Only a Ribbon

    In one of the London hospitals，a short time ago，there was a young doctor. He noticed one of the patients，a ten-year-old poor girl called Katie，who had a very painful illness.

    Katie lay in her bed，day after day，with nothing to help her forget her pain and cheer up. One day the doctor noticed her trying to make a doll of her finger, and speaking to it. But she was soon tired of it，and lay back into her bed.

    That afternoon，the young doctor saw a beautiful ribbon in a shop window. He thought that it might help cheer the little girl up，so he went in and bought it for her. When he handed the ribbon to the girl，she was too surprised to speak. There were tears in her eyes. This little gift made her feel rich and happy.

    The nurse later told the doctor that the girl played with the ribbon all day long. She twisted（盘绕）it round her head. She held it in her hand while she slept.

    Some weeks later，Katie's illness became worse，and it was necessary to perform a dangerous operation. When Katie was brought into the operation mom，she cried out for the young doctor. He was brought，and he held one of the girl's hands，while the other tightly held the ribbon.

    During the operation，the ribbon fell off Katie's hand. As soon as she woke up and opened her eyes，she looked at her friend and said in a low voice，“My ribbon.”The doctor gave it to her and she smiled happily.

    It was only a little gift，but it made the girl's stay in the hospital bright with beauty and love.

    Each morning a rich man found a poor man sitting on a bench(长凳) in the park. The poor man always sat there, looking at the big hotel in which the rich man lived. One day, the rich man got out of his car and said to the poor man, "Excuse me. I want to know why you sit here and look at my hotel every morning." "Sir," said the poor man, "I am a failure. I have no money, no family, no home. I sleep on this bench, and every night I dream that one day I'll sleep in that hotel." The rich man said, "Tonight your dream will come true. I'll pay for the best room in that hotel for you a whole month."

    A few days after, the rich man went into the poor man's room to ask him how he was enjoying himself. To his surprise, he found that the man had moved out of the hotel back to his bench. When the rich man asked why, he said, "You see, when I'm sleeping on my bench, I dreamed I am there, in the big hotel. It's a wonderful dream. But when I was there I dreamed I was back to this cold bench. It was a terrible dream, and I couldn't get any sleep at all."

    Once there was a fairy (仙女) on an island. She was the strongest and cleverest among all fairies. However, she was very ugly. On the island, every fairy thought beauty was the most important thing for a fairy, so the ugly fairy had no friends. Every time she was sent to save someone in trouble, before she could say a word, the person would shout loudly, "Ugly! Get out of here, right now!"

    She once wanted to use her magic to become beautiful, but she remembered what her mother told her, "My dear, you are what you are, and never change your look unless you are in danger."

    One day, some witches(巫婆) from another island attacked the island—the ugly fairy's home. All the fairies were sent to prison. The ugly fairy changed herself into a witch just before she was caught. Then she followed the witches back to their island and held a party for them. While the witches were having fun at the party, she went to free all the fairies. When all the fairies were free, they worked together to fight against the witches and put them in prison.

    All the fairies realized that beauty was not the most important thing. After that, they didn't laugh at the ugly fairy any more.

    Mr. Brown and Mrs. Brown are teachers. But they teach in different schools. Every day Mrs. Brown goes home early. Mr. Brown's school is not near their home. He goes home late. Mr. Brown likes Chinese. He often goes to Chinese classes. One day he has a friendly talk with a Chinese student and goes home very late.

    He opens the door and says, "Sorry, my dear. I am too late today, but I…" Mrs. Brown is not in the room. "That's strange（奇怪）. She likes watching TV. She doesn't like going out in the evening. But where is she now?" Mr. Brown looks here and there. Then he sees a note on the table. It says "Don't make any excuse this time. I am going out to see my friends. Don't wait for me. "

    Life may be boring in Melbourne for people who enjoy exciting nightlife. Shops here often close at 6 p.m. and there are no places to go at night. But things were different this summer, as the Victoria Night Market recently opened!

    I went to the market at 7 p.m.. The smoky smell of kebabs(烤肉串) created a nice summer atmosphere(氛围). DJs on the stage played songs and the streets were packed with people. At that time, I thought I returned to China.

    I went to a stall(摊位) with bright red and orange decorations. A sign with the words "typical(典型的) Spanish" hung at the front of the stall. The dishes in front of me were confusing(困惑的), because I had never tried Spanish food before. A woman at the stall smiled, pointed at some food and said: "You can try this seafood rice. It's a very typical Spanish dish. Unlike Chinese fried rice, the rice was as orange as the stall's decorations. I tried it. I found that it was quite delicious as soon as I put it into my mouth.

    I spent 50 Australian dollars in total, but I got to taste Greek meatballs, Thai noodles and a Brazilian burger. I'm glad that the Victoria Market offers so many great foods from every corner of the world!

    My friend Alice visited my city last week. She arrived in HongKong on Wednesday morning .She is from Australia. I showed her around the city.

    We visited the Clock Tower first. The Clock Tower was very tall. We took some photos there. Then we went to the City Museum. After that, we saw a good movie.

    The next day, we visited the Ladies' Street. There were a lot of clothes shops. The clothes were cheap and beautiful. Alice bought some clothes for her parents and friends. Then we went to the Seafood Street. We bought some seafood. We also had seafood in a restaurant. Both of us enjoyed the meal. Then we went to a concert in the evening. The music was fantastic!

    On the third day, the weather was very hot, so we decided to visit Hong Kong Wetland Park. We saw many kinds of plants and animals in it. They were very interesting.

    Alice went back to Australia on Friday evening. She enjoyed the trip. She invited me to visit Australia next summer.