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.

    Jim, a young farmer, was once put into prison (监狱).

    One day, he got a letter from his mother. "I'm so worried about our farm," she wrote. "It's time to plant potatoes. I can't dig(挖) all the fields by myself. "

    Jim read the letter and became sad. "What can I do?" he thought. Then he had a good idea. He wrote to his mother, "Don't dig the fields. There's a pot of money in the earth. Don't plant potatoes until I come home."

    Some days later, Jim got another letter from his mother. It said, "Two days ago, about ten men came to our farm and dug all our fields. I can't understand it. It looks as if they were looking for something. What shall I do?"

    Jim smiled when he read his mother's letter. He wrote a letter to his mother at once. It was very short. Guess what it would say?

    I arrived at my mother's home for our Monday family dinner. The smells of food flew over from the kitchen. Mother was pulling out quilt(被子) after quilt from the boxes, proudly showing me their beauties. She was preparing for a quilt show at the Elmhurst Church. When we began to fold and put them back into the boxes, I noticed something at the bottom of one box. I pulled it out. "What is this?" I asked.

"Oh?" Morn said, "That's Mama's quilt."

    I spread the quilt. It looked as if a group of school children had pieced it together; irregular designs, childish pictures, a crooked line on the right.

    "Grandmother made this?" I said, surprised. My grandmother was a master at making quilts. This certainly didn't look like any of the quilts she had made.

    "Yes, right before she died. I brought it home with me last year and made some changes," she said. "I'm still working on it. See, this is what I've done so far. "

    I looked at it more closely. She had made straight a crooked line. At the center of the quilt, she had stitched(缝) a piece of cloth with these words: "My mother made many quilts. She didn't get all lines straight. But I think this is beautiful. I want to see it finished. Her last quilt. "

    "Oh, this is so nice, Mom," I said. It occurred to me(突然想起) that by completing my grandmother's quilt, my mother was honoring her own mother. I realized, too, that I held in my hands a family treasure. It started with the loving hands of one woman, and continued with the loving hands of another.

    Laurence Kim Peek was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on November 11, 1951. It was clear from an early age that he was not like other children. A medical scan(扫描) showed that the two halves of his brain were not connected in the usual way. As a result, Laurence developed an amazing memory. He started to read when he was two. He used to read books and put them back on the shelf upside down to show that he had finished them. He remembered everything he had read.

    He memorized quite a lot of information subjects such as History, Geography, Sports, Music and Literature. He also had an unbelievable ability with numbers and dates.

    To read more quickly, he read the left page with his left eye and the right page with his right eye. By reading the two pages at the same time, it took him less than an hour to read a whole book. By the age of 30, he had memorized around 12,000 books.

    However, he did not develop so well in other areas. He could not walk until he was four, and he had problems putting on his clothes and shoes His social skills were poor, and he was extremely sensitive(敏感的) about meeting new people. In 1984, Peek and his father met Hollywood film writer Barry Morrow. Morrow was fascinated by Peek and began to write a new play about Peek's experiences. The result was Rain Man in 1988, a film that won an Oscar for Best Picture. This changed Peek's life. He got used to being the centre of attention. He self-confident (自信的). He appeared on TV and travelled around the country with his father to develop awareness(意识) of his condition. Sadly, Peek died of a heart attack in 2009.

    One dark night, two blind men were going home from work. "I need to buy some 1." said one of them suddenly.

    "OK!" replied the second man, "I think I'll buy two or three pairs for 2, too"

    In the shop, the salesgirl asked them. "What size do you wear, sir, and what color would you like?

    "Size eleven. Give me one pair of black socks and two pairs of white, please, answered one of them. "And you, sir?" the salesgirl asked 3 customer. "The same for me. I wear size eleven, too, And the same color the same 4, said the second blind man.

    A moment later they were back in the 5 streets. But just then, a boy riding a bicycle bumped into (撞上) them.

    The blind men dropped all the socks on the ground! All the six pairs- black and white all mixed up. The boy quickly said sorry and left. The two blind men 6 all the socks but couldn't tell which were black and which were white. 7 could they be sure that each of them got one pair of black socks and two pairs of white?

    They tried to ask for help. But 8 else was in the streets.

    One of them soon 9 the problem Can your guess how he made it? They separated each pair of socks and both took one sock 10 each pair. When they got home, each of them had two black socks and four white ones —just what they wanted. Weren't they smart?