Mary was ill yesterday. She went to see a doctor.

    "Doctor, I'm not feeling 1 at the moment," she said. "Every time I do my homework at night, I feel 2. If I walk to school, I have to sit down and 3  for ten minutes."

    The doctor looked 4 Mary carefully. At last he said, "5 serious, but I'm afraid you are 6 too much."

    "I don't understand. What do you mean?" asked Mary. "I mean you eat too much 7 ,"said the doctor.

    "Oh! You mean I'm too 8. That's a problem," said Mary. "What should I do if I don't want to be heavy?"

    "The answer is easy," said the doctor. "If you want to be thinner and healthier, you 9 eat a lot of food and you also should take more 10."

Last Tuesday I took my two daughters, aged four and five, to town by1. It began to rain hard so I decided I would leave the children in the car before I went quickly into a shop. I2 the girls not to touch anything and told them I would be3 within a few minutes. Then I 4 all the doors and 5 them happily looking out of the window.

I returned to the car in less than five minutes but the girls had disappeared! I could hardly believe my eyes. The car doors were6 locked, the windows 7 shut and on the back seat were only two coats. I was8 and ran to the comer of the street where there was no9 of them. I rushed up to an10 lady nearby and asked 11 she had seen two small girls but she said" No". Feeling sick with fear, I sat on the driver's seat, and. 12to stop trembling (颤抖). Suddenly, I heard a merry laugh behind me. I got out of the car, ran round to open the boot (汽车后备箱) and there inside were two very red-faced and. 13 children. They had obviously pulled out the back seat, 14 behind it and then they were unable to push the seat forward again. With tears in my15, I leaned forward and pulled their ears.

Before Father's Day，I found my father was unhappy because he lost his job. I decided to cheer him up by buying him a special 1 gift. 

One day after school，I 2 to a gift shop. I told the shopkeeper that I was looking for a Father's Day present. 

"Do you think he'd like a 3 ? "she asked. "I think he might，"I told her. She4 a watch and I told her that he would like it. 

"How much money do you have? "she asked. 

"5 dollars，"I replied. 

"You're so lucky!" she told me. "It's only 11. You still have 1 for the6 . " She packed the watch. I paid for it and rode off home with the gift under my arm. 

When my father opened the gift，he asked 7 ，"Where did you get it? "

"I bought it from a gift shop. It cost me ＄11，"I said. My father was surprised. 

Many years later，I did learn that the watch cost several hundred dollars，so I really appreciated（感激）8 was to me. And I always felt 9 because I never had chance to thank her. 

"What really surprised me to this day. . . my daughter，"my father said，"letting you have the watch for 11 dollars was 10 enough. But the fact that she let you leave the store with a dollar for the card was a touch of kindness. I'll never forget it. "

Once there were four beggars (乞丐). One day, they met at an old temple at night. They were very upset because none of them had much to eat.

"I only got this piece of meat today." the first said. "I almost got nothing," the second said, "I just picked up a potato outside the vegetable store during the day." The third said that all he had was a small bottle of salt. The fourth beggar had not done much better, "I only got some old beans, but they aren't very nice!" 

As they sat around the fire, the beggar with only a bottle of salt had a great idea "Let's put all our things together and boil them. In this way, we can make a tasty dish and share it." They all agreed. However, the first beggar thought, "I don't want to share. I'll just pretend to throw my meat into the pot. They'll never know and I'll eat my meat alone later." So he pretended to put the meat into the pot. And at the same time the other beggars had similar ideas to him. At that time, the temple was too dark for the beggars to see what the others were doing.

Finally, one of them suggested that the dish should be ready and, in turn, each of them helped himself to it. They drank the hot water in silence, learning that selfishness (自私) doesn't taste all that good.

People often ask me for suggestions about how to learn English. As for it, everyone is different. I'll share some of my experience. I once took a school year English course in Wuhan University, but I mostly learned English on my own.

One thing I can tell you is that, once you've started learning, you should try to think in English as much as you can. If you see something when you' re riding your bike or walking down the street, just think about, " How would I say them in English?" At first, it might be with simple words or phrases, but later you should think about longer phrases and sentences. Now I'm in America, and for most of the time, I would think in English and speak it directly. It's amazing how much this helps.

For several years after I started learning, I was often afraid of talking with others in English because I didn't want to make mistakes. Finally, I got it over. And while traveling in America, I'd try to hang out with friends who couldn't speak Chinese, so that I'd have no choice but to speak English. And I also decided that if I said something stupid and other people laughed at me, then so be it. After that, my English started improving much more quickly.

A poor farmer had a friend. He was famous (有名的) for the wonderful apple trees he grew.

One day, his friend gave the farmer a young apple tree and told him to plant it. The farmer was happy with the gift, but he did not know where to plant it.

He was afraid that if he planted the tree near the road, someone would steal (偷) the fruit. If he planted he tree in one of his fields, his neighbours (邻居) would come at night and steal some of the apples. If he planted the tree near his house, his children would take the fruit. At last, he planted the tree in his wood. But without sunlight and good soil (土壤), the tree died.

Later the friend asked the farmer why he planted the tree in such a poor place. "What is the difference?" the farmer said angrily and then told what he had thought.

"Yes," said the friend, "but at least someone could have enjoyed the fruit. Now no one can enjoy the fruit. And the apple tree is dead.