There is an elephant and a monkey. They're friends. But one day they want to know who is stronger （更强壮）. One of them says, "Who can get apples from the tree across the river, who is stronger."The monkey says, "I can't swim." The elephant says, "I can swim. Please sit on my back."Thus they go across the river. The apple tree is very high. The elephant can't reach the apples on the tree. The monkey climbs（爬）up the tree and gets many apples. Now they know they should help each other.

    An Irish priest (牧师) loved going fishing. It was his favourite hobby. However, the weather was so bad this year that he didn't have a chance to go fishing.

    It was very strange that the weather was good every Sunday. But Sunday was the day when he had to go to work. The coming Sunday was good again according to the weather report, so he called another priest and told him that he lost his voice and was in bed with the fever. He asked him to take over his work.

    The priest drove fifty miles to a river so that no one would find him. An angel in Heaven was keeping watch and saw what the priest was doing. He reported it to God. He thought God would do something about it.

    With the first throw of us line, a huge fish bit down the fish food. For over an hour the priest was busy running up and down the river bank to fight the fish. In the end, he landed the large size fish. It was a world record — a Salmon (鲑鱼).

    The angel did not know what was happening and asked God, “Why did you let him catch that huge fish? I thought you were going to teach him a lesson." God replied, "I did. Who do you think he's going to tell?"

    There is an old man in a house. In the house there are many mice. The old man has a cat. Every day the cat catches the mice and eats them. One day, the old mouse says "All mice must come to my room this evening. We must find a way to deal with the cat." All the mice come. Many mice speak but they don't know what to do. At last a young mouse stands up and says "We must put a bell on the cat. When the cat comes near we can hear the bell and run away. So the cat can't catch us." "Who can put the bell on the cat" asks the old mouse. But no one answers.

    Susan had long blonde hair and big blue eyes. So did most of the other1in her school class, which troubled her a lot. "I look like everyone else! I'm not special! I'm boring!" Susan2to her mother.

    She decided to try to make herself look3. She painted big pink spots on her neck and when she didn't get attention, she stuck a long plastic nose on top of her real nose. Nobody noticed that4. She took ink and poured it all over her5. She wore clown (小丑) clothes to school and stuck leaves in her ears.6no matter what she did, she still didn't get any7and nobody thought she was special.

    One morning her8went to wake her up and told her to get ready for school. She made Susan9the ink out of her hair and clean her neck. "I'm not going to school10! I'm boring!" She buried (埋藏) her head11the quilt and cried.

    "Susan," her mother said, "you are different. You are unique (独一无二的) and special.12in the world looks just like you. Some people have blonde hair like you and some have blue eyes like you, but none of them has your smile or the twinkle in your eyes or your pink face. Nobody laughs like you either. Now13and get ready for school."

Susan went to school that day and looked at all the other kids in her class. "Mum was14. Nobody looks just like me," Susan smiled. "I am special. I am unique and I am not15."

Sara walked slowly home from school kicking stones along the sidewalk and thinking about the assignment（作业）. Mrs. Peters, her teacher, gave the 1 in class right before school finished so that students could think about the assignment over the weekend. "This assignment will be a 2 one!" she said. "Each of you will find something that you are good at and write a report for the class. I'm sure you'll be happy to do it!"

As she had expected, students immediately began to talk about all the ideas that they had for the report 3 in class. Sara's best friend, Betsy, loved to play the piano and was already a skilled pianist. Tom was the captain of the school team and would write his report about basketball. Everyone seemed to have an idea for the project except Sara.

"It's impossible for me to choose 4 ," thought Sara, as she walked in through her front door—remembering her basketball for the wrong team and her strong dislike of running! She loved to sing and dance, but she did it only for fun with her friends. As for art, she believed that her paintings were about the same quality as her little sister who was five. Sara 5 what in the world she would write her paper about.

The minute Sara walked through the door, her sister came running towards her to give Sara her daily after-school hug! Suddenly, Sara 6 the happy moments with her sister. Every day, Sara tried to think of something special that they were going to do together. Sometimes, they went out for a walk or played in the backyard. Other days, they stayed inside the house to read or watch their favorite show on TV. Today, Sara was planning to help her sister make a castle out of pillows, chairs and blankets. With a smile, Sara considered how much she 7 being a big sister.

As Sara gathered blankets, pillows and snacks to eat in their castle, her sister shouted happily. Then an 8 came to Sara—she was an expert at something! Sara smiled as she knew that she also had a wonderful report. She believed she would hand in an excellent assignment next week.