A man was walking along the street when he saw a woman carrying a large box. It was half in and half out of her car. So the man went up and said, “The box looks very heavy. Let me give you a hand.”

 “That's very kind of you,” the woman said, “I'm having a lot of trouble with it. Maybe it sticks (卡住) in the car door.”

 “Together we'll soon move it,” the man said. “I'll get in and take the other end.” And he got in the car.

 “Right,” the man said. “I'm ready,” and he began to push the box hard. For several minutes, the man and the woman tried to move the box. Soon they felt very tired.

    They rested for a moment. Then the woman said, “Let's try again. One, two, three!” They went on moving the box.

    At last, when they were exhausted, the man said, “I'm sorry, but I don't think there's any way to get it out of your car.”

 “Get it out?” the woman cried. “I'm trying to get it in! You know?”

    On Miriam's 9th birthday two years ago, her aunt, who lives in Kenya（肯尼亚）, gave money to a group that cares for elephants to celebrate Miriam's birthday. Then Miriam and her mother visited Africa to learn how the group was helping elephants. Later, Miriam fell in love with the animals and wanted to help save them.

    A few months after visiting Africa, Miriam watched How I Became an Elephant, a film about the mistreatment of elephants in Thailand, and a young girl's effort to save them. Miriam decided she wanted to raise money to save elephants.

    Last year, Miriam created a program called They Deserve（应得） to Be Free after seeing how young elephants are abused in Thailand. She learned how people take a baby elephant, don't give it food or water for days and beat it hard. "It made me really sad. I need to do something useful." Miriam said.

    Miriam is working to make money for Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. She asked her friends to give money to the park rather than giving her birthday gifts.

    She recently joined about 12 other students in an art center. They made elephants from clay and decorated（装饰） them. Then she created a plan to sell clay elephants.

    Kate, Miriam's art teacher, opened her art studio（工作室） to Miriam and her friends on weekends so they could make clay elephants. She even gave them the clay." It's great to see a young student wanting to spend her time on something meaningful. This is what we should all work towards," Kate said.

    Miriam says she has sold 180 clay elephants worth 2, 000 dollars, and all of that money has been sent to Elephant Nature Park in Thailand.

How do you go to work? Ride a bike? Take a bus? Take a car? Swim across river? In the city of Xishan, the Bingjiang river has become a famous swimming place, because some people swim along with their own things in the river to go to work.

To get from point A to point B, people in Xishan don't just swim with their clothes on, but instead pack (打包) their own things into the special bag. This bag will keep everything dry until they reach their destinations (目的地).

"I use 5 minutes walking from my home to the river. And I only use 10 minutes to swim across the river and 5 minutes to walk to my office. I have a special swim bag which I can put all my things in. But I used one hour to go to work by bus before." Li Hua, a local says.

The traditional traffic tools like cars and buses not only cause heavy traffic but also produce too much pollution in our daily life. Maybe it's time for us to change our ways to go to work.

Mr. Black retired (退休) five years ago. Now he lives a happy life. He exercises in the morning. He plays with his grandchildren on weekends. Sometimes he goes to parties.

One Sunday evening, after Mr. Black had dinner, he went out for a walk with his granddaughter Jane. They saw three beggars (乞丐) outside the park.

"Why do they beg in the street?" asked the little girl.

"Because they're poor," answered Mr. Black.

"Why don't they find any work?" "Because they're lazy."

"Do you know who is the laziest of them?"

"That's easy," said Mr. Black, he came up to them, took out five dollars and said, "I'll give the money to the laziest of you. Tell me who he is."

"I lost my job a year ago," the first beggar stood up quickly and said, "of course I am!"

"I haven't done any work for two years," the second beggar sat up and said, "give me the money."

The third beggar went on lying on the ground and said, "Come over here, sir. Put the money into my bag!"

A woman came out of her house and saw three hungry old men sitting in front of it. She kindly invited them to come in and have 1 to eat. But they refused 2 so.

After the woman's husband (丈夫) came home, she told him what 3 . He said, "But they need help. 4 you go outside and invite them in again?" The woman agreed.

"But we hardly go into a house together. We three are 'Love', 'Wealth' and 'Success'," one of them said. "Discuss with your husband which one of 5 you want in your home," he added.

The woman's husband said, "6 wonderful it is! Let's invite 'Wealth', then our home will be filled 7 money." But the woman and her daughter disagreed. The wife wanted "Success" while the daughter thought "Love" would be 8 guest. She hoped their home would be full of love. The parents agreed and the woman went out and invited "Love" in. To her 9 , "Wealth" and "Success" followed.

"I only invited 'Love'. Why are you coming in, too?"

The old men replied together, "The other two will stay outside 10 you just invite 'Wealth' or 'Success'. But wherever (无论哪里) 'Love' goes, the others usually go with him."

Always remember: you should have "Love" first before you have "Wealth" and "Success".