I'm Liu Li. I am a middle school student now. It seems that my life has changed a lot in the last few years. For example, I used to have short hair, but now it grows long. I used to be afraid of the sea because I didn't know how to swim, but now I am a good swimmer in our school. I used to be short but now I'm tall. As for eating, I used to eat meat but now I eat more vegetables than meat. When I was younger, I didn't use to read any books, but now I like reading storybooks. When I was in primary school, I used to play football after school, but now I have to go right home and do homework, I didn't use to like math and I used to be terrified of tests, but now I like all the subjects and never mind tests any more. In the past, I used to have time chatting with my parents, but now I hardly ever chat. I have to study. I miss the old days.

    Things didn't go well for Henry, the village pancake maker. The Great Pancake Contest(比赛) was today. People from different places would try to win the contest .The villagers wanted Henry to win, but Henry had problems. There was not enough wood in the oven to make a pancake. Mice ate half the flour(面粉) during the night.

    The villagers saw that Henry was having problems. The woodsman brought wood for the oven. The farmer gave Henry more flour. This was all very good but he was still missing one more important thing. There was hardly enough time for Henry to make his pancake and take it to the contest. But Henry decided to have a try.

    As fast as he could, Henry put the wood in the oven. When he made the pancake, he thought, "When I had no wood, the woodsman brought me wood; when I had no flour, the farmer brought me flour. My good friends helped me."

    After Henry finished making the pancake, he ran as fast as he could to the contest. "I'm sorry, Henry," one of the judges(评判员) said. "You are too late." Henry's friends were sad for him, but Henry just laughed. "I' m not sad! In fact，I'm happy!" he shouted. "I have good friends who helped me. Now, I have a wonderful pancake to share with them."

    Jack thought himself a basketball fan. He watched quite a lot of American NBA basketball games. Not only did he watch them, he spent much of his free time playing on the court too. Then came the final year of his middle school. All of his regular teammates stopped showing up on the court because they were simply too busy preparing for the high school entrance exam to play. He was, of course, under much stress himself, like everyone else. A good exam result meant a good high school; a mediocre(平庸的) score meant a mediocre school. Much was at stake.

    However, he loved basketball so much that he still found time to play, this time with a group of guys who were said to have skipped classes(逃课) before.

    Some of his teachers started worrying about him. They asked his mother to go to school to let her know that Jack was hanging out with problem kids. When his mother returned home that day, she wanted to talk to Jack. Knowing the purpose of her visit to the school, Jack though his mother would punish him for befriending those bad guys. To his surprise, his mother was not angry with him at all. She wanted to hear her son's side of story. So Jack told his mother about what he knew of Simon and Peter. Simon's parents were badly ill; Peter's father had lost his job. They both seemed to Jack to be normal kids. Jack's mother thought for a moment, and then went on to say that she was OK with her son playing with them and that she and her son should think of ways to help these kids. Soon Jack's mother introduced some part -time jobs to Simon and Peter, which they accepted. She believed in her son and cared about those who were less lucky.

    Jack's basketball friends and he have left for different places, but they still keep in touch. He knows Peter is now a manager of a local bank. Simon is currently a freshman at a university. Sadly, it is impossible to get together to play basketball again, but whenever they get on the phone, they talk about all the time.

    It was Mother's Day. John was so busy with his work that he couldn't go back home. When he passed by a flower shop in the evening, an idea came to his mind, "I'll send mom some roses（玫瑰）."While John was picking his flowers, a young man went inside. "How many roses can I get for only five dollars, Madam?" he asked. The assistant（店员） was trying to tell him roses were as expensive as forty dollars a dozen（一打）. Maybe he would be happy with carnations（康乃馨）.

    "No, I have to have red roses, "he said. "My mom was badly ill last year and I didn't get to spend much time with her. Now I want to get something special, it has to be roses, for roses are her favorite."

    After hearing it, John said he would pay the rest of the money for the young man. Moved by both of them, the assistant said, "Well, lovely young men, thirty dollars a dozen, only for you." Taking the roses, the young man almost jumped into the air and ran out of the shop. It was well worth twenty-five dollars that John paid to see the exciting moment. Then John paid for his dozen of roses and told the assistant to send them to his mother.

    As he walked out, he felt nice. Suddenly he saw the young man crossing the street and going into a park. But soon John realized it was not a park but a cemetery（墓地）. Crying, the young man carefully put down the roses, "Mom, oh, Mom, why didn't I tell you how much I loved you? God, please help me find my mom and tell her I love her."

    Seeing this, John turned and quickly walked to the shop. He would take the flowers home himself.