A Play: Four Butterflies

Characters: Red Butterfly (RB), Green Butterfly (GB), Green Tree (GT), Rose (R), Grandpa Sun (GS)

    Look! There are four butterflies in the garden. One is red, one is yellow, one is green, and the other one is white. They play games and dance together every day, and they are very happy. One day, it's fine. Four butterflies are playing a game in the garden. Suddenly it is full of dark clouds and it begins to rain hard.

1) GB: Oh, it's raining hard. Green Tree is over there. She can

help us.

GB: Green Tree, our wings are wet. Please let us stay under your leaves.

GT: Green Butterfly, I like you. We have the same color. You can come in, but the other three butterflies must go away.

GB: No, thank you. We are good friends. We love each other and must stay together.

RB: Rose is over there. She can help us.

2) RB: Rose, our wings are wet. Please let us stay under your leaves.

R: Red Butterfly, I like you. We have the same color. You can come in, but the other three butterflies must go away.

RB: No, thank you. We are good friends. We love each other and must stay together.

3) GS: What good friends they are! This is a real friendship. I must help them.

    The sun drives the clouds away and asks the rain to stop. Soon the sun gives off bright light and dries up their wings.

4) Four butterflies: Oh, the sun comes out. Our wings are dry. Let's play and dance again.

    Martin is a fifteen-year-old boy. He used to be a "problem child", but a recent 1 with his mother changed his life. He didn't use to give his mother many problems. 2 , after his father's death a few years ago, Martin's life became 3 more difficult. His mother couldn't afford to pay for her child's education. To do this, she 4 work, and so she was often not at home. His mother looked after him as 5 as she could. Unfortunately, Martin still caused problems. He was not 6 in studying and he often got into trouble. Luckily, his mother was very 7 and didn't give up trying to help him. In the end, she 8 a difficult decision: to send him to a boys' boarding school. Martin hated it and used to cause a lot of trouble. One day, he told his teacher he wanted to leave the school. The teacher said it was necessary for Martin to 9 with his mother. Martin called his mother, but to his 10 , this phone call changed his life. "It was exactly 11 I needed," he said. "My mother helped me to understand how much she had given me. She also told me that even though my father was no longer with us, he was 12 me and would always take pride in everything good I do. That's when I decided to change. I realize that 13 my father died, I have been afraid of being alone, and have tried to make my mother pay more attention to me." Now Martin has 14 changed. He has been working hard and is now one of the best students in his class. How was he able to change? His mother's 15 helped him to feel good about himself.

    "I'm going to make a time capsule(胶囊)," Anna told her parents at the breakfast table.

    Dad looked up from his coffee cup and smiled. "Sounds interesting."

    "Dad, I'm building a time capsule – it's like a memory box. I watched my teacher dig one up from our school yard yesterday. Some students buried(埋) the capsule thirty years ago. It had a lot of old things in it, so we could see what life was like back then."

    After breakfast, Anna looked around in the garden and found an old coffee can. What should she put in the can?

    With her cat Kitty following close behind, Anna looked through her things. She grabbed her favorite book, her yo-yo and some photos. She put them in the can. She pulled off her watch and placed it in the can too. 

    "What else should I put into it?" she asked Kitty.

    "Meow." Kitty pushed a ball toward the can.

    "Sure, Kitty, I'll include your ball." Anna put Kitty's ball in the can.

    Anna put the top on and closed the can. On the front, she wrote ANNA AND KITTY'S TIME CAPSULE and then buried it in the garden. "All done," she told Kitty.

    After a few minutes, Anna sighed. What should she do next? She couldn't yo-yo. Or read her favorite book. She'd buried those. Now, she missed them.

    "Meow." Kitty looked at her.

    "Do you miss your ball?" Anna asked. "Don't worry. I'll get it for you." So Anna dug up their time capsule.

    Kitty pounced on the ball. And Anna pulled on her watch and read her book while yo-yoing under a tree in the garden. 

    Li Shizhen (李时珍) was one of the most famous doctors in Chinese history.  He was born in Qichun, Hubei in 1518.

    Both of Li Shizhen's father and grandfather were doctors. Li Shizhen's grandfather was a country doctor who traveled in the countryside with a bag of herbs (药草) and medications and cured (治愈) people. His father was doctor who wrote several books.

    Li Shizhen used to help his father in his medical practice when he was young. Li Shizhen's father wanted him to enter politics (从政). Li Shizhen studied for the exams and passed the country-level examination, but he was never able to pass the imperial (帝国的) examination.

    When he was 38, he cured the son of the Prince of Chu and was invited to be an official in that court (宫廷) A few years later, he became an official at the Imperial Medical Institute.

    Even though he fulfilled his father's dream, he didn't want to continue working for the court.

    One year later, he left the court and returned to be a doctor again.

    Li Shizhen. was famous for his book, Compendium of Materia Medica 《本草纲日》He spent 27 years writing the book. Unluckily, Li Shizhen died before the book was officially published. It is such a successful book. Now it is still one of the most important medical books in China.