On a rainy day, about 150 volunteers worked for eight hours to clean up Carson Creek that is near a river. About nine tons of trash (垃圾) was taken out from there.

         "We did a good job," said Alan Specter, the organizer of the event. "We've planned to come back here one more time, three years from now. Of course, we hope that there won't be so much trash next time."

         The trash came in all shapes, sizes and colors: bottles, bicycles, batteries, furniture, clothing, plastic bags, dolls and even a golf bag with a full set of golf clubs (高尔夫球杆).  

         The dirty and tiring work was done by two volunteering groups - Save the Bay and Watch the Whales. Most of the volunteers came from a local police station and a fire station. And some of them were old people who had already got retired.

         That day, it rained a little. All of them wore boots and raincoats. The work took place along a two-mile river with over 500 big yellow trash bags everywhere.

         No one found anything that cost much. A five-year-old boy found an earring which he thought might be worth a million dollars. He said he'd sell it. Then he'd donate half of the money to Watch the Whales, and use the other half to buy his favourite ice cream every day.

         Many people laughed at the boy's story. However, it was easily found that the environment there did become better.

    Mr. Clarke hated to do the housework. He wouldn't stay at home on weekends. As his wife always told him to do some washing or cleaning，or he had to cook for his family. So he always made some excuses (借口)on Friday evenings.

    Recently Mr. Clarke was interested in playing cards，but he was afraid to let his wife know. So every Sunday afternoon he brought some fish home. It made his wife happy and she never asked where he spent his weekends.

    One Saturday morning，Mr. Clarke left home at 7 o'clock. He took a bus and got off at a stop near a small town. His friends were waiting for him in a small hotel. They played cards there. Mr .Clarke didn't go home until 7 o'clock on Sunday evening. He went in the shop near the bus stop as usual. As soon as the shopkeeper saw him，the man said，“I'm sorry，Mr. Clarke. I have no fish today. What about some chicken legs？” “Don't be silly！” said Mr. Clarke，“I can't tell my wife that I have fished some chicken legs，can I？”

B

    Fraser is four years old. He has autism(自闭症). He lives in his own world. Everything is very difficult to him. He doesn't want to play with other children. He doesn't want to say any words to others. His parents are worried about him.

    Then Billy, a cat, comes. It helps Fraser go out of his world.

When Billy sees Fraser, it runs to him quickly. It sits beside Fraser with its paws on Fraser's legs. They seem to be old friends. Fraser says, "This is our cat. He can come to live with us." "I know our life changes," says Fraser's mother.

    Billy stays with Fraser all the time. They play together, listen to the story together and sleep together. When Fraser walks in the garden, Billy is never far away. When Fraser is unhappy, it always lies beside him.

    It seems crazy. But Billy is like Fraser's angel. Fraser changes a lot. The doctor says he is getting better. He doesn't have to see the doctor now.

    Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Italy. He is best known as an artist today. One of his famous paintings is called Mona Lisa. However, Leonardo had many other natural abilities. He was also a great inventor. Many of his inventions have become important in modern day life. Although Leonardo hated war, he invented many different machines used for wars. His most special invention was the machine gun, which was produced and used in war many years later.

    By watching the way birds fly, Leonardo tried to find out the secret of f lying. Among his sketches we can see several objects. We consider them as modern flying machines.Leonardo spent many hours thinking about how to make good use of time. He developed ideas for labor-saving machines like cutting machines.

    Leonardo was a strange man. He didn't eat any meat, which was unusual in those times. He never published his ideas and scientific discoveries. He usually used mirror writing, which looks like writing in a mirror, starting from the right side of the page and moving to the left.

    We have very little of his work today. Leonardo finished only a few of his paintings. He left many unfinished because he thought they were not perfect. No one in his life time knew how great Leonardo was. We now believe, however, that he was one of the cleverest men the world has ever known.

    Today is Saturday, but Julie gets up very early. She wants to go to the library. The library is far from her home. Julie has a good breakfast. She has some bread, two eggs and a cup of milk. Then she leaves home and gets to the bus stop.

    Julie gets on the bus at eight. After one and a half hours, she gets to the library. The library is big and clean. There are lots of interesting books in it. Julie reads a storybook there. It's very funny. When it's time for lunch, Julie leaves the library and goes back home. She borrows three books from the library: one English book, one science book and one history book. She wants to read them at home.

    When Abe Lincoln was just a boy, he had to help his father to look after his farm. It was hard work and there weren't any interesting things for him. Abe wanted to go to school, but there was no school there. Abe was sad most of the time.

    Mrs Lincoln loved the boy very much. She tried her best to make Abe happy. One early morning, she got up early and went to the town. That was a long way and it took her a long time to get to the town. She bought something there and went back. And it was late in the evening when she got home.

    The next morning Mrs Lincoln said to Abe, "Today is your birthday. We're going to have a party. "She put some food on the table, and then brought out a present. "A book！"Abe cried. It was an old book, but he liked it. A smile came to his face. He looked up at Mrs Lincoln and said, "Thank you, Mum."