A few days ago, I ran into（撞上）a stranger as he passed by. I said sorry to him, and he said, "Excuse me too, I wasn't even watching for you.” We were very polite, this stranger and I.  Then we went on our way after saying goodbye.

       Later in the kitchen at home, as I cooked our meal, my daughter Betty walked up to me, very quietly. When I turned around (转身), I nearly knocked her down  "Get out of the way!" I shouted angrily. She ran away, crying.

That night, when I lay in bed, my husband said to me, “You were so rude to Betty. Go and look around on the kitchen floor, and you'll find some flowers there. Betty brought those for you. She picked them herself-pink, yellow, and your favourite blue.''

       When I heard this, I thought deeply: While meeting with a stranger, I was calm and polite; but with my daughter, I was not patient.  I felt sad and tears began to fall.

I quietly went to Betty's bed, "Wake up, my dear," I said. "Are these the flowers you picked for me?" She smiled, “I found them by the tree. I knew you'd like them, especially the blue.” I said, ‘‘I am so sorry that I treated (对待) you that way today." And she whispered（悄声地说）, “Mommy, that's okay- I still love you anyway.'' I kissed her and said, “I love you too and I do love the flowers.”

       That day Betty gave me a lesson on how to get along with each other in the family. I spent much time on work before and didn't realize how important family life was. I decided to do better in the future.

    Canadian Geese are large blue and white birds. When autumn comes, they have to fly south where the weather is warmer. The winters are so cold in Canada that the birds will die if they stay there.

    Last spring, Bill Lishman found sixteen young Canadian Geese on his farm. They had lost their parents. Bill thought, "These young birds won't know what to do in the autumn." He had a small plane and he decided to teach the birds to follow him. All through the summer, he went on short trips in his plane and the young geese flew after him.

    When the cold weather arrived in the autumn, Bill flew to Virginia in the United States, 600 miles south of his home in Canada. The geese followed him all the way. Bill left the geese in Virginia and he returned home.

    This spring, Bill was waiting for the birds to come back. They didn't arrive, so Bill flew to Virginia to get them. He looked for them for two weeks, but he couldn't find them. When he arrived back home, he found the geese waiting for him. They had found their way home without him!

    John is a very strong man. He gets a job of cutting(砍) trees in a forest. His boss gives him an axe and showed him the area where he should work.

    The first day, John cuts down 18 trees. "Good," the boss says, "keep it up!" happily, John  tries harder the next day, but he only cuts down 15 trees. The third day he tries even harder, but he can only cut down 10 trees. Day after day he cuts down fewer and fewer trees.

    "I must be losing my strength(力气)," John thinks. He goes to the boss to say sorry and says that he can not know what is going on. "When is the last time you sharpen(锋利) your axe?"  the boss asks. "I'm busy cutting trees, so I have no time to do it. "

    The moral of this story: While John is working hard, he doesn't work “smart”. He doesn't think about the best way to do his job.

    Do you know any 9-year-olds who have started their own museums? When Theodore Roosevelt was only nine, he and two of his cousins opened the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History". The museum was in Theodore's bedroom. It had a total of 12 specimens. On display were a few seashells, some dead insects, and some birds' nests. Young Roosevelt took great pride in his small museum.

    Born in New York in 1858, Theodore Roosevelt was not always healthy. "I was a sickly boy", he once wrote. Roosevelt had a health condition called asthma. He often found it hard to breathe. Instead of playing, he watched nature and then read and wrote about it.

    Roosevelt's interest in nature sometimes got him into trouble. Once, his mother found several dead mice in the icebox. She demanded that the mice be thrown out. This was indeed "a loss to science", Roosevelt said later.

    Because Roosevelt was often sickly as a boy, his body was small and weak. When he was about 12, his father asked him to improve his body. Roosevelt began working out in a gym. He didn't become strong quickly. But he did decide to face life's challenges with a strong will. That determination stayed with Roosevelt his whole life. And eventually his body did get strong. As an adult, he was an active and healthy person. He enjoyed adventures, and he loved the outdoors.

    A toy company named the teddy bear for Theodore "Teddy". After knowing that, Roosevelt refused to shoot a baby bear while hunting.

    In 1900, at the age of 41, Roosevelt was elected Vice President. A year later, President McKinley, was shot and killed. Roosevelt became our 26^th President. At 42, he was the youngest leader the country had ever had.

    One afternoon, Mrs. Smith decided to visit her friend Mrs. Green. Mrs. Green lived in a nice house with a large garden in the countryside. Mrs. Smith took her dog with her. While the women were having coffee outside the house, the dog was running around in the garden. The two friends were surprised when the dog appeared with a dead rabbit in his mouth. Mrs. Green began to feel sick because she knew that her neighbor kept rabbits in a hutch (兔窝) in his garden. As the dog and the rabbit were both covered with dirt, the woman took the rabbit and carefully cleaned it in the bathroom. When it got dark, they went quietly into the neighbor's garden and put the dead rabbit into the hutch.

    The next afternoon, Mrs. Green's neighbor found her in the garden with the dead rabbit. She walked to the neighbor and she felt very afraid. Because she knew she did something wrong. “You know what?” her neighbor said. “Yesterday morning I found one of my rabbits dead in the hutch. So I put it in the ground in the garden and this morning, it's back to the hutch! I'm going to take it to a right pet cemetery (墓地).” he said secretly.

Two months ago, Kate finished middle school. She left her hometown and came to the city. Her aunt helped her find work in a factory. It was small and offered {#blank#}1{#/blank#} rooms to the workers. She wouldn't drop it {#blank#}2{#/blank#} it was difficult for her to find another job there. She had to find a room for {#blank#}3{#/blank#} ( she). As she didn't have enough money, she had to rent one outside the city. It was about half an hour by bus. The farmer and his family lived on the first floor. They rented all the others on the second and {#blank#}4{#/blank#} ( three) floors to the workers. So they built an attic(阁楼) on {#blank#}5{#/blank#} of the building for the girl. It was low and small. She couldn't {#blank#}6{#/blank#}( easy) go to sleep in the hot night. She had to stay in it, hoping {#blank#}7{#/blank#} ( find) a better room one day.

A month later, Kate went to pay the farmer for the rent. She found hers was the {#blank#}8{#/blank#} of all the boarders(房客). It made her feel strange and she asked," My room is the smallest and the lowest, you know. But why do I have to pay more rents than any other boarder, sir?"

At first the farmer didn't know {#blank#}9{#/blank#} to answer her. He thought and thought and at last he said," Nobody {#blank#}10{#/blank#} ( use) all our steps except you."