The school music club opens. Tony wants to join（加入） the club, but he doesn't want to go alone. He wants to ask his friends to go to the club with him. So he calls them at home, but no one is free.

    Martin is doing his homework at home. It usually takes him two hours to finish it.

    Peter is writing to his pen friend Gina, a girl from America, an e-mail on the computer. He is telling her about his school life .In fact, he doesn't like music.

    Lily likes music very much. So Miss Green is teaching her and her classmates to sing songs at school. They are having a singing competition.

    Alice is having her twelfth birthday party. Her parents are making dinner for her.

Kate is helping her brother with his English .He always doesn't do well in his tests.

    Tom is playing baseball with his sister. It is his favorite sport.

    Tony is not happy because no one can go to the club with him.

    One day, Lord Bao and his servant saw a little boy in the town. The boy usually sold oil in the street, but then he was crying.

    "Little boy, why are you crying?" asked Lord Bao. "Every afternoon I put my head on this stone and have a sleep," the boy said. "I always put my money next to me. But now it isn't here!"

    "I see," said Lord Bao. "So this stone is the thief!" He shouted at the stone, "Do you have this boy's money?" People in this street listened and laughed. They thought he was mad.

    Lord Bao turned to them, "Are you calling me mad? I must fine(罚款) each of you a one-cent coin(硬币) for that!" Everyone stopped laughing. Lord Bao's servant opened his bag. "Put your coins in this bag," said Lord Bao.

    Without speaking, people put their coins into the bag. Lord Bao watched very carefully. When a man in black put his coin into the bag, Lord Bao looked up at him. "You are the thief!" he said.

    "But how do you know?" people asked in surprise.

    Lord Bao carefully took the man's coin from the bag and said, "Look at the coin! The boy is an oil seller and always has oil on his hands. So this is the boy's coin, and this man is the thief."

    Lester was walking in the street with two huge and heavy suitcases. A stranger walked up to him and asked, "Have you got the time?"

    Lester stopped, put down the suitcases and looked at his watch. "It's five fifteen,'" he said. "Hey, what a nice watch!" said the stranger. Lester smiled a little and said, "Yes, it's not bad. Look at this." Then he showed the stranger a time display for the 86 largest cities in the world. He hit a few buttons and a voice told the time in Chinese.  Lester continued, "Its voice can be set for different languages." The stranger seemed very interested in the watch. "That's not all," said Lester. He then pushed a few more buttons and a small map appeared on the watch. "The map can show where we are," explained Lester. "I want to buy this watch!" said the stranger. "Oh, no, I'm not selling it. I have spent nearly two years making it," said Lester. "I'll give you $1,000 for it!" "Oh, no, I've already spent more than that." "I'll give you $ 5,000 for it!"

    Lester stopped to think. The stranger quickly gave him a check(支票) and said, "$ 5,000. Here it is." Lester finally agreed to sell the watch. When the stranger was going to leave with the watch, Lester pointed to the two huge suitcases and said, "Hey, wait a minute. Don't forget your batteries."

    In 1909 an English newspaper offered £ 1,000 to the first man to fly across the English Channel in an aeroplane. Today, modern jets cross it in minutes. But at that time it still seemed a good distance. The race to win the money soon became a race between two men. Both were very colourful.

    One was Louis Bleriot. He owned a factory in France that made motor car lamps. He was already well known as a pilot because he had had accidents several times. Some people laughed at him. One man said, "He may not be the first to fly across the Channel but he will certainly be the first to die in an accident!" But Bleriot was really a good and brave pilot. He also had many good ideas about aeroplane design.

    The other man was Hubert Latham. He was half French and half English. He took up flying when his doctors told him he had only a year to live. "Oh, well," he said, "if I'm going to die soon, I think I shall have a dangerous and interesting life now." Latham was the first to try the flight across the Channel. Ten kilometres from the French coast, his plane had some trouble. It fell down into the water and began to sink under the water. A boat reached Latham just in time. He was sitting calmly on the wing and was coolly lighting a cigarette. Bleriot took off six days later. He flew into some very bad weather and very low cloud. He somehow got to the English side and landed in a farmer's field. When he did so, a customs (海关) officer rushed up to his plane. Planes have changed since then, but customs officers have not. "Have you anything to say?" The officer asked.

