It's Jim's birthday today. He is five years old. He gets many nice birthday presents(礼物) from his family and one of them is a big drum (鼓). “Who gives him the drum?” his father asks. “His grandfather does,” answers Jim's mother. Jim likes his drum very much. He makes a noise(噪音) with it, but his mother doesn't say anything about it. His father is not at home. He is working in a school. So he doesn't hear the noise. But one of the neighbours (邻居) doesn't like the noise at all. So one morning she takes a knife and goes into Jim's room. Jim is making a noise with the drum. She says to him, “Hello, Jim. Do you know there is something nice in your drum? Here's a knife. Open the drum and let's find it.”

The story of the red-crowned crane

    Have you ever heard of the song "The story of the red-crowned crane"? It is about a girl called Xu Xiujuan.

    Xu xiujuan was born in Zhalong, Heilongjiang Province in 1964.Her father's job was to look after red-crowned cranes. Xiujuan started helping her father when she was young. She soon showed a great love for these white birds. She become good at raising them.

    When Xu Xiujuan was 21, she got a job at a nature reserve in Jiangsu Province . She enjoyed taking care of the baby cranes. If a bird become sick, she took good care of it stayed with it every day until it was strong enough to fly again.

    In September 1986, one of the birds went missing .The workers in the nature reserve looked everywhere, but no one could find it. Xiujuan was very worried. She looked for it day and night for two days. On the second night, while she was looking for the missing bird, she fell into a river and died. She was only 23.

    Later, a song was written in memory of Xiujuan. Though Xiujuan died young, people always remember her when they hear the song or see a red-crowned crane.

    Mr. Jones had a nice Brown coat. He loved it very much, but his wife didn't like it. Because it was old. She often said." Give it to a poor man." But Mr. Jones always answered," No, I like this coat. "

    Then a cigarette（香烟） fell on it and made a hole in it. So Mrs Jones said, "Please don't wear it again." Mr. Jones took it to a small tailor（裁缝） "Please make another coat like this one." The tailor made the coat very carefully. Then he lit （点燃）a cigarette, and made a hole in it in the same place.

    Somebody says that it is raining cats and dogs. We know it means it is raining heavily. Here you can know why people say like this.

    There are many large rats (老鼠) in a country. People need cats. But there are many mountains in the country. It's hard for a plane to land. So the cats come down by parachute (降落伞). In another country, the people need dogs to help people to find the people in the snow. Where can they get them? You can guess. The dogs come down by parachute. Both cats and dogs are coming down by parachute, just like the raindrops coming from the sky. So there is the saying "It is raining cats and dogs".

    These cats and dogs help the people. And the people often say it rains cats and dogs. This kind of old saying is very interesting.

    Dale is seven. He can go to school. On the first day, his teacher teaches him three words "I, you, he". The teacher says, "I am your teacher. You are my student. He is your classmate, "After class, Dale goes home. His mother asks him, "What does your teacher teach you today?" Dale says, "Listen, mom, I am your teacher. You are my student." He points at(指着) his father and says, "He is your classmate." His mother says, "No, dear. You are not right." Then she says, "I am your mother. You are my son. He is your father. "The next day, Dale's teacher asks Dale to make sentences. Dale stands up and says, "I am your mother. You are my son. He is your father." All the students in Dale's class laugh.