Jane always goes to school early. She likes to talk to her friends before class. After school she does not go home early. She is always late. Jane stops to see the animals in the pet shop. She likes to see the dogs. One of them is a little dog. She watches the little white dog play in the window of the shop. She watches for a long time, so she comes home late.

    One day her father and mother ask why she is late, and she tells them about the little dog in the pet shop.

    Jane is not late the next day. She stops to look in the window of the shop. But she doesn't see the little white dog, and she is very sad. She is also very happy, today is her birthday.

    Mother shows her a big birthday cake and Father gives her a birthday surprise. He gives the little white dog from the shop. Jane is very happy. The next day Jane does not come home late. She runs home to play with the white dog.

    I'm Sam. My hobby is playing chess（棋）—one of the greatest games in the world. My mom taught me how to play when I was 7. She beat (打败) me every time for the first year. But then on my eighth birthday, I won for the first time. I nearly always beat her from then on.

    It takes about a day to learn the rules (规则). But if you want to be good, you have to practice for years. You don't need much to play chess—just a chess set (棋具) and someone to play with.

    Chess sets can be quite cheap, or very expensive. Some people collect chess sets as a hobby, but some prefers playing.

    There is a chess club in our school, and we meet every week to play with each other. I'm the best player in the club, and the captain of the school chess team. This year we won the All English Schools' Championship (锦标赛), and I had to go up on stage (台子) in front of the whole school to accept the trophy (奖品).

    I'm saving up my money to buy a chess computer. It's very expensive, but very good for practice. In that way, I'll always have someone to play with. One day I will be the world chess champion (冠军).

    There are 100 chicks sitting quietly in a circle. Suddenly, each chick freely pecks(啄) the chick to its left or right. What is the expected number of unpecked chicks? Can you solve it?

Leo (the 13-year-old boy) gave the right answer, 25, in just 0.9 of a second. He got this question in the final round of the Raytheon Maths counts competition. Thanks to that correct answer, he won it this year. Last year, he was second.

    "I was surprised that I won," he said. "I was kind of worried that was the wrong answer."

    This year, more than 100,000 students took part in the competitions. And 224 students entered the final round. Leo will receive a ﹩20,000 college scholarship and free trip to US Space Camp.

    Leo is talented at Maths. And unlike other students, he studies at home. His mother Mary quit her job as a writing teacher to home—school her son. She thought traditional school couldn't meet his needs. He often asks his mother to write difficult Maths problems so that he can solve them.

    When Leo was 8, he started taking college classes. Even on vacation, he still tries to learn Maths. He once asked his parents to take him to a Maths library at the University of Texas. People around him regard him as a Maths genius.

    Is handwriting (书写) important? Yes, the 10-year-old girl Alyssa thinks so. She is a fifth-grade student from Mason County, the USA. She's the champion (冠军) for her grade level in the National Handwriting Contest in 2012.

    After she got the news, Alyssa was surprised that she could be the first. "I'm really happy," she said. "I'm really surprised, too. I didn't know I was that good."

    To enter (参加) the contest, each student had to write the sentence (句子) "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog". It is a common English sentence, but it uses every letter of the English alphabet. Teachers were invited to be judges. They could decide who wins the contest.

    Alyssa enjoys handwriting, and wants to write adventure (冒险) stories when she gets older. "From the third grade we started learning handwriting," Alyssa said. "All the letters look pretty. It makes me think of art."

    The story of Robinson Crusoe is known all over the world. The story is about the life of a real person. His name was Alexander Selkirk.

    Selkirk was born in 1676 in Scotland. His father made shoes and clothes, but Alexander didn't want to work in his father's shop. He wanted to sail a ship on the sea.

    When Selkirk was 28 years old, he was sailing on the Pacific Ocean. The ship was in a bad state. Selkirk was worried. "This ship is not safe!" he thought. He told the captain that he wanted to get off. The captain didn't like Selkirk, so he agreed. The ship took Selkirk to a small island.

    Selkirk took a few things from the ship: a gun, an axe, and a few clothes. Then the ship left, and Selkirk was alone. There were no people or houses on the island. He was more than 600 kilometres from the nearest country, Chile.

    He found a cave near the beach and this became his home for the first few months. In the day time, he had to leave the cave and find some food. He usually ate fish and other small sea animals. At night, he heard strange noises from the trees. He thought that there were wild animals on the island that could hurt him. He was afraid and didn't want to leave for the beach. He stayed in his cave. He was very lonely.

    One day, when he woke up，he saw hundreds of sea lions on the beach. He couldn't get to the sea, so he couldn't catch any fish. He had to look for food on another part of the island. He was still afraid of the wild animals, but he was hungry! He had to go out in order not to be hungry.

    It is Sunday morning. Sam wants to visit his friend. On his way to his friend's home. He is very tired. So he stops his car and wants to take a nap(打盹).

    A man walks to Sam´s car and knocks(敲)on the window. "Excuse me. sir. "He asks." What time is it now?"

    Sam doesn't have a watch. He looks at the clock of his car and says. ”8:15”.  The man says," Thanks."

    After a short time, another man knocks on his window. "Sorry, sir. But do you have the time?""8:25". Sam say says and he is a little angry(生气的).  The man thanks him, too.

    "I really want to take a nap." Sam thinks. Then he takes out a pen and writes" I don't know the time." on the paper. And he posts(张贴)it on the window.  But soon another man sees it and knocks on the window. "Sir. sir? It's 8:45 now. "