Who is the greatest teacher in Chinese history? Many people would think of Confucius, whose birthday was September 28. Although he lived over 2,000 years ago, people still remember and respect him for his contribution to the education today.

 Confucius lived in the Kingdom of Lu, which lies in Shandong Province. He lived during the Spring and Autumn Period. He had a hard childhood. His father died when he was only 3. His mother brought him up. As a child, he had to work to help his mother, but young Confucius didn't give up studying. He visited many famous teachers and learned music, history, poetry and sports.

 Later, he became a teacher and started the first public school in Chinese history. At that time only children from noble families could go to school, but Confucius believed everyone should go to school if they wanted to learn. He had about 3,000 students in his lifetime.

Today, people still follow Confucius' lessons. He told us that we all have something worthy to be learned. "When I am with three people, one of them must be better than me in some areas. I choose their good qualities and follow them.”

 He also taught us that thinking is very important in study. “All study but no thinking makes people puzzled (困惑的). All thinking but no study makes people lazy.”

 Confucius is not only a great teacher, but also a famous thinker with wise thoughts about the world and society. His most important teachings are about kindness and good manners. “A person should be strict with himself, but be kind to others.” he said.

     Maybe everyone likes dogs, and almost everyone likes to read stories about dogs.
　  I have a friend. He has a large police dog named Jack. Police dogs are very clever. Every Sunday afternoon my friend takes Jack for a long walk in the park. Jack likes these long walks very much.
　  One Sunday afternoon a young man came to visit my friend. He stayed a long time. He talked and talked. Soon it was time for my friend to take Jack for his walk. But the visitor still stayed. Jack became very worried. He walked around the room several times and then sat down in front of the visitor and looked at him. But the visitor paid no attention to Jack. He went on talking. At last Jack got angry. He went out of the room and came back a few minutes later. He sat down again in front of the visitor, but this time he took the visitor's hat in his mouth. The visitor saw it and was surprised. He laughed and left.

    My cousin Bill likes going to the beach on Sunday. There was much sunshine that day. He went there with his brother. They got there at 9:00. There were lots of people there on vacation. Bill and his brother sat down and began to relax.

    Soon Bill found there were lots of empty water bottles on the beach. He also saw some paper bags on the beach. That made Bill sad. He and his brother began to work. To clean the beach, they worked hard. About two hours later, the beach was clean again.  At last they put up a sign, saying, "No Littering(乱扔)" on the beach. They wanted people to keep the beach clean. After that, they were very hungry. So they went to a restaurant nearby to have lunch. They had two large bowls of beef noodles there, and then went home.

    Helen is a kind and hard-working girl. Her father is a bus driver, and her mother is a worker. They're busy every day and sometimes they have no time to cook for their daughter. So her mother teaches her to cook some simple food. Helen learns very quickly and soon she can cook pancakes(煎饼) and hot dishes.

    Today is Sunday. Helen is free. She hopes her parents can eat hot food when they get home. She cooks some pancakes first. Then she wants to cook tomato soup, but she doesn't know how much salt(盐) she should put into the soup. She puts spoons(勺) of salt. Her parents are very happy after they see the hot pancakes and soup on the table. But they look very painful(痛苦的) after having the soup. "Oh dear Helen, how much salt did you put into the soup?" Her parents ask and begin laughing.