A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said, "I am blind, please help."

    There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

    Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy heard his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?" The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."

    What he had written was, "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it." Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

    Of course, both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

    The first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

    Last Sunday afternoon, I was having dinner in a restaurant when my friend Poor came in. Poor is working in a bank and is quite rich, but he is always borrowing money from his friends and never pays it back. Poor saw me and came to sit at my table. He had never borrowed any money from me. When he was eating, I asked him to lend me two dollars. To my surprise, he gave me the money at once.“I have never borrowed any money from you,”Poor said,“So you can pay for my dinner.”

    Jane Austen(1775--1817), an English' novelist, started writing young and completed six novels in her life. Today Austen's books are more popular than ever. In the last 10 years, five of her six novels have been made into Hollywood films, while her books continue to be best-sellers.

    Richard Jenkyns, a professor of English at Oxford University, says that her novels are about marriage, friendships and the family, which are still with us today. "The stories are timeless," Jenkyns said.

    Pride and Prejudice(《傲慢与偏见》) (1813) is Austen's most famous work. It is a love story about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. At first, these two dislike each other. Elizabeth is pretty, smart and lively. She is proud because Darcy doesn't know about her family. Mr. Darcy is handsome, rich and has a better family background. So, he is proud as well. At the same time, Darcy holds a prejudice against the Bennet family. He has no understanding of why the family, especially its mother and daughters should try so hard to find wealthy and powerful husbands. He thinks they are vulgar. Anyway, Elizabeth and Darcy finally fall in love and become a romantic couple(夫妻) but their families' "don t want them to.

    In Pride and Prejudice, some of the main things that Jane Austen wants to teach people are as follows. Opposites can attract (吸引 ) each other. Lovers should not only make each other feel relaxed or comfortable, but also educate and improve each other.

    Austen is often called the greatest romantic writer, so it is surprising she remained unmarried. "Maybe she was too romantic, waiting for the perfect man," Jenkyns says.

    On a cold winter day, a fox told Mother Bear that he would teach her how to fish Mother Bear wanted to learn, so the fox took her to a hole in the ice and told her to put her tail(尾巴)down into the water.

    He told her to keep the tail there for a long time. Then when she pulled the tail out of the water, she would find fish around the tail.

    The bear was foolish enough to believe what the fox said. She sat for a long time with her tail in the water. She was waiting for the fish. But when she tried to pull her tail out of the water, she found that it was frozen(冻结)in the ice.

    She asked the fox to pull her out, but the fox laughed at her and ran away. So she called Father Bear to help her.

    Father Bear came. He pulled her hard and at last got her out. But a part of her tail was in the ice. That is why people find the bear's tail so short.

    Jeff Corwin is a scientist and author. He does these jobs with one life goal: to help save animals and their habitats. His latest book, 100 Heartbeats: The Race to Save Earth's Most Endangered Species, is a collection of stories about animals on the edge(边缘) of extinction. Corwin recently talked to TFK kid reporter Sarah Horbacewicz.

Reporter: How would you describe your job?

Corwin: My job is to travel around, look at animals and tell their stories.

Reporter: When did you know this is what you wanted to do?

Corwin: I knew that when I was 6 years old. My dad was a police officer, and we lived in the city. I really enjoyed the time when I could go to the quiet countryside. The day that I saw my very first wild snake, I knew that's what I would do for the rest of my life. I didn't know if I would be a teacher or a zookeeper, but I know I would have a life connected with (与……有关) nature.

Reporter: Why did you write the book?

Corwin: We're losing species(物种) very fast. I wanted to show people that while we are in a very serious situation, we are not at the point of no return. If we make big changes, we may have the chance to save what remains.

Reporter: Is it true that humans are the reason that many of these animals are in danger?

Corwin: Human beings have a powerful effect on every other living thing. The challenge is to make that effect a positive one.