Have you ever heard of a rattlesnake? It is a poisonous (有毒的) American snake.When it is angry or afraid, it makes a noise like a rattle with its tail. It's very scary. But Heather Ramirez and her husband, from California, in the UnitedStates, make a living in an unusual way. They are self-employed (自雇的) snake catchers!They catch snakes, especially rattlesnakes which have gone indoors, and returnthem to the wild.

    Heather describes her work as “protecting people from rattlesnakes — andprotecting rattlesnakes from people!” In the area where they live, rattlesnakesoften come face to face with people. They are found in stores, offices, housesand gardens. Heather explains that it's not the snakes that are moving into places where people live, but it's the other way round. The snakes lived in these places first and then the people built houses.

Most people who see a rattlesnake are feared. If you keep your distance,however, the snake won't bite (咬) you. In twelve years as a snake catcher, Heather has nevertouched a snake. She doesn't take the risk. She picks up the snakes with aspecial tool. This doesn't hurt them,but it keeps them at a safe distance so that they can't bite her.

    Heather and her husband are very busy because they are never off duty.Catching snakes is a full-time job and they don't often have a day off. Peoplecan get to them at any time of the day or night. Not everyone can do this job,but Heather doesn't want to do anything else. “I just love my job,” she says.

    One day an old man sells(出售) a big elephant. A young man comes to the elephant and begins to look at it slowly(慢慢地). The old man goes up to him and says near his ear. "Don't say anything about the elephant before I sell it, then you can get some meat." "All right." says the young man.

    After the old man sells the elephant, he gives the young man some meat and asks, "How can you see the bad ears of the elephant?" "I don't see the bad ears，"says the young man. "Then why do you look at the elephant slowly?" asks the old man. The young man answers, "Because  I want to see what an elephant looks like."

  根据短文内容，回答下列问题。

    Paul and Jason were brothers who lived and worked on neighbouring farms. For 35 years they farmed side by side, sharing machinery and goods as needed, without a single problem.

    However, one autumn, things changed. It began with a tiny disagreement about a horse, which grew into a major difference. The difference led to angry words, followed by weeks of silence between the two brothers.

    One morning there was a knock on Paul's door. He opened it and saw a builder holding his toolbox." I'm looking for a few days' work," the builder said." Are there any jobs here I could help with?"

   "Yes," answered Paul, extremely pleased to see the builder." I do have a job for you. Look at that farm across the creek(小溪). That's my brother's farm. That creek used to be a grass field, but last week my brother dug a path from the river and made the creek. But I'll go him one better. See that pile of wood? I want you to build me a fence, two metres tall, so 1 won't need to see him anymore."

    The builder said thoughtfully." I think I understand the situation and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you."

    Paul had business in town that day and left the builder to his work. When he returned, the builder had just finished his job. Paul was shocked. Instead of a fence there was a bridge, stretching from one side of the creek to the other.

    As Paul stood on the bridge, staring in amazement, his younger brother Jason, came across, and took Paul's hand." You are a good man to have built this bridge after all I've done," said Jason.

    Then, Paul, with tears in his eyes, said to the builder who was packing his bag to go," Thank you so much. Please stay. I have much more for you to do."

   "I'd love to." the builder said quietly," but, I have many more bridges to build."

    A few days ago I got a call from my old college friend whom I haven't seen for a very long time. We talked about all the good old times that we had. Then he started talking about his father. His father was badly ill in hospital and couldn't sleep at night, he often talked to himself and made a lot of noise. My friend was angry about this and shouted at his father to stop talking, but after his father stopped talking, he died a few days later.

    My friend was very sorry for speaking the ill words towards his father, he was so sad that he cried like a baby on the other end of the telephone. He said that from that moment on, he prayed every day, asking God to let his father forgive him.

    Sometimes, we complain our parents, but do we realize that our parents take care of us and always stay around us from the day we were born to our adulthood (成年), imagine how sad our parents will be when they hear an unlucky word of "no" come out from our mouths.

    There are so many unlucky children who have neither fathers nor mothers. My dear friends, we can make promises to ourselves that from now on there will be no bad words that come out from our mouths to our parents, take good care of our parents, even if it takes only a second to stay with them, they will be very happy.

    Daisy is a teacher who works in a primary school. She often plays games with her students so they like her class a lot.

    One day, Daisy decided to have her class play a potato game. She told each student to carry a bag with a few potatoes in it to school. Each student would "name" their potatoes after people they did not like, so the number of potatoes would be different depending on*their own situations.

    The next day, all of the students brought their potatoes to school. Some children had just one or two potatoes, while others had as many as five or six. The children were taking about names of their potatoes happily when Daisy came into the classroom. She then told the children that they would have to carry their potatoes with them for one week wherever they went, even when they went to the restroom. The children laughed and thought the game was really interesting.

    A few days passed by. Some of the students started to complain, as their potatoes began to rot and had a strong and bad smell. The students who carried more potatoes also complained about how heavy their bags were.

    One week later, the kids were so happy to hear their teacher say that the game was over. Daisy asked, "How did you feel about carrying around your potatoes for a week?"

    The students complained once again. Daisy simply smiled and said, "This is what it's like to carry hate* in your heart. You have to carry it with you wherever you go. If you can't bear* carrying rotten potatoes for one week, can you imagine having hate in your heart for your lifetime?"