Betty and I are best friends. Our birthdays are on the same day, so every year we have a birthday party together. But this year, we had a costume party instead.

      While we were writing the invitations, my mum came in and asked, "Why not invite John?" John had been in our class for only a few months, but he was already getting better grades in Maths than anyone else in class. I wrinkled (皱起) my nose, “Mum, he wears the same pants to school every day. How could he even afford a costume?" Mum said nothing. The next day, mum gave me an envelope with a shopping certificate (凭证) in it. "I thought it would be nice for you to give this to John" Mum said. But how? We didn't want to make John embarrassed. We discussed it for a long time. Finally, Betty and I had a good idea.

      On the day of our party, kids arrived, dressed differently. John arrived, in an old sheet (床单), but still in the same brown pants as usual. We danced, ate snacks and played games in groups. Before eating the birthday cake, Betty said in a loud voice, “Now it is time for the great prize game.  It is the following riddle……". It was a maths game. None of us was surprised when John came up with the right answer first and walked off with the envelope.

      Everything went on well as we planned. John wore a new pair of pants and a new shirt the next week. He felt happy. So did we.

When we help others, we need to find a proper way, or we may hurt them in another way.

    Long long a 90, two geese(天鹅) went to a pond to eat fish. A lonely tortoise lived in the pond. The geese had a chat with him. They chatted happily and became good friends.

One day, the geese realized there were no more fish in the pond, so they decided to move to a new pond. They told their decision to the tortoise. The tortoise wanted to go with them. The two geese agreed.

    The tortoise was delighted, but he had a problem. “How can I go with you? I cannot fly.” The geese came up with a plan. They said to the tortoise. "Don't worry. We will hold a stick between us. You can bite the stick. This way, we can fly to our new place, but you must be careful. Never open your mouth."

When they flew through a village, some villagers looked up and saw the tortoise. They shouted excitedly, "Look at the tortoise! It can fly."

    When the tortoise heard the words, he was proud and forgot the geese's words. He opened his mouth and couldn't help laughing. As soon as he opened his mouth, he fell down.

    A student was going to spend his holiday in a cool mountain village. That evening he stayed at an inn (小旅馆) near the railway station (火车站). Before going to bed, he went to the boss of the inn and said, "Excuse me, sir. Will you please wake me up at a quarter to five tomorrow morning? I'll take the five o'clock train."

    "Oh, sorry, sir," the boss said in a hurry, "I'm afraid I can't. I won't be able to get up so early." The student was disappointed. When he began to return to his room, be stopped and asked, "Have you got an alarm-clock (闹钟)? Maybe it can help me."

    "Wait a minute, then." The boss said and brought out an alarm-clock. "Here you are, sir." "Thank you very much." The student said happily. But he found it was rusty (锈的) when he had a look at it. And it sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. He asked, "Will it ring in time?" "I don't know, either." said the boss, "But it doesn't matter. You just give it a good shake at a quarter to five. And it will ring on time."

Life is full of unexpected surprises. Paul was 71 years old and came from England. He liked using a 3D printer to make models.

One day, while Paul was searching for something online, he saw a red car on a website. It was his father's favorite car made in the 1950s. He felt so shocked!

The car brought Paul back to the "good old days". When he was a child, his dad always drove him around London. He sat in the back seat of the red car excitedly. When he went abroad to work, this car took him away from home to say goodbye to his father. To his surprise, many years later, the car showed up online!

Paul decided to buy the car. With his son's help, he bought it. It was a really difficult job to repair the car because it was old and broken. But Paul didn't give up. He spent a long time repairing it. After he tried many times, he finally made the car as good as it used to be with the 3D printer. Paul drove it here and there.

Paul said driving the old car reminded him of his father. The car was seen as a connection between his father and him. It was a treasure for him from the past.