David Beckham, a well--known football player, was born in London on May 2nd, 1975. He is about 1.80 metres tall. He is very strong and big. He is quite a good football player. He scored a lot of goals for his old team — the National Football Team of England(英格兰围家足球队). He joined the Real Madrid(皇家马德里对) after he left his old team. He wants to play football in Paris in the next World Cup.

      Mr. Smith made many tests with different animals and the monkey was the cleverest of all the animals.

      One day Mr. Smith put a monkey in a room. He also put some small boxes in it. In one of the boxes there was some food. "How long will it take the monkey to find the food?" Mr. Smith said to himself. "Let me wait and see." He left the room and waited outside. Three minutes later, he put his eye to the keyhole. What did he see? He saw the eye of the monkey. The monkey was on the other side of the door and looked at Mr. Smith through the keyhole.

    Robert was a greedy（贪婪的）man. One day, he lost 30 gold coins. He went to his friend Mike's house and told him how he lost his gold coins. Mike was kind and decided to help him find them.

    The next day, Mike went to Robert's house and told him he found his 30 gold coins.

    After counting the gold coins, Robert said, "I had 40 gold coins. The of them are missing. You must have taken them. And you should pay me back."

    "No, I didn't take them, "said Mike.

    Robert went to court（法庭）and told the judge（法官）what had taken place between him and his friend.

    "How many gold coins did you find?" the judge asked Mike.

    "Thirty, "answered Mike.

    "How many gold coins did you lose?" the judge asked Robert.

    "Forty, "answered Robert.

    "Then those coins are not yours, "said the judge, "for you lost 40, while your friend found 30."

    Then the judge told Mike to take the 30 gold coins home.

    "If anybody reports that they have found 40 gold coins, I will send them to you, "the judge told Robert.

    Then Robert said that he didn't tell the truth and that he lost 30 gold coins, but the judge did not listen to him.

    Always be honest; dishonesty never pays.

    Johnny is a lovely fish. He lives in the sea. He is very lonely. He wants to find a friend. And the friend looks like him. Johnny sees an ink fish. The ink fish has eight legs. He doesn't look like Johnny. So Johnny goes away.

    Johnny meets a shark. He wants to say hello to the shark. But the shark opens his big mouth and wants to cat him. Johnny runs away quickly.

    Johnny is tired and hungry. He wants to have a rest. Then he sees a round fish. She says to him." Hello! Would you like to be my friend?"

    Johnny answers," Of course! But you are round, I am fat. You don't look like me." The round fish says," But we are both fishes."

    Johnny thinks and says," You are right. Let's be friends." They become good friends.

    "Why do I live? Why do I wish for anything, or do anything? Is there anything in my life that will not be destroyed by my death?" Like Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian writer, many people ask these difficult questions. Tolstoy spent his whole life trying to answer these difficult questions.

    As a young man, he thought people could achieve perfection if they tried hard enough. So he worked very hard to be the best in everything. He thought that he would find meaning and truth in success.

    In 1850s. Tolstoy wrote his first stories. He wrote about his life in the army. He also told stories about his childhood. These works were published and Tolstoy became a well-known writer.

    He earned the respect he always wanted. Many rich and smart men met and talked with Tolstoy. Some of them were writers like him. They talked a lot about faith (信仰) and the meaning of life. But soon Tolstoy recognized that these men were not perfect. Now he knew they could not answer his questions about faith.

    So in the 1860s, Tolstoy tried a different way to find the meaning of life. He opened a school for the children of his serfs-the people who worked on his land. These workers were very poor. He wanted to help them because he thought they were more honest than the rich people he knew.

    Tolstoy learned a lot from his workers. He understood how they worked hard to support their families. He began to believe that marriage and family would give his life meaning. So in 1862, Leo Tolstoy married a young woman named Sonya Behrs.

    The next 15 years were the best years of Tolstoy's life. It was during this time that he wrote his most famous books-War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Many experts say that War and Peace is one of the greatest books ever written. In these books, Tolstoy believed humans should live a simple life and take care of their families. Tolstoy thought this would satisfy him and bring him happiness.

    Leo Tolstoy is still a very respected writer today. His faith and writings have influenced many people all over the world.