On a rainy day, about 150 volunteers worked for eight hours to clean up Carson Creek that is near a river. About nine tons of trash was taken out from there.

    “We did a good job,” said Alan Specter, the organizer of the event. “We're planning to come back here one more time, three years from now. Of course, we hope that there won't be so much trash next time.”

    The trash came in all shapes, sizes, and colors: cans, bottles, bicycles, batteries, furniture, clothing, plastic bags, dolls, and even a golf bag with a full set of golf clubs (球棒).

    The dirty and tiring work was done by two volunteering groups — Save the Bay and Watch the Whales. Most of the volunteers came from a local police station and a fire station. And some of them were old people who had already retired (退休).

    That day, it rained a little. All of them wore boots, gloves and raincoats. They did the work along a two-mile river with over 500 big yellow trash bags everywhere.

    No one found anything that cost much. A five-year-old boy found an earring which he thought might be worth a million dollars. He said he'd sell it. Then he'd donate half of the money to Watch the Whales, and use the other half to buy his favorite ice cream every day.

    Many people laughed at the boy's story. However, it was easily found that the environment there did become better.

A

    Mr. and Mrs. Smith got married when he was twenty-three，and she was twenty．Twenty-five years later，they had a big party，and a photographer(摄影师) came and took some photos for them．Then the photographer gave Mrs. Smith a card and said，"They'll be ready next Wednesday．You can get them from my room．"

    "No，"Mrs. Smith said，"Please send them to us．"

    The photos arrived a week later，but Mrs. Smith was not pleased when she saw them．She got into her car and drove to the photographer's room．She went inside and said angrily，"You took some photos of me and my husband last week，but I'm not going to pay for them．"

    "Oh，why not ?"the photographer asked．

    "Because my husband looks like a monkey．"Mrs. Smith said．

    "Well，"the photographer answered，"That isn't my fault(过错)．Why didn't you think that before you married him?''

    A little boy invited his mother to attend his school's first teacher-parent meeting. To the little boy's disappointment, his mother said she would go. This would be the first time that his classmates and teachers met his mother and he was embarrassed by her appearance. There was a serious scar (伤疤) that covered nearly the whole right side of her face. The boy never wanted to talk about why or how she got the scar.

    At the meeting, the people were impressed by the kindness of his mother with the scar, but the little boy was still embarrassed and hid himself from everyone. However, he could hear clearly the conversation between his mother and the teacher.

    "How did you get the scar on your face?" the teacher asked.

    The mother replied, "When my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught on fire.

    Everyone was too afraid to go in because the fire was out of control, but I went in. As I was running towards his bed, I saw a burning wood falling down and I placed myself over him trying to protect him. I was knocked to be unconscious (无知觉的), but luckily, a fireman came in and saved both of us." She touched the burned side of her face. "This scar will be forever, but until today, I have never regretted doing what I did."

    When the little boy heard this, he couldn't help running towards his mother with tears in his eyes. He hugged her and felt his mother was greater than anyone. He held her hand tightly for the rest of the day.

    Zak's grandfather, Stan was very famous. Why? Because he had a very, very, very long white beard (胡子).

    One day, Zak asked his grandfather, "When you sleep, do you put your beard over or under the quilt (被子)?" "I'm not sure. I never care about that," said his grandfather, "I'll look tonight."

    Stan got into bed that night and pulled up the quilt. Then he remembered his grandson's question. Aha! His beard was under the quilt. But wait. Did that feel right?

    He lift his beard from under the quilt and put it above it. This also didn't feel right. Si he put the beard under the quilt again. But he soon felt it would be better if it were out. The beard went in and out—first under the quilt, then over it, under, over, all night long.

    Stan spent a sleepless night. In the morning, he was so tired and unhappy that he cut his long beard right off!

    Stan's wife was so happy. She advised Stan to cut that beard off many times, but he never did it. Now a simple question made him do that.

    Dad was walking around the house seriously. He walked here and there in a hurry. He needed his glasses so he could read the newspaper. He likes reading. But he could not remember where he had put his glasses.

    First, Dad looked in the bedroom. He looked on the bed and under the bed. Next, Dad opened the closet. He looked in the pockets of his brown coat. He even looked inside his winter boots. Then Dad went outside to the car. He looked on the seats of the car. He searched under the car seats, too. Dad came back inside. He walked into the living room and looked around. Then he sighed loudly.

    Mom and Wendy were sitting there, and they heard Dad sigh. "What's wrong?" asked Mom. "I've looked everywhere for my glasses, but I can't find them," he said. Wendy and Mom looked at Dad. Then they smiled at each other. Dad was always losing his glasses, but this time they were not lost. Mom and Wendy knew just where they were. "Maybe Mom and I can help you," said Wendy. "That would be great," said Dad. "I've looked in the bedroom, in the closet, and in the car. I don't know where else to look."

    Now Mom and Wendy started to laugh. Dad looked surprised. "What's so funny?" he asked. When Dad looked in the mirror, he laughed, too. His glasses were on top of his head.