When Joe was about to start school, all signs pointed to success. Yet things turned out to be quite1. The fourth grade even found him at the2of the class. Joe struggled day and night, but it did not3—until one stormy afternoon.

    On that afternoon, 4the math teacher started to introduce difficult concepts, dark clouds

    covered the sky, and the storm set in. Hard though she tried to make the kid, 5, the thunder won the battle for their attention. No one6the concepts. Except for Joe. He understood them and answered all the questions correctly. The teacher patted him on the back, and told him to go around to the others and explain how he had managed it. 7by his newfound success, Joe moved quickly throughout the room. Soon math time was followed by the time for8. All children naturally drew9pictures on such a day. Except for Joe.

    Since then, Joe started10. Though he never made it to the top, his math teacher was always11and curious about the change: Why had that stormy day changed Joe?

    On the day Joe graduated, he presented the teacher with his most12possession—the picture of a bright yellow sun. On the picture Joe had written: This is the day I13my brightness.

    During World Space Week(October 4～10)，you may learn about some of the space's myths. One is: “The Great Wall of China is the only man­made object1from space with the naked eye.”

    You might be2of this claim, but it's not true. In fact, astronauts say that the Great Wall is just one of many man­made3can be seen from space. From an orbit 217 kilometres4the earth，it is5to see highways，airports，bridges, dams and even large6.

    Cities can even be seen clearly from the International Space Station ( ISS, 国际空间站)，7circles about 400 kilometres above the planet. “You can see the8pyramids from space with a pair of binoculars(双筒望远镜). They are a little difficult to9with just your eyes，” said Ed Lu, a US astronaut10the ISS.

    “With binoculars  you  can  also see  roads, harbours and even very large11in the ocean. From the moon, astronauts cannot12any man­made features on earth and the continents are very hard13. On Mars，the earth would appear to the naked eye as14but a bright 'star'. ”15what about the Great Wall? “You can see the Great Wall from space，”Lu said. “But it's a lot16than a lot of other objects. You can only see it in radar images，17in ordinary photographs.”

    No one knows who18the Great Wall story. The earliest reference to it comes in a book by a US writer Richard Halliburton，published in 1938. He wrote，“Astronomers say that the Great Wall is the only man­made thing on our planet visible to the human eye from the moon.”

    Halliburton's books19quite well during the first half of the 20th century. So，if he didn't20the story himself，he certainly spread it widely.

    A Milwaukee bus driver went above the call of duty when she stopped to save an unlikely would-be passenger: a toddler.

    Irene Ivic was driving on a freeway overpass when she 1 a barefoot toddler, Milwaukee County Transit System spokesman Matt Sliker said. The child, wearing a red onesie and a diaper, was quickly 2 to the crossroads.

    "I'm just 3 I was in the right place at the right time, "Ivic said at the awards ceremony held in her 4 on Thursday.

    Ivic stopped the bus and ran out to 5 the toddler, as seen in a video 6 by the transit system. She carried the child to the bus, 7 passengers gathered in disbelief.

    "Oh my God. Oh my God. I am  8, "Ivic said in the video as she sat down in the driver's seat with the toddler.

    A 9 on the bus took off her winter coat and wrapped it 10 the little girl, who was 11 to the touch. The 12 were freezing that day, on December 22, according to the transit system.

    Ivic sat talking to the child, stroking her hair. The little one soon fell asleep in her 13, as seen in the video.

    The 19-month-old had been cold and scared but was 14 unharmed, police said.

    The child went missing after officials believe her mother had a 15 health crisis, the transit system statement said. "Authorities eventually 16 the baby with its father,"Sliker said.

    This is the ninth 17 a lost or missing child has been 18 by a Milwaukee County Transit System driver in recent years, according to the statement.

    "I absolutely love kids. I used to be a 19 and I have children of my own, so I'm so happy I was able to help this sweet, 20 baby, "Ivic said.

    Walking across campus with every pair of eyes on you can be embarrassing, especially when you're 13 years old. I looked around me in 1 of a friendly face, a smile, anything. I was quite disappointed. And I, 2, felt somewhat foolish, walking across campus 3 with a false smile plastered(粘贴)across my face. I was simply 4 to follow the advice my mother had given me years before: when things get 5, smile. No matter where you are, a smile will always be understood. A smile is 6. At that very moment, however, I felt my mother's advice didn't 7.

    When the teacher 8 me to the class as the "American girl," 10 sets of hands immediately shot up. Some students had 9; others wanted to practice their English with me. Because I couldn't speak much Chinese 10, I communicated with them via gestures mixed in with 11 English and Chinese. Although I was 12, I wasn't sure how much of it was 13. It was almost as if they were 14 about me and I was being examined. 15 who could blame them? After all, I was the first American ever to 16 the school.

    Then, from across the room, a Chinese classmate suddenly 17 at me, and my nerves were instantly 18. Though there are cultural and language 19, we were sharing something in common. And as usual, my mother was right. A smile does make a 20.

    Once upon a time, there was a poor man. His 1 was also very poor—a small and empty house, which was 2 with spider webs (蜘蛛网). People tried to 3 coming into his house as they didn't want to come to such a 4 place. And the poor man thought that poverty (贫困) was the 5 for his unlucky life.

    Then, the poor man 6 a wise man and told him about his poverty. The man felt sorry for the poor man and gave him a vase. "This will save you from 7," the wise man 8. The poor man took the 9 from the wise man and wanted to 10 it at first and then spend the money on drinking, as usual. Besides, why would he 11 such a beautiful thing? But then he started 12 the vase carefully and decided not to take it to the market. He brought the vase back to his 13, put it on the table and started watching it again.

    "It's not 14 for such a beautiful thing to be 15," the poor man thought. So he 16 some flowers and put them into the vase. It became even 17. "Not good that such a beautiful thing stands next to a spider web," the poor man 18 again.

    So the poor man started 19 his house. He cleaned the dust, washed the floor and whitened the walls. And it became clear that his house wasn't poor, 20 rather warm and comfortable. And the poor man wasn't a poor man anymore, but a hard-working host, who had no time to think about poverty.