Sometimes you meet an ordinary person doing something extraordinary. On a recent trip I met Normand Gallant. Normand is someone you could pass on the street and 1 notice but he is a very special person who2 recognition.

    Norm lives in a remote area far from the 3 big hospital, so when his wife4 cancer several years ago, Norm was faced with a four hour5to where she could be treated. That meant lots of6 for meals, fuel, hotels and so on. But in the end the cancer took his wife 7.

    Norm was obviously8 by his wife's passing, but he was also very angry, 9 he realized that other people were10 the same sorts of hardships. He wanted to do something but he didn't want to give money to the 11 that support cancer research because he didn't know how much would actually get to the researchers. What he did was to 12 parties.

    About every three weeks on Saturday evenings, there is a party in Norm's garage. There is music and dancing, and 13 during the evening Norm tells about a family who are having difficulties 14the cost of supporting a cancer patient undertaking 15 far from home. Then a honey-pail is passed around and the money 16, every cent of it goes 17 to that family.

    Norm's personal loss has 18 an act of kindness that honors the 19 of the wife he has lost. Wouldn't it be 20if we had more people in the world like Normand Gallant?  He makes the world a better place.

   One random act of kindness can make someone's day, but a man in Florida knows a good 1 isn't a one-time thing.

    After spending three months in and out of the hospital with numerous health issues, Donald Austin had his 2 partially cut off. He was relieved to finally be able to go home after just four days recovering from the 3. When he reached his porch, though, the 4 disappeared.

Donald thought he'd be able to 5 up the steps to the front door on crutches (拐杖）, but he found he was too weak to keep his 6 He had to sit in the wheelchair, but the wheelchair was too heavy for his wife, Jennifer Austin, to lift up the steps, even when his mom pitched in. Donald ended up on the ground, the family feeling totally 7.

    Just then, a car caught the family's eye. It had driven past 8 was slowly circling back. The stranger, Steven Smith, 9 and asked if he could help. 10, the family watched Smith lift Donald inside and lay him 11 on a couch.

    But the good man knew there was 12 to do.

    Smith 13 this wasn't the only time Donald would need to climb those 14 ? So the next day，Smith came back and asked if he could build a ramp(坡道）in front of the house. With his dad and a couple more 15 , Smith set up a ramp 16 the steps to make the house 17 to the wheelchair. The act of kindness brought the family to18?

    “This stranger has saved the day for us 19 within 24 hours. He also 20 our spirits that had become increasingly dimmed over the difficult months,” Jennifer wrote on Facebook.

    Once a wise man was walking from one town to another with a few of his students. While they were travelling, they happened to pass a lake. They  1 there and the wise man told one of his students, “ I am  2. Get me some water from the lake there.”

    The student  3 up to the lake. When he reached it, he  4 that some people were  5 clothes in the water, and, right at that moment, a cart (四轮车) started  6 the lake. As a result, the water became very  7. The student thought,“ How can I give this muddy water to my teacher to drink!” So he  8 and told the wise man, “ The water there is very muddy. I don't think it is  9 to drink.”

    After about half an hour, again the wise man asked the  10 student to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The student obediently (顺从的) went back to the lake. This time he found that the lake had absolutely 11 water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to drink. So he 12 some water in a pot and took it to his teacher.

The wise man looked at the water, and then he looked up at the student and said, “ See 13 you did to make the water clean. You let it be … and the mud 14 on its own — and you got clear water… Your mind is also like that. When it is15, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don't have to 16 any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.”

    What did the wise man 17 here? He said, “ It is effortless.” 18 peace of mind is effortless process. When there is peace inside you, that 19 permeates (蔓延) to the outside. It20around you and in the environment, so that people around start feeling that peace and grace.

    This was one of my experiences at work. When I was1, I was working for a large international company which had its head office in London. I was working in the2department.

    The company had a training centre which was just outside London. Different courses were3there throughout the year and I4go on one training course a year. These usually started5a Sunday evening and lasted six days.

    Once I was6a week's training course with about forty7sales people. I was in the bar on the Friday evening and suddenly a woman who was 8behind the bar asked me a curious question. "I hope you don't 9my asking," she said, "But I've been 10 about it all week. Have you got a sister11Mary?" The woman's name was June, and she used to do various jobs at the training centre. She worked in the office, she organized all the food and drink for the centre and she worked in the bar at lunchtime and in the evening.

    My answer12June's question was "Yes", and June said, "I thought 13. I met her last September when she was organizing a course here." At that time, my sister was working for14company but in a different part of the country. That was15she came to be at the training centre.

    16 surprised me was how June guessed we were brother and sister. Three things made it even more17. First, she had met my sister six months before she met me. Second, they have about sixty new people every week at the training centre. So about one thousand five hundred people had18the centre in those six months. And 19, my sister is married, so she doesn't have the same family name as me.

    We're not 20, but I guess we must look quite like each other.

After getting married nine years ago, I moved to an absolutely new town.1as I was, with various new things to explore, I was still lonely. I was desperate to establish2.

This could explain my enthusiastic "Count me in!" when3to participate in a half marathon. Considering my usual 3 miles, I must have been4—13 miles seemed a（n）5task.

However, the initial6gradually wore off. I found comfort in burying myself in training. Though taking it slow, one mile, and then two, I gradually made7. Mile after mile, I managed to step beside my new friends. We talked about our favorite music and8funny stories about our children. At about mile 10, the conversations9. We shared our past and hopes for our future, our fears and regrets. By the time we were running 12-mile legs, I was10that I'd made lifelong friends.

11, the day of the race arrived. At the start line, armed with my friends, I already felt like a champion. My time training had12. I managed to hold a steady pace and kept up with my13. Finally, we crossed the finish line together.

Although it started as a14of building social ties, running not only provided me with friendships, but with a skill that would15me the rest of my life.

I believe in the power of science fiction,not just for its capacity to transform dreams into reality, but also for its power to bond together those who share a common vision of the future. For me, that's true for my relationship with my dad. Some fathers and sons bond over sports, fishing or hunting, but my dad and I bond over Star Trek. We tried a trip to Disney World, but one of my earliest memories wasn't Mickey, but a Klingon battle cruiser（巡洋舰）on the screen.
Over the years, nearly every setting and situation has become far away for my dad and me. When it's warm at night, we're not driving along some dark streets in Indiana,but.going at a slow speed with stars dimly shining. Both of us are thinking of them,without needing to say a word. All these visions of other universes have together created a private universe for my dad and me.

Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek,once said, "Science fiction is a way of thinking，a way of logic that bypasses（绕过）a lot of nonsense. It allows people to look directly at important subjects." A lifetime of science fiction has influenced more than just my relationship with my dad, but has also helped me shape my own hopes for the future.I'm now a science writer.

Yes,science fiction has made me into a nerd. And it also has been a source of joy for my family,making me an optimist while enabling me to think critically about the danger of technology.thank those authors who have shared their visions, the world and my family are better for it. Thank my dad, who is both the best storyteller and the best man i have ever known because he helped me realize the truth of Tennyson's words," since i dipped into the future,i saw the vision of the world,and all the wonders that would be.