As a young man, Tom was a famous artist with a wife and two fine sons. One night, his older son was ill. Tom and his wife thought it was nothing serious. But the boy died suddenly that night..

    After his son died, Tom always felt very sad. To make matters worse, his wife also left him later, leaving him alone with his six-year-old younger son, Emie. Sadly, he turned to alcohol(酒) for help.

As time went by, Tom began to lose everything he had——his land, house, etc. A few months later, Tom passed away alone in a small bar. Hearing of Tom's death, I thought,"What a complete failure!"

   But later, I began to change my earlier opinion. I knew Tom's now adult son, Emie. He is one of the kindest, most caring men. I saw the love between Emie and his children. And I thought that kindness and caring had to come from somewhere.

One day, I asked him what made him become such a specia1 person. Emie said quietly, "My father came into my room every night, give me a kiss and said,"love you, son."

     Hearing his words, I understood everything. Tom didn't leave many things behind. But he had been a kind loving father, and left behind his best love.

    There was once a boy called Jim in a village. Whenever Jim asked people to do things, no one would listen to him. He was sad. So Jim asked a wizard to solve the problem by using magic. The old wizard tried a lot of spells, but didn't work.

    A young man heard about the problem .He went to Jim and said that he knew the solution. He gave Jim two small pieces of paper. “These are two spells, my boy. Use the first before you ask others to do something, and use the second when they have done it. A smile is also necessary, "the young man said. Jim was happy and tried to use the spells. When he asked people to do something. He said “Please "before his words and "Thank you "after they had done it. People were very surprised that Jim could be polite. Soon, they became happy to do what Jim asked them to do. The wizard was surprised, and asked the young man about the spells. ”It's not magic. When I was a child, my teacher told me that with good manners you could get anything you want. And he was right. Jim only needed good manners to get what he wanted.”

    17-year-old Brennan Agranoff, a colorblind boy, started his custom sock business in middle school, with a small loan(贷款)he got from his parents. Up till now, he has sold over $1 million worth of socks online in the last four years.

    Brennan thought of the idea for his custom sock company at just 13 years old. He was attending a high-school basketball game in his hometown of Sherwood, Oregon, and noticed that many kids his age were wearing the same white Nike sport socks. The boy told himself that if these white plain sacks were so popular with kids, then some cool custom designs would surely be an even greater hit.

    But the boy didn't tell his parents about the business idea immediately. He spent six months researching things like printing machines and technology and drawing up a business plan. Only when he had everything planned out did he ask his parents for a loan. "They thought the idea was a little out there," Brennan recently told CNN Money, but he kept pushing, and finally received a $3,000 loan to start his company. Then he began to work on his own designs. The fact that he was colorblind didn't stop him and he has created aver 200 designs now.

    Business was slow the first year, but then Brennan started pushing his HoopSwagg products heavily on the Internet. Orders soon started coming in in large numbers, and HoopSwagg became a popular brand among custom sock lovers. Right now, his designs can be found on HoopSwagg website, Amazon and eBay.

    Four years after starting his business, Brennan has achieved great success while balancing(平衡)school, house chores and his social life. And he says he loved every minute of it.

    Today, roller skating is easy and fun. But a long time ago, it wasn't easy at all. Before 1750, the idea of skating didn't exist(存在). That changed because of a man named Joseph Merlin. Merlin's work-was making musical instruments. In his spare time he liked to play the violin. Joseph Merlin was a man of ideas and dreams. People called him a dreamer.

    One day Merlin received an invitation to attend a fancy dress ball.  He was very pleased and a little excited. As the day of the party came near, Merlin began to think how to make a grand entrance at the party. He had an idea. He thought he would get a lot of attention if he could skate into the room.

    Merlin tried different ways to make himself roll. Finally, he decided to put wheels under his shoes. These were the first roller skates. Merlin was very proud of his invention and dreamed of reaching the party on wheels while playing the violin.

    On the night of the party Merlin rolled into the room playing his violin. Everyone was surprised to see him. There was just one problem. Merlin had no way to stop his roller skates. He rolled on and on. Suddenly, he ran into a huge mirror that was hanging on the wall. Down fell the mirror, breaking to pieces. Nobody forgot MerIin's grand entrance for a long time!