One year, a college in the United States announced that it would offer a lot of money for the pure white marigold(金盏花). The high reward attracted so many people, but in the nature, besides golden, the marigold is brown, and it is not easy to get the white one. So after they were excited for a time, many people had forgotten the announcement.

    One normal day after 20 years, the college received a letter and 100 seeds of pure white marigold. It was an old woman of over 70 years old. Some experts in the college doubted it, but in order not to let her down, those seeds finally took root (根）in the earth. The miracle appeared after one year; the field was covered by pure white marigold.

     Therefore, the old woman who was always unknown to the public became a new focus.

The old woman was a flower-lover. When she read the announcement 20 years ago, she got very excited like others. But her eight children were totally against her decision. After all, a woman who never knew the seed genetics(遗传学) couldn't complete what the experts could never do, so her thought was only a day dream.

     Still, the old woman didn't change her mind and went on working. She planted some of the most common seeds and took good care of them. A year later, when the marigold came out, she chose one faintest(最暗淡的) from those golden and brown flowers and got the best seed. The next year, she again grew them and chose ...Day after day, year after year, through many seasons, the old woman's husband died, her children flew far, a lot of things happened in her life, but only the wish to grow the pure white marigold took root in her heart.

     Finally, after 20 years on the day we all know, in the garden she saw a marigold, which was nearly white, but as white as silver or snow.

     A problem even experts couldn't deal with was solved by an old woman who didn't understand genetics. Was it a miracle (奇迹）?

     To take root in the heart, even the most common seed, can grow into a miracle!

    "Look here, Watson," Holmes said after we finished lunch. "Please sit down. I want to talk to you. I don't know what to do, and your advice is important to me. You smoke your cigar (雪茄烟) while I explain."

    "Please continue," I said, as I lit my cigar.

    "Now there're a few important points in young James' story. One, his father cries Coo-ee before he sees him. Two, he talks about a rat (老鼠). I think young James is telling the truth (真相)."

    "So why did Mr. McCarthy shout Coo-ee then?"

    "Well, he was not shouting Coo-ee to his son. It was by chance that James heard. The Coo-ee was to call the person he was meeting. But Coo-ee is an Australian cry, Australians usually say it when they meet to catch attention. Perhaps Mr. McCarthy was meeting someone from Australia."

    "I see. But why did he talk about a rat, then?" I asked.

Holmes took a piece of paper from his pocket and put it on the table.

    "This is a map of Australia," he said. He put his hand over part of the map. "Now, Watson, what can you read there?" he asked me.

    "ARAT," I read.

    "And now?" Holmes moved his hand.

    "BALLARAT," I read.

    "Yes. That was the word the dead man said. It's a place called Ballarat. His son only heard the 'rat' part of the word. Old Mr. McCarthy was trying to say where his murderer was from, the town of Ballarat. The grey cloak is point No. 3. If James is telling the truth, there was a grey cloak (斗篷). So now we have an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak."

    "Great!" I replied.

    "And it's someone who lives nearby, as the Boscombe Pool isn't open to the public. Only people from the farm nearby or the Turner house can go there," said Holmes.

    "That's wonderful, Holmes!" I exclaimed.

    What do we do when we go camping? First, we make a plan. We take food, clothing, a knife, and things for cooking and eating. We take things to keep us away from(远离)insects(昆虫) and the sun.

    Then we put everything into the car and we drive to the woods(森林). We look for a place for campers(露营者) and we look for a good place for our tent(帐篷). The place should have a lot of moving air. This will keep some insects away. High land with water on both sides of it is good. Then we put up our tent. We put everything into the tent, and we are ready for fun. We can swim in the lake, walk in the woods, climb a mountain, row a boat, or go fishing.

    In the evening we come back to the tent, and we build a big fire because it can keep the insects away. We sit around the fire and talk. We may tell interesting stories or we may sing songs.

    At night we lie down on the grass. We can look up at the stars. It is a busy day, so we try to go to sleep early.

    Everything is dark. Everything is quiet. We hope we won't hear music from the radio in the next tent. We hope it won't rain.

    Long, long ago there lived an old man. He had a very big orange tree in his garden. On the tree there were many fine{#blank#}1{#/blank#} .

    One day the old man found one of the oranges was bigger than the others. It was as big as a watermelon. So he took the biggest orange to the king. The king was very{#blank#}2{#/blank#} and gave the old man a lot of money for it.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}a rich man heard of this, he said to himself, "It is only an orange. Why did the king give him so much money? If I take my gold cup to the king, he will give me much more money for it. "

The next day when the king got the gold cup, he said to the rich man, "What a beautiful cup! l'll give you {#blank#}4{#/blank#} for it. Please take the great orange. "

Liu proves herself again

 Who is the best female(女性的) table tennis player in China? It is probably Liu Shiwen. Liu Shiwen was born on April 12, 1991 in Fushun, Liaoning. Her hobbies are watching US TV shows and learning English. Her best table tennis skill is backhand(反手击球) instead of forehand.

 On Oct 20th, Liu won her fifth singles title(单打冠军) at the Women's World Cup in Chengdu, Sichuan province. She is the first person in history to win so many titles at this event.

" It's very important for me," Liu said. "I won four titles before when I was much younger. I had no fear at all."

 At 28 years old, Liu is now under greater pressure. She won the world championship(世界锦标赛), but then lost several tour matches (巡回赛). She needed to prove herself once again. She was able to do so in the end. Her secret was to not think about her losses."I just played the game like it was the world championships or even the Olympics," Liu said.