Ben Jones was walking home from school one day when he saw a black cat. It was walking across the srteet in front of him. Ben stopped, turned around, and walked down a different srteet to go home. Why did he do that?
    "It's unlucky when a black cat crosses the street in front of you,”says Ben,“I did not want to walk down that street!”
     Many people think that some things bring bad luck. For example, some people think that 13 is an unlucky number. They never invite 13 people to a party.
    "I never walk under a ladder(梯子),”says Ben.“And I never open an umbrella inside the house. They both bring bad luck.”And what brings good luck?“We have a horseshoe over the front door of our house for good luck,”says Ben.
 “And when I find a peney on the ground, I always pick it up. That brings me good luck all day!”

    After breakfast Mrs. Beckman started packing（打包）the bags. She bought the tickets to London. Her husband works there. She and her children are going to fly there to see him. Thomas and Katy can't help her and she told them to play outside.

    "It often rains in London in autumn," the woman said to herself, " I'd better take the umbrellas. So I won't buy any when it rains there."

Suddenly(突然), she heard Thomas crying and ran out at once. She asked, " What's the matter?"

    "Katy pulled(揪)my hair," the boy said in tears(眼泪汪汪地).

    "Don't be angry," said the woman. "She's too young. She doesn't know pulling hair hurts(疼痛)"

    And then she went to the house again. After a short time there was more crying. She had to come out to see what the matter was.

This time Thomas said, "Now she knows."

B

    Recently，there was a report about a special app called "notOK"．A 13-year-old girl Hannah Lucas and her brother Charlie put their heads together to create this app last year．

    Hannah has been suffering from an illness that causes her to pass out since she was little．This is very dangerous if there is no one around．She was also being bullied(欺凌)by some students at school．So she searched for an app that would allow her to press a button so that a friend or a family member would know immediately that she needed help．After realizing there was no such thing，Hannah and her brother decided to do something about it．After some research，Hannah made some early drawings of what the app might look like．Then，after taking a programming class，Charlie began to think about the best way for the app to work．

    They wanted something that would send a text message to up to five contacts that reads："Hey，I'm not OK．Please call me，text me，or come and find me"，along with a link to the user's current GPS location．

    They started looking for someone to help them make the app．And when Hannah shared her dream with people in a summer business class which she attended two years ago，they were really excited about the app．They thought of many different marketing ideas．By mid—December last year, "notOK" app was finished as a birthday present for Hannah from Charlie．"It was exactly what we wanted，"Charlie said．

    In today's age，most people will agree that apps like these are great．Whether you're suffering from illness，or anything emergent(紧急的)，writing a text message or making a phone call to get the help you need can be difficult．

    Hannah is happy to know that her app will help more people．"It's like I went through my dark times so I could help people through theirs，"she said．

    Carmen is a twelve-year-old girl. She has a sister and her name is Kara. Kara is ten years old.

    Tonight, Carmen and Kara want to make dinner for the family. They want to make pizza because all their family like it. They need to buy the ingredients（原料）for the pizza. So, their dad drives them to the supermarket.

    When they get to the supermarket, Carmen and Kara look for the ingredients. Soon they get all of them and go to pay for them. They are 30 dollars.

    They put the ingredients in the car. Their dad drives them home.

    When they get home, Carmen and Kara take the ingredients out of the car. They take them to the kitchen.

    In the kitchen, they clean the vegetables. Then, they cut the vegetables. Next, they take out the crust（面包皮）. They put the ingredients on top of the crust. Finally they put the pizza in the oven（烤箱）.

    They take the pizza out of the oven in thirty minutes.

    "The pizza smells good!" says their mother.

    "We think so!" say Carmen and Kara.

    The family are happy, and they eat the pizza for dinner.

    One cold winter morning, an old woman had to go to see her doctor. When she walked into the doctor's office, she told him that her right leg hurt and sometimes she could not walk. She asked him what was wrong. She told him that she had never had such a feeling before.

    The doctor checked the old woman carefully, then he said, "You're in good health for a woman of your age. I think the trouble in your right leg is just a matter of old age catching up with you. We get all kinds of illness as we get older. The trouble will almost certainly end in spring. "

    "I don't think so, doctor!" she said. "My left leg is well, and it's the same age as my right one."

    "Today I will give you a special test," said the English teacher with a smile on his face.

    All the students sat up straight and waited for the test to begin. The teacher began to give the test papers to all the students. After he finished handing out the test papers, he asked them to begin.

    The students were very surprised to see that there was not a question but a black dot (圆点) in the center of the paper. The teacher noticed the students' surprise and said, "I want you to write about what you see there." At the end of the class, the teacher took all the students' answer sheets and read the answers. All of them described the black dot. After reading all the answers, the teacher said, "Here everyone only paid attention to the black dot, but no one wrote about the white paper." The whole class listened silently, because they were afraid to fail in the exam. Then the teacher said, "Don't worry about your marks for this test. I just want you to think about our life. The white paper is like our whole life and the black dot in the center of the paper represents (代表) problems in our daily life".

    Our life is a gift given to us by God, with love and care. However, we just pay attention to the problems like illness and poverty, and never see happy things in our life. So we should try to solve our problems and enjoy each moment life gives us.