D

   Stuffy Pete sat down on a bench in the New York City Park. It was the third bench to the left as you enter the park from the east.

    Every Thanksgiving Day for nine years, an Old Gentleman had come to find Stuffy there at one in the afternoon. He led Stuffy to a restaurant and watched him eat a big dinner. He was trying to make it a tradition.  

    Stuffy had just come from a dinner so big that he had almost no power to move. How he expected that gentleman would not come this year! Then his eyes grew wider and his breath stopped.

    The Old Gendeman was thin and tall, dressed all in black. He wore eye-glasses. His hair was whiter and thinner than it was last year. His legs did not seem as strong as they had seemed the year before, but he moved, straight and proud, to Stuffy and toward the tradition that he was building.

    "I am glad to see everything's fine with you. For that blessing you and I can give thanks on this day of thanksgiving. If you will come with me, my man, I will give you a dinner that will surely make your body feel as thankful as your mind," said the gentleman. The words themselves were almost a tradition

    Stuffy was very full, but he understood that his desire for food on Thanksgiving Day was not his own. It belonged to this kind gentlemam.

    The gentleman led Stuffy to the restaurant and to the same table where they had always gone. He sat at the table, watching.

    The turkey and all the other food were gone almost as quickly as they appeared Stuffy saw the look of happiness on the gentleman's face. He continued to eat to keepit there.

    In an hour the battle was finished.  

    "Thank you for my Thanksgiving dinner," Stuffy stood up heavily.

    They said goodbye, as they did each year, at the door.

    Stuffy went around the first corner, stood for one minute, and fell. He was picked up and taken to a hospital.

    An hour later , the Old Gentleman was brought to the same hospital.

    "That nice old gentleman over there," a doctor was talking to another. "Do you know what's wrong with him? He's almost dead for the need of food. A very proud old man, I think, He told me he hadn't eaten anything for three days."

    The wife asked the husband, “In this life, what did you miss?”

    When she was 25, the husband replied, “I missed a chance of finding a new job.”

    When she was 35, the husband angrily told her that he had just missed the bus.

    At 45, the husband sadly said, “I missed the chance of seeing my closed relative before his last breath.”

    At 55, the husband said disappointingly, “I missed a good chance to retire.”

    At 65, the husband hurried replied, “I missed the dentist's appointment.”

    At 75, the wife didn't ask the husband any more, the husband was kneeling in front of the very sick wife. Remembering the question the wife used to ask him, this time he asked the wife the same question. The wife, with a smile and peaceful look, replied, “①In this life, I didn't miss having you!”

    The husband was full of tears. He always thought that they could be together forever. He was always busy with work. So much that he had never been thoughtful to his wife. The husband hugged his wife tightly and said, “Over 50 years, how I had allowed myself to miss your deep love for me.”

    In the busy city life, there are many people who are always busy with work. These people revolve(旋转) their lives around their jobs. They are unwilling to spend time on health care. They missed the chance to be with their children in their growing up. They neglect(忽略) the loved ones who care for them, and also their health.

    ②Nobody knows what is going to happen one year from now.

    Life is not permanent(永恒的), so always live in the now. Express your gratitude to your loved ones in words. Show your care with actions. Treat every day as the last day of life. In this way, when you are gone, your loved ones would have nothing to feel sorry about.

C

    When Matty Sallin，34，was working on a degree in art and technology at New York University，he got interesting homework in electronics class．He decided to create an alarm clock(闹钟)．

    "Everybody has to deal with these every day，and they are really unpleasant!"he says．He asked different people what they would like to wake up to instead of a noisy alarm．A lot of them said，"The smell of bacon(培根肉)"．

    So Sallin and two classmates invented a new kind of alarm clock：a wooden box with a pig face and a digital clock that uses the smell of cooking bacon instead of the sound to wake someone up．He explains．"There's no danger of burning，because I built it carefully．It uses halogen light bulbs(卤素灯)instead of a fire for cooking and turns off automatically after ten minutes．Yes,the clock itself can do it．Just a few easy steps are needed to set the alarm．"

