Once upon a time, there was a lion and a mouse.

    One day, when the lion was sleeping, the mouse ran onto his face. The lion woke up. He was very angry and caught the mouse. “I will eat you!” the lion said angrily.

    The mouse cried out,“If you do not kill me, I would be happy to give you a reward(回报).”The lion laughed at the idea. He did not think a little mouse could help such a big strong animal like himself. But he still let the mouse go.

    After a few days, it happened. The lion was caught by hunters' net. He tried his best to leave, after half a day, but he still couldn't get out of the net. He was very sad, he thought he was dying. At that time the lion felt something nibbling(啃，咬) on the ropes. It was the mouse. Just before dark, the work was done. There was a hole in the net. The lion got free through the hole. He was very happy and thanked the mouse, “My friend, you have saved me. I will never doubt the power of small animals like you.”

    From then on, the lion and the mouse became friends.

    Mary is an American schoolgirl. She is now in Beijing with her parents. Mary can't speak Chinese well. But she wants to learn and speak it. She often tries to speak Chinese to her Chinese friends, but sometimes they don't understand her because she can't speak it well.

    Today is Sunday morning. She wants to go to the zoo to see the birds and monkeys, but she doesn't know how to get there. She asks a Chinese boy. The boy can't understand her. So she draws a monkey on a piece of paper and shows it to the boy. Then the boy tells Mary the way to the zoo.

    Ryan's life was nearly perfect. He had lots of friends on his block. They walked to school together every day, and after school they always had time to play.

    Ryan did have one problem. It was his two-year-old sister, Allie. She was too small to play ball games. She couldn't climb trees yet.  Ryan and his friends didn't want her around.

    Ryan tried asking his mum to keep Allie at home. "Why does my sister have to come along?" he asked. "Troy's sister doesn't. Jimmy's sister doesn't. Why me?"

    Ryan's mother just laughed, "Troy's sister is only six months old, and Jimmy doesn't have a sister. Allie is nice, isn't she?"

    Today, Ryan was going to play baseball with his friends after school. Allie followed him as usual. The boys used to play football, but one of them broke a window at Mr Mcwhirter's house. Mr Mcwhirter wouldn't give them their ball back.

    The game got started. Allie sat on a stone nearby. Minutes later it was Jimmy's turn to hit the ball. Unluckily, it fell right into Mr Mcwhirter's yard.

    The boys ran over to Mr Mcwhirter's fence (栅栏). The ball was just out of reach.

    "None of us can fit through the fence." Jimmy said.

    The boys looked glum.

    Suddenly, Jimmy got an idea. "Allie, come over!" he called. "Would you like to get that ball for us?"

    Allie looked at the boys. Then she slipped through the fence, picked up the ball and came back out of the yard.

    "Wow," said Troy. "So quick! Thanks, Allie."

    "Nice job," said Jimmy.

    "Come on," said Ryan, suddenly proud of his kid sister. "I'll teach you how to swing the bat."

We all know it's important to encourage children's interests. But Maryland mom Charmaine Britt took support to a whole new level when she gave her daughter Breana Britt the green light to start her own baking business five years ago—- when "Bree" was just 12 years old. "She kept asking me, so I finally said, 'Well, you can start it online with you baking and me doing deliveries(运送)and we'll see how it goes,'" Charmaine, 38, said.

    Things went well. The now 17-year-old Bree's Sweet Treats had grown from a little online cupcake-and-cookie business became a full-service bakery plus café that delivers to the entire Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area. "She makes great baked goods so I just thought it could be a good way to help her become financially responsible," says Charmaine. "I never thought it would become this."

    Bree, on the other hand, said she never had any doubts. "I love doing this," says the junior. "And I just think, if I'm doing something I love, I may as well make money." Bree makes about $1,500 a month.

    "When we opened the store I took some time and thought: Is this what I want?" Bree says. "And it was." She admits there have been rough patches (困难时期). There have been times where we get frustrated（受挫）. Am I willing to give up a bit of time with friends for this?" She says. "But I never regretted having this business. It's been a part of me for so long."

    Charmaine is already thrilled with what her daughter has accomplished. "over the years I've seen her become a leader and I'm so impressed with her dedication (奉献), especially for someone her age." says the mom.

    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.

    Patrick Johnson, an artist for the Washington Post, found some treasure in his new house-35, 000 dollars in a place where no one could see it. Although he had car and house payments in his head, he still decided to return all of the money to the previous(先前的)owner of the house, Mr Williams. Would you had done the same？

    Just hours after he had bought the house, Patrick came into the small house, where he was planning to lay out his tools and hang things up. He looked up and saw a little hole in the wall. He didn't know what it was inside, so he walked towards the wall. It was very dark inside, but an old box caught his eye." I caught the thing. It was heavy. I thought it might be some pieces of wood, "he said. Actually it was not. It was filled with lots of dollar bills. But he and his wife knew they had to return the money to Mr Williams.

    "I've got two boys and we teach them to be honest and to do what is right. I knew this was a teachable moment that I would never get back again, "Patrick said to his wife." So I thought we would do something honest with it. It's been a great thing for us and our kids."