A long time ago，there was a king in India．The king's 1 game was chess．

    One day，a wise old man 2 to the palace and the king challenged him to 3 game．The king promised the old man．"You can4 any prize if you win the game．"

    The old man5 ， "If I win the game，I'd like one grain of6for the first square of the chessboard，two for the second，four for the 7 ， and then double the amount for each of the 8of the squares．"

    "Is that all？"asked the king，"Wouldn't you like gold or silver9？"

    "No，just rice．"replied the old man．

    The king and the old man played the game 10  a long time．Finally，the old man won．11  the king ordered his men to collect a bag of rice．He12  one grain on the first square，two on the second，and so on．The king quickly realized the13—even with all the rice in the country，he would14  not have enough rice to put on all the 15 ．

    Mr. Young has a big shop in the center of the city. He tells all his employees（雇员） to be1 to the buyers and he gets a lot of2. One day an old woman went to the shop to3a silk blouse. When she came out of the shop with the blouse, she 4her wallet in it. A girl picked it up and5there were nearly five hundred dollars in it. She looked around and 6 saw it. She put it into her pocket 7. Soon the old woman came back to look for it, of course she failed. That evening Mr. Young  8about it. He was very 9 and sent the girl away. Then he decided to employ an honest man to take her10. Several young men came, but 11 of them could satisfy him.

    This morning a young man came to his 12. He asked, "Do you smoke, sir?" "No, sir," answered the young man.

    "Do you 13?" "No, sir."

    Mr. Young asked him the other questions, and the young man's 14 satisfied him. Before he employed him, he asked him 15 question, "You have no shortcoming(缺点), do you?" "No, I don't, sir. " said the young man. "I only like telling lies.”

    Hello! I'm John Brown. I'm an English 1, my Chinese name is wang Pen.2to meet you. I have a good family. There are five people in my3. My parents are teachers, they work(工作) 4China. My sister is 14, my brother is 15, I'm 13, we5 go to the same school. Look! This is my room. You can6my books and tape player in the bookcase. My schoolbag is on the7, my computer is on the desk, too. Next to the computer is a8. Two boys are in the photo. Do you know9the boys are? Well,10are my cousins, Bob and Tim.

    A businessman, who was very fond of music, was asked by a poor woman to give her some help. Her husband, a great1, who was talented in music, had died, and left her very poor indeed.

    The businessman saw that the woman and her2, who was with her, were in great sadness. He looked with pity into their pale faces, and3that their sad story was true.

    "How much do you want, my good woman?" said the businessman.

    "4dollars will save us, " said the poor woman. With some hesitation（迟疑）. The businessman sat down at his desk, took a piece of paper, wrote a few lines on5, and gave it to the woman with the words," Take it to the6you see on the other side of the street."

    The grateful woman and her daughter, without stopping to read the note, ran to the bank 7. The banker at once counted out8 dollars instead of five. And then he passed them to the woman.

    She was9 when she saw so much money. "Sir, there is a mistake here," she said. "You have given me fifty dollars,10I asked for only five."

    The banker11the note once more, and said, "The check calls for fifty dollars."

    "It is a mistake-indeed it is," said the woman.

    The banker then asked her to wait for a few12, while he went to see the businessman who gave her the13.

    "Yes," said the businessman, since he had heard the banker's story," I did make a14.I wrote fifty instead of five hundred. Give the poor woman five hundred dollars, because she is such a(an)15woman that she should get even more." At that time, the banker understood why the woman could get much more than she asked for.

    We were going to play against a team from a country school. They didn't come until the game time arrived. They looked1than we had thought. They were wearing dirty blue jeans(牛仔裤)and looked like farm boys. We even thought that they had never seen a basketball before.

    We all sat down. We felt we didn't 2any practice against a team like that.

    It was already so late that no3could be given to them for a warm-up(热身，准备活动). The game began.

    One of our boys 4the ball and he shot a long pass to our forward. From out of nowhere a boy in a dirty T-shirt5the pass and with a beautiful form(姿势)he shot and got two points.

    They6us. Then they got another7of points in a minute.

    Soon it was all over. The country team8us. We certainly learned that even though a team is good, there is usually another9a little better. But the important lesson learned was: One can't tell a man, or a team, by the10.