Mike found a job in a bookstore after he finished middle school. He wouldn't do anything but wanted to get rich.   It was a cold morning. It snowed and there was thin ice on the streets. Few people went to buy books and the young man had nothing to do. He hated to read, so he watched the traffic. Suddenly he saw a bag fall off a truck and it landed by the other side of the street.

    “It is full of expensive things.” Mike said to himself. “I have to get it right now, or others will take it away.”He went out of the bookstore and ran across the street. A driver saw him and began to whistle (鸣笛), but he didn't hear it and went on running. The man drove to the side, hit a big tree and hurt himself in the accident. Two weeks later, Mike was taken to the court (法庭). A judge asked if he heard the whistle when he was running across the street. He said that something was wrong with his ears and he could hear nothing.“But you heard me this time,” said the judge.“Oh, I'm sorry. Now I can hear with one ear.”“Cover (盖住) the ear with your hand and listen to me with your deaf (聋的) one. Well, can you hear me?”“No, I can't , sir.”“You told a lie. There is nothing wrong with either of your ears,” the judge said.

    I always had a nice cup of tea every morning in my country in Indonesia. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

When I arrived in the early morning for the first time at Sydney airport，the first thing that I looked for was a coffee shop. Finally，I found a nice coffee shop with many people queuing(排队) to order. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Then a very friendly girl asked me if she could help me. I said that I would like to have a cup of tea. The she asked me, "{#blank#}3{#/blank#}"I thought she was making a morning joke with me. So I said "Red tea，please." With a very unfriendly face, she asked me again，"Black or white tea，please？" {#blank#}4{#/blank#} I didn't know what actually black or white tea was. I only knew that having tea is normally with or without sugar.

One day I had a cup of tea at the University tea room. I saw a lady drinking tea with milk in it. Then I asked her，"{#blank#}5{#/blank#}"She smiled and said，"Yes，you can." At that moment, I understood that black tea is no milk added and white tea is with milk. How big is the difference of having tea between Indonesian and Australian people!

    Want to say "hello" from Disneyland? Send a post card!

    Beautiful scenes（戏剧）of paradise (乐园),wild animals, silly pictures — you can find them all in one place. Where? On a post card! Have people always sent post cards? No. Before post cards, people liked sealed letters.

    The idea for the first decorated (装饰) post card came to John P. Charlton in 1861. He thought a simple card with decorations would be a great way to send a note. Then in the late 1800s, post cards with pictures appeared. By law, people had to write their note on the front ——on the picture! The back was only for the address. Several years later, England allowed a divided-back post card. Then people could write their note on the back left side and put the address on the right. During the early 1900s, the golden age of post cards, picture post cards became a craze of the world. In 1908, Americans alone mailed over 677 million post cards. Today, post cards are the third most popular collection in the world after stamps and coins.

    September 21st, 2050—At a press conference today, it was announced that the first tourist heading for Mars would be the 38-year-old American businessman Patrick Clifford. He would leave the Earth in the launching window of June, 2052, and he would set his foot on the surface of Mars in November, together with 6 astronauts who would further explore the planet.

    Patrick has a two-year training ahead of him to get ready for the trip. Not only will he spend five months in getting to Mars, but another 600 days there before he can go back home. Patrick was very excited, "This has been my dream since I was four, and seeing the first man on Mars 20 years ago made me realize that it was possible."

    To be able to pay the 1.3 billion dollars for his ticket for the trip, Patrick sold his majority stocks in the company which his father had built. "I know that my father would have been proud of me if he had still been alive today. He knew what this meant to me," says Patrick.

    So, how is he going to spend his 600 days on the red planet? "Well, since I don't have a job, when I get back after selling the company, I have plenty of time to come up with a new business idea," Patrick says and laughs. If he brings a shovel(铲子), he can start building the first hotel there, but maybe he shouldn't expect too many guests until someone can offer a lower transfer fare.

    As the taxi leaves, my father stands at the living room window looking out, watching me move off into the darkness, at 4:30 a. m. His grey hair is untidy from sleeping.

    Moments ago, he got up to carry my bag for me and went into the cold open air.

    He thanked me for a daughter's cooking and for having traveled so far to spend the holiday with him. I told him that I worried about he would feel lonely again in the empty house.

    "I have my plans," he said, in the moments before I walked out the door.

    When I arrived 10 days ago, I felt it was quiet and lifeless in the house. Then my brothers and I came and filled the rooms. But, now, they're gone, I am the last to leave.

    As the taxi began to move, I watched the lights go off, but my father didn't leave. Even though he couldn't see me in the dark, he stood by the window watching, beside the tree. It was a fresh tree. He buys one every year for the new year.

    The life is hard for my father: my mother died years ago, and now his children are far from home, our selfish choices taking us from one end of the country to the other, the life of the tree, cut for Christmas, is short; my father's is long and strong. But both of them are tall and straight.

    I leave behind two trees: one with silver-grey hair, the other still freshly green.

At thirteen, I was diagnosed (诊断)with a kind of attention problems. It made school difficult for me. When everyone else in the class was focusing on tasks, I could not.

In my first literature class, Mrs. Smith asked us to read a story and then write on it, all within 45 minutes. I raised my hand right away and said, "Mrs. Smith, you see, the doctor said I have attention problems. I might not be able to do it. "

She glanced down at me through her glasses, "You are no different from your classmates, young man. "

I tried, but I didn't finish the reading when the bell rang. I had to take it home.

In the quietness of my bedroom, the story suddenly all became clear to me. It was about a blind person, Louis Braille. He lived in a time when the blind couldn't get much education. But Louis didn't give up. Instead, he invented a reading system of raised dots (点) ,which opened up a whole new world of knowledge to the blind.

Wasn't I the "blind" in my class, being made to learn like the "sighted" students? My thoughts spilled out and my pen started to dance. I completed the task within 40 minutes. Indeed, I was no different from others; I just needed a quieter place. If Louis could find his way out of his problems, why should I ever give up?

I didn't expect anything when I handed in my paper to Mrs. Smith, so it was quite a surprise when it came back to me the next day--with an "A"on it. At the bottom of the paper were these words: "See what you can do when you keep trying?"