Jim, a young farmer, was once put into prison (监狱).

    One day, he got a letter from his mother. "I'm so worried about our farm," she wrote. "It's time to plant potatoes. I can't dig(挖) all the fields by myself. "

    Jim read the letter and became sad. "What can I do?" he thought. Then he had a good idea. He wrote to his mother, "Don't dig the fields. There's a pot of money in the earth. Don't plant potatoes until I come home."

    Some days later, Jim got another letter from his mother. It said, "Two days ago, about ten men came to our farm and dug all our fields. I can't understand it. It looks as if they were looking for something. What shall I do?"

    Jim smiled when he read his mother's letter. He wrote a letter to his mother at once. It was very short. Guess what it would say?

    Once Effendi had a joke with the Prime Minister（宰相）. He said that the Minister would die the next day. The next day，the Minister fell on to the ground from a horse and really died. When the king learned this，he got angry and sent his men to catch Effendi at once.

    When Effendi was brought to him，the king shouted angrily," Effendi, since you knew when my Minister would die, you must know the date of your own death.

    Say it out, or you'll die today. "Effendi looked at the king for a while.  Then he answered, "But how can I know? I'll die two days earlier than you. "The king was afraid that if he killed Effendi, he himself would die after that. He thought he must keep Effendi alive as long as possible, so he let Effendi go.

    When she was at the age of 9,Katie planted a cabbage seed(种子)in the garden outside her house. She took care of it every day by watering it, weeding(除草)it and giving it plant food. At last, it grew to be HUGE! More than 18 Kilograms huge!

    Katie wanted to do something special with this very special cabbage. With her mom's help, Katie made up her mind to donate(捐赠)it to a local soup kitchen to help feed the hungry people in her community(社区).

    When she arrived to make her donation, she saw a long line of people waiting for food. Then Katie gave her cabbage to the guests. As people thanked her, she knew she could do more to help. With the help of her parents and school, Katie's Krops was born! Katie's Krops creates gardens to grow food that is donned to local soup kitchens to feed the hungry.

    Katie's dream is to end hunger around the world. So, after she created several gardens in her community, she decided to do more. She wanted to help other kids create gardens in their own communities!

    There are now about a hundred Katie's Krops gardens growing all over the United States! Kids between the age of 9 and 16 take care of them.

    In about 1503, during Christopher Columbus's fourth and final trip to America, his ship was seriously damaged in a storm. Columbus and his men had to live on a small island for several months while they tried to repair their ship and return to Spain.

    At first, the local people on the island were very kind to the European visitors, giving them all the food and clothes they needed to survive. However, as the months passed, the local people became more and more unhappy with their guests, who were tricking and stealing from them. Finally the locals decided to stop helping. Without food or any way to leave the island, Columbus's group was soon in serious trouble.

    Luckily for Columbus, he had a book about the stars and planets on his ship. It described the movements of all the objects in the night sky. The book, written by a well-known German scientist, said there would be a total lunar eclipse(月食)and how long it would last.

    Columbus worked out the difference in time between Germany and North America. He then had a meeting with the local leaders just before the eclipse would take place. In this meeting, Columbus told them his god was angry because the local people were no longer giving food. So his god would take away the Moon to punish them. At the moment Columbus finished talking, just as he had planned, the Moon began disappearing.

    The local leaders grew frightened and quickly agreed to provide Columbus with food and anything else he wanted. But first, Columbus's god had to return the Moon. Columbus told them he would have to discuss the idea with his god on his ship. Knowing the Moon would stay completely hidden for about 48 minutes, Columbus returned just before the Moon began to reappear. From that day on, until they finally left, Columbus and his men no longer had any trouble getting the food they needed.