I walked to Mrs. Windsor's house and waited outside. She was working with another student, and I was not supposed to bother them by ringing the bell. I stood against the wall and daydreamed what I'd rather be doing. I had been tutored enough to read, understand, and even write some musical compositions, but I just didn't have a gift for it. Mrs. Windsor had offered to give me the lessons for free, so I felt my duty to try.

    The door opened and Wendy Barton came out. I walked in, sat down on the piano bench and began to sort through my sheet music. Today Mrs. Windsor introduced her niece Pasha to teach me. With a smile, Pasha sat beside me on the piano bench, opened my sheet music to the beginning page and asked me to play. I arranged my fingers on the keys. Then I frowned(皱眉) and concentrated to make the notes on the page match the finger movements. I had to admit I was a rather mechanical (呆板的) pianist.

    After about a page or two, Pasha gently put her hand on top of mine as if to calm my fingers. There was a long pause. "What are you hearing in the music?" I looked at her rather strangely and admitted I didn't know what she meant. "Like a story. Here, let me try and you listen," Pasha advised.

    She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting her fingers dance lightly over the keys. Then, she began to play. "See, it begins here beside some kind of river. Hear the water flowing beside you?"

    Her fingers rose and fell gently on the keys. "Now the princess appears and she's picking flowers from the water's edge." A happy piece of music filled the air in time to Pasha's dancing fingers. "Oh, but she slips!" The music changed. "And our princess is being carried off by the fast-flowing stream. Quickly, the princess' horse sees her plight (困境) and races to the river's edge where he swims out to let her catch hold of him. Luckily, they make it to the bank." Pasha said.

    I played many pieces of music that afternoon, finding the stories in the music and learning that sometimes it takes a friend to pull you out of the river onto dry land again.

"Mum, what does it mean when someone tells you that they have a skeleton(骨骼) in the closet?" Jessica asked. "A skeleton in the closet?" her mother paused thoughtfully. "Well, it's something that you would rather not have anyone else know about. For example, if in the past, someone in Dad's family had been arrested for stealing a horse, it would be ‘a skeleton in his family's closet'. He really wouldn't want any neighbor to know about it."

"Why pick on my family?" Jessica's father said with anger. "Your family history isn't so good. You know. Wasn't your great-great-grandfather a prisoner who was sent to Australia for his crimes?" "Yes, but people these days say that you are not a real Australian unless your ancestors arrived as prisoners." "Gosh, sorry I asked, I think I understand now," Jessica cut in before things grew worse.

    After dinner, the house was very quiet. Jessica's parents were still quite angry with each other. Her mother was ironing clothes and every now and then she glared at her husband, who hid behind his newspaper pretending to read. When she finished, she gathered the freshly pressed clothes in her arms and walked to Jessica's closet. Just as she opened the door and reached in to hang a skirt, a bony arm stuck out from the dark depths and a bundle of white bones fell to the floor. Jessica's mother sank into a faint(晕倒), waking only when Jessica put a cold, wet cloth on her forehead. She looked up to see the worried faces of her husband and daughter.

"What happened？Where am I?" she asked. "You just destroyed the school's skeleton, Mum," explained Jessica. "I brought it home to help me with my health project, I meant to tell you, but it seemed that as soon as I mentioned skeletons and closets, it caused a problem between you and Dad." Jessica looked in amazement as her parents began to laugh madly. "They're both crazy," she thought.

    J.K. Rowling is the writer of Harry Potter, which is now one of the bestsellers in the world.

    J.K. Rowling was born in Bristol on July 31st, 1965. She has one sister who is two years younger than her. Both girls loved listening to their father reading bedtime stories to them. They especially loved stories about magical worlds. Rowling wrote her first story, called Rabbit, at the age of six.

    After she graduated from the university, Rowling worked as a translator in London. During this time, on a long train trip in the summer of 1990, the idea came to her of a boy who has magic but doesn't know it. In 1992 Rowling began to teach English. She lived with her baby daughter, Jessica, and spent much time finishing the first Harry Potter book for young readers. It appeared in June 1997. To her surprise, the book was greatly successful. The film came out in November 2001. Now Harry Potter series(系列) is popular with people of all ages and about 60 million books were sold in 200 countries.

