Lin Hong is my new friend. Her father has a shop near the factory. The {#blank#}1{#/blank#} /θIŋz/ in his shop are all nice. And his family are kind {#blank#}2{#/blank#} the workers. So they like to buy {#blank#}3{#/blank#}/'sʌmθIŋ/ there. It's Saturday today. Lin Hong doesn't go to school. She knows her father is busy, so she gets up early. She does her homework and then goes to the shop to help her father. There {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(be) many people in it. She sells(卖) bananas, apples, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (orange) and drinks to the workers. A car stops(停) in front of the shop. The {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (drive) comes in and buys some hamburgers and then goes away. Lin Hong finds his bag on the {#blank#}7{#/blank#} /flɔː(r)/. She runs out, {#blank#}8{#/blank#} she can't see his car. "I know Mr. Yang. We can take {#blank#}9{#/blank#} bag to him this evening," says Mr. Lin. It's nine and the shop is closed(关闭的). Lin Hong and her father go to Mr. Yang's home. The man and his family thank {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(they) very much.

   Once upon a time, there was a young man who liked puppets (木偶) so much that he became an apprentice(学徒) to a master puppet-maker. Sadly, the young man was not so clever, and his teacher and the other apprentices were always telling him he had no talent for making puppets, and that he would achieve nothing in making puppets.

    Even so, he was fond of it so much that he worked day after day to improve himself. Though he made every effort, they would always find something wrong with his puppets, and the poor puppets ended up being thrown out of the workshop.

    The young man wasn't going to give up, so he decided that from then on he would spend all his time making just one kind of puppet. Whenever he found a fault in his puppet he would throw it away and start again. Years passed, and with each new attempt his puppet became a little bit better. By that time, his puppet was much better than anything that the other apprentices could make, but he kept making improvements. Living like that, the man wasn't making any money, and many people laughed at how poor he was.

    By the time he was an old man, his puppet was truly wonderful. Finally, after so many years of work, he finished work on his puppet, and said, "I can't find anything wrong with it. This time it is perfect." And for the first time in all those years, instead of throwing his puppet away, he put it up on the shelf, feeling truly satisfied and cheerful.

    It is well-known that the perfect puppet, Pinocchio, came to life after that, had a thousand adventures, and gave that old man –whose name was Geppetto—more joy than any other famous puppet—maker had ever got from any of their creations.

Matt jumped into bed.His father sat down beside him.

"What kind of daydid you have?" he asked.

"It was a bad dayfor me," Matt answered. "I had a fight with Ned. The teacher sent anote home about me. And Mom talked about it with me."

"Yes, part of theday was bad," Mr. Gold said. "But there were good parts, too. Nowit's time to go to sleep. So, tell me about the best thing today."

Matt smiled."After school I went fishing," he said. "No one wanted to gowith me. So I had to go alone. I didn't think I would have any fun. But I did!I caught a fish!"

"I'm glad you hada good time," Mr. Gold said. "Think about it until(直到)you go to sleep. Happy dreams!"

"Good night,Dad," Matt said.

His father kissed(亲吻)him good night.

Every night, Mr. Goldand Matt have a little talk like this.

Every night, Mattanswers the same question. "What was the best thing that happened to you today?"

Every night Matt goesto sleep thinking about the best thing. He has many happy dreams!

Sometimes he has tothink hard to find the best thing. Sometimes it is a very small thing. But he alwaysfinds one good thing to think about.

Matt's father taughthis son a good way to end his day. You may want to try it. If you do, why not beginthis every night?

One day, all feelings were on vacation on an island, and each of them was having a good time. Suddenly, there was a warning of a strong storm, so all the feelings rushed to their boats. Yet, Love didn't want to run away quickly. But as the sky got dark, Love realised it was time to leave. But there were no boats to use. Love looked around with hope.

Just then Richness was passing by. Love asked, "Richness, can you take me with you?"Richness answered,"No, I can't. There's a lot of gold in my boat. There's no place here for you."

Sorrow passed by after a while. Again, Love asked for help. But it was useless. "No, I can't take you with me. I am so sad. I want to be by myself."

When Happiness passed by a few minutes later, Love again called for help. But Happiness was so happy that it couldn't care about anyone else.

Love was growing hopeless. Just then somebody shouted, "Come, Love, I will take you with me."Love jumped onto the boat happily, but didn't know who was giving a hand.

After getting off the boat, Love met Knowledge. Love asked,"Knowledge, do you know who was so kind to give me a lift when no one else wished to help?" Knowledge smiled,"That was Time."

"Time?"asked Love. "But why did Time help me?"Knowledge smiled and answered,"Because only Time is able to understand how valuable(有价值的) Love is."

The Letter That Changed a Life

A letter changed Levi Strauss's life. In 1849 gold was discovered in California. Thousands of people rushed to California in 1 of finding gold and becoming wealthy. The people hoping to find gold were foolish and greedy. One of those who headed for California was Levi Strauss. Strauss was different. Strauss was a clever, hard-working man. He was 2 a new start in life. Up to this time, Strauss had worked for his two brothers in New York City. The brothers sold clothes and blankets and other goods. Strauss planned to set up a 3 business to his brothers' in California.

Over the years, Strauss's business grew. In 1872 he got a letter from one of his customers, a tailor (裁缝) in Nevada. The tailor, Jacob Davis, had an idea for making better work pants. The pockets on work pants often tore. Jacob Davis 4 metal rivets (铆钉) to the pockets. Rivets are pieces of metal used to join things together. The rivets worked well, and the miners liked them. Davis didn't have enough money to get a patent for his invention. He also needed help making the pants. In his 5 Davis said that if they worked together, the two of them ‘‘could make a very large amount of money.''

Strauss could see that riveted work pants were a good idea. He agreed to help Davis. The two decided to make the pants. They decided to use denim cloth because it is a strong cloth that doesn't tear easily and is long lasting. 6 , the riveted denims were called ‘‘dungarees.'' Dungarees is a word from the Hindi language of India that means "rough cloth". Because they were tough and durable, dungarees were worn by thousands of farmers, miners, builders, and other workers. Later, dungarees came to be called "jeans". "Jeans" is a better name for the pants than "dungarees".

Nowadays too many people have to work at weekends. Some people don't {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Others think it's terrible. 

One woman thinks that working at the weekends can be dangerous. She is Kelly Smith. Mrs. Smith works in an office in Brighton, England. One Saturday, May 24, she went to the office to do some work. After she got into the lift, it stopped between the {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Mrs. Smith couldn't get out of the lift. She began to shout, but no one heard him. Then Mrs. Smith {#blank#}3{#/blank#} that it was holiday in England. No one was going to work until Tuesday. With nothing to eat or drink, Mrs. Smith was very hungry and had to sleep most of the time. Early on Tuesday morning, her workmates came to work and found the lift {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. When the lift was opened, Mrs. Smith came out cold, weak and tried. She had been in the lift for more than 60 hours.

Now Mrs. Smith says, "I only use lifts if they have telephones in them!"