Helen Keller lived in the U.S.A. She was a great woman.

    When Helen was a baby, she got very sick. After many weeks, the doctor said, “She is better, but now she can't see or can't hear.” Her mother and father were very sad.

    After a few years, things got worse. There was no way for Helen to speak with other people. She heard nothing. She saw nothing. She didn't understand anything.

    Then one day a teacher came to live with Helen and her family. The teacher helped Helen learn about words. Helen was a very bright child and soon she learned to spell her first word. When she was older, she went to college(大学).

Helen was very famous. She helped many blind(盲) and deaf(聋) people. She traveled around the world and helped many people.

    Helen was a very old woman when she died. The world remembers her today as a brave and wonderful person. She was blind and deaf, but she found a way to see and hear.

    Michael Perham (born on 16^th March, 1992 in Hertfordshire, England) is a boy who, at the age of 17, became the youngest person to sail around the world in the 50 feet racing boat, completing his journey on 7^th August, 2009. He started the world trip on the 15^th of November 2008 from Portsmouth, England.

    Just six days after Michael Perham set sail from Portsmouth, he started having serious problems with the boat, which he was unable to fix himself on the sea. He had to stop in Portugal. Just one day later, he set sail once again, with the hope of breaking David Dick's world record for the youngest person to sail around the world.

    Michael met many challenges（挑战） along the way, including rough seas and knock-downs in the Southern Ocean, terrible loneliness and fighting storms, but the largest difficulty Michael faced was the boat itself. It caused one problem after another. Funnily he celebrated his birthday in March last year among the dolphins in Indian Ocean.

    Michael Perham has entered the record books after becoming the youngest person to sail around the world. The teenager already holds the record for being the youngest people to sail across the Atlantic, aged just 14.

    Michael Perham plans to create the Sail Michael Fund to encourage young people to take to the water. He is also aiming to take part in the 2012 Olympics.

    Little Tommy was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything-tutors, cards, special learning centers in short, everything they could think of. Finally they took Tommy to a catholic(天主教的) school.

    After the first day, little Tommy came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn't kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread(铺开) out all over the room and little Tommy was hard at work. His mother was surprised. She called him down to dinner and as soon as he finished eating, he went back to his room, without a word. In no time he was back hitting the books as hard as before.  This went on for some time, day after day while the mother tried to understand what was happening.

    Finally, little Tommy brought home his report card. He quietly put it on the table and went up to his room and hit the books. His morn looked at it and to her surprise, little Tommy got an A in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity(好奇心). She went to his room and asked, "Son, what was it? Was it the nuns(修女)?" Little Tommy looked at her and shook his head, "No." "Well then," she asked again. "WHAT was it?"

    Little Tommy looked at her and said, "Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that man nailed(钉) to the plus sign(加号), I knew they weren't joking."

    Jack is 10 years old, and i am his pencil. I'm Jack's helper.

    Jack's pencil box is my home. I have some friends here. They are seven crayons, a ruler and a pencil sharpener. Because Jack loves me, I'm the king(国王) in the pencil box. My friends and I are happy every day.

    Today, I am not happy because a pen comes in. It's new and beautiful. It's a music pen. It can not only write but also sing. But I'm old and I can only help Jack to write. Jack likes it so much! The new pen is his helper now. It's the new king. What can I do now? Shall I go to a new home?

    One Sunday, Jim went to town to buy new clothes. First he tried on a sweater. He didn't like it, so he returned it to the storekeeper. Then he tried on a T-shirt that had the same price as the sweater. Jim was satisfied with the T-shirt, and he left the store with it. Before he climbed on his horse to go home, the storekeeper and the assistant ran out at the same time.

    "You didn't pay for the T-shirt!" said the storekeeper.

    "But I gave the sweater in exchange for the T-shirt, didn't I?" replied Jim.

    "Yes, but you didn't pay for the sweater!" said the storekeeper.

    "But I didn't buy the sweater." said Jim,

    "I am not so stupid to pay for something that I have never bought."

    Suzie goes to her art class on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. She always looks forward to those days when she can do creative things all afternoon. She loves making bowls and cups out of clay(粘土).

    Last month she learned to put pottery(陶器) into a hot oven（炉子）, called a kiln, to make it hard and strong. What Suzie likes best about art is the good feeling she gets when she has finished working on a piece of art. And then when she takes it home to show her parents she feels so proud of what she has made.

    On Wednesday Suzie wrote an article about why she thought the school should have two short breaks a day rather than one long break. Lots of her friends thought that this would be a good idea too. Many teachers also agreed with Suzie's suggestion.

    The head teacher of the school asked everyone in the school to vote(表决)on Suzie's suggestion. During the vote, each person in the school had one vote. Together, the school decided that two short breaks would be better than one long break. All of this happened because Suzie wrote about her idea in the school newspaper.

    On the day the newspaper comes out, the first thing Suzie does is to check where her article is in the newspaper. And each month, at the beginning of her article, are the words: By Suzanne Jefferson.

    On the way home from school yesterday, Suzie got to think about how much art and writing are the same. In art class she thinks of creative things to make, and then spends a lot of time making it look just right.

    And when she writes articles for the school newspaper, she thinks of creative things to say, and then spends a lot of time making it sound just right. And when she has finished writing a really good sentence, she feels almost as if she has made a beautiful piece of art.

    Suzie rushed home so she could write something shortly before dinner. She already had lots of ideas for next month's newspaper. And she wanted to make sure that none of her creative ideas floated away before she wrote them down on paper