When William Brown taught at Boston University, he once thought about the people that he hadn't thanked in his life. They taught him, encouraged (鼓励) him or cared a lot about him.

    Tina Johnson was a teacher. She once taught William geography, and William loved geography all his life. So he wrote a letter of thanks to her.

    He got the teacher's letter later. It began, “My dear Willie”. He was happy. Now over 50, he didn't think someone would called him “Willie”. Here is that letter.

    My dear Willie,

    I cannot tell you how much your letter meant to me. I am in my eighties, living alone in a small room and cooking my own meals. You will be interested to know that I taught school for 50 years and yours is the first letter of appreciation (感激) I ever got. It came on a cold morning and it made me feel very warm.

    ......

    William cried when he read the letter. She was one of the people that William hadn't thanked in his past. She helped him to believe in himself. He would never forget her.

    There are some people we should always remember, because they helped to shape our life. William Brown found a way to show his appreciation—he wrote them letters.

    Who are some of the people that you need to say thank you to in your past? It may be too late to say “Thanks”.

    I once did a year of voluntary service in a residential(居住的) home for people with learning disabilities. It was set in an English village deep in the countryside, quite different from my home in Sweden. One of my fellow volunteers, a girl from Tanzania, seemed a little unhappy, so I asked what the problem was. She told me she had a friend back home who had financial difficulties and maybe it was impossible for her to complete her university courses.

    So this friend of mine had sent all her money to Tanzania to support her friend! This meant that she didn't have much food to eat and no money to go anywhere outside the village.

    I was so moved and I felt I had to do something. So, during my next trip to one of the nearby towns I walked into a shop. I didn't have much money left myself but I thought I'd buy her an extra box of chocolate we both liked and some rice. I started talking to the woman (also a volunteer) working in the shop and finally told her about my friend.

     The woman looked at me, amazed. "Does she eat pasta?" she asked. "Yes," I replied. She immediately started loading a bag with pasta, cookies, and other things until the bag was full. "Give her this for me. It's my treat!" I couldn't believe it but accepted with happiness. As I left the shop to go home with my unexpected bag of food. I asked the woman her name. "Just Gloria," she said.

    Imagine my friend's face when I arranged the gifts on my kitchen table and attracted her from room to see! I had never seen her so happy! A few weeks later she found Gloria in the shop and thanked her in person.

    These two extraordinary(非凡的) women really showed me what true kindness and compassion(同情) are, and the impression will stay with me for the rest of my life!

    The famous director（导演）of a big and expensive movie planned to film a beautiful sunset（日落）over the ocean, so that the audiences could see his hero and heroine in front of it at the end of the film as they said goodbye to each other for over. He sent his camera workers out one evening to film the sunset for him.

    The next morning he said to the men, "Have you provided me with that sunset?"

     "No, sir," the men answered. The director was angry. "Why not?" he asked.

     "Well, sir," one of the men answered, "we're on the east coast here, and the sun sets in the west. We can get you a sunrise（日出）over the sea, if necessary（必要）, but not a sunset. "

     "But I want a sunset!" the director shouted."（Go to the airport, take the next flight to the west coast, and get one."

    But then a young secretary had an idea. "Why don't you photo a sunrise," she asked, "and then play it backwards? Then it'll look like a sunset."

     "That's a very good idea!" the director said. Then he turned to the camera workers and said, "Tomorrow morning I want you to get me a beautiful sunrise over the sea."

    The camera workers went out early the next morning and filmed a bright sunrise over the beach in the middle of a beautiful coast. Then at nine o'clock they took it to the director. "Here it is, sir, "they said, and gave it to him. He was very pleased.

    They all went into the studio（工作室）. "All right, "the director explained, "now our hero and heroine are going to say goodbye. Run the film backwards so that we can see the 'sunset' behind them. "

    The "sunset" began, but after a quarter of a minute, the director suddenly put his face in his hands and shouted to the camera workers to stop.

    The birds in the film were flying backwards, and the waves on the sea were going away from the beach.

    Jenny Miller was a strange little girl. She liked to spend her time alone eating chocolate. Her parents were worried, so they took all the chocolate away.

    Jenny left her house to look for some chocolate. She found a small house full of glasses.

    Among all the glasses, a blue glass caught Jenny's attention. It was full of chocolate. There was also a card in it, saying," Change tears into chocolate. "

    Jenny was very excited. She took the blue glass and ran out of the house to look for someone crying. First, she met a little boy crying hard, and she collected his tears. The tears were quickly changed into chocolate. While Jenny was collecting the tears, she comforted(安慰)the boy. Finally, the boy stopped crying and they had a fun time together.

    Later, Jenny met a woman who had broken some plates and an old man who couldn't find his dog. They were so sad that their tears could not help falling down. Jenny collected their tears and made them happy again.

    Soon, Jenny realized that making people happy was even more important than finding chocolate. So she stopped collecting tears and began to help sad people. As a result, she became friend with them and lived a much happier life than before.

    Little Peter is a boy of nine. He began to go to school when he was six, and now he is in Grade Three. He lives not far from the school, but he is often late for class. He likes watching TV in the evening and goes to bed late, so he can't get up on time in the morning.

    This term, Mrs. Black, Peter's aunt, teaches music in Peter's school. She is strict (严格的) with Peter and often tells the boy to obey the school rules and come to school on time. Yesterday morning, Peter got up late. When he hurried to school, it was a quarter past eight. His aunt was waiting for him at the school gate.

    "You are ten minutes late for the first class, Peter," Mrs. Black said angrily. "Why are you often late for class?" "Every time, when I get to the street corner, I always see a guidepost (路标). It says 'SCHOOL—GO SLOWLY'!".