There were three big fish in the lake. One of them, Demo, was wise; another one, Jimmy, was half-wise; Martin, the third one, was stupid.

Some fishermen came to the bank of the lake with their nets. The three fish saw them.

      Demo decided at once to leave, to make the long and difficult trip to the ocean. He thought, "I won't discuss with these two about this. They love this place so much that they call it home and will stay on. How silly they are! They still haven't realized we are in great danger now. Their ignorance will cost them their lives."

      Seeing the wise fish had left, Jimmy thought, "My guide has gone and now I've lost my chance to escape." He felt sorry for it and then thought, "What can I do to save myself from these men and their nets? Perhaps I should pretend（假装）to be already dead, giving myself totally to the water." So he did that. He went up and down with the water, helpless, within arm's reach of the fishermen.

      "Look at this! The best and biggest fish is dead." One of the men lifted him by the tail, and threw him up on the ground. He rolled（滚动）over and over and moved secretly toward the water, and then, back in.

      The third fish was aimlessly jumping about, trying to escape with his speed and cleverness. The net, of course, finally closed around him, and as he lay in the hot frying-pan bed, he thought, "If I get out of this, I'll never live again in the limits of the lake. Next time, the ocean! I'll make it my home."

    Mick Polly has a toy store. He lives with his daughter Carolina in Kentucky, US. People also call him the Bike Man because over the past few years, Mick has built hundreds of bikes for needy kids.

    One day in 2012, a 13-year-old boy with a broken (坏的) bike walked by Mick' s house. "I was working in my garage (车库), and he asked if I could repair (修理) it," said Mick.

    The boy's bike had broken wheels (车轮). Mick posted (发布) a picture on Facebook, asking his friends if they had the parts he needed. One friend saw the picture and gave away two used bikes. Mick took parts from each to build new wheels for the boy.

    Soon after, Mick repaired a bike for the boy's brother and one for his sister. During the year, he repaired lots of bikes for kids whose parents didn't have enough money for new ones.

    "People are throwing away (扔掉) bikes every day," said Mick.

    Mick puts the bikes and bike parts in his garage. "I take off the good wheels and use them," he said.

    Up to now, Mick has repaired hundreds of bikes and given away almost 700 newly repaired bikes. They're free, but the kids must agree to try their best to study in school.

    Mick also hopes the bikes will get kids off the sofa (沙发)" When I was growing up we all rode our bikes" he said' Hopefully these kids can get some exercise."

    An old man was fishing in the bank of a river. A girl came to see him fishing. The old man was really good at fishing and it didn't take long for him to catch a full basket of fish. The old man saw that the girl was very cute, and he wanted to give her a whole basket of fish. But the girl shook her head. The old man was surprised and asked "Why don't you want the fish?"

    The girl replied, "I want the fishing rod（竿）in your hands.”

    The old man asked, "Why do you want the rod?"

    "It doesn't take long to eat all the fish in a basket. But if I have the fishing rod, I can go fishing by myself and I won't be afraid of not having any more fish to eat."

    I think you will certainly say that the girl is very smart. Wrong! If she doesn't know how to fish, she can not have fish to eat, even though she has the fishing rod. It's useless to only have a fishing rod. Fishing skills are the most important, not the fishing rod.

    Too many people think that if they have a "fishing rod" in their life, they will no longer fear the wind and rain. They are just like the girl, who thought that if she had a fishing rod, she would have fish to eat.

    "Why do I live? Why do I wish for anything, or do anything? Is there anything in my life that will not be destroyed by my death?" Like Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian writer, many people ask these difficult questions. Tolstoy spent his whole life trying to answer these difficult questions.

    As a young man, he thought people could achieve perfection if they tried hard enough. So he worked very hard to be the best in everything. He thought that he would find meaning and truth in success.

    In 1850s. Tolstoy wrote his first stories. He wrote about his life in the army. He also told stories about his childhood. These works were published and Tolstoy became a well-known writer.

    He earned the respect he always wanted. Many rich and smart men met and talked with Tolstoy. Some of them were writers like him. They talked a lot about faith (信仰) and the meaning of life. But soon Tolstoy recognized that these men were not perfect. Now he knew they could not answer his questions about faith.

    So in the 1860s, Tolstoy tried a different way to find the meaning of life. He opened a school for the children of his serfs-the people who worked on his land. These workers were very poor. He wanted to help them because he thought they were more honest than the rich people he knew.

    Tolstoy learned a lot from his workers. He understood how they worked hard to support their families. He began to believe that marriage and family would give his life meaning. So in 1862, Leo Tolstoy married a young woman named Sonya Behrs.

    The next 15 years were the best years of Tolstoy's life. It was during this time that he wrote his most famous books-War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Many experts say that War and Peace is one of the greatest books ever written. In these books, Tolstoy believed humans should live a simple life and take care of their families. Tolstoy thought this would satisfy him and bring him happiness.

    Leo Tolstoy is still a very respected writer today. His faith and writings have influenced many people all over the world.

    One pleasant evening, I was holding Grandpa's hand and taking a walk in the park. "Where are the peanuts? Give me now!" He suddenly said. How I wished I had some with me! "William, the monkeys are taking long to come out today. Wait till they smell the peanuts." I knew he was lost in one of his memories again. I remembered the stories he told me of how he fed the monkeys when he was a kid. Then, he saw the goldfish! He acted as if he was seeing them for the first time.

    Poor Grandpa! He fell ill with Alzheimer's disease (阿尔茨海默症) last year. The doctor said it was a progressive brain disorder which could destroy (破坏) a person's memory. The patient might also not be able to make reasonable judgments (判断). The saddening part was that it was a lifelong disease. But when my parents invited him to stay with us, he refused and said he liked living alone. One day, he forgot to turn off the fire after cooking porridge. Luckily, one of the neighbors came to help him before the fire could spread.

    It was then that my parents brought Grandpa to live with us. Often, he would forget my name and ask me who I was and what I was doing in his house. Each time I would answer softly, "It's me, Ray, Grandpa!" Even if he had forgotten who I was, he would always be my beloved grandfather.

    By the time Rihanna was seventeen, she had released(发行)her first album and had an international hit with her first single(单曲)Pon de Replay.

    Rihanna was born in Saint Michael, Barbados in 1988.She grew up there with her two younger brothers. As a child, she loved singing. She formed her first group with two friends from secondary school when she was just fifteen. In 2004 her friends introduced the group to American record producer Evan Rogers, who was on holiday in Barbados. Rogers thought Rihanna could be a big star in America, so she moved there aged sixteen to take up music after she finished school. Rihanna lived with Rogers and his wife. Then she worked for Def Jam Recordings and started working on her first album, Music of the Sun. It came out in 2005 and got into the top ten. Over 69,000 copies of the album were sold in the first week alone. It went on to sell over two million copies worldwide and Rihanna quickly became a big star. Her second album, A Girl Like Me, came out a year later and included the song SOS, which was her first number one hit in America. In 2007 Rihanna brought out her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, which had more dance music than the first two albums.

    Rihanna sold more than fifteen million albums and forty-five million singles worldwide between 2005 and 2010, the most of any artist at the same time. However, she manages to find time for her charity work, too. She has performed in several concerts to raise money for charity and in 2006 she created her Believe Foundation to help sick children. She also took part in Gucci's activities to raise money for children in Africa.