Tom walked into a shop. It had a sign outside: “Second-hand (旧的）clothes bought and sold.” He was carrying an old pair of trousers and asked the owner of the shop, “How much will you give me for these?” The man looked at them and then said,“Two dollars. ”

  “What?!” said Tom. “I thought they were worth at least five dollars.”

  “No,” said the man “They aren't worth a cent more than two dollars.”

  “Well,” said Toni, taking two dollars out of his pocket. “Here's your money. These trousers were hanging outside your shop. The list price (标价）of them was six dollars and a half. But I thought that was too much money, so I wanted to find out how much they were really worth.”

    Then he walked out of the shop with the pair of trousers and disappeared before the shop owner could think of anything to say.

    Mr Smith was in trouble those days. He drove a car for Mr Black, a rich businessman. He worked hard and the shopkeeper liked him. But he couldn't work when he drank too much. And once he almost fell into the river when he drove along the bridge. Mr Black become angry and was going to send him away. He had a big family and was afraid of it and promised(许诺) he would stop drinking at once. The man told him to wait to be dealt with(处置).

    One Monday morning Mr Smith came into the office with two badly burnt(烧伤的) ears.

    "What happened to your ears?" asked Mr Black.

    "Well," said the man." I went to watch a football match yesterday while my wife was ironing(熨) clothes. She had put the iron(熨斗) near the telephone before she went to cook supper. Our team lost the game and I felt sorry for it. As soon as I went into the sitting-room, the phone rang and I answered the iron!"

    "And what happened to the other ear ?"

    "When I put the iron down on the table, the telephone rang again!"

    Running a marathon (马拉松) is difficult enough. Doing it with eyes closed for 26.2 miles is more difficult. But that's exactly what Mike Bruno plans to do during the Pittsburgh marathon.

    He's doing this for his 7-year-old daughter, Cassie, who doesn't like to communicate with others and has been blind since birth. “Having a blind daughter clearly has caused me a lot of trouble,” Bruno said. “ But it doesn't matter. I love my daughter. I hope to get a better understanding of how she deals with her daily life. I hope this journey will finally make me a better father to guide Cassie through her life.”

    “When the doctor told us 'Your baby is not going to see', that was the most terrible experience we had ever had,” said Bruno.

    “Sometimes I walk around the house with my eyes closed to see what it's like for her,” said Cassie's older sister, Carly, 9 years old. “It's kind of scary. You don't know where everything is.”

    But Cassie has fought against difficulties, and her father plans to do the same. “I closed my eyes, and I got ready, and then I tried running, just to see what it is like for her,” said Mike Bruno. “I want everyone to know it's OK. It's OK to ask us questions, but it's not OK to look at us and point to us with surprise. If you'd like to ask us, we will be happy to tell you our story. ”

    Hannay was nervous. His enemies were searching for him. All around him were grassy hills without trees. He had nowhere to hide. How could he escape?

    Hannay walked along the country for a long time. Then he saw a road worker, who was working alone, fixing the road. Hannay could see the road worker was not feeling well. Hannay came up to him and said “How are you?”

    “My head hurts,” the worker said, “I can't do it. I want to go home to bed. My daughter got married yesterday, and I drank a lot of wine with my friends. That's the problem!”

    Hannay agreed that he should be home in bed.

    “Yes, and I would be,” he replied,”but yesterday I received a message saying that the new surveyor was coming to look at my work. If he comes and finds me away, I'll be in trouble.”

    Suddenly Hannay had bright idea--he could act as the road worker and get away from his enemies.

    “You go off to bed,” Hannay said,”I'll do your job until the new surveyor comes.”

    The road worker was pleased with this idea. He gave Hannay his hat and his old coat. Then he went home to sleep and perhaps to drink a bit more. Hannay put on the worker's hat and coat and began to fix the road. About an hour later he heard a voice.

    “Are you the road worker?” it asked.

    It was the new surveyor. He was a young man with a clean face. He sat in a small car.

    Hannay said yes. The surveyor told him about some work he wanted him to do before he came by again and drove off. Hannay continued with his work.

    Then a village boy came by.”What has happened to the road worker?” he asked.

    “He stayed at home today,” Hannay replied.”He's sick.”

    At about midday, a large car came down the hill and stopped near Hannay. Three man got out of the car. Hannay's heart beat fast. He knew his enemies were coming...

My dear son,

    Your letter of last week reached us yesterday, and I only have $13 left at present, which I will send to you with this letter. I may sell the other pig next week and meet the need of what you wanted. I will probably have to wear the old overcoat to meetings again this winter, but that doesn't matter as long as you are getting education(教育).

    I want you to be well educated so that you can go anywhere and spell the hardest word. I want you to be able to go among the Romans or the Medes and Persians and talk to any of them in their own language. I never had any advantages when I was a boy, but your mother and I decided that we would support(支持) your learning no matter how much it may take though it means cutting down our daily living costs.

    I hope you will get your education as cheap as you can, for it is a big job for your mother and me to pay the school fees. I knew education comes high but I didn't know the clothes also cost so much. Now look at that basketball suit, and that bathing suit, and that lawn-tennis suit, I don't care about the money, because you say a young man can't really educate himself successfully and completely without them, but I wish you'd send home what you get through with this fall, and I will wear them through the winter under my other clothes. We have much colder winters here than we used to, or else I am failing in bodily health. Last winter I tried to go through without underclothes, the way I did when I was a boy, but a Manitoba wave came down our way and picked me out of a crowd.

    I am not much of a mean man, so you will have to excuse this letter. We are all quite well, except your old grandpa, whose shoulders badly hurt, and hope this will find you enjoying the same great blessing.

Your father