"You have saved my horse." Queen Olivia told the young boy standing before her. "Now you shall get a gift for what you did." Peter nervously ran his fingers through his brown hair. That day when he was working in the field，the shocked horse ran past him. Without thinking，he rushed out and controlled it. He didn't know it was the Queen's horse and never expected to get a gift. But he still felt happy for getting one.

    Two of the queen's men appeared. One carried a mirror. Red jewels(珠宝)shone on top of the mirror's silver frame(框架). The other carried a wooden cage with a chicken inside it.

    "Only one gift call be yours," the queen said. "Choose wisely." "That's easy," Peter said. "I'll take the chicken." Some of the queen's men laughed. It was clear that they thought he had made a foolish choice.

    "And why did you choose the chicken?" the queen asked. "Well, I don't know much about jewels," Peter answered. "But I do know about chickens. The chicken will provide eggs for my family for a long while."

    Queen Olivia smiled. "Then you did make a wise choice," she said. "That minor may look beautiful. But the jewels you see are only colored glass, and the frame is painted silver. The chicken is much more valuable." Peter took the chicken and bowed. "Thank you, your majesty."

    "You are a smart child." the queen added. "I could use a smart boy to help take care of my horses. Would you like to take the job?" Peter smiled. "Thank you very much!" he said excitedly. A job at the castle paid well. Now his family wouldn't worry about their food any more--all because he was kind to help others and smart enough to make the right choice!

    The robin (知更鸟) stood on an old climbing plant, and sang his most beautiful song. Suddenly the wind made the plant move, and Mary saw something under the dark green leaves. The thick, heavy plant was covering a door. Mary's heart was beating fast and her hands were shaking as she pushed the leaves away and found the keyhole. She took the key out of her pocket, and it fit the hole. Using both hands, she managed to unlock the door. Then she turned round to see if anyone was watching. But there was no one, so she pushed the door, which opened, slowly, for the first time in ten years. She walked quickly in and closed the door behind her. At last she was inside the secret garden!

    It was the loveliest, most exciting place she had ever seen. There were old rose trees everywhere, and the walls were covered with climbing roses. She looked carefully at the grey branches (枝条). Were the roses still alive? Ben would know. She hoped they weren't all dead. But she was inside the wonderful garden, in a world of her own. It seemed very strange and silent, but she did not feel lonely at all. Then she noticed some small green shoots coming up through the grass. So something was growing in the garden after all! When she found a lot more shoots in different places, she decided they needed more air and light, so she began to pull out the thick grass around them. She worked away, clearing the ground, for two or three hours, and had to take her coat off because she got so hot. The robin hopped around, pleased to see someone gardening.

    In ancient times, there was a king who loved flowers, His palace was always decorated with beautiful orchids (兰花) and other flowers. As the king grew older, he knew that one day he would have to give up his throne (王位). So he had to find someone to rule the country.

    The other day, the king had an idea. He asked his servants to travel to every part of the country and give every citizen a single orchid seed (种子), He then announced that the person who grew the most beautiful orchid would take his throne.

    Everyone in the country then got their own seed. One young man named David was especially excited about the news, because he had experience in growing flowers himself.

    David planted his seed in a pot and put it in a place where it would get lots of sunlight. He watched it carefully every day. But as hard as he tried, his flower simply would not grow.

    Finally, it was time for everyone to give their flowers to the king. David took his empty pot to the palace. "Your Majesty (尊敬的陛下), I am sorry to say that I could not grow an orchid, But I hope you can see that I tried my best," he said.

    The king was moved by David's honesty. Although he did not choose David as the new king, he gave David a job as a royal court judge (法官).He believed that David's honesty would make him the right person to make sure the justice (公正) in the country.

    Alan Smith is blind. He teaches blind children in his country. To show the world that the blind can also do something amazing, he walked across the world's largest salt desert, Salar de Uyuni, only with the help of a GPS.

    Walking across the desert is not easy for an able-bodied person, let alone(更不用说) a blind man. Before setting off, Alan spent three years training for the journey. He studied everything he could find about the place and asked for advice from other travelers. During his journey, he only took water, food and sleeping bags. He walked about 20 kilometers a day. He showed great perseverance(毅力)and finished the 140-kilometer journey in just seven days.

    The brave teacher thought his week-long journey was wonderful. He said, "The journey was quite good. There were snow storms and winds, but luckily I made it."

    One day when some government officials were rebuilding a house, they found a mouse hole in a corner and used smoke to make the mice inside the hole come out. A while later they saw mice running out, one after another, but they saw two mice didn't run away immediately. It seemed that one was trying to bite the tail of the other.

    Everyone was puzzled, so they came nearer to take a look. They realized that one of the two mice was blind, and the other was trying to allow the blind mouse to bite his tail in order to pull the blind one with him to run away.

    During the meal time, they started to talk about the two mice. One serious American said, "I think the relationship between those two mice was that of king and guard."

    A smart Frenchman said, "I think the relationship between them was that of husband and wife."

    A Japanese said, "I think the relationship between them was that of mother and son."

    At that moment, one Chinese asked, "Why did those two mice have a certain relationship?"

    Suddenly, they looked back at the Chinese. The American, the Frenchman and the Japanese who had spoken earlier all lowered their heads in shame, and didn't answer.

    In fact, the great love is not built on friendship or blood relationship. Instead, it is based on no relationship.