O. Henry was an American writer. He wrote lots of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy, he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for a long time, but he learned everything he wanted to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas. There he did different jobs. He first worked in a newspaper, and then he has a job in a bank. When some money went missing from the bank, O. Henry was suspected (被怀疑）. Because of that he was sent into prison（监狱）. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the poor life there. People liked his stories, because although simple(简单), to the reader's surprise, the stories would finish with a sudden change at the end.

    The Sound of Music is one of the most popular American movies. And the song DoReMi in the movie is also popular in the world.

    The movie tells a story about a tutor, Maria. She is a young and outgoing woman. She goes to look after a family with seven children. Their family name is Von Trapp. Mr. Von Trapp is a captain. He and his family live in Austria.

    The family are very sad after the children's mother, Mrs. Von Trapp, died. Nobody takes care of the children. They cry and shout every day. The lonely father often becomes angry because of the noisy children.

    Maria often teaches them to sing lively songs and perform short, funny plays. At first the father is almost mad, but the children's smiling faces make him happy again. Then Mr. Von Trapp falls in love with Maria. At last they get married.

    Long ago, a wolf called Howler lived in a valley where lots of fruit trees grew. He often tried to climb up the trees to eat the fruit, but couldn't reach. In the valley, an old man named Martin also had a few fruit trees that he looked after very well. But as he was getting older, he noticed that he didn't have the strength to pick the fruit.Martin had the most beautiful fruit trees in the valley, which was why Howler had his eye on them. One day he decided to steal the fruit and started jumping up and down the tree.Martin looked out of the window and realized that the wolf was trying to steal fruit from his beautiful trees. Howler jumped and jumped, but he couldn't reach even the lowest branches of such a big tree.

    Seeing this, Martin had a great idea: he offered Howler a ladder to climb up, but in return the wolf would have to give him half of the fruit. Howler accepted the deal and began to collect the fruit. For the whole morning, he went up and down the ladder filling his basket with the fruit.

    Howler soon realized that he could eat all the fruit if he didn't give Martin some. He thought up a new and secret plan. Martin, on the other hand, trusted Howler and even began to think they would be friends forever.

    But the wolf stole the ladder and went off to other trees in the area for more fruit.Realizing that the ladder was missing, Martin went looking for it. Martin felt very disappointed at the trick and no longer trusted Howler. Though he wasn't angry with the wolf and they became friends again, he never made any more deals with him.

    At last, Howler learned that he shouldn't trick people and he should keep promises. He also learned that if he had been honest and not greedy, he would still have been able to enjoy more delicious fruit.

    What can you make with pieces of paper? Look at Chen Yiyan's work! The 14-year-old boy in Hangzhou Foreign Language School has an amazing talent for paper-folding. He has folded a "fantasy world" with his hands.

    Chen wasn't born with this talent. When he was a fourth-grader, he found his brother's paper-folding book. It got him interested in it. Following the 50 steps shown in the book, he made his first work--a paper elephant within two hours. Since then, he has read many books about paper-folding and practised folding paper in his spare time. So far, his fantasy world has many members, such as monsters and robots. He made his favorite work last year. It was a paper dragon that had almost 2,000 steps.

    Chen used to fold paper himself until he met Li Changnan, an eighth-grader in his school who also loved folding paper. They set up a paper-folding club last year. To their joy, their school sponsored it. With the encouragement and the money provided, they had a paper-folding class every Wednesday afternoon. The club soon attracted a lot of students.  Now it has more than 20 members. They showed their works and taught other students how to fold paper. On February 14th this year, the club also held a speech for the kids in Wenzhou Children's Library.

    "It is really exciting to develop my hobby and share it with others at the same time, "said Chen, "I hope more and more people get to know paper-folding and love the art."

    “Everything happens for the best, (一切都会变好的)" my mother said, whenever things weren't going my way. "Don't worry. One day your luck will change."

    After I had finished my college education, I discovered that Mother was right.

    I had decided to try for a job in radio. I wanted to host a sports program. I went to Chicago and knocked on the door of every station. But I got turned down every time. In one station, a kind lady said my problem was that I hadn't got enough experience. "Get some work in a small station and work your way up, "she said.

    I went back home. I couldn't get a job there, either. I felt really down. “Your luck will change, " Mom said to me. I tried another radio station in lowa. But the owner told me he had already had someone.

    As I left his office, I asked, "How can someone be a sports announcer(播音员)if he can't get a job in a radio station?" I was waiting for the lift when I heard the man call, "What did you mean? Do you know anything about football?" He put me in front of a microphone(麦克风)and asked me to try to imagine that I was giving my opinion on a football game.

    I succeeded!

    On my way home, Mom's words came back to me, "One day your luck will change, Son. And when it happens, you'll feel doubly good because of all the hard work you've done." At that moment I knew just what she meant.

    Being able to go to a perfect university is what every high school student dreams of. However, for Jin Chengkuang, a high school senior at Shenzhen Experimental Chenghan School, his long-standing dream has been to be a film director. He has received offers from four top art schools in the United States, which means he is already on the way of making his filming dream come true.

    Although Jin is only 18 years old, he has had some experience of filming. During his three years in high school, Jin produced four more short films besides Choose and Out of Control, which were more successful.

    According to Jin, he shot Choose with an Argentinian student when he was at a summer school programme in New York. It was a short film about freedom. The film was produced in a classroom with only a fish tank as the main prop (道具). To express the opposite of freedom, the tank was empty in the beginning, but suddenly, a fish appeared and swam freely in the tank. In the end, the fish disappeared, leaving us an open ending. It took Jin and his partner one month to finish the six-minute short film.

    As a beginner, Jin has been quite lucky so far. Last winter, he got a chance to join the well-known film director Chen Kaige when they travelled to Northern China to film I Legend of the Demon Cat.

    Jin said, "A great firm takes everyone's efforts. Although the conditions were pretty poor, it was all worth it because I learned a lot."