My family lives very happily on a farm near a small town. My father always learns some information about weather through the TV, the Internet and newspapers.

    One evening, he asked us to meet at the table after dinner. "I have some bad news," he said. "The weather reports on the television warned(警告)that we would face a typhoon tomorrow."

    At 6:30 a.m. the next day, the winds started and the rain was falling heavily. There were new warnings that the sea level could go up as much as 5 meters.

    The winds were terribly strong and tree branches were flying everywhere. Trees were falling down and the rain kept coming down.

    Just after 10:30, the wind stopped suddenly-it was strangely calm and the sun was shining. Then the winds came howling(咆哮)again, but this time more rain fell. There were more flying things and the storm came in. Everything within 1 km of the coast was flooded-there was fish in the streets. Now the winds were dying down, but the rain was still falling.

    After another two hours, the wind came to a stop at last. My home was in a mess and my mum burnt her arm when the hot water from the stove hit her skin. We were all frightened, but we were all safe, including the cat.

    Larry is going to be a pilot. He wants to fly an airplane. But Larry is not a rich man. He doesn't have an airplane. He has only a chair. Larry ties 45 big balloons to his chair and then sits in the chair. The chair goes up.

    For a few minutes, everything is fine. The view from the chair is beautiful. Larry can see houses and trees below him. He is happy. He is flying!

    The chair goes up very high. Larry is afraid. “I don't want to go very high,” Larry thinks. “I want to go down a little.” With a small gun, Larry shoots 10 balloons. Then something terrible happens. Larry drops the gun, and it falls to the ground. Larry can't shoot more balloons. The chair goes up and up.

    Larry is three miles above the ground. Airplanes are flying over him. Larry has a small radio. “Help! Help!” he says into the radio. “I'm flying in a chair, and I want to come down!” People hear Larry, but they can't help him.

    Larry flies in the chair for 45 minutes. Then the balloons begin to lose air, slowly the chair comes down, and Larry is back on the ground. He is not hurt.

    My teacher said to a student: "Give me your phone."

    We all looked in surprise. Kyle, a student who I never saw text (发信息) in class, gave the teacher his phone.

    When the teacher left, two students who I often saw text in class started boasting (吹牛) about how they sent text messages and never got caught.

    "Kyle, you don't text in class that way!" one of them said. "I put my phone under my desk so it looks like I'm looking at my textbooks."

    "Isn't it funny that we always text and never get caught, but the first time Kyle does it, he gets caught?" the other one laughed.

    They must have thought they were smart, because they never got caught and Kyle did. But which situation is worse: getting caught, or getting away with it? Rules are there for a reason. These two students might not have got caught, but neither of them had good grades. They keep texting in class, not paying any attention. I think they will keep breaking the rules in the future.

    People don't just break the law and get thrown into jail (监狱) right away. They take it one step at a time, starting with smaller rules. Kyle might have got caught, but at least he learned a good lesson. He will not break the rules in the future, so he will learn more in class and stay out of trouble. It's smarter not to break the rules.

    One day, a mouse saw a mousetrap(老鼠夹)in the farmer's house. He said to his friends on the farm, "There is a mousetrap in the house!"

    The chicken said," There is no need for me to worry about it."

    The pig said," It has nothing to do with me!"

    The cow said, "It sounds like you have a problem."

    The mouse was sad, because no one cared about his problem or would help him.

    One night, a snake bit(咬)the farmer's wife. Soon the wife caught a fever. The farmer decided to kill the chicken and made chicken soup for his wife.

    Later, the wife got sicker and her friends came to visit her. The farmer killed the pig to feed them.

    In the end, the farmer's wife died. Many people came to her funeral (葬礼), so the farmer killed the cow to feed all of them.

    Let's remember that when any one is in trouble, we are all at risk(有危险).

    There were many plants in a forest. When spring came, a pine tree saw a red rose nearby and said, "What a beautiful flower! I wish I were that lovely."

    The rose proudly said, "It seems that I am the most beautiful flower in this forest." Then the rose looked at a cactus (仙人掌) and said, "Look at that ugly plant full of thorns(刺)!"

    "What a proud flower!" thought the trees.

    As the days passed, the red rose often looked at the cactus and said bad words about it, like "This plant is useless. How sorry I am to be his neighbor!"

    The cactus never got angry and even tried to advise the rose, saying, "God did not create any form of life without a purpose."

    Spring passed, and the weather became very hot. As there was no rain, the red rose began to wilt(枯萎).

    One day the rose saw birds put their beaks (喙) into the cactus and then fly away. The red rose asked the pine tree what the birds were doing. The pine tree explained that the birds were getting water from the cactus.

    "The cactus has water?" asked the rose.

    Yes, you can also drink some from it. The birds can bring water to you if you ask the cactus for help."

    The red rose felt too ashamed to ask for water from the cactus. But finally it did ask for help. The cactus kindly agreed.

    The rose learned a lesson and never judged (评价) anyone by their appearance again.