Jim went to school to study history, but when he finished his first year, he didn't pass the exam and the teacher said to him, “You have to leave school.”

    When the boy's father heard this news, he was much worried. He came to the school to see the teacher. He found the teacher in the office and asked the teacher to let Jim go on with his studies the next year.

    “He is a good boy. He always does well in history,” said Jim's father, “and if you let him pass the exam this time, he will do better next year and pass the exam.”

    “No, no, that's impossible!”answered the teacher, “Last month I asked him when Napoleon（拿破仑）died and he didn't know.”

    “Please sir, give him another chance.”said Jim's father,“You know we don't have any newspapers in our house, so nobody in our family knew that Mr. Napoleon was ill.”

B

    John is an American boy. His family is in China now. John likes chocolates (巧克力) very much. But his mother doesn't give him any. They are not good for him, she thinks. But John has a very nice grandfather. The old man loves him very much, and sometimes he buys John some chocolates. Then his mother lets John eat them. She wants to make the old man happy. One Sunday evening John says in his room, "Please, God. Make them give me a big box of chocolates tomorrow. It's my birthday." His mother says, "God can't hear you, my boy." "I know, but my grandfather is in the next room. He can hear."

    One day, Allan and his friend Henry went swimming in a river. It was very hot. How happy they were in the river! After they got out of the water, they played games in the sun for a while.

    On their way back, Henry saw some flowers. He liked flowers very much and ran into the green field to look at them. Now Allan was walking by himself.

    Then he heard Henry calling out, "A snake! Help! ..."

    "What's wrong with you?" asked Allan.

    "A snake bit（咬）me in the leg. Come here!"

    Allan ran over and saw a small red wound（伤口）on Henry' s leg.

    "The snake was in the grass. I didn't see it."

    "Sit down quickly"! Allan told Henry.

    Allan put his mouth at the little red wound and began to suck（吸）at it. In this way he saved Henry's life. "Oh, Allan, it's very kind of you to help me."

    "That's all right. We are friends and we must always help each other."

    It was about 1：00 in the morning. It was bright light in my neighbor's kitchen. I thought he might be having midnight food so I went back to my bed. Soon, there was a burning smell and I realized there must be something wrong. I jumped out of bed at once and went to have a look. I saw fire coming out of his kitchen. I shouted, "Fire！Fire！"But nobody heard me. I ran quickly to my house and called the Fire Department(消防队) and went back to my neighbor's house.

    I knocked at the door and called my neighbor's name, but there was no answer. I tried to break into the house and saved a cat and a chicken. Then I poured water through the kitchen window but it was no use, because the fire was too big. Luckily, the firemen arrived and put out the fire in time.

    When my neighbor came back, he was sad because his kitchen was burnt down, but he thanked me for calling the Fire Department and saving his pets.

    A week later, my neighbor invited me to his home for dinner. In his new kitchen, he took a photo of me. Later on, he gave me the photo as a gift. It made me happy.

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

    How are you? I am fine. School is out already. On our last day, we went to a museum. It was fun until we all had to run through the rain to get on the bus. Even that was kind of fun, though.

    How was your camping trip? Dad says you're just getting back home this Wednesday. I've been taking good care of Sparky for you. The dog sleeps at the foot of my bed on most nights. He and the cat have even been getting along.

    Dad says to tell you that our yard is looking good this year. We've had lots of rain, especially last Friday— the last day of school

When are you coming to get Sparky? See you soon.

Love,

Kyle

Dear Kyle,

    Our camping trip was wonderful! We've already decided to come here again next year. From Ohio. We drove south to Kentucky. We enjoy looking at rocks, so we had decided to go to Mammoth Cave National Park. I'd never seen so many rocks!

    Each day, we chose a different cave. We saw narrow(狭窄的)places and huge ones. In one cave, we were underground for more than two miles.

    We'll come to get Sparky next weekend, if that's okay.

Love,

Grandma and Grandpa