A story happened when the telegraph（电报）was the fastest method of long-distance communication. One day, a young man went to an interview for a job as a Morse code operator（莫尔斯电码报务员）.

 Answering the ad in the newspaper, he went to the office address. When he arrived, he walked into a large, busy office filled with noise, including the sound of the telegraph. An office worker asked him to wait until he was called to go into the inner office. Seven other people were already in the waiting area for the interview. The young man sat down and waited with them. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. Naturally the other people wondered what was going on.   They were sure that the young man made a mistake and would be refused.

 A few minutes later, however, the boss came out of the inner office with the young man and said to the other people,“Gentlemen,thank you very much for coming, but the young man has got the job.”

The other people were surprised, and one of them said, “Wait a minute. I don't understand. He was the last to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That's not fair!”

 The boss said, "I'm sorry, but all the time you've been sitting here, the telegraph has been sending out the following message in Mores code: "If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours." None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is this.

      On a Friday night, a poor young violinist was playing his violin at the entrance （人口）of the subway station. The music was so great that people put some money into his hat.

The next day, the violinist came to the entrance again. He put down his hat as usual. Beside the hat was a piece of paper with some words on it:"A George Sang has put an important thing into my hat by mistake. Welcome to claim(认领)if．"After a while a man named George Sang ran here quickly and got back his important thing.

    The important thing was a lottery ticket(彩票). Sang bought it and won a prize of $500, 000. But when he gave $50 to the violinist for his wonderful music, he threw the lottery ticket, too. The violinist was a college student. That morning, he was going to Vienna for his education. However, when he found the ticket, he canceled the flight and returned to the entrance.

    He said, "Although I don't have much money, I live happily. If I lose honesty (诚实），1 won't be happy forever."

 Captain James Cook was a famous English explorer(探险者). He was the first European to visit many Pacific islands. He put these islands on maps around the world.

 James Cook was born in1728. His parents were poor farm workers. James started to work on ships as a sailor when he was eighteen. When he was twenty-seven, he went into the navy(舰队). He fought a war in Canada and made maps of some of the eastern coast there.

 In1768, the King of England sent him to explore the Pacific Ocean. Cook spent three years on that trip. He went to the Pacific again in 1772 and made maps of the coasts of Australia and New Zealand.

 He began his third trip in 1776. This time he went to the North Pacific and made maps of the west coast of North America. When he finished making maps there, he went to Hawaii. Then the sailors and the Hawaiians  started fighting and some Hawaiians killed Captain Cook.

 Captain Cook took gifts to the Pacific Islander·. He gave them cattle, sheep, goats and new plants. He was a very good leader of his men.  When Captain Cook died, the world 1ost one of the greatest explorers in history.

 Judge the following sentences true( T) or false( F) according to the passage.

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Italy. He is best known as an artist today. One of his famous paintings is called Mona Lisa. However, Leonardo had many other natural abilities. He was also a great inventor. Many of his inventions have become important in modern daily life.

Although Leonardo hated war, he invented many different machines used for war. His most special invention was the machine gun, which was produced and used in war many years later.

    By watching the way birds fly, Leonardo tried to find out the secret of flying. Among his sketch (素描) we can see several objects. We consider them as modern flying machines.

    Leonardo spent many hours thinking about how to make good use of time. He developed ideas for labor-saving machines like cutting machines.

Leonardo was a strange man. He didn't eat any meat, which was very unusual in those times. He never published(发表) his ideas and scientific discoveries. He usually used mirror writing, which looks like writing in a mirror, starting from the right side of the page and moving to the left.

    We have very little of his work today. Leonardo finished only a few of his paintings. He left many unfinished because he thought they were not perfect. No one in his life time knew how great Leonardo was. We now believe, however, that he was one of the cleverest men the world has ever known.

    I have a lovely daughter, whose name was Eloise. She is only nine years old. I picked her up from school and went to the supermarket for a few things. I was hoping to be in and out quickly.

    I found a short line with just one person ahead(在……前面) of me. It was an elderly woman, and she was paying for her things with only change(零钱). It took a long time. After a whole day at work, I began to lose patience.

    But then I watched the young clerk(职员). He helped her count her change, ever so tenderly(体贴地) taking it from her shaking hands. I listened to him repeatedly say to her, “Yes, madam.” When she asked the clerk if she had enough money to buy a bag, he told her she did. Then he went two lines over to get one for her. Never once did this clerk get annoyed(生气的) or roll(滚动) his eyes. He was patient and kind.

    As I was watching him, I saw Eloise was, too. I realized that my daughter was learning an important lesson from a complete stranger.

    After the woman was finished, the clerk began ringing up my things and thanked me for my patience. I thanked him, too.I found the manager and told him about the clerk's kindness and patience.

    Then we left the supermarket with a full cart(手推车), but also with a heart full of thankfulness for such an important lesson. Sometimes just one act of kindness is all it takes to encourage others to do the same. Being kind to others can also make you feel good.