About five hundred years ago, an earthquake happened in a small village. Luckily for them, nothing was destroyed and no one was hurt. But a huge stone fell from a nearby mountain and stopped in the middle of the road.

    When the earthquake stopped, many people came to the road and saw the stone. Some of the strongest men tried to lift the stone out of the road. But they couldn't move it. They tried to push it but failed. They tried to pull it with ropes but nothing worked.

    "Well," they said sadly, "there's nothing we can do about it. We'll have to change the way."

    At this time a boy about 12 years old said, "I think I can help you to move the stone away."

    "You?" they shouted. "What are you talking about?" The men all laughed at the boy.

    The next morning, some people came into the road. One of them shouted, "The stone is gone." More people ran out to see what had happened. It was true. The stone wasn't on the road any longer. It wasn't even near the road.

    The boy walked over to where the stone had been and said, "I buried it."

    The people looked rather surprised. "You see," he said, "I dug a deep hole next to the stone and I dug a small incline (斜坡) up to the stone and the stone rolled (滚) down into the hole itself. Then I covered it with earth."

    The villagers shouted, "Clever boy! Clever boy!" And some of them said, "Why didn't we think out this good idea?"

    A young woman was walking through a supermarket to pick up a few things when she noticed an old man following her around．Thinking nothing of it，she ignored him and went on shopping．After she got what she wanted，she went to checkout line，but the old man got in front of her．

    “Pardon me!” he said，“I'm sorry if my staring（盯）at you has made you feel uncomfortable（不舒服的)，it's just because you look like my granddaughter，who just died recently．And I miss her very much．”

    “I'm very sorry，”said the young woman．“Is there anything I can do for you?”

    “Yes．” the old man said．“As I'm leaving，can you say ‘Good-bye，grandpa' to me? It would make me feel so much better．”

    “Sure，”answered the young woman．

    As the old man was leaving，she called out．“Bye-bye，grandpa!”

    When she stepped(迈步) up to the checkout counter（收银台），she saw that her total was $178.50．

    “How can that be?” she asked．“I only bought a few things!”

    “Your grandpa said you would pay for him，” said the clerk.

    A small man goes to the cinema. He buys a ticket and goes in. But after two or three minutes he comes out. He buys a second ticket and goes in again. After a few minutes he comes out again and buys a third ticket. Two or three minutes after that, he comes out a third time and asks for another ticket. But the girl says to him, "Why are you buying all these? Are you meeting friends in the cinema all the time?"

    "No, I'm not doing that." the small man says, "But a big woman always stops me at the door and tears(撕掉) my tickets up."

    Long ago, a young man often said that he was very poor and had nothing. One day, an old man walked past. He heard the young man's words and said, "Hello, young man! What are you talking about? You have nothing? That's not true! You have the most expensive things in the world, so you are a rich person." The young man was very surprised and asked, "Why do you say that? You can see I have nothing. What are these expensive things?" Then the old man said, "If you sell your eyes to a rich blind(盲的) man, you'll make a lot of money and can get everything you want. Would you like to sell them?" The young man didn't want to be blind, so he said, "No." The old man asked again, "Then what about selling your hands for some gold(金子)?" The your and shook his head for the second time. At last, the old man said, "Now you understand, you have the most expensive things in the world." So the old man taught both the young man and us a lesson—health is the most important for us.