One afternoon I visited an art museum while waiting for my husband to finish a business meeting. I was looking forward to a quiet view of the art works.

    A young couple viewing the paintings ahead of me chatted nonstop (不停) between themselves. I watched them a moment and found the wife was doing all the talk. I admired (赞赏) the husband for putting up with her continuous (持续的) talk. Distracted (分心) by their noise, I moved on.

    I met with them many times as I moved through the different rooms of art. Each time I heard her continuous talk, I moved away quickly.

    I was standing at the counter (柜台) of the museum gift shop when the couple came near to the exit. Before they left, the man reached into his pocket and pulled out a white thing. He extended (展开) it into a long stick and then tapped (敲打) his way into the coatroom to get his wife's jacket.

    “He's a brave man.” The salesman at the counter said, “Most of us would give up (放弃) if we were blind (瞎的) at such a young age. But he said his life wouldn't change during his recovery (恢复). So, as before, he and his wife come in when there's a new art show.”

    “But how does he enjoy the art?” I asked, “He can't see.”

    “Can't see? You're wrong. He sees a lot. More than you or I do.” The clerk said, “His wife describes each painting so he can see it in his head.”

    I learned something from the couple that day. I saw a young wife describing paintings to a person without sight (视力) and a husband who would not allow blindness to change his life. And I saw the love shared by two people as I watched this couple walk away hand in hand.

    Jack gets to the bus station very early. The bus for Beijing is leaving at twelve. He sees many people at the station. Some are waiting in line, and others are walking around. Jack looks around but there is no room for him to sit in. He walks into a restaurant. He looks up at the clock there.

    It's only 11:30. Then he finds a seat and sits down. At that time, Tom, one of his friends, comes in and sits in front of him. They talk and drink. After a while, Jack looks up at the clock again. “Oh, my God. It's still 11:30. The clock doesn't work at all.” Jack becomes very sad because he misses the bus.

    Little Tommy was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything-tutors, cards, special learning centers in short, everything they could think of. Finally they took Tommy to a catholic(天主教的) school.

    After the first day, little Tommy came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn't kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread(铺开) out all over the room and little Tommy was hard at work. His mother was surprised. She called him down to dinner and as soon as he finished eating, he went back to his room, without a word. In no time he was back hitting the books as hard as before.  This went on for some time, day after day while the mother tried to understand what was happening.

    Finally, little Tommy brought home his report card. He quietly put it on the table and went up to his room and hit the books. His morn looked at it and to her surprise, little Tommy got an A in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity(好奇心). She went to his room and asked, "Son, what was it? Was it the nuns(修女)?" Little Tommy looked at her and shook his head, "No." "Well then," she asked again. "WHAT was it?"

    Little Tommy looked at her and said, "Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that man nailed(钉) to the plus sign(加号), I knew they weren't joking."

    Once upon a time, a hippo(河马) lived in a river next to a big tree.

One day, a bird came and nested(筑巢) in the tree. The songs of the bird filled the hippo with so much envy(羡慕) that he couldn't think of anything else. Every day he would think why he wasn't born to be a bird even though the bird told him many times he was so lucky to be so big and such a good swimmer.

    Finally, the hippo made up his mind that he would come out of the river, climb the tree, and start singing. However, when he tried to climb the tree, it was very clear that the hippo didn't have wings, nor claws to climb with Realizing that he would never climb up the tree, he angrily hit the tree until it came crashing to the ground. Then he stepped onto the leaves of the fallen tree, and began singing.

    Unfortunately, hippos can't sing either. All that came from his mouth were terrible noises, and when the other animals heard this, they all came around to make fun of the hippo.

    He was so ashamed of this. He also felt bad about having knocked the tree over. He used all his strength to raise the tree back up again, and looked after it until it completely recovered(康复).

    Mr. and Mrs. Scott want to buy some new chairs for their new house. They come into a shop and see some very good chairs on the floor. They like the colour and want to know how much they are. They see a price tag (标签) on one chair. It says (上面写着) "￥100". They like the chair but they are too dear (贵) for them. The Scotts don't think they can buy them now. They leave this shop and go to other shops. Mr. Scott thinks they can find some cheap chairs.