A farmer had a brother in town who was a gardener, and his brother had a garden full of the finest fruit trees. So his skill and his beautiful trees were famous everywhere. One day the farmer went into the town to visit his brother, and was surprised at the trees that grew quite well.

      "Look, my brother," said the gardener. "I will give you an apple tree, the best from my garden, and you, and your children, and your children's children will enjoy it."

       Then the gardener called his workmen and ordered them to take up the tree and carry it to his brother's farm. They did so, and the next morning the farmer began to wonder where he should plant it.

"If I plant it on the hill," he said to himself, "the wind might catch it and shake down the delicious fruit before it is ripe. If I plant it close to the road, passersby will see it and take away the apples--but if I plant it too near the door of my house, my children may pick the fruit." So, after he had thought the matter over, he planted the tree behind his barn (谷仓).

      Time passed, but the tree had no fruit the first year, nor the second-then the farmer called his brother. When the gardener came, the farmer said angrily, "You have cheated me, and given me a useless tree instead of a fruitful one. This is the third year and still it brings out nothing but leaves! "

      The gardener laughed and said, "See where the tree was planted, it has no sun or warmth. How could you expect flowers and fruit?"

    One day, my father and I were in line to buy tickets for the circus(马戏表演). And a family was standing in front of us.

    The family had eight children. Their clothes were not expensive but clean．The children talked about the clowns(小 丑), elephants, monkeys and other things excitedly. It was their first time to go to the circus.

    The ticket lady asked the father how many tickets he wanted. He proudly answered, “I want eight children's tickets and two adults' tickets, so I can take my family to the circus.”

    The ticket lady said the price. The man's wife lowered her head and there was no smile on th e man's face. He quietly asked, “How much did you say?”

    The ticket lady said the price again. The man didn't have enough money. How could he tell his eight kids the bad news? My dad put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a $20 bill and dropped it on the ground．(In fact, we were not rich!) Then my dad said, “Excuse me, sir, this dropped out of your pocket.”

    The man knew what was going on. He looked into my dad's eyes, held my dad's hand in his, and took the $20 bill. “Thank you, sir, thank you. This really means a lot to me and my family.”

    My father and I went back home. We didn't go to see the circus that night, but we didn't care.

    It was Tom's birthday, and he was five years old. He got quite a lot of presents from his family. His grandpa gave him a beautiful big drum(鼓). Of all the presents, Tom liked his drum best. He made terrible noise with it, but his mother didn't mind. His father was working in the daytime and Tom was in bed when he got home in the evening. So he didn't hear the noise. But one of his neighbors didn't like the noise. So one morning she took a knife and went to Tom's house when he was hitting his drum. She said to him, “Hello, Tom, do you know there is something very nice inside your drum? Here is a knife. Open the drum and let's find it.”

    Didyou ever set up a lemonade stand (柠檬水小摊) when you were a kid？ Manyof us did and if we were very lucky, we could make enough money to buy icecream from the Good Humour Truck.

Last Saturday, Jack Yielding, a five-year-old boy from Oakville, Ontario, got $41,233from two lemonade stands and a car charity (慈善) wash. Jack gave the money to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, where Jack who has epilepsy (羊癫疯）, is a patient there.

    Thiswas Jack's second year to host the Lemonade Stand for sick kids, andthe whole town came to show their love. More than 1,000peoplecame to the lemonade stands on Saturday.

    "Jackis working hard to turn his lemons into lemonade to help his friends atToronto's Hospital for Sick Children," Jack'smother, JodiYielding, toldus.

Confucius（孔子）was one of the most important people in human history.He taught people to be polite and love each other.His ideas changed people's life.

Early Life

Confucius was born around 551 B.C.in China.That was over 2，500 years ago.Some say that Confucius was born into a rich family.Others say he was born poor.One thing is clear：Confucius lived during a time of great trouble.

Philosophy（哲学）and Teachings

Different groups in China were fighting.People forgot about good manners（礼仪）.This made Confucius sad.He wanted people to be kind and polite to each other.He believed in the idea of"ren".That means "loving others"."People should follow the Golden Rule，"he said.The Golden Rule is"to treat others as you would like to be treated".He believed that a good leader should treat his followers with care.This would help the leader set a good example.Confucius thought leaders could make people follow the law（法律）

____.

Confucius promoted（提倡）music education.He thought music had a strong influence on people and believed that music could make the things on the earth get on well with each other.

So music made it possible for our society to develop well.

Death

Confucius died at the age of 71 or 72.After his death，he was honored as a man of wisdom.His ideas helped shape the Chinese government.Today he is known as one of the most important teachers in Chinese history.

The Snowball Fight

 My mom always says, "Don't throw snowballs. You might hurt someone, or hurt yourself." She often tells me like this, but I like playing snow with my friends. So. I got1 .

"Oh Mom! You' re no fun! You 2 let me do interesting things." I said as I ran outsıđe, closing the door behind me.

I was playıng in the snow with my friends, just building a big  snow fort(雪堡). I was fccling bad about what I had said to my mom. I was sorry that I hurt3 feelings.

 Suddenly, a snowball hit me in the4 . It was not hardi but the whole back of my head was in snow.

I turned around and saw some kids in another snow fort. They had a big kid with them,5 they could throw really far. Just then,a big snowball hit my friend's jacket.

 And the fight was on. We all 6 our snowboarding goggles(防护镜), covered(覆盖) our faces with scarves, and we started throwing!

 Then they all came 7 lots of snow and ran into our fort The big kid caught me and playfully rubbed(涂, 抹) the snow on my face. We all 8 and felt excited!

 After a few minutes, they all started to walk away. I was curious, so I said to the new kid,"Hey, what's your name?"

"Huh?" the kid's voice was low and he pulled off his 9 . "Ali, you wouldn't want to know my name," she said. "I'm no fun."

 What a surprise! It was my10 ! Moms can be fun.