Little Tommy was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything —tutors (家庭教师), cards, special learning centers—in short, everything they could think of. Finally they took Tommy to a catholic (天主教的) school.

    After the first day, little Tommy came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn't kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread (铺开) out all over the room and little Tommy was hard at work. His mother was surprised. She called him down to dinner and as soon as he finished eating, he went back to his room, without a word. In no time he was back hitting the books as hard as before. This went on for some time, day after day while the mother tried to understand what was happening.

    Finally, little Tommy brought home his report card. He quietly put it on the table and went up to his room and hit the books. His mom looked at it and to her surprise, little Tommy got an A in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity (好奇心). She went to his room and asked, “Son, what was it? Was it the nuns (修女)?”Little Tommy looked at her and shook his head, “No. ”“Well then,” she asked again. “WHAT was it?”

    Little Tommy looked at her and said, “Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that man nailed (钉) to the plus sign (加号), I knew they weren't joking. ”

    Some people have a very poor sense of direction. Unluckily，I am one of them. I have visited a place many times but I may still get lost there the next time.

    When I was a little girl，I never dared to ask strangers the way. And so I used to walk round in circles and hope that by chance I would get to the place I was going to.

    Now，I am  no longer too shy to ask people for directions, but I often receive helpless or even wrong information. So I try to avoid giving people wrong directions.  If anyone ever asks me the way somewhere，I would say, "Sorry,  I am a stranger here."

    Once on my way to work I was stopped by a man. He asked me if I could tell him the way to the Friendship Building. I gave him my usual reply. But just as I walked on only a few steps, I realized that he had asked the way to my office building. However, I had no time to turn back and look for him. I was rushing to meet with someone at my office and I didn't want to keep him waiting.

    When I just got to my office, the secretary showed in the man who had asked me for directions. Imagine how embarrassed I was and how surprised he was when we saw each other at the first sight!

    Mr Jones, the owner of a farm, was one day driven out of the farm by all the animals he kept．The animals were excited to be masters of their farm．Animals made seven rules of their own and Snowball painted them on the wall．

    ⒈Whatever walks on two legs is an enemy;

    ⒉Whatever walks on four legs, or has wings, is a friend;

    ⒊No animal shall wear clothes;

    ⒋No animal shall sleep in bed;

    ⒌No animal shall drink alcohol(酒);

    ⒍No animal shall kill any other animal;

    ⒎All animals are equal．

    They were nicely written, except that "friend" was written "friend"．Snowball read them out, and all the animals agreed．

    "Now, let's go to the field．Let's get in the harvest more quickly than Jones and his men could do．"

    But at this moment the three cows, who had seemed uneasy for some time, shouted because they hadn't been milked for 24 hours．Then the pigs began to help milk the cows successfully．Soon there were five buckets (桶) of creamy milk at which many animals

    looked with great interest．"What's going to happen to all the milk?" asked one animal．"Jones used to mix some of it in our food," said one of the hens．"Never mind the milk," cried Napoleon, standing in front of the buckets, "the harvest is more important．Mr Snowball will lead the way, and I'll follow in a few minutes．"

    So the animals ran down to the field to begin the harvest, and when they came back in the evening, it was noticed that the milk had disappeared．

    Twenty-two-year-old Timothy Doner from New York City has been able to speak 23 different languages, including some rare African ones.

    Timothy began his foreign language education at the age of 13. Attracted by in Israeli(以色列) musical band. Timothy listened to their album every morning. A month Later, he kept about 20 of their songs in his mind, though he didn't know what the Hebrew(希伯来语) words mean. But once he learned the translation. it was like he had a dictionary in his head.

    Then Timothy moved on to Arabic (阿拉伯语) which he studied every morning by reading newspapers with a dictionary and by talking to street vendors (小贩). After that he learned Persian, then Russian, then Mandarin... and about twenty others and developed a crazy low for languages.

    Now, Timothy is still teaching himself new languages. With the help of language books and word-learning Apps on his iPhone. He can master a language in a few weeks or months.

    What has Timothy got from learning so many languages? "By learning languages, you are learning a lot more. You are learning about culture, everything from cooking to TV，poetry and whatever it may be. That helps you better understand the language,” he said.

    It was a Christmas night. I was an unlucky nurse who had to work on such a beautiful festival. When I was complaining(抱怨)about it, three people appeared at my desk — a tired woman and two children.

     "Are you all sick?" I asked doubtfully because they seemed all right.

    "Yes," the woman answered weakly and lowered her head.

    But when they started to present their problems, things became unclear. One child had a fever, but his temperature was OK. The other child had an earache, but she could not tell me which ear hurt. It seemed that the mother was pretending(假装)to cough.

    Something was wrong. But I only explained that it might take a while before a doctor could meet them. "Take your time, please," said the mother. I checked their charts — no address. Suddenly I knew, they were homeless while the hospital was warm.

    The family huddled(蜷缩)together under the Christmas tree, smiling and talking with each other sweetly. Quietly, I went back to the nurses' station and told them what happened in the waiting room. It was just like God sending us a gift on Christmas Day. The nurses' station suddenly came back to life. All the nurses went into action for "a Christmas emergency(急诊)".

    We took out our meals for our Christmas "patients". We also put together oranges and apples as presents. We tried to exceed the needs of a family who only wanted a warm place on Christmas night. Later, the little girl kissed me and said, "Thanks for being our angel(天使)."

Dear Meimei,

I am happy to receive your last letter. You asked me what my favorite dream job is. To tell you the truth, I am going to be a {#blank#}1{#/blank#}because I like meeting interesting people. I will {#blank#}2{#/blank#}to Beijing. Beijing is a big and fantastic place. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}my free time, I will spend time with my best friends. Maybe I will keep a cat {#blank#}4{#/blank#}a pet.

How about your dream job? {#blank#}5{#/blank#}are you going to be and where are you going to work?

Write soon.