Mrs. March has four daughters. They are Amy, Jo, Meg and Beth. Summer vacation came, and the girls wanted to relax and not do any housework.

“May we, Mother?” asked Meg, turning to Mrs. March, who sat nearby.

“You may try your experiment for a week and see how you like it. I think by Saturday night you will find that all play and no work is as bad as all work and no play.” said Mrs. March.

“Oh, dear, no! It will be wonderful, I’m sure,” said Meg eagerly.

The next morning, Meg did not appear till ten o'clock. The room seemed lonely and unclean as no one had done their duties that morning. Jo spent the morning on the river, and the afternoon reading. Beth spent the morning with her music, pleased that she had no dishes to wash. Amy sat down to draw flowers.

The second day, the third day... they repeated the same life.

Though Mrs. March did her daughters’ duties around the house, keeping home pleasant. It was astonishing what a strange and uncomfortable state the house was in with everyone “resting.” The days kept getting longer and longer, and the girls became upset more easily, quarreling quite a bit more often.

No one would admit that they were tired of the experiment, but by Friday night, they realized that they were glad the week was nearly over. Mrs. March then decided to finish off the experiment in an appropriate manner.

When they got up on Saturday morning, there was no fire in the kitchen, no breakfast in the dining room, and no mother anywhere to be seen.

“What has happened?” cried Jo in shock.

Meg ran upstairs and soon came back. “She says it’s been a hard week for her, so we mustn’t complain, but take care of ourselves.” said Meg.

Beth and Amy set the table, while Jo and Meg got breakfast…

“If you learn a bit of cooking, Jo and Meg. That is quite useful” said Mrs. March...

I had never noticed her. She was not the kind of girl who could draw attention. She was not tall and just plain. In class, she liked sitting at the back, reading or taking notes. It was once I asked her to read aloud the text that I looked at her with new eyes when I heard her standard American pronunciation. Later on, the National College English Speech Contest would be held. I thought it over and filled in her name with a smile. I red-penciled her draft of speech, corrected her pronunciation, and even adjusted her body language.

However, I was always kind of worried because she was too introvert(内向的)and too quiet. Could she seize this rare opportunity?

On the night of the contest, I told her to take it easy. Blushed(脸红的), she looked at me and said nothing.

My heart sank. It seemed that she did tense up. I pated her and let her go to draw lots(抽签). As a result, what she drew was No. 9 while No. 8 was recognized English master-hand(高手).

Sure enough, the English master-hand was fairly successful in the speech with his humor and highly personal style. The whole audience would make a warm applause almost every 30 seconds until she appeared on the stage, still talking over his speech with excitement.

My palms began to sweat. I sat there, with no courage to look at her. It was the first time that she went up the stage, so I couldn't blame her for any slips. But at that moment, I found I was so scared of her failure.

The strong spotlight made her so small and so insignificant that nobody seemed to notice she had been on the stage, I said to myself, no hope.

But the moment that shocked me occurred. I clearly heard a voice, a very loud voice, “Now, please focus on me.” She said this sentence three times in all, louder and louder.

The whole audience fell silent.

After her speech ended for a long while, a thunderous applause sounded in the whole audience.