Mary is a housewife with two 1. She is not good at 2 and it has always been the target (目标) of family jokes.

    One evening, Mary got ready for dinner a bit too 3. The kitchen started to fill with smoke and the smoke detector (烟雾报警器) went 4. 5 both of Mary's children had fire-safety 6 at school, they did not react (反应) to the alarm. Mary 7 annoyed (恼怒的). She stormed through the house in search of the two kids.

    She found 8 in the bathroom, washing their hands. Over the loud noise of the smoke alarm, she asked them 9 the sound was.

    "It's the smoke detector," they replied.

    "Do you know what that 10 means?" she asked.

    "Sure," the oldest replied. "Dinner's ready."

    One day a poor farmer was taking a bag of rice to town. Suddenly the bag fell off his horse on the road. He didn't know what to do about it because it was too heavy for him to lift by himself. He only hoped that somebody would soon pass by and help him.

    Just at this moment a man riding a horse came up to him. But the farmer was very disappointed (失望) when he saw who he was. It was the great man living nearby. The farmer had hoped to ask another farmer or a poor man like him.

    But to his surprise, the great man got off his horse as soon as he came near. He said to the farmer, “I see you need help, friend. How good it is that I'm here just at the right time.” Then he took one end of the bag, the farmer took the other. They together lifted and put it on the horse.

    “Sir,” asked the farmer, “how can I pay you?”

    “It's quite easy,” the great man answered with a smile, “wherever you see anyone else in trouble, do the same for him.”

Tom gave up working and lived by himself a long way from town. He hardly ever left his home, but one day he went into town to buy some things in shops. After he bought them, he went into a restaurant and sat down at a table by himself. When he looked around, he saw some old people put on glasses before reading their newspapers. So after lunch he decided to go to a shop to buy himself some glasses too. He walked along the road and soon found a shop.

    The man in the shop made Tom try on a lot of glasses, but he always said, "I can't read with these."

    The man became more and more puzzled (迷惑的) until finally he said, "Excuse me, but can you read?"

    "No, of course I can't!" Tom said angrily. "If I was able to read, do you think I would have come here to buy glasses?"

Good Neighbours

    Mr. and Mrs. March lived together with their four daughters. Amy was very shy. Beth loved being at home. Meg looked very pretty. Jo was tall and thin and she was a tomboy. Their home was always busy and full of noise and people. Next to them lived old Mr. Laurence and his grandson, Laurie. They lived in a very large and comfortable house. But it was a house without life.

    One day, Joe saw Laurie standing at an upstairs window in his house and looking down at their garden. Jo's sisters were playing in the snow there. They were throwing snowballs and having a lot of fun. But Laurie's face was very sad.

    "Poor boy!" Jo thought. "He's all alone. He needs some friends." She couldn't stop thinking about him. She wanted to go and see him, but how could she go to the house without an invitation?

    Then one snowy afternoon, she saw Laurie's grandpa go out. This gave her an idea. She took a broom from the kitchen.

    "What are you going to do, Jo?" asked her sister Meg.

    "To clear the garden path." Answered Jo.

    When Laurie saw Jo from the window, a big smile changed his pale, sad face.

    Jo laughed and shouted, "How are you? Are you ill?"

    Laurie opened the window and said," I'm better now, thank you. I had a bad cold and had to stay inside for a week".

    "I'm sorry," said Jo. "Are you bored?"

    "Yes, very." he replied.

    "Don't your friends come to visit you?"

    "No. But I don't want to see anybody. Boys are noisy and they give me a headache."

    "Girls are quiet."

    "I don't know any girls."

    "You know us."

    "That's true! Can you come and visit me?" cried Laurie.

    "I'm not quiet, but I'd like to come," replied Jo. "I must ask Mother first." She ran back into her house.

    A few minutes later, she returned and rang the bell on the door of Laurie's house. A servant took her upstairs.

    "Here I am!" she said brightly. "Mother sends her love and my sisters gave me this blancmange (牛奶冻) for you."

    "That looks delicious," Laurie said. He was very happy to see Jo.

Jo looked around. There were lots of books on the shelves.

    "A nice room!" she said. "I can read to you if you like."

    "No, let's talk," replied Laurie.

    "All right," said Jo, "I can talk for hours. My sisters say I never know when to stop."

    "You have three sisters—Amy, Beth and Meg." Laurie continued.

    "How do you know this?" Jo was surprised.

    "You call each other's names when you are in the garden. Sometimes I can see you all around the table with your mother. She has a very kind face. I like looking at her. I haven't got a mother."

     Jo felt sad when she heard this.

    "Why don't you come and visit us?" she said, "It isn't good for you to stay in this house all the time."

    "Thank you. I'd like to come very much." Said Laurie.

    "We know all our neighbours except you." Jo said, "I'm glad we're friends now."

    She told him about all the interesting things in her life. She said," Besides(除了……之外) plays, I also love books." Laurie loved books too, and offered to show her the library in the house. The library was a wonderful room. Jo loved it.

    "Wow!" she said, "All those books!"

    Laurie said, "A person needs more than books."

    (Adapted from Little Women)

    Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh(1853-1890) killed himself by shooting himself in the chest(胸膛).

    This is what van Gogh himself told his brother, the doctors and the police just before he died.

    However, in a new book Van Gogh: The Life, two Pulitzer (普利策奖) Prize-winning authors, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, argue that van Gogh may have been murdered. They believed that the artist was protecting a 16-year-old boy named Rene Secret, who shot him accidentally.

    Van Gogh's statement that he shot himself was accepted because he had been mentally unstable(精神状况不稳的) for two years. He suffered from psychotic(精神病的) attacks and imagined things that were not really happening. Art critics (评论家) believe that his unstable mental state is shown in his work, describing his style of painting as shaken. Some of his most famous paintings, such as The Starry Night, were produced during this period.

    Van Gogh is among a number of creative minds who suffered from mental health problems. In fact, mental illness is so common among famous creative figures that scientists have studied whether there is link between creativity and insanity(精神错乱). Research began in the 1970s, but the idea that an unstable mind could be linked to creative genius(天才) was already around in ancient Greece.

    Some scientists believe mental illness, in its more manageable state, gives artists creativity. Research has found that doing creative activities can also be therapeutic(有疗效的) for people suffering from mental illness. Painting, writing, or making something can be a positive way for people to express their thoughts.