Alice needs some money for a Mother's Day present. She tells her father about her problem.

    "I'll pay you to do some housework. You can clean up the yard(院子)," her father says.

    "You can also wash my car and Mum's. Both of them need to be washed because they're really dirty."

    Alice works on the yard and washes her father's car.

    "Too bad! You didn't have time to wash Mum's car," Dad says when he pays her.

    The next morning Alice wakes up early. First she washes her mother's car. Then she goes to the flower shop. She also buys her mother's favourite bread on her way home. After breakfast Alice asks her mother to go to the garage(车库). She opens the gate.

    "Wow!" Alice's mother says. "My car is gleaming."

    "Open the door," Alice says.

    Alice's mother opens the door. There on the seat she sees a bunch of flowers.

    "Happy Mother's Day!" Alice says.

    One evening last autumn, while Marcos Ugarte, 15, did his homework and his father, Eduardo, 47, prepared lesson plans, they heard screaming outside. It was from one of their neighbors, the Ma family. Then Marcos' eye was caught by a glow(火光) from there.

    "The house's on fire!" Marcos cried. Wearing only in shorts, the barefoot(光脚的) teen ran out with his dad. When they got there, Grandmother Yim Ma, mother Suzanne Ma, and son Nathan Ma were crying for help. Through the open front door, father Alex Ma was staggering(磕磕绊绊) down the stairs, coughing heavily.

    "Anyone else in it?" Eduardo asked.

    "My son!" Alex pointed to the second floor.

    Eduardo started up the stairs, but smoke and heat forced him to his knees. He crawled (爬) upstairs and down the hall where Alex said he would find Cody, 8, who had locked himself in a bedroom. Eduardo tried hard to open the door. But Cody made no reply, and Eduardo had to make his way back downstairs.  At the same time, Marcos saw Yim and Suzanne pulling a ladder, shouting: "Cody is at the window!"

    Marcos then placed the ladder near the window and climbed up. When Marcos reached the window, he pushed the screen into the room and managed to coax(哄) Cody out. Holding Cody with one arm, Marcos slowly climbed down the ladder. Cody was quickly sent to a nearby hospital, where he's treated for smoke inhalation(吸入).

    "You just don't see a teenager have that kind of braveness," said people around.

    A jobless man wanted very much to have the position of "office boy" at Microsoft. The HR manager interviewed him and then watched him cleaning the floor as a test. "You have passed the test," he said. "Give me your e-mail address and I'll send you the form to fill in and the date when you may start." The man answered, "But I don't have a computer, neither an e-mail." "I'm sorry," said the HR manager. "If you don't have an e-mail, that means you are not living. And anyone who isn't living cannot have the job."

    The man left with no hope at all. He didn't know what to do, with only 10 dollars in his pocket. He thought and thought. Then he went to the supermarket and bought 10 kilos of tomatoes. He sold the tomatoes from door to door. In less than two hours, he had 20 dollars. He repeated the operation three times, and returned home with 60 dollars. The man came to know that he could make money in this way, and started to go early every day, and returned home late. Shortly, he bought a cart, then a truck, then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles (运货车队). Five years later, the man was one of the biggest food retailers (零售商) in the US.

    One day, one of his friends asked him for his e-mail. He said, "I haven't got one." His friend couldn't believe his ears. "Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an e-mail?" The man thought for a while and answered, "Yes, I'd be an office boy at Microsoft!"

    A train stopped at a small station. A man looked out of the window and saw a woman who was selling cakes. People from the train were buying them. The man wanted to buy a cake, but the woman was standing far from the window. It was raining, and the man didn't want to go out in the rain. Suddenly he saw a boy who was walking on the platform(站台) not far from him.

    "Come here, boy!" the man said. "Do you know how much those cakes cost?" "Five cents for each," the boy answered. The man gave the boy ten cents and asked him to buy two cakes. "One for me, and one for you," he told the boy. A few minutes later, the boy came back. He was eating a cake. He gave the man five cents and said, "There was only one cake."

My name is Emma, My family like1 . My favourite part is when we go on a road2 by car. I like to wave at the people in the other3 . I like to look at the landscape. 

Last week my family went on a road trip to a big farm. We4 through the desert. It was hot,5  the landscape was beautiful. The mountains were red. I6 a horse by myself. It was a friendly7 . At night we ate dinner around a campfire. That was very fun. 

We're going to take a trip to the8 next Saturday. I like to pick up shells(贝壳)there, so I'm very9 .

The beach is far from our home. It will be a10 drive. We will stop for lunch at a restaurant. l like reading. Maybe I will11 a book in the car. My dad knows a lot of12 . Maybe he will tell a funny story. 

l don't know13 the road trip will be like, but I do14 it will be fun. Like my parents15 say, "Getting there is half the fun."