SCENE I

One dollar a week

The doorway of the house where Chandler has a room. He is dressed in his best clothes, ready for his evening out. He is going out as his friend, Jeff White, comes in.

WHITE         What are you doing this evening, Towers?

CHANDLER      (Smiling) Tonight I'm going to live like a man with a million dollars!

WHITE         What are you talking about? You haven't got a million dollars!

CHANDLER      How much money are you and I paid each week, Jeff?

WHITE         Eighteen dollars. Why?

CHANDLER      And how much of that eighteen dollars do you spend each week?

WHITE         All of it, of course.

CHANDLER    Well, I don't. Each week I save one dollar out of my eighteen. Then, every ten weeks, I can buy myself an evening to remember.

WHITE         What do you do?

CHANDLER   I put on my finest clothes, go to one of the best restaurants in New York, eat the most expensive food on the menu, drink the best wine, and then take a taxi home!

WHITE          (Surprising) Why?

CHANDLER     Why? Because it makes me feel wonderful to sit with some of the richest people in America, and to make them think that I'm rich, too.

WHITE          You're crazy!

CHANDLER     (Laughing) Perhaps I am!

Mrs Black comes in.

MRS BLACK      Ah, Mr Chandler. I wanted to see you.

CHANDLER      Good evening, Mrs Black. What a lovely evening!

MRS BLACK   Lovely evening perhaps, but you haven't paid me for your room this month. When am I going to get the money?

CHANDLER     Soon, Mrs. Black. Very soon.

Mrs Black looks at Chandler's clothes.

MRS BLACK      You can spend money on expensive clothes, but you can't pay for your room. Is that right?

CHANDLER    (Hurrying away) Good night, Mrs Black!

    The daughter, Susan, is good at growing flowers and keeping goldfish（养金鱼）．Every morning she gets up early．The first thing for her is to look at her flowers and goldfish．She likes them very much. When she is eighteen years old she goes to college（上大学）．She has to（不得不） tell her mother to look after（照顾）her flowers and goldfish．

    Her mother is too careless(粗心)．She is not good at growing flowers and keeping goldfish．

    By and by(慢慢的) the goldfish is dead（死了）,then the flowers. The mother has to write to （写信）her daughter to tell her all about her flowers and her goldfish．Susan is very sorry to hear that．She writes back (回信)to her mother a letter:“ Then what about my father?”

    When I was a university teacher in Ningbo, I told my students that it would be wise to keep their smartphones in their backpacks. They were young adults. I didn't want to take their phones， nor could I shout at them. You can guess what happened.

    Some students were polite, using their phones between activities. Others would rudely text their friends during lessons, sometimes even while I talked to them. One young woman, K, openly played a game at her desk with earphones!

    Why did such a situation appear? I began to think my class was boring (probably true!) and that my students hated me (I could understand). But what could I do? I couldn't fail every student. Maybe I was just a boring teacher.

    With all the recent talk about banning(禁止) smartphones at schools, you might think I'm in favor. I'm actually not so sure. This technology isn't going away. Teachers probably need to change as much as students.

    I designed activities to let them use pens and paper, and moving around the room to talk to classmates. It kind of worked! I also found ways to use their phones. Things like research, translation and creative projects. I found that my students worked hardest on these activities.

Phones might not be the biggest problem. Once, walking at school, I saw K standing alone in the dark. I could see her face, lit up by her mobile game. Maybe smart phone addiction (上瘾) at school is a sign of loneliness or a boring teacher.

    Mr Scott talked about colours all the time. "What a honey—yellow morning it is!" he said to his wife. His wife planted fruit and vegetables in their garden, but Mr Scott was more interested in the leafy plants, the bushes, and even the grass that grew in the garden. "So many kinds of green," he said to her after watering all the plants. "I counted at least twenty shades of green!"

    "Well done, dear," Mrs Scott said. " Now would you please count twenty dollars and go to the supermarket for some ingredients(配料)? I want to make lunch! "

    With a smile on his face, Mr Scott left at once. He enjoyed trips to the supermarket because of all the colourful cans and boxes in it. Fruit and vegetables, too, shone in their bright skins. There was never just one colour: carrots were orange, but also had bits of yellow and brown in them. Bananas were yellow and black; apples hid oranges and purples inside their reds. Mr Scott would walk through the supermarket and enjoy all the colours around him.

    "I wish there was a store full of colours that I could spend all my time in," he sighed.

    He bought everything on his wife's list and came home. When he walked into the house, Mrs Scott noticed the sad look on his face. "What's wrong?" she asked him. "It looks life you had fun at the store. I can see that you picked out the best things."

    "I did have fun in the store. So much that I wish I could have spent more time there. It's so full of colours!" Mr Scott said.

"I see," Mrs Scott said. "Well, cheer up, because I'm going to cook a nice lunch for us!"

    The next day Mr Scott was on his usual morning walk through the neighbourhood, saying hello to everyone, enjoying the colours of the trees and flowers. It was another day of colours!

    "Good morning, Mr Brown," he called out to one of his neighbours. He liked Mr Brown very much, because, well, you guessed it: his name was a colour!

    "Mr Scott! Just the person I wanted to see!" Mr Brown replied. "My wife and I are moving out of this town, and I need someone to take over my shop. You are the perfect person for the job because it's a paint shop! I need someone who knows its colours. Would you be interested?"

    Mr Scott was mad with excitement. "I will take it over right away!"

    Mr Brown was relieved when he left town, because he knew his paint shop was in good hands. Sure enough, Mr Scott kept the paint shop open for twenty more years and got to talk about colours all day, every day.

Rick and Henry are good friends. They play together every day. 

One night, Rick calls Henry, "Tomorrow will be a fine day. Shall we go out to play football? ""Henry likes football, so he says, "OK. Let's meet at 2: 30 pm. "

The next day, Rick comes to Henry's home on time. But Henry is lying on his bed and playing mobile games. He says to Rick," ▲ "

"OK, "says Rick. He waits for about one hour, but Henry still doesn't come out. At this time, Henry says, "I don't want to go out now. Why don't you go alone? "

Hearing this, Rick goes away angrily(生气地). He says to himself, "I'm not going to play with him any more! "

In the evening, Henry's mother has a talk with him. "You can't break your words like this, or you will have no friends. "Henry feels worried. He says, "I'm wrong. "Then he calls Rick and says sorry to him. And he goes to Rick's home early the next morning!