A

Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a white gardenia (栀子花) was sent to my house. No card came with it. Calls to the flower shops were not helpful at all. After a while I stopped trying to find out the sender's name and I was just very pleased with the beautiful white flower in soft pink paper. But I never stopped imagining who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming about the sender. My mother encouraged this imagination. She'd ask me if there was someone to whom I had done a special kindness. Perhaps it was the old man who I looked after when he was ill.  As a girl, I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy.

    One month before my graduation, my father died. I felt very sad and didn't want to go to the coming graduation dance at all. And I didn't care whether I had a new dress or not. But my mother, in her own sadness, would not let me miss any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved and lovable. In fact, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia—lovely, strong and perfect with perhaps a bit of mystery.

    My mother died ten days after I was married. I was 22. That was the year the gardenia stopped coming.

C

    A young man once went into town and bought himself a pair of trousers. When he got home, he went to his bedroom and put them on. He found that they were about two inches too long. He went to the kitchen. His mother and sisters were washing up the tea things there. "The new trousers are too long," he said. "They need shortening by about two inches. Could one of you do it for me, please?" His mother and sisters were busy and none of them said anything.
    After his mother finished washing up, she went to her son's bedroom and shortened the trousers by two inches.

    Later on, after supper, the elder sister remembered her brother's trousers. She was a kind-hearted girl, so she went quickly to his brother's bedroom without saying anything to anyone, and shortened the trousers by two inches. The younger sister went to the cinema, but when she came home, she also remembered her brother's trousers. "I nearly forgot that." She thought. Then she shortened them by two inches.
    The younger sister went to the cinema，but when she came back，she，too，remembered what her brother had said．So she ran upstairs and took two inches off the legs of the new trousers．

    It's a crazy dream! Riding from Shanghai to London! Starting on March 5, Zheng Sheng spent 136 days travelling eleven countries and finally arrived in London on July 18.

    Having studied maps for four months and borrowed（借） some money from friends, he left the company（公司） in Shanghai where he had worked for just a few months "I was very confident at the beginning, but after I left China, I felt a little worried that I might meet bad men," he said. Luckily, the trip was a safe one. Zheng believes that the safest place to sleep is somewhere people don't know about, so most of the time he slept in forests（森林）. He rode more than 100 km every day, but most of his food was just bread, as the food in Europe was too expensive. Later he learnt to add some cheese to the bread. Zheng didn't tell his parents about the trip before he left for London, as he didn't want them to worry. After he arrived home in Yunnan Province at the end of July, he finally told his mum about it.

    "I'm very confident for the future," he said, "because I know very well that everyone can do what they decide to do."

    Lily is unhappy but her friend Susan makes her smile.

Susan: Hi, Lily, you look sad.

Lily: Oh, Susan, I am so unhappy.

Susan: What is wrong? Please tell me.

Lily: My sister is so clever. Mum and Dad want me to be like her but I am not clever.

Susan: Oh, Lily, don't cry. Everyone loves you. You are clever and funny. I know your mum and dad are proud of you.

Lily: You are a good friend. You always say the right things.

Susan: There is a new film at the cinema. I love a good film and popcorn.

Lily: Susan, you are a genius. You are my best friend.

    I felt very sad not to be able to get the ticket to the film Titanic last Friday. I learned in the newspaper that tickets could be bought at the cinema box office in Richland Hills every day between 10：00 a.m. and 4：00 p.m. Because I work from 9：00 a.m.to 5：30 p.m., the only time I could go to the cinema was during my 45-minute lunch time. It is a pity that the cinema is on the other side of the town, and the bus service between my office and Richland Hills is not very good. But if you are lucky, you can make the round(往返)trip in 45 minutes.

    Last Monday I stood at the bus stop for fifteen minutes, waiting for a bus. By the time I saw one coming around the corner, there was not enough time left to make the trip-so I had to go back to the office. The same thing happened on Wednesday. On Thursday my luck changed, I got on a bus right away and arrived at the cinema in twenty minutes. But when I got there, I found a long line of people at the box office. I heard one man say he had been waiting in line for fifty-five minutes. I found that I would not have enough time to wait in line. I caught the next bus and went back across the town.

    Then on Friday I understood my only hope was to make the trip by car. It was not cheap, but I felt it would be worthwhile to see the film. The trip by car only took 10 minutes, but it felt like one hour to me. When I reached the cinema, I was delighted to see that nobody was waiting in line. But I quickly found out that it was because they had already sold out all the tickets.