A long time before I was born, my grandma and grandpa moved into the house on Beechwood Avenue. They had a young family of 4 little girls. During that time, it was hard to find a job. So, on weekend grandpa and grandma cleaned the garden to grow some of their own food. They planted tomatoes, beans, cabbages, potatoes and strawberries to feed their growing family. All summer long, the family ate food from the garden.
The family grew up, and before too many years had passed, the grandchildren came to visit. Grandma and grandpa still planted their garden every spring. Everyone still enjoyed the good food from the garden and always took some home.
Then grandpa died in one summer when he was eighty-nine years old. It was a lonely winter for grandma. She sat near the window, looking out at the yard and wondering if she could plant the garden in the spring. It would be hard to care for it by herself. When spring came, she planted only a little.
One nice day in the early summer, grandma heard a noise in the front yard and looked out the window. There were thousands of bees in the air. Grandma wondered what she could do. She decided to wait and think it over. Before long, she decided the bees won't bother anyone, so she went about her business and didn't give them any other thought.
That summer, grandma's little garden grew and grew. The neighbors all puzzled why they grew so well. One day, grandma's brother Frank visited her. Frank said，"In my hometown, the farmers often hired beekeepers to set up bee houses near their fields. The bees helped them to grow." That was when Grandma realized that her bees had helped with her garden all summer.
From that Time on, grandma always believed that since grandpa couldn't be there to help her that summer, he had sent the bees to take his place and make grandma's little garden grow and grow.

    A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said, "I am blind, please help."

    There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

    Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy heard his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?" The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."

    What he had written was, "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it." Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

    Of course, both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

    The first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

    Once a traveller came into a village which was suffering from hunger. The villagers asked him to leave, for they feared he wanted them to give him food. They told him that there was no food. The traveller explained that he didn't need any food and that, in fact, he was planning to make a soup to share with them instead. The villagers watched suspiciously as he built a fire and filled a pot with water With great ceremony(仪式), he pulled a stone from a bag, and dropped the stone into the pot of water. After a moment, he smelt the soup and shouted with excitement, “How delicious the soup is!” As the villagers began to show interest, he mentioned how good the soup would be with just a little cabbage in it. A villager brought out a cabbage to share. This episode(情节) repeated itself until the soup had cabbage, carrots, onions, and beets—indeed, a full pot of soup that could feed everyone in the village was ready. This story describes when there are not enough resources(资源), humans will store things. We do not want to share. The story of stone soup helps us realize that, in doing so, we often prevent ourselves and everyone else from having a feast(盛宴).The meaning of this story goes far beyond food. We keep to ourselves ideas, love, and energy, thinking we will be richer, but in fact we make the world, and ourselves, poorer. The traveller was able to see that the villagers were holding back, and he had the ability to inspire(激发) them to give. In this way, they created a large meal that none of them could have created alone. Are you like one of the villagers? If you come forward and share your gifts, you will inspire others to do the same. The reward is a feast that can feed many.

    Bill is a good boy. He is seven years old, and he likes going to school. But he cannot get up early.

    He always wakes up until (直到) nine or ten o'clock in the morning.

    His mother doesn't want him to be late for school, so she buys an alarm clock for him. She says to Bill, "You must get up when you hear the clock ring." "Yes, Mum," Bill answers. From then on, when he hears the clock ring at six o'clock in the morning, he gets up quickly.

    One day his mother forgets to wind up (上发条) the clock. And the next morning, Bill doesn't get up on time. It's time for breakfast, so his mother goes to wake Bill up, Bill is in bed and his eyes are open. "Why don't you get up?" his mother asks, "You tell me that I must get up when I hear the clock ring, so I am waiting for the clock to ring," Bill said.