At the age of nineteen, Xiliu married Gao Sheng, who had just lost his wife and had a son named Changfu. A year later Xiliu gave birth to a boy Changhu. Before long, Gao Sheng died of illness.

Seeing Changfu didn't often go to school, Xiliu sent him to work with the poor boys as punishment. Changfu could not stand and wanted to return to school. Xiliu refused, and Changfu, like a beggar (乞丐)， huddled(蜷缩) himself up with cold. Xiliu said to Changfu, "If you are ready to take a beating of 100 strokes, I'll take you back." Changfu decided that he would take the beating. Aware of Changfu's regrets for his mistakes, Xiliu did not beat him and asked him to continue his studies.

      Changhu was a slow-minded child, so Xiliu asked him to quit school and work in the fields.

      But Changhu was so lazy that he often ran away from work. Xiliu then asked him to do business, but he used up all his money in gambling(赌博)． At last, Xiliu sent him to Luoyang to sell goods, where he was put into prison for using fake (假的) silver. In prison he suffered a lot. Xiliu told Changfu, "I gave the fake silver to your brother on purpose, intending to make him suffer. Now you go and get him out." Back home, Changhu knelt before his mother and finally gave up bad and returned to good.

B

    On August 21st, 2016, our Chinese National Women's Volleyball Team won the gold medal at 2016 Rio Olympics, 12 years after the last gold medal. All of Chinese were so excited. Thanks to the great coach named Lang Ping whom Chinese people are so proud of. Lang Ping was born in Tianjin. She was once a volleyball player of the Chinese National Volleyball Team. They won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Lang was seen as one of the most respected  people in modern Chinese sports history. Because of her excellent skills and main role in the success of the Chinese Women's Volleyball Team in the 1980s, she is known as the "Iron Hammer ".

    In 1995, Lang as a coach led the national team and guided them to win the silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. But in 2005, she became coach of the USA's women's team. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Lang led the Americans to play against Chinese National Team. In 2013, Lang became coach of China again. It could be difficult to train for the Rio Olympics. In order to get ready for it, she tried her best to teach girls skills, and she is also friendly, just like girls' mother. They get on well with each other and work together. She encouraged them all the time and told them "never give up". In fact, everyone had a strong will for their dream. Now the dream really came true.

    Their success showed the world about their great spirit. Though the success did not come easily, they can make it. Lang is regarded as the most amazing star all the time.

    John was well known in his village as a mean(吝啬) man. One day, he said to a poor hungry boy, "I will give you three meals and twenty-five pence if you are willing to do a day's work for me." The boy agreed. But in fact, he was more interested in the meals than the money.

    "You can have breakfast," said John, "and then you can start work." After John gave the boy a very small breakfast, he said, "Now you can have your lunch. This will save us a lot of time." The boy agreed and had a poor lunch. Then John said, "What about having dinner now?"

    When the boy finished his dinner, John looked very pleased and said, "Now you can do a long day's work." "Sorry," said the boy as he stood up to leave John's house, "I never work after dinner."

    Thomas Alva Edison is one of the greatest inventors of all times. One of his most famous achievements is the electric light. He tried thousands of times to make a long lasting light bulb (灯泡). Although the light bulb is not his invention, he is the only one to have made such a successful light bulb. Many people remember him for the invention of the electric light. He held a lot of patents (专利权) worldwide. Many of them were approved (批准) in USA.

    We can find his inventions in many fields. In fact, many of the advanced inventions were based on his ideas. He invented a phonograph (留声机), a film picture camera, a ticket recorder and so on.

    Edison was not a good student at school. But he loved to do new experiments. When he was still a child, he built his first lab to perform his experiments.

    An amazing story of Edison's childhood is that he almost made his servant die. Edison used to think that birds ate insects and these insects might make them fly. So, he collected these insects and blended them to make juice. He then let his servant drink the juice. After drinking the juice, the girl lost her sense. But luckily, she was saved.

    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.

    Mr. King lives in a city. He has some shops and makes a lot of money. His son, Mike, studies at a middle school. The boy likes everything but he doesn't like studying. He doesn't listen to his teachers in class and he never finishes his homework on time. He always plays football when he has any free time. He can never pass(通过) the exams.

    Mr. King is busy with his trade that he has little time to stay at home. He never cares about his son's studies, so he doesn't know how he is doing.

    One day Miss Read, Mike's teacher, calls Mr. King. On the telephone she tells him all about the boy's studies. She wants him to try to help his son at home. When the man hears this, he doesn't feel very happy.

    In the afternoon, when his son comes back from school, Mr. King gives him a good telling-off(责罚), but soon feels sorry for it when he sees Mike crying in the bedroom. The next morning, Before Mike goes to school, he says to him, "Study hard and I'll buy you a car when you pass the exam next year."

    Another term is over. Mike doesn't pass the exam once more. Mr. King looks at the grades on the school report for a few minutes. Then he asks his son," You don't pass the exam again, Mike. What did you do at school this term?" "I learned how to drive a car, dad" answers the boy.