Long long ago, there was a swan (天鹅) with golden feathers. She lived in a lake. A woman lived in a small house 1the lake with her two daughters. They were very poor. They worked hard all year round,2still, they lived a hard life and sometimes they even didn't have enough 3to buy food.

    The swan was 4to see that. She said to herself, “I'll give one of my5to them each day, then they can live a happy life with the money selling my feathers.” That evening, she 6to the poor woman's house and left a golden feather on the table without saying7. From then on, the swan came every day and gave them a feather. The woman was very happy   because their life was much8than before.

    But day after day, the woman became greedy（贪婪）.She said to her9. “The swan may fly away one day. If so, we will be poor again. We should take all10feathers if she comes next time.”

    “Oh, no, Mom!” cried the daughters, “This will 11the swan. She helps us a lot!” But the mother wouldn't listen. When the 12came as usual, the mother caught her and took all her feathers. But suddenly, the golden feathers 13chicken feathers.

    Then, the Golden Swan said, “Poor Mother, I came to 14you, but you wanted to kill me. Now, I am leaving and will 15come back. Never be greedy!” With these words, the swan left.

    Mrs Green lives in a small village. Her husband is dead. But she has a son. He is twenty-one and his name is Jack. He gets work in a town and lives there. Its name is Greensea. It is quite a long way from his mother's village, and she is not happy about this, but Jack says," There isn't any good work for me in the village, mother, and I can get a lot of money in Greensea and give you some every week.

    One day Mrs Green is very angry. She gets on a train and goes to her son's house in Greensea. Then she says to him," Jack, why do you never give me a ring?

    Jack laughs and says," But, mother, you don't have a telephone.

    "No, she says, "I don't have one, but you have one.

    Many people think heroes need to be handsome, rich, or very smart. But as for me, a hero is a person who always helps others. My hero is Uncle Bill. He is the oldest son of a worker, and he grew up in a poor family with four younger brothers and two little sisters.

    He was good at neither writing nor maths. In fact, he never did well in school. So he had to give up school at a very young age. He worked and gave all his money to help his parents. When he was getting older, he found that he was very interested in fixing things. He collected broken things which people threw away and fixed them. He could fix almost everything that did not work. He worked hard and never gave up. Finally, he opened his own repair shop. It took him about 20 years to become a successful shopkeeper.

    Now, he is very rich and has four shops. But he never forgets the days when he had nothing. He gives money to poor families, helps poor kids buy books and offers them free lunch. He also encourages people to reuse things. He always says, "Make good use of what you have because we just have one earth."

    I am proud of Uncle Bill. He is really a hero.

    This is Tom. He is a student. He is in Class Four, Grade Seven. There are 25 girls and 20 boys in his class. His English teacher is Mr. Zheng. He is about 31. He is a good teacher. The students all like him.

    Tom has a good friend. His name is Jim. He is from Canada. He is in Class Four, Grade Seven, too. Tom and Jim live in China now.

    A zero-waste life is a lifestyle that hardly creates any rubbish. So, a zero-waste theme store is about 1 people with a number of everyday, practical and pleasant zero-waste products to help them start on a one-stop, zero-waste life journey.

    "Zero waste" or "danshari" was first 2 by a French woman Bea Johnson. "Live a life and try not to create any rubbish; use different methods to protect the earth." she said.

    Yu Yuan, 27, is 3 attracted by this idea.

    She and her boyfriend have lived in Beijing for many years. And earlier she used to be a customer without thinking a lot. 4 she saw a video about "zero waste"

    The 5 is about a family of four, and the rubbish they produce every year is placed in a jar.

    After watching the video, Yu wanted to 6 this zero-waste lifestyle with her boyfriend.

    Yu says that a zero-waste life 7 the 6R principle --Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle and Rot (腐烂）.

    Over August-October when Yu followed the principle of zero waste 6R, she and her boyfriend Joe Harvey both 8 only two cans of rubbish.

    Now, the couple have opened a small 9 called The Bulk House in Nanluoguxiang, Beijing, to support a zero-waste life.

    At the store they use environmentally friendly products. For example, they use wood products to replace 10 ones and prepare cloth bags printed with zero-waste logos for customers. Most of the products sold in the store can be reused, and a small number of 11which are not recyclable can degrade (分解). The store 12 has secondhand books and audio-visual CD/DVDs.

    For used toiletries things like soap and toothpaste that are used for cleaning yourself) there is a company which accepts them, and the couple regularly mails their waste to it.

    Yu says that those who were once not 13 in the zero-waste lifestyle have gradually changed because of curiosity. The zero-waste lifestyle, she adds, is for everyone.

    "It's 14 us at our fingertips." Yu expects some of her friends to 15 her on the road to zero waste. As the saying goes, many hands make light work.