A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said, "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat.

    A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pock et and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

    Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized(听出) his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"

    The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."

    What he had written was, "Today is a beautiful day; I can not see it."

    Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply sign the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective (有效的)?

Last weekend, the four members of my family spent an excellent holiday at the Disneyland. And one thing made our visit seem 1 . 

We got to the front of the line at Space Mountain, only to find out that our little daughter Gloria couldn't take her 2 on the ride. It was our first time to be there, so we were too 3 to remember that ice cream was not allowed on the ride. 

Gloria started 4 and we all didn't know what to do. Then Tony, one of the staff(员工) members, came over. He bent down and told Gloria that he would 5 the ice cream for her and give it back to her when she finished the ride. Gloria said, " Really?" Then she gave Tony her ice cream, and enjoyed 6 on the ride. 

Half an hour later, we 7 . And sure enough, there was Gloria's new friend 8 " her" ice cream. And we knew what had happened, 9 we knew that an ice cream couldn't last for thirty 10 without melting on a summer afternoon in Florida. Tony knew clearly 11 we would get off the ride. He went to the nearest shop and 12 a new ice cream half a minute before we walked out of the exit(出口). Gloria said, "13 . " But I was sure she didn't know it was a 14 ice cream. 

Thanks so much for giving us 15 and making our visit pleasant!

A: Good morning, Eric! What's the girl's name?

B: {#blank#}1{#/blank#} first name is Diana. 

A: And what's {#blank#}2{#/blank#} family name?

B: Green. 

Times change! The day I heard that the Bright Bookstore was closing, I was sad. The bookstore had been in the neighborhood for 50 years, and it was a great place where people could know each other through their love of books.

When I met Old Tim, the store's owner, he said it was difficult to run a traditional bookstore. Most young people read e-books and more people bought books online.

Childhood memories came back to me so clearly. A group of us kids often went to the stores, spending hours reading there or just talking with Tim. Tim encouraged us to share our ideas by writing them on a large board.

A few months later, I was back and was surprised to see that the Bright Bookstore was still open for business. It was still old, but inside it was like a different world. In an area, a book reading was going on. Nearby, some readers were sharing their ideas on a screen instead of (而不是) the large board. Some were reading on computers. It even had a coffee shop selling nice food. Clearly, the Bright Bookstore was in good, creative hands. Tim told me that there were more community (社区) events in the coffee shop such as book readings and even music and movie nights.

"Well, as you can see, technology (科技) and creativity have brought my old bookstore into the 21st century! I'm so glad to see that everything I wanted it to offer to the community is still here," said Tim.

No matter how times change, there are always people who love reading. Traditional (传统的) bookstores should also change in a creative way.