Cinderella is a beautiful girl. She has two ugly stepsisters. They are not kind to Cinderella. Cinderella does all of the work at home. She must cook, clean and do everything.

    One day, a letter comes to the house. It is a letter from the prince. He will have a big party. He would like the three girls to come. The prince wants to find a wife.

    Cinderella can't go to the party because she doesn't have beautiful clothes. The day of the party arrives. Cinderella met a fairy godmother. She gives Cinderella a coach, two horses and a beautiful dress. But magic will stop working at 12 o'clock.

    The prince's palace is full of people. They are all happy to be at the big party. All the girls want to marry the prince. Then Cinderella walks into the palace. "Who is she?" everyone asks. "She's so beautiful," they say.

    The prince sees Cinderella. He asks her to dance with him. All night long they dance and talk. The prince and Cinderella fall in love. At twelve o'clock, Cinderella runs out.

    Cinderella runs and loses one of her glass shoes. She must get home before twelve. She is late. She runs into the house. Now, she is wearing her old dress again.

    The prince finds Cinderella's shoe. "I know this shoe. It is that beautiful girl's. I'll find her," he says. The next morning, he goes from house to house to find her. He goes to Cinderella's house. The two ugly stepsisters try on the shoe, but their feet are too big.

    "Can I try it on?" asks Cinderella. "Yes," the prince says, so Cinderella tries the shoe on. It fits her foot. "I have found my princess," the prince says. Soon Cinderella and the prince get married. They live happily ever after.

    Jim, a young farmer, was once put into prison (监狱).

    One day, he got a letter from his mother. "I'm so worried about our farm," she wrote. "It's time to plant potatoes. I can't dig(挖) all the fields by myself. "

    Jim read the letter and became sad. "What can I do?" he thought. Then he had a good idea. He wrote to his mother, "Don't dig the fields. There's a pot of money in the earth. Don't plant potatoes until I come home."

    Some days later, Jim got another letter from his mother. It said, "Two days ago, about ten men came to our farm and dug all our fields. I can't understand it. It looks as if they were looking for something. What shall I do?"

    Jim smiled when he read his mother's letter. He wrote a letter to his mother at once. It was very short. Guess what it would say?

It must have been around nine O'clock when I drove back home from work because it was already dark. As I came near to the gates I turned off the headlamps of the car so as to prevent the beam(光)from swinging in through the window and waking Jack, who shared the house with me. But needn't have done so, I noticed that his light was still on, so he was awake anyway— unless he had fallen asleep while reading. I put the car away and went up the steps. Then I opened the door quietly and went to Jack's room. He was in bed awake but he didn't even turn towards me.

    "What's up, Jack?" I said.

    "For God's sake(看在上帝面上), don't make a noise," he said.

    The way he spoke reminded me of someone in pain who is afraid to talk in case he does himself a serious injury(伤害).

    "Take your shoes off, Neville," Jack said.

    I thought that he must be ill and that I had better humour (迁就)him to keep him happy, "There's a snake here" he explained, "It's asleep between the sheets. I was lying on my back reading when I saw it. I knew that moving was out of the question. I couldn't have moved even if I'd wanted to." I realized that he was serious. "I was relying on you to call a doctor as soon as you came home." Jack went on." It hasn't bitten me yet but I daren't do anything to upset it. It might wake up. I'm sick of this," he said," I took it for granted that you would have come home an hour ago."

    There was no time to argue or apologize for being late. I looks at him as encouragingly as I could and went out to telephone the doctor.

    Devike was walking home from school. Everything was bad at school. In the morning, she got to school late. In the math test, half her answers were not right and she forgot to do her English homework. The teacher wrote a message in her notebook for her parents to sign.

    She knew her parents would be angry with her. She also knew she had a lot of schoolwork to do. Just thinking about these, she was sad.

    After she got home, her mother gave her a hug(拥抱) and said, "How was your day, dear?" Her little brother Rohit came to her and said," Hi, sister! I miss you.

    Quickly Devika felt better. Of course, her mom would be angry with her poor grades. But she loves her and that is more important. And her little brother always thinks she is smart and beautiful.

    At that time, Devika felt lucky to have such a great family and she didn't worry about her poor grades because the family could comfort(安慰) her when she was sad.

    Old George bought the black gloves for just ＄35 ten years ago. They were made of leather skin, soft and warm and very strong. Until then, he had worn cheaper manmade material. Those gloves never lasted longer than three years. He first decided to buy the expensive gloves, because they would make him feel nice in front of others.

    George never let a drop of water or rain touch his expensive gloves, so they looked new. Losing this favorite thing was almost like losing a child to him. Bad luck! Geogorge lost his expensive gloves on New Year's Day.

    Back home, George was at a loss. In deep winter, he could not do without a pair of gloves. If he bought cheap ones again, he would have to replace(更换) them vey soon. If he bought a new leather pair, it would cost ＄50 now. He was upset that people no longer returned things they found on the road.

    After the holiday, poor George decided to buy another leather pair. Before boarding the subway, he went into Value Mart again to see if his gloves had been returned to the Lost and Found Office(失物招领处).

    "What color are they?" the woman in the office asked again.

    "Black," he gave the same answer. She looked onto her drawer and drew out a pair of men's leather gloves. "Are they?"