Millions of people have seen Disney films and TV programmes. They have made friends with all the Disney heroes: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White, and Peter Pan. Millions more have visited Disney Parks. Probably no other company has pleased so many children. It is not surprising that it has been called a dream factory.

    Walt Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois. Then his family moved to Missouri. He grew up on a farm there. At the age of 16, Disney began to study art in Chicago. Four years later, he joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company. He helped make cartoon advertisements to be shown in cinemas.

    In 1923, Walt Disney moved to Hollywood, California to join his brother Roy.  He wanted to be a film producer or director. But he failed to find a job. So he decided to make animated films. In these films, drawings are made to move in a lifelike way. We call them cartoons. Disney wanted to bring his pictures to life.

    Disney opened his first company in the back of an office. For the first, several years, he had to work hard for a living, but he believed that cartoon films could be popular.

    Mickey Mouse was drawn with a group of circles. The public first saw Mickey Mouse in a film called Steamboat Willie. Walt Disney himself provided the voice for Mickey Mouse. The film was produced in 1928. It was a huge success. Mickey Mouse appeared in hundreds of cartoons during the years that followed. He became known all over the world.

    On a Friday night, a poor young violinist was playing his violin at the entrance(入口) of the subway station. He played such great music that people slowed down to listen and put some money into his hat.

    The next day, the violinist came to the entrance again. He put down his hat as usual. Beside the hat was a piece of paper with some words on it. It said, "A George Black has put an important thing into my hat by mistake. Welcome to claim(认领）it." Soon the people were all interested in the words and wondered what it could be. After a while, a man rushed into the crowd, took the violinist's shoulders and said, "I knew you would certainly come." The violinist asked, "Did you lose anything?" "Lottery(彩票)." The violinist took out a lottery ticket with Black's name on it.

    Black took it and danced happily.

    Black was an office worker. He bought the lottery and won a prize of $500000.But when he gave $50 to the violinist for his wonderful music, the lottery ticket was thrown in, too. The violinist was a college student.  That morning he was going to fly to Vienna for high education. However, when he found the ticket, he put off the flight and went back to the entrance.

    Later someone asked the violinist why he didn't take the lottery ticket to pay for his high education. He said, "Although I don't have much money, I live a happy life. If I lose honesty, I won't be happy forever."

    May 10th is Meg's birthday. She gets a gift. It is a new coat from her sister. The coat is very beautiful and she feels very happy.

    One day, Meg finds that a button(纽扣)of her coat is lost. She looks for the button everywhere, but she can't find it. The next day, she doesn't wear that coat to school and feel sad all day. After school, she goes to the clothes shops and wants to buy that kind of clothes. But she feels disappointed.

    Meg tells her sister about that, her sister says," We can change all the buttons. Then the buttons will be the same." The coat is beautiful again and Meg feels happy again.

    John, David and James were three brothers. Every year on their mother's birthday, they sent her expensive presents. They liked to show her how rich they were.

    The oldest brother , John, decided to give his mother a perfect(完 美的) present. He thought it must be more expensive than his brothers'.

    So he put an advertisement(广告) in the newspapers: WANTED THE PERFECT PRESENT FOR A RICH WOMAN. For many days people phoned him from all over the country. Each of them wanted to sell him" the perfect present". But John didn't like any of them.

    Then, less than a week before his mother's birthday, a man came to his office. He was carrying a cage with a large bird in it. "This bird," the man said," can speak ten languages (语言) and sing any popular songs. There's no other bird like it in the world." With these words, he asked the bird to speak to John in French, tell him a joke in Japanese and sing a famous popular song. John was very happy.

    "I'll buy it. How much do you want?" John said." One hundred thousand dollars," the man said. This was a lot of money, but John paid him. Then he sent the bird to his mother with a birthday card.

    The day after his mother's birthday he phoned her." Well, Mother," he asked," what do you think of the bird?" "Oh, very delicious, dear," she answered.