One day while driving from my home to work. I noticed a car in front of me had a wobbly(不稳定的) wheel. It was clear that the wheel had been changed recently and had not been fixed correctly. On a slow road this would not show much of a problem but I knew a highway was coming soon. There the traffic would move much faster and the driver would be in danger as the wheel could come off at that speed.

    I was driving a large jeep at the time and the car in front was a small one driven by a young lady on her own. So as I tried to flash(闪) my lights and wave her to pullover,  I was worried that she wouldn't pull over on the road side when she found in her mirror a single man chasing(追) her down in a jeep and waving for her to pull over.

    Thankfully. she trusted more in the good nature of people and pulled over where I could explain the problem. She said the wheel was changed only the night before and that she would pull into the nearest garage(修车间) where the repairman had tools to fix the wheel correctly.

    My belief is that the act of kindness was hers and not mine. How so? Well, it was she who chose to believe in the possibility that people are good over the belief that bad things would come from being waved over to the side of the road by strangers.

    I am glad I was able to wave her down in time and so a serious accident might have been avoided. But I am even happier that she believed in a stranger.

      I first met Windy, a six-year-old girl, on the beach near where I lived. She was building a sand house there. She looked up, and her eyes were as blue as the sea. Every time when I felt unhappy, I drove to the beach.  

      "Hello, Miss Agnes," she said. I answered, but I didn't really want to stop her. "I'm building," she said. I saw that.

    "What is it?" I asked her. "Oh, I don't know. I just like the feeling of the sand." Oh, that's good, I thought, and took off my shoes to join her. A sandpiper (一种叫做鹬的水鸟) flew by. She told me that it would make me happy. I felt better then.

      A week later on my next visit, I learned that Windy lived in a cottage (小屋) and didn't go to school. Soon after that, my mother died, and I rushed to the beach to be alone. I didn't want to say anything when Windy came up to me. "Why?" she asked.

      I turned to her and shouted, "Because my mother died!" "Oh," she said quietly, "then today is a bad day."

      A month later, I went to the beach but couldn't find Windy. I missed her so much that I visited her house. I learned that Windy had died of leukemia (白血病), but she left a picture of a sandpiper for me.

    After Columbus discovered the New Continent(新大陆) and 1 back to his motherland, Spain, he was warmly 2. But not everyone felt  3 at Columbus' Success. Some people thought Columbus was only a 4 and what he had done could be done by any other seaman. One day, at a dinner, some self-important men did what they could to 5 Columbus unhappy, saying that he had only done the 6 thing in the world. Hearing this instead of jumping up angrily, Columbus took an 7 from a dish and asked,“Look, here, gentlemen, is there anyone here who can make this egg stand upright?” They tried one by one but none could. Then the egg 8  back to Columbus. He broke it a little, put the egg on the table and it stood upright. “What can be easier than this, gentlemen?” he said, “Now you will say it's so 9 that everybody can do it. Of course, because I have shown you now.” They looked at each other and talked 10.

    Beethoven (贝多芬) was born in a small city near the Rhine in Germany. His father always drank and his mother was a maid (女仆). They lived a poor life.

    Beethoven was a talented (有天赋的) child in music. People at that time thought he was as clever as Mozart. His father wanted to make money from his talent, so he told him to practice and play all the time. If he didn't do that, his father would be angry with him and beat him.

    Beethoven was very short and ugly. He couldn't hear well from the age of 22 and later he heard nothing, but all these unhappy things didn't make him dislike music. He began to write sonatas (奏鸣曲) at 12, and later he became a great musician.

    His life was so short that he didn't leave many works. But people think he was one of the best musicians in the world.

    My name is Alex. I had an interesting and scary experience last Saturday. At about three o'clock in the afternoon, I was walking down the Main Street. I stopped in front of a jewelry store to look at some rings in the window. I really liked one of the rings. While I was standing there, two men came out of the store. They ran across the street, got into a car, and drove away quickly. Then I saw something on the ground. It was a black bag. I thought maybe they dropped the bag while they were driving away in the car.

    I went to pick up the bag and opened it. There was a diamond watch in the bag. I took the bag with the watch into the jewelry store and showed it to the store manager. The manager looked scared by what had happened but he was very happy to see the watch. He said the two men were thieves, and that the police were looking for them. He also said the watch was very expensive. To thank me, he gave me fifty dollars. I was happy that I helped him. However, the thieves stole many pieces of jewelry. They took ten rings, three watches, four necklaces, and ten pairs of earrings. I hoped the police would catch them soon.

    Garrison had been treasuring his last piece. All he had left now was a sheet of the beautiful brown paper Pa had brought back from his last sailing trip.

    "You've been quiet," Pa said, "Could I see your picture?"

    Garrison handed over his sketch. Pa studied it, then looked at his son. "You're ten now, eh?" Garrison nodded, hoping Pa wouldn't say that he was too old to be fooling around with pencils and paper.

    "When I was ten, I wanted to work on my father's ship," Pa said, "When Thomas was ten, he asked me to let him plant the corn."

    Garrison's throat (嗓子) tightened. "I know I'm not like either of you." Pa looked at the drawing again.

    "No, you are like both of us. You work hard, like Thomas. And you're like me, too. I have wandering feet, but you have a wandering mind. We need to see things differently.

    Garrison frowned. "I'd rather love the land, like Thomas, or the sea…"

    Pa patted his hand. "Thomas cares about our family very much-that's why he's worked so hard to bring us food. And my love for the sea makes good money. But there's more in life than food and money. There's happiness, for one. Does it make you happy to draw?"

    Garrison nodded.

    "And it makes me happy to look at your drawings. Not many folks can catch happiness on a piece of paper. Some might say drawing's a waste of time, but they don't understand how things are. Why, asking you to stop drawing like asking Thomas to stop farming, or me to stop going to sea. It would be like asking us to stop breathing, wouldn't it?"

    Garrison considered this, then replied, "No, sir. Not quite like breathing. If I couldn't draw any more, it would be… like someone took away my voice." He hung his head. In his mind he could hear Thomas laughing, "It's not like you ever speak up, anyway."

    But Pa patted his shoulder and said, "That would be a pure shame. Your voice is important, Garrison, whether it's out loud or on paper. And speaking of paper…" Pa smiled. "Take a look in my bag."

    Garrison reached into the bag and found a sketchbook. For a moment he was speechless happiness seemed to fill his body and stick in his throat. Then he managed to find his voice. "Oh, Pa-thank you."