A story happened when the telegraph（电报）was the fastest method of long-distance communication. One day, a young man went to an interview for a job as a Morse code operator（莫尔斯电码报务员）.

 Answering the ad in the newspaper, he went to the office address. When he arrived, he walked into a large, busy office filled with noise, including the sound of the telegraph. An office worker asked him to wait until he was called to go into the inner office. Seven other people were already in the waiting area for the interview. The young man sat down and waited with them. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. Naturally the other people wondered what was going on.   They were sure that the young man made a mistake and would be refused.

 A few minutes later, however, the boss came out of the inner office with the young man and said to the other people,“Gentlemen,thank you very much for coming, but the young man has got the job.”

The other people were surprised, and one of them said, “Wait a minute. I don't understand. He was the last to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That's not fair!”

 The boss said, "I'm sorry, but all the time you've been sitting here, the telegraph has been sending out the following message in Mores code: "If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours." None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is this.

    A little girl thought she was not as beautiful as other girls, and nobody liked her. So she was 1 happy. She always stayed at home by herself and didn't talk to 2 .

    One day, her mother gave her a beautiful hair clip (发夹). When she 3 it, she looked much more beautiful than before. She decided to go to school in the beautiful hair clip.

    On her way to 4 , she found that everyone who saw her smiled (微笑) at her. Most of her schoolmates said hello to her, 5 this never happened before. She thought that the beautiful hair clip 6 them all to her. She was so happy 7 all of the wonderful things.

    Though all her classmates wanted to know 8 happened to her, she didn't want to tell 9 about her beautiful hair clip.

    When she went back home after school, her mother asked her, "Did you know you 10 your hair clip at home?" I found it by the door this morning.

    She was 11 to hear what her mother said. She understood that she didn't wear the hair clip to school 12 .

    It's not important what we wear or how we 13 . The most 14 thing is how we think about ourselves (我们自己). 15 we want to do a thing successfully, first try to be confident (自信). If we think we can, we can.

    A man made a nice talking machine. It could weigh people. The man wanted to try the machine before he could make a lot of these kinds of machines. He put the machine into the waiting room of a station. There were always lots of people in and out there.

    The first one began to use the machine. It was an Indian woman. When she stood on the machine, the machine thought for a few minutes to decide which language it should speak. "Good morning, madam," it said in Indian. "Your weight is 72kilos. That's three kilos more. If you eat more fruit and vegetables, you will be soon all right. Wish you a nice day."

    The second one who used the machine was a nice Chinese girl. She stood on the machine and waited to hear weight. "Good morning, Miss," the machine said in Chinese. "Your weight is 45 kilos. It's all right for your age and height. Go on to eat what you eat every day. Wish you a nice day."

    The third one to use the machine was a very fat American woman. She thought for a long time before standing on the machine. But as soon as she stood on the machine, the machine spoke quickly in English, "Good morning. Will one of you get off?"

    Four beggars (乞丐) usually met at an old shack (小窝棚) at the end of the day. One day, they were very upset because none of them had got much in their begging bowls.

    "I only got this piece of meat today," the first said. "I hardly got anything," the second said. "I just picked up these few vegetables outside the fruit and vegetable store." The third complained that all he was given was a handful of herbs(香草) that he couldn't eat on his own. The fourth beggar didn't do much better. "I only got the handful of old, dried beans, but they aren't very nice!"

    As they sat around the fire, one of them had a great idea. "Let's put all our bits 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 (假装) to throw my meat into the pot. They'll never know and I'll eat my meat later." So he pretended to put the meat into the pot. Now the same idea had also hit the other beggars and the shack was so dark that no one could see what the others were doing.

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