It was Christmas Eve. When everyone went to bed, Bunny couldn't fall asleep. He still couldn't think of what he wanted as a special Christmas present. He wondered how Santa — Father Christmas would know what to bring him if he didn't know himself.

    As he was sitting up in bed, Bunny heard a big noise on the roof and a sound downstairs. It was Santa Claus, he realized. Bunny jumped out of bed and ran down the hall to the stairs. He hoped to take a look at the old m an before Santa left for his next stop.

    By the time Bunny was at the bottom of the stairs, everything was silent again. Lots of presents were put under the Christmas tree, but Santa was gone. A little disappointed(失望的), Bunny turned to climb back upstairs when he heard a cry.

    “Hello,” said Bunny. “Is somebody there?”

    He was answered by another cry. Bunny looked around the big pile of presents to see what was making the noise. Right under the tree was a funny looking brown animal with big feet and sad eyes. It also had antlers(鹿角) on its head. Bunny almost mistook it for a dog.

  “Are you a reindeer（驯鹿）?” asked Bunny.

  “Yes,” replied the brown animal with antlers. “My name is Ralph.”

  “And you were pulling Santa's sled(雪橇)?”

   “I was until I got air-sick,” replied Ralph. “Santa had to leave me here and go on with the other seven reindeer.”

   “Isn't it a bit unusual for a reindeer to get air-sick? I mean, isn't flying what reindeer are famous for?”

   “Not me, I'm afraid. It makes me frightened. I always feel sick when it comes to flying,” replied Ralph. “But everyone wanted me to pull Santa's sled, so when it was my turn I gave it a try. I'm afraid I just wasn't cut out for the job. Now I'm trapped here and I don't know how to get back to the North Pole .”

“Well, if you like, you can stay with us as a friend,” said Bunny. As he made the offer, Bunny suddenly realized the special present he wanted from Santa was a new friend!

    It's a Saturday afternoon. Mrs. Black goes to a dinner party. She is in an old jacket. When she comes into the party room, no one says hello to her. They don't ask her to have dinner. Mrs. Black is not happy.

    Then Mrs. Black goes home. She puts on her nice clothes. And she comes back to the party. All of people say hello to her and they ask her to have dinner. Is she happy now?

    Mrs. Black says, "You like my clothes, not me." Then she gets her clothes some food.

    "Eat, clothes," Mrs. Black says, "they like you, not me!"

    Then she doesn't have the dinner and goes back home.

    Franz Schubert was a famous musician in the world. But he lived a very hard life and often went hungry.

    One day he was very hungry and went to a small restaurant, hoping he might meet some friends there to borrow some money. He looked around the restaurant but found nobody. Then his eyes fell on a paper on one of the tables. On it was a short poem. He read the poem and liked it very much. So he sat down and began to write a piece of music for the poem and took his work to the owner of the restaurant. He only received a piece of beef and potato for it.

    Thirty years after his death, this music of the poem by Schubert was worth 40,000 francs. It was played in many big theatres and all the people loved it. It was his famous Berceuse(摇篮曲). Schubert began to be known all over the world.

    When I was 17, I read a magazine article about a museum called the McNay, once the home of a watercolorist named Marian McNay. She has requested the community to turn it into a museum upon her death. On a sunny Saturday, Sally and I drove over to the museum. She asked, "Do you have the address?'", but I'll recognize it, there was a picture in the magazine."

    "Oh, stop. There it is!"

    The museum was free. We entered, excited. A group of people sitting in the hall stopping talking and stared at us.

    "May I help you?" a man asked. "No," I said. "We're fine." Tour guides got on my nerves. What if they talked a long time about a painting you weren't that interested in? sally had gone upstairs. The people in the hall seemed very nosy (爱窥探的) ,keeping their eyes on me with curiosity. What was their problem? I saw some nice sculptures in one room. Suddenly I sensed a man standing behind me. "Where do you think you are?" he asked. I turned sharply. "The McNay Art Museum!" he smiled, shaking his head. "Sorry, the McNay is on New Braunfels Street." "What's this place?" I asked, still confused. "Well, it's our home." My heart jolted (震颤) .I raced to the staircase and called out." Sally! Come down immediately!"

    There's some really good stuff (艺术作品) up there." She stepped down, looking confused. I pushed her toward the front door, waving at the family, saying, "Sorry, please forgive us, you have a really nice place "Outside, when I told Sally what happened, she covered her mouth, laughing. She couldn't believe how long they let us look around without saying anything.

    The real McNay was splendid, but we felt nervous the whole time we were there. Van Gogh, Picasso. This time, we stayed together, in case anything else unusual happened.

    Thirty years later, a woman approached me in a public place. "Excuse me, did you ever enter a residence, long ago, thinking it was the McNay Museum?"

    "Yes. But how do you know? We never told anyone."

    "That was my home. I was a teenager sitting in the hall Before you came over, I never realized what a beautiful place I lived in. I never felt lucky before. You thought it was a museum. My feelings about my home changed after that. I've always wanted to thank you."

    One Sunday evening, it was quite dark when old Stanley went for his walk. He was walking along the sidewalk. Suddenly, he saw a white car coming around the corner at high speed. It was going too fast and crashed into a red car in the street where he was walking. He rushed up to the cars to see if anyone was hurt and needed help.

    The two drivers were arguing.

    "You came around the corner too fast," one man said.

    "No!" said the driver of the white car, "That's not true! Your car was parked in a wrong place."

    Stanley listened to their argument and then said the white car driver was wrong to drive too fast. The driver of red car asked Stanley to prove he was right in court(法庭). Stanley gave the driver his name and telephone number.

    Next Thursday morning, Stanley was asked to go to the court. The lawyer for the driver of the white car asked him a lot of questions about what he had seen. Then he asked Stanley how old he was.

    "I'm eighty-two," answered Stanley.

    "Do you usually wear glasses?" asked the lawyer.

    "Yes, I do," answered Stanley.

    "Were you wearing them on the night of the accident?" the lawyer asked.

    "No," replied Stanley.

    Then the lawyer said, "Why should the court believe you? You are eighty-two years old, you were not wearing your glasses, and it was dark. How far can you see in the dark?" Stanley thought about it for a minute. "Well," he said, "when it's dark, I can see the moon. How far is that?"

Mr. Smith looked at his watch at times. He 1 to go home as soon as possible. There would be a 2 football match in London but he could not do 3 in his office. He hurried home 4 work. Supper was ready and he went to his 5 after that. But he couldn't have a good 6 . He was afraid he would 7 the match though he had told his wife to 8 at once in the night. He had to 9 and began to read some evening newspapers. Finally the match began. His team lost the 10 half of the match. He became angry. He was so 11 , and he didn't know when he had gone to sleep. The next morning his wife brought some bread and milk into the sitting room. She 12 he was 13 sleeping on the sofa and called out, "Oh, dear! Get up, 14 you'll be 15 today. It is five to seven!" Hearing this, Mr. Smith jumped off the sofa and asked, "Who won? "