A young man woke up one morning under a bridge and checked his pocket. All he had left was less than ten dollars. He bought food and as he sat down to eat, an old man and two children came along. The old man asked him to help them with food as they had not eaten for almost a week.

The young man looked at the children—they were so weak that they could hardly stand. With the last bit of kindness he had he gave them all the food. The old man and children thanked the young man and then gave him a dirty old coin. The young man said, “You need this coin more than I do— just keep it.” The old man insisted(坚持) that the young man put it in his pocket—and finally he did.

    The old man and children sat down to eat. And with no money, no job and no food, the young man went back under the bridge to lie down. As he was about to fall asleep he saw an old newspaper on the ground. He picked it up and saw an ad inviting people with old coins to come to a store. He decided to go there with the dirty old coin the man gave him.

   When he arrived at the store, he gave the keeper the dirty old coin. The keeper cried loudly. It was part of a Spanish treasure ship that had never been found. This same old coin was worth 67,000 dollars. The young man was pleased. He immediately sold the coin for money and then looked for the old man and little children to thank them and share the money. By the time he got to where he left them eating, they had gone.

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    There was a beautiful garden. Every year the king would go to the garden to decide(决定) which flower was the most beautiful one. 

    For the last few years, the rose was always Number One. Because of this, the rose Gulaab became arrogant. It would never let birds stay on its flower. Then all the birds started staying away from Gulaab.

    Behind Gulaab, there was a little yellow flower. People called it Junglee. Junglee wasn't more beautiful than the rose, but it welcomed the birds to stay on its flower. All the birds in the garden liked it.

    This year the king went to the garden as before. The gardener(园丁) pointed at the rose and said to the king, “Your favorite flower, my king.”

    Of course, the king also saw the yellow flower behind it and asked, “What flower is that?”

    “Oh! That's Junglee, a wild flower.”

    “I didn't see a flower like it before. There are so many birds on it. I think it's much more beautiful than the rose. It will be the King Flower of this year!” said the king.

    A farmer had a cow. He took very good care of his cow. One day it was ill, the farmer was very worried. He telephoned the vet.

    "What's the problem?" the vet asked the farmer when he arrived. "My cow is ill," said the farmer, "I don't know what's the matter with her. She's lying down and doesn't eat. She's making a strange noise." The vet looked at the cow. "She's certainly ill," he said, "and she needs to take some strong medicine." He took a bottle out of his box, put two pills into his hand and said, "Give her these. The pills should make her better." "How should I give them to her? The farmer asked. The vet gave him a tube(管子) and said, "Put this tube in her mouth, then put the pills in the tube and blow. That'll make it."

    The next day the vet came to the farm again. The farmer was sitting outside his house and looked worried. "How's your cow?" asked the vet. "No change," the farmer said, "and I'm feeling very strange myself."

    "Oh?" the vet said, "Why?"

    "I did what you said." the farmer answered, "I put the tube in the cow's mouth and then put the two pills in it."

    "And?" the vet asked.

    "The cow blew first." the farmer said.

    Each one of us shares this planet with over seven billion others. And we all need1. People and products need to move from city to city and country to country. However, we all know2most cars, motorcycles, boats and planes cause air pollution. They are also3. This is a serious problem in many cities.4inventors are coming up with creative ideas to try to reduce the pollution and noise.

    In many cities around the world, motorcycles are very5. Now Vietnam has around 33 million motorcycles and China has almost 120 million. Motorcycles are a faster and cheaper way to get around a city than6. Yet air pollution is a growing problem. In large cities, people7it is difficult to breathe. To solve these problems, an American company designed an environmentally friendly motorcycle. It uses electricity as fuel (燃料). As a result, there is8pollution. It's also quiet and fast. This makes9a good choice for getting around a city.

    The Italian city of Venice is a city with only a few10. There are no cars in the city centre.11cars, water taxis and buses carry people along the city's canals (运河). However, they cause pollution,12to the water. English engineers Dick and Jem designed a solar-powered (太阳能的) water taxi. The water taxi13run for a day after being charged (充电).

    Planes also cause air and noise pollution. Designing an environmentally friendly airplane is a real14. Some airplane companies have15to solve the problems. Swiss engineers have gone one step further. They developed a solar airplane. This airplane even tries to travel around the world.

    Walt Disney began to make cartoon movies when he was a young man. But he didn't have much money then. One day a mouse ran near his desk while he was working in his small office.

    ＂Would you like to be my pet?＂ Disney decided to make a cartoon about it.

    ＂I am making a cartoon about a mouse named Mortimer,＂ he told his wife.

    ＂Mortimer Mouse? I think Mickey Mouse would be a better name,＂ she said.

    ＂You are right. It would,＂ Disney agreed and made many Mickey Mouse cartoons.

    People all over the world saw Mickey and loved it. Mickey Mouse made Disney famous. Then came Donald Duck, and Goofy Dog and others. Disney began to make long cartoons. Then he made cartoon movies for television.

    In 1955, Disney opened a wonderful land of make-believe in California. Real boats, castles, trains, mountains, rivers, all are in one beautiful park. Millions of people came to Disneyland.

    He died in 1966, but the world will not forget him. Mickey Mouse and all his cartoons will help us to remember him.

Aron Ralston is an American man who is interested in mountain climbing. As a mountain climber, Aron is used to taking risks. This is one of the exciting things about doing dangerous sports. There were many times when Aron almost lost his life because of accidents. On April 26, 2003, he found himself in a very dangerous situation when climbing in Utah.

On that day, Aron's arm was caught under a 360-kilo rock that fell on him when he was climbing by himself in the mountains. Because he could not free his arm, he stayed there for five days and hoped that someone would find him. 59.但当他的水喝光之后，他知道他必须做点什么来挽救自己的生命。 He was not ready to die that day. So he used his knife to cut off half his right arm. Then, with his left arm, he bandaged himself so that he would not lose too much blood. After that, he climbed down the mountain to find help.

After losing his arm, he wrote a book called Between a Rock and a Hard Place.This means being in a difficult situation that you cannot seem to get out of. 60.In this book, Aron tells of the importance of making good decisions, and of being in control of one's life. His love for mountain climbing is so great that he kept on climbing mountains even after this experience.

Do we have the same spirit as Aron? Let's think about it before we find ourselves "between a rock and a hard place", and before we have to make a decision that could mean life or death.