Tony Wheeler was born to travel his father worked for all airline. For the first 16 years of his live. Wheeler and his family lived in many different countries.

    In the early 1970s, Tony met a young woman named Maureen. They soon married. Before getting jobs, Tony and Maureen wanted to travel. They took a year-long trip from England, through Asia, to Australia. On the trip, they visited places like Iran(伊朗), India, and so on.

    When Tony and Maureen arrived in Australia, people asked many questions about their trip. To answer these questions, Wheeler wrote a book called Across Asia on the Cheap. The book told people about different countries' weather, customs(风俗), and places to see。But unlike other travel books then, Tony Wheeler's book also talked about places most tourists did not go. He also wrote about unusual things to see and do. The book was very popular.

    Tony and Maureen started a company called Lonely Planet. They continued travelling. They wrote books for each place they visited. Today, 800 people work for Lonely Planet. The company has over 650 books. Tony Wheeler, the great traveller, still writes about travels to many places and will bring us more surprises.

    One day a farmer took his horse to the town for sale and hoped to bring some money home. On his way he saw an old woman. She looked weak, so the farmer carried her on his horse. Before the woman said goodbye, she gave the farmer a ring. She told him that the ring had magic power and could make any dream come true. But he could make only one wish.

    Later the farmer sold his horse and began to walk home. Then he met an old friend and went to his friend's house to take a rest. After drinking some wine, the farmer talked to his friend about the ring. The friend asked him to drink more wine to celebrate his good luck. The farmer drank too much and then fell asleep. The friend took the ring away and put another one in its place. After the farmer woke up and left, the man took out the ring and said, "Fill the house with gold." 

    Lots of gold fell down like a heavy rain and killed the man. When the farmer got home, he thought he should wait until his children grew older to decide what wish was the best. So he hid it and forgot about it after several years.

    A few days ago I got a call from my old college friend whom I haven't seen for a very long time. We talked about all the good old times that we had. Then he started talking about his father. His father was badly ill in hospital and couldn't sleep at night, he often talked to himself and made a lot of noise. My friend was angry about this and shouted at his father to stop talking, but after his father stopped talking, he died a few days later.

    My friend was very sorry for speaking the ill words towards his father, he was so sad that he cried like a baby on the other end of the telephone. He said that from that moment on, he prayed every day, asking God to let his father forgive him.

    Sometimes, we complain our parents, but do we realize that our parents take care of us and always stay around us from the day we were born to our adulthood (成年), imagine how sad our parents will be when they hear an unlucky word of "no" come out from our mouths.

    There are so many unlucky children who have neither fathers nor mothers. My dear friends, we can make promises to ourselves that from now on there will be no bad words that come out from our mouths to our parents, take good care of our parents, even if it takes only a second to stay with them, they will be very happy.

People can always learn from small things. When I was in the {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(第五) grade, I was chosen to be the princess in the school play. For weeks my mother helped me practice my lines. But once on the stage, every word disappeared from my head. Then my teacher asked me to change my role to be a narrator(解说者) for the play. I didn't {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(告诉) my mother what had happened, but she {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(注意) it and asked if I wanted to take a walk in the garden.

It was a {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(温暖的) spring day. We could see dandelions(蒲公英) popping out through the {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(草) in bunches(束). I watched my mother bend down by one of the bunches, "I think I'll {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(挖) up all these weeds(野草)," she said. "From now on, we'll only have roses in this garden."

"But I like dandelions," I said. "All flowers are beautiful, even dandelions!"

My mother looked at me in a {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(严肃的) way. "Yes, every flower gives pleasure in its own way, doesn't it?" I nodded. "And that is true of people, too," she added.

When I realized that she had guessed my {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(痛苦), I started to cry and told her the truth. "But you will be an excellent narrator," she said.

Thanks to my mother's encouragement, I got to know everybody had his or her own {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(价值) in the world. I felt {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(骄傲的) of my role in the play. This was a very useful lesson for me.

Questions to help you: Where are you? Who can you see? What are they doing? How are they feeling?

Have you heard of Scott Joplin? He was a great {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(music).He wrote over one hundred piano pieces and two operas.

Scott Joplin was born around 1868 in Texas.He was {#blank#}2{#/blank#} second of the six children in his family.Joplin's father and mother both loved music.His father played the violin {#blank#}3{#/blank#} his mother sang.Joplin learnt to play the piano from {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(he) music teacher Julius Weiss.Joplin could also play the violin and sing {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(good).

He began performing when he {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(be) young.In 1894, Joplin went to Sedalia, Missouri.There Joplin joined {#blank#}7{#/blank#} band and performed in clubs.Scott Joplin soon {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(become) popular in Sedalia.

To be more popular, Joplin and his friends went to St Louis in 1901.He spent most of his time {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(write) new pieces of music and teaching.He wrote many great works, which made him {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(success).He died on 1 April, 1917.