Our dog Abbey died last month. My 4-year-old daughter Lucy missed her a lot and asked if we could write a letter to God to make sure he could look after Abbey well. I told Lucy that I thought we could, and she dictated(口述) these words:

    We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Lucy and addressed it to God/Heaven. Yesterday, we received a package addressed "To Lucy" with this note:

    If you were to walk up Arthur Bonner and say, "Hey, Butterfly Man." his face would break into a smile. The title suits him and he loves it.

Arthur Bonner works with the Palos Verdes blues butterfly, once thought to have died out. Today the butterfly is coming back—thanks to him. However, years ago if you'd told him this was what he'd he doing someday, he would have laughed, "You're crazy." As a boy, he used to be "a little tough buy on the streets". At the age of thirteen, he was caught by police for stealing. At eighteen, he landed in prison for shooting a man.

    "I knew it had hurt my mom," Bonner said after he got out of prison. "So I told myself I would not put my mom through that pain again."

    One day he met Professor Mattoni, who was working to rebuild the habitat for an endangered butterfly called EI Segundo blue. He saw the sign "Butterfly Habitat" and asked, "How can you have a habitat when the butterflies can just fly away?" Dr. Mattoni laughed and landed him a magnifying glass, "Look at the leaves. I could see all these caterpillars on the plant." Dr. Mattoni explained, " Without the plant, there are no butterflies."

    Weeks later, Bonner received a call from Dr. Mattoni, who told him there was a butterfly that needed help. That was how he met the Palos Verdes blue. Since then he's been working for four years to help bring the butterfly back. He grows astragalus, the only plant the butterfly eats. He collects butterflies and bring them into a lab to lay eggs. Then he puts new butterflies into the habitat.

    The butterfly's population, once almost zero, is now up to 900. For their work, Bonner and Dr. Mattoni received lots of awards. But for Bonner, he earned something more: he turned his life around.

    For six years now Bonner has kept his promise to stay out of prison. While he's bringing back the Palos Verdes blue, the butterfly has helped bring him back, too.

    This is a picture of Mr. Li's family. The man in the middle is Mr. Li. The woman is Mr. Li's wife. They have two sons. The child behind Mr.Li is Li Lei. He's thirteen. The other in front of Mrs. Li is Li Ming. He is eleven. Li Lei and Li Ming are in the same school, but not in the same grade. Li Lei is in Grade Two. Li Ming is in Grade One. They are good students.

    Once Effendi had a joke with the Prime Minister (宰相). He said that the Minister would die the next day. The next day, the Minister fell to the ground from the horse and really died. When the king learned this, he got angry and sent his men to catch Effendi at once.

    When Effendi was brought to him, the king shouted angrily, “Effendi, since you knew when my Minister would die, you must know the date of your own death. Say it out, or you'll die today.” Effendi looked at the king for a while. Then he answered, “But how can I know？I'll die two days earlier than you.” The king was afraid that if he killed Effendi, he himself would die after that. He thought he must keep Effendi alive as long as possible, so he let Effendi go.

    One day, Mr. Smith is going to take a train to his home town. When the train starts, one of his shoes falls (落下)on to the ground. The train is running faster and faster and he can't pick it up. Then he quickly takes off the other one and throws it on the ground near the fallen shoe. A little boy on the train asks him." Why do you do that?" "I've already(已经)lost one shoe. "Mr. Smith answers, "If a man picks them up, he may get a pair of shoes."