One day, I saw a boy shop alone at the shop I worked. He chose some school things he wanted and went to the checkout (付款台).

    The young shop assistant (店员) told him he needed to pay $37.60. The boy became very sad and said he only had $20. He took out one thing at a time, and at last he got down to his $20. With eyes full of tears, he asked if he could call his mom to pick him up. When he got through, it seemed that his morn was too busy to pick him up in a minute.

    He tried to stop the tears and walked outside to wait on the chair in front of the shop. This was too much for the young assistant. She kept looking outside to see if the boy was all right. Then she said, "I wish I could pay for the rest (剩余部分) of his  things." One of the other girls said she had a few  dollars. Then two others said they could help, too.

    These four young girls pooled their money and found they had more than enough to pay for the boy s things. Then they chose more school things, and gave them all to the boy. The boy laughed happily. His morn arrived much later, but he didn't just run to the car; he ran back into the shop and called out, "Thank you!"

    I was so proud (骄傲的) of my team that day. They did something wonderful for that boy and also found the pleasure (快乐) of giving.

    I can't remember when I started collecting rubbish. It might be when I got tired of(厌倦) seeing rubbish in the forest near my home. I used to love going there to play with my dog. But one day there was so much rubbish there that I became very unhappy.

    I decided I had to clean up the forest. I made my first trip to clean the forest that afternoon. I took a big black rubbish bag with me. Ten minutes after starting picking up rubbish, my bag was full! It had cans, bottles, broken glass and newspapers in it.

    I go to the forest four times a year to pick up rubbish. I often stay there for three hours. After each trip, I look at all the rubbish. If any of it is recyclable, I will keep it. It makes me feel great to do something for the environment. I will keep picking up rubbish until people stop dropping it.

    A jobless man wanted very much to have the position of "office boy" at Microsoft. The HR manager interviewed him and then watched him cleaning the floor as a test. "You have passed the test," he said. "Give me your e-mail address and I'll send you the form to fill in and the date when you may start." The man answered, "But I don't have a computer, neither an e-mail." "I'm sorry," said the HR manager. "If you don't have an e-mail, that means you are not living. And anyone who isn't living cannot have the job."

    The man left with no hope at all. He didn't know what to do, with only 10 dollars in his pocket. He thought and thought. Then he went to the supermarket and bought 10 kilos of tomatoes. He sold the tomatoes from door to door. In less than two hours, he had 20 dollars. He repeated the operation three times, and returned home with 60 dollars. The man came to know that he could make money in this way, and started to go early every day, and returned home late. Shortly, he bought a cart, then a truck, then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles (运货车队). Five years later, the man was one of the biggest food retailers (零售商) in the US.

    One day, one of his friends asked him for his e-mail. He said, "I haven't got one." His friend couldn't believe his ears. "Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an e-mail?" The man thought for a while and answered, "Yes, I'd be an office boy at Microsoft!"

Now more than one billion people in China speak putonghua, or Mandarin, as their first language. At the same time, dongbeihua, or northeast dialect (方言), has become more popular. The dialect makes even the most serious daily conversations sound fun.

Ms Ann, a Chinese language teacher, opened a class to teach middle school students dongbeihua in Heilongjiang Province. "I just hope to help the students learn more about the culture of their home town," said Ms Ann.

"It is important to inherit (继承) the northeast dialect in a new form,"she said. "For most students, they are speaking Mandarin or even English to adapt(适应) to society. They don't pay more attention to the dialect or the culture behind it. That's a pity. They need to pass it on."

Now there are over thirty students in her class. At first, some students believed it would not be difficult for the northeasterners to speak dongbeihua well. However, with the deepening of the class, the students could only speak some easy words and knew little about the meaning behind them. To increase students' interest, Ms Ann has been trying different ways. For example, she chose video clips from interesting cartoons for her students to dub (配音) them into dongbeihua.

Both Mandarin and dialect are the carriers (载体) of Chinese language and culture. Learning the dialect is learning our local culture and history.

Miguel finally sees Dad. He's just back from a working trip. "How's your chess game, Miguel?"

"Mrs. Lambert says I'm the best chess player in the school! She says you teach me well."

"We'll play after dinner," Dad says.

At night, Miguel wants to help Dad clean out his suitcase (手提箱). "Wait, Miguel. I'll take my next trip next morning." "Oh, Dad!" Miguel cries. "But you just got here!" Miguel eyes the suitcase. When he was little, he got into the suitcase, thinking Dad could take him to work as well. Sometimes Dad traveled really far and it was day there when it was night for Miguel. They couldn't even talk by phone.

"I'll miss you," Dad says. He then pets a box from his suitcase and hands it to Miguel.

Miguel opens it. A beautiful chess set!

"Thank you, Dad!" Miguel cries. "It's so nice!"

It's an exciting game of chess. When Miguel's bedtime comes, it's still not over. "Keep it. We'll continue the game when we meet again, OK?" says Dad. 

Miguel carefully takes the chessboard to his bedroom. He looks at it, wishing the game could continue.

"Oh, that'll be a great idea!"

The next morning, when Miguel wakes up, Dad's gone. After studying the chess board for a minute, Miguel calls Dad and leaves a message: "Dad, it's me…"

I didn't like team(团队) sports When I started university(大学), I 1 to try kung fu So I joined 2 kung fu club The people in the club are3 I was happy to join it In the first year most of4 were new students I always went to the club twice a week5 It wasn't a team sport, so I didn't feel sorry for not being very good I wouldn't influence(影响) others 6 exercising, my body and mind got better7 , in the last year of university I was too busy to do kung fu most of the time.

 8 I moved to Italy(意大利) this year, I found a great club The club was more interesting than the one at my university.

I think that everyone should try doing sports I feel good when I 9 sports I don't think a lot of people enjoy basketball at school but maybe they10 enjoy yoga or volleyball. So let's do sports now!