A young man woke up one morning under a bridge and checked his pocket. All he had left was less than ten dollars. He bought food and as he sat down to eat, an old man and two children came along. The old man asked him to help them with food as they had not eaten for almost a week.

The young man looked at the children—they were so weak that they could hardly stand. With the last bit of kindness he had he gave them all the food. The old man and children thanked the young man and then gave him a dirty old coin. The young man said, “You need this coin more than I do— just keep it.” The old man insisted(坚持) that the young man put it in his pocket—and finally he did.

    The old man and children sat down to eat. And with no money, no job and no food, the young man went back under the bridge to lie down. As he was about to fall asleep he saw an old newspaper on the ground. He picked it up and saw an ad inviting people with old coins to come to a store. He decided to go there with the dirty old coin the man gave him.

   When he arrived at the store, he gave the keeper the dirty old coin. The keeper cried loudly. It was part of a Spanish treasure ship that had never been found. This same old coin was worth 67,000 dollars. The young man was pleased. He immediately sold the coin for money and then looked for the old man and little children to thank them and share the money. By the time he got to where he left them eating, they had gone.

       Once upon a time there was a man in a small town. He had two children, a boy and a girl. The boy was good-looking but the girl was not.

      One day they found a mirror (镜子) for the first time and they saw what they looked like. The boy was very happy and he said to his sister, “How handsome I am! I look much nicer than you!”

      The girl did not like what her brother said and gave him a hard push (推). “Go away!” she said.

      Their father saw what was happening. He went up to them and said to the boy, “You must always BE good as well as LOOK good.”

      Then to the girl he said, “My dear, if you help everyone and do your best to make him happy, everyone will love you. It does not matter that you are not as good-looking as your brother.”

     Two children stood outside the door with old coats. “Any old papers, Lady?” asked one of them.

I was busy. I wanted to say no, but I saw that their shoes were broken and wet. “Come in and I'll make you a cup of hot tea.” They came in, saying nothing. Their shoes left snow on the floor.

      I gave them tea and bread to protect them against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started my housework again.

      The silence in the front room surprised me. I looked in.

      The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked me in a low voice, “Lady, are you rich?”

      Am I rich? Oh, no! I looked at my old things in my room.

      The girl put her cup back in its saucer(茶碟) carefully. “Your cups match your saucers.”

They left then, holding their papers against the wind. They hadn't said thank you. They didn't need to. They had done more than that. The blue cups and saucers were simple. But they said that they matched. The potatoes and meat before me, a roof over our hands, my husband with a job—these things matched, too.

      I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The prints of their small shoes were still wet on my floor. I let them be. I wanted them there to remind (提醒) me how rich I was.

    Ron, a teacher at the skydiving school, was surprised when he saw the grey haired man drive up to the airfield. He was more surprised when the man said that his name was Walter and asked if he could take skydiving lessons. Ron asked Walter how old he was and Walter replied that he was 60. Ron explained to Walter that anyone over 50 had to be checked by a doctor before he could learn to jump from a plane.

    "I'm afraid you should have thought about that before coming here." Ron said, "I'm sorry, but I can't let you start learning without a letter from your doctor.

    Walter smiled, "Here's a letter from my doctor. He asked me to take lots of tests and he said that I was fine. "

    So Walter was able to join the skydiving school. He came to all the lessons and worked very hard, although the other students were much younger than him, mostly about 30. Soon it was time for him to make his first jump. Ron asked him if he was feeling OK. Walter replied that he had never felt better. However, he added that there was something he should have told Ron earlier. Ron asked what it was and Walter smiled. Then, just before he jumped, he told Ron that he wasn't 60. Ron asked how old Walter really was and Walter told him he was 75!

    Walter's first jump from a plane was six years ago and yesterday he made his eighteenth jump. "I should have started skydiving a long time ago!" he said.

    Walter has lots of other hobbies. He enjoys riding fast motorbikes and climbing mountains. Last year he was saved by a police helicopter in Wales.

    Walter's daughter Betty worries about him, "I think he should stop all these activities. But my mother says that as long as he's happy, it's OK."