Alan, a boy from India went to study in the UK two years ago. He found a part-time job in a restaurant. Many British students also worked there. Their job was washing the dishes. It was an easy job, but the boss said, "You must wash every dish seven times." At first, Alan was careful. The boss was happy with him. After one month, he found that the boss didn't check very often. He thought there was no difference between five times and seven times. So he just washed five times. He worked very fast. The boss was even happier. One day, a British student asked him why he could wash so fast. Alan told him the secret. The British student was surprised but didn't say anything. A few days later he told the boss about it. The boss fired (解雇) Alan.

    Alan went to other restaurants, but all of them said, "Go away! You are not honest. We don't need you." Alan was sad because he could do nothing.

A

    When I was a little kid, a father was like the light in the fridge. Every house had one, but no one really knew what either of them did when the door was shut.

    My dad left the house every morning and always seemed glad to see every one again at night. He opened the jar of pickles when no one else at home could. He was the only one in the house who wasn't afraid to go into the basement by himself. 

    Whenever it rained, he got into the car and brought it around to the door. When anyone was sick, he went out to get the prescription(处方) filled. He set mousetraps. He cut back the roses so the thorns(刺) wouldn't hurt you when you came to the front door. He oiled my roller skates, and they went faster. When I got my bike, he ran alongside me for at least a thousand miles until I got the hang of it. He signed all my report and cards. He took a lot of pictures, but was never in them. He tightened up Mother's sagging(松垂的) clothesline every week or so.

I was afraid of everyone else's father, but not my own. 

    Whenever I played house(玩过家家), the mother doll had a lot to do. I never knew what to do with the daddy doll, so I had him say, "I'm going off to work now," and threw him under the bed.

    When I was nine years old, my father didn't get up one morning and go to work, he went to the hospital and died the next day. 

    There were a lot of people in the house who brought all kinds of good food and cakes. We had never had so much company before. 

    He never did anything; I didn't know his leaving would hurt so much.

    "Can I take your order?" Night after night, I had to say this as I worked in my family's restaurant. My father was a fantastic cook. He wanted me, his only son, to cook with him, but I didn't like cooking. Because of the restaurant, my father was always busy. He never had time to play football with me.

    During my high school and college years, I worked with my family at night. But I always avoided the kitchen. I couldn't wait to graduate (毕业)so that I could move away from the family business. Several days before my graduation day, my father and I started looking at new cars. Finally, we found the right car. I was sure that my father would give it to me as my graduation gift.

    On my graduation day, my father gave me a book as a gift. It was his old cookbook. I was so angry that I gave it back to him and ran out of the house. Several days later I moved away and started my business. Although I often saw my father during holidays, we never talked about the graduation gift. Then one day, I got a call that my father was ill. I went to see him because I was very worried.

    That night, I looked through my father's books and saw the cookbook that he had given me year before. I carefully opened the cookbook and went through it. Then I found something that made me cry. It was a check(支票)for$30,000 dated(注有日期) the day of my graduation. And the price of the car my father and I chose all those years ago was $30,000.

    Unlike most restaurants, the Enoteca Maria Restaurant in New York offers only home-cooked food by grand mas coming from across the world.

    Joe Scaravella, a 61-year-old Italian-American born and raised in New York, opened a restaurant in 2007. Having lost almost all his family members, he tried to recreate the feeling of home-cooked meal in his restaurant.

    He employed (雇佣) grandmas from different parts of Italy at first, and later, he begin hiring grandmas from other countries like Brazil, France and Greece. He built two kitchens in the restaurant: one for Italian grandmas to cook during lunchtime and the other for grandmas from other countries to cook every evening. The menus in the restaurant are constantly (不断地) changing because what is being served depends on the grandmas who are on duty.

    The restaurant opens five a week from Wednesday to Sunday. At present, there are more than 40 grandmas working in it. Most of them came to the U. S. with their children, helping take care of their grandchildren Scaravella give them the chance to express themselves in a culinary (烹饪的)way.

    The Enoteca Maria Restaurant has received positive reviews since its opening. Customers are ingested by its delicious food, comfortable environment and most importantly, the grandma who may remind them of their own.