Sometimes talent runs in families. Let's look at some famous (著名的) brothers and sisters.

    Andy Murray and Jamie Murray are very famous brothers. They are both professional (职业的) tennis players and they play in competitions all over the world. Jamie is older than Andy, but only by about a year. They look very similar. They are the same height and they have the same dark hair. Jamie became a professional player in 2004, one year before his younger brother Andy. But Andy wins more competitions than his brother!

    Kylie Minogue and Dannii Minogue are famous Australian sisters. Kylie began her career (事业) as an actress on Australian TV, then she began singing when she was 19 years old. She soon became famous all over the world. Dannii is younger than Kylie. She is also taller than her sister and she has darker hair. She began singing after Kylie, but she is also very famous. Dannii is also famous as a judge (评判员) on TV talent shows. Sometimes Kylie and Dannii sing together, and they sing really well.

    JOINING A CHOIR

    I've always loved singing, but singing hasn't always loved me. I

would open my mouth with a beautiful song in my head, fully expecting my voice to follow suit — only to get an awful tone (音调）in return.

    Still, without a second thought, I continued to try to sing whenever possible. On car journeys, when my now twenty something sons weresmall, they would make a great play ( hands over their ears， shoutingNo，Mum，stop!') of going through punishment as I sang along to the radio.

    Never in a hundred years would I have thought about joining a choir. And when I did finally become a member of my first choir 15 years ago, something fantastic happened to my life. From the first time I experienced my voice as something special but also comfortable, in harmony (和谐）with the other singers, I lost my heart to singing. It was like falling in love. And everyone in the choir had the same shining smiles and bright eyes — singing made them feel happy, too.

    Although it is singing itself that makes me happy，it is also how a choir works together. There is something magical about breathing together. The voice of everyone singing quietly together is powerful and excitingly mysterious (神秘的），almost spiritual.

    And there's the unexpected friendship from the activities we do as a choir: raising money for good causes and taking our singing sometimes to places where people are forgotten and sad.

    I am now a member of six choirs and，if I can，sing every day of the week. I stand in front of several hundred people，and know that some，if not all，of each song will sound not bad at all.

    H. G. Wells lived from 1866 to 1946. He wrote many famous stories. He was best at writing stories about the future. One story is called The Time Machine. Here is the story.

    More than 100 years ago, there was an English scientist and inventor living in London. One day, four friends went to his house for dinner. The inventor was not there. Feeling hungry, they started dinner without him. Then they heard a sound. A few moments later, the inventor came in, looking dirty.

    He told his friends that he built a time machine. He could travel into the future.

    The inventor went thousands of years in the future. He met people called the Eloi. They were smaller than him. They had no machines. Growing fruit and vegetables was all that they did. They had no hobbies. Only one girl, Weena, spoke to him.

    Four days later, he met other people called Morlocks. They lived underground. They caught Eloi people and ate them! The inventor wanted to fight against the Morlocks. The Eloi didn't want to help him, not even the strong men. He tried to fight against the Morlocks. At last, Weena went underground with him. Unfortunately, Weena died.

    After that, he got in his time machine. He came back to his time. Seeing the future made him sad. The people in the future were worse. They were not clever.

    His friends didn't think it was a real story. But they never saw him again. Maybe he went to save the future.

    One morning, a blind boy sat on the steps of building with a hat by his feet. He held a sign which said, "I am blind, please help me."

    There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could 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 his footsteps and asked, "Are you the one who changed my sign in the 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, but I cannot see it." Do you think the first sign and second sign were saying the same thing?

    Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

    The first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

    There are at least two lessons we can learn from this simple story. The first is: Treasure what you have. Someone else has less, Try your best to help those who need your help. The second is: Be creative. Think differently. There is always a better way.