Sometime ago I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn't think there would be any difficulty in getting it repaired, as there are a lot of antique (古董) shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception.  I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't even look at my chair.

    The second shop, though a little more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth. I realized that my approach must be wrong so I decided to try another way. I entered the fifth shop with a plan in my mind.  I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, "Would you like to buy a chair? Twenty pounds," I said. "OK. I'll give you twenty pounds for it,"he said. "It's got a slightly broken leg," I added. "Yes, I saw that.  It's nothing," the shopkeeper replied.

    Everything was going according to the plan and I was getting excited. "What will you do with it?" I asked. "Oh, it will be easy to sell after the repair is done.""I'll buy it," I said.  "What do you mean? You've just sold it to me," the man asked in surprise.  "Yes, I know. But I've changed my mind.  I am sorry. I'll give you twenty-seven pounds for it." "You must be crazy," he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. He shouted, "I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair." "You're right,"I said, "And what would you have said if I had walked in and asked you to repair my chair?" "I wouldn't have agreed to do it. We don't do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble.  But I'll repair this for you.  Five pounds will be the cost,"the man answered. He was a very nice man and was greatly amused by the whole thing.

    Last Friday a storm swept through two villages in the New Territories, destroying(摧毁)  fourteen homes. Seven others were so badly damaged that their owners had to leave them, and fifteen others had broken windows or broken roofs. One person was killed, several were badly hurt and taken to the hospital, and a number of other people received light hurt.

    In total, over two hundred people were homeless. Mr Tan said that the storm began early in the morning and lasted for over an hour. “I was eating with my wife and children when we heard a loud noise,” he said. “Several minutes later, our house fell down on top of us. We tried our best to climb out but then I saw that one of my children was missing. I went back inside and found him safe but very frightened.”

    Mrs. Woo said that her husband had just left for work when she felt that her house was moving. She ran outside at once with her children. “There was no time to take anything,” she said. “A few minutes later, the roof came down.”

    Soldiers helped to take people out of the flooded(水淹的) area and the welfare department(福利机构) brought them food, clothes and shelter.

One day, five blind men were walking along, when suddenly they bumped into something very big in front of them. Each one put out his hand and touched it. The first man thought it was a tree —it was tall and round. The second man felt something tall and wide and rough(粗糙的) and said, “Aha! This must be a wall !” The third man touched a very long smooth thing. He guessed this was a spear (矛).Then the fourth man said, “I feel cool. There must be a fan up there. Oh, yes! Here it is!” He touched something big and round that was moving. What did the fifth man find? Well, he started shouting that he was being chased(追赶) by a snake.

    Each man was sure he knew what he had touched, but they were wrong. They finally understood the mystery when the big thing attempted （尝试）to move, and they felt silly because everything they had touched belonged to an elephant.

    Athena was born and raised in Ukraine. Her parents wanted her to become a lawyer or a doctor. But she always knew she wanted to paint. She also realized a career in painting would not be possible if she stayed in her country.

    Even though she was painting in her whole life and it was her passion(热情)but it was only a hobby. And she never really took it to the next level because back in the country all the artists were hungry artists. So she knew for some reason she never took art as a career because she would never be able to make money and be successful in it in several years.

    So. Athena came to the United States when she was 14 years old to pursue(追求)an American Dream. She was clear on her goal. Athena first worked at a health food shop. She began to paint on the shop's menu boards. A customer praised her skill and asked if she would help paint faces at street fairs. Athena says it was a good start. Then she went to FABAIC to start body painting.

    Body painting is quite different from plain painting. And she loves it very much. She says. "With body, you work with the people factor and it's not only you. Maybe they want to talk or move, and they cannot stand still for several days while the painting will last three to four days. When I paint. I can't stop."

My name is Jack. I'm from England. There is a blue and white building on New Street. Its name is Big Day. My home is in this building. 

In front of the building is a park. Many people are in the park with their dogs. My grandmother is there too. Her dog is brown and white. Behind the building is a hotel. And on the right of the hotel is a theatre. It is not very big. I go there with my parents on Sundays. 

From the building, I can see many shops on New Street. There is a big bookshop on the right. It's my aunt's shop. There is a flower shop on the left. I like flowers. The flowers in my room are all from that shop. 

And there is a bus station near the building. Many buses come every day. My parents take the bus to their offices and I take the bus to school too. It's very convenient to live here.