When I was little, I lived in a house with a beautiful garden full of all kinds of Bowers. There was nothing I enjoyed more than sitting in the garden with my mother reading stories to me. When I was old enough to read, I enjoyed reading stories aloud to her.

I would never forget one day when I was in the third grade. I bad 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 however easily I acted at home, the moment I stepped on stage, every word disappeared from my head. Finally, my teacher took me aside, explaining that she had written a narrator’s (解说员) part to the play, and asked me to change roles. Her word, 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 after school that day. But she sensed my pain. Instead of suggesting we practice my lines, she asked if I wanted to take a walk in the garden.

It was May and roses were blossoming and, under the trees, we could also see yellow dandelions (蒲公英) in the grass, as if a painter had painted our garden with red, yellow and green. 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.” “Yes, every flower is beautiful in its own way, isn’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 to me gently.

Para 1: “But you will be a beautiful narrator,” she said.

Para 2: After the play, I took home the flower.

Jim slumped on the couch. Mother’s Day was coming up, and he didn’t have a present. “How can I buy a present without money?” he thought.

Jim picked up the newspaper that was lying on the couch. He noticed a large advertisement on the front page. The local department store was sponsoring a contest. “Tell us why your mom is special and win a shopping spree(疯狂购物) for her,” said the ad.

“This is perfect!” thought Jim. He ran to his room with the newspaper, taking a pencil and a blank piece of paper from his desk, he started to write.

“My mom is the best mother in the world. She always makes a lunch for me to take to school, and she never forgets my dessert. She reads as many books to me before bed as I want. She always remembers to check under the bed for monsters. And she gives the best hug, but never in front of my friends, who would laugh at me for hugging my mom.”

Jim liked what he had written. He copied it neatly and got an envelope and a stamp from his dad. He ran to the mailbox with his entry(参赛作品), “Mom will love having a shopping spree,” he thought.

Jim checked the mailbox every day for his prize. Days passed by, and then weeks. Soon it was the day before Mother’s Day. Jim still hadn’t heard anything about the contest.

“What am I going to do now?” he wondered. He didn’t have a present, and he didn’t have a shopping spree, and he still didn’t have any money. He had to think of something. Jim closed his eyes and curled his toes and thought so hard that his ears hurt.

Suddenly he had an idea.

The next morning, Jim handed his present to his mom.

A Bowl of Noodles

Jenny was the only child in her home. She had a quarrel with her mother that afternoon and she ran out of the house angrily. She couldn’t help crying sadly when she thought of he scolding from her mother. Having wandered aimlessly in the street for hours, she felt a little hungry and wished for something to eat, but it was not even possible for her, since she had nothing with her. She stood beside a stand for a while, watching the middle-aged seller busy doing his business. However, with no money in hand, she sighed and had to leave.

The seller behind the stand noticed the young girl and asked, “Hey, girl, you want to have the noodles?”

“Oh, yes... but I don’t have money on me...” she replied.

“That’s nothing. I’ll treat you today,” said the man,

“Come in.”

The seller brought her a bowl of noodles, whose smell was so attractive. Jenny thanked the man and started to gobblle (狼吞虎咽) up the delicious food...then cried silently.

“What is it?” asked the man kindly.

“Nothing, actually I was moved by your kindness!” said Jenny as she wiped her tears, “Even a stranger on the street will give me a bowl of noodles, while my mother drove me out of the house. She showed no care for me. She is so mean and cruel!”

Hearing the words, the seller smiled “Girl, do you really think so? I only gave you a bowl of noodles and you thanked me a lot. But it is your mother who has raised you since you were a baby. Can you number the times that she has cooked for you? Have you expressed your thanks to her?”

Jenny sat there, speechless and numb with shock; she remembered her mother’s familiar face and weathered hands. “Why did I not think of that? A bowl of noodles from a stranger made me feel grateful, but I have never thanked my mum for what she has done for me.”

On the way home, Jenny made up her mind to make an apology to her mother for her rudeness as soon as she arrived home.

Approaching the doorway, Jenny took a deep breath.

Her mother came back home, which called her mind back.

Have you ever lost something you borrowed from others? Well, my situation is close to that, but instead of losing what I borrowed, I wrecked it.

I live in San Francisco, where it seldom snows. But if you get in a car and drive a few hours, you’ll arrive at these beautiful snow-covered mountains. Last week, my friend Ollie and his grandmother Mary invited me to go skiing with them. It was colder than I’d expected. Mary offered to lend me her scarf. It was the softest, warmest, most awesome scarf, and Mary had knit (编织) it herself.

“These old knees need a rest!” Mary said after a couple of hours of skiing. “You two go ahead and take another run. I’ll be in the lodge, reading by the fire,”

So Ollie and 1 took one more ride on the ski lift up the mountain. As we looked around at the trees and watched people zipping down the slopes, I said, “This one piece of yarn (毛线) on Mary’s scarf keeps tickling my chin.”

I pulled on the end of the yarn, thinking it was just a loose piece that had separated from the scarf. But the more I pulled, the longer the piece became.

“You’d better stop.” Ollie said, “The scarf is unravelling (散开)!”

When I took off the scarf to see what she meant, I was horrified. “Oh, no! I just turned Mary’s special scarf into half a special scarf and half a big pile of yarn!”

It was one-of-a-kind-thing that I'll never be able to replace! “What am I going to do?” I asked my best friend.

Ollie suggested, “You could say you accidentally dropped it.”

“I hope you’re kidding.” I shook my head.

