Michael Jackson was one of the world's best singers. He was born in the middle west of the city of Gary， Indiana， in 1958. He began singing with his four brothers. They called the group， “The Jackson Five”. The group became very popular after appearing on a television program. In 1970 the group made their  first record with the name of I Want You Back. It was very popular. One of their hit records was Never Say Goodbye.

    Michael was good at dancing as well as singing， for example， his dance moves and moon walking. He was asked to act in a film in 1978 for the first time， and in the same year he made a record on his own， which was sold eight million copies all over the world.

    Michael nearly didn't go out because he was too famous. Once his fans went off in a faint(晕倒）when they saw him at the concert. No one can do it by now. He lived in a large house and kept lots of animals. He never ate meat. He often raised money for charity. This made him win the Guinness world Records（吉尼斯世界纪录）in 2006. He died on June 25th， 2009， but he would live in our hearts forever.

    Some years ago on a hot summer day in South Florida a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming lake behind his house.

In a hurry to dive into the cool water, he ran out the back door, leaving behind his shoes, socks, and shirt as he went. He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam towards the middles of the lake, an alligator(鳄鱼) was swimming towards the shore.

    His mother in the house was looking out the window and saw the two as they got closer and closer. In extreme fear, she ran towards the water, yelling to her son as loudly as she could. Hearing her voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his mother. It was too late. Just as he reached her, the alligator reached him.

    From the dock, the mother grabbed her little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched(夺取) his legs. That began an incredible tug-of-war(拔河). The alligator was much stronger than the mother, but the mother was much too passionate. A farmer happened to drive by, took aim and shot the alligator.

    After weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. The newspaper reporter asked if he would show him his scars(伤疤). The boy lifted his legs, then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, "But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. T have them because my mum wouldn't let go."

    Some scars are unsightly and have caused us deep regret. But, some wounds are because love has refused to let go.

    One day, Susie was unhappy when she came home from school. "What's the matter, my dear?" asked her mother, drawing her to her side and smiling.

    "All our class must hand in compositions tomorrow. We must write 12 lines at least. But I can never write one. I'll have to go to school without a composition, for I won't copy one from a book, or ask you or papa to write one for me."

    "That's right," said her mother. "You'll be happier with a poor composition, if it's your own, than with a fine one written by somebody else. But cheer up. Run into the garden and play. I'll call you in half an hour. Don't think about your composition now. Just have a good time."

    It seemed just a few minutes to Susie before she heard her mother calling her. She went into the house immediately — her hands full of sweet flowers, and her face red with exercise.

    Then her mother asked her to sit by the window with a nice piece of paper and a pencil, and write something about what she could see. "Never mind your composition; do this to please me, and we'll talk about that later."

    Although Susie thought her mother's request was strange, she knew she always had a good reason for everything she did. So she did as her mother requested.

    As she looked out, she first saw the western sky and some bright, sunset clouds. "Oh, mother, what a sunset!"

    "Don't talk. Just write."

    The pencil began moving rapidly across the paper. She wrote about the sunset clouds, the look of the distant hills, the streets, the river, the garden with its flowers, and the birds flying past the window. She forgot all about the terrible composition!

    Just as she had reached the bottom of the page, her mother came in and said with a smile, "Well, Susie, how does that composition come on?"

    "Composition! You told me not to think about it, and I've never thought of it once. I've had such a nice time writing about what I could see from the window."

    Mrs. Smith took the paper and read what Susie had written. She said, "There, Susie, that's a very nice composition, really."

    "A composition! Is that a composition?" Susie asked in surprise.

    "Yes, my dear, and a very good one, too, if we find a title for it," replied her mother. Then she added, "I'm sure it will please your teacher, as it does me. You see, it's easy enough to write a composition if you have anything interesting to write about."

    One day, Akbar decided to test how wise Birbal was. He took his ring off his finger and handed it to one of his courtiers (侍臣). Akbar said to him, "You must hide this ring safely with you. Make sure that no one can find it."

    As soon as Birbal came to the palace, Akbar said. "Birbal, I lost my ring this morning. It was given to me by my father. Do whatever you want, but you have to find my ring soon."

    Birbal asked Akbar to give him more information, but Akbar didn't say much. He kepp on repeating, "I don't remember anything at all. You must find my ring." Finally, Birbal said, "All right, Your Majesty (陛下)! I will find your ring soon."

    Birbal closed his eyes and pretended (假装) to think for a while. And then he said, "Your Majesty, your ring is somewhere here in this palace. It is with one of the courtiers. The courtier has a grain of rice in his beard."

    The courtier was worried. Hearing Birbal's words, he quickly moved his hand over his beard. Birbal's eyes fixed on the behaviour of the courtier. Pointing towards him, Birbal said, "Your Majesty, this courtier stole your ring."

    Akbar was surprised. He didn't understand how Birbal had succeeded in finding his ring. But once again, Akbar accepted the fact that Birbal was very wise.

    It seems very natural that if you have two dollars and add two dollars to them, you have four dollars. But do you know it too men millions of years to be able to think so? In fact, one of the most difficult things to teach children is the idea of numbers.

    In ancient times, when a man wanted to tell how many animals he owned. he had no system(系统) of numbers to use. He put a stone into a bag for each animal. The more animals, the more stones he had. It may explain why the word "calculate" comes from the Latin word "calculus", "calculus" means "stone."

    Then, man used lines to count. People would just draw a line for each thing they wanted to count, but they had no word to tell the number.

    Later on, people used fingers. Again we have word that goes back to this. The word "digit" comes from the Latin word "digitus". It means "finger"! And the fact that we have 10 fingers led to the use of 10 in the system of numbers.

    The number system we use today was invented by the Hindus in India thousands of years ago and was brought to Europe during 8^th to 11^th by Arab traders(商人). In this system, people count things with ten numbers. 1. 2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.and 0. It is decimal system(十进制), that is, it is built on the base of 10.

    There is an elephant and a monkey They're friends But one day they want to know who is stronger(更强壮的). A rabbit says. The one who can get apples from the tree across the river is stronger. The monkey says，“I can't swim. "The elephant says. "I can swim Please sit on my back. Thus they go across the river. The apple tree is very high. The elephant can't reach the apples on the tree. The monkey climbs up the tree and gels many apples. Then they know they should help each other