It takes a lot of skills and hard work to set a world record in pumpkin-carving(雕刻南瓜). Steve Clarke, a sixth-grade teacher from Pennsylvania, is a famous carver(雕刻师). Clarke has set many world records for carving pumpkins quickly. When he competes, he must cut our two eyes, two eyebrows, a nose, a mouth, and two ears as fast as possible. But Clarke knows something else about pumpkin-carving. It's easier to get a record than to keep it.

    He took the title in 2000 when he carved a pumpkin face in 74.8 seconds. That time was 19 seconds faster than what Jerry had set. From then on, Clarke broke his own records five times. In 2006, he set his best time in Florida. His winning time was 24.03 seconds!

    The only problem is that someone finally beat that mark. On October 7, 2010, David set the new record with 20.1 seconds. Clarke was not able to break that record this year, but he has planned to break the record. After Halloween, he will go to local pumpkin farms to practise designs and new skills.

    Clarke is popular because of his super pumpkin-carving skills. In 1999, he carved more than 30 pumpkins at the Halloween party for then vice-president Al Gore.

    Long long ago, the world was a happy place. Nobody was ever sick or sad.

    At that time there lived a little girl named Pandora. One day a fairy gave her a wonderful box. The fairy asked Pandora to promise not to open it. Pandora and her friend often looked at the box and wanted to know what was in it.

    For a long time Pandora kept her promise, but at last she couldn't help herself. She opened the box a little. Hundreds of bad fairies flew out. They stung (蜇) Pandora and her friend. They cried.

    The bad fairies flew out of doors and stung all the children in the land. Then Pandora heard a voice crying, “Let me out, and I will help you.”

    She opened the box, and a beautiful fairy flew out. She told Pandora that her name was Hope. She kissed Pandora and her friend, and they felt well at once. Then she flew away to help the other children.

    Until now, when people are sick or unhappy, the little good fairy, Hope，comes to make them comfortable.

(Renee—a beautiful princess   Broo—a blue bear   Nahloo—a magical place)

    When the Princess Renee heard about Broo, she came down from her astle. She found Broo while he was busy eating honey.

    "Mr. Bear," the Princess said, "you are welcome in Nahloo. Here we share with each other. We don't take things from each other."

    Broo thought about it for a moment and knew that he had made a mistake. "Well," he said, "maybe drinking all that milk wasn't the best idea."

    The Princess went on, "Mr. Bear you can drink and eat but you won't feel good because you have never made any contribution(贡献)to anyone else. I think you'll find that it is better to be full in your heart not just in your stomach." After saying this the Princess went back to the castle leaving Broo alone.

    One day Broo was going to take lots of cookies from the rabbits, and then he remembered what the Princess said to him. So Broo decided not to eat the cookies. The rabbits were surprised and said "Thank you for your kindness, Mr. Bear. Now these cookies will taste sweeter because they are given by you, my friend. If you like, come back tomorrow and we can have the cookies together."

    Broo was filled with joy and went through the land. He gave back everything he had taken. In return, he received a promise(承诺)from everyone to share their food with him. Broo was so glad that he started dancing in the moonlight with the Princess as his partner.

    "Colour, colour, colour!" are the words of the artist Eric Carle. Eric is like the king in the world of children's books. He has written over 70 children's books. His most famous book. The Very HungryCaterpillar, is common on children's bookshelves all over the world. What most people don't know is that Eric also makes art for adults, which is called "ArtArt". People didn't know about it, because he didn't show it to the public until he was 84 years old!

    Like Eric's children's books, his "ArtArt" is full of bright and clear colour. He says that he loves colour so much because he missed it during the war in Germany. Eric was born in New York in 1929, but moved to Germany with his family when he was 6. When he was 10, World War Ⅱ began. He noticed that all the houses and buildings in his town were painted grey, brown or dark green. It was a sad time, and it seemed like there was no colour anywhere.

    At the end of the war, "when colour came back", Eric explains, "I just loved it so much. I keep saying that I wish our eyes could see more colour. Colour is a very important part of my work."

    That's true. Eric paints bright colours on Paper, cuts out shapes, and then glues them onto another piece of paper. This method is called collage (拼贴画). In fact, it is what led Eric to his "ArtArt".

    Eric's "ArtArt" includes large collages as well as paintings, photographs and even costumes. In all these works, he uses all kinds of colours—everything from purple to light green to orange. Now that's a lot of colour!

    My parents told me we were going camping during winter vacation. Camping! They are always trying to get me outside more. It seems like my mom is always saying, "Brian, turn off the computer!" or "Brian, put down your phone and talk to us!" They don't understand that I'm in the zone when I'm using a keyboard, so of course I don't want to stop.

    We drove for an hour to Everglades National Park. As soon as we got there, I couldn't get a signal(信号) for my phone. Suddenly, I was facing three days of no contact with the outside world. My mom tried to tell me I'd like it, "You'll be able to look around more when you're not staring at a screen."

    We took a hike with a ranger(护林者) in the afternoon. He explained a lot to us about the Everglades. At first, I couldn't care less, but after a while I started listening. By the end of the hike, I realized there was more action going on in the park than in most video games.

    We did a lot of walking and that night I was really tired. Even so, I woke up in the midnight, and I was scared at first because of some strange sounds. But then I realized it was the barred owl that the ranger had described. It sounded like it was calling out "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?" Then I was not afraid anymore and went back to sleep.

    The next two days we did a lot more exploring. I saw that all the land and water and animals were connected in the Everglades. Small fish eat mosquito eggs; large fish eat those smaller fish; and alligators eat the large fish. If you got rid of(除掉) the mosquitoes, you might lose some of the other animals higher up the food chain too.

    After we left, we talked in the car about the Everglades. Right in the middle of our discussion, I heard a familiar sound from my phone. My friend Jeff was sending me a message. I reached for my phone, then put it back down. "Aren't you going to reply?" asked Mom.

    "I will in a little while," I said. My dad and mom looked at each other and just smiled.