Once upon a time, there was a young man who liked puppets (木偶) so much that he became an apprentice(学徒) to a master puppet-maker. Sadly, the young man was not so clever, and his teacher and the other apprentices were always telling him he had no talent for making puppets, and that he would achieve nothing in making puppets.

    Even so, he was fond of it so much that he worked day after day to improve himself. Though he made every effort, they would always find something wrong with his puppets, and the poor puppets ended up being thrown out of the workshop.

    The young man wasn't going to give up, so he decided that from then on he would spend all his time making just one kind of puppet. Whenever he found a fault in his puppet he would throw it away and start again. Years passed, and with each new attempt his puppet became a little bit better. By that time, his puppet was much better than anything that the other apprentices could make, but he kept making improvements. Living like that, the man wasn't making any money, and many people laughed at how poor he was.

    By the time he was an old man, his puppet was truly wonderful. Finally, after so many years of work, he finished work on his puppet, and said, "I can't find anything wrong with it. This time it is perfect." And for the first time in all those years, instead of throwing his puppet away, he put it up on the shelf, feeling truly satisfied and cheerful.

    It is well-known that the perfect puppet, Pinocchio, came to life after that, had a thousand adventures, and gave that old man –whose name was Geppetto—more joy than any other famous puppet—maker had ever got from any of their creations.

    I remember the first time I got on a horse. I was two years old and we were watching a friend of the family ride. My mom agreed to let me take a short ride around the ground with the friend and that was it' I became crazy about having a horse. From then on, I drove my parents mad beg­ging for a horse. Whenever I saw a horse, I would beg even harder.

    When I was four years old, problems appeared in my life. I had Selective Mutism (选择性缄默症). This is an unusual childhood disorder (失调) in which children stop speaking in certain social situations, many times at around the age of four. I spoke to my parents as usual, my brother and certain other people, but was silent at school and in social situations. I went days, weeks, months without a sound at school. At most, I might very quietly speak to a friend.

    My parents looked for a cure. One psychologist (心理医生) had an idea. Having discussed his plan with my parents in advance, one day I was asked by the psychologist what I wanted more than anything in the world. He explained that I was going to be given a chance to work for what I wanted. I couldn't believe my good luck, but I could not answer. I just stood there. Finally, I was allowed to whisper (低声说) the answer in my mother's ear. "A horse," was all I could say.

    I was to get a little horse, but before we could even start looking, I had to try to talk. I had a chart of weekly tasks I had to finish. I had to answer the phone five times every week, something I had never done before. I did everything that was asked of me and the day came when my parents found the perfect horse. His name was Sequoia, a strong little chestnut (栗子马). He was perfect, of course, and I fell in love immediately. It truly was a dream come true. When I was with Sequoia, I forgot all about my problems and felt strong and life.

    By connecting with them, I have learned to hug what I was once not able to do and I found my voice back.

Archimedes and the golden crown

One day in ancient Greece, King Hiero asked a crown maker to make him a golden crown. At first, he was very1 with it.

"It's a nice crown, isn't it?" he asked his men. Later, however, he began to doubt2it was a real golden crown. "Is it made completely of gold?" he wondered. He sent it to Archimedes and asked him to find out the truth.

"This problem seems difficult to solve. What should I do?" thought Archimedes.

Archimedes was still thinking about this problem3he filled his bath with water. When he got into the bath, some water ran over.  

"That's it!" shouted Archimedes. "I know4 to solve the king's problem!"

Archimedes went straight to the palace to see the king. First, he5the crown and asked the king for some gold of the same weight.

Next, he put two pots into two big bowls and filled6pots with water. He put the gold into one pot, and some water ran into the bowl. Then he put the crown into7pot. This time, even more water ran into the bowl.

"Look at this," said Archimedes to King Hiero. "A crown8completely of gold displaces9water than a crown made of gold and another metal. This crown displaced more water than gold of the same weight, so I'm certain that it is not10made of gold. "

"The crown maker tricked me, didn't he? What a bad man he is!" shouted King Hiero. He then sent the crown maker to prison.

It was the last day of the school year. The classroom was filled with excitement. When our teacher, Mr. Johnson, walked in, holding a CD player, everyone's face lit up with a smile. We knew that this wasn't going to be another normal day, but a special one.

"Please calm down and sit," said Mr. Johnson, "I'm glad everyone's here for the final reading test of the year." When everyone cried, Mr. Johnson laughed, saying it was just a joke. Then he reminded us that we still had a job to do. "You need to clean out your desks and put all your things into your backpacks," he added gently.

As we began our task, Mr. Johnson turned on the CD player. The lively music made the room feel like a party. Some of us started singing along with the music, and others were dancing around their desks while they were cleaning them out. Even Mr. Johnson showed us a few dance steps, making everyone laugh heartily. After we finished cleaning, someone asked, "When is break time?" Mr. Johnson took out some balls and started playing with them. Suddenly, he let the balls drop and said, "Break time starts... now!"

Just as we were about to rush out, our headmaster, Mrs. Miller, appeared at the door. "Mr. Johnson!" She cried out. A moment of silence fell over the room as we thought, "Mr. Johnson might be in trouble." However, to our surprise, Mrs. Miller couldn't help but laugh at the sight and left us to enjoy our break.

During break time, Mr. Johnson surprised us with another treat. He went to the cafe and came back with ice creams for everyone. We all cheered for him!

As we walked back to the classroom, we passed Mrs. Miller's office. Someone joked, "Don't play with the ice creams, Mr. Johnson!" We all laughed together.

The story was a true one and still moved me deeply. Thirty years ago, I got to know a 1 lady named Rose. She had no kids and lived alone. When I went to visit her, I always took Rose some coffee and food. One day she said she wanted to 2 me to have lunch. 

We walked from my workplace to a little restaurant on David Street. On the way, I began to worry. I knew that she had no money, but if I offered to  3 the lunch, I was afraid I would hurt her. 

There were many people in the restaurant, and all of them were happy. Rose told me to sit and drink coffee by the window. Then she went to 4 in the kitchen. After about 20 minutes, she came out and sat with me. She just paid for one meal and we started to 5 the delicious food together. She told me that the restaurant let people work for a meal if they had no money, or would give them a free meal if they were not able to work. To my surprise, she also explained that the workers who were working there were all volunteers. 

I 6 remember the beautiful afternoon I shared with Rose. Though we had a meal together only once, it was paid by Rose's work. The weather was warm and bright, and everyone's smile was warm and bright too. 

I'm still thinking that life cannot be easy to us, but we can still do something for our friends and neighbors. The world will be nicer if everybody would like to share happiness with others. 

It will never be dark if there is a light in everyone's heart.