It was a cold snowy morning after the winter vacation. And it was my first day at my new school. I was walking alone slowly and worrying about lots of things. It was early and there weren't many people on the road. Suddenly a girl who was riding a bike on ice fell down. She was trying hard to get up but fell again. Without thinking, 1 went over and helped her. She said" thank you" with a smile and then rode away. Her words warmed me a lot.

    Finally, I got to school. The teacher led me to the classroom and introduced me to the class. Then he asked me to sit down beside a girl. I felt so nervous that I didn't dare to look at her. Soon the first class, English, started. Their textbooks were different from those in my old school. As I was wondering what to do, an English book appeared in front of me. "Let's share," the girl beside me said. "Hi, I'm Carrie." I looked up. It was the girl I helped this morning. Later on, we became good friends.

    From that I learned: To help others is actually to help ourselves!

    My name is Alex. I had an interesting and scary experience last Saturday. At about three o'clock in the afternoon, I was walking down the Main Street. I stopped in front of a jewelry store to look at some rings in the window. I really liked one of the rings. While I was standing there, two men came out of the store. They ran across the street, got into a car, and drove away quickly. Then I saw something on the ground. It was a black bag. I thought maybe they dropped the bag while they were driving away in the car.

    I went to pick up the bag and opened it. There was a diamond watch in the bag. I took the bag with the watch into the jewelry store and showed it to the store manager. The manager looked scared by what had happened but he was very happy to see the watch. He said the two men were thieves, and that the police were looking for them. He also said the watch was very expensive. To thank me, he gave me fifty dollars. I was happy that I helped him. However, the thieves stole many pieces of jewelry. They took ten rings, three watches, four necklaces, and ten pairs of earrings. I hoped the police would catch them soon.

    One day a ragged(衣衫槛楼的)beggar(乞丐)was creeping along from house to house. He carried an old wallet in one hand and at every house he asked for a little money to buy something to eat. As he was complaining at his misfortune(不幸), he kept wondering why people who had so much money were never satisfied and always wanted more.

    He thought that if he only had enough money to buy food and clothing, he would be very happy and wouldn't want anything more.

    At that moment, Fortune came down the street. She saw the beggar and stopped. She said to him:" I want to help you. Hold out your wallet and I will pour this gold into it, but only on this condition. All that falls into your wallet will be pure gold, but all that hits the ground will turn into dust. Do you understand?"

    "Oh, yes I understand." said the beggar.

    "Your wallet is old. Don't put too much in it," said Fortune.

    The beggar opened his wallet and a stream of pure gold flowed into it. His wallet grew heavy.

    "You are the richest man in the world now," said Fortune. "I think you should stop! Your wallet is going to break!" However, the beggar said he wanted one more handful. Fortune added one more handful and the wallet split. All the gold fell to the ground and turned to dust. The beggar had nothing but his empty wallet. He was as poor as he had been before.

    In the Chinese﹣speaking world, almost everyone knows about Jin Yong and his books. Jin Yong is the pen name of Louis Cha Leung﹣yung. He was the most important Chinese martial arts novelist. On Oct 30, he passed away at 94 years old in Hong Kong.

    During his lifetime, Jin Yong wrote 15 martial arts novels. Over 300 million copies of his books have been sold (卖) around the world. It's just as the well﹣known saying goes, "Wherever there are Chinese, you will find Jin Yong's novels".

    With his books, Jin Yong created an imaginary world called jianghu. In jianghu, there are many fighting heroes(侠) practicing martial arts. But Jin Yong also used some stories from history and traditional Chinese culture to make this world. His stories took place in different dynasties. He used Chinese poems in his books. This makes his books rich and colorful.

    However, more importantly, Jin Yong has shaped the values (价值观) of many Chinese people. The characters in Jin Yong's books fight for justice and righteousness. And his readers will always thank him for teaching them these values.

    Jin Yong touched people's hearts through more than just his books. All of his novels have been made into films, TV shows, comics or video games. Almost all of the adaptations (改编作品) have been big hits. Lots of actors and actresses became famous because of his works. His works are also popular overseas.