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    Yesterday my son, daughter and I went to the grocery store. In front of us in line was a little girl with her mother. The little girl was asking her mother for a box of Smarties. The polite way she was asking almost broke the mother's heart, “I'm sorry, Honey, but we have no money to buy it.”

    My son was watching that dialogue. By the way, he had been raking(用耙子耙)leaves our garden to raise himself some money to buy a bike. As he watched the mother and daughter leave the store, he ran to the candy counter(柜台)and bought a box of Smarties with the money .

    He turned to look at me and I just nodded. He ran out after the little girl and her mother and he gave them the box. He came back and told me what he told them. “Every kid should have a pack of Smarties because they can make you smart.”

    I was so excited that I bought a pack of Smarties for my son. I told him that I was proud of him, and that was for his act of generosity because he gave his own Smarties to others. Quickly, he replied, “But you do nice things for people and you never get anything for it .”I explained, “when you do something nice for someone, you shouldn't expect to get anything. When you get something you should be very thankful.”

    My grandfather Jack is 96 years old, and he has an interesting life. He has travelled a lot in his life in the Far East. He visited the Taj Mahal in India and the Pyramids, in Egypt. He hunted (狩猎) lions in Africa, and rode a camel in the Sahara Desert. He says the most beautiful place he has travelled to is Kathmandu in Nepal.

    Jack has married twice. His first wife died when she was 32. He met his second wife Maria while he' was cycling round France. They have been married for 50 years, and they have lived happily in a small village since they got married.

    Jack says that he has never been ill in his life. The secret of good health, according to my grandfather, is exercise. He goes swimming every morning. He has done this since he was a boy. He also has a glass of wine every night! Perhaps that is his secret!

    Paulina Cortes is a teacher in San Jose, California. One day, she handed out masks (面罩) to farm workers in Lodi. She volunteered to do this because the air quality (空气质量) is still poor after a big fire.

    "I just got home and feel really tired now. Today I spent my day in Lodi handing out masks to farm workers," she wrote on the Internet. "I raised some money. Then I drove through San Jose and all the way to Salinas to buy enough masks I needed. This is important. The story here isn't that I handed out masks; it's that there are hundreds of people who are working in dangerous environments with no protection (防护). And no one even knows about it."

    Paulina also put some photos on the Internet, and they were picked up by the news. Many people were surprised at the news, and they knew what happened to those farm workers for the first time.

    The next day, Paulina added, "I traveled through Lodi and Stockton not just to hand out masks, but to help the farm workers understand the pollution. In Lodi yesterday the workers were picking fruit in such dangerous environments. None of them even knew this. Not too far from our homes, hundreds of people are working in these environments. I will buy more masks and send them to a Stockton farm worker. He helped me hand out masks yesterday."

    Thank you, Paulina, for caring and trying to make a difference.

    A long time ago, there was a king who liked music so much that he ordered his men to get him the best instrument in the world.

    One day, a young man offered the king a harp (竖琴). The king took it to the palace, but when he started playing it, the harp was out of tune.

    Many other musicians tried it, and they agreed that the harp was useless(没用的) and the king had been cheated. The harp was thrown out as rubbish.

    A poor little girl later found the harp. And even though she did not know how to play, she decided to have a try. She played and played, for months and years, always with the harp out of tune, but she played better and better.

    Then one day, suddenly, the harp began to play the most beautiful music. It was a magic harp, and could only be played well by someone willing to spend much time practicing.

    One day, the king heard the music from his window, and the girl was invited to the palace. When the king saw the girl playing the harp, he was full of joy. At that moment he made the girl his private musician, giving her and her family lots of money.