There are four people in the twins' family. They are the twins, their father and their mother.

The twins' names are Lucy and Lily. They are fourteen. They are in the same class in the NO.1 Middle School. They are very good students. They not only work very hard but also sing very well. They want to join the music club. Lucy wants to play the piano. Lily can play the guitar.

      Their father, Mr. King, is a teacher. He teaches English in a school near his home. Their mother, Mrs. King, is a teacher, too. She teaches Chinese. Mr. and Mrs. King are in different schools. But they have the same hobby — play the guitar.

    Roger, a young man from China, has taught Chinese in a primary school in England for 3 years. A lot of children like his class and he enjoys teaching them very much. All the pupils are quite interested in what Roger teaches them. They learn quickly and do everything carefully.

    One day he said to the children, “People in a lot of Asian countries wear white clothes at funerals(葬礼), but people in America and in Europe wear white in the weddings because white means purity and happiness. What color does an English woman wear when she gets married?”

    Mary said, “White, sir, because she is happy.” “That is good, Mary,” Roger said. “You are quite right. She wears white because she is happy.”

    But then one boy in the class put up his hand. “Yes, Dick?” Roger said, “Do you have a question?” “Yes,” Dick said. “Why do men wear black in our country when they get married, sir?”

    If you are walking through Newyork's Central Park on a fine summer day, you might come across a group of children listening to a story. The storyteller will be sitting beside a statue of a kindly looking man holding an open book. Although this man never actually visited New York, his fame as a writer of fairy tales and children's stories has spread far beyond his homeland.

    Hans Christian Andersen is recognized as a key figure in 19^th-century romantic fiction. He is, without question, the best-known writer Denmark has ever produeed. His stories continue to delight children and adults the world over. Classic tales such as The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and The emperor's New Clothes are loved for their humor and imagination. They are loved for the simple but meaningful messages they often contain.

    Born on April 2, 1805, in Odense, Demark, Andersen was an imaginative child. His father, a poor shoemaker, died in 1816. With a mother who was unable to read or write, the boy received little education as a child. At 14, Andersen traveled to Copenhagen. He was lucky enough to spend some time with the Royal Theater, but when his voice changed, he had to leave. Luckily, one of the directors helped him by arranging his education.

    Andersen went to the University of Copenhagen in 1828, and his literary career began soon afterwards. He hoped to achieve success with poems and plays, and made too low an estimate(估计) of the kind of stories which have made him famous. Though not particularly fond of children, he had a gift for entertaining them. This led a friend to suggest he write down the stories he invented.

    Many of Andersen' s tales are based on folklore(民间故事), and many are products of his own imagination. All of them are told in a humorous and informal style that children loved from the start.

    Before his death in 1875, Andersen regularly traveled around Europe, and was warmly welcomed everywhere he went.

    Nowadays, of course, Hans Christian Andersen is a household name. Whether he would have liked or not, millions of children and adults will always be grateful for the magie his stories have brought to their lives. The young listeners in Central Park are proof of that.

    It was summertime. Donna walked into the classroom." Good afternoon, everybody!" That was a joke Donna told every day. Usually the class started with only two or three students in the classroom, and then the other students came as the minutes went by.

    Donna knew that the students didn't like studying English. The head teacher had told her the reason. The students thought English was confusing.

    Donna waited until all the students were sitting in their seats. She smiled and said," Okay, well. Let's get started. Please turn to Page 36. Today we're studying participles as adjectives（分词作形容词）. Students often feel confused when they learn about the present and past participles, so we need to practice a lot. Today, we're just going to practice using present participles as adjectives." Donna looked at all the blank faces around the classroom. Then she wrote two sentences on the blackboard.

    "The present participle tells us what kind of emotion the subject（主语）is causing. For example, when we say 'grammar is boring', we mean that the subject—grammar — causes an emotion of boredom. If we say, 'The movie is interesting', we are saying that the movie causes an emotion of interest. Any questions so far? Is anyone confused?"

    The classroom was quiet. Donna knew it would take some time for everyone to understand what she was talking about. After a while, Donna got a little excited because she saw looks of understanding on some of the students' faces.

    Dick was born in a poor family. His father had a small boat and went fishing in the morning and sold the fish in the market in the afternoon. Then he bought some food for his family. When winter came, they were often hungry. One morning the hungry man fell into the river and wasn't found. Dick's mother left her three-year-old son without saying goodbye. His aunt had to look after him. Twenty years passed, Dick became a tall, strong man. He found a job on a farm. He worked hard and wanted to get more money. He often went to see his aunt with some nice presents. The woman was very happy but one day she died in a traffic accident. The young man was very sad. After he buried her, he decided to buy a beautiful tombstone(墓碑)for her. He went to the town and came into a shop, but all the tombstones were too expensive. He asked, "Do you sell an old tombstone, sir?" "Yes, we do, sir," answered the shopkeeper. "Is it as expensive as the new one?" "No, it's much cheaper," said the man. "But another name was engraved(刻)in it." "It doesn't matter," said Dick. "My aunt couldn't read."