One of Harry's feet was bigger than the other. “I can't find suitable shoes for them,” he said to his friend, Jack.

    “Why don't you go to a shoemaker?” Jack said, “A good one can make you the right shoes.”

    “I don't want to go to any shoemaker,” Harry said, “Aren't they expensive?”

     “No,” Jack said, “Some of them aren't. There's a good one in our town. Here's his address. ”

       Harry went to the shoemaker in Jack's town a few days later, and the shoemaker made him some shoes.

       Harry went to the shop again a week later and looked at the shoes. Then he said to the shoemaker angrily, “You are a foolish man! I told you to make one shoe bigger than the other, but you made one smaller than the other. ”

    Teenager Jake Denham was skiing (滑雪) with his family in the USA when he felt over and lost one oi his skis. His family didn't know that he had a problem. They kept on skiing. When they got to the foot of mountain, there was no sign of Jake.

Jake couldn't find his ski anywhere. In the end, he decided to take off his other ski and walk down the mountain. But he couldn't work out the right way to go.

    It was now getting dark and he was a long way from any place of safety. He knew that he might die that night in the cold temperatures. But Jake kept calm. At home, lake watched a lot of TV programmes about living in difficult situations. He remembered the advice from these programmes and knew that he should build a hole in the snow. He made a hole and pointed it up the hill so the wind couldn't blow into it. Outside the temperature fell to a dangerous -15℃ that night, but inside it Jake was safe from the cold.

    But he had to get down the mountain. The TV programmes always said. "If you are lost, you should find someone else's tracks (轨迹) through the snow and follow them." "I wanted to live my life." remembers Jake. "So I got up and I found some ski tracks and I followed those." He walked and walked and finally he saw lights. Nine hours after he lost his ski, he found a team of worker who came to save him. He was safe!

    His mum was very happy when she heard the news. Amazingly, Jake didn't even have to go to hospital. He got through the terrible experience without any injuries.

    So, the next time someone says that watching TV is a waste of time, think of Jake. Sometimes TV can save your life.

    Mr. Brown is a teacher. He is from New York, America. He would like to work in China because he likes our country. He thinks Chinese people are very friendly and he likes to live in China. He is happy to work in our school. He likes the school life here. He teaches English. There are 50 students in his class. Mr. Brown is kind. He and his students are good friends, too.

    Now some of Mr. Brown's students are playing sports on the playground(操场). Bill and Mike aye playing tennis. Tom and John are playing ping-pong. The other students are playing basketball. Mr. Brown is happy to play basketball with them. They really have a good time.

    There was once a farmer. He lived near a road. It was not a busy road, but from time to time cars passed the farm. Near the farm gate, there was a large hole in the road. The hole was always full of water, and the drivers of the cars could not see how deep the hole was. They thought that it was not deep. Then when they drove their cars into the hole, they could not drive out of it because it was so deep. The farmer didn't spend much time working on his farm. He spent most of it watching the hole. When a car drove into it, he pulled the car out with his tractor and asked the driver a lot of money for doing this.

    One day, the driver of a car said to him, "You must make a lot of money by pulling cars out of this hole day and night." "Oh, no," said the farmer, "I don't pull the cars out of the hole at night. At night, I fill the hole with water. "

    A rich man was riding along the road and saw an old man digging in his garden. There was a young tree lying on the ground. The rich man asked the old man, "What kind of tree are you planting there, my good man?

    "This is a fig(无花果)tree, sir," he said.

    "A fig tree?" the rich man was very surprised." How old are you, may I ask?"

    "I am ninety years old."

    "What!" shouted the rich man." You're ninety years old. You are planting a very young tree now and it'll take years to give fruit. You certainly don't hope to live long enough to get any fruit from this tree." The old man smiled and said, Tell me, sir, did you eat figs when you were a boy?" "Sure," the man did not know why he asked this question.

    The old man asked, "Who planted the fig trees?"

    "I don't know."

    " You see, sir," the old man said slowly," our forefathers(祖先) planted trees for us to enjoy and I am doing the same for the people after me."

    The rich man was quiet. Then he said, "You are right, my good man. We should do some things for the people after us. Thank you very much." Then he rode away.