His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day late in the afternoon, while working to support his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby pond(池塘). He dropped his tools and ran to the pond. There, up to his neck in the water, was a terrified boy, crying and struggling to free himself. Obviously the boy did not know how to swim. Fleming jumped into the pond and quickly swam toward the boy. He saved the boy who could have been a terrible death.

    The next day, a very cool carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's house. A well-dressed noble man stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Fleming saved the day before.

   “I want to repay you,” said the nobleman. “You saved my son's life.”

   “No, I can't accept any payment for what I did,” the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer.

    At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the farm house, confused by who was visiting them.

  “Is that your son?” the nobleman asked.

  “Yes,” the farmer replied proudly.

  “I'll make you a deal. Let me take him with me. I promise you that I will give him a good education. If the boy is anything like his father, he'll grow up to be a man you can be proud of.”

    And he did. In time, Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London and went on to become a famous doctor.

    Years later, the nobleman's son became seriously ill. Who saved him? The farmer's son did.

    It's important to help people no matter how successful you are in life. You never know when you are going to be the one who needs the help.

    Canadian Geese are large blue and white birds. When autumn comes, they have to fly south where the weather is warmer. The winters are so cold in Canada that the birds will die if they stay there.

    Last spring, Bill Lishman found sixteen young Canadian Geese on his farm. They had lost their parents. Bill thought, "These young birds won't know what to do in the autumn." He had a small plane and he decided to teach the birds to follow him. All through the summer, he went on short trips in his plane and the young geese flew after him.

    When the cold weather arrived in the autumn, Bill flew to Virginia in the United States, 600 miles south of his home in Canada. The geese followed him all the way. Bill left the geese in Virginia and he returned home.

    This spring, Bill was waiting for the birds to come back. They didn't arrive, so Bill flew to Virginia to get them. He looked for them for two weeks, but he couldn't find them. When he arrived back home, he found the geese waiting for him. They had found their way home without him!

C

    I stood there listening to my father shout at top of his voice. The look on his face said that one of us had done something wrong.

    “Which one of you did this?”

    We all looked down at the step. There was child's handwriting in chalk there. I was very frightened. I hope no one could see it. Would he guess it was me? I was so scared. When he asked me, I lied, “Not me, dad.” The other denied(否认) it as well. Of course, we all knew that one of us must have done it. But as the youngest and smallest of the three, I just couldn't find courage to tell the truth.

    To find out who had written on the step, Father gave us each a piece of paper and a pencil. “I want each of you to write exactly what you see on the step.” I tried my best to write the words differently. I didn't want dad to be able to tell it was me.

    He gathered up our paper and looked at them. “Since none of you will say yes, then I will punish you all.” I stood there and said nothing. The last thing I wanted was for Dad to punish me!

    “I did it.” My sister walked forward and said she had done something she hadn't. She was punished for a month.

   We didn't talk about that day for many years. Not until we were all older and I knew it was safe to finally tell my dad it was really me. I always felt sorry because of it. That was the last time I let anyone take the blame for me. I told myself, “One must see to what he or she has done.”

    There was a time when no one knew the name Harry Potter. Now the adventures of this extraordinary student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are read in over 45 languages, including Russian, Thai, and even ancient Greek. No one can explain the Harry Potter phenomenon (现象) – not even J.K. Rowling, his creator.

    J.K. Rowling was born in England in 1965. From a young age, she knew she wanted to be a writer. When she was 6, she wrote her first story—about a rabbit that gets sick. At school, she used to make up stories to tell her friends.

    After graduation from college, she worked as a secretary. But she didn't give up her dream.She spent her lunch hour writing stories, mainly for adults. Then in 1990, on a train trip to London,she got the idea from the boy wizard. She says he just appeared in her head. She soon created many other characters to help Harry fight the forces of darkness.

    She kept working on the story while she was teaching English in Portugal, where she married, had her first child, and divorced (与……离婚) a year later. When she returned to England, she brought back a box of Harry Potter stories.

    After returning home, she was broke and living in a small house. She continued writing, and in 1995, finished the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was published (出版) in 1997 and became an unexpected bestseller.

    Rowling's life has changed a lot. She has become internationally famous and now earns around $40 million a year. She remarried, had a second child and lives in Scotland now.

    In 1997,12-year-old American girl Caitlin and 14-year-old Zimbabwean (津巴布韦人) Martin became pen friends through their schools. They didn't realize at that time how their handwritten letters would change their lives.

    It all began as a school task. Everyone in Caitlin's class was supposed to choose a pen friend from another country. All the other kids picked countries like France or Germany, but Caitlin chose Zimbabwe because the name sounded exotic(异国的) and cool.

    Martin lived with his family in one of Zimbabwe's worst slums(贫民窟) where they shared one room with another family. And a bed was their only piece of furniture.

    When Caitlin's first letters reached Martin, they were simple and general. The two kids wrote about their favorite music and what they liked to do. But as Martin gradually revealed more about his life and his letters started arriving written on pieces of trash, Caitlin realized what the living conditions were like for Martin. Without telling her parents, she began sending money with her letters—$ 20 at a time. While the money was not much to Caitlin, it meant more food for Martin's family and enabled him to pay his school fees.

    It lasted six years from their first exchange of letters to Martin's arrival in the United States. With the help of the money from Caitlin's parents later on, Martin finished his university and got his MBA from Duke University.

    Today, Caitlin and Martin aren't only best friends, but they also share their story in a book called I Will Always Write Back. They want to encourage readers to look beyond their own lives and do something kind for others, which might greatly influence their lives.

    Bob comes out of the station and at once（立刻） he doesn't know where to go. This is the first time he comes to this town. He comes to see his good friend, Peter. Peter is a worker. He works in a factory. But Bob doesn't know where the factory is.

    He walks in the streets. He passes（经过） a hospital, a post office, a bookshop and at last he gets to a school. Some students are coming out. So he asks one of them for help. "Excuse me. Do you know where the watch factory is?"

    "Of course, I know. I live near there. My father works there. It's outside this town." answers the boy.

    "Is it far from here? Can you show me the way, please?" Bob asks again.

    "It's about 8 kilometres away from here. I'm going home now. Will you go with me? I'll take you there."

    "That's great! Thank you very much!"

    "Now let's take a No. 10 bus. It'll take about 15minutes to get there."

    "It's very kind of you." says Bob.