C   

    Ricardo Semler became the boss of his father's company in Brazil at the age of 21. The name of the company is Semco. It sold parts for ships. Semler worked like a mad man, from 7:30 in the morning to midnight every day. One afternoon, while he was visiting a factory in New York, he fell down. The doctor said, “ There's nothing wrong with you. But if you continue like this, you'll find a new home in our hospital.” Semler got the message. He changed the way he worked. In fact, he changed the ways his workers worked, too.

    At the same time, Semler changed the office. Instead of walls, they have plants at Semco, so the boss can't shut himself away from everyone else. And the workers are free to decorate their workplace as they want. As for uniforms, some people wear suits and others wear T-shirts.

    Semco has flexible working hours: the workers can decide when they need to arrive at work. Also, Semco lets its workers use the company's machines for their own projects, and makes them take holidays for at least thirty days a year.

    It sounds perfect, but does it work? The answer is in the numbers: in the last six years, Semco's revenues (收益) have gone from $35 million to $212 million. The company has grown from 800 workers to 3,000. Why?

    Semler says it's because of “peer pressure” (同辈压力). Peer pressure makes workers work hard. It means if someone isn't doing his job well, the other workers will not allow the situation to continue. In other words, Semler treat his workers like adults rather than children, and expects them to act like responsible (负责任的) adults. And they do.

    In 2001, a l4-year-old boy named William had a little wish. He loved reading. He wanted a light in his room so that he could read after dark. His big idea came while he was reading a book in the library. He saw a picture of a windmill (风车) and decided to make one.

    When he started building the first windmill in 2002, people thought he was crazy. But they all came to see his creation made from broken PVC pipes and old car and bicycle parts. He dreamt of using wind to produce electricity. Later he built two more windmills in his home town, the 60-person village in Malawi. Africa.

    William wants to build windmills across Malawi, and perhaps beyond. Money to help with this project has come from all over the world, including China.

    One cold winter morning, an old woman had to go to see her doctor. When she walked into the doctor's office, she told him that her right leg hurt and sometimes she could not walk. She asked him what was wrong. She told him that she had never had such a feeling before.

    The doctor checked the old woman carefully, then he said, "You're in good health for a woman of your age. I think the trouble in your right leg is just a matter of old age catching up with you. We get all kinds of illness as we get older. The trouble will almost certainly end in spring. "

    "I don't think so, doctor!" she said. "My left leg is well, and it's the same age as my right one."

    When I was in the seventh grade, I had problems behaving. My heart was in the right place, but I couldn't always follow the rules. I played many tricks on my schoolmates. Once, I even pulled a girl's hair on the school bus to get her attention. As a result, I was repeatedly sent to the office of the headmaster. Although 1 hated going there, I did nor hate the headmaster, Mr. Smith.

    Mr. Smith was a kind, elderly man. When he punished me for putting some ants into a classmate's pencil box, it didn't hurt at all, but it did hurt my feelings. I thought so much of him and moments like that seemed to prove I was hopelessly bad.

    When I was called to Mr. Smith's office for the sixth time, I had no idea what I had done. I felt disappointed as I walked down there. I went into his office, sat down, and looked at the floor. Then he said the last thing I expected to hear. "Kevin, I've heard you've been behaving really well lately. I want you to know how proud I am of you, and I just called you down to my office to give you a peppermint."

    "Really?" I was surprised.

    "Yes. Now you can take that peppermint and go back to class."

    I carried the peppermint with me as if it was a gold coin. When I got into my classroom, I bragged(吹嘘) to my classmates about nay turn around, excitedly. I wasn't so bad after all.

    Mr. Smith was really kind. He made me realize that I was just a kid who had problems with behavior. He bought some peppermints and took the time to notice me when I got something anything-right. Mr. Smith gave me some hope by giving me some love. I will just remember him for the rest of my life.

When I was a kid, a tree grew in front of my home. At the age of 10, I was just tall enough to reach its lowest branch and lift myself into its embrace. I wasn't the only climber. Sometimes two or three of my friends would join me in the sycamore, or in the maple down the street. Climbing trees allowed us to enter another world. In fact, it was a world within a world: We took our imaginations with us into those heights, which by turns were a fortress, a pirate ship, a spaceship, or a mountain castle. 

In my small Maine town there are some lovely maples, lindens, and oaks. Their branches spread wide and they are strong enough for people to climb. But I have not yet seen a climber. Perhaps computer games have taken place of tree climbing, or maybe the activity went the way of monkey bars, which came to be viewed as too risky and have largely disappeared from playgrounds. 

It is a sad loss. I have always believed that, since low-hanging limbs provide no benefit to the tree, they must be meant for the child. Robert Frost understood this when he wrote: When I see birches bend to left and right, across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. My only disagreement with Frost is his inference that tree climbing is a gender-specific undertaking. Both boys and girls have what it takes to make a joyful ascent. 

The campus of the university where I teach is lovingly landscaped with all sorts of trees. During a recent walk, I grabbed a branch and a moment later I was sitting on it. Then the memories came flooding back: The old friends, the long view of my neighborhood, and finally, the reluctance to return to earth when the parental call to supper came. 

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear the student calling to me from below. He asked what I was doing. I didn't waste time on explanations. "Come on up, "I said. "The air's fine. "But he only laughed, and waved me off. He didn't know what he was missing.