Which Is More Useful?

    Thomas is in Grade Two now. He goes to school from Monday to Friday. After school he must do some housework. He helps his parents on the farm(农场) on Saturdays and Sundays. So he doesn't have any time to play football in the daytime. He often plays with his friends in the moon(月亮).

    It's five in the afternoon. School is over. Thomas goes home and cooks for his family. After dinner he sees his friend Paul near his house and asks him to play football. The boy looks at the sky and sees the moon. Then he asks, "Which is more useful, the sun or the moon?"

    "I think the moon is," says Thomas. "We need light(光线) in the evening, but we can not see the sun, but the moon!"

    Mike lives in the country, and he loves playing in the river near his house. But his father gets a job in a hospital in a big city, and he moves there with his family.

    Their new house has a garden, but the garden is very small. Mike isn't very happy. "Is there a river near here?" he asks his mother on the first morning.

    "No, there isn't. But there is a beautiful park near here, Mike, and there is a pool in it. We are going there this afternoon."

    Mike becomes happier now.

    After lunch, Mike and his mother go to the park. Mike wants to walk near the pool, but there is a sign in front of it. His mother reads it to him. Warning: This pool is dangerous. 46 people have fallen into it. Mike looks into the pool carefully, and says, "But I can't see them."

    Fans of basketball all know who LeBron James is. His fans like to call him King James. The 33-year-old basketball star was again the best player in the last season of the NBA. The most popular American sports magazine Sports Illustrated also named him the best player for the fourth season in a row (连续).

    King James was born on December 30 in Ohio, the USA. He is 203cm tall and weighs 113kg. He is the perfect combination (结合)of strength, size and speed. Some people see him as the best physical specimen (体格范本)in sport.

    James beat Golden State Warriors' player Stephen Curry, 29, to the number one place, even though Curry had a great season. Last season (2015-2016), the two top players led their teams to the highest rank of the NBA. So people had different ideas about who might be the best player. James finally won the award because he helped his team Cleveland Cavaliers beat Curry's team in the NBA Finals.

    To his fans all over the world, James is the king. He is also a hero to many sports fans in the United Sates, especially in his hometown Cleveland. At a celebration in the city after he won the NBA Finals, James made a short speech and thanked everybody in his team. He said that he could not have won the award without them. He even bought each of them a gold headphone as a gift!

    James also started The LeBron James Family Foundation. It raises money and helps people in need. By now, the foundation has spent $41 million sending poor children to universities in his hometown. Maybe that is another reason why his fans love him so much.

    Last summer holiday, I got a job working at a coffee shop.

    One rainy day, one of my regular customers(顾客)came in. He looked upset. He said he wanted to get in bed, pull the sheets（波单）up over his head, and stay there for a few years. I knew that he was unhappy.

    Before he left, I handed him a bag along with his iced coffee. He was surprised, since he hadn't ordered anything but coffee. I had given him his favorite type of doughnut(油炸图饼).

    "It's on me, "I told him." Have a nice day."

    He smiled and thanked me before heading into the rain.

    The next day, it was still raining. I spent my afternoon hanging out the window handing people their orders. I was wet and cold. Worse, no one was tipping(给小费)that day.

    In the evening, the customer from the day before drove up to the window. He handed me a pink rose and a note. He said that not many people took time to care about others today. With a friendly wave, he drove away.

    I ran to the back of the shop and read the note. It read：Christine, Thanks for being so sweet, kind yesterday. It is so nice to meet someone who's so nice. Please don't change your ways!

    Have a great day!

——Hank

    After that, whenever I felt upset, I thought of Hank and his kindness. Then I would smile, hold my head up high, clear my throat and ask politely, "How can I help you？"

China's 15-year-old Chen Ye won the gold medal in the men's bowl final of skateboarding(滑板男子碗池决赛) at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou on Sept. 25. 2023, 

Chen started getting into this sport at the age of 8. "I remember one day I went to a sports store, and by chance I saw a skateboard. I decided to give it a try, "Chen told China Daily. Although it was really challenging to stay on the board at first, Chen found it very interesting, compared with other hobbies. "Every time I learned some difficult skills, I felt the joy of making breakthroughs(突破), "said Chen. 

Gradually, Chen needed a better skate bowl for training. To meet the need, his father decided to make a skate bowl himself. "He gave up his job and worked on the bowl late into the night, "said Chen. "I'm really thankful for my father's support. "

As a junior high school student, Chen needed to find a balance between his schoolwork and skateboarding. His only "privilege(特权)" was being free from P. E. classes, during which he would do schoolwork because he needed to practice in his own skate bowl for hours after returning home. He trained in the morning, studied in the afternoon and sometimes had to have extra classes with the teachers' help. While getting ready for the competition this year, he trained for more hours at night to avoid interfering(干扰)with daytime classes. 

Looking at seven years of learning skating, Chen said this experience made him stronger and more determined to do something he truly loves. 

 It was Jimmy's birthday and he was five years old. He got a lot of nice birthday gifts from his family, and one of them was a beautiful drum.

" Who gave him that thing?" Jimmy's father said when he saw it." His grandfather did," answered Jimmy's mother.

" Oh," said his father. Of course Jimmy liked his drum very much. He made a terrible noise with it, but his father didn't mind. He was working during the day and Jimmy was already in bed when he got home in the evening, so he couldn't hear the noise.

 But one of the neighbors didn't like the noise at all, so a few days later, she took a knife and went to Jimmy's house while he was hitting his drum. She said to him," Hello, Jimmy, do you know, there is something very nice inside your drum? Here is a knife. Open(打开) the drum and let's find it."