Ann wanted to play in the city orchestra (管弦乐队), but she was nervous (紧张的). She thought it might be too difficult. The first day she was so nervous, and she could hardly breathe. After a few rehearsals (排练), she could comfortably play along with everyone else. She found that there was no reason to be nervous and began to enjoy herself.

    In rehearsals, Ann became friends with Danny. Danny sat next to her and always helped her. Ann often asked him questions about music. Danny's parents were musicians. They started teaching Danny music when he was only five years old. Ann couldn't imagine playing the violin at that age.

    Ann's another friend in the orchestra was Marie. After rehearsal, Marie would tell Ann funny stories. Though Marie was much older than Ann, the two became good friends.

    The orchestra was rehearsing music for a concert. Ann invited some of her friends at school to come. Though they didn't understand music, they promised to come. They all liked Ann and wanted to cheer her. Ann's family also planned to go to the concert. Ann looked forward to the event, and she hoped it would not rain on the night of the concert.

    On the night of the concert, Ann was excited. Danny and Marie both told her that the concert would be fun. Ann knew that she would enjoy it. The conductor (指挥) Mike was nervous. Ann was surprised because she knew that he conducted many big concerts all over the world. After the concert was over, the conductor seemed happy. He said the orchestra gave a fine performance.

    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.

    The designer of the Apple Computer, Steve Jobs, was not quite successful in his early years. He was not among the best students at school, and from time to time he got into trouble with either his schoolmates or his teachers. But he was full of new ideas, which few people saw the value of. Things remained the same when he went up to college and he dropped out halfway.

    Steve Jobs worked first as a video game designer at Atari. He worked there for only a few months and then he set out to tour India He hoped that the trip would give him more ideas and give him a change in life for the better.

    After he returned from India, he began to live on a farm in California. And then, in 1975, Steve Jobs set about making a new type of computer. Along with his friend Stephen Wozniak, he designed the Apple Computer in his bedroom and built it in his garage(车库). He chose the name 'Apple' because it reminded him of a happy summer he once spent on an orchard(果园) in Oregon. His Apple Computer was so successful that Steve Jobs soon became worldwide famous. But unluckily, he died of illness in 2012.

    Little Tommy was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything-tutors, cards, special learning centers in short, everything they could think of. Finally they took Tommy to a catholic(天主教的) school.

    After the first day, little Tommy came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn't kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread(铺开) out all over the room and little Tommy was hard at work. His mother was surprised. She called him down to dinner and as soon as he finished eating, he went back to his room, without a word. In no time he was back hitting the books as hard as before.  This went on for some time, day after day while the mother tried to understand what was happening.

    Finally, little Tommy brought home his report card. He quietly put it on the table and went up to his room and hit the books. His morn looked at it and to her surprise, little Tommy got an A in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity(好奇心). She went to his room and asked, "Son, what was it? Was it the nuns(修女)?" Little Tommy looked at her and shook his head, "No." "Well then," she asked again. "WHAT was it?"

    Little Tommy looked at her and said, "Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that man nailed(钉) to the plus sign(加号), I knew they weren't joking."

    Most people always like to collect things. For example, they like collecting stamps, books, pictures.… But my friend Mr King likes collecting clocks. He has five hundred clocks now.

    There are clocks everywhere in his house. You can see shelves standing in every room. All the shelves are full of clocks. Though Mr King is glad to do this, his wife doesn't enjoy it at all. She has a lot of work to do every day. It's not easy for her to clean hundreds of clocks. She is also angry at the noise. Each clock keeps its own time, so she can hear clock strike(敲) almost any time during the day and the night. "There is something even worse. I am never able to know what time it is with so many clocks around."

    Denies Walme in Texas, USA, now 14 years old, published his best-seller Unbending Gisula eight years ago. The book is about a little whale named Gisul.

    One day, Gisula did not take his mother's words and went up the beach. Then he got lost and had to learn to live by himself. The colour pictures were drawn by Denies himself. Denies published the books at the age of six He is said to be the youngest writer and picture artist.

    Another surprising thing about the book is that it became a best seller immediately after it was published and brought him a lot of money. Because he spent much time writing the books, his study was not very good and he had to learn the year's work again but his gift of writing is highly praised by the teachers and student. And he was even invited to give talks on writing.

    But Denies does not want to be a writer. He said, 'I like planes most. I dream of becoming a pilot someday.'