It was Mary's birthday. She received a letter from her uncle1  was a farmer.

“Dear Mary,” the letter said. “Happy birthday . I am sending you some2 as your birthday present.They will arrive tomorrow. I hope you will like them. Best wishes, Uncle Toby. ”

  Mary liked eating eggs and 3 .When the chickens arrived the day, they were in a box. Mary was very 4 .She took the box off the truck and began to carry it into her garden. 5 , the box was heavy and she dropped it . The chickens all ran out .They ran everywhere, into the road , into the shops , even into the next street. It6Mary many hours to find them and take them back to her garden.

  A few days later uncle came.”Did the chickens arrive 7?” he asked Mary.”Yes,Uncle Toby.”Mary said.” 8 I had lots if trouble with them. I dropped the box. It broke and the chickens ran everywhere.I spent the whole afternoon9them.”“Did you find them all?” her uncle asked.”I hope so,”Mary replied.”I caught eleven of them.””That's very interesting,”her uncle said 10 a smile,”because I only sent you six.”

    Simon has a big shop in the center of the city. He tells all 1 salegirls to be friendly to the buyers and he gets 2 money.

    One day an old woman 3into the shop to buy a handbag. When she went out of the shop with the handbag, she left her wallet in it. A girl who worked 4 a shop assistant picked it up and found there 5 nearly five hundred dollars in it. She looked around and 6saw it. She put it into her pocket quickly. Soon the old woman came back to look for it7 she failed. She was sad and left. That evening Simon was told about it. He was so angry that he sent the girl away. Then he decided to get an honest man to take her place. Several young men came, but none of them could8  him.

    One morning 9 young man came to his office. He asked, "Do you smoke, sir?"

    "No, sir," answered the young man.

    "Do you drink?"

    "No, sir."

    Simon asked him the other questions, and the young man's answers made him happy. Before he made his decision, he asked him the last question, "You have no shortcoming, do you?"

    "No, I don't, sir. " said the young man. "I only like 10  lies."

    He was pleased to learn that Chibi knew all the places where the wild grapes and wild potatoes grew. He was amazed to 1how much Chibi knew about all the flowers in our class garden. He liked Chibi's black and white drawings and put them up on the wall to be 2. He liked Chibi's own handwriting, which no one but Chibi could read, and he put that up on the wall.

    Bu t, when Chibi appeared on the stage at the talent show of that year, no one could 3his eyes.“ Who is that?”“ What can that stupid do up there?”

    Until Mr Isobe announced that Chibi was going to imitate(模仿)the voices of crows. “ Voices?”“ Voices of crows?”

    4he imitated the voices of newly hatched crows. And he made the mother crow's voice. He showed how crows cry early in the morning. He showed how crows cry when the village people have some unhappy accident. He showed how crows 5when they are happy and cheerful. Everybody's mind was taken to the6mountainside from which Chibi probably came to school.

    Chibi made very special 7deep down in his throat(喉咙)to imitate a crow in an old tree in the end. Now everybody could imagine8the far and lonely place whe re Chibi lived with his family.

    Then Mr Isobe explained 9 Chibi had learned those calls--leaving his home for school at sunrise, and arriving home at sunset, every day for six long years.

    Every one of us cried, thinking how much we had been 10 to Chibi all those long years.

    He was a boy beyond our usual imagination!

    Jenny, from Germany, spent some time traveling in India. While she was there, she stayed with her Indian friend, Leela. However, there was a language barrier(障碍) for her there. It was very 1 for her to communicate in the new environment, which was very different from2 of her own country.

    One day, together with Leela, Jenny went to 3 an orphanage(孤儿院). All the children there were very young. At first, Jenny was not sure if she could have a way to communicate with them. She went over to the children 4 and sat beside them. After some time, one of the children 5 her. She felt a little relaxed and smiled back. Then she went close to the child. She slowly put her arm around the child and started 6 a song in German. The child kept smiling and started repeating the words after her. The words that came from the little mouth were different from those that Jenny sang, but the rhythm(节奏) was the same. Jenny sang a little more and the child followed her again. Wanting to join in the 7, another child went up to Jenny and started singing the rhythm. Then more children joined. They8 many smiles together.

    From the other side of the hall, Leela was smiling and watching them. Noticing Leela's9 on her, Jenny had an exciting feeling from her heart: “See, I don't have any language barriers here. We 10 speak and communicate!” At that moment, she understood: we're all simple human, and we have the ability to connect with each other.