A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said, "I am blind, please help."

    There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

    Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy heard his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?" The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."

    What he had written was, "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it." Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

    Of course, both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

    The first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

    Look! This is a picture of my family. I have a big family. They are grandparents, my parents, my sister and I. The old man on the left is my grandfather. He is a farm worker. He likes flowers. There are many flowers on the farm. The old woman next to my grandfather is my grandmother. She likes cooking. My father is on the right of my grandmother. He is 40 years old. He likes playing basketball with his students. The woman next to my father is my mother. She is a manager of a hotel. In front of them are my sister and I. My sister is a student. We are in different classes but the same grade. She is in Class One, Grade Seven. I'm in Class Four, Grade Seven. My sister likes drawing and I like reading.

    In a town there lived a little, beautiful and smart girl. Her name was Rose. Everyone in the town liked her. She was very brave, but she was scared of the doctor. One day, one of her teeth was moving. Her mom saw it. She said, "One of your teeth is moving, and you need to visit Doctor Tim."

    Rose said, "No! I'm not going to the doctor." Mom said, "Don't worry. It's not so wobbly(摆动的) now, we needn't go to the doctor at once." That made Rose feel better.

    After five weeks, Rose forgot about her tooth but her mom didn't. She checked her tooth again and it was more wobbly, so she said, "It's time to see the doctor."

    Rose was scared but she had to do what her mom told her, so they went to see Doctor Tim.

    They had to wait in the waiting room.

    When it was her turn, her heart was beating very fast. She went into Doctor Tim's room. He was smiling. She sat on the chair.

    Doctor Tim said," Close your eyes."

    Rose closed her eyes, but just before Doctor Tim started, tears started coming down from her eyes. When she opened her eyes, she saw Doctor Tim holding her tooth, smiling.

    Rose smiled. Then Doctor Tim gave her a teddy bear. From that time Rose wasn't scared of doctors anymore.

    An eighty-year-old couple were having trouble with their memories. One day, they decided to see a doctor. The doctor told them that there was nothing serious, but he suggested that they should start writing things down to help them remember things. The couple thanked the doctor and left.

    Later that night while watching TV, the old man got up from his chair and his wife asked, "Where are you going?" "To the kitchen." "Will you get me an ice cream?" asked the wife. "Sure." Then his wife asked him to write it down. "No, I can remember that," replied the husband. "Well, I also want some strawberries and cream on top. You'd better write it down, or you will forget that," said the wife. "No, I can remember that," the husband got a little unhappy and went into the kitchen.

    After about 20 minutes, the husband returned with a plate of fish. The wife laughed, "Haha! Your bad memory! I wanted some bread with cream."

Jacob Tremblay (雅各布•特伦布莱) : a promising young actor

    While you might not recognize the name Jacob Tremblay, you may have seen him in the movie called Wonder (《奇迹男孩》). He plays the role of Auggie, a boy with facial deformities (面部畸形). The director calls the eleven-year-old boy "a once-in-a-life-time actor of his generation". So what about some background information to explain all this success?

    Born in 2006, Jacob started appearing in TV dramas at the age of five. His breakthrough came in Room(《房间》) in 2015. In that movie, he plays Jack, a young boy who has been kept in a small room since he was born. His first-rate portrayal (角色的刻画) of this role won him a lot of praise and several important awards. People then really began to notice this very talented young actor.

    Jacob impressed people again with his acting skills in Wonder. Although the movie audience can see only his eyes under the heavy make-up, they can feel the emotions of the character. People also wonder how he was able to get inside the character so successfully without a shared experience in real life.

    The young actor had, in fact, done a lot of research on children with facial deformities before shooting began. He sent a video to children with facial deformities and asked them to send him letters telling him anything they wanted him to know. He always kept the letters by his side and read them over and over again between takes (录制). He said those letters helped him prepare for scenes with emotional content.

    Jacob's performance on screen has made him one of the most promising actors in his age group. Hopefully, we will see a lot more of him in the future—on the silver screen or on TV.