Ashima was a girl from a poor family. She was very beautiful and very good at singing and dancing. A lot of young men liked her. But Ashima was in love with Ahei, a brave (勇敢的) and smart young man.

    One day, Ashima met Azhi, the son of a very rich family in the village. Azhi wanted Ashima to marry (嫁) him. But Ashima said she only loved Ahei.

    When the weather got cold, Ahei had to leave the village to work in a very far place. After Ahei left, Azhi kidnapped Ashima, took her home and asked her to marry him. Ashima still said no.

    When Ahei heard about this, he rode his horse back quickly. When he got to Azhi's house, Azhi said he had to win a song competition before he could get in. Ahei sang for three days and three nights and won the competition at last. He went into Azhi's house.

    Azhi asked Ahei to stay one night in his house and said he would let Ahei and Ashima leave the next morning. At night, Azhi put three tigers into Ahei's room. But Ahei killed them. Finally he could take Ashima home.

    When Ashima and Ahei were walking by a river, Azhi made the river flood (泛滥), Ashima fell into the river.  ▲  

    Ashima became river stones (石头), Later when Ahei missed Ashima, he w0uld face the stones and call out Ashima's name and talk to her He always heard an echo (回声). In this way, Ahei lived with A shima forever.

Everybody Should Say Thank You to Ray Tomlinson

    Why should you thank Ray Tomlinson? You might have never heard of his name before, but do you know that the email you use every day was his "child"?

    Ray Tomlinson is known as "the father of email". He was born in New York in 1941. He attended college at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he took part in a program with IBM and in 1963 he received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering.

In 1971, Ray created the first email system, which allowed people to send messages electronically from the same computer. But he thought that there might also be a way to send messages from different computers, which led to the birth of the email we know now. He chose the@ sign to separate(区别于)local from global(全球的) emails in the mailing address. "I used the '@' sign to show that the user was 'at' some other hosts (电脑主机)rather than being local," said Ray in an interview Person to person network email was born and user@ host became the standard for email addresses, as it remains today.

    Ray Tomlinson died at the age of 74. Thank Ray Tomlinson for inventing the email and making the@sign well-known. Though he may not be as famous as Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, Ray Tomlinson surely has his place among the geniuses(天才) that gave us the convenience in our life.

    Brenda Bongos was a happy, talented girl. She had one big dream-to play the drums in a band. But one big problem lay in her way. To be good enough to play in a band, Brenda had to practice a lot, but she lived next-door to a lot of old people. Many of them are sick. She knew that the sound of beating drums would really get them nervous. So, she had tried playing in the strangest places: a basement, a kitchen, and even in a shower. But there was always someone who would get mad.

    One day, while watching a science documentary on TV, she heard that sound cannot travel in space, because there's no air. At that moment, Brenda Bongos decided to become a musical astronaut.

With the help of a lot of time, books and work, Brenda built a space bubble (透明圆形罩). This was a big glass ball connected to a machine which sucked out (抽出) all the air inside. All that would be left inside was a drum kit (成套设备) and a chair. Brenda got into the space suit she had made, entered the bubble，turned on the machine, and played those drums like a wild child.

    It wasn't long before Brenda Bongos became very famous. Many people came to see her play in her space bubble. Shortly afterwards she came out of the bubble and started giving concerts. Her fame spread so much that the government suggested that she be part of a special space journey. Finally,           , and it was far beyond (超越) her first dream of playing drums in a band.

    Years later, when asked how she had achieved all her dreams, she thought for a moment, and said," If those old people next-door hadn't mattered so much to me, I wouldn't have found a solution, and none of this would have ever happened."

    One dark night, two blind men were going home from work. "I need to buy some 1." said one of them suddenly.

    "OK!" replied the second man, "I think I'll buy two or three pairs for 2, too"

    In the shop, the salesgirl asked them. "What size do you wear, sir, and what color would you like?

    "Size eleven. Give me one pair of black socks and two pairs of white, please, answered one of them. "And you, sir?" the salesgirl asked 3 customer. "The same for me. I wear size eleven, too, And the same color the same 4, said the second blind man.

    A moment later they were back in the 5 streets. But just then, a boy riding a bicycle bumped into (撞上) them.

    The blind men dropped all the socks on the ground! All the six pairs- black and white all mixed up. The boy quickly said sorry and left. The two blind men 6 all the socks but couldn't tell which were black and which were white. 7 could they be sure that each of them got one pair of black socks and two pairs of white?

    They tried to ask for help. But 8 else was in the streets.

    One of them soon 9 the problem Can your guess how he made it? They separated each pair of socks and both took one sock 10 each pair. When they got home, each of them had two black socks and four white ones —just what they wanted. Weren't they smart?

When I was looking for a Christmas present for my daughter in a toy store, a nicely dressed little girl, with some money in her little hand, was looking at some beautiful {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. When she saw a doll she liked, she would ask her father {#blank#}2{#/blank#} she had enough money. He usually said yes.

At the same time, a {#blank#}3{#/blank#}, with old and small clothes, was looking at some computer games. He, too, had money in his hand, but it looked no more than five dollars. Each time he picked up one of the computer games and looked at his father, the father shook his head.

The little girl had {#blank#}4{#/blank#} a very beautiful doll. However, she noticed the boy and his father. She saw the boy {#blank#}5{#/blank#} a computer game with disappointment(失望) and walk to another corner of the store.

Once upon a time，there was a boy named Tim. He lived in a small 1 with nice mountains（山） and rivers. It was great to play there，2 Tim was always busy with his computer games and never noticed the beauty around him. 

Tim's grandfather was worried and always 3 about how great the nature（自然） was with him. "What clean and beautiful lake it is!"，his grandfather often said. One day，his grandfather asked Tim to go on a trip with him. Tim agreed，but he was not very 4 . 

As they walked in the village，Tim's grandfather pointed out many 5 things，such as colourful flowers with bright leaves，mother birds flying back homes with food to 6 their babies. They even climbed to the top of the hill so that they could see the sights 7 . His grandfather also told him some stories behind each place. Some of the stories were really funny and made Tim 8 all the time. Tim got to enjoy these beautiful things for the first time. 

At the end of the trip，Tim's grandfather told Tim not to 9 the small things in life，like a sunny day or a friendly smile. From that day on，Tim learned to enjoy every moment and be thankful. 

He thought that there was much more to life compared to 10 . Tim decided to spend more time outdoors and take short trips with his grandfather more often.