    Long long time ago, the Creator created a man and a woman, they lived together very happily for a time. But then they began to get angry with each other, and at last the woman left and started off to the Sun land in the east.

    The man followed alone and felt very sad, but the woman kept on ahead and never looked behind, until the Creator, took pity on him and asked him if he was still angry with his wife. He said he was not, and the Creator then asked him if he would like to have her back again. He answered yes.

    So the Creator created a patch（一块）of the fine stripe（成熟的）tomatoes along the way in front of the woman，but she passed by like seeing nothing at all. Later，he put a patch of beautiful flowers but again she refused to notice. Until suddenly she saw in front of her a patch of large ripe strawberries. They looked delicious.

    She stopped to pick a few to eat，and as she ate them she turned her face to the west by accident，and at once she remembered her husband and she found herself unable to go on. She sat down，but the longer she waited，the more she missed her husband，and at last she took a lot of the best strawberries and started back along the way to give them to him. He met her kindly and they went home together.

Good Neighbours

    Mr. and Mrs. March lived together with their four daughters. Amy was very shy. Beth loved being at home. Meg looked very pretty. Jo was tall and thin and she was a tomboy. Their home was always busy and full of noise and people. Next to them lived old Mr. Laurence and his grandson, Laurie. They lived in a very large and comfortable house. But it was a house without life.

    One day, Joe saw Laurie standing at an upstairs window in his house and looking down at their garden. Jo's sisters were playing in the snow there. They were throwing snowballs and having a lot of fun. But Laurie's face was very sad.

    "Poor boy!" Jo thought. "He's all alone. He needs some friends." She couldn't stop thinking about him. She wanted to go and see him, but how could she go to the house without an invitation?

    Then one snowy afternoon, she saw Laurie's grandpa go out. This gave her an idea. She took a broom from the kitchen.

    "What are you going to do, Jo?" asked her sister Meg.

    "To clear the garden path." Answered Jo.

    When Laurie saw Jo from the window, a big smile changed his pale, sad face.

    Jo laughed and shouted, "How are you? Are you ill?"

    Laurie opened the window and said," I'm better now, thank you. I had a bad cold and had to stay inside for a week".

    "I'm sorry," said Jo. "Are you bored?"

    "Yes, very." he replied.

    "Don't your friends come to visit you?"

    "No. But I don't want to see anybody. Boys are noisy and they give me a headache."

    "Girls are quiet."

    "I don't know any girls."

    "You know us."

    "That's true! Can you come and visit me?" cried Laurie.

    "I'm not quiet, but I'd like to come," replied Jo. "I must ask Mother first." She ran back into her house.

    A few minutes later, she returned and rang the bell on the door of Laurie's house. A servant took her upstairs.

    "Here I am!" she said brightly. "Mother sends her love and my sisters gave me this blancmange (牛奶冻) for you."

    "That looks delicious," Laurie said. He was very happy to see Jo.

Jo looked around. There were lots of books on the shelves.

    "A nice room!" she said. "I can read to you if you like."

    "No, let's talk," replied Laurie.

    "All right," said Jo, "I can talk for hours. My sisters say I never know when to stop."

    "You have three sisters—Amy, Beth and Meg." Laurie continued.

    "How do you know this?" Jo was surprised.

    "You call each other's names when you are in the garden. Sometimes I can see you all around the table with your mother. She has a very kind face. I like looking at her. I haven't got a mother."

     Jo felt sad when she heard this.

    "Why don't you come and visit us?" she said, "It isn't good for you to stay in this house all the time."

    "Thank you. I'd like to come very much." Said Laurie.

    "We know all our neighbours except you." Jo said, "I'm glad we're friends now."

    She told him about all the interesting things in her life. She said," Besides(除了……之外) plays, I also love books." Laurie loved books too, and offered to show her the library in the house. The library was a wonderful room. Jo loved it.

    "Wow!" she said, "All those books!"

    Laurie said, "A person needs more than books."

    (Adapted from Little Women)