George had stolen some money, but the police had caught him and he had been put in prison. Now his trial was about to begin, and he felt sure that he would be found guilty (有罪) and sent to prison for a long time.

    Then he discovered that an old friend of his was one of the members of the jury(陪审团)at his trial. Of course, he did not tell anybody, but he managed to see his friend secretly one day. He said to him, "Jim, I know that the jury will find me guilty of having stolen the money. I cannot hope to be found not guilty of taking it—that would be too much to expect. But I should be thankful to you for the rest of my life if you could persuade the other members of the jury to add a strong recommendation (劝告) for mercy to their statement that they consider me guilty."

    "Well, George," answered Jim, "I shall certainly try to do what I can for you as an old friend, but of course I cannot promise anything. The other eleven people on the jury look terribly strong-minded to me."

    George said that he would quite understand if Jim was not able to do anything for him, and thanked him warmly for agreeing to help.

The trial went on, and at last the time came for the jury to decide whether George was guilty or not. It took them five hours, but in the end they found George guilty, with a strong recommendation for mercy(仁慈).

    Of course, George was very pleased, but he did not have a chance to see Jim for some time after the trial. At last, however, Jim visited him in prison, and George thanked him warmly and asked him how he had managed to persuade the other members of the jury to recommend mercy.

    "Well, George," Jim answered, "As I thought, those eleven men were very difficult to persuade, but I managed it in the end by tiring them out. Do you know, those fools had all wanted to find you not guilty!"

    Tom arrived at the New York airport two hours before the flight to Paris. He was wearing three shirts, a jacket, two pairs of socks, a pair of shorts, and two pairs of jeans. He was carrying one small backpack, which was very full, but he didn't have any other luggage. Tom needed to meet a man named Tony before he checked in for his flight. He found Tony near the Air France counter. Tony gave him a round-trip ticket and a small package.

    “Give this package to Jean-Paul at the airport in Paris. He will have a sign with your name on it. I think you can find him easily,” Tony said, ”You don't have any luggage, right?”

    “Only this backpack,” Tom answered. ”You said I could bring one carry-on bag.”

    “That's right. One carry-on bag is fine. Have a good trip.”

    “Thanks.”

    Is Tom a criminal (罪犯)? Not at all. He is an air-courier(空中信使). And he paid only $110 for the round-trip ticket to Paris. Air couriers get cheap airline tickets because they take important packages and papers to foreign countries. Businesses sometimes need to get packages and papers to people in foreign countries by the next day. Often, the only way they can do this is to use an air-courier company. It is not cheap for a business to send a package with an air courier, but it is quick.

    Every year about 80,000 people worldwide travel as air couriers. The number of tickets for courier travel is growing by about 10 percent a year. However, air-courier travel isn't for everyone. But if you have very little money, can be flexible(灵活的) about your travel plans, and don't mind wearing the same clothes for a week, it can be a great way to take a vacation!

    As a rule, we have a test about some usual things in our life every two months. During my second month of nursing school, our teacher gave us a pop test as usual.

    I was a serious, hard-working and careful student, so I passed the questions easily until I read the last one, "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

    I thought this was sure some kind of joke. I saw the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark hair and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank.

    Before the class ended, one student named Nancy asked our teacher if the last question would count toward our test grade. This was also all the students' question. We all wondered why he gave this question in the test, because we all felt it meaningless.

    "Certainly," said our teacher. "In your life you will meet many people. All of them are important. They should get your attention and care, even if all you do is smile or just say an easy 'hello' ." We all kept silent after hearing this.

    I've never forgotten that special lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

    Here is our pet dog，Mr. Hawkeye. Mr. Hawkeye is seven years old，and we got him from our vet (兽医). He takes in a lot of cats. He receives his name because he is such a hawk (掠夺者) around food. If you are not looking，he will take a sandwich off your plate. He can smell the delicious food in the fridge from another floor in the house，and potato chips are his favourite thing to steal! This comes the name，Hawkeye. Hawkeye was a great animal at the vet. They thought he could bring good luck and he took care of all the new cats，giving them baths，etc. He does that at our house as well. Like I said，he is quite a character and very friendly. He always greets(问候) us when we come home. He has to check out all the bags to make sure if there's food there for him, especially chips!

    A company wanted to get the best employee(雇员). After the competition, only three people were left.

    In the last competition, the three people entered a room with a monitor(监视器). Inside the room, there was everything they needed but no telephone and they couldn't surf the Internet. The three people just waited patiently for the exam questions.

    The first day, three people were very excited, watching TV, reading books and listening to music.

    The next day, because they still didn't know the exam questions, two of them were worried and often changed TV channels.

    Five days later, the winner was the one who could keep a happy life. The leader of the company thinks happiness is a kind of ability(能力). If you keep a happy heart, you will succeed finally!