A short Chinese man is one of the biggest men in the world right now. He is Jack Ma (Ma Yun), the Chairman（董事局主席）of Alibaba Group. On Sept. 19,2014, Alibaba went public（上市）and raised $25 billion（十亿）. Ma, a former English teacher, has become the richest man in China.

    Born in 1964 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Ma grew up as a happy kid. When he was a teenager, he wanted to learn English. Every morning, he got up at 5a.m, rode his bike for 40 minutes to a hotel near the West Lake and talked with foreign tourists in English. He did it for nine years, rain or shine.

    The experience made him an excellent English speaker and also opened his eyes to the outside world. In 1994, Ma Yun heard about the Internet. And on a 1995 trip to the US, Ma was shown the Internet for the first time. He searched the word “beer” on Yahoo, and found that there was nothing there about China. Seeing the chance, Ma returned to China and set up a website called China Pages without even knowing much about computers.

    Four years later, Ma, his wife and his friends set up Alibaba in Hangzhou. He believed in the Internet business potential（潜力）when few other Chinese did, 15 years later, Alibaba has developed into the world's largest e-commerce company（电子商务公司），owning popular shopping websites like Taobao and Tmall.

    Do you know George? He is a little monkey. He lives in a deep forest. He likes jumping and climbing trees. He is happy every day. But he has a shortcoming（缺点）. He is curious（好奇的）.

    One day an old man went by the forest. He cared a lot of hats. George saw the old man, and the old man saw George, too. The old man said to himself, what a lovely monkey! I will catch him. I will take him home.

    The old man sat down and thought over. George saw and also sat down. The old man had an idea. He put a hat on his head, and put other has on the ground, Then be pretended(假装)to sleep.

    George was curious and looked at the hats. "I will be nice if I put a hat on my head, "George thought. Then be climbed down from the tree, picked up a hat and put it on. The hat was too big, and covered George's eyes. George couldn't see. And the old man got up at once and caught him quickly.

Poor George!

    Jack is in Grade Three now. He is a polite boy and studies hard. He is good at his lessons and can answer all the questions in class. His teachers and classmates like him except Henry. They're deskmates. Henry likes playing and often fails the exams. His father is a dentist (牙医) and makes a lot of money. The boy thinks he lives in the richest family in the town. So he looks down upon (瞧不起) others and laughs at them. Of course he has few friends.

    Jack is busy all the time. His father is a shoemaker. The man works hard but he still can't buy enough food for the family. He tells Jack to help him after school, so Jack has to do all his homework at school.

    One summer afternoon, on his way home, Jack met his sister Lily.

    The girl carried a heavy box in her arms without wearing shoes. Jack carried it for her. Henry saw them and said to Jack, "You father is a shoemaker, but your sister has no shoes!"

    "I don't think it's strange," replied Jack. "Your father is dentist, but your little sister has no teeth!"

    Long ago, Bluebird's feathers were the colour of dust. She did not like her ugly colour. She was attracted by the colour of the lake near her home. It was as blue as the sky after a storm. Bluebird wanted to be the colour of that beautiful lake very much. Flapping her wings one morning, Bluebird flew from her tree to the blue lake. Then she bathed in the water three times. After each bath, she sang, "Blue water. Still water. I went in. I am blue." Bluebird repeated this every morning. On the third day, she came out of the lake with beautiful blue feathers.

    Now Coyote was a trickster(骗子)—and hungry too. He stayed behind Bluebird's tree for a long time every day and watched her go to the lake. He pretended(伪装)to be interested in everything she did. He wanted Bluebird for lunch, but he was afraid of the blue water. On the third morning, Coyote saw Bluebird come out of the lake with beautiful blue feathers. Impressed, he sat next to Bluebird's tree and waited for her. When she returned, he asked, "How did you get blue feathers? I want to be blue like the mountains too." Bluebird didn't believe Coyote, but she taught him how to bathe three times each morning and how to sing her song. Coyote did what she said, and after three days of bathing in the lake, his white fur turned deep blue.

    Convinced(确信的)that blue fur was even more beautiful than blue feathers, Coyote forgot all about being hungry. He ran as fast as he could to the top of the hill. Standing on his back legs, he raised his front legs off the ground and howled. But Coyote slipped(滑倒)and rolled down the hill. He couldn't stop himself, and the dust and dirt covered his new blue fur. He rolled and rolled until he hit into Bluebird's tree heavily. No matter how much he tried, foolish Coyote could not shake the dust from his fur. And so the fur of all coyotes had the dull colour of dust to this very day.

    Two months ago, I went to Australia for a meeting with my workmate, John. We decided to drive across the country to Brisbane after the meeting ended. The drive was going to take four days and most of it was across the desert.

    The first day was a lot of fun as we were excited and laughing at each other's jokes. On the third day, we began to get bored.

    We had been quiet for a few hours when John saw some kangaroos. We were both excited and decided to catch up with the kangaroos. We got closer and closer- too close when we heard a loud BANG!

    John stopped the car and we got out. Behind the car was a large kangaroo lying on the ground. He didn't move. John went over the kangaroo and put his baseball hat on its head.

    He took off his jacket and put it on the kangaroo. I took out my camera. While I was focusing the camera, I saw the kangaroo move. It woke up, and ran away before we could do anything.

    I started laughing but John looked very serious. He said his wallet was in the jacket. I laughed even harder. I stopped laughing, however, when he said that our car keys were also in the jacket.