    Why has the series been so successful? There are a few things. Many other magical stories take place in faraway lands or in past or future times. But Harry lives in modern England. He's also a very normal boy: polite, friendly, brave and clever. So when other children read about Harry, they can imagine being like him.

    J.K. Rowling is very happy with the success, and she is now busy finishing the whole series of seven books. She's writing full time and she's really enjoying life. She says she will go on living a normal life with her daughter and writing children's books.

    We've all fantasized about it—after a rough day at work, stuck in traffic with commuters (上下班的人) we'd rather not have in our personal space, and bills to pay, plus the sound of the crying baby in the apartment next door. How nice would it be to go solo and live on an island of one, population: me?

    Well, this is the reality for 84 year old Elsie Eiler of Monowi, Nebraska. She is the sole resident of her hometown, which is the smallest recognized locality in the United States.

    Looking back at the 2000 census (人口普查), the town used to have another resident: Elsie's husband Rudy. Since he died in 2004, Elsie has lived in the town by herself. She considers herself to be the mayor, treasurer, and town librarian. Her main source of income is the bar that is frequented by truckers and other people passing through—the Monowi Tavern, which she founded with her late husband back in 1971 . She received a lot of public attention after it was discovered that she was the sole resident of Monowi, and in an interview she stated that many visitors from around the world have come to meet her in Monowi.

    When asked if she ever gets lonely, she said "I know I could always move closer to my children or stay with them whenever I want, but then I'd have to make all new friends again. Hopefully I will be able to stay here. It's where I want to be."

    I am afraid of heights but two summers ago I climbed to a high place. Most of our high school had come along on a day trip to a beautiful beach village in Peru. After eating our lunches, many of us wanted to make the climb to an area around the village.

    Do I turn back? "Yes!" Will I regret (后悔))it later? I really want to get to the top, but... At last, I decided at least to have a try.

    My friend Tom was in front of me. Then, suddenly, he slipped (滑倒))and was about 10 feet back! My heart was beating faster until he stopped himself. Knowing that my friend Seth would be right behind me, I began the climb. I was soon past the first challenge safely, but not feeling much better about the rest of the climb. Looking down, I saw rocks everywhere. My breathing sped up, and my heart beat even faster, growing loud in my ears.

    My friends kept climbing. But they did not forget me. Someone was always behind me to help hold my feet when necessary, and someone else was always in front to offer a hand up. With friends helping me by words and actions, I slowly gained ground.

    Then we came to the worst part. The climb looked very close to vertical (垂直的). To me, the wise choice was to go back down. Melody encouraged me to go on and she made it safely first. I stopped, unsure of my footing. "You can do it, Jean! I'm right here," Melody called. She waited patiently, not asking me to hurry. I took a few deep breaths and kept climbing.

    With no more mistakes, we came to the top finally. I was dirty and tired. But it didn't matter. I was at the top! I had never felt so alive.

    I've always felt a need to be prepared for whatever situation I've found myself in.

    My mother once took me to a store when I was seven years old. She and I got to the checkout counter, and she realized she had forgotten a couple of things on her shopping list. She left me with the cart and ran off to get what she needed.

    "I'll be right back." she said.

    She was gone just a few minutes, but at that time, I had loaded all the things on the belt and everything was rung up. I was left staring at the cashier, who was staring at me. "Do you have money for me, son?" she said. "I'll need to be paid."

    I didn't realize she was just trying to please herself. So I stood there, ashamed and embarrassed.

    By the time my mom returned, I was angry. "You left me here with no money! This lady asked me for the money, and I had nothing to give her."

    Now that I'm an adult, you'll never catch me with less than $200 in my wallet. I want to be prepared in case I need it.

    I've always admired people who are over-prepared. In college, I had a classmate named Norman. One day he was giving a speech on an overhead projector(投影仪) and in the middle of his talk, the light bulb（灯泡）on the projector blew out. We would have to wait ten minutes until someone found a new projector.

    "It's Okay." he said. "There's nothing to worry about."

    We watched him walk over to his bag and pull something out. He had brought along a spare(备用) bulb for the overhead projector. Who could even think of that?

    I often told my students, "When you go into the wilderness, the only thing you can depend on is what you take with you." And essentially, the wilderness is anywhere but your home or office. So take money. Pack a light bulb. Be prepared.