George had stolen some money, but the police had caught him and he had been put in prison. Now his trial was about to begin, and he felt sure that he would be found guilty (有罪) and sent to prison for a long time.

    Then he discovered that an old friend of his was one of the members of the jury(陪审团)at his trial. Of course, he did not tell anybody, but he managed to see his friend secretly one day. He said to him, "Jim, I know that the jury will find me guilty of having stolen the money. I cannot hope to be found not guilty of taking it—that would be too much to expect. But I should be thankful to you for the rest of my life if you could persuade the other members of the jury to add a strong recommendation (劝告) for mercy to their statement that they consider me guilty."

    "Well, George," answered Jim, "I shall certainly try to do what I can for you as an old friend, but of course I cannot promise anything. The other eleven people on the jury look terribly strong-minded to me."

    George said that he would quite understand if Jim was not able to do anything for him, and thanked him warmly for agreeing to help.

The trial went on, and at last the time came for the jury to decide whether George was guilty or not. It took them five hours, but in the end they found George guilty, with a strong recommendation for mercy(仁慈).

    Of course, George was very pleased, but he did not have a chance to see Jim for some time after the trial. At last, however, Jim visited him in prison, and George thanked him warmly and asked him how he had managed to persuade the other members of the jury to recommend mercy.

    "Well, George," Jim answered, "As I thought, those eleven men were very difficult to persuade, but I managed it in the end by tiring them out. Do you know, those fools had all wanted to find you not guilty!"

B

    A crow (乌鸦) wants to drink, but he can't find water. He looks here and there. At last, he cries, "I can see a jar (罐子) and there is some water in it." He tries to get the water, but he can't. "How can I get the water?" he cries, "I can put my break (鸟嘴) quite close it." But still he cannot drink. "What can I do? I want to drink." He looks here and there, then he picks up a small stone (石头) in his break and carries it to the jar of water and drops it into the jar. "Soon the water will be high in the jar, and I can drink," says the crow. So he begins to do that until the water is high (高的) enough to drink.

    Mandy Harvey is a 29-year-old singer from Florida. She lost most of her ability to hear when she was 18.

    Harvey became a singer in her teens. _________ But she decided to start singing after she learned how to feel a song's beat through the wooden floor of a stage or theater. She watches carefully to make sure her musical instruments are tuned correctly and she is singing in the correct pitch.

    Harvey is now a professional singer. But not many people in the United States had heard of her until Tuesday night. That changed when she appeared on the television show “America's Got Talent”The show has four judges who watch people perform and decide if they should continue in the competition.

    Harvey said, "I gave up singing after I lost my hearing. But I want to do more with my life than just give up." As she was singing, one camera cut away to capture images of people in the theater. Many were seen crying. At one point, everyone stood up and cheered. By Wednesday afternoon, a video of Harvey's performance had been played 46 million times.

    Why? Shortly after she finished singing, Simon Cowell, one of the judges, gave her a golden star into the air. That meant Harvey could move on to the final round of the talent competition. Cowell said," I've done this a long time, and that was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen and heard."

    Many people wrote online that Harvey's performance was encouraging, and they will not give up on anything they want to do, either.

    Look at the boy. His English name is Frank Smith. His Chinese name is Wang Lei. He is from England. He is 12. My name is Li Dong. David is my English name. I am from Qingdao, Shandong Frank and I are in grade seven. But I am in class Four and he is in Class Five. We are good friends. He often helps me with my English.

    These are our schoolbags. They are black. You can see two pens, a ruler and four books in Frank's school bag. In my schoolbag, there are three pens, two rulers and five books

    Abdul Sadiq, an Afghanistan's only professional cyclist, began by training his daughter. And when she competed successfully abroad, he set up the team. It is the world's most unlikely sporting team, because the sport breaks taboos in a country where in many traditional communities, women are not allowed out of the house.

    The head coach faces frequent threats and the girls' families do not always approve "If it's not their fathers trying to stop them, it's a brother or uncle."

    Two members of the team, Massouma, 18, and Zarab, 17, are sisters. Their father and their brothers approve, but they know that their uncles complain to their father. "They will never come in front of us to say ‘Why are you cycling?', but they say bad words to our father," she said. His team have, however, competed and won regionally against Bangladesh and Pakistan.

    "We want to go cycling because we want to be heroes one day," said 16-year-old Jella, one of the latest riders. In one of the mildest and driest winters for many years, training has gone on without stopping. And next spring, the girls will go up into the mountains. "We say that women should not sit at home, they need to come out and do sports," said Abdul Sadiq, And 18- year-old Zainab said she wished that she could just go cycling alone on the street one day. "It's my ambition, and I hope that one day girls will be allowed to go cycling on the streets, not having a coach, or anyone with them, and they will not have problems," she said.