A boy was sitting on the steps of a door one day. He had a stick in one hand,1in the other hand a large piece of bread and butter, which somebody had kindly given him. While he was eating it and singing a song happily, he saw a poor little dog quietly2not far from him. He called out to it, “Come here, poor dog!”

    Hearing this, the dog woke up, rose with its ears3and wagged its tail. Seeing the boy eating, it came near him. The boy held out to it a piece of his bread and butter. As the dog stretched out its head to take the4, the boy quickly drew back his hand and hit it5on the nose. The poor dog ran away,6loudly, while the cruel boy sat, laughing at the trick he had done.

    A gentleman, who was looking from a window on the other side of street, saw what the7boy had done. Opening the street door, he called him to8over, at the same time9up one dollar between the finger and thumb.

    “Would you like this?” said the gentleman.

    “Yes, if you10, sir,” said the boy, smiling, and he quickly ran over to seize the11.

    Just as the boy stretched out his hand, the gentleman hit12on the knee with an umbrella. “Why did you do that?” shouted the boy angrily. He made a very13face and cried, “I didn't hurt you, nor ask you for money.”

    “14did you hurt that poor dog just now?” said the gentleman. “It didn't hurt you, nor ask you for bread and butter. As you served it I have served you. Now, remember it can feel as well as you, and learn to behave15towards animals in future.”

All our dreams have something to do with (与…有关) our feelings, fears, longings, wishes, needs and memories. But something on the "outside" may have {#blank#}1{#/blank#} influence on {#blank#}2{#/blank#} we dream. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} a person is hungry or tired or cold, his dream may include a feeling of this kind. If the blanket on {#blank#}4{#/blank#} body has slipped off (滑落) your bed, you may dream that you are {#blank#}5{#/blank#} or resting on the ice and snow. The material for the dream you will have tonight is probably to come {#blank#}6{#/blank#} the experiences you have today.

So the subject of your dream usually comes from something that has an influence on you while you are sleeping (feeling of cold, a noise, a discomfort, etc.) {#blank#}7{#/blank#} it may also use your past experiences and the wishes and interests you have now. This is why very young children are likely to {#blank#}8{#/blank#} of fairies (仙女) , older {#blank#}9{#/blank#} of school examinations,{#blank#}10{#/blank#}people of food, homesick (思乡的) soldiers of their families and prisoners (囚犯) of freedom.

    Mike was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always happy and always had something interesting to say. If someone asked him how he was doing, he would reply, "Couldn't be better!" He was really a care-free young man and never felt tired.

    Mike used to say, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'Mike, you have two choices (选择) today. You can choose to be happy or you can choose to be upset.' I choose to be happy. Each time something happens, I am always ready to learn a good lesson. I choose to learn from life."

    I tried to understand what he said. Indeed life is all about choices. Every situation is a choice. The bottom line is: You're living your life and you make it either happy or sad.

    Several years later I had a car accident and my legs were seriously injured. When I was lying on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or choose to die. I chose to live.

    People like to say, "Choose the one you love and love the one you choose." Why not choose the one we love and live happily?

Few parents can hear the words "What can I do to help?" from their kids. Teenagers spend more time on video games, computers and mobile phones, so they help less with housework.

Students at a primary school in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian Province were required to clean the school toilets to help them develop good habits. But some parents are strongly against the idea. They can't see the advantages of students doing such chores. They think that the school should provide students with a proper education, not the chance to be school cleaners.

In fact, parents, schools and society play an equally (同等地) important role in developing the character of students. It is good for schools to give students such tasks, because few of the students will do them at home. Their parents want them to do homework only.

In recent years, some parents will make mountains out of molehills when students are asked to do some chores in schools. Some will complain the teachers if their kids get hurt in schools; some will even challenge the schools' teaching methods and management. As a result, many primary schools, especially those in big cities, do not let students join in outdoor activities during breaks, fearing that they might get hurt. This is bad for the development of students' best qualities.

What the primary school in Fuzhou doing is worth praising. Doing chores can put a sense of responsibility (责任感) into students' minds and teach them the spirit of rules as well as teamwork. Also, it can make students' in-school experiences more meaningful.

    Near the village, there is an old famous temple. Some people want to build a new house where the temple now stands, because they can find no other area to build them, while others disagree with them. They meet to decide how to solve the problem. Here are their opinions about it.

The expert wants to protect the temple and believes that there are some interesting things buried in the ground. If it is destroyed or moved, people may never learn about how people lived in the past.

The businessman thinks that the houses should be built. History is important, but we must think about the future. The village needs development and building new houses will offer jobs to hundreds of people.

Villager A says, "We should build the new houses because we need houses to live in."

Villager B says, "We should protect the temple because it can attract many tourists to come for a visit. If the temple is destroyed or moved, we will lose a lot of business."

The village leader thinks that he has a duty to make life better for the villagers. They need jobs and new houses. He also thinks the cultural site (遗迹) is important and they should be careful with it as well.

Have you seen any scarecrows (稻草人)? In the countryside of our country, some villagers like to set up some scarecrows in the fields in order to prevent birds from harming their crops. They think that this can play a role in driving away birds. In fact, not only farmers love to use scarecrows, but also some airports have installed scarecrows in such a developed technology today, which plays a very good role in driving away birds. Some people will say that birds are not fools, and they will come back to eat after a long time. So do the birds really feel scared? Can scarecrows really play a role in driving away birds? Not very — unless you're willing to put some extra(额外)effort into them.

While traditional scarecrows who couldn't move do work against "pest birds" (eg. crows and blackbirds), the effect is almost always temporary (暂时的). Over time, the birds get used to scarecrows who couldn't move and reuse their destructive (破坏性的)habits.

However, a few tricks can up your scarecrow's game. Researchers have learned that those with realistic facial features(特征)and brightly colored clothes are better at driving away birds. Also, moving a scarecrow around every few days often helps. According to several studies, flailing(大幅波动) scarecrows get the very best results.