One day while driving from my home to work. I noticed a car in front of me had a wobbly(不稳定的)wheel. It was clear that the wheel had been changed recently and had not been fixed correctly. On a slow road this would not show much of a problem but I knew a highway was coming soon. There the traffic would move much faster and the driver would be in danger as the wheel could come off at that speed.

    I was driving a large jeep at the time and the car in front was a small one driven by a young lady on her own. So as I tried to flash(闪)my lights and wave her to pull over,  I was worried that she wouldn't' pull over on the road side when she found in her mirror a single man chasing(追) her down in a jeep and waving for her to pull over.

    Thankfully. she trusted more in the good nature of people and pulled over where I could explain the problem. She said the wheel was changed only the night before and that she would pull into the nearest garage(修车间)where the repairman had tools to fix the wheel correctly.

    My belief is that the act of kindness was hers and not mine. How so? Well, it was she who chose to believe in the possibility that people are good over the belief that bad things would come from being waved over to the side of the road by strangers.

    I am glad I was able to wave her down in time and so a serious accident might have been avoided. But I am even happier that she believed in a stranger.

    Mary was a little girl and she lived with her parents in Africa. Her parents had gotten tired of the neighbors always complaining to them about their daughter, who was naughty and disrespectful to others. To change the situation, the father told Mary a story of a thief who would come and take away the parents of a bad child to take care of a better child and leave the bad child alone.

    However Mary went on with her ways. One day she made fun of an old blind man on her way to school. On hearing this, her parents thought of a new plan.

    The next day Mary came back from school. To her surprise, nobody was at home. It was getting dark but neither of her parents showed up. The little girl started to wonder where they were. Suddenly she remembered the story. Mary began to cry, for she thought she would never see them again. While she was crying, the door opened and her parents came in. She ran to them and asked, “Where have you been? I thought the thief had taken you away.”

    “He did but he let us go and told us to come back home because he knows you are going to be a good girl. He told us that if you are still a bad girl, he will come back for us,” they told her.

    “I am a good girl now and I promise never to be bad again because I don't want him to take you away from me.” Mary's words made her parents very happy. From that day on, Mary has never misbehaved again.

任务一：判断下列句子正误。

任务二：回答问题。

    Ben was hoping for a video game for his birthday. He also wanted a board game. And he wanted some CDs too.

    He got the board game and some CDs, but what was in the last package (包裹)? It was from his sister. He slowly opened the package. It didn't feel like a video game.

    It was a purple sweater. Purple was Ben's least favourite colour. He smiled and thanked his sister nicely, but he didn't want to wear that sweater. He couldn't wear purple!

    He quickly put the sweater away in his room. Then he ran off to play the new board game with his family.

    The next day, Ben's mother asked him about the sweater.

    "Why don't you wear your purple sweater today?" she said. "Your sister made it just for you!"

     "I am not cold," Ben said without thinking. In fact, he was lying. He shivered (发抖) all day.

    Then one day they were going out to dinner as a family. Ben's mother asked him to wear the sweater again. "I don't want to wear it. I hate (讨厌) purple," he said.

    "Ben," said his mother, "I know it's not the nicest sweater in the world, but think about how important Karen is to you. You know she will be very happy if you wear it to dinner."

    Ben walked slowly to his room. He knew his mother was right. He wore the sweater to the restaurant. His sister smiled all night.

    Tyler was a troublesome student. He sat in the back row. Every time I called him to answer questions, he'd reply with a flip(轻率的)answer. If he got it wrong, he would get very angry.

    Usually kids could sit quietly in class. However, Tyler was just loud. One day, Tyler was talking while I was teaching. I said to him, "Tyler, why not join in our discussion instead of having one of your own?" He got up from his chair, pushed it over, and shouted something I can't remember. I sent him to the office and he received a week's out-of-school punishment.

    The week was a wonderful time for me, but when it came to an end, I began to feel worried. So I came up with a plan. On the day of his return, I told him I wanted to start over with him. If he felt like he was going to lose control in class, he could step outside the door for a moment.

    From then on, Tyler was a changed student in my classroom. In fact he was a smart child and he even stopped a fight between two students one day. And he never used the privilege(特权)to leave the class for a moment. I believe that just letting him decide for himself made all the difference. When the year was over, he wrote me a thank-you note about how good the year had been for him. I still have it today and find it very moving to reread when I get stressed about teaching.