Once a king loved music so much that he searched the world for the best instrument.（One day. a magic man1the king a harp(竖琴).

    The king took it to the palace, but2he played it, the harp sounded terrible. Many3people tried it. They agreed that the harp was4and the king had been fooled. The harp was thrown out as rubbish.

    A poor little girl5found the harp, and even though she didn't know how6it, she decided to have a try. She played and played, the whole day through, for months and years. The music she produced was never perfect,7each time it sounded a little better.

    Then one day, suddenly, the harp started to play the most beautiful music. It was in fact8magic harp, and could only be played well by someone who would put in the necessary effort.

    The king heard the music from his window, and called the girl to the palace. When the king saw that she was playing the harp, he was filled9joy. At that moment he made the girl his own private10, giving her and her family lots of money.

Mr. and Mrs. Albino, with 64 children, have the world's largest family. Not one of their children is adopted(领养).

When people hear about the Albinos' large family, the first question they ask is, "How is it possible? How can one woman give birth to 64 children in her lifetime?" The answer is simple: {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Soon after the Albinos got married, the children came quickly, in twos and threes. The first 21 children were boys. Mrs. Albino loved her sons, but she wanted a daughter very much.

The Albinos spent the early years in Argentina. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} To travel from Argentina to Chile, they had to cross the Andes Mountains. Mr. and Mrs. Albino and their 21 sons made the difficult, two-week journey on mules. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

During the snowstorm, Mrs. Albino gave birth to triplets, a boy and two girls!

The oldest Albino children are in their thirties and forties. They are on their own now, but 18 of the Albino children still live with their parents. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The shack has electricity but no toilet or running water. The children wash in a small bowl in the dusty backyard.

At times there is very little food in the Albinos' small house when there is not enough food for everyone, Mrs. Albino makes sure the youngest children do not go hungry. "The smallest eat first, and then the bigger ones. We've always done it that way," she says. Obviously, the Albinos do not have enough money for their big family, then, do they continue to have children?

The Albinos do not use birth control because it is against their religion(宗教). They could let other people take care of their children, but Mrs. Albino will not allow it, "When my two brothers and I were babies," she says, "our mother left us at an orphanage(孤儿院) and never returned. We lived there together until we were five. Then a couple adopted my brothers and I was left behind. I was heartbroken.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Even if I didn't have much money, I would always take care of my children by myself." Mrs. Albino has kept her promise.

If you go to a supermarket and find that there is no cashier*, would you still pay for your things?

People in our1 are having a test of honesty* now. The supermarket here has a special area*. This area sells 2 things like pens and pencils. People need to scan* their things, and put the 3 into the cash desk*all by themselves. 4 watches them.

By now, the supermarket runs very5 . People say they enjoy the feeling of being honest. I go to the supermarket to buy a notebook. When I am ready to pay, I find 1 have no money on me. I am just going to put the notebook. 6 when a neighbor* of mine 7 me. He knows what my 8 is. And he says he will be glad to 9 me five yuan and I can give the money back the next day. I thank him and pay for the notebook 10 the money.

Do you think the supermarket is doing a great job? And will you be glad to pay when you are in such a supermarket?

In a big country, a man was living along with his family. The man had a large amount of money. One day he took his son on a trip to the countryside. The dad's only 1 was to show his son how poor people live, so the son could 2 his good fortune（命运）.

During their journey, they reached a small village. There, they spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be 3 a very poor family.

On their 4 from their trip, Dad asked his son, "How was the trip, my son?"

The son replied with excitement, "It was a 5 trip, Dad." The rich dad asked, "Did you see how the poor people live? The purpose of the journey was to make you 6 how lucky you are having born in such a rich family."

"Oh yeah," said the son and smiled towards his father.

The father asked, "So, my dear son, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?"

The wise son answered, "Dad, I 7 a lot of things on poor people living. I saw that we have one dog and they had three. We have a swimming pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a river that has no 8 . We have imported designer lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio（露台） reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon（地平线）."

The father got a bit confused（困惑） with his son's answers.

The son 9 , "We have a small piece of land to live on and they have field s which go 10 our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others." The wise son's learning did not end yet. The son went on 11 his trip experience, "We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have 12 around our house to protect us, but they have friends to protect them. We spend our free time with television s and mobiles, but they spend their free time with family and relatives."

The son summed up（总结） his experience on the trip to the village, "Thank Dad for showing me how 13 we are...!!"

The wise son's words left the rich dad 14 .

Money can buy clothes, or cars, or big houses or many other things which make your life 15 . But there are a few things that money cannot buy. What makes your life rich is love, kindness, compassion, friendships...

Wendy is a junior high school student.  She is a happy girl and she has 1 friends.  She is also the best friend of 2 .  All her friends like collecting things.  For example, Julie likes collecting coins and Michelle likes collecting dolls.  However, Wendy doesn't collect anything because her room isn't 3 enough. 

One day, Wendy asked her grandma, "Grandma, do you collect anything?"

Wendy's grandma smiled and 4 , "You know, for many years, I didn't think I collected anything, 5 I have many dreams.  Maybe I am a dream collector.  Dreams can 6 you happy.  Dreams don't take up any space, so you always have enough room for all your dreams.  Dreams don't need any special skills, so you don't need to be good 7 anything.  Besides, no one can take away your dreams and they can last forever. "

After 8 with her grandma, Wendy knew that her grandma had many dreams in her collection. 

Wendy also has 9 dreams.  She thinks she is also a dream collector.  Her dreams always make her 10 happy. 

Have you ever unlocked a shared bike? Have you ever ordered a meal online? Have you ever enjoyed watching the short- form videos on the Internet? Well, if no one had invented the cell phone, none of these would have been possible.

Luckily, someone did invent the cell phone. That person is Martin Cooper, and he did that 51 years ago, in 1973.

Cooper used to work for Motorola. In the 1970s, the company was competing with AT&. T, a larger company, to make a cell phone system. Cooper didn't think Motorola's product was good enough. He didn't like AT&T's idea of a car phone, either. The man had a new idea. He wanted to make it possible for people to talk on their phones anywhere.

It took Cooper and his team 90 days to design the world's first cell phone. The product was called Dyna TAC. People could talk on it for 25minutes before its battery（电池）died. The phone's short battery life wasn't a big problem, Cooper once joked. Why? Well, the phone was too heavy（1,100 grams）to hold in hand for more than 25minutes!

On 3 April, 1973, Cooper made the world's first public cell phone call. He called Joel Engel, an AT&T manager. Cooper told Engel, "I'm calling you on a cell phone. It's a real, handheld cell phone." On the other end of the line, there was only silence.

Cell phones have changed a lot since that first call. They're much smaller and can do many more things. Cooper, now 96, is surprised at the progress.

But the man has also kept thinking about life in the future. "Keep learning all your life," he says, "or you'll lose the ability to learn-- that would be terrible!"