George Stephenson was born in 1781 in a poor family. He had to start work when he was only eight. When George was fourteen，he became his father's helper. He spent a lot of time learning about engines. On holidays, he often took one engine into pieces and studied each piece carefully. Soon he became a very good worker though he could not read or write.

    He began to learn the English letters when he was seventeen years old. Every day after he did twelve hours of hard work，he walked a long way to have lessons from a young teacher.

    On his eighteenth birthday, he wrote his own name for the first time in his life. George invented many things in his life. The train was the greatest one among them. Today when we watch or take trains from one place to another, we will think of this great man—George Stephenson.

    A boy and his father were walking in the mountains. Suddenly the boy fell down and hurt himself, so he cried, "AAAhhhhhh!" To his surprise, he heard the voice repeating, somewhere in the mountain, "AAAhhhhhb!" Then the boy shouted back, "Who are you?" He received the answer "Who are you?" He got angry at the answer, so he shouted, "Foolish!" He received the answer, "Foolish!"

    He looked at his father and asked, "What's going on?" The father smiled and said, 'My son, listen. "And then he shouted to the mountain, "I love you!" The voice answered, "I love you!" Again the man cried, "You're the best!" The voice answered, "You're the best!" The boy was surprised, but did not understand.

    Then the father explained, "People call this 'echo', but in fact this is life. It gives you back everything you say or do. Our life is just a reflection(反映)of what we have done. If you want more love in the world, have more love in your heart. If you want to be successful, work hard. This can be used hi everything in life. Life will give you back everything you have given to it."

    Once there was a piece of white and new paper. Children loved playing with it. But one day the paper found itself old and dirty. It was sad.

    Before it knew what was going on, it found itself lying in the dustbin(垃圾箱). It was sad when the worker came and put it into a truck with some other old paper.

    It travelled from day to night, from wind to rain. At last someone put it into a machine with other paper. It quickly got sorted(分类). This was the end! There was so many things it wanted to do, for example, be a book for children. But this was the end. The paper tried to run with other paper, but it failed. In the end, the paper closed its eyes. After some time, it woke up. The paper found it was quiet. The paper looked around and realized it was sitting next to some fresh paper. It looked down at itself. It was clean with a very new white coat.