One of my first memories as a child in the 1950s was a discussion I had with my brother in our tiny bedroom in the family house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

    We had heard in school about a planet called Pluto. It was the farthest, coldest, and darkest thing a child could imagine. We guessed how long it would take to die if we stood on the surface of such a frozen place wearing only the clothes we had on. We tried to figure out how much colder Pluto was than Antarctica, or than the coldest day we had ever experienced in Pennsylvania.

    Pluto, which famously was downgraded from a “major planet” to a “dwarf planet”（矮星） in 2006, captured our imagination because it was a mystery that could complete our picture of what it was like at the most remote corners of our solar system.

    Pluto's underdog discovery story is part of what makes it so attractive. Clyde Tombaugh was a Kansas farm boy who built telescopes out of spare auto parts, old farm equipment and self-ground lenses. As an assistant at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, Tombaugh's task was to search millions of stars for a moving point of light, a planet that the observatory's founder thought existed beyond the orbit of Neptune. On February 18，1930，Tombaugh found it. Pluto was the first planet discovered by an American, and represented a moment of light in the midst of the Great Depression's dark encroachment (入侵).

    Pluto is much more than something that is not a planet. It's a reminder that there are many worlds out there beyond our own and that the sky isn't the limit at all. We don't know what kinds of fantastic variations on a theme nature is capable of making until we get there to look.

    Little Tom down the street calls our dog "The keep dog". Zip is a sheep dog. But when Tom tries to say " Sheep", it comes out "keep". And in a way Tom is right. Zip is always bringing things home for us to keep! I'll tell you about some of them. Zip's first present was a shoe. It was made of green silk. We didn't know how Zip found the shoe. But after a moment, Mary, my big sister, told me the shoe had a strange smell. I nodded(点头) and held my nose. "What do you think it is?" "It smells like something for cleaning. I think someone tried to clean a spot (污点) off the shoe. Then he put it at the door to dry." Along came Zip. And good-bye shoe!" I said. "We should take it back." "We can't".said my sister. "Maybe little Tom is right," Mary said. "Maybe Zip is a keep dog!"

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    Our room was on the second floor but you could still hear the roar of the ocean and see the stars at night. I used to take long walks along the water. The food in town was wonderful and the people were very friendly. The area was very quiet and peaceful, and fairly deserted.

    The last evening of our vacation, however, we all heard strange footsteps following closely behind us as we were walking up to our room in the holiday centre. We turned around and noticed a fairly young man moving very rapidly across the beach and getting closer to us. He was tall and wore a baseball cap. We didn't have any cell phones on us. I never saw Dad as worried as he was then and knew that something was terribly wrong. The sense of fear started to overwhelm Mom and me. We had had such a good time in town. Now, the night was rapidly turning into a dangerous situation.

    We could hear the man's footsteps getting closer. Dad's face was almost pale. The so-called intruder (侵入者) had moved nearer and nearer when all of a sudden, the nearby vending (自动贩卖) machine started going crazy and spitting out cans of soda! The noise actually scared the intruder and he ran out of sight. My parents were shaking, but we all turned around to see who had put money into the vending machine downstairs, and actually saved us, but no one was around at all.Not a soul.

    It's one vacation I will never forget.

    A monk lived with his brother, a one-eyed idiot(a very stupid person).One day ,when the monk was scheduled to have an interview with a famous theologian(a scientist who studies religions) who had come from far away to meet him, he needed to take care of some matters and would therefore be absent when the theologian arrived. He told his brother: "Receive this scholar and treat him well！Don't say a word to him，and everything will be OK."

    The monk left the temple. Upon returning, he went to meet his guest.

    "Did my brother receive you properly?" asked the monk.

    "You brother is outstanding. He's a great theologian!" exclaimed the theologian with great enthusiasm.

"What do you mean? My brother—a theologian?" stuttered(结巴地说)the surprised monk.

    "We had a passionate conversation," replied the scholar." We communicated professionally by means of gestures. I showed him one finger and he replied by showing me two. Logically, I answered with three fingers and then he astonished me by raising a closed fist, ending the debate. With one finger, I implied the unity of Buddha. With two fingers, he expanded my point of view by reminding me that Buddha was inseparable from his theory. Delighted by the reply, with three fingers I expressed: Buddha and his theory in the world. Then he suggested a wonderful response, showing me his fist: Buddha, his theory and the world, all together as one whole. "

    A little later, the monk went to look for his one-eyed brother.

    "So how did it go earlier with the theologian?" he asked.

    "Very simple," said the brother. "He made fun of me; he show me one finger emphasizing that I have but one eye. Not wanting to fall into the conflict, I showed that he was fortunate enough to have two eyes. Critically, he continued, 'Be that as it may, between us, we have three eyes.' That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Showing him a closed fist, I threatened to lay him out right then and there if he didn't stop his insulting challenges."

The history of Australian Rules Football

    Australian Rules Football is called by many nicknames. Lovers of the game just call it "football" or "footy." When contrasted with other forms of football, it is called "Aussie Rules" or "AFL". AFL stands for Australian Football League, which is the most prestigious league in Australia.

    Australia Rules Football was created by Tom Wills in 1858. He wanted to create a sport that would keep cricket players fit through the winter. He began by writing a letter that explained his purpose to a sports magazine. It also called for the creation of a football club. In 1858, Wills and others played an experimental match that was the first game of Australian football. But few details about this match have survived.

    On August 7, 1858, two important events for the game occurred. The Melbourne Football Club was founded. It was one of the world's first football clubs in any code. Also, a famous match between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College was played. It was umpired(仲裁)by Tom Wills. A second day of play took place on August 21, and then there was a third and final day on September4. The two schools have competed every year since.

    The game is played between two teams of 18 players on an oval that can also be used for cricket. These playing fields can be up to 185m long. This is almost four times the size of fields used in other forms of football.

    A point called "a behind" is scored when the ball goes across the line and between a goal post and a behind post. A behind point is also scored if the ball is touched by any body part of either team's member as it passes between the goal posts. A goal is worth six points, and a behind is worth one point.

    When Shakespeare was twenty-one, he went to London, a very interesting place, to try his fortune.

    There was the famous London Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral, and palaces and markets and long streets full of shops.

    Then, too, there were the daily crowds where could be seen people from all over the world. Knights, scholars and the highwayman (拦路强盗）or thieves, who had been infamous for their clever robberies, passed by each other.

    Here, also, were noblemen dressed in gold, from Italy and Spain and France; slaves from Spanish America, sea captains and ministers, soldiers and servants—all held by chances or interests within the gray walls which circled London, and whose gates gave welcome to as strange a crowd as could be found in the world.

    Into this curious crowd came Shakespeare, quick to see and eager to learn. And before long all these strange sights were as familiar to him as the faces of his own town's residents. Each one told its story to him so plainly that, as before he had learned the secrets of the fields and woods, so now he learned men and men's interests that make up the great world.

    And he learned these lessons so well that when he came to write his plays, he made such use of them as no writer ever made before or since; for it is the use of this knowledge of the world, combined with his own genius, that makes Shakespeare the greatest dramatist that has ever lived.