It's not easy to be an astronaut's son. Everybody expects you to be special or perfect. I often wonder how my father ever had a son like me. I mean he's so special and so good at everything he does. Even in middle school he was class president and captain of the football team.
    Well, to be honest, I often dream about being some kind of hero or doing something special—like saving a child from a burning building or discovering a new star. I was daydreaming at school one morning when my teacher said there would be a Father's Day writing competition for the whole school. “I hope we have a winner right here in my class.”
    When I got home, I started to think about what to write. My father is an astronaut. No, I wouldn't start like that．That was the way others saw him. How did I see my father? Hmm.
    I saw him sitting with me in the dark when I had a terrible dream. I remembered how he hugged me for hours when my dog Spotty was killed by a car. Yes, these were the things I was going to write. To me, he wasn't just a world—famous astronaut．He was my dad.
    My parents and I went to school on Thursday night. There were so many people in the big hall! My dad looked at me, and I shrugged(耸肩).
    The third prize was announced and it was not me. I was relieved(释然) and disappointed at the same time. The second prize was announced. It was me.
    I went up to the stage and read what I had written,“My father's son”. When I finished, the people stood up and cheered. I saw my father blowing his nose. Tears were running down my mother's face. Dad cleared his throat and put his hand on my shoulder. "Son, this is the proudest moment of my life."
    It was the proudest moment of my life, too. Maybe I'll never be a great hero or win a Nobel Prize, but it was enough just to be my father's son.

    Camilla Chomp was a strange little girl. She liked to spend her time alone eating chocolate. Her parents were worried, so they tookall the chocolate away.

    Camilla left her house to look for some chocolate. She found a small house full of bottles. Among the bottles, a blue bottle caught Camilla's eyes. It was full of chocolate. In the bottle there was also a card with the words "Changetears(眼泪) into chocolate."

    Camilla was very excited.She ran out of the house with the bottle to look for someone crying. First, she met a little boy crying hard and collected his tears. The tears were quickly changed into chocolate. While Camillawas collecting the tears, she comforted the boy. Finally, the boy stopped crying and they had a good time together.

    Later, Camilla met a woman and an old man crying. The woman had broken some bowls. And the old man's dog had just died. Camilla collected their tears and made them happy again.

    Soon, Camilla knew that making people happy was much more important than finding chocolate. So she stopped collecting tears and began to help sad people. As a result, she had many friends and had a happy life.

C

    A long time ago, there was an emperor. He had a beautiful garden. In the garden, there was a little nightingale(夜莺) singing very beautifully.

    One day, the emperor heard about this little bird's beautiful voice. He asked his guards to bring her to him. As soon as the emperor heard the nightingale's voice, he said, "Put her in a golden cage, so she can stay and sing for me whenever I want to hear her sing."

    The little bird was so unhappy about being kept in the cage that she stopped singing one day. The emperor was very angry. He ordered the scientists in his palace to make a robot bird for him. The bird could sing very beautifully, too. The emperor was pleased.

    Soon the robot bird became old. It no longer sang beautiful songs. Just at that time, the emperor became very weak. One morning, while lying in bed, the emperor wanted it to sing once again. But the robot bird couldn't sing any more.Suddenly the nightingale landed on the window. She began to sing her most beautiful song. The emperor was very happy! He became better and better each day.

    After the emperor was well, he changed a lot and became kind to his people. From then on, all his people cherished(爱戴) him for his love and kindness.

    As a rule, we have a test about some usual things in our life every two months. During my second month of nursing school, our teacher gave us a pop test as usual.

    I was a serious, hard-working and careful student, so I passed the questions easily until I read the last one, "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

    I thought this was sure some kind of joke. I saw the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark hair and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank.

    Before the class ended, one student named Nancy asked our teacher if the last question would count toward our test grade. This was also all the students' question. We all wondered why he gave this question in the test, because we all felt it meaningless.

    "Certainly," said our teacher. "In your life you will meet many people. All of them are important. They should get your attention and care, even if all you do is smile or just say an easy 'hello' ." We all kept silent after hearing this.

    I've never forgotten that special lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.