A young and successful man was driving down a street in his new Jaguar (捷豹汽车). He was going too fast. As his car passed, a brick (砖块) knocked into the Jaguar's side door. He was very angry and drove the car back to the place where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver jumped out of the car and stopped the nearest kid, shouting, "Who are you? What are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do that?"

    The young boy was apologetic. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do," he said. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop."

    With tears dropping down his face, the young boy pointed to a place just around a parked car. "It's my brother," he said, "he fell out of his wheelchair (轮椅) and I can't lift him up."

    Crying, the boy asked the man, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me." Moved deeply, the driver hurriedly lifted the disabled boy into the wheelchair.

    "Thank you and God bless you," the thankful child told the man. And the man simply watched the little boy push his brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

    It was a long and slow walk back to the Jaguar. The dent (凹痕) was very noticeable, but the driver didn't want to repair the side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.

    God speaks to our hearts every day. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, he has to throw a brick at us.

    Helen Keller was born in 1880 in the USA. When she was about 19 months old, she got very ill. After many weeks, the doctor told her parents, "Your daughter is better, but now she can't see and she can't hear." Her mother and her father were very sad. After a few years, things got worse. There was no way for Helen to speak to other people. She heard nothing. She didn't understand anything.

    Then one day a teacher came. Her name was Anne Sullivan She lived with Helen and her family. The teacher helped Helen learn words. Helen was a very clever child and soon she learned to spell her first word. When she was older, she went to college.

    Helen was a very famous woman when she died. The world remembers her today as a brave and wonderful person. She was blind and deaf, but she found a way to see and hear. It helped many people in the world.

An old farmer lived with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was always up early to read. One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa! What good does reading do?"

Grandpa quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket to the river and bring me back a basket of water."

The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out(漏出) before he got back home. Grandpa laughed, "You'll have to move a little faster next time." This time the boy ran faster, but again the same took place. It was an impossible task.

The old man said, "You're just not trying hard enough." So the boy tried a third time and failed. He said, "See Grandpa, it's useless!"

"So you think it is useless? Look at the basket."

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had turned from a dirty coal basket into a clean one inside and outside.

"You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read, you will be changed, inside and outside."