O. Henry was an American writer. He wrote lots of 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 a long time, but he learned everything he wanted to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas. There he did different jobs. He first worked in a newspaper, and then he has a job in a bank. When some money went missing from the bank, O. Henry was suspected (被怀疑）. Because of that he was sent into prison（监狱）. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the poor life there. People liked his stories, because although simple(简单), to the reader's surprise, the stories would finish with a sudden change at the end.

    Old George buys a pair of black gloves for just $7. They are soft and warm. George takes good care of his gloves, so they look new. But George loses his gloves on New Year's Day.

    In winter, he must need a pair of gloves. He is upset(心烦的)that when people find things on the road, they don't return them.

    After the holiday, poor George decides to buy another pair. Before buying it, he goes into Value Mart again to see if his gloves have been returned to the Lost and Found Office.

    "What colour are they?" the woman in the office asks again.

    "Black, "he gives the same answer. She looks into her drawer and takes out(拿出)a pair of men's gloves, "Are they yours?"

    "Yes! They are mine!" George says, with great joy in his eyes.

    The doctor handed me my medicine and said sorry to me because his register had already closed. He asked if I would mind using the register at the front of the store. I told him not to worry and walked up front. One person was in line ahead of me, a little girl no more than seven with a bottle of medicine on the counter. She held a little green and white coin purse closely to her chest.

    The purse reminded me of the days when, as a child, I liked dressing myself up in my grandma's clothes. One day, wearing her large clothes and hat, I went out to buy something. I gave a fake dollar to the shop owner, but he handed back some real coins for my purse. "Keep the change!" he told me with a smile.

    Now, with both hands shaking, the little girl pulled out a dollar bill and some coins for her medicine. As she tried to count her money, I could see right away that she was about a dollar short. Quickly, I put a dollar bill onto the counter. The child collected her change into her coin purse and ran out.

    As I walked to my car, I felt a tug on my shirt. There was the girl, looking up at me with her big brown eyes. She gave me a smile, and put out her little hand. It was full of coins. "Thank you," she said.

    "That's OK," I answered, smiling. "Just keep the change!"

The meaning of life is what we choose it to be. To Jiang Bing, a man from Weinan, Shaanxi Province, life just means living and helping others. Suffering (受苦) from ALS (渐冻症) for more than 30 years, Jiang has never lost his love for life. What's more, he has been teaching more than 200 children for free for over twenty years.

At the age of 16, Jiang Bing fell to the ground on the way to school and was unable to stand up again. One doctor told him that he had a disease that was hard to cure (治愈) and suggested giving up searching for treatment. Surprisingly, Jiang was really sad at first. Then he faced it positively instead of feeling fearful (害怕的) and hopeless. He kept studying every morning and valued every moment, spending one day like it was a month.

Though Jiang couldn't enter a university himself because of the disease, he succeeded in teaching his younger sister and helping her get into a university in 1994. Later, the people living in the community realized that the special man could teach their children. So they asked him for help. The next year, Jiang started helping children with their studies. He could also teach them art and clay sculpture (泥塑). He once taught 24 children in one single class, all for free.

Today many of the children that he taught have finished their university studies. Zhao Feiyu, a student who once received Jiang's help, runs an art training school now. "He taught us wisely and carefully, and took no money," he said. "He is my teacher and friend."

Mrs. Brown lives on a farm. Every day she gets up early and then starts her 1 : watering the plants, cleaning the yard(院子) and feeding the animals. Her husband, Mr. Brown usually makes her some bread and eggs for 2 . But today Mr. Brown isn't 3 in the kitchen and there is no food on the table.

" Tom!" Mrs. Brown calls her husband. There is no answer. She goes out and calls her4 . " Max!" But it doesn't 5 . Then Mrs. Brown goes to the yard and tries to 6 the dog. There is nothing.

" What is happening?" She is a bit 7 . She runs to check the cows. But there are no cows. Mrs. Brown looks around and finds no other 8 . " Where are my pigs and my horse?" she thinks.

 Then Mrs. Brown hears a noise behind the house. She runs to the back to 9 . Everyone is there: Mr. Brown, Max, the cows, the pigs and the horse.

"SURPRISE!" Mr. Brown holds a birthday cake and says 10 to Mrs. Brown, " this is today's breakfast for you, dear! Happy birthday!"

A beautiful woman entered the plane and looked around in search of her seat. She found her seat next to a man who had no hands. She called an air hostess(女乘务员) and said unhappily, "I won't be able to travel comfortably in this seat. I want to change my seat."

The air hostess was shocked to hear this from a woman who appeared to be beautiful. She looked around for vacant seats but didn't find any. She told the woman, "There's no vacant seat in this economy class(经济舱), but it's our responsibility(责任) to take care of our passengers. I' ll go to discuss this with our leader. Please wait for a while."

 After some time, the air hostess came back to the woman and said, "I'm very sorry for the trouble caused for you. On this plane, only one seat is vacant and it's in the business class. I discussed it with the leader and we have made a great decision—a person from this economy class will be allowed to travel in the business class."

 The woman was very excited. But before she could say something, the air hostess moved towards the man and asked him, "Sir, will you please go to the business class? We don't want you to feel uncomfortable traveling with an impolite passenger." Hearing this some passengers welcomed this decision by clapping(鼓掌).

"What a shame!" The woman thought to herself.