelion. “I think I’m going to dig up all these weeds,” she said, pulling it up by its roots. “From now on, we’ll have only roses in this garden.”

“But I like dandelions,” I protested. “All flowers are beautiful-even dandelions.”

My mother looked at me seriously. “Yes, every flower gives pleasure in its own way, doesn’t it?” She asked thoughtfully. I nodded, pleased that I had won her over. “And that is true of people too,” she added. “Not everyone can be a princess, but there is no shame in that.” Relieved that she had guessed my pain, I started to cry as I told her what had happened. She listened and smiled.

“But you will be a beautiful narrator,” she said, encouraging and comforting me as usual.       

After the play, I took home the flower.

An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year-old son. Suddenly a crow (乌鸦) landed on their window.

The father asked his son, “What is this?” The son replied, “This is a crow.”

After a few minutes, the father asked his son for the second time, “What is this?” The son said, “Father, I told you just now. It’s a crow.”

After a little while, the father asked his son the same question for third time, “What is this?” This time, the son was irritated (生气) and said to his father in a low and cold tone, “It’s a crow, a crow.”

After a moment, the father yet again asked his son for the fourth time, “What is this?” This time his son shouted in his father, “Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again? I have told you already, ‘It’s a crow’. Are you not able to understand this?”

A minute later the father went to his room and came back with an old tattered(破旧的) diary, which he had kept since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page. When the read it, the following words were written in the diary:

“Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa when a crow suddenly landed on the window edge. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied him 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question. I didn’t at all feel annoyed, but instead felt a deep affection for my innocent son.”

After reading the diary,the son was in tears and began to reflect on the days when he used to sit together with his father.

Feeling ashamed, the son got down on his knees before his father.