One morning, a blind boy sat beside a building with a hat by his feet. He held a sign which said, “I am blind. Please help me.”
There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognizedhis footsteps and asked, “Are you the one who changed my sign in the morning? What did you write?”
The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said, but in a different way.”
What he had written was, “Today is a beautiful day, but I can’t see it.”
Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?
Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beautiful day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.
The first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.
There are at least two lessons we can learn from this simple story.
The first is: Treasure (珍惜) what you have. Someone else has less. Try your best to help those who need your help.
The second is: Be creative. Think differently. There is always a better way.
【小題1】From the article we know that________.

When do you think ________ go picnicking?

1. A.
   shall we
2. B.
   we shall
3. C.
   we are going to
4. D.
   are we going to

Are you ready? We’ll go out for a picnic ____ three o’clock.??

A. in ?????????????? B. after???????? C. for????????? D. since

A sign is another kind of language. Here are some of them that you see on the roads.

Number One is a sign with the number thirty on it. When drivers see this sign, they must not go at more than thirty kilometers an hour. We see this sign when we are getting near a town. Number Two is a sign that we’re near a crossing. We must drive carefully. Number Three is a sign that there is a bend (拐彎) in the road. Again, we must drive slowly and carefully. It is not safe to go around a bend very fast. Number Four is a sign that there is another road coming in from the right. There is a junction (交叉) at this place. Number Five is a sign that there is a hill and Number Six is a sign that the road gets narrow. Drivers must go slowly and carefully. Number Seven has the word “SCHOOL” on it. This is a sign that there is a school at the side of the street or the road. Perhaps there are children going to or leaving school. So drivers must look carefully and go slowly. Number Eight is a sign with the letter “P” on it. The letter “P” means “Parking”. At some places, there are the signs “No parking” or “No waiting”. If a driver leaves his car near one of these signs, a policeman may come and write down the number of his car.
【小題1】At the places where you see Sign 1, ____________.