It was Jimmy's fifth birthday. He got quite a lot of nice birthday presents from his family, and one of them was a beautiful big drum(鼓).

    “Who gave him that thing?” Jimmy's father asked when he saw it.

    “His grandfather did,” answered Jimmy's mother.

    “Oh,” said his father.

     Of course, Jimmy liked his drum very much. He made a terrible noise with it, but his mother did not mind. His father was working during the day, and Jimmy was in bed when he got home in the evening, so he did not hear the noise.

    But one of the neighbours did not like the noise at all. So one morning a few days later, she took a knife and went to Jimmy's house while he was playing his drum. She said to him, “Hello, Jimmy. Do you know there's something very nice inside your drum? Here's a knife. Open the drum and let's find it.”

    Uncle Lee is coming to have dinner with us. Mom and I go shopping. We don't have any meat. We need to buy some. It's ten yuan a kilo before. But now two kilos are sixty yuan. I say, "Mom, let's buy some fish." Mom answers, "OK." Fish is Uncle Lee's favorite food. We buy one kilo and a half. We also buy some vegetables and some chicken, but we don't buy any hamburgers. Uncle Lee doesn't like them at all. Mom also wants to buy some apples for me. You know, I like bananas, oranges and peaches, but I like apples best. But we can't find any. We go home at a quarter to five in the afternoon.

    Rose is a student. She is1Grade Seven. There are2people in her family: her father, her mother and her. Rose is very3so she has many4at school. Look! It's5cat. The cat6on the desk.

    Rose likes playing table tennis and basketball. Her7sport is swimming. Her favourite8is red and she has a red bag. Where is it? It's on the chair. There is a book on the 9, too. Can you10it? It's Rose's father's book.

    Tommy and his mother go shopping today. Tommy's father likes apples very much. They buy some red apples for him. Tommy's mother likes yellow bananas, but the bananas are green. "Look! The Strawberries are very nice, Mum. Do you like them?" Tommy says to his mother. "Yes, I like strawberries very much." Tommy's mother buys some for herself. The oranges are very nice. Tommy's mother buys some for Tommy. He likes oranges very much.

    They need some vegetables. The vegetables in the supermarket are very good. They buy some tomatoes, cabbages and carrots. Tommy doesn't like carrots, but his parents like carrots. They like carrots very much. They buy lots of carrots.

    After a while attention to Tom ended, and the usual school murmur(嗡嗡读书声) rose upon the boring air once more. Now the boy began to steal secret glances(偷看) at the girl. She noticed it, made a face at him and gave him the back of her head for the space of a minute. When she slowly faced around again, an apple lay before her. She pushed it away. Tom gently put it back. She pushed it away again, but with less animosity(敌意). Tom patiently returned it to its place. Then she let it remain. Tom wrote on his paper, "Please take it. I got more." The girl glanced at the words, but made no sign.

    Now the boy began to draw something on the paper, hiding his work with his left hand. For a time the girl refused to notice, but her human curiosity soon began to show itself by hardly noticeable(明显的) signs. The boy worked on, seemingly not aware. The girl made some non-committal(含糊的) efforts to see, but the boy did not display that he was aware of it. At last she couldn't bear it and whispered: "Let me see it."

    Tom partly uncovered the picture of a house with some smoke rising from the chimney(烟囱). Then the girl's interest began to fasten itself upon the work and she forgot everything else. When it was finished, she gazed a moment, then whispered:

    "It's nice! Draw a man."

    The artist created a man in the front yard. She was satisfied, and whispered:

"It's a beautiful man—now draw me in it."

    Tom drew an hour-glass(沙漏) as the body, a full moon as her head and some arms added to it. The girl said:

    "It's ever so nice. I wish I could draw. No one has ever taught me that."

    "It's easy," whispered Tom, "I'll teach you."

    "Oh, will you? When?"

    "At noon. Do you go home for dinner?"

    "I'll stay if you will."

   "Good, that's a deal. What's your name?"