This term(学期) we have a new teacher of English. His name is Mr. Peterson. He is American. He is not very tall and he is thin. He has a round face and small blue eyes. He wears glasses and they make him look smart. He has dark brown hair.

    Mr. Peterson works very hard. In class, he has many good ideas to make the class very interesting. We all like his class. After class, he always encourages us to speak more English. Sometimes, he plays games with us. He is very strong and he can play basketball and football very well. He is good at sports. Sometimes he plays table tennis with us, but he doesn't play it very well.

    Mr. Peterson loves living in China very much. He enjoys lots of things in China. He really loves eating Chinese food. He loves traveling in China too. He is going to visit Xi'an next month.

    Mr. King was the manager of a hotel. One weekend all the hotels in the city were full because there was a large meeting. On Friday night, three men came into the hotel and asked for rooms. Mr. King said there were no rooms ready because of the meeting. The men were unhappy.

    Mr. King wanted to help them. He remembered that Room 418, a very small room, was empty. He asked them if they would share a room. The three men said they would. Mr. King said the room would be thirty dollars: ten for each one. Each man gave him the money and then went up to the room.

    Mr. King soon began to feel sorry. "Thirty dollars is a lot to ask as price for that small room. " he thought. He called his assistant over and said, "Here is five dollars. Take it to the men in Room 418. I asked too much for their room."

    The assistant took the money. While he was on the way there, he started to think, "How can three men divide five dollars? I'll give them each only one dollar and keep the two dollars for myself. The men will be happy to get something back, and Mr. King will never know. " So the assistant returned one dollar to each man.

    Each man had at first paid ten dollars. After the assistant returned them one dollar each, each had paid nine. There were three men, $ 9 ×3 = $ 27. The assistant kept $ 2. $ 27 + $ 2 = $ 29

    Where is the missing dollar?

    A businessman was once deep in debt（债务）and could see no way out. He sat on a park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company.

    Suddenly an old man appeared in front of him. “I can see that something is troubling you,” he said. After listening to the businessman's trouble, the old man said, “I believe I can help you.”

    He asked the man his name, wrote out a check（支票）and pushed it into his hand, saying, “Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time.” Then he turned and disappeared.

    The businessman saw his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller. One of the richest man in the world.

    “It can solve my problem at once!” the businessman realized. But instead, he decided to put the check in his safe. Just knowing it was there that might give him the strength（力量）to work out a way to save his business, he thought.

    With renewed optimism（乐观精神）, he did better in his business. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

    Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the check. At the agreed-upon（约定的）time, the old man appeared. But just as the businessman was about to hand back the check and share his successful story, a nurse came running up and caught the old man.

    “I'm so glad I caught him!” she cried. “I hope he hasn't been troubling you. He's always escaping from the hospital and telling people he's John D. Rockefeller.”

    And then she led the old man away by the arm. The businessman just stood there,________. Suddenly, he realized that it wasn't the money, real or imagined, that had turned his life around. It was his newfound self-confidence（自信心）that gave him the strength to achieve anything he went after.

    Penny was a five-year-old girl. One day when she and her mother were at a store, Penny saw a plastic pearl necklace. What a lovely necklace! She wanted it very much, so she begged her mother to buy it for her. The mother said, “Well, I can buy you the necklace, but when we get home, we should discuss what you can do to pay for it. Can we do that?” Penny agreed with much happiness, and she got the plastic necklace she loved.

    How much Penny loved the necklace! She wore it everywhere and every minute. Penny also helped with housework to get pocket money and she worked very hard. Soon she managed to pay off the price for the necklace.

    Penny's daddy saw all her effort and knew how much Penny cared about the necklace. One night, he asked Penny, “Penny, do you love me?”

    “Sure, Daddy,” the little girl said.

    “Then how about giving me your necklace?”

    “Come on, Daddy! Not my necklace!” Penny cried.

    “Oh, darling, it's fine,” her father gave her a kiss.

    A week later, her father asked Penny again for her plastic necklace.

    “Oh! Daddy, please don't!” Penny cried even harder.

    However, several days later, Penny went to her daddy with tears in her eyes. “Here, Daddy. I love you.” She held out her hand. Inside it was her plastic pearl necklace that she loved a lot.

    Seeing this, Penny's father smiled with surprise. He then pulled a cute box out of his pocket. Inside of the box was a real and beautiful pearl necklace, which was waiting for Penny for so long.

    Mr Brown is a famous doctor. He lives in Sydney with his wife and three children. His wife's father, Mr Black, lives with them too.

    Mr Black is too old to work and he always sits in his chair near the bed all day; but in spring, if the weather is nice, he will sit outside. Sometimes, he even takes his chair into the garden if it is warm enough.

    Recently, Mr Brown found that spending more than three hours playing outside every day can reduce a child's risk of becoming short-sighted. It challenges the people's belief that short-sightedness is caused by using electronic products or reading in weak light. Many people come to see Mr Brown and ask him why Mr Brown shows his research and believes that natural light has a special chemical which stops the eyeball from growing out of shape and prevents people from becoming short-sighted.

    Mr Brown's oldest son, Andersen Brown, is twenty-seven. He is also a doctor like his father. He agrees with his father's idea and he suggests that everyone should spend some time outside. It doesn't matter that time is spent in travelling, playing sports outside or just sitting outside like his grandfather.

    Mr Brown's oldest daughter, Wendy Brown, is twenty-four. She is a music teacher. She teaches students in a junior high school. She likes teaching very much. She thinks those teenagers are very lovely.

    Mr Brown's youngest son, Mike Brown, is not old enough to go to work. He still goes to school. He is a very clever and hard-working boy. He is good at studying. He wants to be a scientist when he grows up.