Joe was an old man. The 75-year-old lived very happily in a village and had a beautiful family. Joe had four grandchildren, and they visited him during their holidays.

During one vacation, Joe was preparing his home for the kids: cleaning and buying their favorite foods. After he finished working, he realized he lost his favorite watch. The watch was a gift from his wife when their first child was born. Joe loved the watch very much, especially after his wife's death. He was very upset about losing it.

    Once his grandchildren came, they promised him they would find the watch.

    One granddaughter asked: "Grandpa, do you remember when you saw the watch last before it went missing?"

    "I guess when I was cleaning the barn(谷仓)!" Joe replied.

    The children looked for more than two hours with Joe, but they could not find it. The kids were now also sad, but they tried to comfort(安慰) their grandfather.

    One grandson went back to the barn to search again. Joe asked why he was going there a second time. But the little boy just asked the others not to follow him and to remain silent.

    He was there for about fifteen minutes and then rushed to his grandfather. He found the watch and happily gave it to Joe.

    Joe was surprised and asked how he was able to find it. The little boy replied: "I sat there without making a noise, and the barn was so silent. After a few minutes, I heard the ‘tick, tick' sound and found the watch."

    Joe hugged and thanked the little boy.

    As a student, I was most afraid to answer questions in class, and I found that the students around were just like me. At the beginning of each class, when the teacher asked a question, I always lowered my head because I was afraid the teacher saw me.

One day, in a foreign language class, Mr. Black gave us a lesson. He wanted us to be active in class, so he asked us some questions, but no one answered. "Let me tell you a story first," he said.

"When I came to the United States to study, the university often invited famous people to make speeches. Before the beginning of every speech, I found an interesting thing. The students around me always took a cardboard folded(折叠的) in half, wrote their names in bold(黑体) with the most eye-catching(引人注目的) color, and then placed the cardboard on the seat. So when the speaker needed the answers from the students, he could see it and call a listener's name directly."

"I couldn't understand that. My classmate told me the speakers were all top people, who meant chances. When your answer was to his surprise, it meant he might give you more chances. In fact, I really saw a few students got great chances because of that."

    After listening to the story, I understood that the chance will not find you itself. You must show yourself all the time so that you can find a chance on the card.

    There is an old tiger in the forest. He doesn't want to look for food now. He often asks other animals to get him something to eat.

    One day, he sees a monkey and says, "I am hungry, monkey. Go to the village and get me something to eat. "

    "I can't do that now, tiger," the monkey says, "There is another tiger over there. He will not let me get anything for you to eat. I am afraid of him. "

    "What?" cries the old tiger. "Take me to that tiger. I will talk to him."

    The monkey and the tiger get to the bridge over the river. "Now look down at the water." says the monkey. "Do you see the tiger?"

    "Yes, I do," cries the old tiger. "I will eat him."

    With these words, the tiger jumps into the river.

    People all over the world don't like mice, but they like one mouse the famous Mickey Mouse. More than fifty years ago, most films were silent（无声的）. An American man called Walt Disney made a cartoon mouse. The mouse could talk in the films. He called his mouse Mickey Mouse. People were excited at Mickey Mouse.

    Soon Mickey Mouse became very successful and popular.

    Both young people and old people enjoyed Mickey Mouse. They loved to see their lovely friend because he brought joy and laughter to them. Mickey was a clean mouse from the beginning. So people hated real mice, but loved Mickey Mouse. In his early life, Mickey made some mistakes. People were very angry, and they wrote to Disney. They said they did not want Mickey to do silly things. Because Mickey could not do all of the things, Disney made a new animal called Donald Duck. He also made a dog Pluto. This dog always does stupid things and makes mistakes.

    Now Mickey is more important. He is a star of beauty and wisdom. He has friends in almost every country.

     Pan Changjiang is short and a little heavy. He has short straight hair. He is an actor and he is really funny. He also sings well.

     Liu Qian is a little thin and he is of medium height. He is good at magic. Many young people like him. He is very popular.

     Fei Xiang is tall and of medium build. He has long black hair. He is a famous singer and maybe our parents like his songs. He is handsome.

     Jackie Chan is a little heavy. He has a big nose. He is an actor and he is often in kung fu movies. He can sing well too.