Roger, a young man from China, has taught Chinese in a primary school in England for 3 years．A lot of children like his class and he enjoys teaching them very much．All the pupils are quite interested in what Roger teaches them．They learn quickly and do everything carefully．

    One day he said to the children, “People in a lot of Asian countries wear white clothes at funerals(葬礼), but people in America and in Europe wear white in the weddings because white means purity and happiness．What colour does an English woman wear when she gets married?”

    Mary said, “White, sir, because she is happy．” “That is good, Mary,” Roger said．“You are quite right．She wears white because she is happy．”

    But then one boy in the class put up his hand．“Yes, Dick?” Roger said, “Do you have a question?” “Yes,” Dick said．“Why do men wear black in our country when they get married, sir?”

    Whenever there's a terrible storm, there are plenty of sad stories. Many people lost their houses, their cars and their pets. But sometimes these stories have happy endings too.

    A family in New Jersey, US, had a cat named Vivien. She is very smart. She could even draw with her wet paws on the floor. They all love her very much. When hurricane (飓风) Sandy hit America in October, they moved to a safer place-13km away from home. Sadly Vivien went missing. The whole family were worried about her. They put up posters on the Internet to look for her. All the nine family members searched wherever they thought she could stay, but they didn't find it. The family thought Vivien was gone forever.

    But six months later, Vivien showed up at their house, according to Yahoo News. They considered her return as a wonder. No one can be sure where Vivien was for all that time.

    Many animals are good at finding their way home. People usually say that dogs and cats find their way home through using their sense of smell.

    But that doesn't explain how Vivien found her way back. Hurricane Sandy blew away the normal smells of home.

    "I wish she could talk," said her owner.

    O. Henry was an American writer. He wrote lots of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy, he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for a long time, but he learned everything he wanted to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas. There he did different jobs. He first worked in a newspaper, and then he has a job in a bank. When some money went missing from the bank, O. Henry was suspected (被怀疑）. Because of that he was sent into prison（监狱）. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the poor life there. People liked his stories, because although simple(简单), to the reader's surprise, the stories would finish with a sudden change at the end.

    The village of Hengly was going to have the Bean Olympics. It was a competition to see which kind of bean would grow the fastest and the tallest. Everybody was excited. They couldn't wait to show their best plants.

    Cassie knew clearly which bean she would choose for the competition, for her family had planted a special "family bean" .It was a flat bean that her great-grandparents had brought from Sicily. Her grandmother planted the beans every year and served them at many meals. Cassie was sure they would be unbeatable beans.

    However, the plan did not work out that way. Although Cassie's bean plants looked healthy with beautiful purple flowers, they did not grow as fast or climb as high as any of her neighbours. These people chose beans from seed(种子)shops. Their beans had wonderful names like "Rocket "or" Top Crop". One type was even named "King's Bean". That was the bean Ivan planted, and his plants climbed almost to the top of the fence. Cassie's plants were just near the middle of the fence.

    On the day of the competition, Cassie was disappointed that her beans were in last place. Ivan laughed at her beans and said she could win a prize for the slowest, shortest bean.

    The organizer, Mr Williams, handed out medals for the fastest-growing and the tallest bean plants." Now there remains only one final test, and it is just as important: the taste test."

    Mr Williams cooked the beans from each competitor and chose five experienced villagers as judges(裁判).

    Cassie was nervous. Would her family beans lose another time？

    After the judges tasted the beans, Mr Williams counted the results.

     "We have a winner, "Mr Williams announced." The judges all agree that Cassie's beans are the winner."

    Cassie grinned at this unexpected result. Many of her neighbours, even Ivan asked for her seeds. They were all in favour of the good-tasting beans even though they didn't grow fast or very tall.