“Well, we're in our new house. Let's get a new pet to get along with it,” Mrs. Brown said to her husband.” That sounds like a pretty good idea,” he answered. “Do you want to see the ads in the newspaper？” “No. Let's go to the animal shelter. Many pets there need homes. Since tomorrow is Saturday, we can both go,” she said.
    The next morning the Browns met Mr Snow at the animal shelter. “We want to be sure that the pets here go to good homes,” Mr Snow said, “So I need to ask you some questions.”
    After they talked for a while, the Browns decided to get a small dog. It wouldn't need a big house or a big yard. A small dog would bark（吠）and warn them if someone tried to break into their house. After Mr Snow gave the Browns a book on pet care, they chose one and wanted to take her home right away. But the animal doctor hadn't checked her yet. So Mr Snow told them to return on Sunday.
    On Sunday afternoon the Browns went to the animal shelter. The animal doctor said, “Shadow has had all of her shots(预防针). She will be healthy.” The browns thanked the doctor and took Shadow home.

    We often hear stories of animals rescuing people．But now someone has managed to return the favor．

    The event took place one snowy January morning Thomas Smith was walking his dog，Jack，in the park．"As I was walking，I just saw Jack running onto the ice towards the ducks in the middle，and then he fell into the water and couldn't climb out，"said Smith．He realized he had no choice but to try and save his dog．"someone else told me the lake was only one﹣meter deep，but it was at least twice that．I had to break my way through the 6﹣cm ice．Finally，I got Jack by the neck，and pulled him out．I don't think I have ever felt so cold by the time we got back to dry land．And when we got there，everyone was asking if Jack was okay﹣﹣﹣﹣﹣﹣no one was particularly worried，about me!"

    A neighbor，Julie Brown，saw it all happen．"The dog went onto an icy lake．All of a sudden，it started to go under．There were crowds of people around，and they were all shouting and screaming．Before I knew it，the owner Smith was in the water forcing his way through the ice．I can't begin to imagine how cold it was．Everyone was very nervous，but he was as cool as a cucumber﹣﹣﹣﹣﹣he just crawled back out，put the dog on its lead，and went home．"

    Many regard him as a hero，but Mr．Smith is quite laid﹣back about it．"Most dog owners are the same as me．They would do what I did without a second thought．But in the future，I'm going to make sure he's on lead near any ice ponds，Pets are members of our family．Would you do the same for them？

    In 1996, Joe Richman had been working as a radio reporter on US national radio for several years and was looking for a new idea for a radio programme. He met a teenager called John Cutler. John had Tourette's Syndrome—a brain illness. This meant that Josh did not always have control of his movements and speech.

    John was just beginning high school when he agreed to work with Joy on a story about his illness. Joe wanted John to keep a radio diary of his daily life. He gave John a tape recorder and asked him to record what happened to him every day. John and Joe agreed that an important part of his story would be talking to his school friends about Tourette's Syndrome. John was embarrassed(尴尬) to record at school—his friends might laugh.

    One day, John took the tape recorder to school, but he kept it inside his bag all day. He was too afraid to bring it out. After months of feeling afraid, he took the tape recorder out on lunch time. What happened next was a total surprise. John tells it best:“Everyone jumped at the chance. Everyone started asking me questions about that, I had never really talking about it to anyone—except my mom and dad. ”

    That was an important day in John's life because he learned to be more open about his condition. Now John says he wants to do radio diaries until he's 80 years old. He learnt a lot about himself by doing the radio diary. It made a great radio programme, too. Being a reporter is like having a passport. You can ask questions, be curious and explore new worlds. Radio is the perfect way to be on the radio and everyone likes to listen!

    Daniel sat in the back of the car and he was very happy.It was his first trip to Disney World，and he couldn't wait to get there.

    At first it wasn't too bad.He played some card games with his brother Emmit and his mother.They played number games.They also read interesting books.Then Daniel felt bored and slept.But he didn't sleep for a long time，and they were still far away from Disney World.“Are we…”

    “No，Daniel，” said his father.“Please try to be patient．You chose the vacation place this year.We told you it would be a long trip.”

    “Yeah，but this is so boring！” said Daniel.

    “I think Daniel is right，” said Emmit.“It's a boring trip.”

    “You want to hear about a boring trip？” asked Dad.“When I was about your age，Daniel，Grandma and Grandpa took your aunt Jane and me to Disney World.On the way there，the car didn't work.Luckily your grandpa could repair the car，but it took a long time to repair it.So when we arrived at Disney World，it was already dark.”

    It was a Monday morning. When the teacher walked into the classroom, he heard a low voice. "Here's the teacher. I'm sure this boring fellow is going to talk about how to use commas." It was a boy's voice and the teacher knew who he was.

    However, the teacher didn't get angry. He said nothing about it, but really began to talk about how to use commas. And he wrote the following sentence on the blackboard, "Nick says the teacher is a boring fellow." The class laughed and Nick's face turned red. "Now," said the teacher, "I will tell you the importance of commas." He put two commas in the sentence and then said, "Nick, says the teacher, is a boring fellow." The whole class laughed again. Nick felt very surprised first, then his face turned much redder. Finally he couldn't help laughing with the other students, too.