Jodie's Daddy Is a Garbageman (垃圾清理工)

    Mr. Swales wanted to find out what his students' parents did. He had just called Jodie when some girls laughed. Shirley shouted, “Jodie's daddy is a garbageman!”

    Everybody in the class laughed out loudly, except Jodie. She felt her face turn red.

    “Silence!” Mr. Swales said, “Being a garbageman is a difficult and useful job. We should all be grateful to Jodie's father.”

    Jodie's father came to walk her home from school as usual, but she didn't run up to him as she always did. When they got back home, Jodie went to her room and cried for a long time.

    Her father came into her room, “What happened, Jodie? Why are you so sad?”

    Jodie told her father what had happened and looked at him. He didn't seem angry or hurt. “Well,” he said, “they are right. Being a garbageman is a dirty job. Tomorrow's Saturday. Come to work with me, Jodie.”

    The place really smelt too bad. Jodie wrinkled her nose. “Don't worry, kid. In five minutes, you won't smell a thing.” said her father.

    Everybody there was working hard, and they seemed to have a good time. Jodie's father handed her a pair of gloves and told her to get the little plastic bags and throw them into the truck.

    It was fun, but also hard work. Jodie's arms soon got tired. At last, no more garbage was left and Jodie felt very happy.

    “Garbage is dirty, but when we clear it away, everything's nice and clean. You can make yourself happy only by making others happy. That's why I like being a garbageman so much.”

    Jodie gave her dirty, smelly garbageman daddy a big kiss. She said, “When I grow up, I will be a garbage-girl!”

    Now whenever someone asks Jodie what her daddy does, she says, “He's a garbageman! Everybody makes garbage, but my daddy takes it away!”

    Mr. Black was walking in the forest. He was scared when he heard a terrible noise. But he could not get out of the forest. His friends were waiting for him in a village outside the forest. They would give him a lot of money if he took a tiger to them, or they were going to laugh at him.  

    Mr. Black liked hunting（打猎）. He usually killed some birds and small animals. But a week before, after he drank too much, he called himself a brave hunter（勇敢的猎人）. So his friends bet（打赌）him twenty thousand dollars if he could kill a tiger.

    Suddenly, he heard a little noise. He ran to a big tree, and climbed up it quickly. He didn't come down until he saw it was a farmer. He went close to him and asked," Excuse me, sir. Are there any tigers in the forest?"

    "Yes," said the farmer. "I saw a lot of tigers' tracks about a kilometer north near here."

    "Good!" Mr. Black said in a hurry. "Which way is to the south, then?"

Unforgettable trip to Shanghai

    I will never forget my school trip to Shanghai. It was so great!

We got there by train. The train ride wasn't boring, because we talked and studied along the way. When we finally got there, it was quite late. I was too tired to call my mom, although I missed her a lot.

    The trip lasted six days. During the first day, I learned how to fold a blanket by myself. On the second and third days, my classmates and I did a lot of things. It rained heavily on the fourth day. We played a game called “Utmost 60 Seconds". It took our group only 41 seconds to finish it. We won the game. I was so excited that I called my mom that day and told her how happy I was. We returned to Changchun on the sixth day.

    My trip to Shanghai was unforgettable (难忘的). I learned how important my mom's love is. I also learned some life skills that I would use for the rest of my life.