One morning it was shining brightly when I woke up. I looked at the alarm dock. It said 3:45! It had stopped! What time was it? I spent two minutes putting on my clothes and ran down to the kitchen. The kitchen clock Said 8: 30--I was late! My parents were away. The school bus went at 8:00. I had missed it, I rang my friend Tony on his mobile phone.

    "Tell the teacher I'll be in as soon as I can!" I said "Come on your rollerblades," Tony said. "It will be faster than the bus." I got an apple to eat on the way. That was my breakfast! Then I put on my rollerblades and set off for school. It took half an hour to get to the school. I took all the shortcuts I knew, I went across the park-even through some backyards! When I got to school. I was very hot and my legs ached. I had missed math, our first lesson of the morning. But I made it just in time for history, our second lesson. I was very happy because history is my favourite subject.

    I travel a lot in my work, and what I dislike about my job is eating alone. It always makes me feel lonely to see others laughing and talking. So, eating in the room is a better choice for me.

    After eating alone in my room for three nights in Houston, I needed to get out of my room. Although the restaurant opened at 6: 30, I arrived at 6: 25. The waiter at the front desk made a comment (评论) about my "being there really early" in surprise. I explained that I hated eating alone in restaurants. He then took me to a lovely table near the window and asked me whether I would mind if he sat down with me for a while.

    I was glad! He sat and talked with me about his career goals (职业目标) and the difficulty of being at work on nights, weekends and holidays. He said he hadn't enough time to be with his family. After 15 minutes, he saw some customers at the front desk and excused himself. I noticed that before he went to the front desk, he stopped in the kitchen for a moment.

    Then another waiter came out of the kitchen and had a wonderful chat with me. Before I left that night, some other waiters, even the cook, came out of the kitchen and sat with me!

    When I asked for my bill about one hour later, all the people who had sat down with me came over in a big group to my table, and gave me a red rose. And I cried! What a beautiful experience!

    Tom was walking through the forest with his axe (斧子) when a sapling (树苗).Called to him and stopped him on his way.

    "Could you please help me clear away these trees.my kind friend?  They are stealing (窃取)all of my sunshine. There is no room because of the trees .so my roots cannot grow freely. I cannot feel the wind with the trees above me."

    Tom decided he could do this favor for the poor sapling. He swung his axe and cleared the trees around the sapling.

    But after Tom made space for the sapling, the hot sunlight dried his leaves. Then there was a heavy rainstorm. The poor sapling couldn't stand(忍受)the weather.

    "Oh, foolish one." said a farmer who was passing by. "The taller trees may seem like they're taking your sunshine, space and wind form you, but they're actually helping you. They protect you from sunburns, heavy rain and other bad weather. _____.You only see them taking your space, but you don't see how they help you. One day when you grow up, you might be the one to protect other saplings."

    Doctor Carl was a very busy man. He always worked hard. He often forgot his families' birthdays. Yesterday afternoon he remembered(记得) it was his wife's(妻子的)birthday. He loved his wife. He wanted to give her a present. On his way home from hospital, he bought some beautiful flowers in a shop. When doctor Carl got home, he gave his wife the flowers and said, "Happy birthday to you, dear!" "It's April 20th today. I remembered your birthday this year. " Mrs. Carl laughed and said, "My birthday was the day before yesterday, but thank you all the same. Better late than never!"

    A lady and her husband in usual clothes walked into the president of Harvard's outer office. "We want to see the president," the lady said softly. Looking at the usual couple, the secretary said, "He'll be busy all day."" We'll wait," the lady replied.

    For hours, the secretary did nothing for them, hoping that they would finally go away. They didn't. "Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they'll leave," the secretary finally told the president.

    The president looked down at the couple. The lady told him, "We had a son that had studied in Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. But he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to build something for him in Harvard. "Madam," the president said angrily, "we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died."

    "Oh, no," the lady explained quickly, "we mean we would give a building to Harvard." The president looked at their usual clothes, and then said, "A building! Do you know how much a building costs? It took us over seven and a half million dollars to build Harvard."

    The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a university?" Her husband nodded. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they built a university with their name—a memorial（纪念）to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.

    You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.