B

    A driver stopped his car on a street side to have a rest. As he lay down in the seat and closed his eyes, a person came up and knocked at the window to ask the time. The driver opened his eyes and looked at his watch. “It's five past eight.” he said. Then he went to sleep again. But soon he was waken up again because a second person was knocking at the window. “Excuse me, what time is it now?” He asked. The driver looked at his watch again, and told him it was half past eight.

    In this way, the driver thought he couldn't have a good rest, so he wrote a short note and stuck(贴) it on the window for all to see. It said, “I don't know the time.” Again, he lay down in the seat for his sleep. A few minutes later, a third person came and began to knock at the window, “Hey, sir.” He said, “It's a quarter to nine.”

    William Shakespeare was a writer of plays and poems. Some of his most famous plays are Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth. He wrote thirty-seven plays in all. They are still popular today.

    He was born in England. At school he liked watching plays. He decided to be an actor when he finished school at the age of fourteen. In 1582,he married a farmer's daughter. She was eight years older than he was. Their first child was a daughter. Later they had twins. In 1585, Shakespeare left his hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon. His wife and children stayed behind. No one knows why he left or what he did between 1585 and 1592.

    At twenty-eight, he moved to London and joined a theatre company which opened the Globe Theatre in 1599.He became an actor, and he also wrote plays. He usually acted in his own plays. He made almost no money from his writing. But he made a lot of money from acting. With the money he bought a large house in his hometown.

    At the age of forty-nine, Shakespeare retired（退休）and went to live in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died at the age of fifty-two in 1616. He left his money to his family. He left the genius（天才）to the world. You still see his plays in English and in many other languages. He is one of the most famous writers in the world.

    Mr. Green made a robot. He could say only one sentence—“There is no doubt (疑问) about it.” The robot always repeated the same words when you spoke to him.

    One day, Mr. Green needed lots of money and he took the robot to the market to sell him. “Who will buy my robot? He is very smart,” he shouted, “Twenty thousand dollars for my robot!”

    A man was surprised that he was asking for so much money. Instead of asking Mr. Green why he wanted so much money, he decided to speak to the robot. “Are you worth (值) twenty thousand dollars?” he asked the robot. “There is no double about it,” answered the robot.

    The man liked the robot's answer so much that he bought him and carried him home. But very soon he found that the robot could say nothing else. He was sorry he bought the robot. He stood in front of the robot and said, “How foolish I was to throw so much money away！”

    “There is no doubt about it,” said the robot.

    Sydney Fredette is very busy. Not only is she a high school student, but she has also set up her own organization（组织）, Beary Merry Christmas. She volunteers(志愿) to offer services to poor children and families in Orange Country in California, US.

    To remember her best friend who died of cancer nearly 10 years ago, Fredette decided to offer services to those in Orange Country who are less lucky than she is.

    She began with the easy idea of collecting donated(捐赠) Build-A-Bears, the popular toy animal that is made by children themselves in the stores' workshops. Fredette then gave them as presents to the homeless children in California during the holiday season.

    With donations at more than 100 bears a year, Fredette and volunteers hold activities every year, where volunteers not only give out the bears, but also clothing, meals, and other things.

    Not wanting to limit(限制) the giving to just the holiday months, Fredette held other activities for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Halloween, offering the chance to her volunteer team to make a difference through the year.

    "I love making friends with the people I offer services to," Fredette said. "It's so cool to hear their stories and see how happy they are."

    Fredette even built a public food bank and offered a self-development class to students in her school.

    She plans to stay local and continue to help out in her hometown.