One year, a college in the United States announced that it would offer a lot of money for the pure white marigold(金盏花). The high reward attracted so many people, but in the nature, besides golden, the marigold is brown, and it is not easy to get the white one. So after they were excited for a time, many people had forgotten the announcement.

    One normal day after 20 years, the college received a letter and 100 seeds of pure white marigold. It was an old woman of over 70 years old. Some experts in the college doubted it, but in order not to let her down, those seeds finally took root (根）in the earth. The miracle appeared after one year; the field was covered by pure white marigold.

    Therefore, the old woman who was always unknown to the public became a new focus.

    The old woman was a flower-lover. When she read the announcement 20 years ago, she got very excited like others. But her eight children were totally against her decision. After all, a woman who never knew the seed genetics(遗传学) couldn't complete what the experts could never do, so her thought was only a day dream.

    Still, the old woman didn't change her mind and went on working. She planted some of the most common seeds and took good care of them. A year later, when the marigold came out, she chose one faintest(最暗淡的) from those golden and brown flowers and got the best seed. The next year, she again grew them and chose...Day after day, year after year, through many seasons, the old woman's husband died, her children flew far, a lot of things happened in her life, but only the wish to grow the pure white marigold took root in her heart.

    Finally, after 20 years on the day we all know, in the garden she saw a marigold, which was nearly white, but as white as silver or snow.

    A problem even experts couldn't deal with was solved by an old woman who didn't understand genetics. Was it a miracle  (奇迹）?

To take root in the heart, even the most common seed, can grow into a miracle!

C

    Many years ago, a French naturalist, Comte de Buffon, wrote some books about natural history. The books were a great success even though some critics（批评家）did not like them.

    Thomas Jefferson did not like what Comte de Buffon had said about the natural wonders（奇观）of the New World. It seemed to Jefferson that Comte de Buffon had spoken of natural wonders in America as if（好像）they were unimportant.

    This troubled Thomas Jefferson. He was also a naturalist, as well as a farmer, an inventor, a historian, a writer and a politician（政治家）. He had seen the natural wonders of Europe. To him, they were no more important than those of the New World.

    In 1788, Thomas Jefferson wrote about his home state, Virginia. While writing, he thought of its natural beauty and then of the words of Comte de Buffon. At that moment, Jefferson created a new word—belittle. He said, “Comte de Buffon believes that nature belittles her productions on this side of the Atlantic（大西洋）.”

    Noah Webster, the American word expert, liked this word. He put it in the English language dictionary in 1806, “Belittle—to make small, unimportant.”

    Americans had already accepted Jefferson's word and started to use it. In 1797, the Independent Chronicle（独立纪事报）used the word to describe a politician the paper supported. “It is an honorable man,” the paper wrote, “so let the opposition try to belittle him as much as they please.”

    In 1872, a famous American word expert decided that the time had come to kill this word. He said, “Belittle shouldn't become English. And more critical writers of America, like those of Britain, feel no need of it.”

    This expert failed to kill the word. Today, belittle is used where the English language is spoken.

    Roald Dahl was one of the most successful writers of children's books. He sold millions of books all over the world. Many of his books have been made into films and videos. He is so famous that there is even a Roald Dahl Museum you can visit.

    Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Wales, Britain. His father was rich but he died when Roald was very young. Roald and his mother lived a hard life. He had to leave school and went to Africa where he worked for an oil company.

    In 1939 Roald became a pilot, but he had a bad accident. It made him limp(瘸的) for the rest of his life. After this, Roald went to America where he wrote a story about his experience as a pilot. It was so good that it was put in a magazine.

    Roald married an American film star. They bought a house in England and had five children. From 1960 to 1965, ____： Theo, one of his children, was hit by a taxi and was seriously hurt. Olivia, one of Roald's daughters, died of a strange illness. Soon after this, his wife also had a serious illness. It took her years to get completely better.

    Gradually Roald became more and more successful. He always did his writing in an old shed(棚) at the back of his house. He always sat in the same old armchair with a wooden board on his lap.

    “One of the nice things about being a writer,” he once said, “is that all you need is what you've got in your head and a pencil and a bit of paper.”

    In 1983 Roald won a big prize for his book The BFG. During his life, Roald wrote many famous books, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Fantastic Mr. Fox.

    After he died in 1990, Roald left money to help people with serious illnesses and those with problems with reading and writing.

    A long time ago, a king put a huge rock in the middle of a roadway, and then he hid (藏) himself to watch because he wanted to know who would move the huge rock out of the roadway.  Some of the richest people came by and simply walked around it. Many of them loudly blamed (谴责) the king for not keeping the road clean, but none did anything to get the rock out of the way.

    Then a farmer came along carrying a heavy bag of vegetables. Upon walking close to the rock, the farmer put down his heavy bag and tried to move the rock to the side of the road. After much pushing, he finally succeeded. After the farmer picked up his bag of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying on the road where the rock had been. The purse included many gold coins and a note from the king saying that the gold was for the person who moved the rock away from the roadway.

    The farmer learnt what many of us never know! Every obstacle (障碍) means an opportunity to improve our condition.

    A poor boy lived in a small town. He sold things from door to door to pay for school. One day, he had only one cent left, and he was hungry. He decided that he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, when a young woman opened the door, the boy was shy, so he just asked for some water. The woman knew he was hungry, so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, "How much should I pay for it?" "You needn't pay for it. My mother has told me that it is good to help the people who are in trouble," she replied. The boy said, "Then I thank you from my heart." As the boy left that house, he felt stronger. He knew he had many things to do.

    Many years later, the young woman became ill. The local doctors couldn't save her. Her family had to send her to a big city. When the doctor knew who the woman was, he was excited and did his best to save her life. He succeeded. The woman needed to pay for the medical bill (账单). The doctor learned that she couldn't afford it, so he wrote something down on the medical bill. The woman read the bill, "You paid it with a glass of milk."