B

    Sam was a fifteen­year­old boy living with his little sister, Julie. Their parents passed away long ago. Sam had to take care of Julie by himself.

One day, Sam woke up at three in the morning as usual. When Julie was sleeping alone, Sam left their little house to send newspapers. When he found an old man sitting in front of their house, Sam was so surprised that he stopped to look at him closely. It was an icy morning and he looked very cold.

    The poor old man didn't have anything to cover himself with. Sam went into his house to get the old man a blanket(毯子). However, there were no extra blankets, so Sam thought hard and took his father's coat. It was the only thing of his father's that he had left. Sam wrote a short note. "Sir, I found you sleeping in front of my house. This is my father's coat. I hope it fits you well." He put the note in a pocket of the coat and covered the old man with the coat. Then he went to work. When he came back, both the man and the coat were gone. Sam thought that it was the best thing he could do with his father's coat.

    That afternoon, Sam hurried home after school because Julie was at home alone. However, Julie and the old man were standing in front of the house, and Julie shouted to Sam, "Brother! He's our grandfather!"

    The grandfather smiled and said, "Sam, thank you for giving me the coat and letting me know how good my grandson is. This coat was the one that I gave my son a long time ago!"

    Ali, who was working a long way from his home, wanted to send a letter to his wife, but he could neither read nor write, and he had to work all day, so he could only look for somebody to write his letter late at night. At last he found the house of a letter writer whose name was Nasreddin.

     Nasreddin was already in bed. "It is late," he said. "What do you want?" "I want you to write a letter to my wife," said Ali. Nasreddin was not pleased. He thought for a few seconds and then said, "Has the letter got to go far? What does that matter?" answered Ali.

    "Well. My writing is so strange that only I can read it, and if I have to travel a long way to read your letter to your wife, it will cost you a lot of money. "Ali went away quickly.

    Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 and died on December 5, 1791. When he was three, he often had music lessons with his elder sister. His father took him through many different countries, where he played music for lots of people.

    But some people didn't believe a little boy could write such beautiful music. They asked him to stay in a room all by himself for a week and somebody watched the room all the time. In a week, he finished a new piece of music. After that, people believed that he could write beautiful music.

    Mozart died when he was still a young man. During his short life he studied music, taught music, played music and wrote music. Even by working so hard, he couldn't make much money. Often he had to borrow(借入) money from his friends. But his music made him happy and for more than two hundred years his music has made other people happy, too.

    I'll never forget the little boy called Dick. At that time, I worked in a hospital. There was a little girl. She was badly ill. The only chance to make her healthy again was a blood transfusion (输血) from her five-year-old brother Dick.

    The doctor told the boy about that and asked whether (是否) he would like to give his blood to his elder sister. Thinking of his sister, he thought for a moment, and took a deep breath. He said, "Yes, I will do this, if it saves her life."

    The moment came. His sister was lying on the bed next to him. The boy looked at her and smiled, but gradually his face became pale and his smile disappeared. He asked the doctor in a low voice, "Doctor, will I start to die right now?"

    The doctor smiled and said, "Of course not. You'll be stronger than before soon."

    The little boy thought that if he saved his sister, he would die, but he still chose to save her. What a brave boy!

Here is a part from Maria's diaries(日记) about her vacation.

The 3^rd Day: Yesterday we arrived in London in the rain. We went to some big shops.

The 4^th Day: We came to Paris. The day was cloudy and the food wasn't good. We liked the shops here, but the things were dear.

The 5^th Day: We arrived in Rome in the hot weather. We had lunch in a small restaurant, and the food was delicious. We visited some shops. They were all wonderful.

The 6^th Day: We went to New York and the things in the shops were all dear. But we liked the warm weather there.

The 7^th Day: Today we visited New York City. The weather was fine. We'll go back home tomorrow after a week's vacation.

    A girl went to her father and told him that her life was too hard. She said she couldn't work all the difficulties out 1. She just wanted to give up.

Her father said, "I think I know 2 I can help you. 3 me." They went into the 4. Her father put a potato, an egg and some coffee beans into three different bowls of water. Then, he started to boil (煮沸) the water on the stove.

After some time, he turned the stove 5 and took out the potato, the egg and the beans. He then showed each of them to his daughter.

"Look. The potato was hard before I boiled it, but now, it is 6 and weak. The egg was fragile (易碎的) until I put it in the water—now, it is hard inside. But the coffee beans were different. When they met the boiling water, they changed and became delicious 7."

Life 8 problems to us all. The potato, egg and coffee beans were all met with the same problem. But they each solve the problem in their own way. It is up to you to take the difficulties you face and find something good in 9. By making a(n) 10, the father taught his daughter a life lesson.