Mary waited anxiously for her turn in the empty dressing room. Never had she been so nervous before. This competition was of vital importance to her comeback. “If I can win today,” she said to herself, “I can dance on the national stage next month.” Three months ago, her left arm was seriously injured in a car accident. After the medical treatment, she began to recover slowly. She practiced over and over again in order to regain her dancing skills.

“Hi, Mary,” in rushed her friend Jessica “How is your arm? Is it going to influence your performance?”

“I guess it can be tolerated for I am to win the match.” said Mary with a determined look.

“Admirable! But I hear that a girl called Linda is really gifted and strong. She can be your real well-matched competitor. Come on!”

After Jessica left, Mary decided to practice her most difficult spin. “If I don’t try harder, I won’t grasp this chance.” She thought. But her arm began to hurt, making her worried. “Mary, what makes you think you have a chance tonight?” she said to herself. After the pain was gone, she continued to warm up.

A slim girl hurried in and put down an equipment bag on the chair. Then, she took out her dance dress quickly and put it on skillfully. Seeing Mary, she smiled politely and said “Hi, I’m Linda. I am the next one!” Mary nodded in reply but felt uncomfortable. “This is just my competitor. Because of her, I may lose tonight.” Her mind was wandering when Linda let out a scream, “Oh, God, I can’t find my music tape!” Linda searched her bag but in vain. “It may be missing on the way.” With these words, she then rushed out.

A Little Boy

A little boy selling magazines for school walked up to a house that people rarely visited. The house was very old and shabby and the owner hardly ever came out. When he did come out, he would not say hello to his neighbors or passers-by but simply just glared at them.

The boy knocked on the door and waited, sweating from fear of the old man. The boy’s parents told him to stay away from the house, and a lot of other neighborhood children were told the same thing from their parents.

Dusk found the boy lingering on and hesitating what to do. As he was ready to walk away, the door slowly opened. “What do you want?” the old man said impatiently. The little boy was very afraid but he had a quota (定额) to meet for school with selling the magazines. So he got up the courage and said, “Uh, Sir, I am selling these magazines and, uh, I was wondering if you would like to buy one from me.”

The old man just stared at the boy without a word. The boy could see inside the old man’s house and saw that he had dog figurines (小雕像) on the fireplace mantle. “Do you collect dogs?” The little boy asked. “Yes, I have many collections in my house. They are my family here and they are all I have.” The boy then felt sorry for the man, as it seemed that he was a very lonely soul.

“Well, I do have a magazine here for collectors. It is perfect for you. I also have one about dogs since you like dogs so much.” The old man was ready to close the door on the boy and said, “No, boy. I don’t need any magazines of any kind, now goodbye.”

The little boy was sad that he was not going to make his quota with the sale. He was also sad for the old man being so alone in the house that he owned. The boy went home and then had an idea. He had a little dog figurine that he got some years ago from an aunt. The figurine did not mean nearly as much to him since he had a real live dog and a large family.

The little boy headed back down to the old man’s house.

From that day on something changed inside the old man.

6 . Eight years ago. Al Nixon decided to begin each day from a bench with a spectacular view of St. Petersburg’s waterfront in Florida. “I call it ‘life rising’ because watching a sunrise makes me feel positive and centered before I start my day,” says Nixon, who works for the city’s water department. It is Nixon’s own version of daily motivation.

A year later, a woman stopped to say hello, and she said something that changed his perspective on his daily ritual. “She said, ‘You know, every morning when I see you sitting here, I know that everything is going to be OK,’” Nixon recalls. “That was when I knew: I needed to pay attention to the people walking past. I needed to make eye contact and let people know that we matter to each other.”

Instead of staring straight ahead at the waterfront, Nixon started smiling at people and striking up conversations. And pretty soon, more than a few early risers began joining him on the bench, sometimes unburdening themselves and telling him their relationship, career or personal problems. “I was happy to listen. I wanted them to walk away knowing they didn’t have to feel lonely,” Nixon, now 59, says. “When you’re in your 50s and 60s or beyond, a lot of people feel their purpose hasn’t been fulfilled. At this stage in life, this is definitely my purpose.”

