Once upon a time there was a baby eagle（鹰）living in a nest on a cliff（悬崖）. The baby eagle liked the nest. It was the only world he had ever known. It was warm and comfortable. Many times each day the mother would swoop down from the sky and land in the nest and feed the baby eagle delicious food. She was like a god to him he had no idea where she came from or how she worked her magic.

    The baby eagle was hungry all the time, but the mother eagle would always come just in time with the food. The baby eagle grew strong. The mother wanted him to try flying and getting the food out of the nest. But the baby eagle was afraid to do it. The mother eagle flew away and stopped coming to the nest. The baby eagle cried and cried. But there was no one there to hear him. Two days later, the mother eagle appeared at the top of the mountain cliff with a big bowl of delicious food and she looked down at her baby.

    The mother said, “Here is some very delicious food, all you have to do is come to get it.”

   “Come to get it!” said the baby, with much anger. “How?”

    The mother pushed him out of the nest. The ground rushed closer, faster and faster. Something strange happens. He looked down and saw the sky. He wasn't moving towards the ground anymore, his eyes were pointed up at the sun.

   “Hug?” he said. “What's going on here!”

   “ You're flying,” his mother said.

   “This is fun!” laughed the baby eagle.

    It was a village in India. The people were poor. However, they were happy. After all, their forefathers (祖先) had lived in the same way for centuries (世纪).

    Then one day, some visitors from the city arrived. They told the villagers there were some people who liked to eat frogs' legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, so they wanted to buy frogs from other places.

    This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were no use to the villagers. All they had to do was to catch them. They reached an agreement and people sent their children into the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck (卡车) arrived to collect the frogs and give them the money. For the first time, the people could dream of a better future, but the dream didn't last (持续) long.

    It was not easy to notice (觉察到) the change at first, but it seemed like the crops (庄稼) were not doing so well. It was more worrying that the children fell ill more often, and there seemed to be more insects (虫) around lately.

    The villagers decided that they couldn't just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money got to buy pesticides (杀虫剂) and medicines. Soon there was no money left.

    Then the people found out the problem. It was the frog. They were not useless. They had been doing an important job—eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed, the insects were increasing (增加) more quickly. They were eating the crops and spreading diseases (传播疾病).

    Now, the people are still poor. But in the evenings they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs. These sounds of the night now have a much deeper meaning.

    The teacher gave each student a piece of paper. There were some questions on it. "What is your favorite color? Tell us about your hobbies and interests. Do you like your brothers or sisters?"

    Judy hated answering questions. She looked at the questions, and she had no idea how to start. She was the only child in her family, and she had lots of interests, such as running, skating and swimming and so on. She could never fill out what hobby she enjoyed the most. For example, she was interested in all kinds of sports, but she is not good at any of them. So she never knew how to answer questions like these.

    Mrs. Jones, her teacher, walked quietly through the room when the students worked on the project(课题). She stopped at Judy's desk to ask her if she needed some help.

    Judy looked up and said, "I am interested in so many things. I just don't know how to choose."

    Mrs. Jones smiled. She knew Judy was a smart girl but she couldn't focus on what she did." Maybe you could just list three of them."

    Judy seemed to relax and said she knew what to write down.

    Judy liked having the guidance (指点) so she could know what she should do. She finished the project quickly.

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.

    About twenty of us had been fortunate enough to receive invitations to a film-studio(影棚) to take part in a crowd- scene. Although our "act" would last only for a short time, we could see quite a number of interesting things.

    We all stood at the far end of the studio as workmen prepared the scene, setting up trees at the edge of a winding path. Very soon, bright lights were turned on and the big movie-camera was wheeled into position. The director shouted something to the camera operator and then went to speak to the two famous actors nearby. Since it was hot in the studio, it came as a surprise to us to see one of the actors put on a heavy overcoat and start walking along the path. A big fan began blowing tiny white feathers down on him, and soon the trees were covered in "snow". Two more fans were turned on, and a "strong wind" blew through the trees. The picture looked so real that it made us feel cold.

    The next scene was a complete contrast(对比). The way it was filmed was quite unusual. Pictures taken on an island in the Pacific were shown on a glass screen. An actor and actress stood in front of the scene so that they looked as if they were at the water's edge on an island. By a simple trick like this, palm trees, sandy beaches, and blue, clear skies had been brought into the studio!

    Since it was our turn next, we were left wondering what scene would be prepared for us. For a full three minutes in our lives we would be experiencing the excitement of being film "stars"!