It was a very hot day in the middle of summer, and there were no trees along the street. Mr. Read closed his shop at half past four. His bike didn't work. So he went out into the street and began walking to the bus stop. He was very fat. The sun was high up in the sky, and soon Mr. Read felt very hot.

    A boy came out of another shop in the street and followed Mr. Read. He stayed very near him all the time, and he kicked Mr. Read's shoes some times. Mr. Read looked at him angrily each time.

    After the fourth time, Mr. Read stopped, turned around and said to the small boy, “What are you doing? Stop following me like that! You're going to hurt my feet.”

    “I'm sorry, but don't stop me, please!” the boy said. “It's very hot today and there aren't any trees in the street!”

    Who were your best friends five years ago? Is there anyone you would really like to see again? In 1999, Julie Pankhurst, a computer programmer from London, was thinking about her past-and especially the people she used to go to school with.

    Julie looked on the Internet for a website to help her find her old school friends. But there was nothing. So Julie and her husband, Steve, started their own website. They called it Friends Reunited.

    The site grew slowly at first, but soon they received their first "thank you" email. The man wrote, "Thank you so much. Using your website, I found an old friend from thirty years ago！"Julie and Steve were very excited about this and continued to improve their website. By the end of 2000, there were 3,000 members.

    The next year was really hard work for the couple.

    In January, a national radio station mentioned their website. Their membership doubled in one week! People were talking about the website all over the country, and it became a full-time job for Julie and Steve. In a year, they had four million members!

    Now, over fifteen million people in lots of different countries use Friends Reunited to find old school friends, work colleagues and neighbors. Some of the stories which people tell Julie and Steve are amazing. For example, David Webster lost his memory in a car crash. He used the website to find old school friends, and they helped him remember his past.

    Julie's simple idea gave us a national obsession（痴迷）-getting in touch with old friends and hearing their news. And it made her and Steve very rich in 2005, they sold Friends Reunited for ￡120 million!

    When our son Bradley was ten, the new bicycle he had received earlier that year was stolen. Owning a bicycle was a big deal to our children when they were little. They spent hours and hours, day after day, on their bicycles, riding up and down the footpath, and at the front of the house. We also rode together as a family a lot. Bicycling was a great way to get the kids out of the house and into the fresh air without spending any money.

    Bradley had discovered that his bicycle had been stolen from our backyard in Campbell town, South Australia, when he and his sister went outside for a morning ride. He couldn't believe that someone would do this.

    He got a large piece of cardboard, painted a sign begging for the bicycle to be returned, and tied the sign to the letterbox. The following morning, when I went out to collect the mail, I found a white envelope with the magical words," Buy yourself a new bicycle". There was a $100 banknote inside.

    We were very touched that someone had the heart to do this. We've never been able to thank the person but we suspect（猜想）that it may have been one of our wonderful neighbors. Bradley painted a big"             !" on the sign and we left it outside for a couple of weeks afterwards, hoping the kind stranger would drive down our street.

    A delighted Bradley was able to buy a new bicycle. As the years went on, the bicycles became bigger and more expensive but remained just as important for those family bicycle rides. Now Bradley is 25. Sometimes I miss the days when receiving a bicycle was the best thing in the world to them.

    All these years later we are still thankful for the stranger's kindness. We were a young family with three little children and it meant a lot to us. We still talk about it and, even now, wonder who the kind stranger was.

    Your English teacher has introduced a play to your class. Read the play.

    Characters: Benny, student, 14 years old

    Peter, students, 15 years old

    Susie, student, 14 years old

    Grace, student, 14 years old

    Time: One Sunday afternoon in autumn

    Place: Sunny Park

    (The four teenagers have just finished the picnic. They are tidying up.)

Benny: Wow! That was a great picnic. I'm so full that I can hardly move.

Grace: That's no excuse for not tidying up, Benny. Come over here and help me pack up the leftover food. Peter, can you put out the fire, please? And clean up the plate.

Peter: (Speaking unhappily to himself) How can I always get the dirty and difficult jobs?

    It's not fair.

    (Peter throws a bit of water on the fire. Then he picks up the ashes (灰烬) with an old newspaper and wants to throw them into the long grass. )

Susie: (Sounding surprised) What are you doing, Peter? That's d…

Peter: Whoops…the newspaper has caught fire.

Susie: And the grass… Benny, Grace, help! Help!

    (Benny and Grace come over quickly. They help put out the fire completely.)

Peter: Oh, no. What have I done?

Grace: You know that we should do everything carefully, don't you?

Peter: (With his head in his hands) Yes. What have I done? What have I done?

    My father is tall and has short, gray(灰白的) hair. He wears glasses with heavy, black frames（框架）. But I just see a picture of him from 1968. What a surprise! In the picture, he's 15 years old. He's short and he has glasses with small, round frames. He has long, yellow hair and it's really straight. He's wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt with the word "Love". I'm 15 years old now. I'm medium height and I have short hair. My hair isn't yellow, it's blue. My dad thinks it's strange(奇怪的), but my friends think it's great. I wear glasses, but my glasses have bright red frames. They're so cool! I have an earring(耳环) in one ear, too. Dad really can't understand(明白) that, I never wear blue jeans. I like big, baggy(松的) pants and long T-shirts. Most of my T-shirts have pictures of my favorite rock bands(摇滚乐队) on them.