It takes a lot of skills and hard work to set a world record in pumpkin-carving(雕刻南瓜). Steve Clarke, a sixth-grade teacher from Pennsylvania, is a famous carver(雕刻师). Clarke has set many world records for carving pumpkins quickly. When he competes, he must cut our two eyes, two eyebrows, a nose, a mouth, and two ears as fast as possible. But Clarke knows something else about pumpkin-carving. It's easier to get a record than to keep it.

    He took the title in 2000 when he carved a pumpkin face in 74.8 seconds. That time was 19 seconds faster than what Jerry had set. From then on, Clarke broke his own records five times. In 2006, he set his best time in Florida. His winning time was 24.03 seconds!

    The only problem is that someone finally beat that mark. On October 7, 2010, David set the new record with 20.1 seconds. Clarke was not able to break that record this year, but he has planned to break the record. After Halloween, he will go to local pumpkin farms to practise designs and new skills.

    Clarke is popular because of his super pumpkin-carving skills. In 1999, he carved more than 30 pumpkins at the Halloween party for then vice-president Al Gore.

    A farmer had a cow. He took very good care of this cow and one day when it was ill, he was very worried. He telephoned the vet.

    "What's the problem?" The vet asked him when he arrived.

    "My cow's ill," the farmer said. "I don't know what's the matter with her. She's lying down and won't eat. She's making a strange noise."

    The vet looked over the cow. "She's certainly ill," he said, "and she needs to take some very strong medicine."

    He took a bottle out of his box, put two pills into his hand and said, "Give her these. The pills should make her better."

    "How should I give them to her?" the farmer asked.

    The vet gave him a tube (管子)and said, "Put this tube in her mouth, then put the pills in the tube and blow. That'll make it."

    The next day the vet came to the farm again. The farmer was sitting outside his house and looked more worried.

    "How's your cow?" the vet asked.

    "No change," the farmer said, "and I'm feeling very strange myself."

    "Oh?" the vet said, "Why?"

    "I did what you said," the farmer answered. "I put the tube in the cow's mouth and then put two pills down it."

    "And?" the vet asked.

    "The cow blew first," the farmer said.

    Mr. Jones had a nice Brown coat. He loved it very much, but his wife didn't like it. Because it was old. She often said." Give it to a poor man." But Mr. Jones always answered," No, I like this coat. "

    Then a cigarette（香烟） fell on it and made a hole in it. So Mrs Jones said, "Please don't wear it again." Mr. Jones took it to a small tailor（裁缝） "Please make another coat like this one." The tailor made the coat very carefully. Then he lit （点燃）a cigarette, and made a hole in it in the same place.

    A little boy almost thought of himself as the unluckiest child in the world because he was born with a lame (瘸的) leg. He seldom played with his classmates and always lowered his head without a word.

    One spring, the boy's father gave each child a small tree to plant." Whoever grows the best tree will get a favorite gift," he said to them. Seeing his brothers and sisters watering the trees happily in the garden, he had a terrible idea: he hoped the tree he planted would die soon. So he never cared about it.

    A few days later, he was surprised to find it not only didn't die, but also grew some fresh leaves, and it looked greener and healthier than the others. He got a favorite gift and was told by his father: from the tree he planted, he would become a great botanist (植物学家). One night, looking at the bright moonlight outside the window, he suddenly remembered what his teacher once said: most plants grew at night. Why not go to see the lovely tree? When he came to the garden, he found his father was watering his tree carefully. At that time, he understood: his father had secretly taken good care of his shall tree! He returned to his room with tears (泪水) running out.

    Many years passed. The little boy didn't become a botanist, but he was known as a great president of the United States. His name was Franklin Roosevelt.

One day, a father is doing some work when his son comes and asks,"Dad, can I ask you a question? How much do you make an hour?"

His father gets a bit bored and answers,"Why do you ask such a thing?" The boy says, "I just want to know. Please tell me." His father then says that he makes about $50 an hour.

"Oh, that's too much!"the little boy answers with his head down. Looking up, he says,"Dad, can I please borrow $30?" The father gets angry and says, "That's why you ask about my pay? If you want to borrow some money to buy a boring toy, then you'd better go back to your room. I work hard every day and I do not like such a thing."

 ▲After about an hour or so, the man calms

down. He goes to the boy's room and opens the door."Are you sleeping, son?"he asks. "No, Dad,"the boy answers. "I am thinking—maybe I am too hard on you earlier," his father says. "Here's the $30 you want."

The little boy sits up with a smile. Then, he takes out $20 from his schoolbag, and looks up at his father. He says,"Dad, I have $50 now. Can I buy one hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you."

With no words, the father's eyes turn red.

I'm the mother of a five-year-old boy. "Mommy, where are you going?" Dave asks me when I am putting on my running shoes on a cold Sunday morning. "Go running, " I say. "Why?" He asks me in surprise. He is only five, but it is a question that I can't easily answer. I often ask myself, "Cathy, why are you go running?" I don't know, but something lets me go. So I say to Dave, "Something lets me go. "

 The truth is that just before you run, it's still difficult to explain(解释) to someone why you run. Of course, some people run to lose weight or to be healthy, and these are good reasons. 

 Running is difficult, that' s because you need to persist every day. However, running is also easy to do. It's cheap, and you can do it whenever you want. There are over two million people in England running at least once a week. I'm one of those two million runners. I go running not to lose weight or to be healthy. I run five kilometers every morning. After that I feel great, and it's easy for me to do the other things. After my busy work, I usually go out to run, and I think it is the most wonderful time in a day. I love running and I will continue to run. I hope more people love to run every day.