Our village carpenter（木匠）, John Hill, came one day and made a dining table for my wife. He made it just the right size to fill the space between the two windows. When I got home that evening, John was drinking a cup of tea and writing out his bill（账单）for his job.

My wife said to me quietly, “That's his ninth cup of tea today.” But she said in a loud voice, “It's a beautiful table, dear, isn't it?” “I'll decide about that when I see the bill,” I said. John laughed and gave me his bill for the work. I read:

One dining table                        10^th November, 2011

      Cost of wood                  ＄17.00

      Paint                         ＄1.50

      Work, 8 hours(＄1 an hour)       ＄8.00

      Total                         ＄36.50  

When I was looking at the bill, John said, “It's been a fine day, hasn't it? Quite sunny.”

“Yes,” I said. “I'm glad it's only the 10^th of November.”

“Me, too,” said John, “you wait—it will be a lot colder by the end of the month.”

“Yes, colder—and more expensive! Dining tables will be ＄20 more expensive on November 30^th, won't they, John?”

John looked hard at me for half a minute. Was there a little smile in his two blue eyes? I gave his bill back to him.

“If it's not too much trouble, John,” I said, “please add it up again. You can forget the date…”

I paid him ＄26.50 and he was happy to get it.

    Alice in Wonderland Chapter 2

    Alice was not hurt, so she jumped to her feet in a moment. She looked up, and found the White Rabbit was still in sight. She was close behind it when she turned the comer, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen. She found herself in a long, low hall.

    There were doors all around the hall, but they were all locked.

    Alice walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.

    Suddenly, she came upon a little three-legged table. There was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and Alice's first idea was that this might belong to one of the doors of the hall.

    But, alas! Either the locks were too large, or the key was too small. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before and behind it was a little door.

    She tried the little golden key in the lock, and she was pleased to find it fitted!

    One day a man found a cocoon (茧) of a butterfly in the forest. He sat there for several hours and watched the butterfly. Suddenly a small opening appeared, and the butterfly made its great effort to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no further.

    So the man decided to help the butterfly. He cut off the remaining bit of the cocoon so that the butterfly could come out easily. But to his surprise, the butterfly got a heavy body and very small wings when it came out of the cocoon.

    The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that the body would grow smaller at any moment and the wings would become larger and be able to fly. But neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling (爬) around with a heavy body and small wings. It was never able to fly.

    The man was in his kindness, but he did not understand the nature rules. Before the butterfly came out of the cocoon, fluid (流体) from its body must be forced into its wings, and then it would be ready for flying. It must have a hard struggle (拼搏) to get through the small opening to get its freedom from the cocoon.

    Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any difficulties, it would make us fail. We would not be as strong as we could have been; we could never fly.

    Hello, my friends! I'm Wang Ling, a Chinese girl. Helen is my English name. Here is a photo of my family. Who are these? They are my grandpa and grandma. They don't go to work. They look after our family. They are very good.

    This is my father Wang Qiang. He is a doctor in a hospital. And this is my mother. She is Li Ping. She is a teacher in our school. She helps my brother and me at school. Who is the boy? He's my brother Wang Hao. He is the youngest(最小的)one in our family. We all like him very much.

    Where am I? Yes, I am between my father and my mother. This is my family, a big and happy family. I like my family very much.

Dick is a middle school student. He hasn't got a good life style. He always goes to school w{#blank#}1{#/blank#} breakfast or if he is hungry, he usually has some fast food. His mum asks him to eat h{#blank#}2{#/blank#} food, but he never listens to her. For his twelfth birthday, his father bought him a computer as a present. S{#blank#}3{#/blank#} then, he hasn't done much exercise. He spends much of his free time in front of the computer. "Dick, you shouldn't play computer games too much. It's h{#blank#}4{#/blank#} to your health," his father said to him. But Dick didn't pay attention to his father's words. One day, he had a h{#blank#}5{#/blank#} and his stomach a{#blank#}6{#/blank#} so much. He went to see the doctor. The doctor took his t{#blank#}7{#/blank#}, but he didn't have a f{#blank#}8{#/blank#}. When he told the doctor that he liked fast food and spent much time on computer games, the doctor knew his P{#blank#}9{#/blank#} and gave him some a{#blank#}10{#/blank#}: Stop eating fast food and spend more time outside.