Betty loved only one thing in life—chocolates. She enjoyed every kind, like chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream（冰淇淋）and so on.

On Betty's birthday, her best friend, Lisa, wanted to prepare(准备) her dinner at a restaurant.

  “Well, today is my birthday and I can order anything, right?”Betty asked Lisa.

  “I guess so,” said Lisa, “But you shouldn't eat too much.”

    At the restaurant, Betty ate a lot of chocolates and a large box of chocolate ice cream. When the dinner ended, she didn't look well.

 “You surely ate a lot!”Lisa said to her.

 “I know, but now I need something else.”Betty said.

 “What? More chocolate?”Lisa asked.

 “No, a doctor.” Betty said, “I'm not feeling（觉得）well.”

The summer vacation started on June 26th. Jerry wanted to find a job in the city. One day he saw an advertisement(广告) in a window. It said, "Wanted: The best salesman(推销人员) in the world. Top Pay."

    "I'm a great salesman," Jerry said to himself. "I'm sure that I can sell anything. I'll go in and ask for that job."

    So Jerry went into the building. He saw a manager in it. He said to the manager, "Good morning. I saw your advertisement. I think I'm the best salesman in the world. Give me the job, please."

    "You must prove(证明)that you're the best," the manager said.

    "I'll pass every test that you give me," Jerry said.

    "Good," the manager said, and he took a box of sweets out of his desk. "Last week I bought a thousand boxes of the sweets. If you can sell them all before the end of the week, you can have the job."

    "That's easy," Jerry said.

    He took the boxes of sweets and left the office.

    Every day and all day he went from shop to shop, trying to sell boxes of the sweets. But he couldn't sell one. The sweets were so bad that he couldn't even sell them.

    At the end of the week, he went back to the manager. "I'm sorry, sir," he said. "I was wrong about myself. I'm not the best salesman in the world, but I know who is."

    "Oh," said the manager. "Who do you think is the best?"

    "The person who sold you a thousand boxes of the sweets."

    My grandfather is eighty years old now．He always complains about how fast things have changed, and he often says that life used to be better．

    Families aren't families they used to be．A lot of families have broken up．If husband and wife have problems with their marriage, they no longer stay together．And mothers used to stay at home and take care of their children, but now not any more．Everyone is busy working．Mother used to spend all day cooking in the kitchen．But now the family don't eat home-cooked food any more．

    And the cars! No one walks any more．More and more people drive．Students used to walk 5 miles to school every day, even in winter．But now students don't．And in school, children don't have to think any more．In math class, for example, they used to add, subtract, multiply and divide(加减乘除)in their heads．Instead, they use calculators(计算器)．

    And people today have TV and computers, and they don't talk to each other any more．They are too busy to talk, too busy to eat, too busy to think…．

    Life used to be simple, but it isn't any more．

    Tony Wheeler was born to travel. His father worked for an airline. For the first 16 years of his life, Wheeler and his family lived in many different countries.

    In the early 1970s,Tony met a young woman named Maureen. They soon married. Before getting jobs, Tony and Maureen wanted to travel. They took a year long trip from England, through Asia, to Australia. On the trip,they visited places like Iran(伊朗),India, and so on.

    When Tony and Maureen arrived in Australia, people asked many

questions about their trip. To answer these questions, Wheeler wrote a book called Across Asia on the Cheap. The book told people about different countries' weather, customs (风俗), and places to see. But unlike other travel books then,Tony Wheeler's book also talked about places most tourists did not go. He also wrote about unusual things to see and do. The book was very popular.

    Tony and Maureen started a company called Lonely Planet. They

continued travelling. They wrote books for each place they visited. Today,800 people work {or Lonely Planet. The company has over 650 books. Tony Wheeler,the great traveller, still writes about travels to many places and will bring us more surprises.

I grew up in a small town in Washington, US, and I want to be like my brother, Tim. He and his friends were in a gang. They often beat up people, and they didn't go to school much. I thought they were cool. 

On my thirteenth birthday, I told my brother I wanted to be in the gang with him. He said 'no', but I didn't listen. I went to ask his friends. Tim's friends took me into the back yard. They told me that if I joined the gang, I was in for life. Then, someone hit me in the face. I fell down. But I didn't cry. Each time I got up, they hit me again. Finally, they said I could be one of them. 

Tim was angry when he heard about it. But I stayed with the gang. After a few months, I began to beat up other people with the gang. Sometimes I wouldn't go home at night, and my mother would be worried. This went on for two years. I knew it was bad, but there nothing I could do. I was in for life.

One day, someone hit me in the head. I spent a day in the hospital. For the first time, I wanted out of the gang. One night after my fifteenth birthday, I went home. My mother was in the hospital. She had a nervous breakdown (精神崩溃) because she was so worried about me. That made me very sad. The next day, I told the gang that I wanted out. They began to beat me up, and my brother stopped them. I got up off the floor, smiled and said goodbye. But they didn't just stop there. Every time they saw me, they beat me up. This went on for about two months. But in the end, it stopped. I'm glad I'm out of the gang now. I don't have to be afraid all the time. I can talk to anyone I want. And most of all, I made my mum happy again.

Birthdays of My Family

There are five people in my family. My (1) birthday is in January. We(2)看电视on her birthday and eat a big birthday cake(蛋糕). March is the (3) month of a year. In my family, we have three birthdays in March.(4) My sister's birthday is on March 6th. My birthday is on March 16th. My grandfather's birthday is in March, too. My father's birthday is on (5)12月26日.

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