Betty and I are best friends. Our birthdays are on the same day, so every year we have a birthday party together. But this year, we had a costume party instead.

      While we were writing the invitations, my mum came in and asked, "Why not invite John?" John had been in our class for only a few months, but he was already getting better grades in Maths than anyone else in class. I wrinkled (皱起) my nose, “Mum, he wears the same pants to school every day. How could he even afford a costume?" Mum said nothing. The next day, mum gave me an envelope with a shopping certificate (凭证) in it. "I thought it would be nice for you to give this to John" Mum said. But how? We didn't want to make John embarrassed. We discussed it for a long time. Finally, Betty and I had a good idea.

      On the day of our party, kids arrived, dressed differently. John arrived, in an old sheet (床单), but still in the same brown pants as usual. We danced, ate snacks and played games in groups. Before eating the birthday cake, Betty said in a loud voice, “Now it is time for the great prize game.  It is the following riddle……". It was a maths game. None of us was surprised when John came up with the right answer first and walked off with the envelope.

      Everything went on well as we planned. John wore a new pair of pants and a new shirt the next week. He felt happy. So did we.

When we help others, we need to find a proper way, or we may hurt them in another way.

    I'm going to the sun for my holiday. I will go there by spaceship.

    I will take a big blue spaceship. Then I'll take the spaceship to the sun. The sun is very hot. So I put on the super shirt. In the morning, I will have some sun burgers fo r my breakfast. At eight o'clock, I will play with my friends there. They are a super dog and a super girl. The super dog is white and black. The super girl is very clever. The super girl and the super dog like to play with me. So I play with them for an hour and a half. Then I will do my homework on a small blue table. After finishing my homework, I will have my lunch. I will eat sun salad. I will have red juice, red fish and red rice. All things are red. Then I need a lot of water because the sun is too hot. Then I will walk to the spaceship. After that I will take the spaceship to the earth.

   This is a good holiday on the sun.

    Jill Jones got a new job in a different part of the city. She had to go to work every day by train.

    There was only one other person on the train with her. He was a well-dressed man reading a newspaper. Suddenly, about halfway through the journey, the man began tearing（撕） his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces. Then he picked them up, opened the window and threw them all out. Then he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the rest of the journey again.

    The next day, Jill got on the same train. The same well-dressed man was there, reading a newspaper. As before, about halfway through the journey, the man began tearing his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces. Then he picked the pieces up, opened the window and threw them all out. This done, he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the rest of the journey. This happened every day for a week.

    At last, on Friday, Jill spoke to the man. "Excuse me, sir," she said, "I don't want to be rude, but I must ask you a question. When we are halfway through our journey, you tear your newspaper into hundreds of pieces and then throw them all out of the window. Please tell me, sir. Why do you do this?"

    The well-dressed man smiled. "There is a simple reason," he said. "I like to sleep for part of the journey, but I cannot sleep if the train is full of elephants. So I throw the pieces of paper out to the elephants. It stops them from coming into the train."

    "But there aren't any elephants on the train," Jill said. "I know," the man said. "It works well, doesn't it?

A

    Tom lives in a town near New York. His father has a factory there and his mother is a doctor. He is seven and begins to go to school this September. The school is a little far from home and his father drives a car to take him to school five days a week. So he is never late for class and his teachers like him very much.

    It is Monday today. Miss Green is teaching them to count from one to ten in the morning. Tom is studying hard. Soon he can count them. Miss Green is happy and asks," How many people are there in your family, Tom?"

    Tom stands up and says, "Two, Miss Green."

    "Who are they?"

    "My father and my mother."

    "Oh," Miss Green is surprised. Then she says, "There are three people in your family."

    "But now I'm not at home. I'm at school, you know!"