Once，there was a young painter who was good at painting birds．His paintings sold{#blank#}1{#/blank#} and he was famous all over his country．

    The emperor(皇帝)loved Collecting paintings,especially roosters(公鸡)．{#blank#}2{#/blank#}he asked the famous painter to paint a roosters for him．He wanted the roosters to be the best of all his collections．

    The painter{#blank#}3{#/blank#}to do so．The emperor waited and waited for one year,but did not get the painting．He became{#blank#}4{#/blank#}and asked the painter to come to see him．

    The painter came．He walked into the palace{#blank#}5{#/blank#}paper,paints and a brush(刷子)．In five minutes，a perfect picture of a rooster{#blank#}6{#/blank#}on the Paper．Seeing this，the emperor was all the more angry．"If you can paint a picture of a rooster in five minutes，{#blank#}7{#/blank#}did you keep me waiting for a year?"he said．

    "I'll let you know why,Your Majesty,"said the painter．"Could you please come with me?"

    He{#blank#}8{#/blank#}the emperor to his own study(书房)．There，paper almost filled the{#blank#}9{#/blank#}．On each paper was a painting of a rooster．

    "Your Majesty,"said the painter．"It took{#blank#}10{#/blank#}one year to improve my skill in order to paint a perfect rooster for you．"

—Yes,{#blank#}2{#/blank#}is Mary.

    For most of us in China, we only have to turn on the tap to get clean water. We seldom think twice about where it comes from.

    Day after day, thousands of children in poor countries have to{#blank#}1{#/blank#}hours walking for miles to collect water. What's more, the water is dirty and can cause serious diseases, such as diarrhea(腹泻). It's hard to believe, but every 20 seconds a child dies as a result of a water-related disease.

    The international water-aid charity called Just a Drop{#blank#}2{#/blank#}clean water to some of the poorest areas in the world, by building wells, pipelines(永管)and toilets. The charity has helped about 1.5 million people {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    Betty, from Uganda, is just one of the people who have been helped by Just al Drop. 11-yearold Betty had to walk two miles every day, carrying two heavy cans{#blank#}4{#/blank#}dirty pond water before Just a Drop placed a well in her village. "I used to get sick from the water. Now, I don't have to walk long distances and I feel much safer with this clean water."

    Some insects, such as butterflies and ladybugs, are quite beautiful, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}did you know that many insects are also edible(可食用的)?

    Aletheia Price knows this—and a lot more about –about bugs(虫子). She also thinks that you should try {#blank#}2{#/blank#}some. If you visit the website www. eatbug.com, you will find all kinds of{#blank#}3{#/blank#} about edible insects. Most of it was {#blank#}4{#/blank#}by Aletheia Price when he was fifteen years old. Aletheia started eating bugs at the age of thirteen. Soon, she found that she really {#blank#}5{#/blank#}eating some of them. She also became interested in finding out more about which kinds of bugs could be eaten and {#blank#}6{#/blank#}to cook them.

    According to Aletheia, there are at least 1,462 kinds of edible {#blank#}7{#/blank#}. Some of her favorite dishes include mealworm, chocolate, chip, cookies and chocolate-covered crickets(蟋蟀).

    Aletheia knows eating bugs is not for {#blank#}8{#/blank#} . But if you think about it, you may feel that eating bugs is a good {#blank#}9{#/blank#}. There are millions and millions of edible bugs in this world. If you could get to used to eating {#blank#}10{#/blank#}, we would have plenty of food for everyone.