One day a professor entered her classroom and told her students about a test. The students took their seats and waited for the test to begin. The professor put a test paper on each student's desk with the text facing down. She then said they can turn the paper over and begin.
The students didn't expect to see no questions, but just a single black dot in the center of the paper. The professor said, "I just want you to write down what you see on this paper."
The students did as they were told. At the end of class, the professor took their tests and started reading their answers aloud. Each student tried to describe the black dot - its size, its position on the paper. After the professor finished reading, the class was silent.
She started to explain. "Don't worry. There is no right answer to this test. But I want you to think about something." Imagine that this paper represents your life. The white area represents all of your life experiences - the black dot just stands for the bad things you've gone through. Life gives us many things - loved ones, enjoyable moments, and even miracles (奇迹) from time to time. And yet our eves are always captured by the black dot in our life. Our problems and difficulties can beat us.
"From now on, I want you to think about the big picture more often. Don't just focus on the black dots in your life. Remind yourself how lucky you are sometimes." Hearing this, the students finally understood the aim of this test. They kept looking at the paper for a long time.
