Alisa was walking around the swimming pool. Her friend Maria was waiting for her. "Come on, Alisa!" Maria said. "Let's jump off the diving board (跳水版)."

    "No way! I can never go that high," said Alisa.

    "Don't be scared," Maria said. "It's really fun."

    Alisa walked away and sat on a bench.

    "You go. I'll watch you," said Alisa.

    "You don't know what you're missing," said Maria. Then she climbed up the tall ladder (梯子). It made Alisa scared just thinking of being up there.

    Maria jumped off the board and then climbed out of the pool. She walled to Alisa. "Come on, Alisa; just try it. It's wonderful!" she said.

    Alisa looked up at the board. Maybe it was time to try something new. OK, she said. Alisa climbed up the ladder for the diving board. The water looked far, far away. She wanted to turn back to climb down the ladder， but that would be too embarrassing. There was only one thing to do.

    Alisa walked to the edge (边缘) of the board. Then she closed (闭上) her eyes and jumped. She got into the water in no time. "Wow, so wonderful! I like it!" she shouted.

    In 1909 an English newspaper offered £ 1,000 to the first man to fly across the English Channel in an aeroplane. Today, modern jets cross it in minutes. But at that time it still seemed a good distance. The race to win the money soon became a race between two men. Both were very colourful.

    One was Louis Bleriot. He owned a factory in France that made motor car lamps. He was already well known as a pilot because he had had accidents several times. Some people laughed at him. One man said, "He may not be the first to fly across the Channel but he will certainly be the first to die in an accident!" But Bleriot was really a good and brave pilot. He also had many good ideas about aeroplane design.

    The other man was Hubert Latham. He was half French and half English. He took up flying when his doctors told him he had only a year to live. "Oh, well," he said, "if I'm going to die soon, I think I shall have a dangerous and interesting life now." Latham was the first to try the flight across the Channel. Ten kilometres from the French coast, his plane had some trouble. It fell down into the water and began to sink under the water. A boat reached Latham just in time. He was sitting calmly on the wing and was coolly lighting a cigarette. Bleriot took off six days later. He flew into some very bad weather and very low cloud. He somehow got to the English side and landed in a farmer's field. When he did so, a customs (海关) officer rushed up to his plane. Planes have changed since then, but customs officers have not. "Have you anything to say?" The officer asked.

    Mike teaches a very basic programming (编程) course to a group of students. They are all very interested in computers.

    One day, Mike told his students to write a short program on their computers. After writing it, they only needed to type "R", "U" and "N" and press "enter" to see the program run.

    Soon, a student sitting in the back of the classroom put up her hand. She said, "I did what you said, but it didn't work." Mike knew that students sometimes make mistakes when typing. So he suggested that the student retype (重新输入) "R", "U" and "N".

    A few seconds later, the student's hand went up again. "It still doesn't work," she said. This time. Mike went to her to see what the problem was. To his surprise, he found that instead of typing "RUN", the student had typed "ARE YOU IN"!

    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.