Gary and Gavin were twin brothers who worked in a store owned by their father. After the father had passed away, they took over the store. Everything went well until the day a twenty-dollar bill disappeared. Gary had left the bill on the cash register (收银台). But when he returned, the money was gone.

    Gary then asked his brother Gavin, "Did you see that twenty-dollar bill on the cash register?' Gavin said that he had not. But Gary did not let it go and kept asking. "Twenty-dollar bills can't walk away by themselves! Surely you must have seen it." "I said I didn't see it!" Gavin replied with anger.

   The quarrel divided the young men and they could no longer work together. Later, a wall was built in the center of the store. For twenty years, hostility (敌意) never ended.

    One day, a strange man came to the store. He walked in and asked Gary, "How long have you been here?" Gary replied that he'd been there all his life. "Then you are the person I'm looking for," the man said. "Twenty years ago, I was totally broke and hungry. I entered this store from the back door and saw a twenty-dollar bill on the cash register. And I took it. All these years I haven't been able to forget that. I had to come back and apologize for that.

    The stranger felt shocked when seeing tears well up in the eyes of the middle-aged man in front of him. "Would you please go next door and tell the same story to the man in the store?" Gary asked. Then something surprised the stranger even more--after hearing his story, the two middle-aged men hugged each other and cried together in the front of the wall of the store.

    After twenty years, the wall that separated them finally came down.

Taking Root.

How many kinds of plants are there in the world? Lucy Braun wondered that as a child. She showed great interest in plants at a young age. She often had energetic walks with her family through the nearby woods. Some plants and wildflowers seemed to shout at her with their wildcolours. Others hid behind rocks.

Lucy looked at the shapes of leaves as she walked in the woods. She kept a record of what she saw. She also learnt to draw what she saw. Then she could compare all kinds of plants. Later, Lucy grew more and more interested in botany, the study of plants.

Branching Out

At university, Lucy took classes in geology, or the study of rocks and minerals. Her work with geologists changed how she looked at the natural world. She continued her studies in botany as well. Lucy also took classes in ecology (生态学). Lucy believed that plant life in some are as was able to move to other places over time.

In Full Bloom

In 1917, Lucy began to teach botany at a university. She lived in a house near the woods. Lucy collected plants from all around the country. She took many photos of them, too. Colour photography was still new then. Because of that, people enjoyed her lessons and photos a lot.

The    ▲     of Labour (劳动)

Later in her life, Lucy wrote many field guides. In 1950, she published her most important guide. It describes the plants in the forests across the country. Ecologists still use it to study changes in the forests over time.

Today, Lucy has a few plants named after her. One of them is Lucy Braun's snakeroot, which is now in danger. Lucy's work in the protection of nature may help prevent its disappearance.

Lucy Braun lived to be 81. In her years as a botanist, Lucy collected nearly 12,000 plants!

 As a young man, Alan was a skilled artist and known for his paintings. He had a wife and two sons. But one night, his older son died of a sudden illness. To make matters worse, his wife left him a short time later, leaving him alone with his 6- year- old son. The pain was more than Alan could stand, and he turned to alcohol (酒). Finally, Alan became an alcoholic(酒鬼).

 Day by day, Alan began to lose everything he had— his home, his job, his art, everything. In the end, Alan died alone in a hotel.

 When I heard of Alan's death,I thought," What a complete failure!"

 As time went by, Alan's son Ernie grew up. He is one of the kindest and most caring men I have ever known. I watched Ernie with his children and saw the free flow of love between them. I knew that kindness and care had to come from somewhere.

I hadn't heard Ernie talk much about his father. It is so hard to excuse an alcoholic. One   day I asked him,"I'm really puzzled by something,"I said."I know your father was basically the only one to raise you. What on earth did he do to make you become such a good person?"

 Ernie sat quietly for a while. Then he said," From my earliest memories as a child until I left home at 18, Alan came into my room every night, gave me a kiss and said,‘I love you, son.'"

 Tears came to my eyes as I realized what a fool I had been to judge Alan as a failure. He had not left any material possessions(物质财富) behind. But he had been a kind and loving father, and he left behind one of the finest men I have ever known.