根据材料完成下列各题。

Beethoven
Born in 1770 in Germany
A  musician (音乐家)
Died in 1827

Florence Nightingale
Born in Italy on May 12th, 1820
An English nurse
Died in 1910

Bill Gates
Born in I955 in the USA
Wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought
Owns Microsoft

Thomas Edison
Born in 1847 in the USA
Made over 1,000 inventions (发明)
Died in 1931

Yao Ming
Born on September 12th, 1980 in Shanghai, China
A basketball player
Played for the Houston Rockets, the USA

A

    John and Bob joined a company at the same time. They both worked very hard. After several years, Bob became the manager, but John thought it was unfair, so he gave his resignation (辞职信) to the boss.

    When the boss found out the reason why John wanted to leave, he said, "I hope you will do one more thing for our company before you leave."

    John agreed. The boss asked him to find out if anyone was selling watermelons at the market. John went and soon returned, He said he had found a man selling watermelons. The boss asked him how much they were. John shook his head and went back to the market. When he returned, he told the boss they were 1.2 dollars per kg.

    Then the boss asked Bob to find a watermelons seller at the market. Bobby went, returned and said, "Only one person is selling watermelons. 1.2 dollars per kg, 340 melons in all, and each melon weights about 2kg. They are fresh."

    John realized the difference between himself and Bob. He decided not to leave but to learn from Bob.

    As a well-known Chinese TV hostess, Dong Qing is now hosting two cultural shows, Chinese Poetry Conference and Readers. The two shows are encouraging people to love traditional culture and find the beauty of life.

    Dong was born in a highly educated family in 1973. she had a great love for traditional literature(文学)from an early age. In 2015 when she was about to study in the U.S, Dong received an invitation from the director of Chinese Poetry Conference asking her to be the hostess. Because of her passion for traditional literature, Dong accepted the job.

    "The contest interests me very much. Hosting it is a process of learning about poetry and performing, "said Dong. To her great joy, the show has become more and more popular.

    Under the slogan(口号)"Reading touches people's hearts", the new TV show Readers has become a success. It invites famous guests from all walks of life to read something. Dong works as both hostess and producer.

    Readers became a turning point in Dong's 21 years of hosting. She said it brought her "quite a huge challenge".

    "There is no shortcut(捷径) in this world. If you want to be a good host, you need to make thorough preparations, said the beautiful hostess. "The charm of life lies in its unknown, so we just have to try and keep going.

    Once upon a time there was an old man. He was really good at fishing. One day, he was fishing on the bank of a river. Soon he caught a full basket of fish. Just at that time, a child came and said to him, "Can you give me the fishing rod(钓鱼竿) in your hands? The old man looked up at him and said, "I can give you a full basket of fish." But the child shook his head. The old man was surprised and asked, "Why do you want the rod instead of the fish?"

    "Oh! You know it doesn't take long to eat all the fish in a basket. But if I have the fishing rod, I can go fishing by myself and I won't be afraid of not having any fish to eat."

    You may certainly think that the child is very smart. Wrong! If he doesn't know how to fish, he cannot eat any fish, even if he has the fishing rod. It's useless to only have a fishing rod. Fishing skills are more important than the fishing rod.

    Too many people think that if they have "a fishing rod" in their life, they will no longer fear the wind and rain. In fact they will make the same mistake like the child in the story.

    Alan Smith is blind. He teaches blind children in his country. To show the world that the blind can also do something amazing, he walked across the world's largest salt desert, Salar de Uyuni, only with the help of a GPS.

    Walking across the desert is not easy for an able-bodied person, let alone (更不用说) a blind man. Before setting off, Alan spent three years training for the journey. He studied everything he could find about the place and asked for advice from other travelers. During his journey, he only took water, food and sleeping bags. He walked about 20 kilometers a day. He showed great perseverance (毅力) and finished the 140-kilometer journey in just seven days.

    The brave teacher thought his week-long journey was wonderful. He said, "The journey was quite good. There were snow storms and winds, but luckily I made it."

    Last summer holiday, I got a job working at a coffee shop.

    One rainy day, one of my regular customers(顾客)came in. He looked upset. He said he wanted to get in bed, pull the sheets（波单）up over his head, and stay there for a few years. I knew that he was unhappy.

    Before he left, I handed him a bag along with his iced coffee. He was surprised, since he hadn't ordered anything but coffee. I had given him his favorite type of doughnut(油炸图饼).

    "It's on me, "I told him." Have a nice day."

    He smiled and thanked me before heading into the rain.

    The next day, it was still raining. I spent my afternoon hanging out the window handing people their orders. I was wet and cold. Worse, no one was tipping(给小费)that day.

    In the evening, the customer from the day before drove up to the window. He handed me a pink rose and a note. He said that not many people took time to care about others today. With a friendly wave, he drove away.

    I ran to the back of the shop and read the note. It read：Christine, Thanks for being so sweet, kind yesterday. It is so nice to meet someone who's so nice. Please don't change your ways!

    Have a great day!

——Hank

    After that, whenever I felt upset, I thought of Hank and his kindness. Then I would smile, hold my head up high, clear my throat and ask politely, "How can I help you？"