There was once a boy called Tony Webb. He always loved to show off how many friends he had at school. One day his grandfather said to him, “Tony, I bet (打赌) you a big bag of popcorn that you don’t have as many friends as you think. I’m sure many of them are nothing more than companions (同伴).”

Tony accepted the bet at once. However, he wasn’t sure how to test whether his classmates were real friends or not, so he asked his grandfather. The old man answered,   “Wait a minute.” Then he left and returned soon as if carrying something in his hands, but Tony could see nothing there.

“Take it. It’s a very special chair because it’s impossible to be seen. It’s rather difficult to sit on, but if you take it to school and manage to sit on it you’ll start its magic and it’ll be able to tell who your real friends are.”

Tony, brave and determined, set off for school with the strange and invisible (隐形的) chair. At break time, he asked everyone to form a circle, and he put himself in the middle, with his chair. Having difficulty seeing it, Tony tried to sit on the chair but he missed the seat and fell straight onto his backside. Everyone around him had a pretty good laugh.

“Wait! Let me try again,” Tony said. But again, he missed the seat, causing more surprised looks and a few catcalls. Tony didn’t give up and kept trying to sit on the magic chair. But he kept falling to the ground until suddenly he tried again but didn’t fall. Looking around, Tony saw three of his best friends holding him up. However, many others he had thought of as friends had done nothing but made fun of him.

And there, the show came to an end. Tony understood that true friends were those who cared for him, and not just the companions that happened to be passing by. And someone who took joy in his misfortunes (不幸) was not a real friend.

Life is like the four seasons. Now I am very old, but when I was young, it was the spring of my life. I was born, I played a lot, and then I started school. I learned many new things. Like a flower, I grew bigger every day. There were delighted days and sad days: some days the sun shone, and some days it didn’t.

In my twenties, I had a good job. I was strong and happy. Then I married and had a child. In those days, I didn’t have much time to think. Every day I was busy and worked very hard. And so, I started to get some white hairs. The summer of my life passed quickly.

Then the days got shorter. Leaves fell from the trees. My child was a university student, and then an engineer. My home was much quieter. I started walking slowly. One day I stopped working. I had more time. I understood this was my autumn, a beautiful time when the trees changed color and gave us delicious fruits.

But the days kept getting shorter and colder. Winter has come, I am older and weaker. I know I do not have many days left. I will enjoy them to the end.

Long time ago, there were two talented boys, John and Joe. They showed great talents from an early age, and they did better than others around.

They grew up but they chose different ways. John used all of his talents to find a good job. He took part in (参加) many activities and visited the most important people and places. Everyone thought that he would be the most important person in the world. But the second young man, Joe, was different. He always took a heavy responsibility (责任). He was always busy looking for ways to help others.

One day, bad things happened and they met many problems. John didn’t know what to do. But Joe always tried his best to solve all kinds of problems. He thought some good ways and didn’t let the bad things affect (影响) the people in his town. From then on, he was more famous than John.