My mother only had one eye. I hated her, as she was such an embarrassment (难堪）for me. She ran a small shop at a market, selling anything for the money we needed.

    One day, my mom came to my school. I threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day, my classmates shouted, “Your mom only has one eye!" and they taunted me. My face turned red.

I wished that my mom would just disappear from this world, so I said to her, “Mom, why don't you have the other eye? You make me a laughingstock.” She didn't say anything. Maybe it was because my mom hadn't punished me, so I didn't think that I had hurt her feelings very badly. I decided to study hard so that I could leave her for the rest of my life. I made it at last. Now I'm living happily as a successful man in another country.

Many years later, I received a letter, which said, “I think my life has been long enough now， but would it be too much to ask if I wanted you to visit me once in a while? I'm sorry that I am an embarrassment for you. You see, when you were very young, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn't stand watching you having to grow up with only one eye, so I gave you mine. I was so proud of my son that was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye. I was never angry with you for anything you did. I miss the time when you were still young around me. You mean the world to me. I love you.” I can't help crying with the letter in my hand.

    This story was told long ago by the ancient people in Australia.

    Once there was a child whose parents were dead, so he was left to his relatives. However, the relatives treated him badly. They didn't allow him to drink the water they had collected far away, so the was thirsty most of the time. The child was even told to eat eucalyptus leaves(桉树叶).

One day, after all the relatives left, the boy drank the water from his relatives' water bottles. Then he hung the bottles on a small tree and began to sing some ancient songs. At once, the tree began to grow very tall. When his relatives returned, they found the boy was on the tree with their bottles. They became very angry, for they could not reach the water and they knew the boy had played tricks on them. But they said that they would be kind to the boy if he came down and brought the water bottles with him.

    However, as soon as the boy made his way down to the ground, his relatives set about beating him with sticks and stones until his body was quite soft. Mad with anger, they continued to heat him until a strange thing happened at last. The boy began to change. He became a koala and climbed up the tree. The relatives cut down the tree and the koala-boy disappeared. The bottles on the tree fell down and became a river.

    Since that time, koalas have been treated with respect or all the water in the land will dry up.

    John was a very strong man. Once he got a job of cutting wood in a forest. His boss gave him an axe(斧子) and showed him the area where he should work.

    The first day, John cut down 18 trees. "Good," the boss said, "keep it up!" John was encouraged by the words of the boss and tried harder the next day, but he could only cut down 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only cut down 10 trees. Day after day he was cutting down fewer and fewer trees.

    "I must be losing my strength," John thought. He went to the boss and said that he could not understand what was going on. "When was the last time you had sharpened(使锋利) your axe?" the boss asked. "Sharpened? I had no time to do it. I have been very busy trying to cut more trees." said John.

    The moral of this story: While John was working hard, he didn't think about how to do his job better.

    Years ago a heavy rain hit Chongqing and made the Yangtze River rise.

    When the rain stopped, people found that a dog, later named Huahua, swam across the river to an island(小岛)twice a day for two weeks. Why? Because Huahua's four children were there. The mother dog swam there every day to feed her babies. This story touched many people

    Not only humans but animals are responsible. Animals know love as we humans do, and Huahua is only one of them. British scientist Jane Goodall spent 14 years living with chimpanzees(黑猩猩) in Africa. She found that chimpanzees cared for each other when others got hurt or lost parents.

    Two birds in Chengdu showed their parental love. Their baby was hurt and fell on the street in the centre of the city. Cars were driving past but the brave parents flew down to the road and took the little bird away with their claws(爪子).

    Animals not only love their own children, but also care for other animal babies. A chimpanzee named Anjana in an American animal research centre takes care of a baby lion. She feeds the lion carefully every day. "They are just like mother and son, "said a worker at the centre.

    My cousin Tom likes candy(糖果)very much. He always asks for candy. My aunt doesn't want him to have so much candy. She doesn't think it's healthy. It's Tom's fifth birthday. His parents buy him some food, fruit and some interesting things. But they don't buy candy for him. Tom isn't happy.

    "I want to have some candy, Mum." Tom says

    "I'm really sorry. We don't have candy. And I don't think it is good for you."

    "I like candy. I want some." Tom says.

    "OK, you can have some. But you can't have it today.

    "When can I have it?"

    "Your uncle's wedding(婚礼)is on February 2nd. You can have some."

    "OK" Tom is very happy and asks, "Mum, when is your wedding?"