"What's wrong, dear?" said Mrs. Smith to the little boy, Tom Blair, who had tears (眼泪) in his eyes.

    "We have all got a 1 called Little Jim to learn," said Tom, "and the one who says it best will get a 2 from the teacher. But I don't think I can learn it."

    "Why not?" said Mrs. Smith.

    "It is so long and hard for me. And other boys always 3 me, and call me ‘Slow Tom'." said Tom in a 4 voice.

    "Well, dear, don't mind 5 others say," said Mrs. Smith kindly. "Look at that snail (蜗牛) on the wall; how 6 it is! But if you watch it, you will see it will get to the top at last. When you feel like losing heart, 7 the snail on the wall."

    At last, the day came. The teacher called up the boys to repeat the poem. When five or six boys had tried, it came to Tom's turn.  8 Tom got up, there was a laugh because most of the boys thought he would fail. But he did not 9 a word. And his heart was full of 10 when the teacher said, "Well done. Tom Blair!" After the 11 of the class had tried, the teacher said Tom had done 12; and he gave him the prize.

    "And now tell me," said the teacher, "how you learned the poem so well?"

    "Please, sir, it was the snail on the wall that 13 me how to do it," said Tom. "I saw it crawl up (爬行) the wall bit by bit. It did not stop, nor turn back, but went on, and on. And I thought I would do the same with my task. So I 14 learned it bit by bit, and did not give up."

    "Now, boys, let us give a good 15 for Tom Blair and the snail on the wall." said the teacher. And the old house rang with a loud, long cheer. For all were glad that "Slow Tom" had got a prize at last.

    An old man lived with his little grandson. Every day the old man got up early to read books.His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to copy him every 1  he could.

One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa, I want to read books as you do. But I don't understand it, and I always forget 2 I close the book. What good does 3 do?”

The grandfather quietly turned from putting 4 in the stove and replied, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.”

The boy did as his grandpa said, but all the water leaked（漏）out before he got back home.

The grandfather laughed and said, “You'll have to walk faster next time.”

The next time the boy ran faster, but the basket was still empty before he 5 home. The boy said, “see, Grandpa, it's 6  to finish this task!”

     “Is it no use?” the old man said. “ 7  the basket.”

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was 8 . Instead of a dirty old coal basket, it was 9 inside and out.

     “My child, that's what happens when you read the book. You might not understand or remember everything, but the 10  will change you inside and out. That is the work of reading in our lives.”

    One day, my son Adam asked me,"Are all people the same even if they are different in color？"

    I thought for a minute, and then I said, "I'll explain, 1 you can just wait until we make a quick 2 at the supermarket. I have something interesting to show you."

    At the supermarket, we 3 some apples——red, green and yellow ones. Back home, I told Adam, "It's time to 4 your question." I put one apple of each kind on the table. Then I looked at Adam, who had a 5look on his face.

    "People are like apples. They come in all 6colors, shapes and sizes. On the 7, some of the apples may not even look as the others." As I was talking, Adam was 8 each one carefully.

    Then, I took each of the apples and peeled（削皮） them, placing them back on the 9but in a different place. "Okay, Adam, tell me which is which." 

    He said, "I 10 tell. They all look the same now."

    "Take a bite of 11 . See if that helps you  12 which one is which."

    He took big bites, and then a big smile came across his face.  "People are  13  like apples. They are all different, but once you  14  the outside, they're pretty much the same on the inside."

    He totally 15 it. I didn't need to say or do anything else.

    A little girl walked to and back from school every day. One day, wind blew hard and trees shook from side to side in the wind on her way home after school. It rained1, and rain poured down, the girl's father worried that his daughter would be scared because of flashes of lightning. So he drove to his daughter's school in a hurry. To his surprise, he saw her2alone in the rain. When a flash of lightning came, she stopped, looked up and smiled. 3followed, she stopped, looked up and smiled. With the coming of the following flashes of lightning, she repeated the4thing again and again.

    After she got into the car, he wondered why she stopped, looked up and smiled when a lightning came. She replied with a bright smile, "Dad, when a flash of lightning came, I felt a bit scared. Seeing this, God would5me. I knew he was playing an interesting game with me to drive my fear. "

    You see, if you look at the world from a different view, the world is really amazing.

    Emily and Alex were happy when their family moved to a house with a very big garden. They could climb up trees, grow flowers and even play badminton. They liked to watch the birds flying among the trees in the garden. They even started to put food out to attract（吸引） more birds.

    Everything was fine for a few days until one afternoon there was a strange bumping noise on a window. Emily went outside and found a small bird dead on the grass. Its neck seemed to be broken.

    "It must have flown into the window," Alex said when his sister Emily called him to have a look. "Ah, yes, look here. You can see the mark where it hit the window. There are a couple of tiny feathers stuck(粘贴) on the window."

    "Poor thing!" Emily said.

    During the next month, another five birds died in the same way. "Why would they fly to the windows?" they wondered. Finally they found out the truth. When the birds were flying, they couldn't see into the rooms. All they saw was the reflection(反射) of the garden. They thought that they were flying into trees because they saw trees reflected by the window.

    "Something has to be done to save the birds." the parents decided.

    At first, he family tried keeping curtains（窗帘）across the windows, but this made the room dark. Then they bought some strong black paper and cut out the shape of a hawk. They made six hawks—one for each window. They stuck the hawks to the windows. They looked pretty and did not keep out much light. When the birds saw the hawks, they would fly away.

    After that, there were no more dead birds. The family were much happier.