Now many people like to keep dogs as their pets. But how did dogs become humans' close friends?

    In some places of Europe (欧洲), about 10,000 years ago, some wild (野生的) dogs often came to human's houses to find food. The wild dogs looked different from the ones today. They looked like wolves (狼). At first, they felt ① frightened. They always stood and looked for a short time. Then they got the food and ran away. Sometimes the young dogs couldn't run fast and people caught them. People trained them and the young dogs grew up with the help of people. Slowly, the wild dogs became home dogs. They could make home safe when people were away. They helped people hunt (狩猎). They helped people keep warm on cold nights. ② Sometimes, they could smell and hear danger before people could. In some cold places, they helped people pull (拉) things people need.

    Now there are more than 400 different kinds of dogs in the world. And they look different from each other. The number and kind are growing all the time. Today, some people mainly (主要地) regard dogs as pets. In fact, dogs are really our close friends. We should protect them from being killed.

    Mr. King is from America. He and his wife are teachers. They teach English in a middle school in Beijing. They have two daughters. They are twins. Their names are Lucy and Lily. They're twelve. They look the same. They are students, but they are in different schools. Their family has two bikes and a car. One bike is for Lily, the other is for Lucy. Mr. and Mrs. King go to work in their car. They have many friends in China. They sometimes go to the friends' home for supper（晚餐）.

    My father woke up(叫醒)my brother and me early one summer morning when l was fourteen and said ''Get up! you're going with me to cut the grass in the garden”

    From Sunup to sundown，my father，my brother and l worked in the garden．By the end of the day, my brother and l were too tired to say a word but we were excited．This was our first time to help our father work．I got$6 for my work that day；and my brother got$2 more．

    Then l worked with my father and brother almost every Saturday．One day my father found some grass I had missed and said．“Cut the grass! Don't make me have to tell you to do it again．”I knew he was telling me the importance of doing a job well the first time．It really helped me a lot．

    两年后，我父亲告诉我，我年龄足够大了，可以自己割草了。Every Saturday during my last two years of high school，1 woke up early in the morning to work in the garden．Looking after the garden was neither exciting nor（既不……也不……） high—paying，but I didn't care(在乎)．My father once said，“If you're only thinking about money, maybe you won't think about how to do the job better．”

    I do many jobs for my family．In every job， from cutting the grass to washing the clothes．I've learned much．I've learned something that helps me in my next job．

    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.

    I am Paul. I am in the classroom. What's under the teacher's desk?

It's a black schoolbag. Who lost the schoolbag? Let's look at the things in it. This is a pencil box with a pen, a ruler, an eraser and two pencils in it. This is a Chinese book. I always have my name on my books. But I can't see a name on it. I get the math book from the schoolbag and have a look. There is no name on it, either (either=too). How about the music book? Let me see. Here is a photo in this book. This is Sally but I don't know the other two girls in the photo. Is this Sally's schoolbag? I am not sure. I will call Sally and phone her about the lost schoolbag.