Peter Owen has been making wigs (假发) since the 1980s. He has made wigs for the stars of more than seventy movies, including Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, Johnny Depp in Sleepy Hollow, and Nicole Kidman in The Others. One of his biggest jobs so far has been designing the hair and make-up(化妆) for the three Lord of the Rings movies. He had just six weeks to design and make more than a hundred wigs, each one a different style, colour, shape and length.

    The hair and make-up in a movie are just as important as the costumes(戏装) or the sets. Over the years, Peter has made actors look older, younger, healthy and sick. For one movie he even made a female actor look like a man!“What people don't realize about wigs is that we are not always making people more beautiful,” he says. “Often we are covering up beauty and making them look ordinary.”

    All Peter's wigs are hand-made using human hair, so they look as real as possible. This also makes them very expensive―between US$4,500 and US$12,500 each! He knows he's done a good job when people don't realize the star of the movie is wearing a wig. So he was pleased when one newspaper said that Nicole Kidman had dyed（染色） her hair dark brown for a movie. “It was a wig and no one knew that,” he says.

    Tom arrived at the New York airport two hours before the flight to Paris. He was wearing three shirts, a jacket, two pairs of socks, a pair of shorts, and two pairs of jeans. He was carrying one small backpack, which was very full, but he didn't have any other luggage. Tom needed to meet a man named Tony before he checked in for his flight. He found Tony near the Air France counter. Tony gave him a round-trip ticket and a small package.

    “Give this package to Jean-Paul at the airport in Paris. He will have a sign with your name on it. I think you can find him easily,” Tony said, ”You don't have any luggage, right?”

    “Only this backpack,” Tom answered. ”You said I could bring one carry-on bag.”

    “That's right. One carry-on bag is fine. Have a good trip.”

    “Thanks.”

    Is Tom a criminal (罪犯)? Not at all. He is an air-courier(空中信使). And he paid only $110 for the round-trip ticket to Paris. Air couriers get cheap airline tickets because they take important packages and papers to foreign countries. Businesses sometimes need to get packages and papers to people in foreign countries by the next day. Often, the only way they can do this is to use an air-courier company. It is not cheap for a business to send a package with an air courier, but it is quick.

    Every year about 80,000 people worldwide travel as air couriers. The number of tickets for courier travel is growing by about 10 percent a year. However, air-courier travel isn't for everyone. But if you have very little money, can be flexible(灵活的) about your travel plans, and don't mind wearing the same clothes for a week, it can be a great way to take a vacation!

    Jodie's Daddy is a Garbageman(垃圾清理工)

    Mr Swales wanted to find out what his students' parents did. He had just called Jodie when some girls burst out laughing. Shirley shouted, “Jodie's Daddy is a Garbageman!”

    Everybody in the class laughed out loud, except Jodie. She felt her face turn red.

    “Silence!” Mr Swales said, “Being a garbagemen is a difficult and useful job. We should all be thankful to Jodie's father.”

Jodie's father came to walk her home from school as usual, but she didn't run up to him the way she always did. When they got back home, Jodie went to her room and cried for a long time.

    Her father came into her room, “What happened, Jodie? Why are you so sad?”

    Jodie told her father what had happened and looked at him. He didn't seem angry or hurt. “Well,” he said, “they are right. Being a garbageman is a dirty job. Tomorrow's Saturday. Come to work with me, Jodie.”

    The place really smell too good. Jodie wrinkled her nose. “Don't worry, kid. In five minutes you won't smell a thing.” said her father.

    Everybody there was working hard, and they seemed to have a good time. Jodie's father handed her a pair of gloves and told her to get the little plastic bags and throw them into the truck.

    It was fun, but also hard work. Jodie's arms soom got tired. At last, no more garbage was left and Jodie felt very happy.

    “Garbage is disgusting, but when we clear it away, everything's nice and clean. You can make yourself happy only by making other happy. That's why I like being a garbageman so much.”

    Jodie give her dirty, smeely garbageman daddy a big kiss(吻). She said, “When I grow up, I will be a garbagegirl!”

    Now whenever someone asks Jodie what her daddy does, she says, “He's a garbageman! Everybody makes garbage, but my daddy takes it away!”

I think the most terrible thing in life for my little brother is getting up in the morning. He is almost sick when my mother calls," Herbert! It's seven o'clock! Get up!" Hebert answers," I'm coming!" and goes right back to sleep. I'm not all like my brother. I don't like to go to bed at night but I don't mind getting up in the morning. I usually wake up before my mother calls me. I jump out of bed and go into the bathroom to take a shower. I get dressed, brush my teeth, comb my hair, and get ready to go downstairs for breakfast as soon as my mother calls.

    But not for Herbert. He just sleeps. After calling a few more times my mother has to come upstairs and pull Herbert out of bed. It's that way every day with my little brother. Perhaps some day he'll learn to get up on time, but I really don't think so.

    A student was going to spend his holiday in a cool mountain village. That evening he stayed at an inn (小旅馆) near the railway station (火车站). Before going to bed, he went to the boss of the inn and said, "Excuse me, sir. Will you please wake me up at a quarter to five tomorrow morning? I'll take the five o'clock train."

    "Oh, sorry, sir," the boss said in a hurry, "I'm afraid I can't. I won't be able to get up so early." The student was disappointed. When he began to return to his room, be stopped and asked, "Have you got an alarm-clock (闹钟)? Maybe it can help me."

    "Wait a minute, then." The boss said and brought out an alarm-clock. "Here you are, sir." "Thank you very much." The student said happily. But he found it was rusty (锈的) when he had a look at it. And it sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. He asked, "Will it ring in time?" "I don't know, either." said the boss, "But it doesn't matter. You just give it a good shake at a quarter to five. And it will ring on time."