A year ago I paid no attention to English idioms though my teacher said again and again that it was important.

    One day, I happened to meet an Englishman on the road, and soon we began to talk. As I was talking about how I was studying English, the foreigner shook his head, saying, "You don't say! You don't say!" I was surprised. I thought, perhaps this is not a proper topic. Well, I'd better change the topic. So I said to him, "Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall? By the way, have you ever been there?"

    "Certainly, everyone back home will laugh at mc if I leave China without seeing it. It was great."

    I said, "The Great Wall is one of the wonders in the world. It is a place of interest. "Soon I was interrupted again by his words, "          "

    I couldn't help. "Why do you ask me not to talk about it?" "Well, I didn't ask you to do so," he answered, gently surprised.

    I said, "Didn't you say' You don't say!'?"

    Hearing this, the Englishman laughed to tears. He began to shout, "'You don't say!' actually means 'Really?'. It is an expression of surprise. Perhaps you don't pay attention to English idioms."

    Then I knew I had made a fool of myself. Since then I have been more careful with idioms.

    One day a farmer Mr Dean came to town and bought four donkeys(驴). He got on one of them and went back home. On the way, Mr Dean found there were only three donkeys walking along with him.

    "One, two, three, where is the fourth one?" Mr Dean got down from the donkey and counted(数)again. "One, two, three, four. Good!" he rode back on the donkey.

    When he got home, Mrs Dean met him in front of their house .She said, "Did you buy them at good prices?"

    "Yes, I did," Mr Dean looked at the donkeys and said. "Oh, no! I bought four, but there are three again"

    Mrs Dean looked at him and said, "You stupid(愚蠢的)old man. You see only three donkeys, but I see five."

    When I was a little child, my mom sometimes liked to make breakfast food for dinner. And I remember one night she made breakfast after a long, hard day at work.

    That evening, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and burned cookies in front of my dad. I remembered waiting to see if anyone would say anything. Yet all my dad did was to reach for his cookie, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him eat every bite of that cookie!

    When I got up from the table that evening, I remembered hearing my mom say sorry to my dad for burning the cookies. And I'll never forget what he said, "Dear, I love burned cookies."

    Later that night, I went to kiss Dad goodnight, and I asked him if he did really like his burned cookies. He kissed me and said, "Your mom had a hard day at work today, and she's very tired.  Besides, a little burned cookie never hurt anyone!"

    Life is full of imperfect(完美)things and imperfect people. We need to learn to accept each other's faults and differences.

    Years ago a heavy rain hit Chongqing and made the Yangtze River rise.

    When the rain stopped, people found that a dog, later named Huahua, swam across the river to an island(小岛)twice a day for two weeks. Why? Because Huahua's four children were there. The mother dog swam there every day to feed her babies. This story touched many people

    Not only humans but animals are responsible. Animals know love as we humans do, and Huahua is only one of them. British scientist Jane Goodall spent 14 years living with chimpanzees(黑猩猩) in Africa. She found that chimpanzees cared for each other when others got hurt or lost parents.

    Two birds in Chengdu showed their parental love. Their baby was hurt and fell on the street in the centre of the city. Cars were driving past but the brave parents flew down to the road and took the little bird away with their claws(爪子).

    Animals not only love their own children, but also care for other animal babies. A chimpanzee named Anjana in an American animal research centre takes care of a baby lion. She feeds the lion carefully every day. "They are just like mother and son, "said a worker at the centre.

    At midnight, Mr. King coughed again. He got up and took some medicine. Before he lay down again, he smoked. And he couldn't go to sleep any longer. He found the medicine book and began to read it. He was afraid he had lung cancer (肺癌）He seemed to see death was waiting for him. Tears ran down his face. He didn5t see his wife was standing by him.

    "What's wrong with you, dear?" asked the woman.

    "Nothing," the old man answered and covered his face with his hands.

    The old woman opened the book and understood at once. She said, "You must stop smoking right now."

    "I began to smoke when I was nine, you know. How can I do that?"

    "But I think health is more important".

    Mr. King coughed again and his wife said, "Go to see a doctor tomorrow. He will be able to help you, I think."

    The doctor told Mr. King to have an X-ray examination of his lungs. And then he looked at the X-ray carefully for a long time.

    "Tell me the truth, doctor," said Mr. King, "Do you see any shadows (阴影）in my lungs?"

    "No, I don't see anything."

    "Yes?" the old man said happily. "Really?"

    "Yes. Your lungs are turning black. How can I see any shadows?

    One Thursday afternoon, when I was in Grade 9, a new boy came into my classroom. He was short and thin. He walked up to the teacher and told her, very seriously, that he was new. His name was Christian. He sat down, took a look at me, and then looked away. I didn't think he was very nice and I was sure he wasn't the type I would like to make friends with.

    During that year, I didn't talk to him much, but he smiled at me when our eyes met, always shyly. He never ate lunch with anybody, and he never talked to anybody but me.

    But one day I joined those unkind kids who were making fun of him. We made fun of him though I thought it was wrong.

    "Haven't you got any friends?" a kid asked Christian, who had walked past us alone, with his head down.

    "No, he hasn't got any friends. He's too stupid and shy," I said. Then Christian looked up at me with the saddest dog eyes I had ever seen. I felt very sorry at that moment.

    That night, I couldn't sleep because I couldn't get Christian's face out of my mind. In the weeks that followed, be never met my eyes, in class and never smiled at me, It was really hard for me to decide to write him a note asking him. to forgive(原谅) me. But I thought I should.

    The next day in class, I wrote him a note telling him how sorry I felt. About five minutes later, I turned and saw tears in his eyes. "You will never realize what your apology(道歉) has meant to me, Jimmy," he said to me. "I hope we can become friends."

    We had lunch together that noon and we had the best talk I had ever had. Over the years at high school, we were close friends.

    When I think back, I realize that, if I had not apologized, I would never have known what a lovely person Christian was.

    Apologies can really change your life, so never miss the chance to tell somebody you are sorry.