Robert was a greedy（贪婪的）man. One day, he lost 30 gold coins. He went to his friend Mike's house and told him how he lost his gold coins. Mike was kind and decided to help him find them.

    The next day, Mike went to Robert's house and told him he found his 30 gold coins.

    After counting the gold coins, Robert said, "I had 40 gold coins. The of them are missing. You must have taken them. And you should pay me back."

    "No, I didn't take them, "said Mike.

    Robert went to court（法庭）and told the judge（法官）what had taken place between him and his friend.

    "How many gold coins did you find?" the judge asked Mike.

    "Thirty, "answered Mike.

    "How many gold coins did you lose?" the judge asked Robert.

    "Forty, "answered Robert.

    "Then those coins are not yours, "said the judge, "for you lost 40, while your friend found 30."

    Then the judge told Mike to take the 30 gold coins home.

    "If anybody reports that they have found 40 gold coins, I will send them to you, "the judge told Robert.

    Then Robert said that he didn't tell the truth and that he lost 30 gold coins, but the judge did not listen to him.

    Always be honest; dishonesty never pays.

An old carpenter was ready to retire. His boss was 1 to see the good worker go. He asked the carpenter 2 he could build one more house. The carpenter said yes, but his mind was no 3 on his work.

    He used poor materials and worked on the house 4. When the carpenter finished his work, the boss 5 the front-door key to him. "This is your house," he said. "A 6 for you."

    What a surprise! What a 7! If he had known he was building his 8 house, he would have done it differently. Now he had to live in the house he had poorly built.

    9 it is with us. Sometimes we build our 10 carelessly. At important points we do not try our best. Then with a pity we look at the situation we had 11. We find that we are now living in the house we have poorly built. But we don't have a 12 to make it all over again.

    Think of 13 as the carpenter. Think about your life. Build it 14. It is the only life you will ever build because life is a do-it-yourself project.

    Your life today is the 15 of your attitudes and choices you made in the past. Your life tomorrow will be that of your attitudes and choices you make today.

I'm Mrs Green. This summer holiday, I went to London with my husband and our son Sam. We first spent four days visiting some famous places, such as the London Eye and Buckingham Palace. On the fifth day, I was a bit tired and just wanted to stay at the hotel. But Sam didn't want to. He would like to visit the HMS Belfast, a famous warship(战舰)that joined the Second World War(战争). It is on the River Thames as a museum for people to visit now. It is very famous and Sam read about it in a magazine. Well, boys always love these things, so I promised to go with him. 

We took the underground and it took us about twenty minutes to get to the River Thames from our hotel. After walking another ten minutes we finally saw the HMS Belfast. An adult ticket was £ 24. 5 and my husband bought two. Sam was only 13 years old, so his ticket was half price. The HMS Belfast was really large. Sam was interested in everything on it and took lots of photos. He said it was his favourite place on his trip to London. 

Mark and Bert are good friends for most of their lives. A few years ago, when Mark was nine, he developed a serious disease (疾病).The disease took away the boy's eyesight, part of his hearing and his ability to play his favourite sport. However, throughout the years, Bert was still his closest friend. They shared their love of Australian football and enjoyed talking about the Sydney Swans, their favourite team.

Two weeks ago, I took my seat at Sydney Cricket Ground to watch the Swans. The old stadium was full of fans. Shortly into the second quarter(一节), I heard someone describing the match. It was Bert who was bringing the match to life. I turned and saw him. Mark was sitting next to him.

Although he could not see any more, Mark still loved the Swans very much. Usually, he went to the stadium and listened to the match on the radio. However, in the second quarter of that match, the radio broke down. That was when his friend Bert came in.

I hardly paid attention to the Swans and Buddy, the team's star player. Instead, I was listening to Bert and Mark. "What's happening now?" Mark asked. "Don't worry, Mark," Bert said. "Okay. Buddy's got it. Will he go for it? He's going for it! It's his tenth goal! Buddy is on fire!"Mark listened carefully. He was lost in the magic of Australian football and his friend brought the match to life. And I was really moved by this heart-warming moment.

Long long ago, an old king wanted to see what his people were really like, so he 1 old clothes and went for a walk. After a moment, he got 2 . When he asked his people for food, they laughed and threw rocks at him. They didn't know who the 3 man was.

Then the king came to an old house. A poor old man and a poor old woman lived there. They asked the king to 4 with them. The old man made a 5 to make the king warm. And the old woman cooked porridge（粥）for the king.

When the king was eating, there was a knock at the door. The old woman 6 it and saw some people. "My great king, sorry," they said. "We threw rocks because we didn't know you."

"You gave me only bad 7 and rocks when I was hungry. Now get out!" he shouted 8 . The poor old man and the poor old woman were 9 . They thought the king would be angry with them because they only gave him porridge. However, the king said, "You gave me the best you have. You showed me great 10 . I will give money and food to you for the rest of your life."

In 2023, a group of the young drew much attention in their different fields. They have become role models for young Chinese by showing how excellent and active they are. Here are the stories of three of them.

Chinese writer Hai Ya's The Space-Time Painter won an important prize on Oct 21st. He is the third Chinese writer to win this prize. Hai Ya was born in the 1990s. His work mixes history and science. The Space-TimePainter, for example, tells us a story of a painter called Zhao Ximeng. 

15-year-old Chen Yujie won the 100-meter event at the second U15 Gymnasiade (世界中学生运动会) in August. Chen often takes hard training all day and all night. Although it makes her painful sometimes, she says, "I get used to the training and it gives me the chance to realize my dream. I will keep on running!"

On Dec 21st, the members of Shenzhou XVII carried out their first spacewalk outside the Tiangong space station. Among them, Tang Shengjie who was born in 1989 set a new record by becoming the youngest Chinese astronaut (宇航员) to have a spacewalk. "It's the highest honor (荣誉) for me." he said in an interview with Xinhua.