My mother only had one eye. I hated her, as she was such an embarrassment (难堪）for me. She ran a small shop at a market, selling anything for the money we needed.

    One day, my mom came to my school. I threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day, my classmates shouted, “Your mom only has one eye!" and they taunted me. My face turned red.

I wished that my mom would just disappear from this world, so I said to her, “Mom, why don't you have the other eye? You make me a laughingstock.” She didn't say anything. Maybe it was because my mom hadn't punished me, so I didn't think that I had hurt her feelings very badly. I decided to study hard so that I could leave her for the rest of my life. I made it at last. Now I'm living happily as a successful man in another country.

Many years later, I received a letter, which said, “I think my life has been long enough now， but would it be too much to ask if I wanted you to visit me once in a while? I'm sorry that I am an embarrassment for you. You see, when you were very young, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn't stand watching you having to grow up with only one eye, so I gave you mine. I was so proud of my son that was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye. I was never angry with you for anything you did. I miss the time when you were still young around me. You mean the world to me. I love you.” I can't help crying with the letter in my hand.

    One day I went for a walk in the forest with my parents. We walked down a small road after lunch. I saw a big blue bird.

    "Look!" I called out.

    Mum and Dad didn't hear me and walked on.

    The bird was beautiful, I followed it and wanted to catch it.

    Oops! I fell over!

……

    The sky (天空) looked dark. "Was I asleep?" I thought. I knew I fell over just now. I looked around and saw a man wearing a big blue jacket.

    "Your mum and dad called Search and Rescue for help, because they couldn't find you," said the man.

    "What?" I was surprised to hear that.

    "You passed out (昏迷)," the man said. "And you looked injured."

    Oh, yes, my ankle (脚踝) looked big and I couldn't walk.

    "Don't worry. The ambulance (救护车) will arrive soon," said the man.

    "How did you find me?" I asked.

    "We let Goldie smell (闻) your jacket. Goldie followed your smell and found you," he said. Then I saw a big dog.

    The ambulance team found us soon. They took me to the ambulance. Goldie came with us.

    We got to the hospital quickly. Mum and Dad were waiting there. I had an X-ray (X光检查) of my ankle. Luckily, it wasn't broken, but I needed to stay in bed for days.

    Mum and Dad thanked everyone. And we thanked Goldie too!

    Though it is one of the early memories of my life, there are times when I remember his face clearly, especially his eyes. As he had yellow spots on his eyes, we called him Spotty.

    I was seven years old. We had just moved to a new house. It was a dark and rainy night. We had our meal and went to sleep. At midnight I heard a loud thud outside the door. I looked out of the window and saw a small dog lying on the ground. At first it was difficult to see the little one. He had a black body which was darker even than a black rainy cloud. It was the yellow spots on his eyes that made me realize he was a dog. The dog was wet. I took an old towel and wiped him till he became dry. I took him inside and made a bed for him.

    The next morning, everyone in my family came to know about the unusual guest. We called him“Spotty”and decided to keep him. Slowly Spotty became part of the family. We got used to all his habits and pranks（恶作剧）.

    One evening when Spotty returned from his long walk, I saw one of his legs bleeding流血）. We dealt with it and gave him food to eat. I was very upset. But the next day, Spotty was up to his usual pranks though he limped（跛行）a bit. I really admired（钦佩）him a lot for his courage.

    When you are little, the whole world feels like a big playground.

    It was a hot afternoon and my best friend Stephanie and I decided to have an adventure in his basement. As I opened the basement door, before us lay the biggest room, full of amazing things like guns, dolls, and old clothes. I ran downstairs and spotted a red steel can. It was paint. I looked beyond it and there lay even more paint in bright colors like purple, orange, blue and green.

    "Stephanie, I just found us a project for the day. Get some paintbrushes. We are going to paint. "She screamed with excitement as I told her of my secret plans and immediately we got to work. We gathered all the brushes we could find and moved all of our materials to my yard. There on the road in front of my house, we painted big stripes (条纹) of colors across the pavement (人行道). Stripe by stripe, our colors turned into a beautiful rainbow. It was fantastic!

    The sun was starting to sink. I saw a car in the distance and jumped up as I recognized the car. It was my mother. I couldn't wait to show her my masterpiece. The car pulled slowly into the driveway and from the look on my mother's face, I could tell that I was in deep trouble.

    My mother shut the ear door and walked towards me. Her eyes glaring, she shouted, "What on earth were you thinking? I understood when you made castles out of leaves, and climbed the neighbors' trees, but this! Come inside right now!" I stood there glaring back at her for a minute, angry because she had insulted (侮辱) my art.

    "Now go clean it up!" Mother and I began cleaning the road. Tears ran down my cheeks as I saw my beautiful rainbow turn into black cement.

    Though years have now passed, I still wonder where my rainbow has gone. I wonder if, maybe when I get older, I can find my rainbow and never have to brush it away. I guess we all need some sort of rainbow to brighten our lives from time to time and to keep our hopes and dreams colorful.

    Mr. Liu is an English teacher in Nanjing. This year, he visits France(法国) for his summer holiday.

    He watches many beautiful buildings and enjoys wonderful song and dance shows there. He also loves French(法国的；法语的) bread, cakes and soup. He has a good time there. But he doesn't feel happy all the time. He wants to visit an art museum. He doesn't know the way.

    So he uses English to ask some French people how to get there. He feels very sad after he finds no one can tell him. At last, a kind lady tells him the way, and says to him, "you are here in France, and people usually speak French only. They can't speak English, so a lot of people don't understand what you say. But even if they understand English, they only talk with you in French, no English."

    When he goes into the museum, he sees so many beautiful pictures and other works(作品) of art. He feels excited and wants to take pictures of what he sees in the museum. At that time, a worker stops him, and asks him not to take any photos. He asks the worker why he can't take any photos in English. The worker doesn't answer, but he points at (指向) a sign on the wall with French words " II est interdit de photographier dans la sallle."