It was Mother's Day, but the young mother was a little unhappy, because she was 800 miles away from her parents. In the morning she phoned her mother to wish her a happy Mother's Day, and her mother told her about the beautiful lilacs（丁香）in the garden.

    Later that day, when she told her husband about the lilacs, he said, "I know where we can find all that you want. Get the children and come on. "So they went, driving down the country roads.

    There on a small hill, they saw a lot of beautiful purple lilacs. The young woman ran quickly to enjoy the flowers. Carefully, she picked a few here and a few there. On their way home there was a smile on her face.

    When they were passing a nursing home（养老院）, the young woman saw an old granny sitting in a chair. She had no children with her. They stopped the car and the young woman walked to the old woman, put the flowers in her hands, and smiled at her. The old granny thanked her again and again. She smiled happily, too.

    When the young mother came back to her car, her children asked her, "Who is that old granny？Why did you give our flowers to her？"

    "I don't know her," their mother said. "But it's Mother's Day, and she has no children. I have all of you, and I still have my mother. Just think how much those flowers meant to her."

    Are you always happy during your vacation? Many people may say "yes". But last week I had a bad vacation.

    My parents and I took a bus to the Great Wall We got on the bus at 7:00 a, m. But on the half way, there was something wrong with the bus. After an hour, it started again. It was about 11:00 a. m. when we got to the Great Wall.

    We were excited when we stood on the Great Wall. My father took out the camera and wanted to take some photos. But just then, it started to rain. We had to go back to our bus. When we wanted to eat something, we found we left our food at home.

    James Cleveland Owens was the son of a farmer and the grandson of black slaves. His family moved to Cleveland when he was 9. There, a school teacher asked the youth his name. "J.C., "he replied.

    She thought he had said "Jesse", and he had a new name.

    Owens ran his first race at age 13. After high school, he went to Ohio State University. He had to work part time so as to pay for his education. As a second-year student in the Big Ten games in 1935, he set even more records than he would in the Olympic Games a year later.

    A week before the Big Ten meet, Owens accidentally fell down a flight of stairs. His back hurt so much that he could not exercise all week, and he had to be helped in and out of the car that drove him to the meet. He refused to listen to the suggestions that he give up and said he would try, event by event. He did try, and the results are in the record book.

    The stage was set for Owens victory at the Olympic Games in Berlin the next year, and his success would come to be regarded as not only athletic but also political. Hitler did not congratulate any of the African-American winners.

    "It was all right with me," he said years later. "I didn't go to Berlin to shake hands with him, anyway."
    Having returned from Berlin, he received no telephone calls from the president of his own country, either. In fact, he was not honored by the United States until 1976, four years before his death.

Owens' Olympic victories made little difference to him. He earned his living by looking after a school playground, and accepted money to race against cars, trucks, motorcycles and dogs.

    "Sure, it bothered me," he said later." But at least it was an honest living. I had to eat."

    In time, however, his gold medals changed his life. "They have kept me alive over the years," he once said. "Time has stood still for me. That golden moment dies hard."