It was Mary's birthday. She received a letter from her uncle1  was a farmer.

“Dear Mary,” the letter said. “Happy birthday . I am sending you some2 as your birthday present.They will arrive tomorrow. I hope you will like them. Best wishes, Uncle Toby. ”

  Mary liked eating eggs and 3 .When the chickens arrived the day, they were in a box. Mary was very 4 .She took the box off the truck and began to carry it into her garden. 5 , the box was heavy and she dropped it . The chickens all ran out .They ran everywhere, into the road , into the shops , even into the next street. It6Mary many hours to find them and take them back to her garden.

  A few days later uncle came.”Did the chickens arrive 7?” he asked Mary.”Yes,Uncle Toby.”Mary said.” 8 I had lots if trouble with them. I dropped the box. It broke and the chickens ran everywhere.I spent the whole afternoon9them.”“Did you find them all?” her uncle asked.”I hope so,”Mary replied.”I caught eleven of them.””That's very interesting,”her uncle said 10 a smile,”because I only sent you six.”

    Students in high schools can be cruel and we certainly refer to a young man named Matt who was in my class. We laughed at him about his1. He was at least fifty pounds overweight.

    One day he sat near me in a2. Someone pushed him and he3on me and hurt my foot quite badly. With the whole class 4, I had to choose either5 it off or have a fight with him. I chose to fight in order to keep my 6.

I shouted, “ Come on, Matt, let's fight.” He said he didn't want to. But peer pressure(同伴的压力)7 him into the fight whether he liked it or not. He came toward me with his fists(拳头) in the air. With one8I bloodied(弄出血) his nose and the classroom became9. No one dared to say a word. Just then the teacher walked into the classroom, He saw that we were 10 and sent us out to the playground.

    He followed us with a11on his face and said, “I want you two boys to go out there and run that mile holding each other's hands.” The room broke into laughter. The two of us were12, but Matt and I went out to the track and ran our mile 13.

During the course of our run, I looked at him, with blood still flowing from his nose and his14slowing him down. It hurt me that here was a person, not all that different from myself. I no longer saw Matt as fat. It was amazing what I learned I was forced to go hand-in-hand with someone for only one mile.

    For the rest of my life I have never15 a hand against another person. I know it is wrong to do so.

    Henry loved books, but not like you and I love books. Henry loved to1books. It all began quite by mistake one afternoon when he wasn't paying attention. He wasn't sure at first, and tried eating only one2Just to test.

    Next, he tried a whole sentence and then a whole page. Yes, Henry liked them very much. By Wednesday, he had eaten a whole book. He was3them very fast.

    And by the end of the month he could eat a whole book in one go.

But here is the best bit: The4he ate, the smarter he got.

    He ate a book5goldfish and then he knew what to feed. Before long he could do his father's crossword in the newspaper…, and was even smarter than his teacher in school.

    Henry loved being smart. He 6 that if he kept going, he might even become the smartest person on earth. So he kept eating books about anything. Henry wanted to know7all.

    8the thing started going not so well. In fact, they started going very, very wrong Henry was eating too many books, and too9at that. He was beginning to feel a little ill.

    Everything Henry was10was getting mixed up. I he didn't have11to digest(消化)it. It became quite difficult for him to speak.

    Suddenly Henry didn't feel very smart at all.

    More than one person told him he should12eating books. So Henry gave up eating books and sat13for a long time. What was he to do?

    Then, after a while, and almost by accident. Henry14it up a half-eaten book from the floor. But instead of putting it in his15Henry opened it up …

    …and began to read. And it was so good.

    It was Day 1 of our vacation on Cortes, a beautiful quiet island. "iPhone, iPhone, iPhone," my son kept moaning (呻吟). In front of him was a big window of facing the blue ocean. And a Coo gentle wind was coming in from the door. Clearly, he saw and felt none of it.

    Back at home, I'd soon give up and hand the phone over to him after five minutes of listening to this kind of moaning

    But not here. Before we left, I had told my, 10-year-old son the rule-no e-mails, no Facebook, no video games, and no iPhone. We came here to get away from them all' Here we were on our first day and already, he couldn't stand it.

    ____________I walked down the grass road to the beach and looked out to the sea. My 6-year-old daughter and my husband were drawing on pieces of wood. They were doing just fine.

    On Day 2, we spent the whole morning digging for shells(贝壳). This time, my son joined us. He collected .shellfish and other sea treasures. When we got back to our little wood house, I gave my son a book, and put him on the lovely garden chair. It was almost dinner when he looked up.

    The next few days passed in peace.

    On Day 6, my son was lying beside me on the beach, watching the sun going down. He was playing with the sand. And there was somethingshining.in his eyes, I realized how time slowed down for both of us. It was exactly what I wanted. Finally, we were able to sit quietly, without thinking about screens, phone calls and e-mails.

    A week away from all the electronics and life is good.