I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch(牧马场). The last time I was there he told me his story. When he was young, his family was too poor to have a house to live in.As a result , when he was in high school, all the students were asked to write a paper about what they wanted to be and do when they grew up. That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of owning a horse ranch. He also drew a picture to show a 4,000-square-foot house that would sit on a beautiful farm. The next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a large red F. Roberts asked, “Why did I receive an F?” He teacher said, “This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money.” Then the teacher added, “If you will rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.”

    The boy went home and thought about it for a long and hard time. He asked his father what he should do. His father said, “ Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think it is a very important decision for you.”Finally, after sitting with it for a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all. He told his teacher “you could keep the F and I still keep my dream”.

    He tells me this story because I am sitting in his 4,000-square-foot house in the middle of the 200-acre horse ranch. “I still have that school paper now.” He added, “The best part of the story is that two years ago that  teacher brought 30 kids to camp out on my ranch for a week.” When the teacher was leaving, he said, Look, Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was your teacher, I was something of a dream stealer.During those years I stole a lot of kids' dreams. Luckily, you had enough gumption not to give up on yours. .”

    It began one night, last September. We were getting ready to go to bed when it started raining. It was really windy. When weren't worried because it rains often here.

    At 2 a.m., my dad woke me up and said ,"There's a storm coming. We have to go to the basement(地下室）." I got up quickly. "Lin, find the candles, please!" my mom said."...And Chen, bring bottles of water from the kitchen." She said to my brother . "... and Huan, don't forget the radio," she continued.

    Dad asked us not to be worried. Then he told us to go down to the basement. The four of us went down to the basement and only a few minutes later we heard the storm. The noise was huge. We could hear the wind breaking glass and other terrible sounds. I remember we just hugged each other all night. I don't want to live through that again. The storm died out the next day. Our house was completely broken down. But we were happy because we were alive.

    Kacey Tucker is a 17-­year­-old girl. Her dad works in Saudi Arabia, so she and her family live there. Kacey usually rides her horse (马) to school.

    "I have two horses there, Jacob and Donald，" she says. "My sister, Melissa rides them now. "

    Kacey finishes all her middle school classes. She wants to go to a university (大学) in America. "I want to ride a horse to my school in America，" says Kacey. "And my cousin's university has a really clean and big barn (畜棚). " So Kacey joins her cousin's university. Kacey's cousin Amy is 18 years old. She's a university student in America.

    Kacey buys a horse in America. His name is Winston, and Kacey takes the horse to the university. She can ride the horse after school every day.

    Hi, I'm Tina. I'm a student in Grade One. I have a twin brother, and his name is Tom. We are in the same class. We go to school together every day and we know each other very well.

    Tom likes music very much, and he likes JJ Lin's songs best. He wants to be a singer like him when he grows up (长大). After dinner, Tom tells me he wants to go to JJ Lin's concert tomorrow, but we have lessons. So he calls our teacher Mrs. Green on the phone.

    "Hello, Mrs. Green," Tom says, "Tom is ill and needs to stay at home tomorrow." "I'm sorry to hear that," says Mrs. Green. "Who is that?"

    "This is my mother, Mrs. Green."

    She used to sleep on the sidewalk of the Fifth Street Post Office. I could smell her before I came close. She wore dirty clothes and her mouth was nearly toothless. I hardly saw her talk with others. If she was not asleep, she talked to herself. I always had sympathy for her. What a poor old lady! She must be desperate （感到绝望的）and hungry.

    One Thanksgiving, we had lots of food left over. I thought about the old lady. She might be still hungry. So I packed the food up and drove over to the Fifth Street.

    It was a cold night. There was hardly anyone out. But I knew she would stay at the same place and I would find her easily.

    There she was, squatted against a fence near the post office. She was dressed as she always was.

    I drove my car over to her, rolled down the window and said, "I've brought you some food. Would you like some turkey and apple pie?"

    However, the old woman didn't seem to be very excited about this. She looked at me and said quite clearly, "Oh, thank you very much, but someone has given me food earlier and I'm quite full now. Why don't you take it to someone else who needs it?"

    Her words were clear and her manners were gracious. Soon her head sank into her arms again. I was the only person who didn't know what to say. An old lady who was clearly down on her luck still thought about others. Why don't more of us do that?