It's 14：00. The house is quiet (安静的). "Tom？" Mom says. No one answers. Mom comes to Tom's room. He is not on the bed. But his model plane is on the desk. "He is not in his room, and he is not in the yard (院子)，" Mom thinks. Then Mom comes to his grandparents' room. Tom likes to play with Grandpa's tape player. But he is not there.

    Mom looks for (寻找) him everywhere. But where is Tom? Mom is worried. She wants to call Dad. She comes to the living room to get the phone.

    "What's that？" Mom sees something black under the sofa. Oh, it's Paul, Tom's dog. It loves sleeping (睡觉) there. But what is next to Paul? It's Tom!

    A few days ago, I walked into a stranger as he passed by. I said sorry to him, and we were very polite. Then we went on our way after saying goodbye.

    Later in the kitchen at home, as I cooked our meal, my daughter Betty walked up to me, very quietly. When I turned around, I nearly knocked her down. "Get out of the way!" I shouted angrily. She ran away, crying.

    That night, when I lay in bed, my husband said to me, "You were so rude to Betty. Go and look around on the kitchen floor, and you'll find some flowers there. Betty brought those for you. She picked them herself, pink, yellow, and your favourite blue."

    When I heard this, I thought deeply, "While meeting with a stranger, I was calm and polite; but with my daughter, I was not patient (耐心的). I felt sad and tears began to fall.

    I quietly went to Betty's bed, "Wake up, my dear," I said, "Are these the flowers you picked for me?" She smiled, "I found them by the tree. I knew you'd like them, especially the blue. " I said, "I am so sorry that I treated (对待) you that way today. " And she whispered (悄声说), "Mommy, that's okay. I still love you anyway. " I kissed her and said, "I love you too and I do love the flowers. "

    That day Betty gave me a lesson on how to get along with each other in the family. I spent much time on work before and didn't realize how important family life was. I decided to do better in the future.

    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.

    We should not use more water than we actually need. If we do, we will not have enough water in the future.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}It is not a difficult question to answer. If we remove more fresh water than nature replaces, we have taken too much.

    Many cities run campaigns (运动) to get people to stop wasting water. They show them ways they can cut back on water use.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}What's more, they carry out programs that offer money to reduce water use. For example, they give people shower heads and toilets that use less water.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Another threat (威胁) to our water supply is pollution. When our sources of fresh water get polluted, we can no longer use this water. This also endangers (危及) the animals that depend on the water.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}We can save lots of water by not letting taps (水龙头) run while we brush our teeth or by turning off taps right after washing hands. By collecting cold water when we're taking warm showers, we can also save water.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}In this way, we can make full use of water.