Once a traveller came into a village which was suffering from hunger. The villagers asked him to leave, for they feared he wanted them to give him food. They told him that there was no food. The traveller explained that he didn't need any food and that, in fact, he was planning to make a soup to share with them instead. The villagers watched suspiciously as he built a fire and filled a pot with water With great ceremony(仪式), he pulled a stone from a bag, and dropped the stone into the pot of water. After a moment, he smelt the soup and shouted with excitement, “How delicious the soup is!” As the villagers began to show interest, he mentioned how good the soup would be with just a little cabbage in it. A villager brought out a cabbage to share. This episode(情节) repeated itself until the soup had cabbage, carrots, onions, and beets—indeed, a full pot of soup that could feed everyone in the village was ready. This story describes when there are not enough resources(资源), humans will store things. We do not want to share. The story of stone soup helps us realize that, in doing so, we often prevent ourselves and everyone else from having a feast(盛宴).The meaning of this story goes far beyond food. We keep to ourselves ideas, love, and energy, thinking we will be richer, but in fact we make the world, and ourselves, poorer. The traveller was able to see that the villagers were holding back, and he had the ability to inspire(激发) them to give. In this way, they created a large meal that none of them could have created alone. Are you like one of the villagers? If you come forward and share your gifts, you will inspire others to do the same. The reward is a feast that can feed many.

    Carmen is a twelve-year-old girl. She has a sister and her name is Kara. Kara is ten years old.

    Tonight, Carmen and Kara want to make dinner for the family. They want to make pizza because all their family like it. They need to buy the ingredients（原料）for the pizza. So, their dad drives them to the supermarket.

    When they get to the supermarket, Carmen and Kara look for the ingredients. Soon they get all of them and go to pay for them. They are 30 dollars.

    They put the ingredients in the car. Their dad drives them home.

    When they get home, Carmen and Kara take the ingredients out of the car. They take them to the kitchen.

    In the kitchen, they clean the vegetables. Then, they cut the vegetables. Next, they take out the crust（面包皮）. They put the ingredients on top of the crust. Finally they put the pizza in the oven（烤箱）.

    They take the pizza out of the oven in thirty minutes.

    "The pizza smells good!" says their mother.

    "We think so!" say Carmen and Kara.

    The family are happy, and they eat the pizza for dinner.

Misunderstandings

    A man, wearing dirty clothes, with dirty hair and only 35 cents in his pocket, got on a bus and headed straight for the restroom. He thought that if he hid in the restroom, he could ride to New York without paying. But a passenger at the back of the bus saw him. She tapped(拍)the person in front of her on the shoulder and said, "There's a bum in the restroom. Tell the bus driver. "That passenger tapped the person sitting in front of him. "Tell the bus driver there's a bum in the restroom," he said.

    The message was passed from person to person until it reached the front of the bus. But somewhere along the way, the message changed. By the time it reached the bus driver, it was not "There's a bum in the restroom" but "There's a bomb(炸弹)in the restroom. "The driver pulled over to the side of the highway(高速公路)at once and called the police. When the police arrived, they told the passengers to get off the bus and stay far away. Then they closed the highway. That soon caused a 15-mile-long traffic jam. With the help of a dog, the police searched the bus for two hours. Of course, they found no bomb.

    Two similar-sounding English words also caused trouble for a man who wanted to fly from Los Angeles to Oakland, California. His problems began at the airport in Los Angeles. He thought he heard his flight announced, so he walked to the gate, showed his ticket, and got on the plane. Twenty minutes after take-off, the man began to worry. Oakland was north of Los Angeles, but the plane seemed to be heading west, and when he looked out his window all he could see was ocean. "Is this plane going to Oakland? "he asked the flight attendant. "No, "she said. "We're going to Auckland-Auckland, New Zealand."

    Because so many English words sound similar, misunderstandings among English-speaking people are not uncommon. Most misunderstandings are much less serious. Every day, people speaking English ask one another questions like these: "Did you say seventy or seventeen?" "Did you say that you can come or that you can't?"

