Shin-Ya Lee
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Words Checked: 3025 Words in Oxford 3000: 94%
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♥About the author♥ ☆Name: Gina Lee (Shin-Ya Lee) ☆Class: E40A ☆Birthday: 05/11/1989 ☆Interests: Reading, singing, listening to music, watching TV, learning foreign languages, doing exercise, sleeping, surfing the net ☆Motto: One was born to be useful somehow/Everything is good for something. ☆Gina Lee was born in Nantou, a beautiful county with countless resort, fascinating scenery, and friendly people. There are four people in her family. She went directly to Kaohsiung to study in Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages after graduating from junior high school. The reason why she left her hometown and went to a city which is far away from Nantou is because of her strong interest toward foreign languages. She is now in the fourth grade. She majors in English, and her minor is French. She is also studying her third foreign language, Spanish. She is fond of observing others, reading detective novels and romance, watching movies, making friends with foreigners, singing, and listening to music. 2
♥Synopsis♥ In a village of poverty, Bluestone, everyone’s having a hard time. Many people cannot even live themselves, don’t even mention the compassion
for
others.
Surprisingly,
a
grey-haired poor lady who lives on the income of doing handiwork takes a puppy home and keeps it. They share food and joy. They rely on each other. Unfortunately, the local sandstone factory plans to demolish the houses of the residents of Bluestone. They are going to lose the only property the have. Who will God bless ？
Will
good-hearted
meet
with
recompense？ Will good fortune be at hand after misfortune reaches its limit？
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♥Table of contents♥ -CHAPTER 1------------
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♥A DARK CORNER -CHAPTER 2-----------
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♥HARD TIME -CHAPTER 3-----------
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♥THE FIRST LIGHT - CHAPTER 4----------
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♥PENNIES FROM HEAVEN
-CHAPTER 5----------♥A CRISIS -CHAPTER 6-----------
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♥A RETURN
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CHAPTER 1 A dark corner Once upon a time, there was a small simple village called Bluestone. Bluestone was located next to a bustling and flourishing big city called Silver where upper class people lived. People who lived in Silver had a high standard of living. Everyone received high income and spent their money luxuriously. Therefore, the life in this town cost an arm and a leg. Inside of Silver was filled with tall
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buildings, tall mansions, and skyscrapers. Therefore, the residents could never see the sunrise nor the sunset because the buildings blocked the view, which was quite sorrowful. People lived in an atmosphere of darkness. On the contrary, the residents of Bluestone were extremely poor. When people mentioned the town of Bluestone, they would think of poverty immediately. Almost all of Bluestone’s residents were workers for the enormous well-known
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sandstone factory, S&E, and other factories located on the edge of Bluestone. There were many factories setting up at the north edge of Bluestone. They were very close to the residential district. Because of low proper land taxation in Bluestone low paid labor, a large number of investors, and entrepreneurs entered, and set up factories to manufacture products as well as lower cost in order to deliver their products into Silver to supply the high demand of the residents of Silver.
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They exploited the workers but no one dared to rebel because they were all afraid of losing their jobs and the wages which supported their large family. To compare Silver and Bluestone, one was paradise and the other was inferno. There was only a fine line between Silver and Bluestone, but they had totally different lives. The view and atmosphere of Bluestone used to be pretty. The air was fresh and the sky was light blue. A variety of fish swam happily in the river.
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Bluestone used to be a simple village of nature. However, the invasion of the factories invaded caused the air pollution. The sky was grey all day long. The sky blue one had disappeared since. The factories discharged waste water directly into the rivers. The rivers were completely covered by water plants. As a result, the creatures underneath the rivers couldn’t absorb sun light and couldn’t breathe, which led to their death. All over Bluestone was seriously polluted. People
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lived in poverty and surrounded by pollution.
CHAPTER 2 Hard time In one small corner of Bluestone, there was a simple house. Inside of the house, there lived an old lady, Betty. She lived there by herself. The old lady was very poor and lonely. Her husband had died many years ago, and her only son, John, had left his hometown, Bluestone, for a bigger city which provided more
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opportunities of employment. Once John left, he never came back to take care of his aged mother. He did not even write letters to Betty. No one knew where he was and what he was doing. Betty was always worried about him, but all she could do was to wait for the day he would return. Betty was too old to be employed, so she found a home-working job. She did some handiwork for factories in order to earn money. For example, when Christmas was coming, the factories would ask her to
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make the hanging decorations on the Christmas trees. However, the money from doing this handiwork still was not enough for her daily expenses because the cost of commodities was terribly high at the moment. Therefore, she found a part-time job in Silver. Every morning, she walked to Silver to do the cleaning work for a 4-story company. After that, she went home in the afternoon with a tired body and did handiwork under dim lights in her
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house. The neighbors all felt sorry for her because she still had to work so hard at her age, but they couldn’t do anything because all were experiencing the same adversity. Everyone in Bluestone was having a hard time with no exception. Another reason why she had to work so hard was that her husband left her nothing but a heavy debt to repay. She used to borrow money from her relatives to pay the debt. Eventually, they became
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afraid of meeting her because the money which they lent to her never came back. They refused to see her. Every time she went to “visit� them. She rang the door bell, and then they opened the door, but closed it at once upon seeing her. In their mind, she was just like a robber who kept robbing money from their pockets. No one pitied her.
