"Listen carefully to what I say," the time traveler said, "I shall tell you something that you will not agree."  

 "Why will we not agree?" I asked.

 "Because the science and mathematics you know are not correct,"  he said. "You believe there are only three dimensions(三维空间)-length, breadth(宽) and thickness." 

 "There is nothing to argue with that, " the youngest member of our little group said.

 "Exactly!"  the time traveler answered, "But there is also a fourth dimension - time."   

 "We all know about time, " another member of the group said. "Time passed."

 "I do not agree,"  the time traveler said, "Length, breadth and thickness do not pass. They stay in the same place in space.  We move about them. I can prove that time is the same. It does not pass. We move in time the same way that we move in breadth, length and thickness."

 None of us believed the time traveler, and we argued with him for many hours.

 "If we could travel back in time,"  the scientist said, "We could do things to change the future." 

 "If we could travel forward in time," the doctor(博士) said, "we could do things that change our present." 

 The time traveler smiled, "It is clear," he said, "that there is only one way I can show you that I am right. We must do an experiment. Please wait here." 

 He left the room and soon returned, carrying what looked like a clock.

 "This is a model of a time machine. It took me two years to make it," the time traveler said. "I want all of you to understand that when I start the machine, it will immediately travel in time and disappear from the present." 

 He turned to the youngest of all. "Give me your hand," he said.

 The young man put out his hand. The time traveler took it and placed it on the machine. Immediately, there was a sudden wind, and the little machine disappeared.

 I was certain this was not a trick, but the doctor was not so sure.

 "Are you asking us to believe," he said, "that the machine is now in a different time?" 

 "Certainly! In my laboratory, a full-size machine is almost complete. As soon as it is complete, I shall send myself on a journey through time. Would you like to see my machine?"

 "Are you serious about this?" the doctor asked.

 "I have never been more serious about anything," the time traveler said, "Come." 

We followed him to his laboratory. There, we saw the actual machine, not quite complete, but large enough for a man to sit in.

      I walked quickly out of my church. It was late. My dad was waiting. I stared at the parking lot. Then I saw my dad's little red Honda. “Get in! Get in! Why are you so late all the time?”

      The ride home was not much more than five minutes but each minute moved slowly. We were stuck behind an old man. He wasn't going more than 15 kilometers an hour. My dad started to shout, “Learn how to drive, Grandpa!” He hit the steering wheel(方向盘) with his hands. He was really angry.

      “Dad, stop it. Why do you always…?” He cut me off, “I'd not get stuck at the light without this fellow!” The old man got to the light just as it was changing. “You're free! Drive away quickly,” I thought. I looked over my dad. “Can you believe that, Steph? I get stuck at every light. There are so many stupid drivers out there, he said angrily.

      Who gives him the right to shout at someone? Anger built inside me. “What if I shouted at my friends when they asked me for help?” I said. I looked out of the window, trying to catch my breath.

      “You know, Steph, I think you are going to be a psychologist(心理学家),” he said. I remembered the last time I tried to say something, he had fumed, “Don't tell me how to drive! If I want your opinion, I'll ask for it! Think about what you say before you talk.”

      Usually, he'd be angry that I would doubt his authority (权威), but this time, he accept what I had said. A sense of pride rose up in me. It had been a short drive, but it had been the best car ride of my life.

Jodie's Daddy Is a Garbageman (垃圾清理工)

    Mr. Swales wanted to find out what his students' parents did. He had just called Jodie when some girls laughed. Shirley shouted, “Jodie's daddy is a garbageman!”

    Everybody in the class laughed out loudly, except Jodie. She felt her face turn red.

    “Silence!” Mr. Swales said, “Being a garbageman is a difficult and useful job. We should all be grateful to Jodie's father.”

    Jodie's father came to walk her home from school as usual, but she didn't run up to him as she always did. When they got back home, Jodie went to her room and cried for a long time.

    Her father came into her room, “What happened, Jodie? Why are you so sad?”

    Jodie told her father what had happened and looked at him. He didn't seem angry or hurt. “Well,” he said, “they are right. Being a garbageman is a dirty job. Tomorrow's Saturday. Come to work with me, Jodie.”

    The place really smelt too bad. Jodie wrinkled her nose. “Don't worry, kid. In five minutes, you won't smell a thing.” said her father.

    Everybody there was working hard, and they seemed to have a good time. Jodie's father handed her a pair of gloves and told her to get the little plastic bags and throw them into the truck.

    It was fun, but also hard work. Jodie's arms soon got tired. At last, no more garbage was left and Jodie felt very happy.

    “Garbage is dirty, but when we clear it away, everything's nice and clean. You can make yourself happy only by making others happy. That's why I like being a garbageman so much.”

    Jodie gave her dirty, smelly garbageman daddy a big kiss. She said, “When I grow up, I will be a garbage-girl!”

    Now whenever someone asks Jodie what her daddy does, she says, “He's a garbageman! Everybody makes garbage, but my daddy takes it away!”

    Look at the light and beautiful snowflakes (雪花) falling. Ever wanted to hold them in your hands? They are always lost when they meet your hands.

    Well, this isn't just a problem for you. It was a problem for Wilson Bentley, too. In the 1870s, Wilson Bentley was just a teenager. His family lived in a small town in northeast America. Winters there were long and hard. Bentley's mother was once a school teacher. She taught him at home. Bentley didn't go to school until he was 14. He was a quiet boy, and loved reading his mother's books. But he was interested in his mother's microscope (显微镜). When the other boys were playing with balls, little Bentley was studying things like drops of water, flowers and snowflakes.     

    Bentley loved watching snowflakes. For the next two years, young Bentley spent many winter days in a cold room watching these ice crystals (晶体) under his microscope. The boy thought they were beautiful enough for him to start to draw pictures of them. But there were so many snowflakes that he couldn't draw them all.

    How could he keep their beauty all the time? Bentley thought of buying a camera.

    The boy and his mother asked his father to buy one. But, his father didn't agree. He thought the whole thing was a bad idea. He thought the only thing a farmer should do was farming.

    But finally Bentley did get a camera. For more than a year he tried to take pictures of snowflakes. On January 15, 1885, during a snowstorm, Bentley took the first ever photo of an ice crystal with his camera. “It was the greatest moment of my life,” Bentley said later.

    For 13 years, Bentley worked quietly and took thousands of photos of ice crystals. Later he became famous as “Snowflake” Bentley.

    Esperanza lives in a poor Latino(拉丁美洲的) neighbourhood in Chicago, America. She dreams of having her own house one day. Her parents told her that when they moved from their last house, they would have a new and shiny(亮闪闪的) house. But the house is small and old.

    Many people live in Mango Street, in a big old house, Esperanza lives behind it with her family. A lot of the people who have come from Mexico don't speak English. Many miss their home country. Esperanza understands their sadness, but she also feels at home in America. She is an American, but her roots(根) will always be Latino.

    Esperanza is young. Like her friends, she has to grow up fast. She is stuck between being a girl and being a woman. In the poor and dangerous area where she lives, this is difficult for her. Mexican people usually live in a close neighbourhood. This means that people live packed(挤塞的) in together. Everyone knows everyone else. So Esperanza knows other older girls that do things she is not comfortable doing. It is just a fact of her life.

    But Esperanza has good friends too. She becomes friends with two sisters named Lucy and Rachel. They ride bikes and have adventures(冒险) together. Esperanza is also friends with a girl named Alicia. Alicia is afraid of the rats in her apartment. She shares her poems with Esperanza.