Paul: Hi, Bill! Have a look atmy house in the country. I'm sure you can enjoy yourself.

Bill: I'd love to.But I hear that the food is not delicious, and your house is not good. Is it so?

Paul: No, that's not true. Go and see!

Then Bill goes to the countryside with Paul.

Bill: Why do you live in a hole in the field? You should come and live in the city. You would live in a nice house made of stone. You would have better food to eat. You must come and see me at my house in the city.

Paul: Thanks! Maybe you are right. I'll visit your house one day.

Several days later Paul goes to Bill's house in the city. The house is big and beautiful. They are sitting in the sitting-room, having a big dinner comfortably. Suddenly, there a great noise.

Bill: Run! Run! The cat is coming!

Paul: Oh, no! It's terrible! Both the house and the food are nice, but I do not like living in the city. I enjoy living in my hole in the field, for it is nice to be poor but happy than to be rich but afraid.

    Jack is in Grade Three now. He is a polite boy and studies hard. He is good at his lessons and can answer all the questions in class. His teachers and classmates like him except Henry. They're deskmates. Henry likes playing and often fails the exams. His father is a dentist (牙医) and makes a lot of money. The boy thinks he lives in the richest family in the town. So he looks down upon (瞧不起) others and laughs at them. Of course he has few friends.

    Jack is busy all the time. His father is a shoemaker. The man works hard but he still can't buy enough food for the family. He tells Jack to help him after school, so Jack has to do all his homework at school.

    One summer afternoon, on his way home, Jack met his sister Lily.

    The girl carried a heavy box in her arms without wearing shoes. Jack carried it for her. Henry saw them and said to Jack, "You father is a shoemaker, but your sister has no shoes!"

    "I don't think it's strange," replied Jack. "Your father is dentist, but your little sister has no teeth!"

    Lost Underground is a story about four school children who went on a trip to some caves. These caves were very large and people could go into them only with a guide. However, four children decided to explore on their own. They went in the caves with a group, but left the group and walked down the tunnel. They thought it would be fun to explore the cave alone.

    Soon they came to a hole in the wall. They climbed through the hole into another part of the cave. Then they decided to turn back, but they could not remember the way. They were lost in the caves. When the guide led the other children out of the caves, he counted them. He discovered that there were four children missing. He had to go back into the caves to try to find the missing children.

    The children who were lost moved deeper into the caves. The deeper they went, the more lost they became. They were frightened. They started shouting for help, but the guide didn't hear them. How dangerous!

    Soon they came to an underground river. They guessed that the river must flow out of the caves. The water was very cold and deep, but the children kept on swimming. For a long time, they swam in darkness, then they saw a light ahead of them. The river was flowing out of the caves into a big river and the children were able to leave the caves. They climbed out of the river onto the riverbank. They saw the bus with the other children in the distance.

    Thirty years ago I worked in a company. My job was to sell the cars. I was young and strong and I had been to most parts of the world and I spent one fifth of my time in the trains or planes. I liked such a life and sometimes I called myself "traveler".

    But one day I got into trouble. It was a cold morning. It blew heavily and the ground was covered with thick snow outside. I was still in bed though it was nine. I finished a long journey the day before and decided to have a good rest. Suddenly the telephone rang and my manager told me to fly to New York to take part in an important meeting. I had to get up and after a quick breakfast I hurried to the airport. The taxi went slowly and I missed the first flight. I had to take the next one. It meant I would wait for nearly five hours in the waiting-room. But five hours later a passenger said the information showed there was a bomb(炸弹) in our plane and the policemen were looking for it. And another five hours passed and most passengers lost their patience before we were allowed to get on the plane. At the entrance each passenger and their baggage(行李) had to be examined. A young man who seemed a soldier shouted at the policemen at the entrance, "If I had a gun in my baggage, I would shoot you two hours ago!"

After the winter vacation, I had to move to a new city with my parents. On the first day to my new school, it was cold and 1 . I was walking alone slowly 2 worrying about something in my new school. It was early and there weren't many people on the road. 3 , a girl who was riding a bike in the snow fell down. She was 4 hard to stand up but fell again. 5 thinking, I went over to help her quickly. She said "thank you" with a 6 and then left. Her smile warmed me a lot. 

After I got to school, the teacher led me to the classroom and 7 me to the class. Then he asked me to 8 down beside a girl. I felt so 9 that I didn't dare (敢) to look at her. Soon the first class, English, started. Their textbooks were 10 from those in my old school. As I was 11 what to do, an English book appeared in front of me. "Let's 12 it," the girl beside me said. "Hi, I'm Carrie." I looked up. To 13 surprise, it was the girl I helped this morning. From 14 on, we became good friends. 

From that I learned: to help 15 is actually to help ourselves!