Carol and Linda took a trip to San Francisco last July. They went there to visit Nick. Nick is a friend from their old neighborhood in Rome. He moved to San Francisco five years ago. They went there by train because they wanted to see more of the United States.

    They arrived in San Francisco in the evening. Nick met them at the train station. They were so delighted to see him. He looked the same as before. They gave him a big hug(拥抱).The next day, they went sightseeing(观光).They saw the Golden Gate Bridge. They had lunch at Fisherman's Wharf. At Fisherman's Wharf, they saw the fishing boats come in. The next day, they visited the University of California at Berkeley. Nick teaches music there. Carol and Linda liked the school. They thought that it was very big and very beautiful.

    They saw all of San Francisco before they left. Nick took them everywhere! They went back to New Orleans by plane because they didn't have time to go back by train. Nick was sad(伤心的)to see them go and they were sad to leave.

    All in all, Carol and Linda had a wonderful trip. They traveled(旅行)across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. They visited all of San Francisco. They had a great visit with Nick. They both wanted to go again next summer!

    One day, a farmer was walking along a road with his son Thomas. The father said, "Look! There's a horseshoe. Pick it up arid put it in your bag. "Thomas said." It isn't worth(值得) the trouble. "His father said nothing but he picked it up himself. When they got to a nearby town, they had a rest. There the farmer sold the horseshoe and with the few pennies he bought some cherries(樱桃).

    The father and the son continued their way. The sun was well up in the sky, and there wasn't a house or even a tree where they could have a rest. Thomas felt too thirsty(口渴的) to walk on. At the moment, his lather dropped a cherry on the ground and Thomas picked it up quickly and ate it. After a while, his father dropped another cherry and once again, his son picked it up and put it in his mouth.

    And so they went on. The old farmer dropped the cherries and the son picked them up. When Thomas had caught' up all the cherries, his father said to him," My dear son, if you had bent(弯腰) down in the beginning to pick up that horseshoe, you wouldn't have bent so many times for the cherries. Always remember this lesson：If someone don't worry about the little things, he will find it impossible for him to do the great things."

    In ancient times, there was a king who loved flowers, His palace was always decorated with beautiful orchids (兰花) and other flowers. As the king grew older, he knew that one day he would have to give up his throne (王位). So he had to find someone to rule the country.

    The other day, the king had an idea. He asked his servants to travel to every part of the country and give every citizen a single orchid seed (种子), He then announced that the person who grew the most beautiful orchid would take his throne.

    Everyone in the country then got their own seed. One young man named David was especially excited about the news, because he had experience in growing flowers himself.

    David planted his seed in a pot and put it in a place where it would get lots of sunlight. He watched it carefully every day. But as hard as he tried, his flower simply would not grow.

    Finally, it was time for everyone to give their flowers to the king. David took his empty pot to the palace. "Your Majesty (尊敬的陛下), I am sorry to say that I could not grow an orchid, But I hope you can see that I tried my best," he said.

    The king was moved by David's honesty. Although he did not choose David as the new king, he gave David a job as a royal court judge (法官).He believed that David's honesty would make him the right person to make sure the justice (公正) in the country.

Mary had a little lamb.

His hair was white as snow.

And everywhere that' Mary went,

The lamb was sure to go.

He followed her to school one day,

That was against the rule.

It made the children laugh and play,

To see the lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned him out,

But still he stayed near,

And waited patiently about,

Till Mary did appear（出现）.

And then he ran to her and laid,

His head upon her arm.

As if he said, "I'm not afraid—

You'll shield me from all hams."

"What makes the lamb love Mary so?"

The little children cried:

"Oh, Mary, loves the lamb, you know,"

The teacher did reply.

"And, you, each gentle animal

may bind（联合）,

And make it follow at your call,

If you are always kind."

    A rabbit is running into its hole. You may ask, "What happened?"

    Well, when a rabbit sees something dangerous, it runs away. Its tail moves up and down as it runs. When other rabbits see this tail moving up and down, they run too. They know that there is a danger. The rabbit has told them something without making a sound. It has given them a signal.

    Many other animals use this kind of language too. When a bee found some food, it goes back to its home. It cannot tell the other bees where the food is by speaking to them, but it does a little dance in the air. This tells the other bees to go with it to find food.

    Some animals say things by making sounds. A dog barks, for example, when a stranger comes near. A cat purrs (发出呼噜呼噜的声音) when it is pleased. Some birds make several different sounds, each with its own meaning.

    But human beings have something that no animals have—a large number of words about things, actions, feelings or ideas. We are able to give each other information and to tell or inform other people what is in our mind or how we feel. By writing words down we can remind ourselves of the things that have happened, or send messages to people far away. No animal can do this. No animal has the wonderful power of language.

    No one knows how man learned to make words. As centuries went by, he made more and more new words. This is what we mean by language.

    People living in different countries made different kinds of words. Today there are about fifteen hundred different languages in the world. A very large English dictionary, for example, contains four or five hundred thousand words. But we do not know all of them. The words we know are called vocabulary. We should try to make our vocabulary larger. Read as many books as possible. When we meet a new word, look it up in the dictionary. A dictionary is the most useful book.