A beautiful and very successful actress played the lead role in a new musical show. Her home was in the countryside, but she did not want to go back there every night, so she bought an expensive house in the centre of the city, she got some beautiful furniture(家具) and had a man to paint the rooms in new colours.

    It was very difficult to get tickets for her show, because everybody wanted to see it. So she decided to give the painter two of the best seats. She hoped that this would make him work better for her. He took the tickets without saying anything, and she heard no more about them until the end of the month, when she got the painter's bill (帐单). At the bottom of it were these words: “Four hours watching Miss Hall sing and dance : 3 pounds,” with this note: “ After 5 p.m. I get 15 shillings (先令) an hour instead of 10 shillings.”

B

    Last summer, Mac Hollan, a primary school teacher, was cycling to Alaska with two friends. On the way, his friends had to stop for a bicycle repair, but they encouraged Mac to ride on, and they would catch up with him soon.

    Mac began to cycle alone. A few minutes later, Mac heard quick and loud breathing behind him. "Man, that's a big dog!" he thought. But when he looked to the side, he saw immediately that it wasn't a dog at all, but a wolf, quickly catching up with him.

    Mac's heart jumped. He searched and took out his can of bear spray（防熊喷雾）. With one hand on the bars, he fired the spray at the wolf. A bright red cloud enveloped the animal. To Mac's relief（宽慰）, it fell back, shaking its head. A minute later, however, it was again by his side. It even attacked the back of Mac's bike, tearing open his tent bag. He fired at the wolf a second time, and again, it fell back, only to quickly restart the chase（追赶）.

    Mac was riding hard now. He waved and shouted at passing cars without slowing down.

    At that moment, Paul and Becky were driving their car on their way to Alaska. They found a dog-like animal running alongside a man on a bike. As they got closer, they realized that the "dog" was a wolf. Mac heard a large car behind him. He kept waving and shouting as the wolf was catching up closer. And the car did stop in front of him at the right time.

    Sarah stood in front of the mirror(镜子). "It looks like a raincoat on me," she said.

    "Perhaps the blue," said Mama, gently.

    "Sure," the shopkeeper said. But when she took the blue coat, there on the shelf behind all of the dark coats, hidden like a spring flower in winter darkness, there, as if by magic, was a pink coat.

    "A pink coat!" Sarah cried. "I want the pink coat."

    "That coat is smaller than the other ones," Papa said.

    Sarah spoke up. "I'm small, too. Papa, please let me try it on, Mama? Please?"

    "It wouldn't hurt to let her try it on," Mama said.

    Without a word, the shopkeeper took the coat from the shelf and held it for Sarah.

    "Ohhh!" Sarah said. The coat was smooth and shiny inside like her sister Sylvia's blouses. "Ahhh!"

    Sarah stood very straight and looked in the mirror. She looked for a very long time. In the pink coat she looked like a spring flower.

    "Sarah!" Mama said.

    Sarah looked up. Mama was standing behind her. She was holding the brown coat.

    "I'm afraid the pink coat will only fit one year," Mama said, taking a step closer.

    "And there's no one to pass it on to," said Papa.

    And the shopkeeper said, "It's wise to save money."

    Sarah backed away. No one was going to put her into a raincoat again. She wanted to be a flower.

    "Sarah!" It was Papa. He came over to her. "You're old enough to know that you can't always have your own way," he said seriously.

    "Wise and true," said the shopkeeper.

    Sarah took off the pink coat, slowly.

    "It is her colour, though," Mama said.

    "Ahh," said the shopkeeper. "Anyone can see how the pink of the coat brings out the roses in her face."

    Papa looked thoughtful for a moment.

    "We are lucky." continued Mama, "that it is only one little coat for Sarah and not also new coats for Sylvia and Susan and Sally."

    Papa looked from the brown coat to the pink coat. "The cows will give milk soon enough," he said "And how can we let Sarah wear a brown coat when she looks like a flower in this one?"

    "Papa!" Sarah cried, putting on the pink coat back, quickly. She threw her arms around Papa's neck. "        " she whispered.

    "Like a rose in spring," Papa said.

    Here is a story told an American general (将军) who was a very important figure in the American army during the First World War. Everybody in the Untied States knew him and many people wished to have a picture or something of his in their homes. Soon after the war the general returned to Washington. One day he went to a dentist (牙医) and had six teeth pulled out. A week later the general heard that his teeth were being sold in curiosity shops (古玩店) at $5 each. On each of the teeth there was a label (标签) with the name of the general and words, “Buy these teeth and show them to your friends at home.” The general got angry. He rushed to his office and ordered six officers to go around the city and buy all his teeth. The officers went out and visited every curiosity shop in the capital. They were away from the office all day. In the evening they returned and put on the table in front of the general the teeth they had bought. They had collected 175 teeth.

    Hello! My name is Judy. I'm a student. I have three teachers. They are Miss Sun, Ms. Wood and Mr. Chen. And they teach (教) us English, Chinese and art (美术). Miss Sun is from Shanghai. She is my art teacher. She is pretty. She is 1.65 metres tall. Ms. Wood is from Canada. She is 1.75 metres tall. She has short, brown hair. Her eyes are small and blue. Mr. Chen is my Chinese teacher. He is from China. He is wearing a white shirt and a pair of blue pants. He has small eyes. They are good teachers. I like them.

    Once a king got two nice falcons(猎鹰) from his son. He had never seen such beautiful falcons before. He loved them so much and he ordered the best falconer to train them to fly.

    After several months, the king came to see how the training was going on. He found that one falcon had already been able to fly high in the sky, while the other was staying on the branch(树枝) of a tree quietly, just keeping still.

    The king called all his falconers together and ordered them to try every way they could to make the other falcon fly. But none of them succeeded. One day，while the king was taking walk in the forest, an idea came to his mind. Maybe someone who knew the natural environment well could solve this problem. He sent for a farmer who lived in the forest into his palace to train it at once.

    The next morning, the king saw the other falcon flying above in the sky freely. "It is unbelievable!" shouted the king. "How could you make it happen?"

    The farmer replied, "It's very easy. I just cut off the branch where the falcon rested."

    It is always the same to human beings. We all have "two flying wings" in our hearts as well, but we often seem not to notice them and stay where we are just for safety and comfort. We don't realize we can fly so high and freely until the "branch" we are resting on breaks.