Florida teen band The Garbage-Men is performing on the stage. The band has five members. They are Jack Berry, Ollie Gray, Harrison Paparatto, Austin Siegel and Evan Tucker. The five teens are making music from waste. The Garbage-Men band's instruments are made from recycled things. The guitars are boxes. A horn(号) is made from pipes. The keyboard is formed from old bottles.

    The band started about two years ago. Jack Berry who was in eighth grade at the time decided to make a playable, home-made guitar. After some trial-and-error(反复试验),                he ended up building it from a cereal box,  a yardstick and toothpicks. After Jack showed his creation to his friend Ollie Gray, Ollie had the idea to form a band using other home-made instruments as a way to improve recycling. “We want to show people there is more to recycling than throwing things away in the bin.” Jack, 16, told TFK. “You can actually reuse materials.”

Last year, the Garbage-Men played at local events, including festivals, farmer's markets. Typically， the teens set up on the street and performed popular songs from the 1960s， including classic Beatles and crowd favorite “Wipe Out”. They talked about recycling and offered tips for how to improve the environment. While they were performing, Jack's little brother Trent, 11, gave out leaflets about recycling and helped sell the band's CDs and other musical products.

The band donated the money from sales to charity. They have raised more than $2,500 for Heifer International. The organization gives farm animals, seeds and agricultural training to people in poor countries to help end poverty and hunger. “It's a good, sustainable-development (持续发展的)charity,” Jack says, “By donating one animal, you help the whole community.”

The band, all tenth graders, tries to play a show every week. They've also played on a Florida radio station. The teens hope to take their shows on the road by touring in other states. “Music is a really good way to get a good message across to people because it's really close.” Jack says. Their instruments may be rubbish, but their message isn't.

    John is a very strong man. He gets a job cutting trees. His boss gives him an axe. The first day, John cuts down eighteen trees. “Good!” the boss says. Happily, John tries harder the next day, but he only cuts down fifteen trees. The third day he even tried harder, but can only cut down ten trees. Day after day, he cuts down fewer trees.

    “ I must be losing my strength ( 力气 ),” John thinks. He goes to the boss to say sorry and says that he does not know what is going on.” “When is the last time you sharpen ( 使锋利 ) your axe?” the boss asks. “I'm busy cutting trees, so I have no time to do it.”

    When John is working hard, he doesn't work “smart”. He doesn't think about the best way to do this job.

    Once upon a time, there lived a rich man. He had a servant (仆人). He and the servant(仆人) loved wine and good food very much. Each time the rich man left his home, the servant would drink the wine and eat up all the nice food in the house. The rich man knew what his servant did, but he had never caught his servant doing that.

    One morning, when he left home, he said to the servant, “Here are two bottles of poison (毒药) and some nice food in the house. You must take care of them.” With these words, he went out.

    But the servant knew that the rich man had said was untrue. After the rich man was away from his home, he enjoyed a nice meal. Because he drank too much, he was drunk and fell to the ground. When the rich man came back, he couldn't find his food and his wine. He became very angry. He woke the servant up. But the servant told his story very well. He said a cat had eaten up everything. He was afraid to be punished, so he drank the poison to kill himself.

    Paul can play basketball and volleyball very well. One Friday afternoon, when Paul came out of his classroom, one of his classmates said to him, "Paul, your father is waiting for you at the school gate."

    On their way home, Paul saw some boys skating in the park. He wanted to skate with them, but his father said, "You have much homework to do today. You must go back home and do your homework. Then I'll buy you an ice cream." Paul finished his homework and got his ice cream. He started to eat it, but a fly (苍蝇) came along. It landed on the ice cream. Paul's father told him to drive (驱赶) the fly away. Paul said, "You won't let me skate, but the fly doesn't have homework. Can't you let it skate for a while?"