我们从去年第六期开始陆续刊登首届“北外杯”中学生英文写作大赛的部分获奖作文。本期选登的是河南省实验中学张镜天同学的文章。

　　张镜天

　　And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.—Antoine de Saint-Exupery

　　On a freezing winter day the year before last, I dragged myself home, painfully remembering the visa officer's singsong voice,“I'm sorry, girl; I can't give you the visa this time.”That was the third time I had been rejected and the first time I felt completely defeated. When my parents decided to send me to study abroad, I was willing to try my luck with full confidence, but now I was thrown into a bottomless pit—I was rejected and I had fallen far behind my classmates academically.

　　The world was frozen around me.

　　As with every year, Spring came after Winter. When birds began singing and new buds and shoots appeared everywhere on Baiyun Mountain, my parents sent me into that natural setting to collect my broken spirits, my lost courage and confidence. I stayed at a guesthouse near a village at the foot of the mountain, surrounded by the thick smells of spring.

　　Every day I got up quite early and climbed to the top to view the sun—from its first glimmer till its rising above the eastern horizon. The sun rose every day as the stars retired. I sat each morning at the same place, experiencing the change of nature around me—cool breezes stirred the pearly dew down the soft shoots of grass and trees, and birds began their morning chorus. I was gradually drawn away from the deep thoughts of my failure.

　　One morning, I heard a song, sweet and soft, singing the beauty of nature. I eagerly looked around to make sure that I was not dreaming. There, not far from the place I was standing, was a girl of about ten years old, picking something from among the shrubs. She was singing and picking so attentively it seemed that she didn't notice my existence. I remained still, like a statue. Who could pay any attention to me? The world was so cold!The next morning, I saw the same girl, singing and picking something happily. I wondered.“Who's this girl? Why is she up so early and what is she picking?”For the first time in the last few months I cared to think about others. I went a little closer to the girl and forced a smile at her, which encouraged her to come to me.

　　The girl on the Mount talked to me shyly about her family, work and school. I was told she was picking some herbs to pay for her school fees and also for curing her grandma's disease. I was aroused from my deep sorrow and felt quite sorry for her.

　　The third morning she came again, singing and picking. I helped her. And when the sun was up, we had a rest. I took out a bar of chocolate for her.

　　“What is it?”she asked with wide eyes at the colorful package.

　　“Just taste it.”I said.

　　She opened the package and carefully put the brown bar to the tip of her tongue and then made terrible faces and looked at me, puzzled.

　　With much care she took out a little sweet potato and divided it into two and gave one half to me.“Taste my breakfast; it's very sweet.”

　　“Your breakfast?”I was quite surprised,“Oh, no, I can't.”I pushed it back to her.

　　“You don't like it?”she looked disappointed with tears in her eyes.

　　I said nothing more and put the potato in my mouth,“Yes, it's sweet. It's the sweetest thing I誺e ever tasted in my life.”I like things with bitter tastes like chocolate, coffee and kuding tea, and I pay to taste them. But when I experience bitterness in life, I'm trying to escape.

　　The girl had never tasted these, but she knew potatoes were the sweetest. With potatoes as her food, she had a sweet song with a smile always on her face. She also tried to make me happy.

　　A warm current ran through me, and my heart was beating anew with the girl's song.