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    Mr. and Mrs. Bell are very forgetful. For example, Mr. Bell sometimes goes to work on Sunday morning, for he thinks it is Monday. And Mrs. Bell sometimes forgets to cook supper for the family.

    One summer, they planned to fly to New York for their holidays. They got to the airport only ten minutes before the plane took off. So time was short. But suddenly Mrs. Bell said she must tell Alice, their daughter, not to forget to lock the front door when she went to school. As Alice was then at school, they couldn't tell her about it by telephone. So they hurried to the post office. Mrs. Bell wrote a short note to Alice when Mr. Bell bought a stamp and an envelope(信封). Soon the note was ready. They put the stamp on the envelope in a hurry and dropped the envelope into the letter box, but suddenly Mrs. Bell began to cry. The short note was still in her hand. She had put the plane tickets in the envelope.

    Once there was a parrot on sale in a pet store. It was a beautiful red and blue bird. It sat on a perch in the middle of the store, so that everyone could see it when they came in. The owner was very proud（自豪的） of it and asked a high price for it.

    One day a man went into the store. “That's a beautiful bird,” he said to the pet store owner, “But why is it so expensive? Is it unusual（不同寻常的） bird?” “No, it's not very unusual. It's expensive because it can talk,” the pet store owner said.

    “I see. How can I make it talk?” the man asked.

    The pet store owner asked him, “Do you see those string tied to each of the bird's legs?”

    “Yes,” the man answered.

    “Well, you pull（拉） those strings（绳子）,” the pet store owner told him. “That will make the parrot talk.”

    The man asked, “Do you mind（介意） if I try?”

    “Not at all,” the pet store owner said.

    The man walked up to the parrot and pulled the string on its left leg. The parrot said, “Good morning.” The man pulled the string on the parrot's right leg. This time the parrot said, “How are you today?”

    “That's not very interesting,” said the man. “Any parrot could do that.” Then he laughed, “But what would happen if I pulled both strings at the same time?”

    “I'll fall off my perch, you fool!” the parrot said.

    The Clark family just finished Sunday dinner.

    "What's for dessert（甜点）, Mom? "Johnny asked.

    "How about an apple pie?" Mrs. Clark said.

    "Yummy!" said Johnny's two sisters Amy and Molly.

    "Well, I would like fifteen minutes of pie please." Johnny said with a big grin（露齿而笑）.

    "Fifteen minutes of pie, what does that mean（意思）?" Asked his younger brother Paul.

    "Mr. Dean is teaching us about time in school." Johnny answered. He was in second grade and they were just starting to learn how to tell the time on a clock. " He told us that the clock can be divided（分成）into four fifteen minute sections, like the pieces of a pie. Fifteen times four is sixty and there are sixty minutes in an hour. "

    "Very good son!" Mr. Clark said smiling.

    "So then may I have fifteen minutes of pie please?"

    Johnny asked again when his mother put the dessert on the table.

    Mrs. Clark looked at her son. "How about you have ten minutes of pie and give the rest（剩余）for us!" She answered.

Dear Meimei,

I am happy to receive your last letter. You asked me what my favorite dream job is. To tell you the truth, I am going to be a {#blank#}1{#/blank#}because I like meeting interesting people. I will {#blank#}2{#/blank#}to Beijing. Beijing is a big and fantastic place. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}my free time, I will spend time with my best friends. Maybe I will keep a cat {#blank#}4{#/blank#}a pet.

How about your dream job? {#blank#}5{#/blank#}are you going to be and where are you going to work?

Write soon.

Students at Sanhe Township Primary School enjoy playing soccer. It is art important part of their school life. Every student at the school. has a soccer lesson once a week. Students of all age groups play soccer matches every month. 

The school is in the mountains and has poor teaching resources. Most of its students are left-behind children, and very few of them can go to high school or university. To help students have a good future, ten years ago, Sun Xiaoming, the headteacher of the school, set up a girls' soccer team. He picked 20 girls from the fourth and fifth grades and offered them free training, clothing and meals at school. 

Primary school students are short and thin, so it's difficult for them to play basketball or volleyball. But soccer is different. It is cheap and easy to learn. Students can play it by a team on the playground, or practice it alone at home. For these reasons, soccer is the perfect choice for the students. 

The students really love soccer. They keep practicing every day. Many of them play it well. Some of them get into great middle or high schools. Some of them make it into soccer clubs and become professional players. 

Soccer is not just a simple sport. More importantly, it means a chance to help those students get out of the mountains and live a better life. 

This morning I got an email from Roy. It seems that my boy really enjoys his new life at Harvard University. The 1  made me think of the first day when we moved into this house. 

Little Roy ran around the new house with great excitement and 2  to move his own things into the house, such as his toys, books and clothes. 3  his little hand knocked over a bottle of paint on the shelves. The paint 4  the tidy floor and the white wall a terrible mess. "Oh, my tidy floor and wall!"My wife rushed in angrily. I looked at my son and his small face was filled with 5 . 

I 6  and held his hand, "Take it easy, Roy. Now let's do something to make it look 7 . "I took out a 8 . "You see, Dad is a magician. I can 9  it into a big tree. "

My wife soon helped paint some butterflies and flowers on the wall. We spent the whole morning 10  and laughing. The wall became a beautiful forest 11  plants, birds and small animals. A blue sky and white clouds were also painted by Roy. On that day, everybody in the house knew something 12  happened. 

The night before Roy left for Harvard, he asked me if I still remembered the day when 13  had knocked over the paint. " Since then I've 14  worried about making mistakes, "he continued. "I believe I can always 15  ways to solve the problems. "