Years ago, there was an old man who loved his young son very much. And the old man had a lot of art collections, such as the works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet and many others.

As war broke out in their nation, the son became a soldier and left to serve his country. Only a few weeks later, the old man received a message that his son died in the war.

On Christmas morning, a soldier knocked on the door and said, “I am a friend of your son. He saved my life before he died. I am also an artist, and I want to give you this painting that I drew in the war.” It was a portrait (画像) of the man's son.

The old man told his neighbors it was the greatest gift he had ever received. The following spring, the old man became ill and passed away. According to the will of the old man, all of the art works would be sold at an auction (拍卖会)  on Christmas Day, the day he had received his greatest gift.

On Christmas Day the auction began with the portrait of the old man's son, The auctioneer (拍卖师) asked for an opening bid (竞价), but the room was silent. Finally, a friend of the old man said, “Will I take $10 for the painting? That's all I have.” The gavel (小木槌) fell.

The auctioneer looked at the audience and announced that the auction was over. He explained, “It is very easy. According to the will of the father, whoever takes the portrait of his son gets all his art collections.”

    Ann is my classmate. She comes from New York, and she lives in Shanghai with her parents now. Every morning, she goes to KFC to have breakfast. Sometimes she buys a hamburger for me. She can't speak Chinese well. In the evening, her father often helps her with it. He's a teacher in our school. He can speak Chinese very well.

    Ann thinks the school life(生活)in China is very interesting. Ann likes reading Chinese books because she wants to know more about China. She tries(努力)to talk with her Chinese friends in Chinese. She hopes to speak Chinese well. She is very happy to live in China. She loves people here.

    The daughter, Susan, is good at growing flowers and keeping goldfish（养金鱼）．Every morning she gets up early．The first thing for her is to look at her flowers and goldfish．She likes them very much. When she is eighteen years old she goes to college（上大学）．She has to（不得不） tell her mother to look after（照顾）her flowers and goldfish．

    Her mother is too careless(粗心)．She is not good at growing flowers and keeping goldfish．

    By and by(慢慢的) the goldfish is dead（死了）,then the flowers. The mother has to write to （写信）her daughter to tell her all about her flowers and her goldfish．Susan is very sorry to hear that．She writes back (回信)to her mother a letter:“ Then what about my father?”

    Mandy Harvey is a 29-year-old singer from Florida. She lost most of her ability to hear when she was 18.

    Harvey became a singer in her teens. _________ But she decided to start singing after she learned how to feel a song's beat through the wooden floor of a stage or theater. She watches carefully to make sure her musical instruments are tuned correctly and she is singing in the correct pitch.

    Harvey is now a professional singer. But not many people in the United States had heard of her until Tuesday night. That changed when she appeared on the television show “America's Got Talent”The show has four judges who watch people perform and decide if they should continue in the competition.

    Harvey said, "I gave up singing after I lost my hearing. But I want to do more with my life than just give up." As she was singing, one camera cut away to capture images of people in the theater. Many were seen crying. At one point, everyone stood up and cheered. By Wednesday afternoon, a video of Harvey's performance had been played 46 million times.

    Why? Shortly after she finished singing, Simon Cowell, one of the judges, gave her a golden star into the air. That meant Harvey could move on to the final round of the talent competition. Cowell said," I've done this a long time, and that was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen and heard."

    Many people wrote online that Harvey's performance was encouraging, and they will not give up on anything they want to do, either.

    Like many high school graduates, Maggie Doyne didn't go straight to college. She decided to travel and arrived in western Nepal in 2006. A war had just ended there and left many children living on the streets. They were often forced to work at hard physical jobs for little money.

One day, while walking down a country road, Doyne saw a little girl breaking up rocks. She soon learned that 7-year-old Hima sold the rocks to support her family. With deep sadness, she decided to pay Hima's tuition(学费) for school. Encouraged by the changes in the child, Doyne thought, "If we can help one child, why not 10？"

    Doyne felt that the street children's greatest need was a home. She found a piece of land for sale and bought it with $5,000 she saved from years of babysitting (当临时保姆). In 2008 the Kopila Valley Children's Home was set up. With the help from the community, another goal was reached in 2010—the Kopila Valley School. Over 350 children now attend the school and over 50 live in the home.

    Today, Doyne lives in the home and is "mum" to the kids.

    "Oh, my God," said Mrs. Kim. "I don't think we will be able to do our lesson today." Children loved Mrs. Kim's science lessons. Josh asked, "Why not?" "Well," began Mrs. Kim, "I had planned to do some measuring today. But I forgot to bring any ruler. We can't measure anything without a ruler, can we?"

    "What are we going to measure?" asked Mathew. "I want you to measure the distance from one side of the classroom to the other side." answered Mrs. Kim. "We could measure it as my dad sometimes does，" said C. J. "He sometimes just puts one foot in front of the other. I guess that's how we find out how long something is. "

     "Let's see whether that will work，"said Mrs. Kim. "Why don't you see how many feet it takes to cross the room, C. J. ？"C. J. began walking from one side of the classroom to the other side. He put one foot down and then put the heel of the other foot at the toe of his first foot. He continued doing this until he crossed the room. "I counted thirty of my feet from one side to the other side, " C. J. said.

     "So you think the room is thirty feet across？"asked Mrs. Jim. "I think someone else should try "said Maddie "just to make sure. ""All right，Maddie "said Mrs. Kim "why don't you try？"