Alan, a boy from India went to study in the UK two years ago. He found a part-time job in a restaurant. Many British students also worked there. Their job was washing the dishes. It was an easy job, but the boss said, "You must wash every dish seven times." At first, Alan was careful. The boss was happy with him. After one month, he found that the boss didn't check very often. He thought there was no difference between five times and seven times. So he just washed five times. He worked very fast. The boss was even happier. One day, a British student asked him why he could wash so fast. Alan told him the secret. The British student was surprised but didn't say anything. A few days later he told the boss about it. The boss fired (解雇) Alan.

    Alan went to other restaurants, but all of them said, "Go away! You are not honest. We don't need you." Alan was sad because he could do nothing.

    Devike was walking home from school. Everything was bad at school. In the morning, she got to school late. In the math test, half her answers were not right and she forgot to do her English homework. The teacher wrote a message in her notebook for her parents to sign.

    She knew her parents would be angry with her. She also knew she had a lot of schoolwork to do. Just thinking about these, she was sad.

    After she got home, her mother gave her a hug(拥抱) and said, "How was your day, dear?" Her little brother Rohit came to her and said," Hi, sister! I miss you.

    Quickly Devika felt better. Of course, her mom would be angry with her poor grades. But she loves her and that is more important. And her little brother always thinks she is smart and beautiful.

    At that time, Devika felt lucky to have such a great family and she didn't worry about her poor grades because the family could comfort(安慰) her when she was sad.

Nowadays, more and more children spend too much time playing mobile phones. It makes parents feel worried. In order to get the children out of the room, the community is going to organize a camp this summer.

In this coming winter vacation, the Students' Union will hold some activities in and out of school: If you want to join them, take a look at the notices and make your own decision.

This is an old story. One day, a man was not happy when his 7- year- old daughter made a box with some paper. The family didn't have much money. So the father thought his daughter wasted the paper. The next day, the little girl gave the box to her father and said," Dad, today is your birthday. This box is for you."

The man was happy. But he was upset when he found there was nothing in the box." Why didn't you put anything for me in the box?" He asked his daughter. The little girl looked at him and cried," Dad, I put my love in the box. It's all for you!"

The man felt moved and said sorry to his daughter. Sometimes, we can't see love with our eyes.

①Researchers have used high technology to learn about a famous painting by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. The painting is called Girl with a Pearl Earring. Vermeer was considered as one of the greatest art masters during the Dutch golden age of painting in the 1600s. 

②The researchers' tests have found out important information about how Vermeer did the painting. He began making the work with brown and black paints on a piece of cloth. Then he drew the girl's outline(轮廓) in black before working from the green background to the foreground. 

③A careful examination even showed where some of the paints came from. The white came from the Peak District in England. The blue was made from a valuable stone found in Afghanistan. The red was made from insects living in Mexico and South America. 

④Abbie Vandivere was the leader of the research project. She expressed surprise that Vermeer used so much blue in the painting, saying, " The blue paint was more valuable than gold in the seventeenth century. " Vermeer, however, did not travel around the world to get the paints. He most probably bought them in his home town of Delft. 

⑤The research findings not only show information about Vermeer's paints, but also tell us about Dutch and world trade in the seventeenth century, Sadly the researchers failed to find out whether the girl ever existed(存在).