Yesterday evening，when l went to town with my  1  ，we met a strange old man．It was raining ham and we had no  2 ．We were trying to get into a taxi when he came up to us．He was 3  a nice umbrella and he said that he would give it to us for only a pound．He had forgotten his   4 ，he said，needed taxi—fares(出租汽车费)to go back home．My mother didn't believe  5 he had said at first，and asked him a lot of questions．Finally we bought it and he left  6 ．We followed him and found he went into a pub(小酒店)and  7  himself a glass of whiskey(威士忌)with the pound．

8 he drank it，he put 9   his hat and took up one of the many wet umbrellas at the entrance and went off．Soon after that，he sold it again．What a(n) 10  experience I had !

    Bruno was a boy of eight. His father worked in a cinema and his mother worked in a shop. He lived not far from his school. He always walked there and walked home. On his way to school, he had to pass a playground. It was very wet after it rained. One day, when he got home, his clothes were all wet. His mother became angry and said, "Don't play in the water on your way home from school!"

    On the next day Bruno came home with wet and dirty clothes. His mother became even angrier. "I'll tell your father if you come back wet again," said his mother. "He'll punish(惩罚)you, you know."

    The third day the little boy was dry when he came home.

    "You're a good boy today", his mother said happily. "You didn't play in the water."

    "No," the boy said unhappily. "There were too many older boys in the water when I got there this afternoon. There wasn't any room(空地方)for me at all!"

    Sammy looked out of the classroom window at a bird in a tree. He saw a worm (小虫) in the bird's mouth. "Wow!" he whispered as he looked at the bird eating the worm.

    "Sammy!" his teacher Mr. Maxwell said loudly.

    Sammy jumped and knocked his science book off his desk. Everyone in the class laughed and Sammy blushed. This was the third time today he had been caught not paying attention to the science lesson. It was just so easy to get distracted (分心的) when people read aloud from the science textbook!

    It wasn't that Sammy didn't like science. He loved to learn about machines, Earth and animals. He even thought bugs and plants were great. He wanted to go outside and see how a snake lived. He wanted to watch plants growing from the ground as they did last month. He just didn't want to read about these things.

    Sammy thought Mr. Maxwell would surely understand. "There was a bird with a worm in its mouth..." Sammy began. Then he saw the furious look on his teacher's face. Sammy decided that he had better stop talking before Mr. Maxwell became any angrier.

    "I can't believe this is happening. " I thought as I saw Jane walk into the restaurant. She hadn't changed at all. She was still tall and beautiful, with wavy blonde hair and bright green eyes. I smiled and thought of how my life had changed since we had last met.

    It all started when I noticed her at a party in a friend's house. I followed her to the dining room and started talking to her about the food. "You seem very interested in food, " she laughed. "Well. I'm a great cook, "I told her. It was a lie, but I had to find an excuse to see her again. "Why don't I cook you dinner sometime? "

    Two days later, Jane came to my house. However, the dinner party was very embarrassing(尴尬的). I ordered food from a nearby restaurant, but I told her that I had cooked it. After dinner, she offered to wash up and found the delivery boxes in the kitchen. She laughed at me and I felt awful. Angry with myself, I decided then and there to learn how to cook.

    I never saw Jane after our terrible dinner date. I started a cookery course and found that I was good at it after all. I went on to train to be a great cook. I worked hard and saved up until I was able to open my own restaurant.

    Now. she had walked into my restaurant. Feeling very happy, I pretended I was a waiter and walked to her table. "Ready to order, madam? "I asked.