One day a poor man was cutting a big piece of wood (木头) near a river. Suddenly his old axe (斧子) fell into the water. He felt very sad because he lost his only axe. Then all at once a beautiful fairy (仙女) came out and asked the man what was the matter.

    "I have lost my axe." he said, "It fell into the water when I was cutting the wood."

    The fairy showed him a gold axe and asked, "Is that yours?"

    "No." said the man.

    The fairy then showed him a silver (银) axe and asked again, "Is this yours?"

    "No." again answered the man.

    Then she showed  him the old axe.

    "Yes, that is mine." called out the happy man.

    "I know it well enough." said the fairy, "I only wanted to see if you would tell me the truth, and now I'll give you the gold axe and the silver axe besides (包括)  your own one."

     A long time ago, there was an emperor. He had a beautiful garden. In the garden, there was a little nightingale(夜莺) singing very{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(beauty).

     One day the emperor heard about this little bird's beautiful voice. He asked his guards to bring her to him. As soon as the emperor heard the nightingale's voice, he said, "Put her in a golden cage,{#blank#}2{#/blank#}she can stay and sing for me whenever I want to hear her."

     The little bird was so{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(happy) about being kept in the cage that she{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(stop) singing one day. The emperor was very angry. He ordered the scientists in his palace to make a robot bird {#blank#}5{#/blank#} him. The bird could sing very beautifully,{#blank#}6{#/blank#}. The emperor was pleased.

     Soon the robot bird became old. It no longer sang beautiful songs. Just at that time, the emperor became very weak. One morning, while{#blank#}7{#/blank#}(lie) in bed, the emperor wanted it to sing once again.{#blank#}8{#/blank#}the robot bird couldn't sing any more. Suddenly the nightingale landed on the window. She began to sing her{#blank#}9{#/blank#}beautiful song. The emperor was very happy! He became better and better each day.

     After the emperor was well，he changed a lot and became kind to his people. From then on, all his people cherished(爱戴) him for his love and{#blank#}10{#/blank#} (kind).

    Zhang Heng was a famous scientist in the history of China. His invention Hou Feng Seismometer was a great success and it helped us understand the world better.

    Every year hundreds of people try to climb the world's highest mountain or walk through rainforests(雨林). Let's take a look at two of the 21st century's(世纪的) greatest adventurers(冒险家).

    A mountain climber

    Do you know that more than 4，000 people have climbed Mount Everest? Gerlinde is one of them. She is one of the world's greatest climbers and has climbed all the mountains over 8，000 meters in the world. It's difficult to climb mountains in cold weather, but Gerlinde loves it. She started climbing the mountains near her home as a teenager. When she left school, she became a nurse but always went climbing in her free time.

    An Amazon adventurer

    Ed Stafford is the first person to walk along the Amazon River from the mountains of Peru to the mouth of the river in Brazil. His journey took two years and four months. There are many dangerous animals in the rainforest. But Ed was lucky and he was only bitten(咬) by small insects(昆虫). On his trip, Ed had to look for fruit or catch fish each morning. Sometimes food was hard to find and Ed was often tired and hungry. So he used a radio to ask the people of the rainforest for food and help.

    It was the last day of the final examination in a college. On the steps of a building, a group of engineering students were waiting for the last exam. On their faces was confidence.

    They knew the exam would be easy. The professor had said they could bring any books or notes during the test.

    Right after they came into the classroom, the professor handed out the papers. There were only five questions on it.

    Three hours passed. Then the professor began to collect the papers.  The students no longer looked confident. On their faces was nervous expression. The professor watched the worried faces before him, and then asked, "How many of you have completed(完成) all five questions?" No hand was raised. "How many of you have answered four?" Still no hands.  "Three? Two?" The students moved restlessly in their seats. "One, then? Certainly somebody has finished one. "But the class kept silent. The professor said, "That is exactly what I expected. I just want to make you know clearly that even though you have completed four years of engineering, there are still many things about the subject you don't know. These questions you could not answer are common in everyday practice. "Then, smiling, he added, "You will all pass this course, your education has just begun."

    The years have obscured the name of this professor, but not the lesson he taught.

    One day an American went to a small town in South America for his holidays. Few people went there because it was far away from the cities. He fell ill（生病） and wanted very much to see a doctor.

    The American went to find out how he could find a fine doctor there. A man told him, "That's very easy. If there is a patient（病人） that a doctor can't cure（治愈）, the doctor has to put a balloon over his clinic（诊所）. "

    The American thought, "The fewer balloons are, the finer the doctor is." He began to look for the finest doctor along the street. First he found a clinic. There were 20 balloons. After a few minutes he found another one-30 balloons. He thought neither doctor was fine.

    At last he found the third clinic. Only 5 balloons were there. He was very happy and went in.

    "Wait a minute," said the doctor. "I'm too busy, you know. This clinic opened only yesterday." The American was very much surprised（感到吃惊的） and said to himself, "Where can I find the finest doctor?"