O. Henry was a pen name of an American writer. He wrote short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he tried to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas. There he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank. When some money was lost from the bank, others believed O. Henry took it. So people sent him to prison﹡. He stayed in prison for three years. There he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and went on writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because they always finished with a sudden change at the end, to the reader's surprise.

Blue Lightning

    Sally loved cars more than anything else. This spring she thought of building a go-kart to enter for the Go-Go Race. So she asked her dad for help.

    "Well," he said. "How about this: you do some research first and then come back to me with a design."

    A week later, Sally brought her notes and drawings to Dad. She named her go-kart "Blue Lightning". Dad looked over her work, thinking. "Well, that's interesting," he said. "Have a try. Just build Blue Lightning as you've designed."

    Over three weekends of hard work, Sally turned her design into a real, working go-kart and painted it light blue. Dad asked her to take it for a test drive. Sally agreed.

    After she did that, Sally drove back to Dad. "Well," she said. "Now I know why you wanted me to have a test drive."

    "Oh, do you?" he said. "Please share."

    "When I drove fast, there was a lot of pushback," she said. "I think it's because of the lightning bolt (闪电) shape."

    "Very good!" Dad said.

    "So, why didn't you tell me about that problem in the first place?" Sally asked.

    Dad laughed. "Where's the fun in that? If you give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime."

    Sally said, "I see. Anyway, designing is half the fun!"

    Dad smiled. "Good. Sometimes, learning happens during the process. We learn how to do something right by doing it a few times first and making mistakes along the way."

    That encouraged Sally and she worked even harder. When she showed Dad her new go-kart, he nodded with pride.

    Finally came the race. Sally wasn't worried about whether she would win—in her mind, she had already won, by building something better than ever before.

    Two months ago, I went to Australia for a meeting with my workmate, John. We decided to drive across the country to Brisbane after the meeting ended. The drive was going to take four days and most of it was across the desert.

    The first day was a lot of fun as we were excited and laughing at each other's jokes. On the third day, we began to get bored.

    We had been quiet for a few hours when John saw some kangaroos. We were both excited and decided to catch up with the kangaroos. We got closer and closer- too close when we heard a loud BANG!

    John stopped the car and we got out. Behind the car was a large kangaroo lying on the ground. He didn't move. John went over the kangaroo and put his baseball hat on its head.

    He took off his jacket and put it on the kangaroo. I took out my camera. While I was focusing the camera, I saw the kangaroo move. It woke up, and ran away before we could do anything.

    I started laughing but John looked very serious. He said his wallet was in the jacket. I laughed even harder. I stopped laughing, however, when he said that our car keys were also in the jacket.