Bill is a good boy. He is seven years old, and he likes going to school. But he cannot get up early.

    He always wakes up until (直到) nine or ten o'clock in the morning.

    His mother doesn't want him to be late for school, so she buys an alarm clock for him. She says to Bill, "You must get up when you hear the clock ring." "Yes, Mum," Bill answers. From then on, when he hears the clock ring at six o'clock in the morning, he gets up quickly.

    One day his mother forgets to wind up (上发条) the clock. And the next morning, Bill doesn't get up on time. It's time for breakfast, so his mother goes to wake Bill up, Bill is in bed and his eyes are open. "Why don't you get up?" his mother asks, "You tell me that I must get up when I hear the clock ring, so I am waiting for the clock to ring," Bill said.

    There were two men who lived next to each other. One of them was a retired teacher and the other was a businessman. Both of them had planted many different plants in their gardens. The retired teacher seldom watered his plants and didn't pay a lot of attention to them. But his neighbor was very careful with his plants and watered them often.

    The retired teacher's plants were small, but still looked okay, while the businessman's plants were much bigger and greener. One night, there came a storm with a heavy rain and strong wind. The next morning, both of the neighbors came out to check in their gardens. The businessman saw that his plants had come out from the earth, and were totally out of life. But the retired teacher's plants nicely stood where they were.

    The businessman was surprised. He went to consult (咨询) the retired teacher. "We both grew the same plants and I cared for my plants better than you did. How could your plants still be okay?"

    The retired teacher smiled and said, "Because you gave your plants too much attention. You made it too easy for them to grow. I gave my plants just a little bit of water, so they had to grow deeper to absorb(吸收) more water. That is why my plants survived."

I walk near my house，and I see a man sitting on the ground，hitting（敲打）some﹣thing with a stone. I ask him what he does. He answers he is hitting some bread. He wants to make food for the birds. The large bread is difficult for the birds to eat，so he hits it into small pieces. 

He does it every night by himself. He doesn't understand why we are interested in the thing he is doing. For him，it is just a small thing. He also leaves（留下）some water here for the birds. 

I ask him why he does this. He says， " It's just something small I do so that the bread won't become litter but food for birds. "I tell his story to my friends. I hope it can encourage（鼓励）many people to start something like this. 

If everyone does such a thing，our world may become good and beautiful. 

Shawn and Pat were brothers. Twelve-year-old Shawn liked to play jokes. He did not always do his homework on time. Sometimes he forgot to wash the dishes. His bedroom was a mess! Pat, on the other hand, had always behaved like an angel. "What a wonderful baby!" his mother would say. "He never cried!" His teachers always said, "What a joy it is to have Pat in class! He is so different from his brother."

Pat did not think much about how great he was until one day when he was watching Mostly Martin. In the show, a new boy had moved to town. "He is strange," said Martin. "He never gets into trouble. He does everything he's supposed to do. Everyone thinks he is perfect. He must be a robot!"

He went to find Shawn. "Am I a robot?" he asked. "Of course not." said Shawn as he went outside. Pat thought hard. Robots were machines. They looked like people, but they were not really alive. They always followed orders. How would you know that you were one?

Pat decided to ask his parents. After all, they must know. He asked at dinner. His father laughed. "Sure!" he said, "And it's time to change your batteries (电池)!" He jumped up and ran to the tool drawer. "Dad's just kidding!" said Pat's mother. "Of course you are not a robot, Pat. You are our son." Pat felt better for a while. But that night he began to worry again. Of course his mother said he was real. Nice mothers would not tell their sons they are robots!

Pat ran to Shawn's room. Shawn was playing a computer game in the dark. "How can I know for sure that I am not a robot?" asked Pat. For once, Shawn did not play a joke on his little brother. He could tell that Pat was really worried. After all, Pat was only six.

"What makes you think that you are one?" he said.

"People always say I am perfect," answered Pat. "But only robots are!" Shawn smiled to himself. He knew exactly what to do. "Listen!     ▲    " he said to Pat.

The next morning, his mother opened Pat's bedroom door. "Time to get up!"

 "No," said Pat. His mother was surprised. This had never happened before. "Get up."

 "No!" shouted Pat. He kicked his feet and rolled around in bed.

"Patrick!" his mother said in a loud voice. "Get out of bed this minute!" Pat gave a few more kicks. He felt very silly. He was also happy. No robot would ever act this way. He was a real boy. Now he knew for sure.

"Are you listening, Simon? " Simon's teacher asked. It was a pretty usual question. Simon shook his head, smiling. He hardly listened or tried hard in class. Talking was so much fun. He wanted to be heard rather than listen.

"Listen, and you' ll learn something." Mrs. Jacobs tried every day, but Simon never paid attention.

 That evening, his throat really hurt. The next morning, when he opened his mouth to say"Good morning", nothing came out but a croak(低沉而沙哑的声音).

 Simon's mother looked at him. "Honey, you' ve lost your voice "

"Can I stay home?" He tried to ask, but words didn't come out. Instead, his mother checked him for a fever and decided it was good for him to go to school, even if he couldn't talk.

 When he got to school, Mrs. Jacobs said"Hello" to him, and he just nodded. When his friends asked him what TV shows he watched last night, he just shrugged(耸肩). By the time the bell rang for class, almost everyone was looking at him as if he'd grown a third eye.

 Penny raised her hand. "Mrs Jacobs, why isn't Simon talking?"

"He never stops talking," Richard said worriedly. Everyone started talking at once. They were excited, worried, and surprised.

 Simon sat in class, bored. He watched them talk to each other as if the teacher wasn't there, but he couldn't even do that. In math class he could hold up fingers if the answer was less than 10, but that wasn't fun. He decided to try to pay attention.

 He could do his homework that night. It gave him TV and game time with his work all done.

 The next day, even though his voice was coming back, he stayed quiet again. The third day, he could talk fine, but he listened and raised his hand to speak.

 What a difference that one day made!