Four years ago when I was a boy of 11，I got into the biggest trouble as a kid．It was a Saturday morning．Both my parents were out，leaving me and my 10—month—old sister alone．Anyway，my sister was still asleep in her room．In fact I had the house to myself．I decided to do some drawing．Soon I gave up．Nothing was on TV，so I felt bored and touched the candles on the shelf．I had an idea! What would happen if I set fire to some kitchen paper? Well，of course it went on fire，but it wasn't the tiny flame (火苗)．I'd expected，and I couldn't blow it out．I threw it on the floor, and then luckily got my dad's boots (靴子) and．Stamped it out ．

    I thought I was safe until there was a hole in my room．When my mum came home later, she smelt the smoke immediately．She dropped the shopping bag，luckily for me，over the hole．I thought this meant she would never see it．However，after running round the house checking for a fire，she of course picked up the bag and saw the hole．Next I was grounded (关禁闭) and in trouble for months．Even though，the hole was still there，reminding me of what I did．

B

    Thomas Edison lit up the world with his invention of the electric light. Without him, the world might still be in the dark at night. However, the electric light was not his only invention. Nearly every two weeks, he created something new.

    Thomas Edison was born in 1847. He attended school for only three months. His mother taught him at home, but he was mostly self-educated. He started trying out his new ideas at a very young age.

    When he was 12 years old, he got his first job. He became a newsboy on a train. He did experiments on the train in his spare time. Unluckily, his first work experience didn't end well. He was fired when he accidentally set fire to the floor of the train. Then Edison worked as a telegraph operator (电报员) for five years, but he continued to spend much of his time creating things until the vote recorder (投票计数器), his first invention, came in 1868.

    Thomas Edison was nearly deaf in one ear, but he never minded. Because of this, he could have more time for work. He always worked 16 out of every 24 hours. Sometimes his wife had to remind him to eat and sleep. Thomas Edison died at the age of 84. He left many inventions that greatly improved the quality of life all over the world.

    Like most of her friends, Georgie Sanderson has 24-houpa-day access(使用权) to technology through her mobile phone, iPod Touch and home computer. But the 15-year-old girl says she is too busy to spend her days on Facebook. She only uses it once or twice a day. "The 10th grade is busy, and I have to work hard. Even when I'm not studying, I have better things to do with my time, such as being outside or spending time with my friends," she says. Georgie has a part-time job. She watches TV for a while in the afternoon and she helps with the housework.

    Georgie's words prove the findings of a new report. According to the report, teenagers today are not completely dominated(支配) by technology, although they have been into a digital(数字) world. They spend most of their time on their homework, TV, part-time jobs, hobbies, sports, friendship or reading instead of playing or chatting on the computer. But the report also finds that mobile phones are important to teenagers. 95 percent of 18 year-olds have got one mobile phone, and 82 percent sleep with their mobile phones on and beside them all night.

    For Georgie, sleep is more important than texting others. Georgie is also careful about the use of IT. She says, "Social media is helpful, but it is so distracting(使人分心的). I only use it when I do need to use it."

    One day a man found a cocoon (茧) of a butterfly in the forest. He sat there for several hours and watched the butterfly. Suddenly a small opening appeared, and the butterfly made its great effort to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no further.

    So the man decided to help the butterfly. He cut off the remaining bit of the cocoon so that the butterfly could come out easily. But to his surprise, the butterfly got a heavy body and very small wings when it came out of the cocoon.

    The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that the body would grow smaller at any moment and the wings would become larger and be able to fly. But neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling (爬) around with a heavy body and small wings. It was never able to fly.

    The man was in his kindness, but he did not understand the nature rules. Before the butterfly came out of the cocoon, fluid (流体) from its body must be forced into its wings, and then it would be ready for flying. It must have a hard struggle (拼搏) to get through the small opening to get its freedom from the cocoon.

    Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any difficulties, it would make us fail. We would not be as strong as we could have been; we could never fly.

    By the time Rihanna was seventeen, she had released(发行)her first album and had an international hit with her first single(单曲)Pon de Replay.

    Rihanna was born in Saint Michael, Barbados in 1988.She grew up there with her two younger brothers. As a child, she loved singing. She formed her first group with two friends from secondary school when she was just fifteen. In 2004 her friends introduced the group to American record producer Evan Rogers, who was on holiday in Barbados. Rogers thought Rihanna could be a big star in America, so she moved there aged sixteen to take up music after she finished school. Rihanna lived with Rogers and his wife. Then she worked for Def Jam Recordings and started working on her first album, Music of the Sun. It came out in 2005 and got into the top ten. Over 69,000 copies of the album were sold in the first week alone. It went on to sell over two million copies worldwide and Rihanna quickly became a big star. Her second album, A Girl Like Me, came out a year later and included the song SOS, which was her first number one hit in America. In 2007 Rihanna brought out her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, which had more dance music than the first two albums.

    Rihanna sold more than fifteen million albums and forty-five million singles worldwide between 2005 and 2010, the most of any artist at the same time. However, she manages to find time for her charity work, too. She has performed in several concerts to raise money for charity and in 2006 she created her Believe Foundation to help sick children. She also took part in Gucci's activities to raise money for children in Africa.

    Jim is an American. He is now living(居住) in China. He gets up at about half past six and has breakfast at seven o'clock. After breakfast, he says goodbye to his parents and leaves home at half past seven. He usually goes to school on foot. He gets there at five minutes to eight. He has his first class at eight.

    Morning classes are over at ten past twelve and he has lunch five minutes later, at about a quarter past twelve. After lunch he plays with his friends.

    Afternoon classes begin at half past one. Usually there are two lessons in the afternoon. They finish at half past three. Usually he plays games or other things at school, and he gets home at about a quarter past five. He has supper at six and then does his homework and then watches TV. He goes to bed at about half past ten.