Eric was a nine-year-old boy who lived with his single mother, Stacey and sister, Lily. They lived a hard life. Eric felt bad for their situation but worse for himself, especially in school.

Eric’s leather boots were worn out. They didn’t protect his feet from the rain, and his socks became totally wet as water went through the holes in his shoes. Stacey attempted to fix the holes but it was no use. Eric still walked to school with that pair of broken shoes. How much he wished he could also have new comfortable and expensive shoes his classmates wore!

One day, Eric returned from school and complained to Stacey, “It was raining today. Water has leaked into my shoes again. I hate my boots! Why can’t you get me new ones?” Stacey was sad and helpless. “I spent our last savings on your sister’s medicine. She’s sick. Eric you know that. You need to act like a responsible big brother!” she answered. Tears welled up in Eric’s eyes. “I hate you!” he shouted. “You only care about Lily! You don’t love me!” Then he cried and ran to his room.

After preparing dinner, Stacey went to his room with his dinner plate. “I’m sorry, Eric,” she whispered to comfort him. “We’re going through a very tough journey recently. But I’ll get you new shoes in the future.” However, Eric refused to listen to her.

The next day, when Eric went to class, he took his seat quietly and hid his feet under his chair, as usual. He was embarrassed to show his boots. As the math teacher Mrs Fletcher entered the class, all the students greeted her. “Today, we have a very special friend with us,” she smiled. “Everyone, please welcome Ben, your new classmate.” Soon after, a boy with a pair of crutches(拐杖)entered. The new boy only had one leg. Eric was shocked. He and all his classmates thought how unlucky Ben was and that he must be very shy and sad.

Paragraph 1: At that moment, Mrs Fletcher asked Ben to introduce himself.

Paragraph 2: Inspired by Ben, Eric realized he should appreciate what he had.

I was once a teacher in a primary school and spent my days with a variety of students. I liked them, always trying to help them solve their problems. Of them, the most impressive to me was Donnie, a 9-year-old boy.

Unlike most naughty boys of his age, who lived a care-free life, Donnie was a shy, nervous perfectionist. His fear of failure kept him from classroom games that other children played with joyous excitement. No matter how funny the games seemed to be, he just declined to be engaged in them. He seldom answered questions since he was afraid that he might be wrong. Written assignments, especially math, reduced him to nail-biting frustration. He seldom finished his work because he repeatedly checked with me to be sure he hadn’t made a mistake.

Then one morning we were working math problems at the chalkboard. The kids were really active and responded quickly to me. Pleased with their progress, I left the children with Mary Anne, my student teacher, a lovely and clever girl, and went for art materials. However, when I returned, I found Donnie was in tears. It turned out that he’d missed the sixth problem. Poor Anne just looked at me in despair, not knowing how to deal with such a boy. Suddenly her face brightened. She immediately reached the drawer we shared for some pencils.

“See these pencils, Donnie?” she said, kneeling beside him and gently lifting the tear-stained face from his arms. “They belong to Mrs. Lindstrom and me. See how the erasers are worn? That’s because we, your teachers, make mistakes too. Hundreds of thousands of them, like spelling a wrong word, missing a number and so on. But we are not defeated by them. Instead, we simply erase all the mistakes and bravely try again. That’s what you must learn to do, too.”

She then kissed him and stood up

After that, the pencil became Donnie’s prized possession