In 50 years of traveling, Colin McCorpuodale has visited every country in the world except three. And everywhere he goes, he sends himself a postcard. He always chooses a postcard with beautiful scenery (风景). Usually he writes just a short message to himself. However, he wrote an interesting story on his latest one, from the Malians Island.

Mr. McCorpuodale lives in London. On one of the walls in his room, you can see a large map of the world. There are hundreds of little red pins (大头针) stuck in it. “These pins mean a lot to me.” says Mr. McCorpuodale, “I follow the rule. I'm allowed to stick one in only if I've been in a place for more than 24 hours.”

Naturally, Mr. McCorpuodale has his favorite places. New Zealand, he describes as “a wonderful country”. About China, he says, “This is the country in the world which is completely different. There is no European influence. ”

Wherever he goes, Mr. McCorpuodale takes with him a photo of his wife, a candle, a shirt with a secret pocket and a pen.

So why does he do it? For the postcards or the travels? Mr. McCorpuodale laughs, “Neither. Only for the meaningful life.”

    Thomas Edison lit up the world with his invention of the electric light. Without him, the world might still be in the dark. However, the electric light was not his only invention. He also invented the motion picture camera and more than 1, 000 other things. About every two weeks he created something new.

    Thomas Edison was born in 1847. He attended school for only three months. His mother taught him at home, but Thomas was mostly educated. He started experimenting at a young age.

    When he was 12 years old, he became a newsboy on a train. experiments on the train in his spare time. Unluckily, his first work experience did not end well. They fired him when he accidentally set fire to the floor of the train. Then Edison worked for more than five years as a telegraph operator, but he continued spending much of his time in experimenting.

    Thomas Edison was totally deaf in one ear and hard to hear others, but he thought of his deafness as a blessing in many ways. It kept conversations of every 24 hours. Sometimes his wife had to remind him to sleep and eat.

    Thomas Edison died at the age of 84. He left a great many inventions that greatly improved the quality of people's life all over the world.

    Tony loves his grandma. She often tells him stories about Santa Claus(圣诞老人).

    Today is December 24. Tony's grandma takes him to Kevin's Store to shop. She gives Tony fifty dollars and says, "Take the money and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car."

    Tony thinks of everyone he knows: his family, friends and classmates. Then he thinks of Bobbie. Bobbie sits behind Tony. He doesn't have a warm coat. Tony knows it because Bobbie never goes out to play in winter. So Tony buys a blue coat for him. It looks really warm.

    In the evening, his grandma helps Tony put the coat in a Christmas box, and writes, "To Bobbie, From Santa Claus" on it. "Santa always helps people but never lets them know," Tony's grandma says. They put the box in front of Bobbie's house and then go back home.

    That night Tony knows Santa Claus is real, and they are on his team(队伍).

Once or twice, there was crying and sighing (叹息) from a little leaf, as leaves often do when the wind is blowing. The tree said, "What's the matter, little leaf ?"

"The wind, " said the leaf, "just told me that one day it would pull me off and throw me on the ground. "

" Don't be afraid, " the tree said. "Hold on , and you shall not go off until you are ready. "

So the leaf stopped sighing and went on singing. It grew all summer long until October. When the bright days of autumn came, the leaf saw all the leaves around growing very beautiful. Some were yellow, some were brown, and many were colorful. Then the leaf asked the tree what this meant (意味着).

The tree said, " All these leaves are getting ready to fly away, and they have put on these colors because of their joy (快乐). "

The little leaf started to want to go and grew colorful thinking of it. Then it saw that the branches (树枝) of the tree had no bright colors on them and asked why.

"We must keep on our working clothes because we don't finish our work, " said the tree, "but your clothes are for holidays because your work is now over. "

Just then, the wind came, and the leaf let go (放手) without thinking. The wind took it up and turned it over and over. Then it fell slowly down on the ground, among hundreds of leaves.