Once there was a man and a woman. They had been married for more than 60 years. They kept no secrets from each other except that the old woman had a shoe box under her bed. She told her husband never to open or ask about it.

For all these years， he had never thought about the box. But one day the old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would never get better.

The woman said it was time that he should know what was in the box. The old man took the shoe box to his wife's bedside.

When he opened it， he found two beautiful doilies(装饰小垫) and some money. The money was $25,000.

“When we got married，”she said,“my grandmother told me that the secret of a happy family was never to fight. She told me if every time I got angry with you， I should just keep quiet and crochet(编织) one doily.”

The old man was so moved because only two doilies were in the box. He thought she had only been angry with him twice in all those years.

“My dear，”he said， but what about all the money？ Where did it all come from？”

“Oh，”she said，“that's the money I made from selling the doilies. So far， I have sold 2,500 doilies.”

    Shi Li and Cui Jiping are husband and wife. They are disabled. They completed the first Chinese encyclopedic(百科知识的) dictionary for deaf people and people with hearing problems.

    Peter was a small boy. He lived with his parents in a small house near some hills. The people there were all poor.

    One night it was very dry and windy. When everybody was asleep, Peter suddenly heard some noise. It came out from the kitchen. He got up and walked to the kitchen. He found that the wood beside the stove was burning. There was no water tap (水龙头) in the house, so he could not put out the fire. He shouted loudly to wake up everyone in the house. Then he ran out of his house and knocked on the doors of many houses to wake the people up. They all left their houses quickly.

    At last the firemen put out the fire. Many people lost their homes. But luckily, all of them escaped the fire with a whole skin.

March 24^th

    This morning, we had a school trip to the Dashan Collection House, a building of two floors． It is open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm． We took the school bus and arrived at 9:00． When we entered the collection house, our eyes were caught by a collection of old photos of the town on the walls of the front hall． Those photos told us something about the history of the town． And then in the Art Room, we saw many pictures of the countryside． The colors of the flowers and trees are rich and bright． All at once, I lost myself in the beauty of nature．

    Then we went upstairs． On the left, there were over one hundred different clocks． The oldest clock was already more than two hundred years old． To my surprise, the clocks all worked well and they could tell the right time． It was then ten o'clock, and some clocks produced different beautiful sounds． It seemed to be a concert． How amazing!

    On the right there was also a stone collection． The stones were from all over the country． They were in different sizes, colors and shapes． Some looked like different kinds of animals． I really liked one stone that looked like a little monkey． It looked very nice．

    The collections there were wonderful． So they stayed there until 11:30 in the morning． I had a great time and really liked the school trip．

    One Sunday, Jim went to town to buy new clothes. First he tried on a sweater. He didn't like it, so he returned it to the storekeeper. Then he tried on a T-shirt that had the same price as the sweater. Jim was satisfied with the T-shirt, and he left the store with it. Before he climbed on his horse to go home, the storekeeper and the assistant ran out at the same time.

    "You didn't pay for the T-shirt!" said the storekeeper.

    "But I gave the sweater in exchange for the T-shirt, didn't I?" replied Jim.

    "Yes, but you didn't pay for the sweater!" said the storekeeper.

    "But I didn't buy the sweater." said Jim,

    "I am not so stupid to pay for something that I have never bought."

Two men were travelling together through the forest on a lonely path. Before the travelling, they said they would help each other when there was danger. They had not gone far when a bear rushed towards them from some bushes.

One man was a good climber, and quickly climbed up a nearby tree. The other man tried to climb the tree but failed. Looking at his friend in the tree, he shouted loudly for help. The man in the tree was afraid that his friend under the tree would pull him down, so he didn't give his friend a hand.

The man under the tree, seeing that he had no chance alone against the bear, fell to the ground and pretended to be dead. The bear came nearer and nearer. It made his blood run cold.

The bear came to him, lowered its great head, smelled him all over and touched him with its nose. The bear thought the man was dead, so it went off into the forest again without hurting him. After the bear left, the other man came down from the tree, and smilingly asked his friend what the bear had said to him. "For I could see," he said, "that he put his mouth close to your ear."

"He told me to tell you," replied the other, "that you were a great coward(懦夫), and that it is dangerous to travel with a friend who leaves you behind when there is danger."