In a faraway kingdom, there was a river. It was the home to many golden swans (天鹅). The swans spent most of their time in the river. Every six months, the swans would leave a golden feather (羽毛) as a paying for using the river. The soldiers of the kingdom would collect the feathers and gave them to the king.

    One day, a homeless bird saw the river. "The water in this river seems so cool and nice. I will make my home here," thought the bird.

    The minute the bird landed near the river, the golden swans noticed her. They came shouting, "This river belongs to us! We pay a golden feather to the king to use this river. You can not live here."

    "I am homeless, brothers. I will also pay. Please give me a place to live in," the bird pleaded (乞求). "How can you pay for it? You do not have golden feathers," said the swans, laughing. They added, "Stop dreaming and leave at once." The poor bird pleaded many times. But the arrogant (傲慢的) swans still drove the bird away.

"I will teach them a lesson!" decided the bird, feeling angry.

    She went to the king and said, "Oh, my king! The swans in your river are rude and unkind. I pleaded for a home but they said that they had paid to live in the river with golden feathers."

    The king was angry with the arrogant swans for having driven the homeless bird away. He ordered his soldiers to bring the swans to his palace. In no time, all the golden swans were brought to the king's palace.

"Do you think our kingdom depends on your golden feathers? You can not decide who lives by the river. Leave the river at once or I will kill you!" shouted the king.

    On hearing the king's words, the swans flew away sadly. The bird built her home near the river and lived there happily. She gave homes to all other birds who came to the river.

    Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, has become the richest man in China with a fortune of 150 billion yuan ($24.4 billion), according to the "Hurun Rich List 2014".

    Jack Ma was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. As a child, Mr. Ma was interested in English. He improved his English by volunteering as a tour guide. Later in his youth, he attended Hangzhou Normal University and graduated in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in English. He later became a teacher in English and International Trade at the Hangzhou Dianzi University. Then he set up his own translation company. In 1999, Mr. Ma founded Alibaba in his apartment in Hangzhou with 17 friends. He pointed out that there had never been an organization that is as large as Alibaba in the world. It welcomes about 100 million shoppers a day.

    Mr. Ma is often called China's Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates. He remains executive chairman of the company, but his decision focuses less on the blind wealth and more on improving the state of the world.

    This is a story about a boy called Sparky. For Sparky， school was all but impossible. He failed every subject in the eighth grade. He got a zero in physics. It made him the worst physics student in the school's history. He didn't do much better in sports. Although he tried to join the school's golf team， he quickly lost the only important match.

    He didn't have friends， either. Other kids didn't care about him. If a classmate said “Hello” to Sparky outside of school， he would feel very surprised.

    Sparky was a loser(失败者） and everyone knew it. So he accepted it.

But one thing was important to Sparky—drawing. He was proud of his artwork. In senior high school， he sent some cartoons to the editors of the yearbook but he was refused. Sparky was hurt. But he didn't lose hope because he believed in his ability and he stuck to drawing. He decided to become a professional artist.

    He wrote a letter to the Walt Disney Studios after graduating from high school. The studio asked him to draw some cartoons on a certain subject. Sparky spent a lot of time on the cartoons. Finally， the reply came from Disney Studios: they aren't like cartoons.

    Was it time to stop drawing?

Sparky didn't think so. He started to put his own life in the cartoons. He created his childhood self—a little boy loser: Charlie Brown. He wasn't good at football.But Charlie Brown would soon become famous worldwide. Sparky， the boy who used to fail in school and who was refused again and again， was Charles Schulz. He created the Peanuts comic strip and the world-famous cartoon characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

    Some years ago on a hot summer day in South Florida a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming lake behind his house.

In a hurry to dive into the cool water, he ran out the back door, leaving behind his shoes, socks, and shirt as he went. He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam towards the middles of the lake, an alligator(鳄鱼) was swimming towards the shore.

    His mother in the house was looking out the window and saw the two as they got closer and closer. In extreme fear, she ran towards the water, yelling to her son as loudly as she could. Hearing her voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his mother. It was too late. Just as he reached her, the alligator reached him.

    From the dock, the mother grabbed her little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched(夺取) his legs. That began an incredible tug-of-war(拔河). The alligator was much stronger than the mother, but the mother was much too passionate. A farmer happened to drive by, took aim and shot the alligator.

    After weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. The newspaper reporter asked if he would show him his scars(伤疤). The boy lifted his legs, then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, "But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. T have them because my mum wouldn't let go."

    Some scars are unsightly and have caused us deep regret. But, some wounds are because love has refused to let go.

Animals United is a 3-D German cartoon by Reinhard Klooss and Holger Tappe. It is  {#blank#}1{#/blank#}story about animals that get together to find water. Along  {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (they) journey, lots of funny things happen, and of course, they have a lot of adventures.

The animals in the grasslands in Africa are waiting  {#blank#}3{#/blank#}the coming flood(洪水).However, this year's flood seems to come later than in other. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(year). The animals become upset and worried.

At the same time, some animals from other places come to the grasslands  {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (look)for peace. However, the situation seems  {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (bad) because the water is becoming less and less.  {#blank#}7{#/blank#} they decide to look for the river.

 {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (final), they find the reason why they don't have enough water to drink. Humans(人)  {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (set) up a dam(水坝) already so that they can have a better life. After  {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(fight) with humans for a long time, they let the world know that animals are in danger.

I like the cartoon story. It tells that humans should know animals have their own world.

I felt coming steps. She was coming to teach all things to me, and to love me. 

I still remember the morning my teacher came, she led me into her room and gave me a doll (玩具娃娃). When I had played with it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word "d-o-l-l". I was at once interested in this finger play and tried to imitate (模仿) it. When I succeeded in making the letters correctly, I was so excited and proud. I did not know I was spelling, even didn't understand everything has a name. 

 Once, as I was playing with my new doll, Miss Sullivan put my old doll onto my leg, spelled"d-o-l-l" and tried to make me understand they were both dolls. Another time, she tried to tell me that"m-u-g" is mug and that"w-a-t-e-r" is water, but I still mixed them up. Hopelessly, she had to teach me from the beginning.  ▲ , so I threw the new doll upon the floor. 

I was quite happy when I felt the pieces of the broken doll at my feet. I was neither sad nor regretful. In my still, dark world, there was no warmth or love. I felt my teacher sweep the pieces aside, and it seemed that my trouble moved away. 

Later, we walked down the path to a well house. Someone was drawing water(抽水) and she placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream flowed over one hand, she spelled the word"w-a-t-e-r" into the other, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still and paid my whole attention on her fingers. Suddenly I knew "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful thing flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, and set it free!

I left the well house and wanted to learn more about the world. As we returned to the house, I remembered the doll I had broken. I picked up the pieces and tried to put them together. Then I cried, for I realised what I had done, and for the first time I felt sad and regretful. 

I learned many new words that day. I do not remember what they all were, but I do know that mother, father, sister and teacher were among them. It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was. While lying in my bed at the end of that day, I hoped for a new day to come for the first time. 

(Adapted from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller)