A man was walking along the street when he saw a woman carrying a large box. It was half in and half out of her car. So the man went up and said, “The box looks very heavy. Let me give you a hand.”

 “That's very kind of you,” the woman said, “I'm having a lot of trouble with it. Maybe it sticks (卡住) in the car door.”

 “Together we'll soon move it,” the man said. “I'll get in and take the other end.” And he got in the car.

 “Right,” the man said. “I'm ready,” and he began to push the box hard. For several minutes, the man and the woman tried to move the box. Soon they felt very tired.

    They rested for a moment. Then the woman said, “Let's try again. One, two, three!” They went on moving the box.

    At last, when they were exhausted, the man said, “I'm sorry, but I don't think there's any way to get it out of your car.”

 “Get it out?” the woman cried. “I'm trying to get it in! You know?”

    He was 11 years old and went fishing every chance he got at his family's small house on an island in the middle of a New Hampshire lake.

    On the day before the bass(鲈鱼)season opened, he and his father were fishing early in the evening, catching sunfish and bass with worms. Before long, when his pole doubled over, he knew something huge was on the other end. His father watched with admiration as the boy skillfully worked the fish alongside the bank and he very successfully lifted the tired fish from the water. It was the largest one he had ever seen, but it was a bass.

    The boy and his father looked at the handsome fish, the fish jumped up and down in the moonlight. The father looked at his watch. It was 10 P.M.—two hours before the season opened. He looked at the fish, then at the boy. "You will have to put it back, my son," he said. "I have never seen such a big fish before." cried the boy. "There will be other fish," said his father. "The boy looked around the lake. No other fishermen or boats were anywhere around in the moonlight. He looked again at his father. Even though no one had seen them, nor could anyone ever know what time he caught the fish, the boy could tell by his father's voice that the decision was not be changed. He slowly worked the hook out of the lip of the huge bass and lowered it into the black water.

    That was 34 years ago. And he has never again caught such a beautiful fish as the one he landed that night long ago. But he does see the fish again and again—every time he comes up against a question of ethics(伦理). For, as his father taught him, ethics are simple matters of right and wrong. It is only the practice of ethics that is difficult.

    We would if we were taught to put the fish back when we were young. For we would have learned the truth. The decision to do right lives fresh in our memory. It is a story we will proudly tell our friends and grandchildren.

    A boy was sitting on the steps of a door one day. He had a stick in one hand,1in the other hand a large piece of bread and butter, which somebody had kindly given him. While he was eating it and singing a song happily, he saw a poor little dog quietly2not far from him. He called out to it, “Come here, poor dog!”

    Hearing this, the dog woke up, rose with its ears3and wagged its tail. Seeing the boy eating, it came near him. The boy held out to it a piece of his bread and butter. As the dog stretched out its head to take the4, the boy quickly drew back his hand and hit it5on the nose. The poor dog ran away,6loudly, while the cruel boy sat, laughing at the trick he had done.

    A gentleman, who was looking from a window on the other side of street, saw what the7boy had done. Opening the street door, he called him to8over, at the same time9up one dollar between the finger and thumb.

    “Would you like this?” said the gentleman.

    “Yes, if you10, sir,” said the boy, smiling, and he quickly ran over to seize the11.

    Just as the boy stretched out his hand, the gentleman hit12on the knee with an umbrella. “Why did you do that?” shouted the boy angrily. He made a very13face and cried, “I didn't hurt you, nor ask you for money.”

    “14did you hurt that poor dog just now?” said the gentleman. “It didn't hurt you, nor ask you for bread and butter. As you served it I have served you. Now, remember it can feel as well as you, and learn to behave15towards animals in future.”

Once there were four beggars (乞丐). One day, they met at an old temple at night. They were very upset because none of them had much to eat.

"I only got this piece of meat today." the first said. "I almost got nothing," the second said, "I just picked up a potato outside the vegetable store during the day." The third said that all he had was a small bottle of salt. The fourth beggar had not done much better, "I only got some old beans, but they aren't very nice!" 

As they sat around the fire, the beggar with only a bottle of salt had a great idea "Let's put all our things together and boil them. In this way, we can make a tasty dish and share it." They all agreed. However, the first beggar thought, "I don't want to share. I'll just pretend to throw my meat into the pot. They'll never know and I'll eat my meat alone later." So he pretended to put the meat into the pot. And at the same time the other beggars had similar ideas to him. At that time, the temple was too dark for the beggars to see what the others were doing.

Finally, one of them suggested that the dish should be ready and, in turn, each of them helped himself to it. They drank the hot water in silence, learning that selfishness (自私) doesn't taste all that good.