Zach has a stepson， Bradley. One day， Zach drove over to meet Bradley. Bradley was a student in a high school. He neither liked nor disliked Zach， even though he had known Zach for three years. Zach was still trying to get along with Bradley. He told Bradley that he was coming over. Bradley said OK. When Zach got there， he asked if Bradley wanted to drive his car. Bradley had a driver's license. Bradley said all right. Zach told him not to drive too fast， but he could drive anywhere he wanted. Bradley got on the 210 Road and headed northwest. Zach gave Bradley a few driving tips： Don't drive next to big cars； don't drive behind trucks with goods...

    On their way back， Zach suggested that they stop at the golf course(高尔夫球场). He wanted to show Bradley how to play golf. But Bradley didn't like it； he liked his video games. However， Bradley soon found that playing golf was fun and he did very well. The next day， Bradley， for the first time， called Zach. Bradley asked if Zach would come the next Saturday， so they could take a drive and go to the golf course again. Zach said yes， with a happy feeling in his heart.

    When the three children arrived at the tunnel, they looked up at the trees above it.

    "What's happening?" Peter said. "Look at the trees. They're moving."

    He was right. The trees were sliding down the hill.

    "It's a landslide," Roberta said. "There has been a lot of rain. The earth is soft. It is moving and bringing the trees with it."

    "They are going to fall on the railway line," Phyllis said. "There'll be an accident if the train hits them. We must stop the next train."

    "How do we do that?" Peter said. "The next train is arriving at 11:29. That's in five minutes. And the train is only about fifteen kilometers away."

    "We can run towards the train and wave to the driver," Phyllis said.

    "He won't think there is anything wrong," Roberta said. "We always wave to him."

    "We need something red to wave,"Peter said."Red is for danger."

    "My skirtis red,"Phyllis said."I'll tear pieces off."

    "Mother will be angry if you do that,"Roberta said."Skirts are expensive."

    "People may die if there is an accident,"Peter said."Skirts aren't important."

    Phyllis tore strips(条)from the bottom of her skirt.

    "We need sticks to tie the strips to,"Peter said.

    The children ran to a nearby tree. With his knife, Peter cut off three thin branches. He tied each of the strips of red skirt to one of the branches.

    "Now we have red flags," he said. "When we wave these, the engine driver will know something is wrong. He will stop the train and ask us what the matter is."

    The children ran through the tunnel and waited at the other side for the train to come. They had to wait for a long time. Peter thought the watch must be wrong, but it was the train that was late. Then, the train arrived. The children waved their flags. Roberta was so excited that she fainted(晕).

    The engine driver saw the red flags and the children. He knew something was wrong. He stopped the train. Peter and Phyllis ran towards the engine. They shouted to the driver that there were trees on the line. The engine driver climbed down from his engine. He hurried to where Roberta was lying on the ground in a faint. He picked her up and carried her to the train and put her in a comfortable carriage.

    There was a time when no one knew the name Harry Potter. Now the adventures of this extraordinary student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are read in over 45 languages, including Russian, Thai, and even ancient Greek. No one can explain the Harry Potter phenomenon (现象) – not even J.K. Rowling, his creator.

    J.K. Rowling was born in England in 1965. From a young age, she knew she wanted to be a writer. When she was 6, she wrote her first story—about a rabbit that gets sick. At school, she used to make up stories to tell her friends.

    After graduation from college, she worked as a secretary. But she didn't give up her dream.She spent her lunch hour writing stories, mainly for adults. Then in 1990, on a train trip to London,she got the idea from the boy wizard. She says he just appeared in her head. She soon created many other characters to help Harry fight the forces of darkness.

    She kept working on the story while she was teaching English in Portugal, where she married, had her first child, and divorced (与……离婚) a year later. When she returned to England, she brought back a box of Harry Potter stories.

    After returning home, she was broke and living in a small house. She continued writing, and in 1995, finished the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was published (出版) in 1997 and became an unexpected bestseller.

    Rowling's life has changed a lot. She has become internationally famous and now earns around $40 million a year. She remarried, had a second child and lives in Scotland now.

    Frank was a very talkative little boy. He never saw a new thing without asking a great many questions about it.

    His mother was very patient and kind. When it was proper to answer his questions, she would do so. Sometimes she would say, "You are not old enough to understand that, my son. When you are ten years old, you may ask me about it, and I will tell you." When his mother said this, Frank never bother(烦扰)her any more. He knew she always liked to answer him when he asked proper questions.

    The first time Frank saw an hourglass, he was very much interested, but he did not know what it was. His mother said, "An hourglass is made in the shape of the figure 8. The sand is put in at one end and runs through a small hole in the middle. As much sand is put into the glass as will run through in an hour."

    Frank watched the little stream of sand. He was impatient, because it would not run faster. "Let me shake it, mother," said he, "it is lazy, and will never get through."

    "Oh, yes, it will, my son," said his mother, "The sand moves by little and little, but it moves all the time. When you look at the hands of the clock, you think they go very slowly, and so they do, but they never stop. While you are at play, the sand is running, grain by grain(一粒粒). The hands of the clock are moving, second by second. At night, the sand in the hourglass has run through twelve times. The hour hand of the clock has moved all around its great face. This because they keep at work every minute. They do not stop to think how much they have to do, and how long it will take them to do it."

    Now, Frank's mother wanted him to learn a little hymn(赞美诗), but he said, "Mother, I can never learn it."

    His mother said, "Study all the time. Never stop to ask how long it will take to learn it. You will be able to say it very soon."

    Frank followed his mother's advice. He studied line after line, very busily; and in one hour and a half he knew the hymn perfectly.

    He was an old man who fished alone in a small boat on the sea and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish, the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now salao, which was the worst form of unluck, and the boy had gone with another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his boat empty. The sail looked like the flag of failure forever.

    The old man was thin with deep wrinkles(皱纹)in the back of his neck. His face was terribly brown because of the strong sunlight on the sea every day and his hands had the deep scars(伤疤)from dealing with heavy fish on the lines. But none of these were fresh. Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same colour as the sea and were cheerful.

    "Santiago," the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from the sea. "I could go with you again. We've made some money."

    The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.

    "No, "the old man said." You're with a lucky boat. Stay with them."

    "But remember how you went eighty-seven days without fish and then we caught big ones every day for three weeks."

    "I remember," the old man said.

    "It was papa who made me leave. I am a boy and I must follow him."

    "I know," the old man said. "It is quite normal."

    "He hasn't much faith(信心)."

    "No," the old man said." But we have. Haven't we?"

    "Yes," the boy said. "Can I offer you a beer on the Terrace?"

    "Why not?" the old man said. "Between fishermen."