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CHAPTER 3 The first light One day, when she was on her way home, she saw something moving in the bushes. She approached to take a look. It was a white puppy with a broken leg. There were some black and brown spots on its fur. Its eyes shot out flames of innocence and cried for help. “How come you are here alone, little child? Where is your family? You look starved. Would you like to go home with
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me? Though there’s not much food, I think it’s still enough for you and me.” The puppy looked pitiable. Therefore, Betty made a decision at once─take it home. The puppy shook its tail strongly showing its happiness. Betty took the puppy home and gave her the name Snow because her fur was as white as snow. The next morning, when Betty was getting ready for work, Snow persisted in following her. It seemed that it was scared of something. Betty thought it might have
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been abandoned. This aroused her sense of pity. “Don’t worry, Snow. I’m going to work, and I will come back in the afternoon. You stay at home and watch the house for me.” Snow gave several barks and shook her tail. It watched Betty leave until it couldn’t see her anymore, and then went back to be a loyal guard dog. Snow found nothing to do, so it decided to clean the house. The problem
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was that Snow was a puppy. How can a puppy clean the house? Dog’s tooth is always useful. It used its mouth to bite the garbage and threw it away. It also used a cloth and its two front legs to wipe the floor. How smart it was! And then, it put everything in order. The interior looked extremely clean just like a maid just came. After finishing all the cleaning jobs, Snow fell asleep until Betty came home. Once Betty opened the door, she was totally shocked by the tidiness of the
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house. “Who did this? Is this my house?” Betty murmured. Snow heard some noise and ran out at once. It barked happily at Betty welcoming her home. “Snow, did you do this?” Betty asked. Snow gave a bark which seemed alike it was saying “Yes. It’s me.” Betty couldn’t say a word because she couldn’t believe what her eyes were seeing. “What kind of dog is this? How can a dog clean
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the house?� she wondered. CHAPTER 4 Pennies from Heaven Then day after day, Snow cleaned the house while Betty was out to work. It thanked for Betty’s sympathy, so it decided to repay for her kindness. It knew that Betty was poor and decided to do something for her. Therefore, after cleaning, it went out and looked for something. It walked and sniffed and went street by street. It arrived at a remote region and stopped under a tree.
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Surprisingly, it started to dig by the tree. It dug so hard that it didn’t notice someone was paying attention to its behavior on the other side. Finally, it dug a hole, and then it bit out a big bag which looked very heavy. It ran home with the bag in its mouth. It didn’t know that something in the bag had fallen out while it was running. The man who had been observing the whole process walked toward the thing which just fell out of the bag. He picked it up greedily on his face. It was a gold coin!
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He saw Snow’s footprints, and followed them to Betty’s house. He peeped through the windows to see the interior. Betty was already home. Betty stared at the cleanness of the house. She had got used to this situation and the fact that she was caring for an extraordinary dog. She praised Snow and noticed the bag on the floor. She was wondering what was inside of it. She bent down and opened it. She was surprised by the gold coins inside.
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“Where are they from, Snow?” Betty asked. Snow shook its tail happily and proudly. Betty asked Snow to bring her to the place where it found the bag. Snow led her to the tree. Betty saw the hole and asked” You dug them out from this hole?” Snow barked. Betty understood. She decided to donate these gold coins to the poor people in the village because she thought these coins didn’t belong to her and she didn’t deserve them. Once they
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arrived home, they discovered that the man who knew about the treasure was leaving Betty’s house with the bag in his hand. Before Betty shouted out” Thief”, Snow had already run toward the man at full speed. Snow bit him and didn’t want to let go. “Stop!” Betty shouted. The thief was injured. Though he attempted to steal the treasure, Betty still brought him in and dressed the wound for him. Betty wondered why he wanted to do such kind of theft, but she thought he might have his
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own difficulties. The man revealed his tough experience. His mother was dying and was now confined to bed. His boss didn’t provide him a high-paid job but rather a laborious one. For this reason, he couldn’t afford the great amount of money needed for his mother’s operation. Betty sympathized with his experience, so she gave him several coins which could help pay for the cost of the operation and their living. The man said thanks with tears in his eyes. Then, he left.
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The next day, Betty started to visit the poor families in her village one by one and distributed the gold coins to them. They were very grateful. Betty never thought of herself, but only about the struggles of others. Her kindness spread rapidly in the village. People considered her their savior. A dark village was lit up by her, and Bluestone soon revived. Though people were not very rich, they became optimistic and helped each other. The village was filled with harmony.
