Paul: Hi, Bill! Have a look atmy house in the country. I'm sure you can enjoy yourself.

Bill: I'd love to.But I hear that the food is not delicious, and your house is not good. Is it so?

Paul: No, that's not true. Go and see!

Then Bill goes to the countryside with Paul.

Bill: Why do you live in a hole in the field? You should come and live in the city. You would live in a nice house made of stone. You would have better food to eat. You must come and see me at my house in the city.

Paul: Thanks! Maybe you are right. I'll visit your house one day.

Several days later Paul goes to Bill's house in the city. The house is big and beautiful. They are sitting in the sitting-room, having a big dinner comfortably. Suddenly, there a great noise.

Bill: Run! Run! The cat is coming!

Paul: Oh, no! It's terrible! Both the house and the food are nice, but I do not like living in the city. I enjoy living in my hole in the field, for it is nice to be poor but happy than to be rich but afraid.

      Avril(艾薇儿) Lavigne is an excellent teenage(十几岁的)singer. She made a great success because of her musical talent(天才，天赋).

      She wrote her songs by herself, played the guitar and had a wide range of voice(音域). When she was only 17 years old, she began to sing her own rock-and-roll(摇滚乐) music. She is a talent in the musical world. People in many different countries like her songs very much.

Avril Lavigne isn't a quiet girl. She is a true wild, active and crazy girl. She started showing her voice and character at around age 2. “I'm just coming out and I'm going to be myself. I write what I feel. I never worry about what others think,” Avril said.

      Her music can reach girls' and boys' hearts and even some adults, too. “I can't wait to be out there; I want to rock the world! I want people to know what music is real and honest(坦率的)—it comes from my heart. I am just being true to myself.”

    One night in November, Itzhak Perlman gave a concert in a theatre. If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that becoming a violinist is not a small 1 for him. He had to walk 2 the help of two walking sticks as a result of the disease he caught as a child.

    People sat 3 while he made his way to his chair and began his play. But this time, something went 4. Just as he finished the first few parts of the music, one of the wrings(弦) on his violin 5. We thought that he would have to stop the concert. But he didn't. 6, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then 7 the conductor(指挥) to begin again. The orchestra(管弦乐队) began and he played with such strong feeling and purity as they had 8 heard before.

    Of course, everyone knows that it is 9 for a violinist to play a pleasant work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, 10 that night Itzhak Perlman didn't want to accept that.

    When he finished, there was a terrible 11 in the room. And then people rose and 12 from every corner of the theatre.

    Perlman was excited. He smiled and said, "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to 13 how much music you can still make with what you have left."

    So, suppose our task in this fast-changing world is to make 14, at first we should try out best with all that we have. And then,    15 it is no longer possible, try to play it with what we have left.

    Jane always goes to school early. She likes to talk to her friends before class. After school she does not go home early. She is always late. Jane stops to see the animals in the pet shop. She likes to see the dogs. One of them is a little dog. She watches the little white dog play in the window of the shop. She watches for a long time, so she comes home late.

    One day her father and mother ask why she is late, and she tells them about the little dog in the pet shop.

    Jane is not late the next day. She stops to look in the window of the shop. But she doesn't see the little white dog, and she is very sad. She is also very happy, today is her birthday.

    Mother shows her a big birthday cake and Father gives her a birthday surprise. He gives the little white dog from the shop. Jane is very happy. The next day Jane does not come home late. She runs home to play with the white dog.

    Bill is a student. He is twelve. The child likes to fly kites and play some other games.

    One Monday afternoon Bill flies kites with his friends after school. But Bill's kite is in the tree and he cannot get it. Bill and his friends do not know what to do. They worry very much and Bill comes to his father, Mr. Green, for help. His father wants to get the kite down from the tree, but he can't. So Bill asks him to make a new one for him. Mr. Green makes a new kite for Bill. When the boy gets the new kite, he is very glad. He thanks his father for the kite and goes out to play with his friends.