    "What you do is to put some frozen bacon in the night before and set the alarm，"says Sallin．

    "If you set the alarm for 8：00,it will turn on at 7：50 and slow cook for ten minutes under the halogen bulbs．"he says，Then the bulbs turn off and a fan blows the smell out through the nose of the pig．

    "So instead of an alarm，  ▲，"says Sallin．"Then you can open the door on the side and pull the bacon out and eat it．"

    When Sallin was a kid，he spent a lot of time making drawing of inventions．"I wanted to make an lift in my backyard and a special tree house．"he says．"But I never really thought I'd be called an inventor!"

    Sallin got an A in the class and went on to other things—but people continue to hear about his invention and email him every day asking where they can buy his alarm clock．

    At the opening of the sports meeting, our class was chosen to be the team holding colorful flags.

    At firsts I thought we were lucky, because this work seemed so simple that we could finish it easily. Each of us only needed to hold a flag of different color. However, the work was not as easy as I thought. There were two weeks for us to practice before the sports meeting. During this time, all the classmates were trained strictly. We practiced walking, holding the flags and standing still without moving for one or two hours.

    Finally, the day came. At the opening of the sports meeting, we were the first class to appear. As we went through the platform (主席台), we shouted out our saying loudly when we walked through step by step, holding different colorful flags. As we arrived at our place we formed two lines and started running along the sides of the playground. At last, all of the classmates stood one by one, holding the flags and circling the whole playground. When the wind flew, our colorful flags flew. How beautiful!

    After that, other classes put on many wonderful shows, but we couldn't see anything. What's worse, we had to stand the whole time until the whole opening finished, which meant that we stood for three hours without any break!

    This experience made me realize that we cannot tell the difficulty only by the appearance of a job.

    During the time of Jin Dynasty, there was a man named Le Guang. One day, Le Guang asked one of his friends to have dinner at his home. After dinner, his friend was back.

    For a long time, his friend didn't come. Then Le Guang heard that his friend was ill, so he came to visit him. Le Guang asked him what was wrong with him. His friend answered, "Last time, at your home I found a little snake in the glass and I was ill after I drank the alcohol (酒)." Le Guang was very surprised because there wasn't a snake in the glass. Suddenly, he remembered there was a bow (弓) on the wall. There must be the shadow (影子) of the bow which looked like a little snake.

    So Le Guang asked his friend to join him for a drink again. When the glass was full of alcohol, he pointed to the shadow of the bow in the glass and asked his friend to have a look. His friend shouted, "That is what I saw last time!" Le Guang laughed and took away the bow.

    "Can you see the snake now?＂ he asked. His friend was surprised to find that the snake was gone. After his friend knew the truth, he was well.

    For many years, this story has been used to advise people not to be too suspicious (怀疑的) easily.

    It was Sunday. I had one last patient to see. She was an old woman, sting on her bed. trying to put socks on her swollen (肿胀的) ft. I walked in, spoke quickly to the nurse, and saw from her chart that she was in a good condition.

    She asked if l could help put on her socks. Instead, I started a monologue (长篇大论): "How are you feeling? Your sugars and blood pressure are also good today. The nurse said you're anxious to see your son who's visiting you today from far away. I believe you really look forward to seeing him.

    She stopped me with a serious voice. "Sit down, doctor. This is my story, not your story."

    I was surprised and embarrassed. I sat down. I helped her with the socks. She told me that her only son lived around the corner from her, but she had not seen him for five years. She believed that the big stress of this was a big reason for her health problems. After hearing her story and putting on her socks, I asked if there was anything else I could do. She shook her head and smiled. All she had wanted me to do was listen.

    Each story is different. Some are detailed; others are vague (含糊的). Some are true; others not. Yet all those things do not really matter. What matters to the storyteller is that the story is heard.