Jodie's Daddy is a Garbageman(垃圾清理工)

    Mr Swales wanted to find out what his students' parents did. He had just called Jodie when some girls burst out laughing. Shirley shouted, “Jodie's Daddy is a Garbageman!”

    Everybody in the class laughed out loud, except Jodie. She felt her face turn red.

    “Silence!” Mr Swales said, “Being a garbagemen is a difficult and useful job. We should all be thankful to Jodie's father.”

Jodie's father came to walk her home from school as usual, but she didn't run up to him the way she always did. When they got back home, Jodie went to her room and cried for a long time.

    Her father came into her room, “What happened, Jodie? Why are you so sad?”

    Jodie told her father what had happened and looked at him. He didn't seem angry or hurt. “Well,” he said, “they are right. Being a garbageman is a dirty job. Tomorrow's Saturday. Come to work with me, Jodie.”

    The place really smell too good. Jodie wrinkled her nose. “Don't worry, kid. In five minutes you won't smell a thing.” said her father.

    Everybody there was working hard, and they seemed to have a good time. Jodie's father handed her a pair of gloves and told her to get the little plastic bags and throw them into the truck.

    It was fun, but also hard work. Jodie's arms soom got tired. At last, no more garbage was left and Jodie felt very happy.

    “Garbage is disgusting, but when we clear it away, everything's nice and clean. You can make yourself happy only by making other happy. That's why I like being a garbageman so much.”

    Jodie give her dirty, smeely garbageman daddy a big kiss(吻). She said, “When I grow up, I will be a garbagegirl!”

    Now whenever someone asks Jodie what her daddy does, she says, “He's a garbageman! Everybody makes garbage, but my daddy takes it away!”

    If you have no special plans for your holidays, why not spend your time helping others?

    Don't listen to people who say the young people today often think only of themselves. It's not true at all. More and more people in the USA volunteer to spend their school holidays working for others. And they don't do it for money. Here are some of their stories.

Alice Hamilton, 17

    I'm going to help the Forest Centre build new hiking paths in the mountains. It's going to be terrific—I'll spend the whole summer living in the tent and breathing the clean mountain air. I'm going to sleep under the stars. It'll be a nice sport, and I'll be able to do something good at the same time.

Jason Moore, 18

    This summer, I'm going to volunteer with Special House Program. They build good, low-cost houses and sell them to families that are not very rich. They'll teach me what to do, so I'll help people and also have a chance to learn how to build houses.

Trish Anderson, 16

    I'm going to teach kids who have trouble reading. I'll work for a program called Reading For Life. Every day, I'm going to help kids choose and read books that they like. I want to be a teacher and I love children and reading, so this is going to be a great experience for me.

    The Lost Thing is a story about a young man. He often wears a pair of glasses. He likes collecting(收集)bottle caps when he's travelling around the world. One day, he takes an old train to the beach. He sees a strange red teapot(茶壶)。It is about 3-4m tall. It's very friendly to him. They play with a ball in the afternoon. When the sun goes down, he starts to know that his friend doesn't have the owner(主人). He thinks, "It might be a lost thing." He wants to know more about the red teapot, so he tries to help it find its owner. Will the teapot find its owner? It's a secret.

Last month, we held an English Week at school. There were a lot of activities in it. It i{#blank#}1{#/blank#} English Book Fair, English Speaking Competition and English Play. Believe it or not? I acted as Snow White in an English play. In the beginning, I was very shy. I was not c{#blank#}2{#/blank#} on the stage. I spoke in a low voice. However, as the seven dwarfs (七个小矮人) sang and danced, I became relaxed. They were so f{#blank#}3{#/blank#} that the audience laughed again and again. Finally, we won the first p{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. We were so excited because we were the best!

The English Week provided us with a chance to i{#blank#}5{#/blank#} our English. Most of us are better at English than before. It's really cool!

That May, I decided to plan something special for my third-grade children on Mother's Day.

I asked the students to talk about how to1 our mothers. We practiced singing songs and giving gifts2 Mother's Day. I felt very3 when I learned that every mother would come. I4 invited my own mother.

The big day finally arrived. Each child lined up at our classroom door,5 the arrival (到达) of his or her mom. As it got closer to the starting time, Jimmy looked so6 because his mother hadn't arrived yet.

I walked over to him. "Jimmy," I said, "Could you keep my mother company (陪伴)? You know, I'm a little7 ."

Jimmy said "Yes." He sent her the8 I'd made just like we'd practiced the day before. They were having a good9 when I looked over. I was very happy the activity10 with a big success.

Three years later, I took my six-grade students out for a field trip.11 them was Jimmy. The day before, I'd asked all of them to write down what they planned to do in in their12 . After we returned to school, I collected their notebooks and checked if13 finished it.

When I came to Jimmy's page, he'd written,"Do you remember our Mother's Day in the14 grade, Mrs. Mara? I do! Thanks for all you did for me, and thank your15 , too."

Later when Jimmy came to get his notebook, I told him. "In fact, I want to say thanks because you made my mother's day."