Years ago, there was an old man who loved his young son very much. And the old man had a lot of art collections, such as the works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet and many others.

As war broke out in their nation, the son became a soldier and left to serve his country. Only a few weeks later, the old man received a message that his son died in the war.

On Christmas morning, a soldier knocked on the door and said, “I am a friend of your son. He saved my life before he died. I am also an artist, and I want to give you this painting that I drew in the war.” It was a portrait (画像) of the man's son.

The old man told his neighbors it was the greatest gift he had ever received. The following spring, the old man became ill and passed away. According to the will of the old man, all of the art works would be sold at an auction (拍卖会)  on Christmas Day, the day he had received his greatest gift.

On Christmas Day the auction began with the portrait of the old man's son, The auctioneer (拍卖师) asked for an opening bid (竞价), but the room was silent. Finally, a friend of the old man said, “Will I take $10 for the painting? That's all I have.” The gavel (小木槌) fell.

The auctioneer looked at the audience and announced that the auction was over. He explained, “It is very easy. According to the will of the father, whoever takes the portrait of his son gets all his art collections.”

    In our daily life, we always come to the question “What is the real beauty?” . Different people have different ideas. Last night, I read a true story from the newspaper. It's about a poor, ordinary looking old woman. She lived alone, making a living by picking things from rubbish heaps (垃圾堆). However, she took in more than ten homeless children and tried to bring them up .Every day she worked from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. In order to earn as much money as possible to raise the children and to keep them in school, she even went to a local hospital to sell her blood(血) once a month. She got so weak because of the loss of blood that she sometimes felt sick on her way home. When asked why she chose to take care of so many children, she smiled and answered,“Oh, I love children and I like to live together with them because they always bring me great happiness.” Though the old woman was poor, she was full of love and rich in spirit.So the local government and people in her city truly respected her. Maybe you can't help thinking,“What makes that poor woman so different?” It is nothing else but her inner (内部的) beauty, her true devotion of love without any thought of money. So the real beauty is the beauty in one's heart, that is, the inner beauty!

    Mr. Brown is 75 years old. He lives in a small village(村庄). Mr. Brown has three sons, David, Jeff and Stefan. They work in big cities. And they don't come to see Mr Brown very often.

    The sons feel sorry for their father, so they built(建造) a big house for Mr. Brown. And they give him much money(钱). But it doesn't make Mr. Brown happy. He always feels lonely.

    There is a school next to Mr. Brown's house. Some students often come and visit Mr. Brown. He says, "I don't want money. I want love. And the students give it to me. Love is not money. Love is company(陪伴)."

    Once Mr. King had a cat, and he loved it very much. He called it" sky", because he thought "sky" was the strongest name in the world.

    One day he had a meal at a restaurant with his cat.

    He met his old friend. He told him about his lovely cat and its name. His friend said, " How foolish you are！Sky is not the strongest thing in the world. My cat is called' cloud' because cloud is stronger than sky." After hearing this, Mr. King called his cat "wind" because he thought wind was stronger than cloud.

    After a few days he suddenly（突然）thought that" wall" was stronger than wind. And" mouse（老鼠）" was stronger than wall. So he went to his friend to ask for an idea. His friend said. "Don't you think cat is stronger than mouse?" "Yes, but."

    The man thought and thought and then decided his cat's name had better be" cat" because a mouse was always afraid of a cat.

Do you think Mr. King is very silly（傻的）or funny?