Michael Jordan was born on February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York. Jordan is the fourth of the five children in his family. His family moved to North Carolina when he was just a baby. As a young boy, his favourite sport was baseball, but he soon found that he could play basketball as well. At the age of 17, he began to show people just how talented he really was. Throughout his basketball career, Michael Jordan has won many scoring titles. Many boys and girls look up to Michael Jordan as their hero. Do you know he has a hero, too, when he was growing up? He looks up to his older brother, Larry. Michael Jordan, a basketball superstar, is not just a star on the basketball court. He also works hard to raise money for many children's charities. He encourages children to develop their talents by practice, practice, and practice!

    Ali, who was working a long way from home wanted to send a letter to his wife, but he could neither read nor write, and he had to work all day, so he could only look for somebody to write his letter late at night. At last he found the house of a letter writer whose name was Nasreddin.

    Nasreddin was already in bed. "It is late," he said. "What do you want?" "I want you to write a letter to my wife," said Ali, Nasreddin was not pleased. He thought for a few seconds and then said, "Has the letter got to go far?" "What does that matter?" answered Ali.

  "Well, my writing is so strange that only I can read it, and if I have to travel a long way to read your letter to your wife, it will cost you a lot of money." Ali went away quickly.

    Mr Turner teaches in a middle school. He's friendly to his students. And he is always strict with himself. He often tells his students to be polite and to do their best to help the persons who are in trouble.

    One Monday morning, Mr Turner didn't go to work and went to see Mr White who was ill in hospital. As something was wrong with his car, he had to take a bus. At first he easily found a seat, but soon plenty of people got on the bus and it was very crowded. Some of them had to stand. Mr Turner looked around and saw a woman standing behind. He stood up and made room for her. The woman said nothing and sat down. Her behaviour made Mr Turner unhappy.

    "It's necessary for her to be taught how to be polite," he said to himself. Then he asked, "What did you say, madam?"

    "I didn't say anything, "answered the woman.

    "I thought you said 'Thank you!"'

    When the woman heard this, her face turned red.

    A little boy was playing in his sandbox on a Saturday morning．While he was building roads and houses in the soft sand, he discovered a large stone in the middle of the sandbox．

    The little boy pushed and pulled, but every time he thought he had made some progress, the stone tipped (倾斜) and then fell back into the sandbox．The little boy tried his best, but his only reward was to have the stone roll back．

    Finally the boy cried．All that time the boy's father watched him from his living room window．At the moment tears fell, his father came to the boy and the sandbox．Gently but surely he said, "Son, why didn't you use all the strength that you had?" The boy said sadly, "But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had! No, son," corrected the father．"You didn't ask me．"With that, the father reached down, picked up the stone and removed it from the sandbox．

    Do you have "stones" in your life that need to be removed? Are you discovering that you are too weak to lift them? There is ONE who is always ready to give us the strength we need．Isn't it funny how we try so hard to do things on our own?

    Things didn't go well for Henry, the village pancake maker. The Great Pancake Contest(比赛) was today. People from different places would try to win the contest .The villagers wanted Henry to win, but Henry had problems. There was not enough wood in the oven to make a pancake. Mice ate half the flour(面粉) during the night.

    The villagers saw that Henry was having problems. The woodsman brought wood for the oven. The farmer gave Henry more flour. This was all very good but he was still missing one more important thing. There was hardly enough time for Henry to make his pancake and take it to the contest. But Henry decided to have a try.

    As fast as he could, Henry put the wood in the oven. When he made the pancake, he thought, "When I had no wood, the woodsman brought me wood; when I had no flour, the farmer brought me flour. My good friends helped me."

    After Henry finished making the pancake, he ran as fast as he could to the contest. "I'm sorry, Henry," one of the judges(评判员) said. "You are too late." Henry's friends were sad for him, but Henry just laughed. "I' m not sad! In fact，I'm happy!" he shouted. "I have good friends who helped me. Now, I have a wonderful pancake to share with them."