Betty and I are best friends. Our birthdays are on the same day, so every year we have a birthday party together. But this year, we had a costume party instead.

      While we were writing the invitations, my mum came in and asked, "Why not invite John?" John had been in our class for only a few months, but he was already getting better grades in Maths than anyone else in class. I wrinkled (皱起) my nose, “Mum, he wears the same pants to school every day. How could he even afford a costume?" Mum said nothing. The next day, mum gave me an envelope with a shopping certificate (凭证) in it. "I thought it would be nice for you to give this to John" Mum said. But how? We didn't want to make John embarrassed. We discussed it for a long time. Finally, Betty and I had a good idea.

      On the day of our party, kids arrived, dressed differently. John arrived, in an old sheet (床单), but still in the same brown pants as usual. We danced, ate snacks and played games in groups. Before eating the birthday cake, Betty said in a loud voice, “Now it is time for the great prize game.  It is the following riddle……". It was a maths game. None of us was surprised when John came up with the right answer first and walked off with the envelope.

      Everything went on well as we planned. John wore a new pair of pants and a new shirt the next week. He felt happy. So did we.

When we help others, we need to find a proper way, or we may hurt them in another way.

    You might think that Olympic athletes are the healthiest people in the world. It's true that many are. However, it's also true that many Olympic athletes had to overcome (克服) illness early in their lives.

    One excellent example is Wilma Rudolph. She competed in track-and-field (田径) events in the 1960s Olympics. She didn't win just one gold medal (奖章).She won three. At the time, people called her ”the fastest woman in the world”.

    Actually, as a young child, Wilma could not take part in sports. She had serious illnesses, and then, at the age of 4, she got polio (小儿麻痹症).She lost the function of her left leg, and the doctor said she could never walk again.

Wilma's family did everything they could to help her walk again. Wilma and her mother used to travel 100 miles to get treatments for her leg. Her brothers and sisters took turns to give her leg a daily massage (按摩).Four times a day, they helped her do special exercises for her leg. Amazingly, by the time Wilma was 9 years old, she was able to walk again. Before long, she started playing basketball and running. In high school, she was a track star and then she went to the Olympics.

    Wilma stopped being a runner when she was 22 years old. She then became a teacher and a track coach. Her story encouraged many people to work hard and to overcome difficulties.

    This story is about a young man. He worked very hard at his lessons, so he was too busy to have a rest. At last, he couldn't go to sleep every night. When he went to bed, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep.But the more he tried, the more he stayed awake.

    After a while, he decided to visit the doctor."I just can't go to sleep at night. What should I do?" "I have a suggestion,"said the doctor, "try counting numbers. By the time you reach one thousand, you'll be asleep. I'm sure of it. The next day the man returned to the doctor's office."well," said the doctor, "How are you today? Did you try my suggestion?"

    The man still looked tired, "Yes,"he said, " I tried counting one, two, three…up to one thousand. But when I reached five thousand and sixty-nine, I began to feel sleepy. I had to get up and drink some tea so that I could go on counting up to one thousand, but then I still couldn't fall asleep.

    Two frogs lived in a village. One day they wanted to go and see the big 1 that was about ten miles away.

    They talked about it 2 a long time, and 3 they decided to see the city.

    It was a hot day, and they soon 4 to feel tired. They 5 went a little way when one said to the other, “We must be nearly there. Can you 6 the city?”

    “No, ”said the other frog, “but if I climb on your 7 I might be able to see it.”

    8 he climbed up on the back of 9frog to see the city.

When the frog 10 his head, his eyes could only see what was 11 , and not what was in front. “Can you see the city ?” asked the other frog. “Yes,” answered the frog that climbed up. “I 12 see it. It looks just 13 our village. ”

    So the frogs decided 14 the city, and went back home.

The two frogs 15 the others in village, “The city was just like our village.”

    Huang Qingyun spends her life telling stories to children. Now though she is in her nineties, she has no plans to stop.

    "I did this for children, from the first day I started to write stories. I am old now, but I still want to go on telling stories to children," Huang said.

    Born in Guangzhou in 1920. Huang spent her childhood in Hong Kong and her favourite hobby was making up stories for her elder sister.

    In 1935, Huang went to university and studied Chinese. During this period, she was greatly influenced by the well-known Chinese educator Tao Xingzhi and decided to become a primary school teacher. However, instead of being a teacher. Huang found another way to educate children. During World War Ⅱ, Huang often told stories to homeless children at the Little Children Society, a charity (慈善机构) set up by a professor from the University of Hong Kong.

    Huang also started a column (专栏) called "Sister Yun's Mail Box" in Xin Er Tong, a children's magazine set up in Hong Kong in 1941. From then, Huang officially started writing and created a large number of stories for children. Huang spent about 30 years at the magazine working as chief editor (主编) in Guangzhou.

    Huang retired in 1987. She moved to Hong Kong and went on creating stories for children, including I Love Hong Kong, Children from Hong Kong and Shoes Brothers.

    "What l wrote were all for children, and for me, writing fairy tales is my favourite," Huang said.