It was Jimmy's fifth birthday. He got quite a lot of nice birthday presents from his family, and one of them was a beautiful big drum(鼓).

    “Who gave him that thing?” Jimmy's father asked when he saw it.

    “His grandfather did,” answered Jimmy's mother.

    “Oh,” said his father.

     Of course, Jimmy liked his drum very much. He made a terrible noise with it, but his mother did not mind. His father was working during the day, and Jimmy was in bed when he got home in the evening, so he did not hear the noise.

    But one of the neighbours did not like the noise at all. So one morning a few days later, she took a knife and went to Jimmy's house while he was playing his drum. She said to him, “Hello, Jimmy. Do you know there's something very nice inside your drum? Here's a knife. Open the drum and let's find it.”

    One day a little boy dialed a telephone number and started to speak and he put part of his hand over the phone at the same time. He wanted to change the tone (音色，语调) of his voice. While all this was happening, a man who was working nearby, watched carefully and listened with great interest to the conversation that followed:

    “Lady, can you give me the job of cutting your lawn (草坪)?”

    “I already have someone to cut my lawn,” answered the woman at the other end of the phone.

    “Lady, I will cut your lawn for half the price of the person who cuts your lawn now.” “I'm very satisfied with the person who is cutting my lawn.”

    The boy said, “Lady, I'll even sweep the floor and the stairs of your house for free.”

    “No, thank you.”

    With a smile on his face, the young boy thanked the lady and hung up the phone. The man then walked over to the boy and said: “Son, I like your attitude（态度）. I'd like to offer you a job.”

    “No, thanks,” said the boy.

    “But you're looking for a job, aren't you?”

    “No, sir,” answered the boy. “I was just checking on my performance at the job I already have. I am the one who cuts that lady's lawn!”

Ye Lianping is a 96- year- old re tired teacher from a village in Anhui Province. He has been teaching left- behind children there for free during the past 24 years. 

Teaching has always been an important part of Ye's life. After he retired, he began offering free English- language classes to left- behind children. He first set up a classroom in his own house. Later, with the help of the government, he got another two classrooms. To provide education for more children, he also set up the Ye Lianping Scholarship Fund with almost all his money and the donations（捐赠物） from others. So far, it has helped hundreds of left- behind children. 

Ye is quite generous（慷慨的） to these children, but he spends very little money on himself. He lives a very simple life. He lives with his wife in a house built over 30 years ago. He never buys any drinks. And he has been wearing the same jacket for over 40 years. 

Although he is getting older, Ye is never tired of teaching. In 2018, he got hurt while riding a bicycle to buy vegetables. Instead of resting in bed for recovery, he quickly returned to class with a walking stick. 

Ye is racing against time to spend as much time as possible on left- behind children's education. People call him "the candlelight of the village". But he said, "I'm just a firefly（萤火虫）, muking little light, not as much light as a candlelight can give. "

①The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides a year into twenty- four solar terms. Start of winter, Lidong in Chinese, the 19th solar term of the year, falls on November 7th this year.

②Lidong was once a big day in ancient(古代的) China. Before the day, the emperor(帝王) would take a shower and have no meat. On that day, the emperor and his officials(官员) would all dress in black and go out of the city to welcome winter. Today, to welcome the day, some people choose to have swimming competitions in the rivers in some cold places such as Harbin in Heilongjiang Province.

③As winter comes, the weather gets colder and colder. Chinese people often eat enough food to keep their bodies warm and healthy. On the day of Lidong, people in North China love eating dumplings. In South China, people love to eat chicken, duck and fish. In some places in Guangdong Province, people eat sugar cane(甘蔗) on the day. They think this is good for their teeth. In Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, people will eat green onions for good health. In Taiwan Province, people often eat mutton.

④Lidong is the time to start wearing warm clothes. In old times, the emperor would hand out warm winter clothes to the officials on the day. People would also remember to give" clothes" to their lost family. They would also have delicious food to show how much they missed the lost ones.