An old farmer lived on a farm with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early to read. One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa! What good does reading do?"

    The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket to the river and bring me back a basket of water."

    The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out (漏出) before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, "You"ll have to move a little faster next time," This time the boy ran faster, but again the same took place. It was an impossible task.

    The old man said, "You're just not trying hard enough," So the boy tried a third time and failed. He said, "See Grandpa, it's useless!"

    "So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket."

    The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket into a clean one inside and outside.

    "You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. "

    H. G. Wells lived from 1866 to 1946. He wrote many famous stories. He was best at writing stories about the future. One story is called The Time Machine. Here is the story.

    More than 100 years ago, there was an English scientist and inventor living in London. One day, four friends went to his house for dinner. The inventor was not there. Feeling hungry, they started dinner without him. Then they heard a sound. A few moments later, the inventor came in, looking dirty.

    He told his friends that he built a time machine. He could travel into the future.

    The inventor went thousands of years in the future. He met people called the Eloi. They were smaller than him. They had no machines. Growing fruit and vegetables was all that they did. They had no hobbies. Only one girl, Weena, spoke to him.

    Four days later, he met other people called Morlocks. They lived underground. They caught Eloi people and ate them! The inventor wanted to fight against the Morlocks. The Eloi didn't want to help him, not even the strong men. He tried to fight against the Morlocks. At last, Weena went underground with him. Unfortunately, Weena died.

    After that, he got in his time machine. He came back to his time. Seeing the future made him sad. The people in the future were worse. They were not clever.

    His friends didn't think it was a real story. But they never saw him again. Maybe he went to save the future.

    I heard that Lijiang was a very famous place for its beautiful sightseeing. When I was young. So I travelled there with my parents during the last winter holiday.

    We went there by plane. I saw there were many mountains when I got out of the plane. The air was fresh. On the first day, we went to the old of lie bought some interesting things and had a good meal there. On the second day, we went to Yulong Snow Mountain. It was beautiful, and the land was covered by the white snow. It was my first time to see snow. I played with the snow happily. My father told me that it was a famous place in China. Many people came here every year. I seldom go travelling, but this time I was very happy during this trip. I also met some foreigners here, and I even tried to talk with them. Though it was not easy for me to talk in English fluently (流利地), I was still glad to make a try. We took many beautiful photos about the scenery and my family.

    One morning, a blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet .He held a sign which said, "I am blind. Please help me."

    There were only a few coins(硬币) in the hat. A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could 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 recognized his footsteps and ask, "Are you the one who changed my sign in the 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 can't 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, while the second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

There are at least two lessons we can learn from this simple story.

    The first is: Treasure(珍惜) what you have. Someone else has less. Try your best to help those who need your help.

    The second is: Be creative. Think differently. There is always a better way.