For long, a little boy was wondering why his next-desk-pal¹ could rank 1st in the class whenever he wanted to, whereas he himself failed to: he only ranked 21st.

At home, he asked his Mom, “Mom, am I more stupid than others? I feel I am as obedient and as careful as him, but how come I always lag behind? "Hearing the words, Mom was aware that her son began to gain amour-propre, which was now being undermined by the ranking system. Staring at him, she went wordless, not knowing how to explain.

In another test, the son ranked 17th, while his pal remained 1st. Back home, he raised the same question. Mom really wanted to inform her son that intelligence differs, which means that students ranking 1st are supposed to be cleverer than normal ones. However, was this disillusioning² answer the one that her son was constantly curious about? Thank goodness she did not open her mouth.

How to answer her son’s question? There were times she felt an impulse to equivocate³, “You are too lazy. You are not as industrious⁴ as others…” but she stopped when envisioning her son suffering from the pains of unsatisfied grades and rankings. She thought it cruel to inflict⁵ any additional burden on his son and was trying to find out a perfect answer.

Time elapsing swiftly, the son finished primary school. Despite studying harder and better, he was still unable to keep up with his pal. To show her pride of him, Mom decided⁶ to take him to the sea. During the trip, she managed to give out an answer.

Now, the son no longer worries about his rankings, and there are no longer boring guys who would inquire his rankings in primary school, because, with the 1st ranking, he is accepted by Tsinghua University.

Back home in winter vacation, he was invited to address the students and parents in his high school. In the speech, he mentioned an valuable experience in his childhood, “…When my mother and I was lying on the beach, she pointed⁷ to the front and said, ‘Do you see the seabirds scrambling⁸ for food over there? When the waves come near, little birds can rise quickly while “clumsy” sea-gulls would take more time to complete the process. However, have you noticed birds that finally fly across the endless ocean are none other than “clumsy” sea-gulls?’”

The moving speech provoked many mothers present into tears, including his.

有个孩子对一个问题一直想不通：为什么他的同桌想考第一一下子就考了第一，而自己想考第一却只考了全班第二十一名？

回家后他问道：“妈妈我是不是比别人笨？我觉得我和他一样听老师的话，一样认真地做作业，可是，为什么我总比他落后？”妈妈听了儿子的话，感觉到儿子开始有自尊心了，而这种自尊心正在被学校的排名伤害着。她望着儿子，没有回答，因为她也不知道怎样回答。

又一次考试后，孩子考了第十七名，而他的同桌还是第一名。回家后，儿子又问了同样的问题。她真想说，人的智力确实有三六九等，考第一的人，脑子就是比一般的人灵。然而这样的回答，难道是孩子真想知道的答案吗？她庆幸自己没说出口。

应该怎样回答儿子的问题呢？有几次，她真想重复那几句被上万个父母重复了上万次的话——你太贪玩了；你在学习上还不够勤奋;和别人比起来还不够努力……这样来搪塞儿子。然而，像她儿子这样脑袋不够聪明，在班上成绩不甚突出的孩子，平时活得还不够辛苦吗？所以她没有那么做，她想为儿子的问题找到一个完美的答案。

儿子小学毕业了，虽然他比过去更加刻苦，但依然没有赶上他的同桌，不过与过去相比，他的成绩一直在提高。为了对儿子的进步表示赞赏，她带他去看了一次大海。就是在这次旅行中，这位母亲回答了儿子的问题。

现在这位做儿子的再也不担心自己的名次了，也再没有人追问他小学时成绩排第几名，因为他去年以全校第一名的成绩考入了清华。寒假归来时，母校请他给同学及家长们做一个报告。其中他讲了小时候的一段经历：“我和母亲坐在沙滩上，她指着前面对我说，你看那些在海边争食的鸟儿，当海浪打来的时候，小灰雀总能迅速地起飞，它们拍打两三下翅膀就升入天空；而海鸥总显得非常笨拙，它们从沙滩飞入天空总要很长时间；然后，真正能飞跃大海横过大洋的还是它们。”

这个报告使得很多母亲流下了眼泪，其中包括他自己的母亲。