My friend, Dick, has a large police dog. Its name is Jack. Every Saturday afternoon Dick takes Jack for a long walk in the park. Jack likes these long walks very much.

    One Saturday afternoon, a young man came to visit my friend. He stayed a long time. He talked and talked. Soon it was time for my friend to take Jack for a walk. But the man was still there. Jack became very worried. He walked around the room several times and then sat down in front of the man and looked at him. But the man kept talking. Finally Jack couldn't stand it anymore. He went out of the room and came back a few minutes later. He sat down again in front of the man, but this time he held the man's hat in his mouth.

    In 1995, Oseola McCarty gave a present of $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi. She wanted to help poor students. It was a very generous thing to do. But her friends and neighbours were surprised. McCarty was a good woman. She went to church. She was always friendly and helpful. But everyone in her town knew that McCarty was not rich. In fact, she was poor.

    How did a poor 86 year-old woman have so much money? Oseola McCarty was born in 1908 in Wayne County, Mississippi. She had to leave school when she was eight years old to help her family. She took a job washing clothes. She earned only a few dollars a day. Oseola washed the clothes by hand. Then she hung the clothes to dry. She did this for nearly 80 years. In the 1960s, she bought an automatic washer and dryer. But she gave them away. She thought they did not get the clothes clean enough! At that time, many people started to buy their own washers and dryers. McCarty did not have much work, so she started to iron clothes instead.

    McCarty never married or had children. Her life was very simple. She went to work and to church. She read her Bible(圣经). She had a black-and-white television. But she did not watch it very much. It had only one channel.

    McCarty saved money all her life and eventually had about $ 250 ， 000.When she was 86, a lawyer helped her make a will. She left money to the church, her relatives, and the university. McCarty just wanted to help others. She thought she was not a special person. But then people found out about her present to the university, She received many honours(荣誉). She even flew in an airplane for the first time! Oseola McCarty died in 1999. She was a shy and ordinary woman who became famous.

    "Today I will give you a special test," said the English teacher with a smile on his face.

    All the students sat up straight and waited for the test to begin. The teacher began to give the test papers to all the students. After he finished handing out the test papers, he asked them to begin.

    The students were very surprised to see that there was not a question but a black dot (圆点) in the center of the paper. The teacher noticed the students' surprise and said, "I want you to write about what you see there." At the end of the class, the teacher took all the students' answer sheets and read the answers. All of them described the black dot. After reading all the answers, the teacher said, "Here everyone only paid attention to the black dot, but no one wrote about the white paper." The whole class listened silently, because they were afraid to fail in the exam. Then the teacher said, "Don't worry about your marks for this test. I just want you to think about our life. The white paper is like our whole life and the black dot in the center of the paper represents (代表) problems in our daily life".

    Our life is a gift given to us by God, with love and care. However, we just pay attention to the problems like illness and poverty, and never see happy things in our life. So we should try to solve our problems and enjoy each moment life gives us.

    Many years ago, there lived an old man with his three sons, Dharma, Harrison and Keith, in a village. The man worked hard when he was young, so he had the largest farmyard and the most beautiful house in the village. However, his sons were all born to be lazy, which made him disappointed. He was worried that his sons would use up his money and starve to death.

    One day, the old man came up with a plan. He called his sons and said to them, "Look, my dear sons. There is lots of hidden gold in the land at the farmyard. If you work together, you may find it."

    In a wish to find out the gold, his sons worked hard from the morning to the evening digging and digging all through the land. Three days had passed, but they didn't find what they were looking for. They got frustrated and angry. They decided to give up and returned to ask their father.

    "There is no gold in the land. We are cheated."

    "Since the land has been dug soft, why don't you plant some crops there?" was the reply of the father to the sons.

    Off went the sons. Soon the whole once useless land was rich crops.

    "This is the real gold, my sons," said the proud father.