My name is Sally Miller. I am a student in No. 3 Middle School. Look! This is a ruler. It's yellow. It's not my ruler. Who lost it?

    “Anna, is this your ruler?” I ask my friend.

    “No, it isn't. My ruler is white. And it's in my pencil box now,” Anna answers.

    “Excuse me, Jack. Is this your ruler?”

    “No, it isn't. My ruler is black.” Jack answers.

    “You can ask your cousin Jenny. She can't find her ruler.”

    “Hi, Jenny! Is this your ruler?” I ask.

    “Yes, it's mine. Thank you very much,” Jenny says. She is very happy to find her ruler.

    Jack is in Grade Three now. He is a polite boy and studies hard. He is good at his lessons and can answer all the questions in class. His teachers and classmates like him except Henry. They're deskmates. Henry likes playing and often fails the exams. His father is a dentist (牙医) and makes a lot of money. The boy thinks he lives in the richest family in the town. So he looks down upon (瞧不起) others and laughs at them. Of course he has few friends.

    Jack is busy all the time. His father is a shoemaker. The man works hard but he still can't buy enough food for the family. He tells Jack to help him after school, so Jack has to do all his homework at school.

    One summer afternoon, on his way home, Jack met his sister Lily.

    The girl carried a heavy box in her arms without wearing shoes. Jack carried it for her. Henry saw them and said to Jack, "You father is a shoemaker, but your sister has no shoes!"

    "I don't think it's strange," replied Jack. "Your father is dentist, but your little sister has no teeth!"

    Is handwriting (书写) important? Yes, the 10-year-old girl Alyssa thinks so. She is a fifth-grade student from Mason County, the USA. She's the champion (冠军) for her grade level in the National Handwriting Contest in 2012.

    After she got the news, Alyssa was surprised that she could be the first. "I'm really happy," she said. "I'm really surprised, too. I didn't know I was that good."

    To enter (参加) the contest, each student had to write the sentence (句子) "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog". It is a common English sentence, but it uses every letter of the English alphabet. Teachers were invited to be judges. They could decide who wins the contest.

    Alyssa enjoys handwriting, and wants to write adventure (冒险) stories when she gets older. "From the third grade we started learning handwriting," Alyssa said. "All the letters look pretty. It makes me think of art."

    A couple of sparrows(麻雀) lived happily in a huge tree in a jungle. The female sparrow had laid her eggs and they were expecting their babies soon.

    One day, an elephant was unable to tolerate the heat of the summer sun. He destroyed all trees, including the tree where the sparrows lived.

    The sparrows managed to escape by flying away, but they lost their babies. The eggs fell down to the ground and broke into pieces. They cried loudly and decided to kill the elephant.

    They asked their friends, a woodpecker and a fly for help. The fly took them to meet one of his friends, an old frog. The frog was wise and he came up with a good plan soon.

    The frog explained, "Fly! Your task is to buzz in the elephant's ears in order to make him sleepy. The woodpeckers task is to hurt his eyes and make him blind. In this hot summer days, he will certainly search for water. I will sit by the nearby pit(深坑) and shout at the top of my voice."

    He continued, "When the thirsty elephant hears me, he will think there is a pond or lake nearby and follow my voice. And when he does so, he will fall into the pit and die."

    The others agreed to the frog's plan. Everyone did their tasks perfectly. Finally, the elephant fell into the pit and died.