Long long time ago, the Jade Emperor, organized an animal race. He told all the animals that the first 12 animals to win could get a place in the Chinese Zodiac (十二生肖), and have a year named after them.

    The cat and the mouse both asked the ox to wake them up early on the day of the race. That day, the ox tried to wake them up, but without success. So the kind ox carried them on his back and started running when the race began. The mouse woke up just when the ox was going to across the last river. He knew that he could never beat the cat. So he pushed the cat off the ox's back. When the ox reached the other side of the river, the mouse jumped off and ran to the finishing line, just before the ox.

    So the 12-year cycle（循环） begins with the mouse. The ox comes after him. The tiger follows the ox. The rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig come after them. The cat didn't get a place in the Zodiac. That's why the cat hates the mouse and always wants to kill it.

    I'm Philip．Whenever I think about my past life,one unusual experience comes into my mind．It happened during my summer holidays last year．

    Last May,my father began to work in a new factory and we moved to a house near it．There were hundreds of fish and snakes in a river not far from the factory．Among them，the cobra(眼镜蛇)was the most dangerous one．My brother and I played a lot in the river during our summer holidays．In the afternoons,we liked to go out to catch fish from the river．Sometimes we also caught some water snakes，but they were not harmful．

    One afternoon,as I put my hand into the river,I touched something cool．Thinking it was a fish．I gripped(紧抓)it at once and tried to bring it out．But to my surprise, it was a cobra!I relaxed my grip at once and ran away．My brother,a few metres away,was too surprised to speak when he saw the cobra moving towards him with its mouth open．He started to run．I stopped to pick up a rock and threw it at the cobra．Surprisingly,the cobra now turned towards me and I had to run again．But I was very tired at that time，and couldn't run quickly．Luckily, my brother soon found a big rock．He threw it at the cobra and killed(杀死)it．

    After that,my mother didn't allow us to play in the river any more．We listened to her．After all,it was something we'd never want to experience again．

    Jean is a bright young girl from a rich and famous family. She goes to a good university and has almost everything that money can buy. But all her family are so busy that they can hardly find time to be with her. In fact, Jean feels quite Lonely. So Jean spends a lot of her time on Facebook. She likes to be anonymous, using the name Linda on Facebook. She doesn't want people to know anything about her famous family and her rich life.

    Last year Jean made a very special friend on Facebook. His name was David and he lived in San Francisco. David was full of stories and jokes. He and Jean had the same interests in rock music and modern dance. So it always took them many hours to talk happily about the latest rock music and their favorite singers and sometimes they even forgot the time. Of course, they wanted to know more about each other. David sent a picture of himself: He was a tall, good-looking young man with a big, happy smile. As time went by, they became good friends and often sent cards and small things to each other.

    When Jean's father told her that he was going on a business trip to San Francisco, she asked him to let her go with him, so that she could give David a surprise for his birthday. She would take him the latest CD of their favorite rock singer. But when Jean knocked on David's door in San Francisco she found that the special friend she had chatted with on Facebook for so long was a twelve-year-old boy named Jim.

    Sam likes fish very much. He often buys fish in the shop and takes it home. But when his wife sees the fish, she says to herself, "Good! Now I can ask my friends to have lunch, and we can eat this fish. They like fish very much."

    So when Sam comes home in the evening, the fish is not there and his wife always says, "Oh, your cat ate it." And she gives Sam some bread for his supper. Sam gets very angry. He takes the cat and his wife to the shop near his house and weighs the cat. Then he turns to his wife and says, "My fish weighs one kilo (公斤). This cat weighs one, too. My cat is here, you see. Then where's my fish?"