So, every morning, weather permitting, Nixon rises at 4:30 a. m. He puts on a hat, sips a cup of coffee, and then drives seven miles to the waterfront, where he’ll stay for two hours. His presence, his openness to listen and his kindness towards strangers have led them to nickname him the Sunshine Mayor.

No matter what problem a person wants to air, Nixon lends an ear. But some people just sit down and don’t want to talk or share stories. They simply want to sit next to someone and share the silence. “A woman stopped once and said, ‘I just want to sit here with you,’” Nixon recalls. “We stared at the water for an hour, and then she said thank you and walked away. She just wanted a moment of peace and to know she wasn’t alone. And in that moment, in that hour, on that morning, she truly wasn’t.”

7 . “Just sign here, sir,” the deliveryman said as he handed Oscar Reyna a package.

The package consisted of a long, narrow box ____ wrapped in brown paper. ____ the box, Oscar saw an umbrella inside—a very old one with a beautifully carved wooden handle. ____ he had not seen it in more than 20 years, he recognised it immediately.

Oscar was 16 when he first saw the____ umbrella. He had gone to a concert with his grandparents. As they were leaving, he noticed an umbrella on an empty seat. Impressed by its beauty, Oscar felt a strong desire to find its ____.

Oscar ____ the manager to look in the record of advance ticket sales. Just as he thought, a name matched the seat ____ Oscar had found the umbrella. The name was Mrs. Katie O’Brien.

Oscar talked his grandparents into going by Mrs. O’Brien’s house on their way home. He rang the bell, the door opened, and an elderly woman appeared. “May I ____ you?” she asked.

“I’d like to return it if it’s yours,” Oscar said, ____ the umbrella as if presenting a gift that had long been wished for.

“Why, yes! It’s mine,” replied Mrs. O’Brien with a ____ smile and shining eyes. “It was given to me by my father years ago. Thank you so much for returning it. May I offer you a reward for your ____?”

“No, ma’am,” he said. “My grandmother says that a good deed is its own reward.”

“Well, that’s ____ what my father used to say. What is your name, young man?”

Years later Oscar was staring at the finely carved handle of the umbrella as he remembered Mrs. O’Brien. It was in perfect condition, considering how ____ it was. Why had it arrived here today?

As if ____, a note fell from the paper. It read: Mrs. O’Brien wanted you to accept this umbrella as a present for a kind, ____ gesture long ago.

Pinty Tailor was a little boy who enjoyed going to school and doing all sorts of things, except for art and writing. Using brushes and pencils did not come easy to Pinty, so his works of art did not end happily, and he would just give up in disgust. But one day Pinty found a pencil of such lovely colours that he could not resist, and he tried drawing a circle. As ever, it did not go well, and he was about to throw the pencil away when his drawing began to speak to him. “Psst! You aren’t going to leave me like this, are you? Come on, the least you can do is draw me a pair of eyes!” said the drawing. Pinty was understandably shocked, but he managed to draw two little spots inside the circle. “Much better, now I can see myself,” said the circle, looking around at itself… “Arghh! But what have you done to me?!” “I don’t draw very well,” said Pinty, trying to make excuses. “OK, no problem,” the drawing interrupted him, “I’m sure that if you try again you’ll do better. Go on, rub me out!” So Pinty erased the circle and drew another one. Like the first one, it was not very round. “Hey! You forgot the eyes again!” “Oh, yeah.” “Hmmm, I think I’m going to have to teach you how to draw until you can do me well,” said the circle with its quick, high-pitched little voice. To Pinty, who remained almost paralysed with shock, this did not seem like a bad idea, and he immediately found himself drawing and erasing circles. The circle would not stop saying “rub this out, but carefully; it hurts,” or “draw me some hair, quickly, I look like a lollipop (棒棒糖)!” and other funny remarks.

After spending nearly the whole afternoon together, Pinty could already draw the little figure much better than most of his classmates could have. He was enjoying it so much that he did not want to stop drawing with this crazy new teacher of his. Before going to bed that night, Pinty gave his new instructor a hearty “thank you” for having taught him how to draw so well.