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CHAPTER 5 A crisis However, the biggest sandstone factory “S&E” took a liking to the land near Betty’s house. They were planning to build other factories to manufacture more products for the high demand in Silver. The problem was that if they wanted to build factories, they had to levy the land where some residents lived. They bribed the local authorities because that area bordered a conservation area. After getting
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the permission of the authorities, they informed the residents, including Betty. They told them to move within five days, or they would demolish their houses no matter they were inside of them or not. The reasons why they could be so supercilious were because of the corruption and that Bluestone was a forgotten village. Betty refused to leave. Her house contained life memories with her husband and her son. She had considered it as a
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part of her life, so she made a decision. If the house was going to be demolished, she would stay with it. The day of demolition came. Some people were afraid of threat, so they had moved away a few days early. Some people still stood their ground and stayed in their houses because they didn’t have any other property to which they could not move. If they lost their houses, they would become homeless though S&E gave them some money to send them away. The
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representative of S&E saw that the residents were not willing to move. Therefore, he asked the workers to start working. “Start working. If they don’t want to move, don’t blame me. I’ve told them to leave,” the representative said loudly and heartlessly. “But they are still inside of the houses. You will kill them!” said one worker. “Don’t worry. This will not be a crime. I am a good friend of the governor. What
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are you waiting for? Move! Otherwise, you will be fired!” said the representative. Though the workers didn’t agree with their employer, they had to do it because if they didn’t follow the orders, they might be fired.
CHAPTER 6 A return When the workers were on the point of operating the excavator, a man wearing an expensive suit suddenly appeared. “Stop!” the man shouted loudly.
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“Who are you? Who says that you can give the order? I am the one who is in charge here,” said the representative. “I’m the new owner of this land,” said the man in the suit. “You are not. The owner of this land is Mr. Greenwood. You must have misunderstood. Mr. Greenwood is one if the richest entrepreneurs,” responded the representative proudly. The man took out a piece of paper and handed it to the representative.
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“If you still don’t believe me, here is the contract. And after you finish reading it, please leave. Do not disturb the residents, or you’ll understand what you are going to confront.” The representative read the contract surprisingly, and then left with his workers. After he left, everyone appreciated what he had done for them and wondered who he was. He did not give them any answers but walked toward Betty’s house. He entered the house. Snow
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saw him and barked at this stranger. Betty heard Snow’s barks, so she stepped out of her room to see what was going on. Her tears welled up in her eyes when she recognized the man. “Is that you, John? This can’t be true!” “Mum, it’s me. I am back. Please forgive me. I left you heartlessly a few years ago. I’ve been regretting since that evening. Can you forgive me for what I’ve done to you?”
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“Forget about those unpleasant memories. I am happy to see your return, my dear son. I want you to know that I love you very much.” “I love you, too, mum.” They talked about their own lives and Tom kept blaming himself for being cruel to his mom. He told Betty that after he left, he experienced many things and kept hopping from one job to another. Then, he invested some money with some partners and established a trading company a few
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years ago. The scale of his company had become one of the biggest and most powerful corporations in the world. He was a billionaire now. He also got married two years ago and now they had two children. He wanted Betty to move to live with them. Betty agreed with two conditions: she wanted John to do as much as he could to help poor people, and she hoped that Snow could go with her. John accepted both conditions immediately.
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He donated a large sum of money periodically to not only the poor people in Bluestone, but also those in other under-developed counties. Betty moved to live with them. She got along quite well with her step-daughter and grandchildren. They accompanied her everyday. She felt that she was the happiest person in the world. She thought that Snow must be a gift from God. God delivers a message indirectly to her that life was not that miserable. She thanked Snow for bringing
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good fortune to her and her family. The family treated Snow as their friend and child. Snow also repaid the obligation by being loyal. They lived happily ever after with God’s blessing.
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♥References of Pictures ♥ ☆Cover Page:www.myspace.com/allaboutfun4u2 ☆P. 5: http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/arts-and-ente rtainment/visual-art/1913763-cartoon-big-city.php?id= 1913763&refnum=460341
☆P.12: www.illustrationsof.com/.../clipart/11611.html ☆P.16:www.geocities.com/dsignz_art/artwork/main.ht ml
☆P.22:http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/busin ess/business_concepts/banking/1973631_money_ba g_the_cartoon_toolbox_series.php?id=1973631
☆P.25: www.imageenvision.com/.../search/business ☆P.29:http://ventnorblog.com/hazelhurst-cartoon-wh y-was-it-edited-by-the-county-press/
☆P.37:http://motorcyclediariescz.blogspot.com/2009 _03_01_archive.html
☆Back Cover: http://www.candovers-pc.gov.uk/brownandchiltoncand over/about_brown_and_chilton_candover.asp
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In a village of poverty, Bluestone, everyone’s having a hard time. Many people cannot even live themselves, don’t even mention the compassion for others. Surprisingly, a grey-haired poor lady who lives on the income of doing handiwork takes a puppy home and keeps it. They share food and joy. They rely on each other. Unfortunately, the local sandstone factory plans to demolish the houses of the residents of Bluestone. They are going to lose the only property the have. Who will God bless？ Will good-hearted meet with recompense？ Will good fortune be at hand after misfortune reaches its limit？ 41