One day an elephant wants to find friends. He sees a monkey on a tree. “Will you be my friend?” asks the elephant. The monkey says, “You are too big. You can’t climb trees like me.”

Next, the elephant meets a rabbit. He asks him to be his friend. But the rabbit says, “You are too strong to play.”

Then, the elephant meets a frog(青蛙). “Will you be my friend?” He asks. The frog says “You are too heavy to leap(跳跃) like me.”

The elephant is upset. He wants to cry(哭).

The next day, the elephant sees all the animals running for their lives(逃命). A panda says, “A tiger wants to eat us all!”

The elephant looks at the tiger, and says “Please, Mr. Tiger, don’t eat them.” “Oh! I will eat them!” says the tiger.

So the elephant kicks(踢) the tiger. The tiger runs for his life(逃命). All the animals thank the elephant. They say, “You are our friend.”

Once upon a time there was a young prince（王子）. One day, he ran away from home with his bird, because his stepmother（继母） hated him. After a long time, he came to a big house. He felt tired and fell asleep. When he woke up, he saw a monster（怪物）. The monster wanted to keep him as a pet, so the little prince sent his bird home for help.

After his son ran away, the king worried about him every day. One night, he opened the window and found the bird sitting on the window. He knew that he had to follow the bird, but it was really dark. Then he asked everyone to hold a candle and light the way for him.

The king saved his son out and they went back home together. The day was just the first day of Ramadan（斋月）. To thank the people, the king gave them gold lanterns to put outside their houses. Since then, children began to buy lanterns to celebrate the beginning of Ramadan.

My name is Linda. I was cute, active and happy—until that day when I was two years old. I had a bad fall and hurt one of my eyes. The doctor said that if the eye was taken out, my face would look worse, so my blind eye lives on with me.

People often ask me uncomfortable questions about my eye or even play jokes on me. When the kids played games, I was always the “bad guy”. Everyone looked down on me. Yet every time mom noticed I was unhappy, she would say to me, “Hold your head up high and face the world.” It helped me move on in life.

As a child, I thought mom meant: Be careful or you will fall down or knock into something because you are not looking. As a teenager I always looked down to hide my shame, but I found that people liked me when I held my head up high. In high school I was even made monitor. All I really wanted was to look like everyone else. When things got really bad, I would cry to my mom and she would look at me with loving eyes and say, “Hold your head up high and face the world. Let them see the love that is inside.”

Mom’s love gave me confidence. Finally I was able to look people in the eye. I learned not only to appreciate (欣赏) myself but to have deep love for others.