Jill Jones got a new job in a different part of the city. She had to go to work every day by train.

    There was only one other person on the train with her. He was a well-dressed man reading a newspaper. Suddenly, about halfway through the journey, the man began tearing（撕） his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces. Then he picked them up, opened the window and threw them all out. Then he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the rest of the journey again.

    The next day, Jill got on the same train. The same well-dressed man was there, reading a newspaper. As before, about halfway through the journey, the man began tearing his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces. Then he picked the pieces up, opened the window and threw them all out. This done, he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the rest of the journey. This happened every day for a week.

    At last, on Friday, Jill spoke to the man. "Excuse me, sir," she said, "I don't want to be rude, but I must ask you a question. When we are halfway through our journey, you tear your newspaper into hundreds of pieces and then throw them all out of the window. Please tell me, sir. Why do you do this?"

    The well-dressed man smiled. "There is a simple reason," he said. "I like to sleep for part of the journey, but I cannot sleep if the train is full of elephants. So I throw the pieces of paper out to the elephants. It stops them from coming into the train."

    "But there aren't any elephants on the train," Jill said. "I know," the man said. "It works well, doesn't it?

    Tom was a fat boy when he was ten. He liked watching TV very much. He watched TV at least 5 hours every day. Wherever(无论哪里) he went, he would be late.

    One day, he found a pair of special glasses in his post-box(邮箱). He also found a message saying, “With these you can see time.”

    The boy decided to have a try. He put the glasses on, looked at his brother, a tall and thin boy, and saw a big box of flowers on top of his head. And it wasn't just his brother. When he looked at his parents, he also saw the flowers. The three boxes were very large and the flowers were very beautiful. Then, he looked at himself from the mirror. He saw the flowers, too. But his flowers went to the mouth of the television. Its mouth was big. His flowers became fewer and fewer.

    At last, he learned that watching TV was a waste of time. He could learn nothing from it. He decided he would never again let the television eat his time.

    Emma's dream was to be a boxer. All her life, everyone said she couldn't be a boxer because she was a girl. They said that she should just get a normal job. Her parents told her that she would be killed one day if she kept boxing. It was hard to hear "you can't" all the time. Emma still decided to prove everyone was wrong.

    Emma's life was hard. Girls didn't like her, because they thought she was too manly (有男子气概的). Boys didn't like her, because they thought she wasn't as good at boxing as they were. Because of all these, Emma didn't have any friends at school. She always sat alone in the cafeteria (自助餐厅), and it was hard for her to find partners for group projects.

    However, Emma did have friends from her boxing class. They were all female (女人) boxers. They understood what Emma was going through because they were in the same situation. All they had was each other. They were a family. Because of this, Emma was always excited for boxing class. One day, she was going to be a famous boxer.

    7-year-old Tom likes cartoons very much. When the cartoons begin on TV, he does nothing until they're over. Sometimes he waits for a long time and goes to bed late. In the morning his mother has to wake him up, or he'll be late for school.

    Yesterday Tom heard there would be an interesting cartoon today. This morning, as soon as he got up, he turned on the television, but he didn't see the programme on it. He had to have breakfast and then go to school. After school he ran home while his mother was cooking lunch in the kitchen. He hurried to the sitting room and turned on the television again, but he couldn't find the cartoon. He rushed into the kitchen and asked his mother for help.

    "It's only ten to twelve now," said the woman," your programme will start after dinner." "Well, let's have dinner right now!"