A

    As we all know, Hong Kong is a great place for shopping. If you like shopping, you will love Hong Kong.

    Bruce is an 18-year-old boy. One day, Bruce's father asked him to go to Hong Kong for shopping. His father gave him a big trolley case (拉杆箱) and a shopping list. His father would like him to buy 20 boxes of milk, 20 apples, some chocolate, and some bread. Bruce was very happy to go to Hong Kong all by himself. He got up very early and went to Hong Kong by train.

    He bought all of the things in the shopping list. When he was ready to leave Hong Kong, he wanted to go to the toilet. So he carried the heavy trolley case into the toilet. Just then, an old man in the toilet saw him and said to him, "No one will steal your trolley case, even if (即使) there is a large piece of gold in it."   

    When the man's wife died，their youngest baby was 2 years old．They had six other children一three boys and three girls．aged from 4 t0 16．

    The man's parents and his wife's parents came to visit them．

‘‘We've been talking about how to make this work，"they said．"There's no way you can take care of all these children and work to make a living．So，we've decided to place each child with a different uncle and aunt．"

     The man refused．Over the next few weeks，he moved the family to a tiny town and his business developed quickly．People came from far away to do business with him．And the children helped him both at home and at work．

The children grew up and got married．Five of the seven went off to college．The children's success was a source of pride to the father．

    Finally，the youngest daughter，who was 2 years old when the mother died，got married．With his life's work done，the father died．

This man's work had been the lonely but joyful task of raising his family．This man was my father．I was the 1 6-year-old，the oldest of seven．

    Little Tommy was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything —tutors (家庭教师), cards, special learning centers—in short, everything they could think of. Finally they took Tommy to a catholic (天主教的) school.

    After the first day, little Tommy came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn't kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread (铺开) out all over the room and little Tommy was hard at work. His mother was surprised. She called him down to dinner and as soon as he finished eating, he went back to his room, without a word. In no time he was back hitting the books as hard as before. This went on for some time, day after day while the mother tried to understand what was happening.

    Finally, little Tommy brought home his report card. He quietly put it on the table and went up to his room and hit the books. His mom looked at it and to her surprise, little Tommy got an A in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity (好奇心). She went to his room and asked, “Son, what was it? Was it the nuns (修女)?”Little Tommy looked at her and shook his head, “No. ”“Well then,” she asked again. “WHAT was it?”

    Little Tommy looked at her and said, “Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that man nailed (钉) to the plus sign (加号), I knew they weren't joking. ”

    Dr. Lynn Moorman was a young doctor. She had a strange experience in June when she was spending Saturday night at her parents' house. Whenever she stayed with them, she slept on the long sofa in the sitting room. The sofa was set against a wall under a large picture window (整块玻璃做的景观窗).

    Around three o'clock that morning, Dr. Moorman opened her eyes and noticed a flashing light outside the house. She thought that it was a firefly (萤火虫). A moment later, as the light continued to flash, she realized that it was too bright to be a firefly.

    Then the light moved towards the window and unbelievably through the window into the room. It passed in front of her, perhaps as close as three feet. Then Dr. Moorman noticed that it appeared to have two sets of wires coming from the top and bottom. Each time the object flashed, Dr. Moorman saw it clearly. But when the light turned off, the object was no longer seen.

    Dr. Moorman was quite scared. She thought about shouting, but couldn't open her mouth. When the light moved into the kitchen, she ran to her sister's bedroom. "Move over," she said, "I saw something, maybe an alien, that scared me and I'm coming into bed with you." The next morning at breakfast she told her family what had happened, but no one else had noticed anything. Her experience remains a puzzle.

    Did Dr. Moorman meet an alien? Did she imagine the object? Or did she see a small UFO that had come visiting that night?