An old farmer lived on a farm with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early to read. One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa! What good does reading do?"

    The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket to the river and bring me back a basket of water."

    The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out (漏出) before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, "You"ll have to move a little faster next time," This time the boy ran faster, but again the same took place. It was an impossible task.

    The old man said, "You're just not trying hard enough," So the boy tried a third time and failed. He said, "See Grandpa, it's useless!"

    "So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket."

    The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket into a clean one inside and outside.

    "You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. "

    Mr Jones, the owner of a farm, was one day driven out of the farm by all the animals he kept．The animals were excited to be masters of their farm．Animals made seven rules of their own and Snowball painted them on the wall．

    ⒈Whatever walks on two legs is an enemy;

    ⒉Whatever walks on four legs, or has wings, is a friend;

    ⒊No animal shall wear clothes;

    ⒋No animal shall sleep in bed;

    ⒌No animal shall drink alcohol(酒);

    ⒍No animal shall kill any other animal;

    ⒎All animals are equal．

    They were nicely written, except that "friend" was written "friend"．Snowball read them out, and all the animals agreed．

    "Now, let's go to the field．Let's get in the harvest more quickly than Jones and his men could do．"

    But at this moment the three cows, who had seemed uneasy for some time, shouted because they hadn't been milked for 24 hours．Then the pigs began to help milk the cows successfully．Soon there were five buckets (桶) of creamy milk at which many animals

    looked with great interest．"What's going to happen to all the milk?" asked one animal．"Jones used to mix some of it in our food," said one of the hens．"Never mind the milk," cried Napoleon, standing in front of the buckets, "the harvest is more important．Mr Snowball will lead the way, and I'll follow in a few minutes．"

    So the animals ran down to the field to begin the harvest, and when they came back in the evening, it was noticed that the milk had disappeared．

When I was finishing my tour in Iraq, my parents provided a vacation as a Christmas gift. "London,"I said. They seemed a bit surprised: I grew up there. Why didn't I choose a foreign place? I told them I wanted to go somewhere cold and wet after seven weeks in the desert. At that time this made sense(讲得通), but 10 years later, I've realised I wanted to return for a different reason: South Bank.

 When I was 9, we packed up our home in Los Angeles and arrived at Heathrow, London, on a gray January morning. Everyone in the family was comfortable living in this city except me. Without my beloved beaches and endless blue-sky days, I felt lost and out of place, until I found something.

South Bank is the centre of British skateboarding. I loved it. I soon made friends with the local skaters. We spoke our own language, and my favourite: Safe. Safe meant "cool". It meant"hello". It meant"don't worry about it". Once, when trying a certain skill, I fell onto the stones, and Toby came over, helping me up, "Safe, man. Safe." A few minutes later, when I landed the skill, my friends beat their boards loud, shouting,"Safe! Safe! Safe!"And that's the important thing —landing skills, being a good skater.

When I was 15, my family moved to Washington. I tried skateboarding there, but the locals were far less welcoming. Within a couple of years, I'd given it up.

When I returned to London years later, I found myself walking slowly down to South Bank for hours. I've traveled back several times since, most recently this past spring. The day was cold but clear: tourists and Londoners stopped to watch the skaters. Then a teenager, in a baggy white T-shirt, sat next to me. He seemed not to notice me. But soon I caught a few of his glances. "I was a local here 20 years ago," I told him. Then, slowly, he began to nod his head, "Safe, man. Safe."

"Yeah,"I said. "Safe."

My name is Mary. Linda is my good friend. We are classmates. Look! Here is a photo of Linda's 1 . The tall man is her father. He 2 at a radio station. He likes his job. Every morning, he gets up early, so he is never 3 for work. The radio station is far from their 4 , so her father drives to work. It usually 5 him about forty minutes. The woman6 white is her mother. She is a teacher. She 7 English in Linda's school. She usually goes to school 8 . She likes walking and she says it's good 9 . Can you see the girl in black? It's Linda. She is a nice girl. I like to play with 10 after school. 

①" Class, this is John Evans, " Mrs. Parmele introduced him to us, trying to give him a warm welcome. We saw a boy in old clothes. John looked around and smiled, hoping somebody would smile back. Nobody did. He kept on smiling anyway. I held my breath as Mrs. Parmele looked around the classroom, hoping she wouldn't notice the empty desk next to mine. She did, and pointed him at that desk. He looked over at me as he sat down, but I looked away. 

②By the end of his first week, John was at the bottom of our class. I told my mother one evening at dinner, " He even doesn't know how to count. " However, as I ate lunch with him the next day and listened to him, I realized that it was pleasant to be with him. After lunch, I decided that I would be John's friend. 

③One night, as Mother came into my bedroom, I said, " Mom, tomorrow is John's birthday, and he's not going to get anything. Nobody cares. "" Don't worry, " Mom said as she kissed me goodnight. "I'm sure everything will be fine. "

④I wished John a happy birthday in the morning, and his smile showed me that he was glad I had remembered. By mid- afternoon I had almost decided that birthdays weren't that important. Then, as Mrs. Parmele was writing on the blackboard, I heard a familiar(熟悉的) voice singing the birthday song. I looked up and saw Mother coming through the door with a tray(托盘) of cupcakes and a present in her hand. Mrs. Parmele also joined in. Mother found John looking like a rabbit in car headlights. She put the cupcakes and the gift on John's desk and said, " Happy birthday, John. " John stood there with his mouth open, unable to believe what was happening. While John ha ppily shared his cupcakes with the class, taking the tray from desk to desk, I caught Mother watching me and she smiled. 

⑤John Evans moved away soon, and I never heard from him again. But I always remember the happiness in a boy's eyes, and the taste of the sweetest cupcake.