Everybody hates rats. But rats may soon be man's new best friends.

    What happens after an earthquake? We send in rescue (援救) dogs. Why? Because they can smell people. Dogs save lives. They help rescuers to find living people. But dogs are big and they can't get into small space. So now a new research project is using a smaller animal to save lives: the rat.

    How does it work? First, the rat is trained to smell people. When this happens, the rat's brain gives a signal. This is sent to a small radio on its back, and then the rescuers follow the radio signals. When the rat's brain activity jumps, the rescuers know that someone is alive. The rat has smelled that person.

    Although there are already robots which can do this job, rats are better. "Robots' noses don't work well when there are other smells around. Rats are good at that," says a scientist. Rats can also see in the dark. They are cheaper and quicker to train than dogs, and unlike robots, they don't need electricity.

    The "rat project" is not finished, but a scientist says, "It would be fantastic. A rat could get into space we couldn't get to and a rat would get out if it wasn't safe." Perhaps for the first time in history, people will be happy to see a rat in a building (but only after an earthquake, of course).

This is a true story. There was a player1Jerry in the football team. He liked playing football, but he wasn't good at it. So he had few chances to play2his team. He felt very sorry for it.

One day, his father died from a terrible illness. He had to return home to deal with something. After that, an important3was going to begin. He found the coach at once, 4to attend the match. He was not good at skills, so the coach would not5him to take part in the match. But now, as he relented(心软), he agreed to let Jerry play for only three minutes. When the time was up, he would be changed by6.

    On the court，Jerry turned very agilely(敏捷地)7his practiced skills. He broke through the opposition line bravely. The coach was very satisfied with him. Three minutes 8, the coach made Jerry keep9on the court. Jerry continued his excellent10, leading the team11the match.

    The coach hugged him12and said, "Kid, you have never been so fast, so strong and so skilled. What happened on earth(究竟)?"

Jerry said, "My father is blind,13he has never watched my match. Now14to the heaven and finally can watch my match. As soon as I think of my father watching me, I am full of energy, and I feel confident, too. "

    The coach understood:15can drive everything. Do you agree with him?

    A horse fair is an interesting place. There were young horses from the country, little Welsh ponies and many beautiful horses too. But there were also a lot of poor, thin horses, tired from hard work. I was very sad to see them.

    At the horse fair there was a man with a gentle voice and kind grey eyes. He offered 23 pounds for me, but they refused. Then a man with a very loud voice came. I was afraid he was going to buy me, but he walked off. Then the grey-eyed man came back again and said:

    "I'll give 24 for him."

    "Done," said the salesman. "He's a quality horse and if you want him for cab (出租马车) work, he's a bargain."

Half an hour later we set off for London, along country roads, until we came to that great city. There were streets to the right, and streets to the left. We went into one of the small streets, and then into a very narrow street, with small, old houses.

    My owner stopped at a house. The door opened, and a woman, a little girl and boy, came out.

    "Is he gentle, father?"

    "Yes, Dolly, as gentle as a kitten; you can pat him."

    Dolly, the little girl, patted my shoulder without fear. It felt so good! They led me into a comfortable, clean stable, and after a delicious meal I lay down to sleep, thinking "I'm going to very happy here".

    My new owner's name was Jerry. His wife was called Polly and they had two children, Harry and Dolly. The next morning they came to see me. I loved it when they patted me and spoke in gentle voices.

    "Let's call him 'Jack', after the old horse, shall we, Harry?" said Dolly.

    "Yes, let's," said Harry.

    The first week of my life as Jack, the London cab horse was very hard. The noise and the people and the traffic on the streets scared me. But Jerry was a very good driver, and that helped a lot Jerry soon found that I was ready to work hard and do my best, and he didn't whip (鞭打) me.

    He kept us very clean, and gave us as much food as we wanted. But the best thing was that we had Sundays off.

Archimedes and the golden crown

One day in ancient Greece, King Hiero asked a crown maker to make him a golden crown. At first, he was very1 with it.

"It's a nice crown, isn't it?" he asked his men. Later, however, he began to doubt2it was a real golden crown. "Is it made completely of gold?" he wondered. He sent it to Archimedes and asked him to find out the truth.

"This problem seems difficult to solve. What should I do?" thought Archimedes.

Archimedes was still thinking about this problem3he filled his bath with water. When he got into the bath, some water ran over.  

"That's it!" shouted Archimedes. "I know4 to solve the king's problem!"

Archimedes went straight to the palace to see the king. First, he5the crown and asked the king for some gold of the same weight.

Next, he put two pots into two big bowls and filled6pots with water. He put the gold into one pot, and some water ran into the bowl. Then he put the crown into7pot. This time, even more water ran into the bowl.

"Look at this," said Archimedes to King Hiero. "A crown8completely of gold displaces9water than a crown made of gold and another metal. This crown displaced more water than gold of the same weight, so I'm certain that it is not10made of gold. "

"The crown maker tricked me, didn't he? What a bad man he is!" shouted King Hiero. He then sent the crown maker to prison.

What do we do when we go camping? First, we work out a plan. We take food, clothing, a knife and things for cooking and eating. We take things to keep us away from insects and the sunlight. 

Then we put everything into the car and drive to the woods (树林). We look for a place for campers and look for a good place for our tent. The place should have a lot of moving air. This will keep some insects away. High land with water on both sides of it is good. Then we put up our tent. We put everything into the tent, and we are ready for fun. We can do many things. We can swim in the lake, walk in the woods, climb a mountain, row a boat or go fishing. 

In the evening, we come back to the tent. We build a big fire because it can keep the insects away. We sit around the fire and talk. We may tell interesting stories or we may sing songs. At night we lie down on the grass. We can look up at the stars. It is a busy day, so we try to go to sleep early. Everything is dark. Everything is quiet. We hope we won't hear music from the radio in the next tent. We hope it won't rain.