Zhang Lin is a middle school student. He is a good boy. Uncle Wu lives next to him. Uncle Wu has no child and can't see anything. He works in the factory (工厂) near Zhang Lin's school. He goes to work at 7:30 in the morning and comes home at 4:30 in the afternoon. Zhang Lin walks to school at 8:00 in the morning and comes home at the same time as Uncle Wu in the afternoon. On weekdays Zhang Lin gets up early to take Uncle Wu to the factory. After school he takes him home. On Sundays Zhang Lin helps Uncle Wu clean the house and do some cooking. Uncle Wu thanks Zhang Lin very much. He says, “Zhang Lin is a good boy. He is like my son.”

Gemma Burford

    Gemma was born in 1978 in a quiet village in England. Her mother worked in a library and her father worked in a hospital. When she was a student at Oxford University, she traveled (旅行) to Tanzania and met her husband (丈夫), Lesikar, for the first time. They got married (结婚) in 2003 and had their daughter, Lucia, two years later. Now Lucia studies in a small primary school, and Gemma and Lesikar also teach her at home.

 Judy Boehmer

    Adam is Judy's first child. She now has four sons, seven daughters and a pet dog, Bosco. Judy and her husband, Larry, live in Atlanta, Georgia, but they also have a motorhome (野营车). The Boehmers are a circus (马戏团) family and all the children are performers at the circus. The children don't go to school, but study at home. The family travels more than 40,000 kilometers a year for their work. The first show of the Boehmers was at a park in Lowa in 1989, and they now perform all over America.

    A young woman traveled and stayed in a hotel. All the rooms in the hotel were singles(单人间). So she lived in a single room.

    Just when she was going to bed, there was a knock at the door. She had no friends in the city. So she was quite surprised but still opened the door.

    The man who was standing at the door looked a little nervous. "Oh! I'm sorry. I thought this was my room," the man said and walked away in a hurry.

    The woman called the police at once. Soon, the man was caught. He was a thief(小偷)! But how did the woman know that?

    All the rooms in the hotel were singles. Who would knock at his own door if he was staying alone? Only a thief would do this. He wanted to see if anyone was inside before he broke into the room.

    Kelly's favourite subject is PE But she had a hard time in PE classes. She was not good at jumping very far, she had trouble throwing a ball, and she couldn't run really fast. Sometimes, some kids laughed at her .So why does Kelly love PE class?

    The reason is that her teacher Mr Burns always tells her to do her best. Though she only ran for a few minutes, Mr Burns said, "Good job! Next time you will be able to go a little longer."Mr Burns even put a small box on the floor, so Kelly would be able to practise jumping over it.

    That night when Kelly finished dinner, she put three boxes and began practising jumping over them. She made it! Kelly thought to herself, "Tomorrow I will be able to jump over those boxes in the PE class."

    There was a relay race(接力赛)on Tuesday. Kelly was afraid that she would not be able to go very far. When Kelly ran, she heard the kids shouting, "Go Kelly! You can do it!" That was all she needed to hear. Kelly ran fast. She finished first! The kids cheered for her. Kelly felt so good. "Thank you, Mr Burns, "said Kelly." Kelly, you ran in the race, not me." "Yes, but you always said I could do it."

    One day, the teacher held up an apple in class, stood on the platform(讲台) and said, "Please smell the smell in the air!" One student raised his hand and answered, "I have smelled it. It is the smell of an apple."

    The teacher stepped off the platform, passed by each of the students and said," Please smell again to see if the smell of the apple is still in the air."

    Half of the students raised their hands to show that they could smell it. The teacher returned to the front of the classroom and asked again if the students could smell the apple. Everyone raised their hands except one student. The teacher came to the student and asked," You really can't smell the apple?"

    The student answered," No, I can't smell it. I don't think it's a real apple."

    The teacher smiled at the student and said to the class," He is right! This is not a real apple."

    All of the other students were tricked. They might have thought that perhaps the apple was not real, but they didn't have the self-confidence to speak up. They just "followed the leader" and went along with the first student.

    Please remember "Believe in yourself first, and then others will believe in you".