I'm Sam. My hobby is playing chess（棋）—one of the greatest games in the world. My mom taught me how to play when I was 7. She beat (打败) me every time for the first year. But then on my eighth birthday, I won for the first time. I nearly always beat her from then on.

    It takes about a day to learn the rules (规则). But if you want to be good, you have to practice for years. You don't need much to play chess—just a chess set (棋具) and someone to play with.

    Chess sets can be quite cheap, or very expensive. Some people collect chess sets as a hobby, but some prefers playing.

    There is a chess club in our school, and we meet every week to play with each other. I'm the best player in the club, and the captain of the school chess team. This year we won the All English Schools' Championship (锦标赛), and I had to go up on stage (台子) in front of the whole school to accept the trophy (奖品).

    I'm saving up my money to buy a chess computer. It's very expensive, but very good for practice. In that way, I'll always have someone to play with. One day I will be the world chess champion (冠军).

C

    It is a true story. Once upon a time, one of Alex's horses was stolen by his neighbor. Alex went to the neighbor's home with a policeman to get his horse back. But the neighbor refused to give the horse back. He said that it was his horse.

    Suddenly Alex had a good idea. He put both of his hands over the eyes of the horse and said to the neighbor, “If this is your horse, then you must tell us in which eye the horse is blind.”

    “In the left,” said the neighbor. Alex took his hand from the left eye of the horse and showed the policeman that the horse was not blind in the left eye.

    “Oh, I have made a mistake,” said the neighbor. “He is blind in the right eye.” Alex then showed that the horse was not blind in the right eye, either.

“I have made another mistake,” said the neighbor.

    “Yes,” said the policeman, “and you have also proved that the horse isn't yours. You must give it back to Mr. Alex. ”

    Hans Christian Andersen was born in Denmark in 1805. He lived with his parents in a town called Odense. They were a very poor family and they couldn't afford to send Hans Christian to school.

    As a little boy, Hans Christian enjoyed making up fairy tales(童话) and puppet(木偶) shows. When he was only eleven years old, his father died and he had to go out to work to make money to help his mother.

    Three years later, Hans Christian left home and went to the city of Copenhagen to be famous and rich. To begin with he didn't do very well there, but at last he was able to go back to school and then on to university to continue his education.

    He wrote fairy tales and stories and soon became famous. At first he wrote the stories that he had heard when he was a child and then began to make up new tales. During his seventy-one year life. Hans Christian wrote over three hundred stories.

    Many of his stories are still enjoyed by children today. Among his best-known stories are: the Emperor's New Clothes, the Ugly Duckling, the Snow Queen, the Princess and the Pea, and the little Mermaid.

    One morning it was shining brightly when I woke up. I looked at the alarm dock. It said 3:45! It had stopped! What time was it? I spent two minutes putting on my clothes and ran down to the kitchen. The kitchen clock Said 8: 30--I was late! My parents were away. The school bus went at 8:00. I had missed it, I rang my friend Tony on his mobile phone.

    "Tell the teacher I'll be in as soon as I can!" I said "Come on your rollerblades," Tony said. "It will be faster than the bus." I got an apple to eat on the way. That was my breakfast! Then I put on my rollerblades and set off for school. It took half an hour to get to the school. I took all the shortcuts I knew, I went across the park-even through some backyards! When I got to school. I was very hot and my legs ached. I had missed math, our first lesson of the morning. But I made it just in time for history, our second lesson. I was very happy because history is my favourite subject.

    Mr Brown got up late this morning. He was going to be late for work.

It was raining hard and the streets were wet. He drove so fast that he didn't see the red light. He couldn't stop his car and hit a car.

    An old man got out of the car and called out angrily, "What are you doing? How can you drive so fast?"

    "I'm sorry, sir, "said Mr Brown. "I didn't see the light turn red." "I will make you drunk(醉的)," he said to himself. Then he brought out a bottle of wine and gave it to the old man. "It's cold today, sir," said Mr Brown." Please drink a little, and then you'll get warm."

    The old man drank some wine and became happy. He asked, "I'm feeling much better now. Why don't you drink any?"

     "I can't drink anything now, sir, "answered Mr Brown." I'm waiting for the policeman. Only drunkards cause accidents, you know! "