Joe Smith is a singer. He and his wife (妻子) like traveling a lot. Every year they visit a small town called Gum Tree in January and July and they often sing for people there.

One summer, they went there by train again. On the first day, they planned to go hiking (徒步旅行) in the mountains, but it rained a lot. So they decided to go to the only cinema in town and watch a movie there.

There were only nine people in the cinema hall. When people saw the Smiths, they started clapping (鼓掌). Joe was excited and said to his wife, “Aha, I can’t believe (相信) people here all know me and they are friendlier than I thought. They must like my songs.”

Then a young man said to them, “Thanks for your coming!” The cinema shows the movie only after ten people buy the tickets. There’re eleven now, so the movie will be on (放映) soon.”

Once upon a time, there was a man with a fine house healthy animals and fertile land. He was also blessed with a handsome, loving son. But the man was worried about his son, because the boy had grown up knowing only good times and good fortune (命运). “What will happen when something goes wrong for him?” wondered his father. “How will he know what to do?”

So one day, the man asked the boy to go into the forest and collect wood. To help him carry the wood home, the man gave the boy an old cart (手推车) and two horses. As he was leaving, the man said to his son, “If the cart breaks down while you are in the forest, don’t worry. Necessity will teach you what to do.”

The boy collected as much wood as he could load onto the cart. But when he turned to come home, the cart broke under the weight of the wood. “I hope that father’s friend lives nearby,” thought the boy, and he started crying out, “Necessity! NE-CESS-ITY! Where are you?” The boy called and called, but no one came so he decided to fix the cart himself.

When he arrived home he said to his father, “You said Necessity would teach me to fix the cart, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. I had to fix it all by myself.”

The man smiled to himself and thought, “Necessity really is the best teacher.”

People may have some unclear memories of their childhood, but almost everyone will remember the beautiful princess and the cruel queen in “Snow White”, the little girl and the big gray wolf in “Little Red Riding Hood”. 【小题1】 For example, “True love can overcome anything”, and “Even a frog can turn into a prince”. However, at a certain age, we start to learn new things about life, especially that love doesn’t always win, and that a frog is just a frog.

【小题2】 Just look at cartoons like “The Lion King” and “Frozen”, which have millions of fans young and old. And this year’s Lucerne Festival in Switzerland—a classical music festival—will also feature the themes of “Childhood” and “Fairy tales”.

“Fairy tales endure because they are the stories of our lives in their most stripped down form,” wrote US author Laura Packer. “They are stories of love and loss, desire and death, riches and ruin.” 【小题3】 But if children only see just one side, adults usually see the other. For example, in the movie “Maleficent”《沉睡魔咒》, we’re told the tale of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the evil(邪恶)queen. 【小题4】 Instead, she suffers great losses growing up, leading to the creation of her “evil” side. And in US author James Finn Gamer’s book “Politically Correct Bedtime Stories”, he tells the classic story of “Little Red Riding Hood”, but with a modern touch.

【小题5】 They may usually start with “Once upon a time but as we grow older, we learn that every story doesn’t always need a happily ever after” to be a good one.