Mr Turner teaches in a middle school. He's friendly to his students. And he is always strict with himself. He often tells his students to be polite and to do their best to help the persons who are in trouble.

    One Monday morning, Mr Turner didn't go to work and went to see Mr White who was ill in hospital. As something was wrong with his car, he had to take a bus. At first he easily found a seat, but soon plenty of people got on the bus and it was very crowded. Some of them had to stand. Mr Turner looked around and saw a woman standing behind. He stood up and made room for her. The woman said nothing and sat down. Her behaviour made Mr Turner unhappy.

    "It's necessary for her to be taught how to be polite," he said to himself. Then he asked, "What did you say, madam?"

    "I didn't say anything, "answered the woman.

    "I thought you said 'Thank you!"'

    When the woman heard this, her face turned red.

    A poor farmer had a friend who was famous for the wonderful apple trees he grew.

    One day, his friend gave the farmer a young apple tree and told him to plant it.  The farmer was pleased with the gift, but he did not know where to plant it.

    He was afraid that if he planted the tree near the road, strangers would steal the fruit.  If he planted the tree in one of his fields, his neighbors would come at night and steal some of the apples.  If he planted the tree near his house, his children would take the fruit.  Finally he planted the tree in his wood.  But without sunlight and good soil(土壤), the tree soon died.

    Later the friend asked the farmer why he had planted the tree in such a poor place.  “What's the difference?” the farmer said angrily and then told what he had thought.

     “Yes,” said the friend, “but at least someone could have enjoyed the fruit.  Now you not only have robbed everyone of the fruit, but also you have destroyed (毁掉) a good apple tree! ”

    Many years ago, when I was fresh out of school and working in Denver, I was driving to my parents' home in Missouri for Christmas. I stopped at a gas station(加油站) about 50 miles from Oklahoma City, where I was planning to stop and visit a friend. While I was standing in line at the cash register(收款台), I said hello to an older couple who were also paying for gas.

    I took off, but had gone only a few" miles when black smoke poured from the back of my car. I stopped and wondered what I should do. A car pulled up behind me. It was the couple I had spoken to at the gas station. They said they would take me to my friend's. We chatted on the way into the city, and when I got out of the car, the husband gave me his business card.

    I wrote him and his wife a thank-you note for helping me. Soon afterward, I received a Christmas present from them. Their note that came with it said that helping me had made their holidays meaningful.

    Years later, I drove to a meeting in a nearby town in the morning. In late afternoon I returned to my car and found that I'd left the lights on all day, and the battery(电池) was dead. Then I noticed that the Friendly Ford dealership a shop selling cars was right next door. I walked over and found two salesmen in the showroom.

    "Just how friendly is Friendly Ford?" I asked and explained my trouble. They quickly drove a pickup truck to my car and started it. They would accept no payment, so when I got home, I wrote them wrote to say thanks. I received a letter back from one of the salesmen. No one had ever taken the time to write him and say thank you, and it meant a lot, he said.

    "Thank you" two powerful words. They're easy to say and mean so much.

    Do you like music? Probably. But do you like all kinds of music? Want to say no? Well, before answering this q{#blank#}1{#/blank#}, you'd better have a good understanding of what music is. A music teacher wanted to tell his students the difference b{#blank#}2{#/blank#} music and noise (噪音). He brought many wooden blocks (大 块) of different sizes to class. The students were very s{#blank#}3{#/blank#} to see him throw the blocks at the wall. Everyone thought it was noise. He then took the same blocks and threw them at the wall a{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. This time, however, he threw them in a special order (次序). The students quickly found it was a tune (曲 子). "So," asked the teacher, "what is music?" The answer is that it's organized noise.

I was feeling a little blue because my mother had lost her job.

One day, while I was 1 in the street, I heard the piano music and singing rising above the noise of the people. I walked more slowly to 2 where it was coming from. Then I saw a young lady sitting at a piano.

She was singing songs about love, 3 yourself and keeping on trying. The way she was singing made me a little comfortable. I stood there 4 , watching her playing on such a crowded New York square. I thought that she must be 5 enough to perform(表演) in front of so many people.

She noticed me. I walked over and told her how good her 6 sounded. "Thank you," she said.

"I have been going through a hard time, 7 you've made me hopeful again," I said to her.

"I'm glad that I could help," she replied. "Why are you so 8 ?"

"Well, my mum has lost her job, and I'm not sure what to do..."

"Did you notice the 9 you were walking? Your head was down," she said. "Don't be upset, because 10 comes in different ways and if your head is down, you might not see it. You should 11 more... Lift your head up."

I looked 12 her, amazed at how she was encouraging me. "13 are you playing the piano here?" I asked her with a smile.

She 14 that she saw a lot of unhappy people in the world and she tried to cheer 15 up by playing music.

I smiled a little wider, realising that no difficulties could stop me from going on.

Hello, I'm Peter. I'm thirteen. I'm a 1 in a middle school. I have a 2 family. There are five people in my family. They are my 3 , my sister, my brother and me.

You can 4 an interesting thing in my family, What is it? My sister, my brother and I all have our birthdays in 5 . My sister's birthday is on April 24th. My birthday is on April 4th, and my brother's birthday is on April 16th. It is 6 , isn't it? April is our favorite 7 because we have three birthday parties. And we can 8 some birthday gifts, too.

We all like sports, and our favorite sport is 9 . On Saturday and Sunday, we often play it 10 our friends. We are really happy.