Dear Alice,
    I just received your letter. And I was very surprised to know that you decided to drop out of school and wanted to be a model（模特）.
Being a model for a living is not easy. In fact, a famous person like me has a lot of problems that you couldn't see. I can't eat what I like, even though I'm very hungry. Keeping thin makes me look more beautiful on the stage because no one would like to see a heavy model.
Besides, I have to wear a heavy coat in the hot sun, in a swimming suit in the cold air. And practicing walking nicely every day is tiring for me.
You might say I made much money from modeling. But my dear niece （侄女）, you have to know that money is nothing, knowledge is everything. School is important and everyone should go to school for a certain period of time. The longer they stay at school, the better they will be. Very often, I hope I can give up my job and continue my studies at school. But it is very difficult for me to go back to school again. I am too old to go back to school now.
    You are a pretty young girl with a bright future. You only have one year to finish your studies in high school. A year is really short. Please do consider my words carefully before you decide. Of course, there is only one thing I care about, and that is your happiness.
Love,
Emma

    This is Cara and Ben. They are twins(双胞胎). They are twelve. This is their bedroom. It's a nice room. There are two beds in the room. The yellow bed is Cara's and that green one is Ben's. The twins have one desk and two chairs. The chairs look the same. Cara's sweater is on his bed. Ben's coat is on his chair. Their clock, books and pencil-cases are on the desk. Their school bags are behind the chairs.

    An English traveler found himself in Norway（挪威） with only enough money to buy the ticket for his journey back home. As he knew that it would take him only two days to get to England, he decided that he could easily spend the time without food. So he bought a ticket and went aboard the ship. The man closed his ears in order not to hear the sound of the lunch bell. When dinner time came , he didn't go to the dining room, saying that he was not feeling very well.

    The next morning he still didn't have breakfast and at lunchtime he again stayed in his room.But at dinner time he was so hungry that he went to the dining room and ate everything the waiter put in front of him. He got ready for a quarrel.

    "Bring me the bill," he said. "The bill, sir?" said the waiter in surprise. "There isn't any bill. On our ship meals are included in the money for the ticket," said the waiter.

    There was a time when no one knew the name Harry Potter. Now the adventures of this extraordinary student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are read in over 45 languages, including Russian, Thai, and even ancient Greek. No one can explain the Harry Potter phenomenon (现象) – not even J.K. Rowling, his creator.

    J.K. Rowling was born in England in 1965. From a young age, she knew she wanted to be a writer. When she was 6, she wrote her first story—about a rabbit that gets sick. At school, she used to make up stories to tell her friends.

    After graduation from college, she worked as a secretary. But she didn't give up her dream.She spent her lunch hour writing stories, mainly for adults. Then in 1990, on a train trip to London,she got the idea from the boy wizard. She says he just appeared in her head. She soon created many other characters to help Harry fight the forces of darkness.

    She kept working on the story while she was teaching English in Portugal, where she married, had her first child, and divorced (与……离婚) a year later. When she returned to England, she brought back a box of Harry Potter stories.

    After returning home, she was broke and living in a small house. She continued writing, and in 1995, finished the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was published (出版) in 1997 and became an unexpected bestseller.

    Rowling's life has changed a lot. She has become internationally famous and now earns around $40 million a year. She remarried, had a second child and lives in Scotland now.

    One day. Many years ago, when I was working as a psychologist in England, David was brought into my office. His face was pale(苍白)and he looked at his own feet.

    David lost his father when he was two years old and lived with his mother and grandfather ever since. But the year before he turned 13, his grandfather died and his mother was killed in a car accident. His teacher told me that he refused to talk to others from then on.

    How could I help him?

    David didn't say a word. As he was leaving. I put my hand on his shoulder.

    "Come back next week if you like, "I said.

    He came and I suggested we played a game of chess. He agreed. After that we played chess every Wednesday afternoon in complete silence. Usually, he arrived earlier than he agreed. It seemed as if he enjoyed my company. But why didn't he ever look at me?

    "Perhaps he simply needs someone to share his pain with." I thought.

    Months later, when l was looking at his head, he suddenly looked up at me. "It's your turn, "he said. After that day, David started talking. He finally had friends in school and he even joined a bicycle club. He wrote to me a few times. Now he had really started to live his life.

    Maybe I gave David something. But I learned a lot from him. I learned how time makes it possible to overcome(克服)what seems to be so painful. David showed me how one without a word—can reach out to another person. All it takes is a shoulder to cry on, a friendly touch and an ear that listens.