Denzil wasn't a very clever donkey. He always did some silly things because he didn't think. "Look out," the other donkeys said. "Here comes Denzil—everybody runs away!"

    One day, Denzil carried two heavy bags of salt, one on each side of his back. When he was crossing a big river, he fell into the water. The salt began to melt. When he tried his best to stand up, all the salt was gone. "Hey, that's really great," thought Denzil. "I must remember that. Next time I can do it again when I'm crossing a river."

    The next time he carried two bags of cotton(棉花). "Watch this, everybody," said Denzil when he and his friends got to the middle of the river. He went into the water and was gone! Nobody told him that cotton could get heavier in water. The other donkeys pulled him out at once and luckily he was still alive.

      It was Jimmy's fifth birthday. He got quite a lot of nice birthday presents from his family, and one of them was a beautiful big drum(鼓).

    “Who gave him that thing?” Jimmy's father asked when he saw it.

    “His grandfather did,” answered Jimmy's mother.

    “Oh,” said his father.

     Of course, Jimmy liked his drum very much. He made a terrible noise with it, but his mother did not mind. His father was working during the day, and Jimmy was in bed when he got home in the evening, so he did not hear the noise.

    But one of the neighbours did not like the noise at all. So one morning a few days later, she took a knife and went to Jimmy's house while he was playing his drum. She said to him, “Hello, Jimmy. Do you know there's something very nice inside your drum? Here's a knife. Open the drum and let's find it.”

    My name is Lisa. Because of my job, I often went to the United States. I often felt worried during my trip because I didn't speak English well. So I decided to learn English.

    I went to Mrs Brown's English class. Before I came to the class, I always walked away when I met any Americans. But now I try to talk to Americans in English. And I like going to supermarkets, cafes and restaurants to talk with local people.

    I learn English in four ways. First , I listen to the teacher carefully and keep speaking in class. Second, I do my homework after I get home. I learn at least five words every day. Third, I listen to American radio and watch American TV programs. Finally, I surf the Internet to talk with different people in English.

     To learn English well, I think you must learn to open your mouth. For me that is the key to opening the door of learning English.

    One day, a little boy comes into a shop and says to the shop worker, “I want to buy twelve exercise books of 6 cents each and nine pencils of 10 cents each. How much is that altogether(总共)?”

    The shop worker writes these numbers down on a piece of paper and thinks for a minute. Then she says, “1 dollars 62 cents.” “If I give you ten dollars, how much money will I get back?” “You will get 8 dollars 38 cents for change. Here you are. These are the things you want.”

    “No, thank you. I don't want to buy anything.” The boy looks at the piece of paper and says politely, “This is my math homework. Thank you. Can I take it away?”

    A little boy invited his mother to attend his school's first teacher-parent meeting. To the little boy's disappointment, his mother said she would go. This would be the first time that his classmates and teachers met his mother and he was embarrassed by her appearance. There was a serious scar (伤疤) that covered nearly the whole right side of her face. The boy never wanted to talk about why or how she got the scar.

    At the meeting, the people were impressed by the kindness of his mother with the scar, but the little boy was still embarrassed and hid himself from everyone. However, he could hear clearly the conversation between his mother and the teacher.

    "How did you get the scar on your face?" the teacher asked.

    The mother replied, "When my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught on fire.

    Everyone was too afraid to go in because the fire was out of control, but I went in. As I was running towards his bed, I saw a burning wood falling down and I placed myself over him trying to protect him. I was knocked to be unconscious (无知觉的), but luckily, a fireman came in and saved both of us." She touched the burned side of her face. "This scar will be forever, but until today, I have never regretted doing what I did."

    When the little boy heard this, he couldn't help running towards his mother with tears in his eyes. He hugged her and felt his mother was greater than anyone. He held her hand tightly for the rest of the day.

    Different people have different characters. Now look at the following people and try to find what you can learn from them.