Once upon a time there was a man in a small town. He had two children, a boy and a girl. The boy was good-looking but the girl was not.

      One day they found a mirror (镜子) for the first time and they saw what they looked like. The boy was very happy and he said to his sister, “How handsome I am! I look much nicer than you!”

      The girl did not like what her brother said and gave him a hard push (推). “Go away!” she said.

      Their father saw what was happening. He went up to them and said to the boy, “You must always BE good as well as LOOK good.”

      Then to the girl he said, “My dear, if you help everyone and do your best to make him happy, everyone will love you. It does not matter that you are not as good-looking as your brother.”

    Mr. and Mrs. Turner live outside a small town. They have a big farm and they are always busy working on it. Their son, Peter, studied at a middle school. The young man studied hard and did well in his lessons. It made them happy.

    Last month Peter finished middle school and passed the entrance examination (升学考试). Mrs. Turner was very happy and told the farmers about it.

    Yesterday morning the woman went to the town to buy something for her son. On the bus she told one of her friends how clever and able her son was. She spoke very loudly. All the people in the bus began to listen to her.

    “Which university (大学) will your son study in?” a woman next to her asked.

    “In the most famous university in our country!” Mrs. Turner said happily.

    “The most famous university?”

    “Oxford University (牛津).”

    Most of the passenger (乘客) looked at her carefully. Some of them said to her, “Congratulations!”

    A woman said, “I'm sure he'll know Fred Smith.”

    “Who's Fred Smith?”

    “He's my son.”

    “Does he study in the university, too?”

    “No,”said the woman. “He is one of the professors.”

    I am Li Ping. I am a girl of ten. My favorite subject is English, because it is very interesting. And I like speaking English.

    I have a good English teacher. Her name is Wang Hong. She loves us very much. She likes playing basketball after class. She likes reading books very much. And she often tells us some funny stories.

    My favorite sports are swimming and dancing. I cannot play basketball, but I want to join the basketball club. My favorite animal is a cat. Its name is Mimi. It is  white and black. It often stays under the chair, but now it is on the chair.

    One day, Mary went to the airport to see her friend off. Her friend's name is Jack. There were so many people in the airport. It was hard to find Jack among the people. Suddenly, Mary saw Jack and she felt very happy. Then she shouted, "Hi, Jack. Hi, Jack. Here. Here！"

    At the same time, Jack saw her and waved his arms, "Here！"Within 3 minutes, many policemen came to the front of Jack and caught him, "Please come with us to the police office. "

    Mary was very surprised at it. She wanted to know what happened to Jack.

    "What are you doing？"Jack asked angrily.

    "What? We don't need a hijack here. Don't you know？"one of the policemen said.

    "I think you are wrong! I'm Jack, but I'm not a hijacker, "said Jack after a short while.

    Soon Mary laughed.

    The policemen were sorry and they went away.

    Blue Ocean Aquarium is a great place for families to take a holiday. Children love to see the sea animals and watch movies about sharks in it.

    Last Saturday morning, Mr. Black took his wife and two little sons to the aquarium. At the ticket office, he asked, "How much shall I pay to get in?" The woman at the ticket office answered, "The price is 20 dollars for each adult(成年人) or any kid older than five. We let kids in free(免费) if they are five or younger. How old are your kids?" Mr. Black said, "The older one is six and the younger one is three. I think I must buy three tickets." The woman was surprised. She said, "Sir, don't you want to save 20 dollars? If you tell me your older son is five, I won't know the difference." Mr. Black said with a smile, "Yes, that sounds right, but my kids will know the difference."

    From Mr. Black's story, we know honesty is very important in the modern society. We should tell the truth to the people around us, especially to the kids.

Meeting a polar bear

I put my day's supply of food into my bag and then began to take down the tent. Suddenly I heard a deep, long growl (嚎叫) from my dog Charlie. I looked at him and then in the direction he was watching closely. A polar bear!

It was a mother 1 by two cubs coming slowly towards me. They were 200 meters away. With a pounding (狂跳) heart, I picked up my flare (照明) gun and 2 walked sideways a few steps to Charlie. Without taking my eyes off the bear, I untied Charlie and, again walked sideways.

The bear, now only 150 meters aways, wasn't stopping. Her cubs had dropped back but she kept going, while I tried to remember all the 3 that had been given. Keep eye contact, move sideways or forward, never backward, stay calm, don't show 4 . Don't wound a bear and you'll make it 5 to control it. Never run. Repeating to myself, "Stay calm, stay calm," I fired a warning shot (射击) to the bear's left. The loud noise had no 6 . She came around. I fired a flare, landing it a little to her right. Her head moved in its direction but she didn't stop. I fired another, this time dropping it right in front of her. She stopped, looked at the flare. She was only 30 meters away now.

By this time, I was so nervous that my heart could have been heard at base camp. The bear began to step around the flare, and I dropped another a meter in front of her. again she 7 , and then she fixed her tiny black eyes on Charlie, who was trying to reach her. She looked back at her cubs, waited, and then moved to my left in a half circle. I fired two more flares, trying to draw a line between her and me. She stopped again and seemed to want to 8 the line of flares but was unsure of the result and of Charlie, so she decided to stay 9 . Finally, with a last long look, she walked north with her cubs behind her.

My hands were still shaking, but I now knew that I could 10 a bear in the wild bravely and stay calm enough to act properly.