“You know 1 am joking around,” said Ollie, “Honesty is more important to Mary than anything. You just have to tell her the truth.”

Right then, it was our turn to get off the lift. 1 shoved the wrecked scarf into my jacket pocket and skied extra slowly down the hill to the lodge.

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.

Fifteen years ago, I was born in a big family. I had been taught that money couldn't buy everything ever since I was a little kid. My parents are the most hard-working people I have ever seen. As much as my parents tried to teach me these values, some could only be learned through personal experiences.

As a child, I would sit in the church trying to concentrate on the words of the priest (牧师), but my attention was soon attracted by the shining gold and the diamonds worn by the Saturday churchgoers. As my eyes began to wander, I noticed men dressed in their tailored suits and shirts accompanied by women in their designer dresses with matching handbags and shoes.

My family, on the other hand, was the opposite of rich. Our hand-me-down clothes had been washed so many times that the colors had become dull and lifeless. Although this revealed the money struggles of our large family, our faces were always washed and hair neatly combed. When sitting on the old big red and white truck after the service, I pictured the lives led by those driving their brand-new cars, wishing I would be one of them.

I never stopped those fantasies, even when I was in middle school. Since it was a private school, most of the children came from wealthy families. As a result, I constantly felt ashamed. Although I could hide my lack of wealth at school by wearing our school uniforms, my poverty was embarrassingly apparent on weekends with my classmates wearing designer jeans and I had no choice but to wear my sisters’ old jeans. I never fitted in with my classmates. To my relief, there was only one girl named Julie who opened her heart to me. I was attached to her like a shadow. Soon, her birthday was approaching. Julie invited me to attend her birthday party.

However, I grew upset as I couldn't afford a gift.

When she opened the gift box, my heart was too nervous to beat.

I remember the first time I met Roy. He was telling a joke. When he reached the final line, everyone burst out laughing. “A popular boy,” I thought to myself. My name is Daniel. I was the new boy in the class. There were 33 students in my new class, and most people weren’t very interested in a shy new boy. Roy was kind to me. He often invited me to join his particular group and we became good friends. We trusted each other and we could talk about personal matters.

Five years later, Roy and I were still in the same class. But just a year ago Roy’s father was knocked over by a car. He died a few days later. The family had difficulty with finance. Roy changed completely. He started losing friends, including me.

About three months ago, a group of us were playing football together after school. Having left something in the classroom, I went inside to get it and found Roy going through the pockets of people’s coats. In his hand he had a wallet and I knew it wasn’t his. Roy went bright red. “I will put it back right now,” he said, and he did so. I turned round and walked out without saying a word. I really hoped that Roy would explain why he had been stealing, but instead he started avoiding me.

Last week, our school had a big fair in order to raise money for a charity and we made about ￡500. But to our surprise, the next morning, we were told that the money had been stolen. This morning I decided to ask Roy about the theft so I went to see him. Roy was out. I put his jacket on and put my hands in the pockets. I could feel a lot of notes and I pulled them out. It looked as if there were about ￡500 there. I was so surprised that I just stood there, holding the notes in my hand. And that moment, Roy walked in.

Seeing me standing there with money in my hand, Roy felt panicked (恐慌的).

We went to the head teacher Mrs Smith, together.

John Henderson was driving home late last night from an exhausting business trip. He had put off visiting the company’s new headquarters in order to get home before midnight, and now he was having trouble staying awake. He turned up the radio and tried to concentrate on the news—something about a robbery, but his eyes kept on closing. His wife, Marsha, was back home in Dayton, and he missed having her company on this long trip.

It was then that he noticed the hitchhiker (搭便车者) at the side of the road. Without even thinking about what he was doing, he slowed down and stopped the car. He couldn’t help feeling sorry for the young man who looked so wet and miserable in the rain. “Get in,” he said.

John remembered having to hitchhike home from the university before he had a car. He couldn’t stand sitting at the side of the road for hours, waiting for rides. The hitchhiker got in and immediately John was sorry that he had picked him up. The young man had a strange face and very sharp eyes. His clothes were old and dirty, and his long hair needed cutting. The hitchhiker lit a cigarette and said he was going to Woodsville but when John asked him other questions, the young man avoided giving him any personal information and changed the subject. John began to sweat and his thoughts turned nervously to his wallet and all the money he was carrying on the backseat. He desperately tried to remember what the newscaster had said earlier about a robbery. “Don’t be ridiculous!” He thought to himself. “Stop imagining things! This guy isn’t a criminal. What’s the use of panicking?”

At this moment, John felt like having a cigarette, even though he had quit smoking three months before. He asked his passenger for one but before lighting it, he had to wait for his hands to stop shaking.

“Oh, stop the car!” cried the young man all of a sudden.

The young man looked puzzled, “It is I that am to pay!”.

The young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted.

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his private study. His father said in a loving tone, "My dear son, I am so proud of you. But I hope you can remember: never spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for. Sometimes we don't realize the good fortune we have or we could have because we expect 'the packaging' to be different. What may appear as bad fortune may in fact be the door that is just waiting to be opened." The young man was inattentive (不注意的) to his father's words and responded impatiently. "OK, I know. Now, where is my gift? Dad." His father handed his son a beautiful wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man's name carved in gold. Angrily, he raised his voice to his father and said, "With all your money, you give me a Bible?" He then stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful wife and a lovely son, but realizing his father was very old, he thought perhaps he should go to see him. He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make the arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take charge.

When the young man arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart.

The young man came into his father's private study again and he began to...