A lot of boys and girls in western countries are wearing the same clothes, and many boys have long hair, so it is difficult to tell whether they are boys or not.

      One day an old man went for a walk in a park in Washington and when he was tired, he sat down on a chair by a swimming pool. A young person was standing on the other side of the pool.

     “Oh!” the old man said to the person sitting next to him, “Do you see the person with the loose clothes and long hair? Is it a boy or a girl?”

     “A girl,” said the person, “She is my daughter.”

     “Oh!” the old man said quickly, “Please forgive me. I don't know that you are her mother. ”

     “I'm not,” said the person, “I'm her father.”

    Mark Twain was a great writer in America. He wrote many books. He liked telling jokes in his books. People liked reading them very much. And it was full of jokes in his life, too. Mark Twain liked reading. So he often borrowed books from other people. One day, he wanted to borrow a book from his neighbor. His neighbor was a mean man. He didn't want to lend it to Mark Twain. Then he had an idea. He said to Mark Twain, “I have a rule. You will have to read the book at my home. If you want to borrow it from me, you should never take it out." Mark Twain had to read that book at his neighbor's house.

    A month later, his neighbor went to borrow a cropper (割草机) from Mark Twain. Mark Twain said to him with a smile, "I make a rule, too. That is, you must use my cropper in my garden. If you borrow it, you can never take it out either."

    One evening last autumn, while Marcos Ugarte, 15, did his homework and his father, Eduardo, 47, prepared lesson plans, they heard screaming outside. It was from one of their neighbors, the Ma family. Then Marcos' eye was caught by a glow(火光) from there.

    "The house's on fire!" Marcos cried. Wearing only in shorts, the barefoot(光脚的) teen ran out with his dad. When they got there, Grandmother Yim Ma, mother Suzanne Ma, and son Nathan Ma were crying for help. Through the open front door, father Alex Ma was staggering(磕磕绊绊) down the stairs, coughing heavily.

    "Anyone else in it?" Eduardo asked.

    "My son!" Alex pointed to the second floor.

    Eduardo started up the stairs, but smoke and heat forced him to his knees. He crawled (爬) upstairs and down the hall where Alex said he would find Cody, 8, who had locked himself in a bedroom. Eduardo tried hard to open the door. But Cody made no reply, and Eduardo had to make his way back downstairs.  At the same time, Marcos saw Yim and Suzanne pulling a ladder, shouting: "Cody is at the window!"

    Marcos then placed the ladder near the window and climbed up. When Marcos reached the window, he pushed the screen into the room and managed to coax(哄) Cody out. Holding Cody with one arm, Marcos slowly climbed down the ladder. Cody was quickly sent to a nearby hospital, where he's treated for smoke inhalation(吸入).

    "You just don't see a teenager have that kind of braveness," said people around.

    Chopsticks were invented in China. There are many stories about who may have invented them. One of them is about Dayu.

    Dayu was an ancient Chinese leader who helped his people fight floods. He was always busy and often ate in the wild. He used a pot to boil (煮沸)water and cook animal meat. Most of the time, he was in a hurry and didn't want to wait to eat. But the meat was too hot to pick up with his hands. In those days, people ate only with their hands.

    So Dayu picked up some twigs (树枝)to help him hold the meat. The twigs later became the chopsticks we know today.

    But of course, this is just one story. The earliest chopsticks we have found so far are more than 3,000 years old, dating back to the Shang Dynasty (朝代).The six bronze chopsticks were found in the Ruins of Yin (殷墟)in Anyang, Henan.

    At first, chopsticks were just used as cooking tools. It was only after some time that people started to use chopsticks to eat.