Once, Mike went to a big dinner party. His coat was 1. When he went in, nobody looked at him and nobody gave him any 2, either. He was very angry. So he went home, put on his 3, and then came back to the party. Everybody stood up at once and came to 4 him. He was taken to the best table and was given the best food. Then Mike put the food in the 5 and said, "please eat, dear coat." The other people were very surprised and 6, "Why? Why do you put food in your coat?" Mike answered, "I'm asking my coat to 7. When I came here just now(刚才), 8 gave me 9 food. After I changed(更换) my coat, you gave me the best food. 10 you gave this food to my coat, not to me!"

    Issumboshi was a one-inch boy, and he was so small that he could not do any useful work on the family farm. His grandfather became tired of feeding such a useless man and sent him away to the city.

    “Learn to become a warrior(武士),”he told his grandson.“Then perhaps you will grow into a man of normal height.”

    To help the little man on his way, his grandfather gave him a cup to use as a boat on the river, his mother gave him two long grains of rice to use as oars and his father gave him a pin to use as a sword.

    Issumboshi's journey was long and dangerous. However, because he was so brave and clever, he at last reached the city safely.

    To his surprise, the streets were empty. The people of the city were hiding in their houses from a powerful giant.

    Immediately, brave Issumboshi went out to meet the giant. The giant tried to pick him up and eat him, but Issumboshi was so small and quick that the giant could not get hold of him.

    Issumboshi struck again and again at the giant with his sword. Before long, the giant fell to the ground and died from a thousand wounds.

    “Oh, what a great warrior he is!”the people of the city shouted as they came out of their houses.“What a great hero this young man is!”Hearing this, Issumboshi felt so proud that he stood up straight. He told himself, “I am already taller than I was. How wise my grandfather was to send me to the city!

    It was Saturday again. Grace and Karen disliked Saturdays. That was another thing the twins had in common. They shared the same clothes and tied their hair in the same manner. In fact, it was hard for their classmates and teachers to tell them apart sometimes.

    Unlike their classmates, they had to get up early every Saturday to prepare for their lessons. Grace had to attend the art lesson and Karen had to attend her ballet lesson. "How I wish I could do something different today," said the twins with one voice. All at once, an idea came to Grace and Karen at the same time. "How would you like to be me for a day?" they asked each other. It seemed like a wonderful plan to them. After giving each other a description of their own mends. Grace put on Karen's ballet dress while Karen put Grace's brushes and paints into her bag. Then they left for their classes.

    When the art lesson started, Karen was lost. Unlike Grace, Karen was poor at drawing. When the art lesson finally ended, Karen didn't dare to hand in her work.

    Meanwhile, Grace was struggling in the ballet class as well. As she had no idea about the dance steps, she had to follow her classmates blindly. As a result, she kept knocking into them. Their ballet teacher became impatient with her, "Karen, you should remember the basic steps. You can't rely on copying what others are doing."

    When Karen and Grace got home, they were tired out. They decided that they would never try to be someone else they were not. It seemed that the grass was not always greener on the other side.

    May 10th is Meg's birthday. She gets a gift. It is a new coat from her sister. The coat is very beautiful and she feels very happy.

    One day, Meg finds that a button(纽扣)of her coat is lost. She looks for the button everywhere, but she can't find it. The next day, she doesn't wear that coat to school and feel sad all day. After school, she goes to the clothes shops and wants to buy that kind of clothes. But she feels disappointed.

    Meg tells her sister about that, her sister says," We can change all the buttons. Then the buttons will be the same." The coat is beautiful again and Meg feels happy again.