    Similar-sounding words can be especially confusing（混淆）for people who speak English as a second language. When a Korean woman who lives in the United States arrived at work one morning, her boss asked her, "Did you get a plate?" "No." she answered, wondering what in the world he meant. She worked in an office. Why did the boss ask her about a plate? All day she wondered about her boss's strange question, but she was too embarrassed to ask him about it. At five o'clock, when she was getting ready to go home, her boss said, "Please be on time tomorrow.

You were 15 minutes late this morning." "Sorry," she said. "My car wouldn't start, and…"

    Suddenly she stopped talking and began to smile. Now she understood. Her boss hadn't asked her, "Did you get a plate?" He had asked her, "Did you get up late?"

    Auckland and Oakland. "A plate" and" up late". When similar-sounding words cause a misunderstanding, probably the best thing to do is just to laugh and learn from the mistake. Of course, sometimes it's hard to laugh. The man who traveled to Auckland instead of Oakland didn't feel like laughing. But even that misunderstanding turned out all right in the end. The airline paid for the man's hotel room and meals in New Zealand and for his flight back to California. "Oh well, "the man later said. "I always wanted to see New Zealand."

    Megan and Mia are sisters. They are the same age, have the same last name, and live in the same house. You might think the sisters are twins, but they aren't. They started their lives in very different places.

    Before Mia was born, her parents decided to adopt(收获)a little girl from China. Their plan was to adopt a girl: she would be an age in between their son, Michael, and the new baby. But that's not how it worked out. Mia was born, and soon. Their parents learned they could go to China to adopt Megan She was three months younger than baby Mia.

    The girls are in the same grade, but not in the same class. They don't share clothes or toys or even hobbies. But they share some of the same friends. And when the sisters fight, it's usually about friends. "Sometimes one of us thinks that the other is stealing(偷)friends, so we fight," Megan says.

    The girls have their own rooms. "If I have a bad dream or see a scary（恐怖的）movie, Mia will let me sleep in her room, "Megan says. "We can give each other help and advice," Mia says." And we keep each other's secrets."

    Megan says she is so thankful for her family, but sometimes she feels sad. "I feel sad when people say, "You don't look like them!" she says. "Maybe you can't see it right away, but it's so clear that Mia and I are sisters. We'll always be there for each other."

    People sometimes like to read stories of dogs very much. They think that dogs are much cleverer than cats, sheep, cows or other animals in their homes.

    One of my close friends, Bob, has a very large police dog named Jack. Every Sunday afternoon, Bob and Jack have a walk in the park nearby. Jack likes these walks very much.

    One Sunday afternoon, I paid a visit to Bob. I stayed there for a long time. Bob and I had much more talk with each other than ever before. Soon it was time for them to take a walk in the park but we forgot that. Jack became worried about it. He walked around the room several times and then sat down in front of me and looked at me. But I still paid no attention(注意)to him. I went on talking with Bob. At last, Jack could not wait any longer. He went out of the room and came back a few minutes later. He sat down in front of me again. But this time, he held my hat in his mouth.

    Suddenly, I understood what Jack meant and my friend understood, too.

    Calvin needs to go to New York for a meeting this Saturday. It's sunny. It's his first time to go to New York, so he doesn't know his way(路) around New York. The meeting is in Peterson Building on 34th Street and it starts at ten o'clock. He wants to get there on time, so he asks two American boys for help.

    "Excuse me, could you tell me where 34th Street is?" asks Calvin.

    "Sure," answers one of the boys." It's not far from here. And you can just walk along this street and turn left at the first crossing. Then you can see it on your right."

    "No. Don't listen to him. He is not telling you the right place. You can just take the No.7 bus and get off at the third stop," says the other boy.

    Then the first boy says, "OK. But the third stop is not 34th Street. It's 35th Street."

    At this time, Calvin finds that there's only five minutes left(剩下). Then he gets into a taxi(出租车) and leaves. After that, Calvin thinks he should ask a policeman for help next time.