B

    Are you a big fan of E.T. (Extraterrestrial) or aliens? Then you should read Extraterrestrial Civilizations (《地球以外的文明世界》) by American writer Isaac Asimov (1920-1992). In his 1979 book, Asimov looked at whether there is life beyond the Earth. He also talked about how we might be able tocommunicate with aliens someday. Asimov even told us that there are possibly about 500,000 civilizations (文明) in the galaxy (银河系). The book may be a little out of fashion since it came out in the 70s. But you'll still enjoy the good reasoning (推理) and imagination of it. Asimov was a science fiction (科幻故事) master. His most famous works talk about the relationship between robots and humankind.

    I can't help thinking about the face of that little beggar girl all the time．I can see the glad light filling her eyes when I laid the dime(一角硬币)in her little dirty hand．

    How much I had thought of that dime，too! Grandpa gave it to me a whole month ago，and I had kept it ever since in my red box upstairs；but those sugar apples looked so beautiful，and were so cheap—only a dime apiece(每个)一that I made up my mind to have one．

    I can see her—the beggar girl，I mean—as she stood there in front of the store，in her old dress，looking at the chocolates laid all in a row．I wonder what made me say, “Little girl，what do you want?''

    How she stared at me，just as if nobody had spoken kindly to her before．I guess she thought l was sorry for her, for she said．“l was thinking how good one of those gingerbread rolls would taste，I haven't had anything to eat today．''

    Now，I thought to myself, “Mary Williams，you have had a good breakfast and a good dinner this day，and this poor girl has not had a mouthful．You can give her your dime；she needs it a great deal more than you do．''

    I could not resist(抗拒)that little girl's hungry look—so I dropped the dime right into her hand，without waiting for her to speak，walked straight away．

    An old man walked slowly into a restaurant with his cane(拐杖).His old jacket and shoes made him unusual that day.

    A young waitress named Mary watched him move towards a table by the window.She ran over to him,and said with smile,“Here,sir.Let me give you a hand."

    Without saying a word,he gave her a smile. She pulled the chair out from the table and helped him sit down. Then she put his cane against the table where he could reach ithimself. In a soft, clear voice he said,"Thank you." "You're welome, sir," she replied. I'll be back in a moment, and if you need anything, just wave(挥手) at me!"

    After he had finished a good meal,Mary brought him the change. She handed him his cane, and walked to the front door. Holding the door open for him, she said,“Come back and see us, sir! ”The old man turned around and smiled.

    When Mary went to clean his table, she was shocked. Under the plate, she found a business card, a 100—dollar and a note.The note said.

    “Dear Mary, I respect you very much, and you respect yourself, too. It shows the way you treat others. You have found the secret of happiness."

    In fact,the old man was the owner of the restaurant. That was the first time that she, or any of his waitresses, had seen him.

    Madisyn Babcock from US is a high school student. She used to have thick blond hair and looked very beautiful. But at the age of 17, she suffered from a serious disease that causes people to lose hair. She had to face the challenges.

    Her senior photo shoot (高中毕业照) was coming, but Babcock didn't pity herself. She still wanted to nook beautiful in her pictures. She and her mother came up with a genius(天才的) idea--to paint some flowers all over her head. Her mother, an American artist, painted the flowers for Babcock.

    US photographer, Chelsea Taylor, took pictures of Babcock. "She has used this as an opportunity to show other girls how to love themselves and own their beauty--even if it isn't conventional," Taylor said. When life throws you a curve ball, it's important to have people that care about you by your side. So I think Babcock is also very happy and lucky!

    I felt very sad not to be able to get the ticket to the film Titanic last Friday. I learned in the newspaper that tickets could be bought at the cinema box office in Richland Hills every day between 10：00 a.m. and 4：00 p.m. Because I work from 9：00 a.m.to 5：30 p.m., the only time I could go to the cinema was during my 45-minute lunch time. It is a pity that the cinema is on the other side of the town, and the bus service between my office and Richland Hills is not very good. But if you are lucky, you can make the round(往返)trip in 45 minutes.

    Last Monday I stood at the bus stop for fifteen minutes, waiting for a bus. By the time I saw one coming around the corner, there was not enough time left to make the trip-so I had to go back to the office. The same thing happened on Wednesday. On Thursday my luck changed, I got on a bus right away and arrived at the cinema in twenty minutes. But when I got there, I found a long line of people at the box office. I heard one man say he had been waiting in line for fifty-five minutes. I found that I would not have enough time to wait in line. I caught the next bus and went back across the town.

    Then on Friday I understood my only hope was to make the trip by car. It was not cheap, but I felt it would be worthwhile to see the film. The trip by car only took 10 minutes, but it felt like one hour to me. When I reached the cinema, I was delighted to see that nobody was waiting in line. But I quickly found out that it was because they had already sold out all the tickets.