Jill Jones got a new job in a different part of the city. She had to go to work every day by train.

    There was only one other person on the train with her. He was a well-dressed man reading a newspaper. Suddenly, about halfway through the journey, the man began tearing（撕） his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces. Then he picked them up, opened the window and threw them all out. Then he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the rest of the journey again.

    The next day, Jill got on the same train. The same well-dressed man was there, reading a newspaper. As before, about halfway through the journey, the man began tearing his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces. Then he picked the pieces up, opened the window and threw them all out. This done, he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the rest of the journey. This happened every day for a week.

    At last, on Friday, Jill spoke to the man. "Excuse me, sir," she said, "I don't want to be rude, but I must ask you a question. When we are halfway through our journey, you tear your newspaper into hundreds of pieces and then throw them all out of the window. Please tell me, sir. Why do you do this?"

    The well-dressed man smiled. "There is a simple reason," he said. "I like to sleep for part of the journey, but I cannot sleep if the train is full of elephants. So I throw the pieces of paper out to the elephants. It stops them from coming into the train."

    "But there aren't any elephants on the train," Jill said. "I know," the man said. "It works well, doesn't it?

    Little Peter is a boy of nine. He began to go to school when he was six, and now he is in Grade Three. He lives not far from the school, but he is often late for class. He likes watching TV in the evening and goes to bed late, so he can't get up on time in the morning.

    This term, Mrs. Black, Peter's aunt, teaches music in Peter's school. She is strict (严格的) with Peter and often tells the boy to obey the school rules and come to school on time. Yesterday morning, Peter got up late. When he hurried to school, it was a quarter past eight. His aunt was waiting for him at the school gate.

    "You are ten minutes late for the first class, Peter," Mrs. Black said angrily. "Why are you often late for class?" "Every time, when I get to the street corner, I always see a guidepost (路标). It says 'SCHOOL—GO SLOWLY'!".

    There is a 41-year-old woman from California known as Anna, and she remembers almost every day of her life since(自从)she was eleven. There is an 85-year-old man known as Eddy, and he only knows a little.

Eddy is warm and friendly. He laughs a lot. He looks just like any other grandfather in the world. But 15 years ago  he was sick. Then he only knows the people in the room with him. Every morning, he gets up, has breakfast, and then goes back to bed to listen to the radio. Often he forgets that he has done these things. Sometimes he has breakfast three times in the morning.

    For Anna, the past is always there. She remembers the person giving her a call at 12:34 pm on Sunday, August 3, 1986. She remembers that on March 28, 1992, she had lunch with her father at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She remembers the food and every word of the talk. She remembers the weather.

    Anna said, "I remember the good things and that is nice. But I also remember the bad things. Ten years later, I still get angry with myself for doing something wrong. I would love for just five minutes to be a normal (正常的)person and not have all these things in my head."

    Yesterday afternoon Mr. Brown wanted to catch the 1:30 flight to New York to have an important meeting. At 4:30, Mrs Brown, his wife, got his phone call and he said that he was still at the airport.

    "What happened to you?" Mrs Brown asked in surprise.

    "Well," Mr. Brown said. "Everything was fine at first. I got my ticket checked, took my bags and waited in line to get on the plane. While I was walking across the runway to the plane, I saw my friend Jack Scott—he was a flight attendant. I shouted to him and a policeman caught me."

    "But why?"

    "I don't know. As soon as he heard my shout, he ran towards me and caught me."

    "What did you shout to your friend?"

    "All I said was 'Hi, Jack' ; you know that's the usual way we say hello to our friend."

    "But the sentence 'Hi, Jack' also means to take control of a plane by force(武力). Don't you know?"