A poor farmer had a friend who was famous for the wonderful apple trees he grew.

    One day, his friend gave the farmer a young apple tree and told him to plant it. The farmer was pleased with the gift, but he did not know where to plant it.

    He was afraid that if he planted the tree near the road, strangers would steal the fruit. If he planted the tree in one of his fields, his neighbours would come at night and steal some of the apples. If he planted the tree near his house, his children would take the fruit. Finally he planted the tree in his woods. But without sunlight and good soil(土壤), the tree soon died.

    Later the friend asked the farmer why he had planted the tree in such a poor place. "What's the difference?" the farmer said angrily and then told what he had thought.

    "Yes, "said the friend, "but at least someone could have enjoyed the fruit. Now you not only have robbed everyone of the fruit, but also you have destroyed(毁掉) a good apple tree!"

    It was a Christmas night. I was an unlucky nurse who had to work on such a beautiful festival. When I was so tired that I didn't want to work any longer, three people came to my desk — a tired woman and two children.

    "Are you all sick?" I asked.

    "Yes," the woman answered and lowered her head.

    But when they started to tell their problems, things became unclear. One child had a fever, but his temperature was OK. The other child had an earache, but she could not tell me which ear hurt. It seemed that the mother was trying to cough.

    Something was wrong. But I only explained that it might take a while before a doctor could meet them. "Take your time, please," said the mother. I checked their information — no address. Suddenly I knew, they were homeless and the hospital was warm.

    The family stayed together under the Christmas tree, smiling and talking with each other sweetly. Quietly, I went back to the nurses' station and told them what happened in the waiting room. It was just like the God sending us a gift on Christmas Day. The nurses' station suddenly came back to life. All the nurses went into action for "a Christmas emergency(急诊)."

    We took out our meals for our Christmas "sick people". We also put oranges and apples together as presents. We tried to give them a warm place on Christmas night. Later, the little girl kissed me and said, "Thanks for being our angels"

    In the ancient Arabic story called Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the young hero Ali Baba said "Open Sesame" and a door to hidden treasures was opened to him. The old story had a special meaning for Ma Yun. He drew inspiration from it for Alibaba.com--Chinese largest ecommerce(电子商务) website.

    In 1995, Ma Yun was working for a US trading company when he was introduced to the Internet. "I know nothing about computers and has never touched a keyboard," he said. He searched the word "beer" and nothing came up about Chinese products.

    Ma Yun had an idea. Why not build a large Internet market to connect customers with companies from all over the world? They could do business online in that way. That was how Alibaba began. His company grew quickly. But that didn't mean everything went smoothly. In 2000, many Internet companies failed including Alibaba. But later, he was successful because he managed to attract investment(投资) into his company. "You should stick to your dream," he said. "Everyone thought I was daydreaming when I started. But the most important thing is that we believe in our dream from past to today and tomorrow. Of course we made many mistakes, but we never give up."

    Ma Yun is also smart. For him, success in business is like trying to catch a rabbit. "If there are nine rabbits, focus on catching one--don't try to catch them all," he said. "Change your ways if you need to, but don't change the rabbit. Get one first, put it in your pocket and then catch the others. "

    Alice is an American school girl. She is now in Beijing with her parents. She doesn't know Chinese, but she is trying to study and speak it. She often tries to speak Chinese to her Chinese friends. Sometimes they don't understand her, because she can't speak Chinese well.

    It's Saturday morning. Alice goes out. She is going to see the flowers show. But she doesn't know how to get there. She asks an old Chinese man. The old man doesn't understand her. Then she takes out a pen and some paper. She draws flowers on it and then gives the picture to the old man, companying with a body gesture (肢体动作). The old man smiles and shows her the right way to the flowers show. Finally, she walks for about 15 minutes and gets to the flowers show. The flowers are so beautiful that Alice likes them very much. And she also buys one bunch of flowers for her mother and two cards for her father.