"Listen carefully to what I say," the time traveler said, "I shall tell you something that you will not agree."  

 "Why will we not agree?" I asked.

 "Because the science and mathematics you know are not correct,"  he said. "You believe there are only three dimensions(三维空间)-length, breadth(宽) and thickness." 

 "There is nothing to argue with that, " the youngest member of our little group said.

 "Exactly!"  the time traveler answered, "But there is also a fourth dimension - time."   

 "We all know about time, " another member of the group said. "Time passed."

 "I do not agree,"  the time traveler said, "Length, breadth and thickness do not pass. They stay in the same place in space.  We move about them. I can prove that time is the same. It does not pass. We move in time the same way that we move in breadth, length and thickness."

 None of us believed the time traveler, and we argued with him for many hours.

 "If we could travel back in time,"  the scientist said, "We could do things to change the future." 

 "If we could travel forward in time," the doctor(博士) said, "we could do things that change our present." 

 The time traveler smiled, "It is clear," he said, "that there is only one way I can show you that I am right. We must do an experiment. Please wait here." 

 He left the room and soon returned, carrying what looked like a clock.

 "This is a model of a time machine. It took me two years to make it," the time traveler said. "I want all of you to understand that when I start the machine, it will immediately travel in time and disappear from the present." 

 He turned to the youngest of all. "Give me your hand," he said.

 The young man put out his hand. The time traveler took it and placed it on the machine. Immediately, there was a sudden wind, and the little machine disappeared.

 I was certain this was not a trick, but the doctor was not so sure.

 "Are you asking us to believe," he said, "that the machine is now in a different time?" 

 "Certainly! In my laboratory, a full-size machine is almost complete. As soon as it is complete, I shall send myself on a journey through time. Would you like to see my machine?"

 "Are you serious about this?" the doctor asked.

 "I have never been more serious about anything," the time traveler said, "Come." 

We followed him to his laboratory. There, we saw the actual machine, not quite complete, but large enough for a man to sit in.

    Each morning a rich man found a poor man sitting on a bench(长凳) in the park. The poor man always sat there, looking at the big hotel in which the rich man lived. One day, the rich man got out of his car and said to the poor man, "Excuse me. I want to know why you sit here and look at my hotel every morning." "Sir," said the poor man, "I am a failure. I have no money, no family, no home. I sleep on this bench, and every night I dream that one day I'll sleep in that hotel." The rich man said, "Tonight your dream will come true. I'll pay for the best room in that hotel for you a whole month."

    A few days after, the rich man went into the poor man's room to ask him how he was enjoying himself. To his surprise, he found that the man had moved out of the hotel back to his bench. When the rich man asked why, he said, "You see, when I'm sleeping on my bench, I dreamed I am there, in the big hotel. It's a wonderful dream. But when I was there I dreamed I was back to this cold bench. It was a terrible dream, and I couldn't get any sleep at all."

    In the state of Qin (秦国), there was a man called Shang Yang (商鞅). He was a statesman (政治家) and worked out many reforms(改革) for the state, like paying more attention to farming and giving rewards (报酬) to soldiers who were successful when at war.

    But these reforms were not easily carried out (执行) at first. Most people didn't trust Shang

    Yang. In order to solve this problem, Shang Yang came up wiIh an idea. He put a thin wooden pole at the south gate of the Qin capital. Many people came to see him and the pole.

    Then, in front of the crowd, Shang Yang said loudly, "The man who takes this pole to the north gate will get 10 gold pieces."

    It was a sample job and the reward was so large. However, some time passed and no one stepped forward. They all thought Shang Yang was making a joke.

    Hearing no answer, Shang Yang stepped forward and said, "The reward now goes to 50 gold pieces."

    This reward was unbelievably large. Finally, a man from the crowd came forward. He put the pole on his shoulders and walked to the north gate. True to his word, Shang Yang gave the man 50 gold pieces.

    After that, the people of Qin were all talking about what Shang Yang did about the pole. They believed he was a man of his word. So when Shang Yang began carrying out his reforms, the people followed him.

    Under these great reforms, Qin grew stronger and stronger. Al last, Qin made all the seven states into one empire (帝国).

    Our new neighbours are the Browns. They have two children, a boy and a girl. The boy is Jack and the girl is Alice. Jack is 11, and he is one year older than me. Alice and my sister Nancy are 8 years old.

    At weekends, Nancy and I like to go to play with Alice and Jack. Both Jack and I really enjoy playing computer games. Sometimes the girls join us, but the games they enjoy are different from the ones we like.

    There is a big park near our houses. Sometimes, when the weather is fine, the four of us go for bike rides there. We often stop at the huge playground to have some fun. Jack and I like to play basketball, but the girls prefer to sing and dance.

    Our families often have dinner together. On some days, they come over to our house and on other days, we go over to theirs. Mr Brown and his wife cook really well.

    Nancy and I are very glad to have the Browns next door. It's great to have friends living so near.