One sunny afternoon, I went for a walk on the beach. There I saw a special crab (螃蟹). It had two claws (螯).一个螯比另一个人螯大得多、长的多。I had never seen such a crab before. So on my way home from the beach, I walked into the library.

    Luckily, I found a book named Come with me to the Edge of the Sea. It had many pictures of animals living near the sea. The pictures of male fiddler crabs (雄性招潮蟹) looked quite like the crab I found on the beach. I learned a lot about that kind of crab.

    Sometimes a fiddler crab puts the small claw across the big one. It looks like it is playing the fiddle (violin) when it does this, so some people call it the fiddler crab Sometimes it waves its big claw. It looks like it is saying hello. That's why other people call it the calling crab. Fiddler crabs' eyes are on long eye stalks (眼柄). They can put up their eye stalks to look around~ It makes them look taller.

    These crabs are very small. There are lots of other, bigger beach animals that want to eat them. They dig holes in the sand (在沙子里挖洞). The holes are their homes. They are safe inside them. Sometimes the sea water can bring food into their holes.

    You may think that English dictionaries have been used for many, many centuries. The spelling of English has always been a problem, but it was more of a problem in the days before a dictionary. In those days people spelt words in different ways which you might find interesting. But it made reading English much more difficult. So dictionaries were invented to encourage everybody to spell the same. In fact, an English dictionary like the kind you use today wasn't made until the time of the Qing Dynasty.

    The largest dictionary in the world is the Oxford English Dictionary, or OED for short. The idea for this dictionary came from an important meeting in Britain in 1857. Twenty-two years later, Oxford University asked James Murray to be the editor of its new dictionary.

    Murray had not been to college. At the age of fourteen, he left his village school in Scotland and taught himself while working in a bank. Later he became a great teacher. After Oxford gave him the job, Murray had a place built in the garden behind his house to do his work. Part of it was one metre underground. In winter he had to wear a heavy coat and put his feet in a box to keep warm. Every morning, Murray got out of bed at five o'clock and worked several hours before breakfast. Often he would work by candle light into the evening.

    Murray hoped to finish the new dictionary in ten years. But after five years, he was still adding words for the letter A! Then others went to work with Murray, and his two daughters were among them. He worked on the dictionary until he was very old. Forty-four years later, in 1928, other editors finished it. It had more than 15,000 words in twelve books. And you thought your English dictionary was big!

    People usually hate mice, but one mouse wins the hearts of the people all over the world—the famous Mickey Mouse.

    Fifty years ago, most films had no sounds. A man named Walt Disney made a cartoon mouse that could talk in these films. He named his mouse Mickey Mouse. Soon Mickey Mouse became a good friend of both young and old people. Children like to see their lovely friend, because he brought happiness to them.

    Mickey is a clean mouse right from the beginning. Perhaps this is why people love Mickey Mouse. In his early life Mickey made some mistakes. People were very angry. They wrote to Disney and said that they didn't want Mickey to do wrong things. As there were many things that Mickey could not do, Disney made a new animal named Donald Duck. He also made a dog, Pluto. This dog does foolish things and makes mistakes wherever he goes. Now our Mickey Mouse is not only clean, but more interesting. He came out as a star of beauty and wisdom (智慧). He has his friends in almost every country.

    I'm not much of a crier most of the time. But {#blank#}1{#/blank#} when I was reading a book on a plane, I started crying. Of course, it came as a big surprise when tears came up, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't {#blank#}2{#/blank#} myself.

    Oh no, not this now. I thought to myself. But even as the thought entered my brain. I felt the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} hot drop of salty water coming down my face. I put my head down, hoping that I could go on reading.

    In fact, the harder I tried, the more tears pushed their way out of my eyes. You could guess how surprised the man next to me looked.

    My head {#blank#}4{#/blank#} in shame. He must think I was crazy. Maybe I could turn towards him, hold up the cover of the book and say in my crying voice. "I'm sorry, sir. It's just a really good book!" But I didn't, say anything. Instead, I just put my head back against the {#blank#}5{#/blank#} and let the tears run. Do you know what decision I made while I was crying? My decision was that it was OK if he thought I was crazy. I preferred to be crazy instead of being the kind of person who wouldn't cry when the situation called for it, or who wouldn't let {#blank#}6{#/blank#} feel anything at all.

    I've been that girl who has spent so much time trying to make sure people didn't think f was crazy. But now I don't want to be that girl any more —that bored and {#blank#}7{#/blank#} girl. I'd rather {#blank#}8{#/blank#} this girl who is able to forgive (原谅), love and act, even if it means being disappointed or being hurt again and again.

    When I just moved to Los Angeles（洛杉矶）, I didn't have a car.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}, but I wanted to prove（证明）them wrong.

    I asked my neighbor, Mrs. White, to take me to the bus station in the center of the city, so I could try taking the bus home.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}. When I got there, I went inside and got a bus timetable（时刻表）. I looked at the map and worked out that I needed to take three buses to get home.

    I bought the tickets and went outside to wait at the bus stop for the Number 8 bus. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. I gave my ticket to the bus driver and took a seat. At the right stop I got off. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. I waited and waited. A man was also waiting for the same bus. He said that it wasn't unusual for the bus to be late. Half an hour later, it finally came. To make the matter worse, the third bus broke down halfway and the driver had to fix it. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. So when I finally got home, I was very tired. Maybe getting a car in Los Angeles wasn't such a bad idea!