A lady and her husband in usual clothes walkedinto the president of Harvard's outer office. "We want to see thepresident," the lady said softly.Looking at the usual couple, the secretary said, "He'll be busy all day."" We'll wait," the lady replied.

   For hours, the secretary did nothing for them,hoping that they would finally go away. They didn't. "Maybe if they justsee you for a few minutes, they'll leave," the secretary finallytold the president.

   The presidentlooked down at the couple.The lady told him, "We had a son that hadstudied in Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. But he was accidentally killed.And my husband and I would like to build something for him in Harvard. "Madam," the president saidangrily, "we can't put up a statue forevery person who attended Harvard and died."

   "Oh, no," the lady explainedquickly, "we mean we would givea building to Harvard." The president lookedat their usual clothes, and then said, "A building! Do youknow how much a building costs? It took us over seven and a half million dollarsto build Harvard."

   The lady turned to her husband and said quietly,"Is that all it coststo start a university?" Her husband nodded.Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California wherethey built a university with their name—a memorial（纪念）to a son that Harvardno longer cared about.

   You can easily judge the character of others byhow they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.

    Mr. Smith is from 1 , but he lived in London for ten years. So he can speak German and English. He also likes seeing the world. So far he has 2 to many big cities in the world, such as New York, Rome, Paris and so on.

    A few years ago, he came to China 3 the Great Wall. After that he fell in love with China and 4 to stay there.

    Now he works 5 a teacher in Beijing. He has taught English in a school 6 3 years. Mr. Smith is very humorous,7 he always makes his class interesting.8of his students feel bored in his class. He often encourages his students to speak English in class. The students also teach 9 Chinese. They are getting on 10 with each other.

Long ago in China, there lived five brothers who looked almost the same. The only way to tell them was by their amazing 1 . First Brother was as strong as ten horses. Second Brother could fly in the sky like a bird. Third Brother could 2 an ant sneeze (打喷嚏). Fourth Brother could make his body iron hard. Fifth Brother could make a river when he cried.

One day, Fifth Brother came across a strange 3 . When he was enjoying the delicious apple picked from the garden, 4 three men appeared. They took him to the owner of the garden. The owner was a bad, greedy man. He 5 Fifth Brother in his deepest prison. He said only if Fifth Brother 6 the treasure of Fire Island to him, he could set Fifth Brother free. Fire Island was in the middle of a nearby 7 . A dragon lived there, guarding its treasure. Stealing it seemed like a(n) 8 task, but Fifth Brother agreed to try.

That night, far away, 9 Brother heard Fifth Brother call for help. After listening to his story, Third Brother told other brothers what had happened. They made a 10 to go to help their brother get the treasure.

The next day, the five brothers worked together and with great 11 , they got the treasure from the dragon in the lake. Then Fifth Brother gave it to the owner. 12 the owner would not let Fifth Brother go because he thought Fifth Brother had many powers.

When Fifth Brother knew this, he started to 13 . Soon, his tears tan like a rushing river that swept the owner away.

Once the land dried out, the brothers journeyed home. They were 14 to be together again.

The next day, Fifth Brother said he was going on another walk. His brothers made him 15 that he would never eat in strange gardens again. Fifth Brother laughed and left.

Mr. Black is the best doctor in a hospital. He is quite busy at work during the day. So he1 have a good rest at home. He often goes to bed2 after supper. Mr. Black lives in an apartment. 

3 keep quiet except Jeff. The young man, who moved there months ago,4 downstairs. He likes music and5 a piano last month. He always plays it for hours6 . Mr. Black7 get to sleep.

Although Mr. Black tells Jeff about it8 , the young man forgets it soon.

One day, Jeff was ill. He had to go to the hospital and Mr. Black was just his doctor . " If you stop9 the piano at night, you'll be all right10 !" When the young man left, a nurse asked, "Is playing the piano really bad for his health , Mr. Black?" "No," said Mr. Black, "But it is bad for mine!"

There are some very good inventions which, for one reason or another, don't become popular. These inventions should be better known, even though I think that some of them are crazy. Let's have a look at some of these inventions and see if you agree that they should be more successful. 

The Australians had a great idea to stop people from drinking and driving. The idea was that if a driver wanted to start the car, she or he would have to blow into a bag first. If there was too much alcohol(酒精) in their breath, the car wouldn't start. It sounded like a great idea to me, but people said that they might need to drive the car in an emergency even if they had drunk too much alcohol. Another idea I liked was an invention by a scientist who thought his children watched too much TV. He linked the TV to an exercise bike so that the electricity to power the TV was generated(产出) by the bike. If the children wanted to watch a lot of TV, they had to pedal(踩踏板) very hard. I found another invention on the Internet which was intended (倾向于) to encourage good habits. Believe it or not, this invention was an ashtray(烟灰缸) which spoke to you when you lit a cigarette! The "voice" of the ashtray was activated (启动) by the heat from the cigarette and reminded you how dangerous it is to smoke. 

One of the strangest inventions I have come across is a bicycle which can cross rivers! The idea was that when you came to a river, you could inflate a huge plastic ball all around the bike. You would then get into the ball which would float on the river while you pedaled the bike inside the ball! Why not use a bridge instead? A friend of mine at school once bought a strange pair of football shoes. On the bottom of the shoes there was a rotating pad of studs (转动钉垫). The idea was that you would change direction more quickly if the studs rotated with you. The problem was that every time you stopped you changed direction whether you wanted to or not! I think he wore those shoes twice! One thing I would like is a baseball cap with a built-in radio so you can listen to sport all day with your hands free. While we are on the subject of sport, the Americans invented a kind of robot for sports fans. If you were watching your team on TV on your own, you could press a button and the robot would do "high fives" with you! Fantastic! I wonder if you have any good ideas for inventions like these.