Mr. and Mrs. Su don't often go out in the evening, but today they go out for a walk after supper. They go to the park and have a good time there. On their way home, Mr. Su says to Mr. Su, "Look! A woman is running in the street and a man is running after her." Mr. Su says, "What's the matter? Let's go and help her."

    Now the woman gets near them. Mr. Su asks, "Shall we help you?" "No, thank you," the woman says, "My husband（丈夫） and I are running home, and the slower (较慢的) one does the housework."

    In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what "keeping up with the Joneses" is about. It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbors.The expressoion was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighborhood outside New York City. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbors.It was like a race, but one could never finish his race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They moved back to an apartment in New York City.

    Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich lifestyle of their neighbors. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories. He called it "Keeping up with the Joneses" because "Jones" is a very common name in the United States."Keeping up with the Joneses" came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand's series appeared in different newspapers throughout the country for over 28 years. People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are "Joneses" in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one  does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.

    I'm going to have a great weekend. I'll go across Canada with my parents by car. We'll drive seven or eight hours a day.

    In Toronto, we'll stay in a big hotel. The food is very delicious. There's a big swimming pool and a lot of game rooms. I think I'll play there happily. But there will be lots of people in the hotel, so I think we'll sleep in one room. And it's expensive.

    Then we are going to stay in a small cabin(小木屋) in the mountains. I really love it. The cabin is clean and quiet. We'll have two rooms, so I can get up late in the morning. But we have to get up early because we want to go swimming. There is a beautiful lake near the cabin. We can go fishing and cook food outside.

    The Lee Family was asleep in bed when the smoke alarm outside their bedroom went off. Mr. Lee knew something was wrong. He ran downstairs and was surprised to see that the kitchen was full of smoke. Firstly, he closed the kitchen door to keep the other members of the family were safe. They each took a coat quickly from the living room, came downstairs and ran outside. Ala, their pet dog, followed closely behind. They chose a safe place in the yard. Mr. Lee told his son, "Never go back inside!"

    Their neighbour Mr. Bell, who lived opposite, said he had already called the emergency services. He had come downstairs for a drink of water and had seen the fire through his kitchen window. The fire engine arrived shortly afterwards, and the firefighters soon had everything under control.

    Mrs Lee was crying, so Mr. Lee put his arm round her and said, "Don't worry. Our insurance company will pay for all the damage. "Mrs Lee said, "That is not why I am crying. I think the fire was caused by my carelessness. When I boiled the milk for our bedtime drink, I may have forgotten to turn off the gas ring. Something must have fallen onto it and caught fire.