One day, my son Adam asked me,"Are all people the same even if they are different in color？"

    I thought for a minute, and then I said, "I'll explain, 1 you can just wait until we make a quick 2 at the supermarket. I have something interesting to show you."

    At the supermarket, we 3 some apples——red, green and yellow ones. Back home, I told Adam, "It's time to 4 your question." I put one apple of each kind on the table. Then I looked at Adam, who had a 5look on his face.

    "People are like apples. They come in all 6colors, shapes and sizes. On the 7, some of the apples may not even look as the others." As I was talking, Adam was 8 each one carefully.

    Then, I took each of the apples and peeled（削皮） them, placing them back on the 9but in a different place. "Okay, Adam, tell me which is which." 

    He said, "I 10 tell. They all look the same now."

    "Take a bite of 11 . See if that helps you  12 which one is which."

    He took big bites, and then a big smile came across his face.  "People are  13  like apples. They are all different, but once you  14  the outside, they're pretty much the same on the inside."

    He totally 15 it. I didn't need to say or do anything else.

    Prana, our beautiful dog, isn't with us anymore. She died several years ago. But while sharing our home, she brought so much joy and love into our lives that we still 1 her.

    It was an autumn day in Minnesota, US. We were 2 by a big snowfall for which no one was prepared. We have two 3 trees in our backyard. Prana loved apples. When she went outside, she'd catch an apple and sneak (偷偷地放) it into the 4 . The apples had been on the ground and were often muddy (沾满泥的). So I wasn't always 5 that Prana had brought them into the house. Every time, she would turn her head so I wouldn't see her hidden 6. It was our little game.

    One year, it snowed earlier than usual. Prana went outside. I noticed that she was madly digging holes and bringing the apples to the 7so they could be seen above the snow. She seemed busy digging up as many apples as possible during her yard time. I wondered 8 she was doing this.

    When I called her back into the house  she had her usual one apple in her mouth. About five minutes later, I looked outside. The yard was full of birds. Prana had 9 all those apples for her bird and squirrel friends to eat. She knew that they didn't have enough food to 10 such an early winter!

    As I saw this beautiful act, tears filled my eyes. Prana taught us how to live life with love.

    A small "shop" by the road in Japan has a dog "shopkeeper". It's selling roasted(烤的)Sweet 1there.

    The friendly dog is 2 Kenkun. Because the shop is a self—service one, what the dog should do is just to be cute for customers and he does well3that. The roasted sweet potatoes are kept in a heated "box" outside the shop. So customers can help4directly They need to5100 yen(日元)into the money box for each potato they take. It seems to be working fine now. 6, who would steal a dog? Actually, the three-year-old dog is a good "shopkeeper. It's 7cute and lovely that some of the customers come to see him and of course, they will leave with 8 one or two potatoes.

    People online have different opinions about this. Some of them think that's interesting and they say the dog is the 9 one they've ever seen. But others think it's crazy to keep a dog 10 near a "box" for several hours a day. In their opinion, dogs should run and play hers and there in the sun.

①"I will think of it." It is easy to say this, but do you know what great things have come from thinking? Though we can not see, or hear, or feel our thoughts, they are powerful.

②Isaac Newton was seated in his garden on a summer evening when he saw an apple fall from a tree. He began to think, and tried to find out why the apple fell. Then he discovered how the earth, sun, moon, and stars are kept in their places.

③James Ferguson once saw the inside of his father's watch, and he wondered,"Why should I not make a watch?" This set him thinking and it led to a wooden clock which kept good time.

④Walt Disney, the famous American film-maker, was often thinking of new ideas. One day, when he was in a meeting, he suddenly stopped talking, deep in thought. He looked and looked at a place high up in the room. This continued for a long time, and then he got an idea for a new cartoon.

⑤Ideas come at any time, and the important thing is to think. When you meet with any difficulty, don't lose heart. Try to think of it before asking someone to help you. Think and by thinking you will learn how to think creatively.