John Smith is an old porter. He works at the railway station. Every day he is busy carrying heavy things for passengers（乘客）. He is kind to everyone and always ready to help others.

    One morning, John stood in the station. A train was coming. He was waiting for it. Just then he saw a man running in the station with a big bag in his hand.

    “No train is starting. Why is he in such a hurry?” the old man thought to himself.

    John went up to the man and asked, “May I help you?”

    As soon as the man saw the old porter, he stopped running.

    “Can I catch the 10:35 train to London?” the man asked. He looked worried.

    John looked at him for a few seconds and said, “Well, sir. I'd like to help you, but I can't answer your question because I don't know how fast you can run.” Then he continued, “The 10:35 train to London left five minutes ago. Can you run fast enough to catch it?”

B

    Shu-How Lin was born on August 23,1988 in California in the USA．He's the newest well-known NBA professional basketball player. His ancestors lived in Fujian Province in China．In 1977,his parents moved to America．Although they live in the USA, they know they are Chinese. And they love their motherland. They try their best to earn more honor（争光）for China.

    When Shu-How was at high school, he showed a great interest in playing basketball. He practiced basketball much harder than any other student in his school. Because of him, the school team became the champion of all the high schools in America, which had never got a champion before. Meanwhile（同时）,he studied particularly hard during high school. He always got "A" in most of his subjects.

    After high school, his dream was to join a university, which was famous for basketball, to major in basketball. But none of these universities in America accepted him. They thought that he was just a Chinese and a Chinese could hardly become an excellent professional basketball player. He felt so sad and he had to attend Harvard University by his good grades, where professional basketball players are not wanted. But before long, he became the first man in Harvard who entered NBA after 1954.

    Shu-How never gave up his basketball dream. He joined several NBA teams, but he was never given a chance to show himself in each game. One day, two players of his team were badly hurt. There were no more players who could play the game. The coach had to let Shu-How go for it. This was a great chance for him. He showed his talent in this game. He got 25 scores!

    After that, Shu-How became one of the most outstanding basketball players around the world. He set a great example to all of us. According to him, we know nothing is impossible if we try our best.

    Yasutaro Koide, the world's oldest man, died at the age of 113, in Nagoya, Japan on January 19, 2016. But along with his many years, Koide also left us with a piece of advice for a long and fruitful life.

    Koide was born on March 13, 1903. He learned sewing and worked as a tailor(裁缝) for a men's clothes shop in most of his life. He moved to live with his daughter when he was 107 years old. When he turned 110, Koide could still read newspapers without glasses and could eat well without dentures(假牙). In August, 2015, Guinness World Records confirmed(认证) that he was the world's oldest man.

    Koide always loved sitting in front of his sewing machine, enjoying making all kinds of clothes by hand. Being a tailor was his only and last job before his death.

    When he was given the world record in 2015, he told reporters about his secret of living a long life, "No smoking or overdrinking! Be happy about everything. Never overdo things. Work and live with happiness.

Liam Garer was 17 years old when he stood at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, pointed his bike south and started cycling. On January 10,2023,527 days later, he arrived in Ushuaia—the world's southernmost city, in the south American country of Argentina. He cycled 32, 000 km through 14 countries, becoming the youngest person ever to do so.

After finishing high school, Garner didn't want to go to college right away and he wanted to learn more about the world. Then, someone advised him to read the book—To ShakeThe Sleeping Self. It tells the story of a man who biked from Oregon to Patagonia. After reading it, Garner kept thinking to himself, "If that man could do it, why can't I?" So, he decided to give it a try.

Garner camped from Alaska all the way to Central America. After that, he stayed in hostels (招待所) and strangers' homes as he cycled through South America. He advised everyone to see the world if possible. Although he experienced lots of difficulties along the way, he believed that nothing was more important than hope.

So what's next for Garner? Well, he's not going to fly home. He plans to send his bike home and walk back from Argentina.

Have you ever heard of the Silk Road? Do you know what an important role it plays in the whole world? Did you visit any famous places along the road? The Silk Road went through Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. It was 6,500 km from Xi'an to Rome.

My dad is very interested in the Silk Road and he has told me many things about it. Last summer, my family got away for a holiday and went to some places on the road.

We started at Lanzhou and went on to Wuwei. Wuwei was a very important city on the Silk Road. It connected(连接) three main cities in the area. In ancient times, it was also a capital. It's now a modern city, but you can still get a feeling of history when you visit it.

The next stop was Jiayuguan. It was also an important place on the Silk Road. It was a busy city with a lot of people coming and going. Even today, it's a city that many business people travel through. An important part of the Great Wall was also built here.

After that, we went on to Yumenguan. I first found out about Yumenguan in the famous poem written by Wang Zhihuan. It was in the Gobi Desert and was the only connect ion between Central Asia and China . I wonder how people ever made it through the hot desert so long ago.

This trip wasn't just a scenic(观光的) journey. It helped me understand the history of the area and see how people from different places influenced (影响) each other in many ways.

Billy Ray Harris was homeless. He spent each day on the streets of Kansas City, begging for money or food. Every day, as he sat thinking about his life, he occasionally heard the sound of a coin or two coming into his cup. One day, the noise was louder than usual. If Billy had looked up, he'd have seen a young lady on her way to work. But he didn't. Later when he looked into the cup, he could hardly believe what he saw. At the bottom was a shining diamond ring.

Billy's first thought was to go straight to a jeweller's(珠宝店) and that's exactly what he did. To his amazement, he was offered $4,000. Billy thought long and hard. Was this a mistake? It was more money than he'd seen in a long time. But then he thought about his grandfather, who had brought him up always to do the right thing, and knew he had to reconsider. His mind was made up. He'd keep the ring and maybe one day its owner would return.

Two days later, a young woman came while he was begging. She introduced herself as Sarah Darling and asked if he'd found anything unusual in his cup. Billy reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring. When he saw the smile on her face, he knew he'd made the right decision. She explained when putting the coins into his cup, she'd forgotten putting her ring in her purse.

But the story doesn't end there. Sarah told her husband the story and wanted to post it on the Internet. He thought it was a good idea. They also called on raising money for Billy. They had more than $185,000. Billy Ray Harris no longer spends his days begging. He has a home and a job. The story also made the local news and he was reunited with his two sisters, who he hadn't seen for 16 years. If he hadn't done the right thing, he wouldn't have seen his sisters again.