Boom! A clap of thunder (一声霹雳) made the old house shake. Ramon stayed under his bed. A flash of lightning (一道闪电) lit up the room."I hate this house,"Ramon thought. It was his first night in his new home.

    The house had belonged to his grandma. It was very, very old. It looked really scary at night. The trees outside his windows looked like monsters (怪物) in the dark. Their branches (树枝) looked like long arms. They waved when the wind blew. The storm made everything even scarier. Ramon hated storms, and it seemed worse in the old house.

    Later the thunder became quieter. Ramon climbed into bed and fell asleep. When he woke up, the sun was shining through his windows. Ramon climbed out of bed.

    The trees outside didn't look like monsters anymore. The branches had nice green leaves growing on them. Ramon could see a bird sitting on one of the branches. It was singing a happy song. The yard looked pretty nice in the daylight. A stream (溪) ran across the yard. A swing hung from one of the trees. Many flowers grew next to the  tree.  Butterflies  flew  around  the flowers.

    "Maybe living here won't be so bad after all," Ramon thought.

    A young man from a village called Nawalapitiya married a young woman from Maiyuwa, a small village. They lived with the man's big family—his parents, his brothers, their wives and children. The family kept an elephant, in which the woman soon took a great interest. Every day she fed it with fruit and sugar.

    Three months later, having quarreled with her husband, the woman went back to her parents' home. Soon the elephant refused to eat and work. It appeared to be ill and heartbroken. One morning after several weeks the animal disappeared from the house.

    It went to the woman's home. On seeing her, the elephant waved its trunk and touched her with it. The young woman was so moved by the act of the animal. So she went back to her husband's home.

Once upon a time，in a forest far away，there lived a group of animals. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}them were a fox，a  rabbit and a panda. They were good friends and spent most of their time together. 

One day，they{#blank#}2{#/blank#}to build a house for themselves. The fox advised them to build it in the hole of a tree so that they could{#blank#}3{#/blank#}warm and clean on rainy days. The rabbit advised them to build it near the middle of the forest. It would be{#blank#}4{#/blank#}for them to hide from danger. The panda advised them to build it near the river. Then，they could drink water{#blank#}5{#/blank#}they want. 

The animals were talking for hours. {#blank#}6{#/blank#}to agree on the best location for their house. As they{#blank#}7{#/blank#}，a wise old bird flew down to them and asked them what the position was. 

The animals explained their{#blank#}8{#/blank#}to the bird and the bird listened carefully. After thinking for a few moments，the bird said. "My dear friends，you all have your own points，but you are forgetting one important thing. You are a team，and as a team，you must work together to solve this problem. "

The bird advised them to build their house in a place that was in a hole in a tree，that was in the middle of the forest and{#blank#}9{#/blank#}to the river. 

The animals listened to the bird's advice and worked together to build their house in a place that{#blank#}10{#/blank#}all their needs. From that day on，they worked as a team and never argued again. 

I was lonely when I was in high school because I went to a new school far away from my home. In the beginning, some naughty students often laughed at me because of my poor English, so I always tried to avoid them.

Soon I went to university. I was a poor student and I only had $20 for two weeks. I had to hide the truth carefully because I was afraid to be laughed at again. I ate little every day. One day, Joe, a classmate of mine, invited me to help him cook and then shared the completed dishes with him. Since I was not familiar（熟悉）with him, I refused him at first. But after some consideration, I decided to go. I used to cook at home, and I thought I could do it, but I was still full of worry. If he didn't like my cooking, what should I do? Later, it turned out to be a success. Then Joe wished me to make it a daily routine. It went like this. He did the shopping and I did the cooking. And then I stayed to have dinner with him.

It was not until graduation that I knew the whole story. Joe discovered my situation two years ago. In order not to hurt my pride, he came up with this idea just to make it much easier for me. When I cooked the last meal for him, I ordered a big cake and said to him with tears, "My dear friend, you and your help really brighten my college life. I'll never forget that."

Hello!My name is Kylie Brown.I'm eight years old.I'm from London，England.I love animals very much.There is a cat，a bird and a duck in my home.

The cat's name is Kopa.He is brown and he is three.He likes sleeping.Polly is my bird.She is green.She likes singing.And what is my favourite animal？It's the duck.His name is Snow.He is white and he likes swimming.

I think Snow loves me too.He follows（跟随）me all the time when I'm at home.Every morning，he stands on the chair and wakes me up（叫醒）

Max and Holly sat beside each other in a classroom. Their teacher Miss Carr stood at the front of the classroom and looked at them with a strange stare. "Silence!" Miss Carr shouted. "You're only allowed to speak if you want to say "I'd like to do extra hard MATH", understand? "

Then the bell rang for lunchtime and everyone jumped to their feet. "Sit down!" shouted Miss Carr. Everyone did as they were told. Miss Carr held up some sheets of paper. "These are new school rules, written by our wonderful new headteacher, Mr. Roberts, " she said. "You must do exactly as they say from this moment on. I want everyone to take a copy for your parents."

"Look at this!" Max said, reading the first line. "Rule one: No pupil will be allowed to go out at playtime unless they have passed a daily spelling test." Max and Holly then continued to look at the other new school rules. 

"Rule two: We're not supposed to be in here at lunchtime."

"Rule three: Pupils must eat cabbage stew or sprout surprise for lunch."

"Rule four: All P. E. will now take place outdoors—no matter what the weather is."

…

"Something's wrong." said Holly, "Things have been strange ever since Mr. Roberts took over as our head teacher last week. We need to find out what's going on."

Then Max and Holly walked to the teachers' office and stepped inside, surprised to find that many teachers have been tied up in the room! From their words, Max and Holly knew that the teacher in the classroom just now was just a robot clone (克隆) and she was not real Miss Carr, even the new headmaster! Max and Holly then succeeded in freeing all the teachers trapped. 

"We'll deal with those rotten robots!" said one of the teachers, as they ran out of the room. 

"How can I ever thank you, Max?" asked the real Miss Carr. 

"How about no homework for the rest of the school year."

Finally, Max and Holly realized that the school rules made by their real headmaster were so nice.